NEW GFX FOR GTL v1.2 by syhlif32 Question

Spinelli · Jan 21, 2019

Hi this mod is a gfx.gtl file which I have installed but I'm not sure if it's working or not because the readme says the following:

1.

"Due to the faults in the x.gfx many of the shaders downgraded to Dx8."

Does this mean graphics in GTL when using this mod will be downgraded to DX8?

2.

Only extra shader function added is a feature from Race 07 where the ambient shadow/car shadow makesdownload use of a Zbuffer.
Saves a few fps but again you do not need to use it and no harm if you do even with orginal gfx.gtr. The zbuffer will just get igonered
To make use of it the following changes is needed in the .cas file(s)

MESHFILE=x_SHADOW.GMT COLLTARGET=FALSE HATTARGET=FALSE SHADOWOBJECT=(STATIC, SOLID, 256, 256, AMBIENTSHADA.DDS)

MESHFILE=x_SHADOW.GMT COLLTARGET=FALSE HATTARGET=FALSE SHADOWOBJECT=(STATIC, SOLID, 256, 256, AMBIENTSHADA.DDS, ZBuffer)

With Textcrawler, look in the team folder you want to change, filter .cas. Find 'AMBIENTSHADA.DDS' Then replace with 'AMBIENTSHADA.DDS, ZBuffer'
Or even better replace the 256 with 1024 or even 2048 for much better car shadows and very little drop in fps."

So should I do this step (replace "AMBIENTSHADA.DDS" with "AMBIENTSHADA.DDS, ZBuffer")? What does it do? Just improved FPS? Graphics are identical to vanilla GTL? Should I do this step if I use the NEW GFX mod?

Should I also replace "256" with "2048" (I have a good PC)? Should I do both steps: replace "AMBIENTSHADA.DDS" with "AMBIENTSHADA.DDS, ZBuffer" AND replace "256" with "2048"? Is it OK to do both steps when using the NEW GFX mod?

3.

Still not happy with the Light and special the way the difuser light is added but hard to change without unwanted side effects.
For now I would use 'Reshade 3' for adding blom and 'HDR' Very little drop in fps and huge improvments in aparence.
Still 2 none shadow shaders dx7 only, but have not been able to make them Dx9 without issues.

It sounds like part of this mod only works with DX7 because it has issues with DX9. Is this correct or am I misunderstanding?

4. If I'm using GTL ESSENTIALS v1.2 by DurgeDriven + GT Legends HQ MODS COLLECTION v9.6 should I still replace "AMBIENTSHADA.DDS" with "AMBIENTSHADA.DDS, ZBuffer" & replace "256" with "2048" or do other mods included already do that for me?

GTR233 · Jan 21, 2019

Bjarne (aka syhlif32) may give you much details but here are my answers :
1- the faulty dx8 shaders are in stock Simbin gfx, and Bjarne's gfx upgrades most of them to dx9
2- whether you modify the line in every *.CAS files or not, the new gfx will work good anyway. If you add "zbuffer" then stock Simbin gfx will ignore it, whereas Bjarne's gfx will enable zbuffer.
128,256,512,1024 or 2048 are the car shadow definition, personally I use 512 because my pc starts to lag with 1024 and higher when there are many cars on track like Spa. My advice is to try by yourself different values and keep the one you prefer or at least the one your pc can support

3- same as 1-, faulty dx7 shaders are in stock Simbin gfx so nothing will change for you as they are still there in Bjarne's gfx
4- my friend Durge Driven has repacked different mods from different authors and sort them to be ready-to-use with JSGME tool : he did not modify the mods so you will find exactly the same mods as the versions released by these same authors like me. This means that Bjarne's gfx is the same, and my HQ MODS COLLECTION too, just pay attention to the version of each mod that's all. As Bjarne doesn't publish a new gfx very often I suppose this is the same v1.60 in DD ESSENTIALS pack.
Moreover you can simply overwrite my hq mods collection from DD GTL ESSENTIALS pack with newer version without any problem : I did not modify GTL CAS files so there are no conflicts with DD GTL ESSENTIALS.

Bjarne Hansen · Jan 21, 2019

I have moved away from using the zbuffer again as it have very little effect and in Gtr2/ GTl doesn't fix the shadow fault in gmotor2 like it does in Race 07.
The fault is related to the car shadows. You got two shadows the under car fixed one and the shadow the chassis cast. The later also get cast up!
You can see it sometimes next to walls and top of walls get a shadow from a passing car despite the wall is higher than the car!
Race 07 draws all cars shadows into the zbuffer also the chassis shadow. Sort or discharge the 'upper' shadows and draw the combined car shadows in one go.
Using very large shadows like 2048, 2048 the zbuffer does help but since you would only do that on a fast Gpu you hardly see any difference in fps anyway.

While I have made all shaders in Dx9 by now there are some faults that while easy to fix do make some tracks ugly.
Some of the shaders in Gmotor2 do not compile in dx9 and downgrade to dx8.
Other just was newer none or finished.
But some of the smaller faults might not do much but just annoying to me as Simbin did know about them as they worked around some of them in Race 07. But did not fix them!

The gfx will be released but likely together with so other updates. And a couple of the changes requires changes in the gtl.exe and then you got different versions of gtl.exe and gfx.gtl which is a mess for differences that most people do not notice anyway. So will not do that.

I will PM you a download link of the current version.

Spinelli · Jan 21, 2019

Thanks for the timely and detailed replies.

I am going to start with increasing shadows to 2048. I am starting career mode from the beginning so fields are small. I will drop to 1024 or 512 if framerates drop too much as fields get larger while I progress through thr career mode.

I am playing with 3x 1440p and a GTX 1080 Ti (CPU also high-end).

Sorry, I don't know lots about graphics. I am using almost all mods packed in GTL HQ Mods Collection v9.6 and and Essentials v1.2 (I compare mods and version #s and use the most up to date version). Therefore do you recommend adding the ", ZBuffer?"