Pixel/Shader 2.0 emulator- emulates shaders, cubemaps, etc.

[Teh_Arbiter]

I recently came across this program called swiftshader that can emulate shaders and stuff that crappy cards or integrated graphics can not display using your processor rather than your graphics card. This program is truly amazing. While it may not be very good for gameplay (You need a good processor, or it will be very slow, i get like 10 FPS on a kinda crappy processor), it is useful if you want to make skin mods and you need to see what they look like on good graphics. Here's the comparison between the two. Note that these were both games played from the same exact computer(With integrated graphics):

Before:


After:


(The logo on the bottom left is just a logo that the program puts cause its a demo, the full version is the same thing except with no logo, they both last forever)

Anyways, the program is pretty cool. Just download it and drop the two DLL files inside your C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo folder. You need Directx 9.0 to use this.

Now for the download link: http://www.transgaming.com/products/swiftshader/

Have Fun!

[AbeFroman]

aside from the logo thats a neat little utility, but i think it should be in the utilities section, nice find though

[Corvette19]

OMFG
HOLYSHTHAX
/me downloads with super hyperness...
/me hasnt posted like that in a long time.
You've brought out the child in me.
Thanks

[Mr.Brightside]

OMFG
HOLYSHTHAX
/me downloads with super hyperness...
/me hasnt posted like that in a long time.
You've brought out the child in me.
Thanks

Corvette, buy a new computer

[supersniper]

Personally I like the pixel/shader 1.0 version better. Bipeds are easier to see with night vision and also when you use night vision you can actually see the invisible biped even when looking into the bright light... So is there an emulator that makes it 1.0? Because I'm tired of bright and shiny I want dull and dim.

[Mr.Brightside]

Personally I like the pixel/shader 1.0 version better. Bipeds are easier to see with night vision and also when you use night vision you can actually see the invisible biped even when looking into the bright light... So is there an emulator that makes it 1.0? Because I'm tired of bright and shiny I want dull and dim.

Hmm. Who's your dealer?

[supersniper]

Well I have an Intel card on my xp computer with 1.0 and nvidia on my vista computer with 2.0 and I like the 1.0 better only because it's a lot easier to see. No shines in my eyes. Night vision actually is night vision... um the bipeds are more darker in color and stand out more. It's like a built in wall hack !

[Philly]

That's a great find, and no more excuses for 'bad graphics' skins!

[Corvette19]

That's a great find, and no more excuses for 'bad graphics' skins!

gtfo fil >=(

Super Sniper, If you want bad gfx on your computer, add the fixed function thing to your target along with the console...
I can't remember but I think it was something like -useff

[halo2poo]

Wow that is amazing. Never knew that was even possible.



Also, my first post in almost 2 years.

[supersniper]

That's a great find, and no more excuses for 'bad graphics' skins!

gtfo fil >=(

Super Sniper, If you want bad gfx on your computer, add the fixed function thing to your target along with the console...
I can't remember but I think it was something like -useff

Omg yeah I totally forgot about that.

Which one do I use?

Code: Select all

1. Halo Commands

- Checking Your Framerate while Playing
- Commands for Old Graphics Cards
- Make Halo Load Faster
- No Joystick
- Screenshots
- Record Framerates
- Manually Change Video Resolution

2. Minimum Requirements

3. The Real Requirements

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


*** Checking your Framerate while Playing ***

While ingame press CTRL and F12 at the same time.




*** Enabling Console ***

-> Right click on your Halo desktop icon
-> Properties
-> Target
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe"
-> Put a -console on the end it make it look like "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -console
-> Now to access it in game all you do is press the "tilde" key ~




*** Commands for Old Graphics Cards (Shader Graphic Level) ***

This only should be used if you get low frame rates while playing.

-> Right click on your Halo desktop icon
-> Properties
-> Target
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe"

There are many different versions. For GeForce 4 and under put -UseFF,for others put -Use11 .
"UseFF" makes Halo look not as spectacular but it makes your framerates rise through the roof usually.
"Use11" helps but not to the same degree and it's the best Quality/Proformance ratio.
-> So it should either look like "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -useff or "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -use11

Here is a quick rundown of all the commands available to set the shader level.

-use20
Without any -use command, Halo defaults to pixel shaders 2.0, provided
your video card supports the feature. It?s an advanced technique for
applying special effects to computer graphics at the pixel level.

-use14
Forces the game to use older and faster pixel shaders 1.4. You lose
bump-mapped mirrored surfaces. Some effects are two-pass.

-use11
Best balance of performance and appearance. Forces the game to use older
and faster pixel shaders 1.1. You lose bump-mapped mirrored surfaces,
model self-illumination, animated light maps, and specular lights. Some
effects are two-pass. Fog calculations are triangle-based instead of
pixel-based.

-useff
For really old rigs. Turns off pixel shaders, looks pretty ugly. This
may be faster for old video cards, but it is probably slower for modern
ones. The ff stands for fixed function. It really does make Halo
butt-ugly. No shadows, glows, or flares. Very basic fog, water, and
lighting. The camouflage effect is simple and difficult to see. The only
benefit I can think of is that it makes it easier to tell red and blue
uniforms apart, because they become flat red and flat blue (not glossy
or metallic).




*** Make Halo Load Faster ***

-> Right click on your Halo desktop icon
-> Properties
-> Target
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe"
Now add -novideo
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -novideo
This makes its so the intro movies dont play and you go straight the
main screen.




*** No Joystick ***

-> Right click on your Halo desktop icon
-> Properties
-> Target
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe"
Now add -nojoystick
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -nojoystick
Use this if you don't have a joystick its supposed to help increase framerates slightly.




*** Screenshots ***

Allows gamers to take in-game screen shots by pressing the PRINT SCREEN
key on their keyboards. Halo will save your screenies sequentially as
TGA (targa) files in a Halo\screenshots folder. There is a pause in game
play while the shots are saved.

-> Right click on your Halo desktop icon
-> Properties
-> Target
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe"
Now add -screenshot
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -screenshot




*** Record Framerates ***

The timedemofunction runs four cinematic sequences and records frame
rates. Test results are added to timedemo.txt in the Halo game folder.

-> Right click on your Halo desktop icon
-> Properties
-> Target
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe"
Now add -timedemo
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -timedemo




*** Manually Change Video Resolution ***

This command overrides settings made in the Video Setup GUI to play Halo at a particular width, height, and refresh rate.
For example, -vidmode 1024,768,85 forces the game to run at 1024×768×85Hz.
The only time you'll want to use this command is while testing multiple resolutions with -timedemo.
It is faster to change resolutions in the command line than it is to launch the game and make changes in Video Setup.

-> Right click on your Halo desktop icon
-> Properties
-> Target
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe"
Now add --vidmode w,h,r
-> It should have "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -vidmode w,h,r




*** NOTE: You can chain multiple options together to suit yourself i.e.
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -use20 -novideo -nojoystick -console




---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*** The Minimum Requirements ***

* Operating System: Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows Second Edition, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Microsoft Windows 2000, or Microsoft Windows XP.
* Computer/Processor: 733 megahertz (MHz) processor.
* DirectX: DirectX® 9.0 or later. (DirectX 9.0b is installed by Halo.)
* Memory: 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM.
* Hard Disk: 1.2 gigabytes (GB) of free hard disk space.
* Video card: 32 MB with 3D Transform and Lighting capable.
* CD: 8X.
* Sound: Sound card, speakers, or headphones with multiplayer play.
* 56.6 Kilobytes per second (KBps) modem or 10 MB network adapter. Multiplayer servers require broadband to run a server.
* Additionally, you must have an Internet Service provider (ISP) or a Local Area Network (LAN), if you want to play multi-player games.



*** The REAL Requirements ***

Halo is a system hog of game. To see Halo in all of its glory I
recommend minimum of a 9600XT. 5900XT - 9800Pro will play it with 60+
Frames with everything on high if you have the right drivers and your
not bottlenecking your GPU with your CPU or RAM. Also Halo on dial-up is
pretty laggy because it doesn't have the best netcode so I recommend
getting a decent connection aswell.

[antszy101]

Does this work with just Halo? Or other games as well?

[V0Lt4Ge]

I think -use11 will work, sniper.

[Teh_Arbiter]

Yes it works with other games, i have tried it with Bioshock(i could only get to the level loading screen, it takes probably like an hour to load Welcome to Rapture) and I have tried it with Half Life 2 as well(got a decent FPS with that). Pretty much any game that runs on dx8 or dx9 will work, though the DLL for dx8 is known to be glitchy.

Note that theres also a program called 3d analyze that convinces the program that you have the ability for pixel shader support, but doesnt actually emulate them(so you can actually get the game to start up, some games like bioshock wont start up if you dont have the required graphics). So if you play the game almost everything will be missing. I tried it with Halo, the only thing i could see was glow on plasma weapons, the map, warthog windshields, bullet tracers, etc.

also i think theres a way to make it 1.0(havent tested though) Open the file called SwiftShader(configuration settings) in Notepad, and change the pixelshader version at the top to something like 10(which would be 1.0), then drop it in the same folder you did the DLL's. I cant be bothered to try now though

[x_pri2]

[sarcasm]wow i wish i hadn't spent money on a new graphics card lol[/sarcasm]

but realy thats grate people cant say well my mod is bad because it looks dif on my computer or my skin its better with a bad graphics card

[Corvette19]

my skin looks better on a good gfx card... i sed it
I'll use this to make screenshots.

[MadClown]

nice find, but ive allways been able to max halo since i got it so it doesnt apply to me, but this would be great for silly ppl who buy prebuilts that have a decent processor, but that garbage intel graphics do-hicky(IntelGMA?)

[Cobain]

Personally I like the pixel/shader 1.0 version better. Bipeds are easier to see with night vision and also when you use night vision you can actually see the invisible biped even when looking into the bright light... So is there an emulator that makes it 1.0? Because I'm tired of bright and shiny I want dull and dim.

i agree....and i also like how the mc looks allot more...the flat color looks awesomenonor

well said chap

[WaeV]

Would this make graphics look even better on a good card?

I wouldn't think so, but...

[Cobain]

Would this make graphics look even better on a good card?

I wouldn't think so, but...

hmmm