Soul Reaver 2 - Bink video playback
Window hooker to run fullscreen programs in window and much more...
Status: Beta
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Just wanted to say that your work on SR2 was brilliant! And I'm glad you were able to implement a framerate limit so the game can still be playable!
Hoping you have the time to fix one final glitch.
On my system, the FMV playback is squished to the left side, and all the colors are wrong. Audio plays fine, but it looks like this:
Is this something you'd be willing to troubleshoot? It's certainly not a deal breaker for the game. Just a "nice to have".
Last edit: TheArkive 2016-09-14
I'm sorry your post went to moderation area and I didn't notice it. It seems that SF board didn't like the link to your movie, and as a matter of fact I can see no more than the text above.
I'll try to replicate the problem, stay tuned in case I won't succeed and I may need a different post.
No problem man. I formatted the link wrong. It's fixed in the OP now. Not a movie, just a still img.
EDIT: I seem to remember glitches like this on old blizzard games when video playback happened (ie. Warcraft II, Diablo). The fix was a simple color pallette fix, and was even done in the Windows Registry. I'm really not sure if this one is that simple. And of course an aspect ratio adjustment is also in order...
Oddly enough SR1 video playback works just fine with no help from any wrappers. Granted it's been patched to hell, but still, I would have figured that a later game wouldn't have such issues, and would respond better to patch work.
Hope this helps. I'm ready to try and replicate results / test stuff out.
Last edit: TheArkive 2016-09-14
Oh, I see. This effect is clearly caused by a wrong color depth: movies in 16bpp format are rendered over a 32bpp surface. This situation is managed properly within D3D (the game uses D3D8 interfaces) but I suspect that these movies are played somehow differently, maybe through the bink32.dll.
I'd be very happy to fix this problem, but it's not easy because the bink interface is not documented, nor standard (there are plenty of different versions!), but this is one of the problems that I appointed in my "to do" list.
In the meanwhile, since I presume you run a Win10 OS and a 16bpp desktop is not viable, a quick workaround is this one: enter the game options menu, select graphics -> resolution and set the color depth to 32 as in the screenshot. After that, the movies will be rendered perfectly.
Last edit: gho 2016-09-14
Sorry for the delayed response. Yah you're right, it definitely is Bink32.dll stuff. I've tried other versions of the Bink32.DLL i've found across the internet and there seems to be no difference on my computer.
Reporting back on your suggetsion: It worked great as you said! I set the bit depth to 32 on the in-game menu and now no more problems playing back the stock beginning and end video. There are some higher quality versions out there of the 2 FMV's. The video plays but there's no audio on my computer for some reason. Using a bink player there is audio. Maybe the byte rate is too high?? Not sure if you'd care to troubleshoot any of that. Just thought I'd mention it.
As for "fixing" this (so that 16-bit video can be played back on a 32-bit depth), my only intent for that (aside from ingorance - now cured - thanks!) was to increase performance.
Given the capabilities of modern software and hardware, I don't actually see a point in this anymore, especially since it's so easily fixed within the game settings. If you are still up for it though I'd be happy to help test this part too.
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I've actually got a different issue, regarding input mapping.
Currently using a Dual Shock 4 controller with the following software:
1) Pinnacle Game Profiler
2) PadStarr
3) DS4Windows
4) InputMapper
(I just ditched my Xbox 360 controller today. WAY too much jitter.)
This is definitely SR2 specific:
When using Keyboard + Gamepad config, all controls operate fine until the Look Around button is pressed. Then the Left Trigger axis (which is always set to 0 until applied) forces the camera angle down. Oddly enough I can press L Trigger or use the Left Stick Y axis to counter act this, but it is a bit cumbersome as I am fighting conflicting input signals. Same thing happens when I used XBOX 360 controller emulation in any of the above software and try to remap buttons of DInput / XInput.
Of course I can use Keyboard + Mouse mappings, but then I lose the fidelity of the control of movement in the L Stick X/Y.
I'm wondering simply if it is possible to look under the hood and see what's going on with DInput? Is LTrigger actually mapped to the same axis as "L Stick Y"? And ... is it an axis that can be shut off through DInput?
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I know many people have spent years creating software like the ones mentioned above to tinker with controls and input. I'm just posing the question to see if maybe this would be more easily solved in DInput / DirectX, or a patch for how DInput handles this game that can be game specific in your wrapper program?
Thanks again for your help! Much appreciated!
Last edit: TheArkive 2016-09-15
About performance issues, whatever benefit you may gain by setting the game to 16bpp is surely lost because of the 16->32 bit color emulation performed by DxWnd, so I'm sure that running the game natively on 32bpp is the optimal solution.
About the game control, this is usualli a pain in the neck, because it is not a simple matter, and I don't have any hw configuration resembling a sophisticated one: I just use standard keyboard and mouse and I have plenty of troubles also this way....
In any case, if you want to try, enable directinput hook, full logging and try sending me a (not too huge) logfile captured when the problem shows.