Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

Apache Thunder · 2013-05-03 07:27:09

I've been working on a conversion mod that brings Battlefield Heroes into BF1942 and have lately been adding more than just existing BFH stuff into the mod. There has been a few things in this game I've always wanted to see working and recently the cloud system was one thing I managed to get working:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtwX1b9ZMVo

This map is a test map I built to test all the assets I port into the game. I have lately added things like single player and the cloud grid.

I used a "Grid" to to easily see how the tiling and scaling changes on the textures on the cloud mesh while tweaking it in the debugger. For that map, I took the top plane off the vanilla skybox, added more polygons to it so I can "raise" the middle up to turn it into a pyramid shape. (I recall at one point a completely flat plane mesh not working very well as a cloud mesh) But the mesh I now use in the other maps is more of dome shape. Note that if one sets the cloud mesh closer to zero height (aka the level the horizon is at) the larger the texture scale becomes. If a cloud layer is set to near zero or at zero the mesh becomes invisible. It's also impossible to set a cloud mesh below the horizon. thus a two sided mesh or dome won't have anything visible on the bottom portion of that mesh.

The cloud grid is not a trick with BIK textures and the like. For those who have seen the code in the SkyAndSun.con file in many vanilla maps:

Sky.initSky

** Clouds
REM GeometryTemplate.create StandardMesh Cloud
REM GeometryTemplate.file cloud

Sky.addCloud
Cloud.setName cloud_0
Cloud.setSrcBlend BMSourceAlpha
Cloud.setDstBlend BMInvSourceAlpha
Cloud.setTexScale 8
Cloud.setSpeed -0.03 0.015
Cloud.setHeight 3500

Sky.changeOfsCloudHeight 2500
Sky.changeOfsCloudDist 333
Sky.setCloudFog 0

This is the code Dice had left into the game. The mesh the remmed out geometry refers too was removed from the game files even before the game exited beta stage, thus they are not public. So for well over a decade this code is left unused in any mod I know of. For a long time I had thought that much like the Lens Flare objects and Weather code, that it just couldn't be fixed without alterations to the EXE.

So at some random point last year I had decided to port in the BF2 skydome and throw it in as the cloud mesh just s***ts and giggles. But was surprised to see that it looked dam close to how it works in BF2!

Here's what it looked like on the BF2 skydome mesh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKpwAuVRajI

This was before I had discovered that BF2 uses the chl2 uvmap on the dome for clouds. I swapped the chl2 uvmap to chl1 and got it to look really close to BF2 style clouds by using BF2 cloud textures. But in my mod, I had chosen to instead make my own mesh.

Here's what the clouds look on a mesh of my own design with better settings in the con file:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRKLBwibuqE

And while back I discovered another interesting tidbit of information. BF1942 wasn't the first game that used the Refractor 2 game engine. It was a racing game released by Microsoft. It's titled "Rallisport Challenge" and I have since downloaded the game and seen the code and map structure of this game. While many things are different like a whole different mesh format for the terrain and additional code that doesn't exist in BF1942, there are many things in this game that still exist in BF1942. Like the cloud coding for example. Playing this racing game is what got me into really taking a second look into the cloud code.

One thing I had noticed in Rallisport Challenge is that that game supports loading more than one different texture for clouds. So each cloud layer can have a unique texture. However in BF1942, for whatever dumb reason, they wanted to use a geometry mesh for this. Thus the RS file overrides whatever texture you set on a cloud layer. The game only loads one cloud mesh as far as I can tell. The commands to set a texture for each cloud layer is still present, but they seem to not function anymore as the debugger doesn't report loading any textures when the command is used.

There are two other code setups in BF1942 that also seem to be broken yet seemingly close to being usable.

Lensflares: (code as seen from Rallisport Challenge, but it's coded 99% the same in BF1942. You can find this in just about all the vanilla maps in their SkyAndSun.con file)

rem
rem *** "TSun" of primitive LensFlare ***
rem
ObjectTemplate.create LensFlare TSun4
ObjectTemplate.setLensFlareCount 13
ObjectTemplate.setCoronaCount 4
ObjectTemplate.initLensFlares
ObjectTemplate.setOcclusionQuadWidthHeight 300 300
REM
REM *** Falre no:0 ***
REM
ObjectTemplate.setFlareTexture ring3.tga 0
ObjectTemplate.setFlareSize 1 0
ObjectTemplate.setFlaresize2 5 0
ObjectTemplate.setFlareRot 0 0
ObjectTemplate.setFlareColor 255/235/235/50 0
objectTemplate.setFlareColor2 50/150/200/50 0
REM
REM *** Falre no:1 ***
REM
ObjectTemplate.setFlareTexture ring3.tga 1
ObjectTemplate.setFlareSize 5 1
ObjectTemplate.setFlareSize2 0 1
ObjectTemplate.setFlareRot 0 1
ObjectTemplate.setFlareColor 255/255/255/100 1
ObjectTemplate.setFlareColor2 100/100/150/150 1
REM
REM *** Falre no:2 > LittleDot ***
REM
ObjectTemplate.setFlareTexture ring11.tga 2
ObjectTemplate.setFlareSize 1 2
ObjectTemplate.setFlaresize2 3 2
ObjectTemplate.setFlareRot 0 2
ObjectTemplate.setFlareColor 255/255/255/100 2
ObjectTemplate.setFlareColor2 255/200/200/50 2
.
.
.
.

To save space I've omitted most of it as the lens flares take up quite a bit of space. After restoring all the textures the code refers to, the debugger reports in the logs as successfully loading the textures.(Rallisport Challenge has all the textures that the BF1942 lensflare objects refer too. Heck even the texture that some of the palm trees use are the same)

The setOcclusionQuadWidthHeight command is not recognized by the debugger, but I searched the retail exe and found it in there along with the other codes specific to the LensFlare object class, so its still there. Odd that the debugger doesn't recognize that one. No way of knowing if the retail game recognizes it since all of this can't be executed from the console in the retail exe. The include command can be used, but the console won't report if any of the code in the con/inc file I run from there is recognized or not. The retail exe doesn't say much in general.

There is also a command still working in BF1942 that seems to be able to toggle them on and off.(you can toggle this in the debugger using the console, the retail exe won't let you unless you bind it to a key or use the include command to run it from a con file)

lensflare.enable 1

(toggling this on and off could be useful for finding where the flare shader is being rendered in memory. )

The command's default state is on, thus the lack of this command being used in the vanilla files is not the reason why the lens flare system doesn't work. There may have been at one point a menu option that was tied to this command, but it's something they must have removed from the game in the early stages of the beta.

Then there's the weather code:

rem
rem *** Weather: Heavy Rain  ***
rem
Weather.initWeather
WPart.active 1
WPart.type 1
WPart.radius 30
wPart.partSize 0.03/1.3
WPart.speed 1/-25/1
WPart.random 2
WPart.numParticles 4000
WPart.pointSpriteMinSize 3
WPart.pointSpriteMaxSize 10
wPart.color 0.75
WPart.fadeZ 30
wPart.fadeInValue 10
wPart.acceleration 4
wPart.displacement 0/3/20
wPart.scale 0.7/0.5/0.7
WPart.setTexture 0 rain_lgt4
WPart.active 0

The debugger complains about a missing shader in the logs. It's the SpritePointSprite.vso file. (though it will mention this file whether or not weather code is being used on a map and unlike the flare shader, this missing shader doesn't trigger a game CTD) I copied the one from Rallisport and it seems to fix that error and it doesn't say a peep about it anymore. My guess this is perhaps one of the shaders that the Weather code uses for rendering the results on screen. But I've seen that Rallisport has additional shader files for the weather. So it's possible that they just pulled out all the other shaders and there's likely no easy way to fix the weather system. The lens flare system however uses just the FlareShader file and that is of course still present in the game files. In fact, the game won't run without this file since the game will CTD with a error related to this file since most vanilla maps have the lens flare code and as soon as one sets the sun to a lensflare, it will attempt to load the flare shader. So I know for a fact this shader is tied to the lens flare system.

There is also the skidMark code system, but that is likely to be unfix-able due to major change in how the terrain is handled in BF1942 compared to Rallisport. Rallisport used some kind of Quad mesh system for the "tracks". In my opinion, BF1942 should have kept that system. It seems to allow for more detail on the terrain like different detail textures in different areas. Much like how BF2 and newer BF titles started to use.

Though one thing that puzzles me about the skidmark code is that unlike all the others BF1942 actually has additional skidMark commands that don't exist in Rallisport Challenge. Thus they actually bothered to try and improve upon it but suddenly stopped for whatever reason.

Example usage of some of this. None of this code exists in Rallisport: (I filled in values that I would expect the command would have accepted, the debugger console lists the expected these commands use. The setTexture command expects a string value, some others an integer and two of them accept a Boolean value)

The textures I set the commands are the textures Rallisport Challenge use for the skidmarks.

skidMark.setTexture texture/Tracks
skidMark.setBumpTexture texture/TracksBUMP
skidMark.showBump 1
skidMark.numPatches 15
skidMark.numSkidMarks 22
skidMark.enable 1

Example code that exists in both BF1942 and Rallisport:

skidMark.setMaterialTrigLevels 22 0.01 0.01 0.1 0.1
skidMark.setMaterialSkidMarkExtraWidth 0 0.05

I remember before I had found the code in it's working form in Rallisport, that I had attempted to code the material trig levels code and experimented with using different materials. I did this in the debugger console. At one stage, I managed to generate a game CTD. Thus the skidMark system seems to have some impact on the game. Very odd indeed. Turns out that the materials used in the trig levels command appear to all be the materials that the terrain uses. The example code above has material 22 coded. Rallisport has 22 materials for the terrain, but BF1942 only has 15.

But Lens Flares and the weather code are the two next best candidates for fixing in this game. The lensflares weren't used just for the sun in the sky:

http://s37.photobucket.com/user/Tankerb … 2.mp4.html
(short video showing some of the effects that still work in Rallisport Challenge)

So I am wondering if there is something in the exe that has disabled this? I would bet the lens flares would be the easiest to fix. The debugger loads the code and even reports loading the textures for them. Heck the game will CTD if you delete the FlareShader.vs file (the shader file the lenslares use for rendering on screen) And recently I managed to get the game to CTD if I place the ObjectTemplate.initLensFlares command in the wrong place like after the flare commands for the textures are setup.

I've tried using the shader files from Rallisport, but the shader files don't appear to be the reason why they don't work anymore. I am thinking it's how BF1942 handles the sky box. Rallisport Challenge doesn't use a mesh for the sky or the clouds. (as I have been unable to find a geometry file for it nor the code that creates the geometry template. There is however some unused code that is likely left overs from BF1942 beta:

Sky.setSkyTextures texture/env_default_01 texture/env_default_02 texture/env_default_03 texture/env_default_04 texture/env_default_05 texture/env_default_06
Sky.setTexture texture/sky1

These two I filled in textures as examples. The debugger will show in the logs as successfully loading the textures fro the setSkyTextures command. however the Sky.setTexture command results in no additional output from the debugger. So I think that code is completely broken.

But given that lensflares were also used on objects like the car headlights and such, I don't believe the change in how the skybox is handles is the sole reason why the lensflares broke. Heck I found an old video showing footage from a beta of the game that showed the sun flares still working. Why Dice disabled this stuff will forever remain a mystery.

But I'm sure someone can rise to the challenge and find out how to fix them. It seems like things like max player counts and other server stuff have been fixed. So BF1942 is already starting to exceed it's original limitations.

Oh and one last tidbit of unused code:

ObjectTemplate.create Light Example
ObjectTemplate.setAmbient 255/255/255

This one is a whole object class that doesn't exist anywhere. It seems to not have any effect ingame though. You can give it a geometry and such. The setAmbient command is the only command specific to this object class. Looks like Dice actually had tried to put dynamic lighting into this game.

tuia · 2013-05-03 17:59:19

Hello Apache Thunder! That's a lot of information. Can you toggle on or off any visual effect with a command? I've tried finding why lensflare doesn't show, but no luck. Well, it writes "1" value to memory after lensflare.enable command, but instructions that read that memory address are never called, don't know why.

ziba128 · 2013-05-03 18:40:36

Btw, Apache, have you seen this:
Misclevell1.con

ObjectTemplate.create LensFlare TestLensFlare
REM ObjectTemplate.setMesh Mustang_fus1_M1
ObjectTemplate.setTexture flare0.tga
ObjectTemplate.setLensFlareCount 10
ObjectTemplate.setBackFlareCount 2
ObjectTemplate.setCoronaCount 2
ObjectTemplate.initLensFlares
ObjectTemplate.setVisibilityAngleDeg 360
ObjectTemplate.setShowInfo 0

It's just a mockery!

tuia · 2013-05-03 18:45:31

Ok, instructions that possibly render lensFlare start at 0x005707D0 in BF1942.exe v1.61, but they never get called.

Apache Thunder · 2013-05-03 19:26:41

I do know the game does something to unload a lensflare everytime I remove one from the map since I see a "m_flareshader:1" show up in the console log everytime a lensflare is removed. (it will say m_flareshader:2 or with higher numbers if more then one is removed at a time)

You can try spawning and then deleting lensflares in the debugger (and perhaps in the retail exe if you use two con files and the include command). I assume the game is designed to render them the moment they get created on screen just like in Rallisport Challenge. I think that would be the easiest method to toggle lensflares.

There is also an unused command for lensflares that does exist in rallisport, but isn't used anywhere in the BF1942 files:

ObjectTemplate.enable 1

I believe this code is used after the ObjectTemplate.initLensflares command. I think it can be used to toggle individual lensflares on the fly.

There is only one lensflare in Rallisport that uses it:

ObjectTemplate.create LensFlare LenzFlash
ObjectTemplate.setLensFlareCount 3
ObjectTemplate.setCoronaCount 4
ObjectTemplate.initLensFlares
ObjectTemplate.enable 0

And it is set to zero for that particular lensflare. I think this one was the lens flare effect used on camera flashes. The default state of the command when not specified is 1, thus it also is not why the lens flares are not being rendered.

As for that thing about "setMesh". That appears to be some odd dummy code they left in. I do know the debugger log mentions failing to load any mesh I attempt to load with it. It refers to failing to load a "MRMMesh" followed by the name of the template it attempted to load.

In Rallisport there is only one geometryTemplate that creates an MRM Mesh that I've found in the code of that game:

rem
rem *** CarPart ***
rem
GeometryTemplate.create MRMMesh Cube
GeometryTemplate.file Cube

This "Cube" mesh doesn't exist anywhere in Rallisport as a file. I suspect it's much like with the BodyCollision geometry that soldiers in BF1942 refer to. It's a mesh generated entirely in the game engine and not from a file. This geometry class has been removed from BF1942 as both the retail exe and debugger doesn't recognize the MRMMesh as a valid geometry class.

But there is another interesting geometry class not used in BF1942 but still works. I don't think I've found this in Rallisport, so what ever this is, it's unique to battlefield:

GeometryTemplate.create SimpleGeom Water_m1
GeometryTemplate.shader Objects/Common/WaterShader/Material0
GeometryTemplate.scale 1/1/1
GeometryTemplate.tesselation 4/4
GeometryTemplate.type Plane
GeometryTemplate.color 255/255/255

Much like how the MRMMesh likely functioned, this geometry template doesn't use a mesh file. It creates a geometry ingame based on the "type" command. There are 3 accepted values. Sphere, Cube, Plane.

The "shader" command is used to load a RS file and is the method used to assign a texture to this mesh. In that example code above, I pointed it to a WaterShader.rs file I pulled from a level and gave it the name "Water_m1".

The RS file acts as part of the path. So you path it to the actual Material name inside the RS files. One limitation I noticed is that this geometry class doesn't support alpha in any way. Not alphatTestRef, nor partial transparency. Though the water shader does work on it without glitching other statics like what happens if one assigns the water shader to a SM file. But the water textures always appear to be very dark as a result of non working alpha. The normal maps probably aren't being rendered correctly on them either. If you create a Plane mesh with this, the tesselation command will serve mostly to increase the amount of tiling the texture does on the mesh. For the Sphere mesh it serves to increase the detail in the mesh. I don't know what impact it would have had on the Cube mesh type since I'm not able to create one without a CTD.

There are a few other command like "reloadShader" that are specific to this geometry class. You can create/active a SimpleGeom geometry in the debugger to see the full list of accepted commands.

However the "Cube" setting seems non-functional. The game will crash if I attempt to create a SimpleGeom using the Cube mesh type. The debugger will show an error relating to zero vertexes or something. I can't recall. Perhaps this "SimpleGeom" geometry was in fact Dice's modified version of the MRMMesh and they simply forgot to update the "setMesh" command to refer to those?

Oh and another geometry class is unused.

GeometryTemplate.create RoamTerrain ExampleTerrain

It appears to be an alternate type of terrain. But it still loads heightmap files and accepts most of the commands used by the PatchTerrain command. But the water textures get funky, dynamic shadows don't work on it, the material map doesn't appear to work as bullet impacts have the default material effect on all areas, and all vehicles and soldiers become black with no lighting applied to them. It also sometimes fails to tile past the edge of the map sometimes and is overall pretty glitchy. The game will CTD the moment you exit the game or unload the map if you load a map using this terrain type. I did notice that it's more stable in the singleplayer demo though as the game won't CTD when unloading it. However the all black soldiers/vehicles and default materials with no dynamic shadows still occurs on it.

Also in the singleplayer demo, if one doesn't load a skybox, the area of the sky where there is supposed to be a skybox gets very buggy. It doesn't clear the image buffer or something so you get streaks of the HUD and ingame elements being left behind in the sky. This doesn't occur in retail BF1942 but does occur in the newer Battlefield Vietnam game. Very odd.

I don't know how much it would help, but I can PM you a working copy of Rallisport Challenge or send you just the exe if you need them. That game can be used as comparison to see what instructions are meant to to be used to load the effects used in that game.

Last edited by Apache Thunder (2013-05-03 19:54:11)

tuia · 2013-05-03 20:40:36

In Rallisport is there some way of disabling/enabling lensflare through console commands?
I can't find in BF1942.exe where that Lensflare function should be called.
I'm going to download the game and check it.

Apache Thunder · 2013-05-03 21:07:43

I don't know if Rallisport even has a console. I'll give it a check and let you know.

EDIT:

Normal key to show console doesn't have any impact. If Rallisport has a console, it's not enabled by default. If you can get the console to show up, then the lensflare.enable should still function.

EDIT:

The default control map has the key assigned to bring up console just like with BF1942, but it doesn't work ingame. So it has a console. They might have hidden it from normal use though.

Last edited by Apache Thunder (2013-05-03 21:21:55)

ziba128 · 2013-05-03 21:09:20

tuia wrote:

In Rallisport is there some way of disabling/enabling lensflare through console commands?
I can't find in BF1942.exe where that Lensflare function should be called.

Seems there is no console in Rallisport so you can't use any commands ingame. Lensflare (as other interesting stuff) can be enabled/disabled in game options:

Last edited by ziba128 (2013-05-03 21:11:47)

Apache Thunder · 2013-05-03 21:30:55

I have the RRFTool that can compress/extract the RFF archives. I will see if I can coax the console to work again.

tuia · 2013-05-03 23:08:19

If only Battlefield 1942 had that display options menu...

Black Mamba · 2013-05-04 01:20:15

tuia wrote:

If only Battlefield 1942 had that display options menu...

I'm sure you can recreate it for us

Why wasn't this posted on BF Mods? Hmmmm.

Apache Thunder · 2013-05-04 01:49:47

Ok I found something in the log file it generates each time the game starts. (this log file is found in the "C:ProgramDataMicrosoftRalliSport Challenge")

Member Variables:
	m_lensFlareEnable				=	true

Still haven't found how to enable the console despite playing with the control con files.

seventy · 2013-08-09 15:53:04

bud wrote:

there is a lunar map in bf heroes mod that could be nice as a stand alone map for bf42

Hmmm...that map looks pretty ugly in my opinion.

Shing · 2013-08-09 21:54:22

Just saw that video about cloud system... Amazing job. OOOO:

seventy · 2013-08-09 21:58:10

Shing wrote:

Just saw that video about cloud system... Amazing job. OOOO:

Yeah, that was top notch!

Last edited by seventy (2013-08-09 21:58:30)

ziba128 · 2013-09-04 17:52:45

Played around with ENBSeries mod

Unfortunately you can make such screens only, it's absolutely unplayable due to very simple working principle and reflections of everything you see on the screen including HUD, console etc.

seventy · 2013-09-04 18:02:10

BF1942 the next generation ..

tuia · 2013-09-04 18:12:44

That's very good! Where did you download this ENB Series mod? Homepage is dead.

Nevermind, I found it. http://www.enbdev.com/index_en.htm

Last edited by tuia (2013-09-04 18:14:53)

Syndrum² · 2013-09-04 18:37:12

nice sea quality

ziba128 · 2013-09-04 18:42:11

tuia wrote:

That's very good! Where did you download this ENB Series mod? Homepage is dead.
Nevermind, I found it. http://www.enbdev.com/index_en.htm

There is no version for BF1942, I used files for GTA Vice City which were adopted for BF here http://is82.com/comment.php?comment.news.368
Also I tried some new versions from ENB website but they all cause crash at the start of map loading. This is working version with my ini file included http://zalil.ru/34711126
Edit: changed link

Last edited by ziba128 (2013-09-04 19:27:45)

AntonZab · 2015-10-12 12:24:36

Apache Thunder wrote:

I have the RRFTool that can compress/extract the RFF archives. I will see if I can coax the console to work again.

Please. Give me rfftool

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#1 2013-05-03 07:27:09

Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#2 2013-05-03 17:59:19

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#3 2013-05-03 18:40:36

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#4 2013-05-03 18:45:31

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#5 2013-05-03 19:26:41

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#6 2013-05-03 20:40:36

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#7 2013-05-03 21:07:43

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#8 2013-05-03 21:09:20

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#9 2013-05-03 21:30:55

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#10 2013-05-03 23:08:19

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#11 2013-05-04 01:20:15

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#12 2013-05-04 01:49:47

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#13 2013-08-09 15:53:04

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#14 2013-08-09 21:54:22

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#15 2013-08-09 21:58:10

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#16 2013-09-04 17:52:45

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#17 2013-09-04 18:02:10

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#18 2013-09-04 18:12:44

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#19 2013-09-04 18:37:12

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#20 2013-09-04 18:42:11

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

#21 2015-10-12 12:24:36

Re: Enabling dormant features in BF1942....

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