Fullscreen Antialiasing (2.5D, 3D)

[Antrix]

Hi all! I have resolve my previous problem with game freezeing/minimizing by install a Kubuntu So, there is another problem... with antialiasing. The game (Space Rangers HD) has two game mode - space top down (2.5D) and strategy mode (3D). In strategy mode AA works fine and there is all ok. But in space mode on some object pixels are good visible (interface are ok). Here is the screenshots:

Space mode (look at the triangled ship):


Planetary battle, strategy mode (it's all ok):


Can i somehow enable AA forced or something? I have tried to enable forced AA in NVIDIA X Server Settings panel, but nothing happen. Maybe there is another way to do this?

P.S. There is no any AA settings for space mode in game options... only for strategy mode. But in Win all was fine.

[L. Rahyen]

I remember that this game has AA by default in Wine, so either I did not had your problem or do not remember it.

It would be helpful if you share your save file where you can see object(s) without AA. You can locate save files here: "$HOME/.wine/drive_c/users/$USER/My Documents/SpaceRangersHD/Save/" ($USER is your username, $HOME is path to you home directory). Screenshots from both Linux and Windows (with and without the issue) would be helpful too.

Alternatively, if you are looking for quick workaround, you can try to enable FXAA before starting the game. It may make some things a bit blurry, but will antialias everything.

[Antrix]

Sure. Here is the win screenshot:

[Antrix]

I'll send save file later, i'm not at home right now.

[L. Rahyen]

Thanks for uploading the screenshot. When you upload the save, I will see if I can reproduce the issue.

[Antrix]

But... there is no need in reproducing The same "pixel" problem in new game too. Anyway, i'll upload save file after 18:00 by forum timezone

[Antrix]

Here is the save - https://mega.nz/#!cBVwmBaI!X5CL_2J_wjjo ... R55uDRMJqs

[L. Rahyen]

I tried new game with some other ship and was unable to clearly see the problem. With your saved file, I was able to clearly see the issue. I have tried usual workarounds, such as enabling multisampling in Wine registry, switching to backbuffer and forcing AA (but not FXAA) in NVidia Settings, but nothing helped. The ship still rendered without AA. Enabling FXAA worked, but it made some things a bit blurry, especially small fonts, bacause FXAA is post-processing effect, not "real" AA. Basically, no matter what I did, quality remained lower than on your Windows screenshot.

It looks like this is Wine bug, so I suggest to file a bug report with your screenshots and the save attached: https://bugs.winehq.org/ . This would help to get Wine developers attention.

[Antrix]

Thank you, i'll report it. Can you start new game, take free pirate ship at pirate base and screen it in space? Cuz this ship pixelate too... even stronger than Shadow of the Empire. I want to look at it, if you don't mind.

P.S. How did you enable FXAA - via videocard control panel?

[L. Rahyen]

Thank you, i'll report it.

I think I found out something important about the issue. One of the times I launched the game I have seen this warning:

My version of the game is 2.1.2121. I ran the game many times in the past but never seen this before, not even after fresh game install. And now all of a sudden here it is. Not sure what finally caused it to appear, but after I dismissed it, I could not get it to appear again. However, how to get it to appear is not important. Most important is this part of the warning:

- the hardware graphics rendering is forcibly disabled (the selected setting in the options is ignored)

I do not have Windows, so I would like to ask you to test the following. In Windows disable hardware rendering like this:

Code: Select all

Options > GRAPHICS > 2D hardware renderer > No

Load the saved file you have shared and see if the ship antialiased. If not, then this is bug in the game and not in Wine. Detecting Wine and implementing workarounds which not possible to turn off is very bad practice, bugs in Wine tend to get fixed, but hardcoded workarounds remain and users continue to have bad experience.

For example, few years ago I remember some application with hardcoded workaround for Wine which was not possible to disable, and even though original bug why the workaround was implemented was fixed in Wine long ago, the app remain broken - because its developers broke it on purpose by assuming bugs in Wine are set in stone and tried to workaround them by forcefully disabling useful features.

Anyway, if disabling 2D hardware renderer in Windows disables AA on ships, I think the right thing to do would be to report this bug to game developers and suggest to either remove hardcoded workarounds for Wine or give an option to disable them. Otherwise it is not possible to check if there is bug in Wine which prevents 2D hardware rendering from working.

Can you start new game, take free pirate ship at pirate base and screen it in space? Cuz this ship pixelate too... even stronger than Shadow of the Empire. I want to look at it, if you don't mind.

Sure, here it is. But as far as I understand all ships are not antialiased. How noticeable it is in each particular case does not really matter - the issue is the same.

P.S. How did you enable FXAA - via videocard control panel?

I set FXAA checkbox in nvidia-settings and choose Override Application Settings. Then disable XRender compositor in KDE by pressing Ctrl+Shift+F12 (not sure if it matters, but in my xorg.conf I have ForceFullCompositionPipeline=On). If you are using different compositor or DE, you may not need to do these extra actions, just enabling FXAA may be enough and ForceFullCompositionPipeline should not be necessary. I'm just telling how I did it and what options I use.

Few pictures for comparison (open them in different tabs and switch between them to see the difference):
Windows AA (crop from your Windows screenshot)
FXAA
No AA

[Antrix]

I think I found out something important about the issue. One of the times I launched the game I have seen this warning:

Well, on our official SR ru forum, developer has uploaded a new test exe file for me, speccialy for running game with wine, so we can turn on hardware renderer. Right now site/forum on the maintenance, so i'll send you this new exe today, but some later. We need to test it, and if AA will work fine - all changes will be with the next patch.

[Antrix]

Sorry for doubleposting (can't edit previous message at now), i'll send you new exe into PM, cuz developer asked me not to distribute it )

[L. Rahyen]

I have tried updated .exe, everything works exactly as before. I have tried new AllowHardwareRenderUnderWine=True setting and it made no difference. By the way, I have found RunOnWineWithoutWarning option and decided to set it to False just to see if the game actually uses values from cofing file I'm editing. And on next launch the warning appeared again, exactly the same one, and it still says "the hardware graphics rendering is forcibly disabled (the selected setting in the options is ignored)". So either developer forgot to update the warning and there is no difference between hardware and software 2D rendering in Wine, or hardware 2D rendering is still forcefully disabled despite AllowHardwareRenderUnderWine=True. I have tried enabling multisampling in Wine, made no difference.

I suggest you try new .exe too when you get a chance, just to be sure. If you get the same result, then something is still wrong: either game still uses software 2D or Wine renders hardware 2D without AA (in this case that would be Wine bug).

[Antrix]

It works (for me, in this case)! http://imgur.com/PPqYSdA
Without FXAA, Kubuntu 16.04, Wine 1.8

What about warning - dev. warned me about it, it's normal thing. But some users may experience problem even with HR turned on. So, anyway, i'll report it tomorrow, when i try it on my home PC (right now i'm at my notebook, ASUS K56CB with Nvidia GT740M). Anyway, thank a lot for helping me with it and for i'm wasting your time.

[L. Rahyen]

Glad to hear it works for you. Anyway, HR did not cause actual problem for me, just did not render with AA, that's all. As far as I can tell there is no reason to forcefully disable 2D hardware renedering in current Wine.