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View Full Version : Beta testers wanted for new Renderers.



Dr.Flay
03-03-2013, 11:53 PM
Oldunreal Media Pack - OMP 0.99b
Smirftsch has not forgotten his UT loving cousins :welcoming:

Anyone wanting to test the new DirectX, OpenGL and audio renderers should head over to OldUnreal and grab a copy.
http://www.oldunreal.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1131878615

Feedback on the tweaks suggested in the forum, and especially on the NEW "SwFMod" audio renderer, are most welcome.

These may become the new UT99 standard renderers, so please contribute if you find any problems.

SAM
03-04-2013, 06:54 PM
Will do. Anyone else joining?

Higor
03-04-2013, 07:13 PM
I'll be sticking with the sdkOpenGL one...

Dr.Flay
03-05-2013, 08:30 PM
The new audio renderers are the main emphasis of this pack. The GFX updates are to fix old issues.
Possibly Shadow may re-build the SDK renderers based on these (I should see what he is doing).

It is worth testing your sound chip for EAX compatability before trying the OpenAL with the official viewer utility.
Home - OpenAL (http://connect.creativelabs.com/openal/default.aspx)
If you have no hardware support then you may need to upgrade the sound driver. Still no HW support then use software mode.

Feedback would be best done in the actual OMP thread at Oldunreal, but I can post messages or links back to the sites I posted.

Higor
03-05-2013, 08:48 PM
I doubt I'll get better with these crappy Realtek onboard chips.
I remember having a Trident Blade 3d and Sound Blaster cards on my old Pentium 2 machine, playing with OpenGL and DirectX with reverb when nobody else in the neighbourhood could... what times.

Unless... the SFX driver does improve it on these chips, got reports on this?

Dr.Flay
03-05-2013, 09:17 PM
I think the new SwFMod renderer is designed to be more compatible if you don't have good EFX support, or if the FMOD does not work.
There is only a small reference in the wiki from the U227i release.

Added SwFMOD, some new sounddevice like OpenAL or FMod, but unlike old FMod (FMOD 3) its based on FModEx (FMOD 4). Dots reworked some old code I found for DeusEX and updated it to newest version while also fixing a lot of bugs, also the ambient presets known out of OpenAL are supported. It's new and of course there is a good chance of new bugs, but it has a lot of potential, not only for Windows but also for Linux users.
It says in the wiki that oftware mode is supposed to be more accurate.

I made a quick guide to setting up the renderers a while back, as just swapping them does not enable everything.
Your Unreal - Audio Tweaks (http://my.opera.com/Unreal-Tournament/blog/audio-tweaks)

Higor
03-05-2013, 10:42 PM
Is the SwFMOD whitelisted in ACE?

SAM
03-06-2013, 03:57 PM
No none of those are whitelisted. I messaged Anth a couple days ago about the whitelist and asked if he could hand over whitelist maintenance to me (since he is very busy) and I could at least maintain that part for now while he gets some time together to further develop ACE....still waiting on a response..

Having said that however. If I can work out the server firewall issues with v9c the whitelist is kept locally so it might spur me on...

Dr.Flay
03-10-2013, 12:32 AM
I've been using the OMP 0.2 pack for years, and recently the newer ones in Unreal 227i
My general take on tinkering with the new renderers follows.

Unfortunately it's more of an art than a science.
The renderers can behave differently depending on your drivers.
Hardware and software mode tend to differ in volumes.

The main switches that affect the way you hear sounds at a distance are
UseOriginalUnreal and AmbientFactor

These new renderers have features such as bRayTraceReverb, bSoundAttenuate and bOcclusion.
They make sounds change in various ways depending on the room or environment you are in.
Most of my info is from the wiki (where it explains what the new switches do)
OpenAL - Oldunreal-Wiki (http://www.oldunreal.com/wiki/index.php?title=OpenAL)

I'm testing the new SwFMOD as It has lots of new options to play with.
So far the bullet-sounds whizzing past my ears, with the Chaos mod in v451 are very cool.

Not sure if the footsteps and such count as ambient sounds, but try dropping the ambient volume low and see how much difference it makes.
UseOriginalUnreal will affect how you hear distant sounds, but I'd recommend swapping between HW and SW modes first, then try the others.

Quickest way to change the settings is by pressing TAB then typing "preferences".
If you have the Oldskool mod installed, it adds an "Advanced Options" to the UT menu.
If you don't have UT open, it can be quicker to access the "Advanced Options" from the view menu in UEd.

You can make immediate changes to the video renderers like this, but not the audio. Unfortunately UT needs a restart to try any changes.