Faux 8-bit mode with NewDark + shader

**jermi** · 25th Jun 2020 16:07

EDIT: TL;DR: Go straight to this post, and maybe also this.

Well, if anyone wanted a retro 8-bit mode, here it is. Set d3d_disp_sw_cc to 2 and extract cc-8bit-palette.7z to the game install directory. Alternatively, put the code below in shaders/cc.fx. The former is just the latter compiled using the fxc compiler. The latter may take some time to compile when switching to the game - not just when starting a mission, but even after just visiting a menu screen, it seems. Please note that especially in TDP with set_tex_filter 0, the difference to full 24-bit color may be surprisingly subtle.

Anyone who's better at HLSL than I am (not a high bar), feel free to fix this mess.

Code:

// Palettize to 8-bit palette (DARKPAL.PCX).

static const float3 LUMINANCE_VECTOR = float3(0.2125, 0.7154, 0.0721);

float g_fGamma;
float g_fSaturation;
float g_fContrast;
float g_fBrightness;
float4 g_fColorFilter;
float2 g_fScreenSize;

// the frame texture
sampler s0 : register(s0);

float4 pal[64] = {
     { 0x000000, 0xdddddd, 0xb6b6b6, 0x969696, }, { 0x7c7c7c, 0x666666, 0x545454, 0x454545, },
     { 0x393939, 0x2f2f2f, 0x272727, 0x202020, }, { 0x1a1a1a, 0x161616, 0x121212, 0x0f0f0f, },
     { 0x0c0c0c, 0x0a0a0a, 0x080808, 0x060606, }, { 0x050505, 0x040404, 0x030303, 0x7a8449, },
     { 0x707a43, 0x65703d, 0x5b6536, 0x0087fe, }, { 0x007df2, 0x0073e6, 0x0069da, 0x005fce, },
     { 0xb18c82, 0xa38178, 0x96776e, 0x886c64, }, { 0x7b615a, 0x6d5650, 0x604c46, 0x52413c, },
     { 0x443632, 0x372b28, 0x29211e, 0x1c1614, }, { 0x0e0b0a, 0xa30202, 0x980202, 0x8e0202, },
     { 0x830202, 0x780101, 0x6d0101, 0x630101, }, { 0x580101, 0x4d0101, 0x380101, 0x220000, },
     { 0x0d0000, 0x083015, 0x072b13, 0x062510, }, { 0x05200e, 0x041a0b, 0x031509, 0x020f06, },
     { 0x8e6d43, 0x87683f, 0x81623c, 0x7a5d38, }, { 0x735734, 0x6d5231, 0x664c2d, 0x60472a, },
     { 0x573f25, 0x4d3820, 0x44301a, 0x3a2915, }, { 0x312110, 0x3e1210, 0x3a110f, 0x36100e, },
     { 0x320e0d, 0x2e0d0c, 0x2a0c0b, 0x260b0a, }, { 0x220a09, 0x1d0807, 0x180606, 0x120504, },
     { 0x0d0303, 0x321d46, 0x2d1a3f, 0x271736, }, { 0x20132c, 0x1a1023, 0x140c1b, 0x0e0912, },
     { 0xee9a47, 0xde9042, 0xcf863e, 0xbf7c39, }, { 0xaf7134, 0xa0672f, 0x905d2b, 0x815326, },
     { 0x714922, 0x613f1d, 0x513519, 0x412b14, }, { 0x312110, 0x312110, 0x2e1f0f, 0x2b1d0e, },
     { 0x271a0d, 0x24180c, 0x21160b, 0x1e140a, }, { 0x1b1209, 0x170f07, 0x140d06, 0x110b05, },
     { 0x0a0603, 0xffffbd, 0xffb510, 0xffad52, }, { 0xffff7b, 0xf1e657, 0xe4ce34, 0xd6b510, },
     { 0x8c7b5a, 0x867555, 0x7f6e4f, 0x79684a, }, { 0x726145, 0x6c5b40, 0x65543a, 0x5c4c33, },
     { 0x54432c, 0x4b3b25, 0x42321e, 0x3a2a17, }, { 0x312110, 0x505b30, 0x4b552d, 0x464f2a, },
     { 0x404927, 0x3b4423, 0x363e20, 0x31381d, }, { 0x2c321a, 0x262c17, 0x212614, 0x1c2011, },
     { 0x171b0d, 0xad10b5, 0x9c29ad, 0xb51894, }, { 0x9400c6, 0x6300ad, 0x4a0080, 0x310052, },
     { 0x6d7787, 0x666f7e, 0x5f6775, 0x575f6c, }, { 0x505764, 0x494f5a, 0x424752, 0x3b4048, },
     { 0x33373e, 0x2b2e34, 0x222529, 0x1a1c1f, }, { 0x121315, 0x5a3139, 0x542e35, 0x4e2b31, },
     { 0x48272e, 0x42242a, 0x3c2126, 0x361e22, }, { 0x311b1f, 0x2b171b, 0x231316, 0x1b0e11, },
     { 0x130a0c, 0xe71821, 0xce2118, 0xff8c18, }, { 0xd97415, 0xb25c12, 0x8c440f, 0x652c0c, },
     { 0x6d5370, 0x664e69, 0x5e4760, 0x564158, }, { 0x4d3b4e, 0x463546, 0x3d2e3d, 0x352835, },
     { 0x2d222d, 0x241b24, 0x1c151c, 0x130e13, }, { 0x0b080b, 0x9c4a4a, 0xa86161, 0xb57777, },
     { 0xc18e8e, 0xcea5a5, 0xdabbbb, 0xe6d2d2, }, { 0xf3e8e8, 0xffffff, 0x0055c2, 0x004bb6, },
     { 0x0041a2, 0xb5bdff, 0x8c8ce7, 0x9cadef, }, { 0x7e9de2, 0x5f8ed4, 0x417ec7, 0x226eb9, },
     { 0xded684, 0xcfc87b, 0xc1ba73, 0xb2ac6a, }, { 0xa49e61, 0x959058, 0x878250, 0x746f44, },
     { 0x605c39, 0x4d4a2d, 0x393721, 0x262416, }, { 0x12110a, 0x74959d, 0x97b0b6, 0xbacace, },
     { 0xdce5e7, 0xffffff, 0x3a5b4b, 0x466e57, }, { 0x538063, 0x5f936f, 0x6ba57b, 0x00378d, },
     { 0x002d79, 0x002364, 0x001950, 0x000f3b, }, { 0x0000ff, 0x0000ff, 0xff00ff, 0x000000, },
};

float3 getPal(int i)
{
     float pc;

     switch (i%4) {
     case 0: pc = pal[i/4].x; break;
     case 1: pc = pal[i/4].y; break;
     case 2: pc = pal[i/4].z; break;
     case 3: pc = pal[i/4].w; break;
     }

     return float3(floor(pc/(1<<16)), fmod(floor(pc/(1<<8)), 256.0), fmod(pc, 256.0)) / 255.0;
}

float3 palettize(float3 vColor)
{
     float3 cd, s, pc;
     float d2, sd2 = 10;

     [loop] for (int c = 0; c < 64; c++) {
          pc = getPal(c);
          cd = vColor.rgb - pc;
          d2 = cd.r*cd.r+cd.g*cd.g+cd.b*cd.b;
          if (d2 < sd2) {
               s = pc;
               sd2 = d2;
          }
     }
     [loop] for (int c = 64; c < 128; c++) {
          pc = getPal(c);
          cd = vColor.rgb - pc;
          d2 = cd.r*cd.r+cd.g*cd.g+cd.b*cd.b;
          if (d2 < sd2) {
               s = pc;
               sd2 = d2;
          }
     }
     [loop] for (int c = 128; c < 192; c++) {
          pc = getPal(c);
          cd = vColor.rgb - pc;
          d2 = cd.r*cd.r+cd.g*cd.g+cd.b*cd.b;
          if (d2 < sd2) {
               s = pc;
               sd2 = d2;
          }
     }
     [loop] for (int c = 192; c < 256; c++) {
          pc = getPal(c);
          cd = vColor.rgb - pc;
          d2 = cd.r*cd.r+cd.g*cd.g+cd.b*cd.b;
          if (d2 < sd2) {
               s = pc;
               sd2 = d2;
          }
     }

     return s;
}

float4 SatGammaPS(in float2 uv : TEXCOORD0, uniform int bDoSat, uniform int bDoGamma, uniform int bDoContrBright) : COLOR
{
     float4 vColor = tex2D(s0, uv);

     vColor.xyz = palettize(vColor.xyz);

     if (bDoSat)
     {
          float lumi = dot(vColor.xyz, LUMINANCE_VECTOR);
          vColor.xyz = lerp(lumi.xxx, vColor.xyz, g_fSaturation) * g_fColorFilter.xyz;
     }
     if (bDoGamma)
     {
          vColor.xyz = pow(vColor.xyz, g_fGamma);
     }
     if (bDoContrBright)
     {
          vColor.xyz = saturate(vColor.xyz * g_fContrast + g_fBrightness);
     }

     return vColor;
}

// apply saturation/color filter, brightness/contrast and gamma
technique TeqBrSatGamma
{
     pass P0
     {
          PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SatGammaPS(1, 1, 1);
     }
}

// apply brightness/contrast and gamma
technique TeqBrGamma
{
     pass P0
     {
          PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SatGammaPS(0, 1, 1);
     }
}

// apply brightness/contrast and saturation/color
technique TeqBrSat
{
     pass P0
     {
          PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SatGammaPS(1, 0, 1);
     }
}


// apply saturation/color filter and gamma
technique TeqSatGamma
{
     pass P0
     {
          PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SatGammaPS(1, 1, 0);
     }
}

// apply only gamma
technique TeqGamma
{
     pass P0
     {
          PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SatGammaPS(0, 1, 0);
     }
}

// apply only brightness/contrast
technique TeqBr
{
     pass P0
     {
          PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SatGammaPS(0, 0, 1);
     }
}

// apply only saturation/color
technique TeqSat
{
     pass P0
     {
          PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SatGammaPS(1, 0, 0);
     }
}

// plain copy
technique TeqCopy
{
     pass P0
     {
          PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SatGammaPS(0, 0, 0);
     }
}

**vfig** · 25th Jun 2020 18:16

Well, it definitely works! Here's a so-retro-it's-anachronistic Thief 2 screenshot:

**skacky** · 26th Jun 2020 10:06

Ooooh, I need to try that!

**bjorkbom** · 27th Jun 2020 05:58

Dude, TG looks amazing - the Bonehoard so sinister again. Was only a second's delay so yeah, I'm never switching this off.

(Oh and never mind my registration date, I've been lurking 20 years. This needed to be commented on.

)

**ZylonBane** · 27th Jun 2020 13:41

Seems like doing a nearest-color search on the original Thief software palette for every pixel of the screen would have quite the performance impact. Is it really noticeably different from just banging each pixel down to RGB333 or something like that?

EDIT: Yeah, this drags my frame rate down from a solid 60FPS to 30FPS. Just quantizing the color gamut runs a lot faster, though of course it's only an approximation of the palettized effect.

Code:

// Quantize displayed colors

static const float3 LUMINANCE_VECTOR = float3(0.2125, 0.7154, 0.0721);

float g_fGamma;
float g_fSaturation;
float g_fContrast;
float g_fBrightness;
float4 g_fColorFilter;
float2 g_fScreenSize;

// the frame texture
sampler s0 : register(s0);

float4 SatGammaPS(in float2 uv : TEXCOORD0, uniform int bDoSat, uniform int bDoGamma, uniform int bDoContrBright) : COLOR
{
     float4 vColor = tex2D(s0, uv);
     vColor.x = round(vColor.x * 16.0) / 16.0;
     vColor.y = round(vColor.y * 16.0) / 16.0;
     vColor.z = round(vColor.z * 16.0) / 16.0;

     if (bDoSat)
     {
          float lumi = dot(vColor.xyz, LUMINANCE_VECTOR);
          vColor.xyz = lerp(lumi.xxx, vColor.xyz, g_fSaturation) * g_fColorFilter.xyz;
     }
     if (bDoGamma)
     {
          vColor.xyz = pow(vColor.xyz, g_fGamma);
     }
     if (bDoContrBright)
     {
          vColor.xyz = saturate(vColor.xyz * g_fContrast + g_fBrightness);
     }

     return vColor;
}

// apply saturation/color filter, brightness/contrast and gamma
technique TeqBrSatGamma
{
     pass P0
     {
          PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SatGammaPS(1, 1, 1);
     }
}

// apply brightness/contrast and gamma
technique TeqBrGamma
{
     pass P0
     {
          PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SatGammaPS(0, 1, 1);
     }
}

// apply brightness/contrast and saturation/color
technique TeqBrSat
{
     pass P0
     {
          PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SatGammaPS(1, 0, 1);
     }
}


// apply saturation/color filter and gamma
technique TeqSatGamma
{
     pass P0
     {
          PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SatGammaPS(1, 1, 0);
     }
}

// apply only gamma
technique TeqGamma
{
     pass P0
     {
          PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SatGammaPS(0, 1, 0);
     }
}

// apply only brightness/contrast
technique TeqBr
{
     pass P0
     {
          PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SatGammaPS(0, 0, 1);
     }
}

// apply only saturation/color
technique TeqSat
{
     pass P0
     {
          PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SatGammaPS(1, 0, 0);
     }
}

// plain copy
technique TeqCopy
{
     pass P0
     {
          PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SatGammaPS(0, 0, 0);
     }
}

This quantizes the output to the equivalent of RGB444, aka 12-bit color. Since shaders represent colors as floats, there's no need to stick to bit multiples, so the "roughness" can be adjusted to whatever degree you like. And each channel doesn't have to be quantized the same, so you could tweak it to give more resolution to the reds and greens of the Thief palette and less to blues.

And now enjoy some really retro System Shock 2.

**jermi** · 28th Jun 2020 09:06

I was mostly just figuring out if it's even possible to do exact palettization. Doing a per-pixel linear search through a 256-color palette is of course slow - but not necessarily too slow. On my machine, this shader drops the frame rate from 240+ to around 105 at the start of "Bafford's" on a FullHD screen.

Quantization is unlikely to be a good approximation of a palette. That's kind of the whole point of having a palette in the first place. But I'm not here to promote palettization or anything like that, just showing that it's possible. For the record, I never played in 8-bit mode, so I don't really even know how this compares.

**Azaran** · 28th Jun 2020 15:26

Originally Posted by jermi

Well, if anyone wanted a retro 8-bit mode, here it is.

That one doesn't look much different than full colour, and it kills my framerate.

I think Zylonbane nailed it, there's maybe some small tweaks (the colour transition on these banners looks a bit weird), but otherwise this is Old Dark software mode to a tee, well done!

**Azaran** · 28th Jun 2020 15:33

This is jermi's version for comparison. It still looks interesting, like a slightly desaturated full colour mode, but it's impossible to play

**ZylonBane** · 28th Jun 2020 16:16

I'm glad you like it, but it literally doesn't look like software mode to a tee, since software mode forced every pixel to map to one of the 256 palette colors. What my code does is basically run a posterization filter on the screen. Maybe Jermi's filter doesn't look as "bad" as you were expecting because the Thief software palette was very well optimized for its assets.

**Akven** · 29th Jun 2020 07:44

Is there is a way to port this to ReShade?

**jermi** · 2nd Jul 2020 11:58

I'm guessing yes.

**Fallen+Keeper** · 4th Jul 2020 17:56

Oh my God, finally!

I've always thought the original bland look of the first game was the most creepy and loved it for it. The 3d Acceleration had removed almost all of it, expecially in Thief 2.

So is this working? For both Thief 1 and Thief 2?

And by the way, Zylon, that SS2 with the retro-look looks sweet! I don't see any framerate drops...

**ZylonBane** · 4th Jul 2020 19:19

Originally Posted by Fallen+Keeper

So is this working? For both Thief 1 and Thief 2?

As I'm sure you should be well aware, under NewDark both Thief 1 and 2 use the exact same engine.

**Ryan Smith** · 4th Jul 2020 20:24

I remember playing Thief in software mode prior to 2000. If this gets a proper release, I will definitely grab it and play it.

**Azaran** · 5th Jul 2020 10:09

Originally Posted by Taffingtaffer

I also think Zylon's shader gets closer to the feel of software mode (I managed to experience how it really looks like with the legacy exe.

I don't know how you guys are able to use the Old Dark exe, but it won't work for me no matter what I do (compatibility modes, &c), either won't run, or gets to the menu, and crashes when I start or load a game.

I'm definitely curious to try Old Dark and compare it to the shader, I'm pretty certain Zylonbane's shader replicates it perfectly from what I remember, but need to confirm

**jermi** · 5th Jul 2020 12:28

Take two. I also can't get TDP to run in software mode, so I'm using OldDark DromEd 1.37 "solid world" view as a reference.

Based on a look at the leaked code, the software renderer quantizes lightmaps to 4 bits (16 levels). After seeing that, and also looking at the TDP palette in HSV, I figured that the best simple approximation is to just quantize the HSV value component. So that's what this shader does, along with a couple of other simple tricks.

Extract cc-faux-8bit-sw-mode.7z into the game install directory.

Put these is cam_ext.cfg:

Code:

d3d_disp_sw_cc 2
disable_32bit_fampal
tex_filter_mode 0
mipmap_bias -1.0

**ZylonBane** · 5th Jul 2020 12:46

Originally Posted by Azaran

I'm definitely curious to try Old Dark and compare it to the shader, I'm pretty certain Zylonbane's shader replicates it perfectly from what I remember, but need to confirm

As I already explained, it DOES NOT. At best, it replicates your memory of how it looked.

**Fallen+Keeper** · 5th Jul 2020 15:07

I need to try it pronto.

**Fallen+Keeper** · 5th Jul 2020 15:08

Originally Posted by Taffingtaffer

Yeah, this looks pretty close, with the plus of having actual black darkness and not that green shadow from DirectX 6. I'm not sure why the window's orange tone get lighter with Akven's ESRGAN pack, though.

No shader

Shader

This aside, it looks great and performs well.

I can't believe how BEAUTIFUL the game looked before.

There.... I fixed it for ya....

**jermi** · 6th Jul 2020 11:11

I thought this mod had been done at least once before, but I can't find it, so I made my own. This is faux software mode water. To install, extract thief-faux-swwater.7z to your mod_path. Again, I can't get TDP to run in software mode, so I don't really know how this compares.

It's so ugly it's almost cute.

**ZylonBane** · 6th Jul 2020 11:28

Looks pretty accurate to me.

**Akven** · 6th Jul 2020 16:43

I'm not sure why the window's orange tone get lighter with Akven's ESRGAN pack, though.

Cause I used/created illumination maps for all the lited textures in Thief 1/2 ESRGAN Packs. So all the bright windows are looking lighter like little bloom effect.

**Fallen+Keeper** · 21st Jul 2020 04:40

Yeah, that would be awesome. Thief Gold has some places in pitch black while Thief 2 is completely unplayable, way to dark.

And everytime I try to run Thief with reshade or sweetfx it crashes.

**Kupildivan** · 24th Jul 2020 01:10

I found DGVOODOO that can launch the game in 16-bit mode, and not only this game.

Had to raise the gamma in photoshop.

Thief 1 NewDark exe + dgVoodoo in 16-bit color

Thief 1 NewDark exe 32-bit

Thief 2 NewDark exe + dgVoodoo in 16-bit color

Thief 2 NewDark exe 32-bit

**Fallen+Keeper** · 24th Jul 2020 05:01

Nice!

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