Half Life 2: DirectX 8.0/8.1 Water Reflection Patch, All Need to know Info Inside

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The_Preacher

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Link to Half-Life 2 Water Reflection Patch

Link to Counter-Strike: Source Water Reflection Patch

The above two links are to a Water Reflection patch that was created by JoshuaC of the Steam Forums. To update Both Half-Life2, and Counter-Strike:Source Respectivly, With Direct X 9 Quality water reflections, for people runing Via Direct X 8.0/8.1

What the patch does is Give Real time DirectX 9 Type Water Reflection effects, for users who are running (or forced to run) in DirectX 8.1 and 8.0.

Below are some Screenshots showing Exactly what the patch does.


http://up1.fastuploads.com/d1_canals_060005.jpg
http://up1.fastuploads.com/71808965_d1_canals_130003.jpg
http://up1.fastuploads.com/76574660_d1_canals_130001.jpg
http://up1.fastuploads.com/82688868_d1_canals_01a0000.jpg

(all above screenshots were taken on an FX5900U running in DX 8.1)

Performance Loss is Minimal or None Existant depending on the configuration of your PC. It is significantly Better performance wise than using the 3D Analyze Vendor ID method.

Compatable cards:

Nvidia Geforce 4 Ti and up
(no need to do this if your running in DX9 e.g. 6600 )

and

ATi 9200,9500

The original Thread can be found here:

Original thread from Steam forums

There you go. I do realise i have another post that is exactly to do with this, but i thought readers may miss all the links since they were spread around different posts. I decided to make this thread to combine all the need to know info, in one easy to read Post, so that no Direct X 8 or 8.1 users miss out on this fantastic patch.

Thanks
Preacher

p.s. Mods again i apologise for posting the same subject again, but it was for the sake of neatness, and ease of reading for the user to spoon feed the info as opposed to haveing to scramble through X amount of posts to find links etc.

p.s.s All thanks and credit to the amazing JoshuaC

and i hope this helps you DX8.0/8.1 users who didnt or couldnt understand the mess of my other thread on here lol.
 
Yeh to those who posted in teh other thread. Thanks alot.

but if you want to Keep posting in this one from now on, since its Much neater and better explained than my other one, that would be fantastic. plus it keeps it bumped up the top for all those who have yet to use this patch.

thx again.
Preacher
 
just thought id say whilst i had it on my mind. If you have any problems or issues with the patches, youd best reply in teh steam forums thread, JoshuaC replies and tries to help out as best he can.
 
wow

does it kill performance?

please sticky this
 
as i mentioned or thought i mentioned lol in the first post, the most reported loss of FPs was 3-4FPs in water filled areas.

this of course depends on the rest of your system. Most people who have tried teh patch have said that there is no loss of FPs at all.

So realy it comes down to how good or bad all your other PC components are.

and a stick y would be nice, as i feel like a idiot if i have to keep bumping it. its not like im bumping it cos i want people to praise me (since it isnt my work) i just wanna get all those DX8.0 and DX 8.1 users to see it so they can get themselves some sweet water reflections instead of what Valve gave them.
 
I've tried the cs:s files for aztec and it looks miles better, plus you get the advantage of seeing the Ts coming thru the water, before you actually see them or their splashing. The only problem is I was getting a really large fps hit at this one particular location (site A) while looking over the side down at the water.

But I know hwo dodgy and nonsensical the graphics settings can be, so I'll have a little fiddle with them and see if I can regain the draw speed
 
Well. Now this is probably gonna make you all lose faith in what im saying lol. I dont actually have HL2 (Xmas), ive basically been re-itterating the experiences from the Steam forums posts, and drawing from memory what i have read and talked to users who have used this, so unfortunatly i myself can not do comparison shots.

and as for performance loss and stuff, again i myself cant help you, but from what ive read about HL2 DX 8 DX 9 the Vendor ID switching method (ive done TONS of reading over various forums on this)

This Water reflection patch seems to be th e only way your going to get those reflections with the most minimal loss in performance possible.

so your choice is basically to run without the fancy reflections, or these patches :-/

(unless valve actually does something about this situation themselves, since this 16 year old JoshuaC proved it WAS possible)

So thats your choices. if you are experienceing Seveer performance loss (there hasnt been many posts saying they had realy degraded performance, so perhaps if you post in the steam forums JoshuaC may be able to help you) I would recommend Sticking to just the regular direct X 8 and 8.1 simple reflections.
but if you have noticed no loss (like alot of people have) then id say go for it, its still a much better solution than the Vendor Id trick.

Cheers
Preach
 
i know i haven't ever posted here before, but i have been browsing these forums for a while, but oh well. i don't know if any of you care but i took those files that Josh guy made and edited the files numbers for Directx 9 to the levels of his modifications for dx8-8.1 for the near dx9 level water texture. this was done so that i could set my dxlevel for hl2 to directx9 and still have the water textures looking great without the graphical errors originally found and so that the game still picked up on all the other directx9 objects in the game that was left out by josh, since he only did the water. with my modded numbers i now enjoy the water perfectly and still have the reflections and shading on all the other textures of the game. if anyone wants to download the modded files that were in the Nature patch from josh, just post here telling me. i'll post screens in a bit... i forgot to mention that with this, i believe that only the maps that were not modified by josh in the original patch will have the dx9 shading, etc.. for everything. on the levels that were patched with it will only have dx8-8.1 shading level. That is only a minor inconvenience imo.
 
ok here are some screens

Route Kanal - Train Tracks

DX8.1
http://web.qx.net/computerwizard/hl2/d1_canals_dx81.jpg

DX9.0
http://web.qx.net/computerwizard/hl2/d1_canals_dx90.jpg

Water Hazard
There really isn't much difference in these 2 since they use the same code that Josh put in originally

DX8.1
http://web.qx.net/computerwizard/hl2/d1_canalswaterhazard_dx81.jpg

DX9.0
http://web.qx.net/computerwizard/hl2/d1_canalswaterhazard_dx90.jpg

and for those of you that want the file...

http://web.qx.net/computerwizard/hl2/modifiedslightlydx8-81fix.rar

if it interested anyone, my specs are this
amd athlon 64 3200+
pny geforcefx 5900se
1024 megs of ultra ddr 3200 ram

i am able to play hl2 with dx9 and the patch pretty well at
1280x1024, 4xaa, 8xaf, and everything else to the max
 
sounds like a good way of optimising for both teh DX9 shaders of metal glass, etc, without the Impact of DX9 water, since your getting the DX8 water josh made, saving your framerates around the water, but still getting the nice glass.

infact this could actually be the BEST performance saving way (this is theory though no practical evidence) at present for the High end FX cards to run in DX9 without the performance hit, or having to drop down to FP16 mode.

Once again i must itterate. why on earth the people at valve never hought of any of these combinations of patches and tricks. and its up to the community to make it possible, makes no sense.


Edit.

Nice comparison shots. any chance of some FPS levels in Intensive and none intensive areas, to give an idea of how much of a performance hit Joshuas/your code is compared to Treu DX9?

(you dont have to bother since i know it invlolves alot of faffing about with files etc) only if you wanted to :)

Edit 2

Anychance you could take your findings and code over to teh Steam forums? perhaps a collaboration could be established between yourself and josh?

just a thought
 
thanks for the comment, yes i can take this over to the steam forums in a little bit, and when i get some time free i may be able to do what you asked about the fps stuff.. hope it helps some heh
 
I said from the start that Valve would screw us Nvidia users over. :)


(Hint: Flame me!)
 
hint,. no please dont. theres plenty of Conspiracy threads to fight in ;)

this is clean. and yeh A-bomber, dont put yourself out man. i know that it woudl be a REAL pain in teh A$$ since it means almost having 2 copies of the folders changed, one clean one your version/joshuaC's.

so dont bother unless your REALy bored lol.

and If you and joshua can collaborate that culd be sweet. you never know. a new mod team of HL2 optimising team may come of it LOL. well u never know heh
 
Nicely done. It would be cool if Valve rolled this into their official code base.
 
Hmmm...now that I've actually played with it, it seems a bit buggy. I've noticed that when an object on the horizon is no longer in the primary view, its reflection disappears as well (possibly the LOD system removing polygons that are no longer visible?). So as you tilt your view up and down, reflected objects appear and disappear. While the water reflections look nice for the most part, this is a deal-breaker for me.
 
hmm, now thats the first report of that sort of issue ive read.

i suggest you pop that down in the Thread so joshua can read.

as i said, i havent read any other report of that sort of problem so i dunno.

there were suggestiongs of the matnocpis thing
to remove or switch it on. it can help, i think.

i cant test myself.
 
Mountain Man, could you please post some screenshots of this? I was looking around on different maps testing what you were saying and I am unable to find this error. If you could also please post your system specs, that would be most appreciated.
 
 
can someone clear up my confusion, I'm new to this game and it's various patches and fixes --

I've downloaded dx 9, but my vid card is a geforce fx 5900 -- does this mean I should use this patch? I have the water set to reflect, but that wasn't the default choice when I started the game.. I notice reflections but they're a bit blurry compared to the screenshots that've been posted..

is there a place to go for official patches?
 
hey mike, yes i recommend downloading the modified dx patch that was in one of my previous posts, and try turning up your reflections to reflect all or at least partial. but it's up to you, imo it adds a lot to the game to have awesome looking reflections and other things like that, but it's really all up to you
 
Hmm, not sure about the screenshots.

erm... since its not in motion i cant tell for sure. but could it perhaps be the angle that your looking? like since your changing your looking angle the objects arent visable? or do they literally just POP out of view?
if you could make a video or something so we can see exactly what you mean?

i have an idea but from screenshots its always harder to tell.

cheers.
 
The_Preacher said:
or do they literally just POP out of view?
Click to expand...

they do.
but its the same on directx 9
its engine dependent
things that arent in sight are not rendered and cant be reflected.
 
hehe Yes, i was JUST about to come back and post this from josh himself (i see mountain man explained his issue in teh steam forum thread)

thats an engine thing it doesnt draw things not in view so if its not in your view its not reflected.
Click to expand...

but you beat me to it. heh
 
Correct. I can't believe someone said this simple limitation makes the whole reflection capability unworthy. That's just silly.
 
well, if it realy effects mountain man, then i hope he doesnt plan on bying an expensive NEW GFX card, because it apparently will make no difference.

INFACT, if i recall correctly, on teh Steam forum, one user replied saying he was interested in testing this patch on his 6600 card, and forcing DX8.1 and he reckons teh reflections in this patch look better than the DX9 version as there more mirror like and the DX9 version is hazy by comparison. :eek:
 
I just want to say WOW!!! thanks a ton for the link to the patch, I absolutely cannot believe the difference, and there really is no hit on my framerate. I dunno how this was done, but it looks awesome!
 
conquistador69 said:
I can't believe someone said this simple limitation makes the whole reflection capability unworthy.
Click to expand...
No, I said that I found the scenery "pop in" effect distracting enough that I'm choosing not to use the patch. I never said it was "unworthy" or any other nonsense like that.

The_Preacher said:
he reckons teh reflections in this patch look better than the DX9 version as there more mirror like and the DX9 version is hazy by comparison. :eek:
Click to expand...
Yes, that's the other thing. The reflections are too distinct. It actually makes it difficult to see what's under the water, another effect I don't particularly care for.

Don't get me wrong, this patch is a great start. It just needs a bit more tweaking, that's all.
 
yeh, apparently hes going to try tweaking it even more, to reduce the mirror like reflections, and get it even closer to the DX9 version.

but at the end of teh day, for those of us forced to DX8 and 8.1, Beggers cant be choosers :/
 
I agree, this should be stickied -- I'm so glad I saw it, but I'm sure lots of people have no idea this is available
 
well i do keep bumping it (hint hint ) lol. but shortly i get th efeeling if i keep bumping it the mods are gonna delete teh thread due to excessive bumpage. so im relucatant to just keep posting BUMP.

so i tend to bump with a message, or a reply to one of you guys :)

as opposed to haveing post after post of BUMP. B-U-M-P Bumperoo etc..
 
Stickied, but if I catch another newbie bumping threads I'll start banning for the fun of it.

In future PM a moderator in that section, if none is available, PM a super mod, if none of those are available PM an admin.. Only useful threads will be sticked.
 
Cool stuff will try it out once i get home.
 
Stickied, but if I catch another newbie bumping threads I'll start banning for the fun of it.
Click to expand...

Woah, dark elf. That was a little harsh :/

thanks for stickying the thread though.
 
I don't see what's wrong with the bumping, Elf. I mean, if you do end up stickying it, it's not like you can't just go through and delete all the 'offensive' bump messages.
 
Lanthanide said:
I don't see what's wrong with the bumping, Elf. I mean, if you do end up stickying it, it's not like you can't just go through and delete all the 'offensive' bump messages.
Click to expand...
Banning someone is easier than hunting through a thread. ;)

Thanks for the patch, will try it out now.
 
Lanthanide said:
I don't see what's wrong with the bumping, Elf.
Click to expand...
If a thread is inactive enough that the only way to move up to the top of the forum is by adding a pointless "Bump" post then it begs the question whether the thread should even be "bumped" in the first place.
 
Mountain Man said:
If a thread is inactive enough that the only way to move up to the top of the forum is by adding a pointless "Bump" post then it begs the question whether the thread should even be "bumped" in the first place.
Click to expand...

Amen brother!

However, with the huge amount of new threads that are created each day (due to newbs and just plain lazy people who don't bother to search or even look down a few threads!), it sometimes makes sense to bump a thread that got lost in all the spam (which is, essentially, what many threads are here, imo).

Then again, don't just say "bump--this thread's too cool post more! Yeah! Duuuhhhhh....." Actually contribute and you will passively bump the thread in the process--hello!

But, yes, more often than not, for sure, it doesn't make much sense to bump a dead thread.
 
sorry to be a n00b n all, but where do i install this...realy sorry, but ive looked in the steam folder and steam apps - > Half Life 2 bla bla bla, and i cant seem to find anything resembling the files in the .RAR file that i downloaded...Must be my domestic blindness..please help, thanks

-Q
 
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