Tales of Symphonia HD+40FPS+StutterFix Mod - 2016-02-04

[Crache]

NOTE: This mod has a few issues which Kaldaien's TSFix corrects along with its many other features. So if you just want stutter free 40fps, you can configure TSFix to do that. While this mod includes some specific visual improvements by default which TSFix does not, you can use them both simultaneously with some modifications to the GeDoSaTo settings.

You can read more information about that by visiting the Known Issues section of Kaldaien's TSFix installation guide here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=618359790

Old intro:

Thanks to Durante for adding Tales of Symphonia support to GeDoSaTo, I was able to put together a config and some screenshots. If you'd like to donate to Durante, you can do so here: Donate[www.paypal.com]

If you are curious about the viability of a full 60FPS mod, Kaldaien worked around Symphonia's protection system to allow for runtime modding which he's using to implement some fixes, though to make fixes to game systems would require being able to debug the game which the protection still hinders: TSFix.

Additionally, if you played the original GameCube version and are wondering if the Steam version is worth a go, refer to this comparison thread: PC / GameCube comparison

Update 2016-02-04:

• Melly experimented and noticed that running the game in Windows XP SP3 compatability mode causes the game to run at 40FPS for many people. So if you'd like to test that, you can scroll down to the 40FPS / Stutter fix section. Might not work for everyone.
  
  
• I put the fpsLimit option in the GeDoSaTo Tales of Symphonia settings profile, so if you want to lock the framerate to 30 (as the game runs slightly faster at 40fps, which not everyone might prefer), you can do so from there. This also has the benefit of the game running at a solid 30FPS instead of at 28-29.
  
  
• Durante also added an option to make the character outlines black like the original GameCube version, so this is updated to enable that by default. If you'd like to disable that, you can refer to instructions at the bottom of this post.
  
  
• Added several more potential instructions in the crashing section for people who are having trouble getting it to work.

Update 2016-02-03:

• Durante fixed an issue where the game's own post-processing was operating at a lower resolution which was causing edge artifacts. So I've included that update in this.
  
  
• TrowGundam reminded me to add Anisotropic Filtering, which you'll notice as the flooring near the back of the classroom looks much less blurry. If you already had anisotropic filtering forced in your driver's global settings, you won't notice a difference.
  
  
• I wasn't happy with the edge details in many of the textures and didn't feel LumaSharpen was really offering much in this case. So I removed LumaSharpen and tweaked an edge stroking shader until it looked good.
  
  
• Updated the screenshots to show these new changes and included before and after images.

Features:

• 4K downsampled to 1080p (defaults to native resolution).
  
• Ultra quality FXAA cleans up remaining text aliasing (SMAA didn't do as well).
  
• Edge detail emphasis, making some details sharper and others stand out more.
  
• Debanding to lessen texture compression details and cinematic video artifacts.
  
• Slight color balancing.
  
• Black character outlines like the original GameCube release. (Not shown in the screenshots)

Screenshots

Latest:

• https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6qSRWcJ4yUMVnNjWGF1cUpBQ0U?resourcekey=0-utPAWrQefFTfDJibpcBJow&usp=drive_link

2016-02-02 version:

• https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6qSRWcJ4yUMVXA2THlUUFBOWnc?resourcekey=0-3siUf01YoaXG6m1nSW9bFA&usp=drive_link

Download

Latest:

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6qSRWcJ4yUMUERpWGhfZDRwV3M/view?usp=drive_link&resourcekey=0-PaacG6wDUWtNt6VAwZq3Xw

Latest - Without Black Outlines (if you prefer):

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6qSRWcJ4yUMWHJCZFNMNDd1UWM/view?usp=drive_link&resourcekey=0-_2ryWkPK6iJzorMxHb2RtA

2016-02-03 version:

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6qSRWcJ4yUMU0t6Xy1lTUNkejg/view?usp=drive_link&resourcekey=0-HSVrcUw-DNvOHVWNwVnlPQ

2016-02-02 version:

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6qSRWcJ4yUMQ3lKYzk4Yzl2alU/view?usp=drive_link&resourcekey=0-b9SFTbzlcVDHbGtSyowU2g

Installation

• Download the zip file.
  
  
• Extract it anywhere on your C: drive. For some reason a few people are having issues with using it on other drives. No idea, it works perfectly for me on my D: drive, so if you prefer it there you can try it there first and if you run into problems, move it to C:.
  
  
• Run GeDoSaToTool.exe as administrator. You need this to be running any time you play Tales of Symphonia.
  
  
• Right click on Tales of Symphonia in your Steam library and click Properties.
  
  
• Select the Local Files tab, click Browse Local Files.
  
  
• Edit CustomConfig.conf and change the resolution to 1280x720. You can optionally set fullscreen=0 instead of 1, to run it in windowed mode. Windowed mode has been much more reliable for me.
  
  
• Launch Tales of Symphonia. The anti-tamper stuff can make it a bit flakey, so even I have had to try to start Symphonia two to three times before it would actually launch, but it's beautiful once it does.

If you intend to use this along with TSFix

You'll want to do some extra configuring to avoid issues, as TSFix includes some GeDoSaTo features:

• http://steamcommunity.com/app/372360/discussions/0/412446292759260120/#c412446890546016733

40FPS / Stutter fix

• Right click on Tales of Symphonia in your Steam library and click Properties.
  
  
• Go to the Local Files tab and click Browse Local Files.
  
  
• Right click on TOS.exe and click Properties.
  
  
• Set the compatability mode to Windows XP SP3.
  
  
• If it does run at 40FPS for you, the game will be running faster too. If you prefer to run the game at 30FPS, you can lock it to 30 and the benefit is that you should get a solid 30FPS instead of the 28-29FPS you were getting before. This might fix the stuttering some people were experiencing.
  
  
  • In GeDoSaTo, click the Edit Settings button.
    
    
  • At the bottom left, select the Symphonia profile from the dropdown menu.
    
    
  • Locate the line that says "#fpsLimit 30" and remove the #.
    
    
  • Click the Save button.

Crashing / Not running?

• First make sure Tales of Symphonia doesn't crash even when you don't have GeDoSaTo running.
  
  
• Try setting both GeDoSaTo and Tales of Symphonia both to a Windows XP SP3 compatability mode by right clicking on them and changing this in their Properties dialog. However, it works fine for me with only Tales of Symphonia in compatability mode.
  
  
• Try moving your GeDoSaTo directory to somewhere on your C: drive. People have reported this fixed it for them.
  
  
• Make sure you have the 2015 VC++ redistributable dependency installed, which you can get from Microsoft here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145
  
  
• Try editing the game config file again and set fullscreen=0, so it runs in windowed mode.
  
  
• If you need to switch to borderless windowed mode, you can use tools like Borderless Gaming and ShiftWindow to force it. If you are running Tales of Symphonia in Windows XP SP3 compatability mode, you'll want to use ShiftWindow and set it to the same compatability mode. Do keep in mind that forcing the game into borderless windowed mode might crash at the main menu, but it seemed to work fine either in-game or during an intro cinematic.
  
  
• Can't hurt to also try some of the suggestions on the Symphonia troubleshooting thread just to rule them out in your case.
  
  • http://steamcommunity.com/app/372360/discussions/0/458607699624548776/

Change downsampling resolution or character outlines:

If 4K res is too demanding for your hardware, you can lower it as needed:

• In GeDoSaTo, click the Edit Settings button.
  
  
• At the bottom left, select the Symphonia profile from the dropdown menu.
  
  
• Change the "renderResolution 3840x2160@60" line to be whatever resolution you want to use.
  
  
• Click the Save button.

If you prefer faded character outlines instead of black:

• In GeDoSaTo, click the Edit Settings button.
  
  
• At the bottom left, select the Symphonia profile from the dropdown menu.
  
  
• Find the line that says "symphoniaBlackOutlines true" and add a # in front of it.
  
  
• Click the Save button.

[TrowGundam]

If you are going to provide links, it would be better to provide a link to the official blog post: http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/?p=824

[Crache]

Originally posted by TrowGundam:

If you are going to provide links, it would be better to provide a link to the official blog post: http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/?p=824

That is indeed where you can get GeDoSaTo, but it's not configured by default to do this. A lot of people aren't familiar with it and find it confusing.

This is a pre-configured setup ready to drop-in and go.

[TrowGundam]

Ahh didn't realize that, my bad. Maybe provide just the config in the files and let them unzip it to the same folder. Also the settings should be placed into the GeDoSato_user.ini for Symphonia to prevent it from being overriden by updates (more of which I'd bet are coming).

[AVFCThomas]

Done all this but booting the game with this active its just refuses to open

[TrowGundam]

Also, I was getting some weird results using "forceBorderlessFullscreen true" earlier. I end up having to disable it.

AVFCTH0MAS, some over on the Neogaf thread were having the same issue. They needed to disable GeDoSaTo (hit deactivate), and then start up the game. Go put it into fullscreen and then exit. Then it would run with GeDoSaTo active again.

[Crache]

Originally posted by TrowGundam:

Ahh didn't realize that, my bad. Maybe provide just the config in the files and let them unzip it to the same folder. Also the settings should be placed into the GeDoSato_user.ini for Symphonia to prevent it from being overriden by updates (more of which I'd bet are coming).

It already is all in user profile configs. It won't be overwritten. You could download the file you're commenting on and you'd notice all of these things you're complaining about are already done. :P

Providing just the configs is a bigger hassle than just providing a ready-to-go setup. The majority of all people will not already have GDST installed, so this should be simpler.

[Gojeran]

Is there a way to make it downsample to 1440p? Or does it auto downsample to my desktop setting?

[Crache]

Originally posted by TrowGundam:

Also, I was getting some weird results using "forceBorderlessFullscreen true" earlier. I end up having to disable it.

AVFCTH0MAS, some over on the Neogaf thread were having the same issue. They needed to disable GeDoSaTo (hit deactivate), and then start up the game. Go put it into fullscreen and then exit. Then it would run with GeDoSaTo active again.

It can definitely be quirky. I actually left forceBorderlessFullscreen in on accident. It never did anything for me either, so I've been using ShiftWindow instead.

[emwe]

Looks good, except some shadows which look weird, but maybe it was always there and I never really noticed it in the GC version

[Crache]

Originally posted by Gojeran:

Is there a way to make it downsample to 1440p? Or does it auto downsample to my desktop setting?

By default it should automatically downsample to your native res.

[Gojeran]

Originally posted by Crache:

Originally posted by Gojeran:

Is there a way to make it downsample to 1440p? Or does it auto downsample to my desktop setting?

By default it should automatically downsample to your native res.

Ah I see. Thank you very much :)

[TrowGundam]

Originally posted by Crache:

Originally posted by TrowGundam:

Ahh didn't realize that, my bad. Maybe provide just the config in the files and let them unzip it to the same folder. Also the settings should be placed into the GeDoSato_user.ini for Symphonia to prevent it from being overriden by updates (more of which I'd bet are coming).

It already is all in user profile configs. It won't be overwritten. You could download the file you're commenting on and you'd notice all of these things you're complaining about are already done. :P

Providing just the configs is a bigger hassle than just providing a ready-to-go setup. The majority of all people will not already have GDST installed, so this should be simpler.

I did download it, to see how you were going about doing the debanding, as it is something I've never setup before. You are however putting everything inside the "GeDoSaTo.ini" file. This is the default setting file and gets overwritten when updates are done. This is why configuration is recommended to be done in the "GeDoSaTo_user.ini" as it persists through updates. Here is a screen shot of my Tales of Zestiria config folder (where I've setup the GeDoSaTo_user.ini) and the Symphonia config folder from your zip: http://imgur.com/NfpBxwd

[arbyD]

For the custom resolution setting, you said BLANKxBLANK@60...

Is the 60 there setting a FPS cap at 60? I didn't see in the notes on the fix that it altered the cap but wasn't sure if that was an added benefit.

Sorry I'm unable to DL the mod itself to check at the moment, won't be able to til tomorrow or the next day or else I'd check it myself. Thanks!

[NikkiQuick]

this is very nice.

[NikkiQuick]

Originally posted by arbyD:

For the custom resolution setting, you said BLANKxBLANK@60...

Is the 60 there setting a FPS cap at 60? I didn't see in the notes on the fix that it altered the cap but wasn't sure if that was an added benefit.

Sorry I'm unable to DL the mod itself to check at the moment, won't be able to til tomorrow or the next day or else I'd check it myself. Thanks!

its a monitor refresh setting not fps