[BBCF IMPROVEMENT MOD] (v3.03, updated 08/03/22)

[KoviDomi]

I am no longer working on the Improvement Mods. The mod has a new maintainer, head over to their new thread.

Original post:

Dont forget to join the BBCF Improvement Mod's discord server !
https://discord.gg/j2mCX9s

Originally this mod started as a performance fix in order to set back BBCF's minimum system requirements to the same level as BBCPEX has.

As time went on, it has further evolved, and by now it provides features such as:

• Unlocks the game's region restricted multiplayer
  
• Adds extra game modes
  
• Adds hitbox overlay
  
• Create and load custom palettes and effects without file modifications
  
• See each other's custom palettes in online matches
  
• Options to improve the performance of the game even further
  
• More flexibility to change the graphics options
  
• Change avatars and accessories in online rooms/lobbies without going back into menu
  
• Freely adjustable ingame currency value

REQUIREMENTS

• The game must be up-to-date
  
• A "thanks" in the comments (helps me stay motivated)

HOW TO INSTALL

1. Download and extract the latest BBCF_IM.zip
   
2. Put dinput8.dll and settings.ini into the game's folder (where BBCF.exe is located)
   (Should be at ..\Steam\SteamApps\common\BlazBlue Centralfiction)
   
3. Adjust the values in settings.ini as desired

UNINSTALL

Delete or rename dinput8.dll

The mod makes no permanent changes to anything.

HOW TO USE THE MOD'S OVERLAY

• By default the mod's main window can be toggled with the F1 key (can be changed in the settings.ini file).
  
• Double-click on title bar to collapse windows.
  
• Click and drag on any empty space to move the windows.
  
• Click and drag on lower right corner to resize the palette editor window (double-click to auto fit window to its contents).
  
• CTRL + Click on a slider or drag box to input value as text.
  
• Mouse wheel to scroll.

HOW TO START A CUSTOM GAME MODE

• The custom game mode selector can be accessed under the "Gameplay settings" section on the main window while you are on the character selection screen in the following modes: Training, Versus, Online.
  
• The custom game mode selector is also available in the Replay Theater menu screen, so replays saved after after custom game modes can be replayed. (If a custom game mode that the replay's match was not played on is selected then the replay will desync)
  
• Custom game modes can be played in online player rooms or lobbies with other Improvement Mod users as well. For this both player 1 and player 2 must select the same custom game mode while on the character selection screen. If the players have not settled on the same custom game mode, then it will default back to "Normal".

HOW TO ACCESS THE PALETTE EDITOR

• The palette editor's button can be accessed under the "Custom palettes" section on the main window while you are in a match in the following modes: Training, Versus.
  
• Custom palettes saved in the editor can be found at
  "..\BlazBlue Centralfiction\BBCF_IM\Palettes\"

HOW TO SWITCH BETWEEN CUSTOM PALETTES

• The palette switching buttons can be accessed under the "Custom palettes" section whenever you are in a match.
  
• In online matches you can only switch your own character's palette. (You can reset your opponent's palette with the button found next to the palette switching button).
  
• Using the "palettes.ini" file in the game's root folder you can assign custom palettes to the ingame palette slots.

HOW TO SET A CUSTOM PALETTE AS DEFAULT SO IT GETS AUTOMATICALLY SWITCHED TO UPON THE START OF A MATCH

• See "palettes.ini" file that you placed in the game's root folder.

HOW TO ACCESS THE HITBOX OVERLAY

• The hitbox overlay can be accessed under the "Hitbox overlay" section on the main window while you are in a match in the following modes: Training, Versus, Replay.

WHERE TO PLACE YOUR CUSTOM PALETTE FILES (.cfpl and .hpl files)

• The palette folders are created in the path "..\BlazBlue Centralfiction\BBCF_IM\Palettes\" upon the first launch of the mod.
  
• Place your .cfpl or .hpl files into the character's corresponding palette folder (at "..\BlazBlue Centralfiction\BBCF_IM\Palettes\") to have the mod automatically load them upon start, and making them selectable ingame via the mod's menu.

For legacy .hpl formats:

• Effect files for the .hpl format must end with the naming convention of "_effectXX.hpl". Where XX is the index of the effect file.
  (For example, if you have a custom palette file named "Nyx_Izanami.hpl", then in the same palette folder a file named "Nyx_Izanami_effect01.hpl" will be loaded as that palette's first effect, and a file named "Nyx_Izanami_effect06.hpl" will be loaded as sixth, etc.)
  
• A file created with its name ending with "_effectbloom.hpl" will turn on the bloom effect for that custom palette in the game. (Once activated, the bloom effect will keep the color it was first activated on, and can't be changed unless a new round is started)

KNOWN ISSUES

• Platinum keeps swapping between her default and the selected custom palette whenever she has her drive active. To prevent this, assign her custom palette in palettes.ini before the match starts, and do not switch it during match.
  
• Hitbox overlay is not aligned properly or is off-screen when the game's window resolution mismatches the rendering resolution. To prevent this, open up the settings.ini file, and set Viewport to 2, while setting the RenderingWidth and RenderingHeight to the resolution values you have in the ingame display options.

Please let me know if you notice any ingame issues caused by this mod, possibly with computer specifications, used settings, and screenshots included.

TROUBLESHOOTING

1. Make sure that your issue doesn't persist if you remove/rename dinput8.dll
   
   • If the issue still persists, then it has nothing to do with the mod.
   
   
2. The mod's UI is very small, unreadable:
   
   • This might happen if you run the game in windowed or full-window mode with a resolution that's higher than what your monitor supports.
     Try changing your display setting to fullscreen, or lowering the resolution ingame.
   
   
3. Blackscreen problem:
   
   • Make sure that RenderingWidth and RenderingHeight values in the .ini file are correctly set to the resolution of your game. If their values are higher than your monitor's native resolution, then you will get blackscreen.
   
   
4. If you just bought the game and get blackscreen even without using the mod:
   
   • Update your drivers.
   
   
5. Game crashes when launched:
   
   • Make sure that the settings.ini file is present in the game's folder.
     
   • Check if the problem still occurs after you remove, or rename dinput8.dll
     
   • Turn off tools such as MSI Afterburner, Plays.tv, or other recording softwares and overlays that manipulate D3D.
     
   • Make sure you are running both Steam and the game with administrator privileges, and remove any steam_appid.txt file if present in the game's directory.
     
   • Restore the default settings in the settings.ini file.
     
   • Reboot your system.
   
   
6. The mod's windows are off-screen or have disappeared:
   
   • Delete the "menus.ini" file found in the game's root folder to reset the positions of the mod's windows.

Keep in mind that the mod may partially, or completely stop working whenever a new official patch of the game is released.

CHANGELOG

11-01-2021 -- version 3.00
===============================
- Complete ground up rework of BBCFIM, online features are incompatible with previous versions
- Added hitbox overlay in Training, Versus, and Replay modes
- Added "palettes.ini" file for assigning custom palettes to the ingame palette slots
- Added Highlight mode in the palette editor, to make it easier to find the corresponding colors
- Added dinput dll chaining to settings.ini to use other dinput8.dll wrappers together with BBCFIM
- Added option to toggle the visibility of the ingame HUD
- Added "Online window" for BBCFIM detection and quick access to certain features in online games
- Added frame freezing option to the palette editor
- Added gradient generator to the palette editor
- Added color box indexing to the palette editor
- Enabled palette editor in Versus mode
- Palettes are now previewed when hovered over their selections
- Custom palettes now use a new CFPL file format (.hpl format is still supported)
- "Drag and drop" of the color boxes now work in the palette editor
- Players now send custom palettes and game mode requests to spectators as well
- All custom game modes are now playable in Training mode as well
- Custom game modes are applied on spectators as well in online matches
- Disabled stage selection slider in game modes other than online/training/versus
- Keyboard inputs are now not being passed to the game while any of BBCFIM's windows are focused
- BBCFIM windows are now hidden when the Steam overlay is active
- Detecting other BBCFIM players in online games is now consistent
- Players you play online games with are now added to Steam's "Recent games" list
- Removed palette placeholders in palette editor
- Fixed the game with BBCFIM not launching on Windows 10 in some cases
- Fixed the title of the main window being always visible
- Fixed online BBCFIM detection mistaking spectators as the opponent player
- Fixed Jubei's stage missing from BBCFIM's stage selection slider
- Fixed Steroid game mode starting a different game mode
- Fixed Vampire game mode's health draining not working when the timer is set to infinite in Versus mode

31-03-2018 -- version 2.06
===============================
- Added new custom game modes:
Five Punch Mode:
* Taking damage five times results in death, unless blocked with barrier
* Each round 50% of the Burst Gauge is regenerated
* Each round lasts 60 seconds
* This game mode is always 5 rounds
Tug of War Mode:
* Start with 50% HP
* All damages hurt/heal 10% HP, unless blocked with barrier
* Each round 50% of the Burst Gauge is regenerated
* Each round lasts 60 seconds
* This game mode is always 5 rounds
Infinite Heat Mode:
* Infinite Heat Gauge
- Added MenuSize option
- Added buttons for picking custom palettes randomly
- Added Stage select slider, now you can select any stages online
- Added "Show transparency values" checkbox on the palette editor
- Added "Save with bloom effect" tickbox to the "Character file" page in the palette editor
- Added logging to file
- Added Crash Dump generation on unhandled exceptions to track down crash causing bugs
- Custom palettes can now be placed in subfolders
- Custom game modes now can be applied on replays
- Transparency/Alpha values are now hidden by default on the palette editor
- Fixed receiving BBCFIM ID packets outside of the character selection screen
- Fixed some custom game mode modifications not resetting back to normal when gone back to the charselect screen without quitting to the main menu in offline modes
- Fixed spectators being able to switch the players' palettes
- Fixed crash when overwriting an existing palette file with upper-case/under-case differences in the palette editor

11-03-2018 -- version 2.05
===============================
- Fixed some players being unable the set their custom palettes in online matches

The entire history of the changelog can be found in the README file.

DOWNLOAD

Head over to the new thread.

[Averiff]

You should make this into a guide so it doesn't sink in the forums.

[Toxori]

OMG!!! you are a god =D ... still not 100% 60fps for me on REALLY laggy stages... but this is just amazing =D moders 1 devs 0 ... nice work =DD

[iED XR Max 128KG TNT]

Mods could pin this thread, It's useful for people with low-spec pcs

[Gekas]

Now it works at 60 frames. ty F*** YOU ANTI ALIASING!!!

mods pin this thread

[FlyingTorcensoredWhale]

Dude. I love you so much.

Mods, pin this thread

[Bby Picca]

Omg after using this mod my game is smoother than BBCPEX. Thank you so much. The tearing seems fixed too for me.

[AriShootingStar]

it fixes sprites too...

[AriShootingStar]

modder make game playable...again
Coz it fixes fps and sprites.
devs still cant

[NeoStrayCat]

Well damn, I'll take into a look at this, surprised to see results already from some people stating it works, heh. I wonder if you have to change back your settings from Nvidia/AMD to make it clearer now. Hmm...

[Toxori]

some buggs on using it i noticed .... it messes up text on making rooms and talking in game and looking at ranking as such ... but small price 2 pay for like the best thing ever

[spiric0m]

This is ridiculous. Random person's mod fixes the sprites, even though there are some small bugs. How comes it takes so long for a dev team to make a proper patch for that?

[NeoStrayCat]

Alright, so yeah, tried it out now, and it does indeed work, lol. Even setting perormance options in-game on/off still makes it a nice 60 FPS, lol. (Well, on my end, of course.)

[Roo]

>tfw
>game runs at 60FPS on Main Menu, Character Select, VS & Winning Screen now
>no blocky / pixel-ish Interface or Sprites

Good F****** Job


***EDIT***

I can Report 2 Bugs so far...

1- Bloom Effects looks like Character Select Palette Glitch from this Mod.

2-The Text on your Title / Quick MSG from your D-Card are way out of the Place

[Zel]

Mate, you just did God's work!

[azureice]

Great job with fixing sprite resolution!
But now suffers overall screen resolution on 1920x1080. It not just looks worse in menu, in battle it looks flatten (like it was in Calamity Trigger)