Final Fantasy XI HD Overhaul

[Nebula]

Hello, I am the author of the Final Fantasy XI HD Overhaul. You can find more on my work by searching for that channel name on YouTube. I'm curious to know if a Special K mod tailored for this game specifically could help not only the players with compatibility issues, but also allow me to introduce graphical features or improvements previously not possible. In general, I'm interested in solving issues related to laptops with integrated graphics cards, memory issues related to upgraded textures, and if it is possible to introduce new or upgraded shaders into the game using Special K as the framework. My background is almost entirely based around Visual FX and Animation, so please forgive my ignorance surrounding the topic of programming. I would really appreciate a response from Kaldaien or anyone else familiar with Special K and programming in general. Thank you!

[Aemony]

From my understanding FFXI is a D3D8 game, meaning Special K requires the use of dgVoodoo to convert the D3D8 calls to D3D11 which Special K then will be able to modify and tweak.

How much benefit you'll get from that is impossible to say, but it could allow Special K's built-in texture cache feature to function, which could've at least helped in some ways (possibly) with upgraded textures.

As for new shaders, that's possible using Special K's custom variant of ReShade, although I do not know how powerful Kaldaien have actually made it. You have the option to disable built-in shaders of the game, as well as trigger ReShade custom shaders at a certain point in the render chain which allows the shaders to be applied before HUD/UI is drawn. I don't think that it supports e.g. separating custom shaders and draw them at different points, if that's what you're after (e.g. draw custom shader A before built-in shader B, then draw custom shader C before built-in shader D).

If the game doesn't include any form of anti-cheat protection (which typically have an issue with Special K and might ban players for using it) then I'd say it's worth a shot throwing dgVoodoo and Special K unto the game and see what happens and what functionality is usable.

[Nebula]

Hi Aemony, thanks for the reply!

You're definitely correct - though I have tested two variations on a proxy between D3D8 to higher versions with FFXI specifically. Currently, I favor Crosire's D3D8 -> D3D9 Proxy DLL (available directly from ReShade.me) as it is much easier for players to setup. dgVoodoo requires a lot more configuration and tweaking, though if that were the only solution for a possible Special K patch, I would certainly be open to that.

To date, I have managed to get the Special K Global Injector working by using the D3D9 Proxy DLL mentioned above. Everything seems to be available and I can scrub through the Shaders and Vertex Buffer, identifying specific assets. I have yet to test it using dgVoodoo specifically, but I would imagine that should work as well. If you or anyone else has any specific questions about what's actually functioning in Special K within FFXI, I would be happy to test it out if it meant getting closer to someone taking an interest in the project.

As for Anti-cheat protection, I don't believe so as it's a pretty old game. If that is not the case, however, I would be happy to label such a patch for Private servers only (Darkstar). If you've looked at my Overhaul project, my aim is to keep the whole thing legit (ie, not to facilitate cheating) as it is specifically a graphical enhancement project.

If any kind of Shader enhancements or additions are possible I would **absolutely love** to pursue that. I'm not sure what's within the scope of Special K and what's not, but any improvements would be greatly appreciated.

Finally, I fully understand that this is an older game but it still contains a strong and vibrant player community. Considering there is absolutely no chance at all Square Enix will ever enhance this game on their own, I'm hoping others in the community will consider donating their time as I have.

Cheers!

[Kaldaien]

Special K has dgVoodoo integration. You just need to put the appropriate DLLs in the plug-ins directory and then SK can be loaded as d3d8.dll.

[Nebula]

Hi Kaldaien, thank you for jumping in.

I have now tested Special K with dgVoodoo 2, downloaded directly from your Gitlab (PlugIns_x86.7z) and can confirm this works as well. The Special K interface is available while in-game, as is the dgVoodoo logo.

The Special K Active Render API is showing as D3D8 --> 11 (32 bit), as expected. Interestingly enough, I no longer see anything showing up in the D3D11 Render Mod Toolkit. Live Shader View is showing a vertex, raster and pixel count, but Live Memory View, Live Texture View and Live RenderTarget view are showing as blank.