[mod] SSF: HDR post processing mod

[Captain Potato]

First of all I want to say that I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, so please let me know if that's not the case or if I'm going against some kind of rules.

Anyway, I've been working on (or more fittingly "playing around with") an experimental Serious Sam Fusion graphics mod for the last 2 weeks and I thought I'd share some early info about it here. There already is a moddb.com page about it (moddb. com/mods/ssf-hdr-postprocessing-mod (remove the space)) but I'm not sure if the people who play SSF are looking for mods outside of steam or the steam workshop.

It's main purpose is to overhaul / extend the existing HDR effects used in SSF (mainly: proper tonemapping & better bloom) to give it more modern and appealing visuals. However, I'm pretty sure I can't create a workshop entry for it since it doesn't rely on the official modding support at all (which is why I'm posting here).

If you want to read more about it you can check out the moddb page I mentioned above.

However, right now there's no public version out* because there are still some problems that need to be fixed. (*except for a really early one that's not working with the current patch anymore)

Sooo, maybe some of you guys might be interested in it, that's all.

Cheers, Cpt. Potato

[KonoDimaDa!]

Your link is deleted. I found it, looks ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amazing, but my computer is crap.

[Captain Potato]

well, it shouldn't be THAT much more taxing on hardware. I can try to make some performance comparisons at some point

[MASTAN]

To post link put space(s) in it. One inside It won't be clickable of course, but can be easily assembled. It's the usual way here in Steam discussions. Like this:
http://www.mod db.com/mods/ssf-hdr-postprocessing-mod

And sometimes people post links through pastebin.com.

[Captain Potato]

@MASTAN thanks, fixed it

[Terepin]

One must wonder why the hell this wasn't done by Croteam already. Then again, the same team have no problem putting static wallpapers into their games. Don't get me wrong, I still love them and will support them by buying their games, but some of their decisions are simply stupid as f*ck.

[KonoDimaDa!]

Originally posted by Terepin:

One must wonder why the hell this wasn't done by Croteam already. Then again, the same team have no problem putting static wallpapers into their games. Don't get me wrong, I still love them and will support them by buying their games, but some of their decisions are simply stupid as f*ck.

Agree.

[Terepin]

One of the downsides is that the game wasn't designed with more responsive HDR effects like this in mind, so some objects or textures have less then optimal brightness levels or colors: causing either too intense highlights or not being visible enough.

Modern graphics in modern games, ladies and gentlemen.

[Captain Potato]

Originally posted by Terepin:

One of the downsides is that the game wasn't designed with more responsive HDR effects like this in mind, so some objects or textures have less then optimal brightness levels or colors: causing either too intense highlights or not being visible enough.

Modern graphics in modern games, ladies and gentlemen.

In their defense: the Serious Sam HD remakes are already a few years old and with the effects that the game has been using since then, these downsides were neither really visible nor a problem at all.

[Seriously Stupid]

dis is coo

keep us posted, I'd love to try this out sometime!

[Asdolg]

Sounds awesome, but it's difficult to really know what the effect of the mod is.
My advice to you is to post comparasion screenshots, like, how the same landscape looks with and without the mod.

[Terepin]

Originally posted by Captain Potato:

Originally posted by Terepin:

Modern graphics in modern games, ladies and gentlemen.

In their defense: the Serious Sam HD remakes are already a few years old and with the effects that the game has been using since then, these downsides were neither really visible nor a problem at all.

I can barely accept that in HD, I cannot accept it in SS3.

[Captain Potato]

Originally posted by Seriously Stupid:

dis is coo

keep us posted, I'd love to try this out sometime!

will do. if things go smoothly (and if I can get my lazy a** to work on it) I might release another test version within the next few days.

[Captain Potato]

Originally posted by Пыль:

Sounds awesome, but it's difficult to really know what the effect of the mod is.
My advice to you is to post comparasion screenshots, like, how the same landscape looks with and without the mod.

It's a bit hard to do comparisons. I personally think it changes the look a LOT (hopefully for the better, lol). But whenever I try to make some comparison screenshots it feels like the don't really convey the difference well enough. Maybe I'll give it another try, though.

Also, the oldest images on the moddb page are actually comparisons (even though they're not too great). One thing to note is that they're mock-ups: raw images that were ripped from and processed outside of the game. However, in it's current version the mod contains all of the effects I used there, so they theoretically show the current look.

Edit: oh and there's a rough run through all the features that are used, aswell as what they do in the mod's description on moddb.

Edit 2: maybe I'll write an article at some point that explains all the used effects in a bit more detail with a comparison screenshot for each of them

[Soulmyr]

Interesting

Once you've completed it, do you plan to upload it here?

[The Grongle]

Its quite sad when i can recreate the effects of the tonemapper even better with just the brightness and contrast in game.

I know this was 2011 tech here but come the hell on. Crysis already perfected things like tonemapping and hdr 4 years prior. They had time I mean they did boast to hell about the tech ss3 has. Yet in meany ways it was so far behind other games in anything other than raw photorealism which kinda kicked the game in the nuts becuase now it looks bland and unrealistic.