Mod Release Maybe a really good progress in graphical improvement...

[Seb]

Have you ever heard of Boris Vorontsov until today?! Personally, I had never heard of him, but I found his site :

http://boris-vorontsov.narod.ru/index_en.html

It appears he has developped some applications to add some graphical improvements in some kinda old but good games as GTA III, Vice City, GTA IV or Mafia. Checking the game list, I was disappointed to see that POTC weren't in there... It can even update some DX8 games with DX9 effects!

But, checking the forum, I saw, that after many tries, and using an appropriated version of his work, those improvements could be added in many games.

Basically, it just consists in a simple copy/paste, of the files in the .exe directory. (Once you've found the good combination of files.)

The rest is visual configuration work, to be sure the effects will fit to the game. Then, you launch your game, and press shift+F12 (The effect can be cut off and putten back ingame with that combination) and there you are :



Tell me what you see on that picture? For you, does it represent a real progress?

PROGRAM ON

PROGRAM ON

PROGRAM ON

PROGRAM OFF

There's just three problems for an adaptation to POTC :

1. The effect is permanent, so it also appears in the menus where it doesn't fit

2. You must activate it at each game start

3. It can have an impact on framerate and cause some graphical glitches depending the graphic card you have


Here are the files anyway, just extract them in : C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Pirates of the Caribbean


EDIT : I configured the files a bit, feel free to find a better render!
It also loads automatically now, to disable that, just change, in enbseries.ini ; in [Global] : UseEffect=1 to UseEffect=0 or press shift + f12

 

[Bava]

Ha! Finally someone got ENBseries to work with PoTC. Tried it several times myself, never worked for me.
Thanks a lot, Seb! :will

 

[Seb]

You're welcome!

 

[Short Jack Gold]

Hi Seb,

Just downloaded it and will try it in a game and let you know what I find.
I will try to post screen shots.

 

[Seb]

Great! I'm impatient to get some feedback

 

[Thomas the Terror]

Cool! You have got it to work? Could you also change the colours? So that the game world turns a bit browner or darker or what ever?

 

[Seb]

It seems to work, nicely with motion blur, ect... I guess you should be able to obtain new tones for the picture but I haven't time to have a look at it yet there are plenty of parameters to play with...

Well used, I think it could fill a bit the graphic gap of POTC with AOP or COAS due to the age of the game, do you think it could be a serious addition to the build package?! (respecting the author credits of course)

 

[Thomas the Terror]

I think so. I used it with Mount and Blade and the game looked so much better with it! Perhaps you should search for the parameters there. They have some really nice ones!

 

[Seb]

I picked some of M&B parameters. On the ENB forum, someone produced some Parameters for M&B and the effects were softer and less visible on the menus and the loading screens in M&B. (I also saw a topic were someone regreted there were no version for the "Corsair : Return of the Legend" mod)

I haven't tried now with my version of M&B but the screenshots I saw conviced me Immediatly to try with M&B too. There were no proper version for M&B but someone created some parameters for the game, and they actually fit quite well with POTC.

I spent a lot of time to make it compatible, testing and mixing several versions of ENB to bring the possibility to enjoy the DX9 properties, but finally I managed to do it and it uses the M&B settings.

I didn't have time to tweak those settings a lot but feel free to do so, it's quite easy to do with the help of the readme, and basing on M&B settings, we'll be able to compare and find the best parameters for POTC

 

[Short Jack Gold]

For what it's worth here is a comparison of a close up view of a character.

I have been working on trying to texture characters for Hornblower.
Here is what is supposed to be Pellew with the Graphic Interface OFF

and here with it ON

From my perspective it is a clearer, but softer, picture with the Graphic ON.
The colours seem more vibrant.

I will continue trying it out with different scenes.

 

[Seb]

I experienced the same thing, the result are at the same time discreet and quite noticeable, the picture seems to have more depth of field, and the sunlight more living and more present, concrete. I'll keep trying also, i'm sure we can get better!

 

[Seb]

It appears directx9 is not active in the version I gave you, and when you try to activate it, the game crashes, I experienced the same thing yesterday and I had to give up. So i'm not sure but we won't have all effects, forget [SSAO][PERPIXELLIGHTING] [DEPTHOFFIELD] and i'm not sure but also
[COLORCORRECTION]

 

[Seb]

What do you think of those settings? (You can play with gamma, contrast, and brightness in the game options to adjust to your likings)

I precise that the functions I mentionned in the precedent post, seem to function, despite what I said.

OFF​

ON​

 

[Thomas the Terror]

Much better, the last one only made it brighter, but no shadows.

 

[Seb]

I've made some tries about the shadows but I couldn't manage to get some... for the moment?

 

[Captain Maggee]

Yep the last one is better, it doesnt really mess with the background like the ones before it.

 

[Seb]

I Kept those settings for playin, after several tries, it doesn't seem the shadows part of the mod are active in Potc, unfortunately... You can use the options in video settings to adapt the picture to your taste tough.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

This is really cool! We can provide that as an additional download, I reckon.
Do you have a screenshot of what happens with the menu's?
Would it be possible to execute a function upon opening/closing a menu that turns off/on these function?

 

[Seb]

The menus are a little bit shiny but nothing important, i'll make a screen tonight... About the On/Off option, i've no idea :/

 

[Captain Maggee]

This is really cool! We can provide that as an additional download, I reckon.

I agree with making it an additional (optional) download, I do agree that it does look cool, but I dont think it is for everybody :

It would change with game version would it? :?
ie. if we add it as a download we wouldnt have to change it with every new download