Friday, February 8, 2019

XCom 2 + War of the Chosen


2019-02-08 Update for War of the Chosen DLC







Ok, so I have to admit I'm a bit of a lazy person, especially when life starts getting difficult. I actually started working on an update to my XCom 2 fix for the War of the Chosen expansion over half a year ago. Unfortunately I never quite got it to the finished state that I had envisioned before I lost interest (in pretty much gaming entirely), and because of such I never posted any update on here (only provided a WIP version on the Geforce 3DVision forums). I still have not had time to take another look at this fix, but it had fixed about 90% of the broken effects, and gotten a few experimental features working fairly well, so I'm going to put my perfectionist ego aside for now to provide a link to that version on here, and hopefully in the near future I'll get back to completing this for a version 2.0 update.

In addition to adding compatibility for WotC, one of the biggest changes/additions to this fix is that I've set up some convergence and HUD depth presets that are automatically triggered based on what's happening on screen. Previously you would have to either play entirely with low convergence (to prevent your eyes from splitting when the camera would automatically change from isometric view to the targetting/action cam views), or you would have to change between various convergence settings manually, which due to the frequency thereof really detracted from the enjoyment of the game. Now all this happens automatically. Unfortunately this game did not make it easy for me to implement these features, so it's not entirely perfect in implementation in some cases and situations and also requires some additional work to setup properly (ie. need to run an Autohotkey script for the best effect), but I found that it made the game a much more seamless and enjoyable experience when it works (which should be most, if not all the time)


Instructions (see new features instructions in red below)

1. Download fix here: Version 1.9

2. a) Extract archive to game location that contains XCom2.exe, which is in the XCOM 2\XCom2-WarOfTheChosen\Binaries\Win64 folder for the expansion or \XCOM 2\Binaries\Win64\ folder for the base game

2. b) (Optional) Install Autohotkey (google for this) and run the MouseWheel.ahk script included within this fix. The script will rebind your mouse scroll wheel as the T and G keys on the keyboard, which are the default keys for zoom in and zoom out. It is best to have this script running (and to have the zoom in and out game bindings on the default T and G) in order to use my zoom convergence adjustment. Alternatively, you can just use the T and G keys on the keyboard, but it's not as good as using a mouse wheel.

3. Game settings: the only setting that's mandatory is to set AntiAliasing to FXAA or Disabled. I also highly recommend turning off Dirty Lens, which causes ugly lens flares. Remaining settings to taste and performance, some people have reported huge gains by lowering certain settings, so be sure to test with different settings if you're not getting a smooth experience.

4. Zoom convergence adjustment: In order for this to work best, any time you start taking your turn commanding your troops, first zoom all the way out until it stops zooming and until the convergence stops adjusting. Once you reach here, now the zoom and convergence will be in sync for the rest of the turn, and whenever you zoom in and out from here the convergence will match it to be the ideal convergence for that amount of zoom level (and look awesome). This also works and applies to the Avenger base view.


Known Issues:

-Reflections are unfixed
-Some lighting in underground/interior levels are off
-Gun flashlight reported broken by some users


Special Thanks to:
-3DMigoto team for all their hard work, of course!
-4EverAwake, whom started working on this game first, and provided me with his WIP to start with when he found out I was willing to work on this one
-Necropants for testing the fix and helping to locate additional broken effects
-The rest of the Geforce community for keeping me motivated to see this one through to completion


Like this fix? Fixes take a lot of time and effort, so donations are always welcome and appreciated!
Paypal: www.paypal.me/DShanz or send to rshannonca@gmail.com

52 comments:

  1. Awesome my brother. Been waiting on this like Crazy. DJ You are my best new friend :D

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    1. Great, always love to make new friends!

      Sorry to have kept you waiting so long, though. I actually had most of the stuff fixed back in around Feb or March, posted a beta fix back then in the Geforce forums, and then I kinda lost interest in the game (like I do with nearly all games). Unfortunately the rest of the stuff that needed to be fixed required me to play the game through to completion, so that took me months of playing/fixing this game on and off to get to the end (and I finally gave in and chose to cheat to rush through the last 3rd of it)... but, on the plus side, the finished product is a lot more polished that I had expected it to turn out, so I really think and hope you'll enjoy this!

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  2. BIG THANKS DJ-RK !!!

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  3. Thanks for this, I was following it closely at the gforce forums, although I never posted. I'm aboutt o finish XCOM:EW for the 4th time, and was waiting to play XCOM 2 until a 3d fix was around.

    Much appreciated!

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  4. Great Work!
    But one question. where can i find the XCOM2_profile.nip?
    Cause i cant find StereoFlagsDX10 setting in Profile Inspector XCOM2 profile.

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    1. It's one of the files included in the zip file for the fix.

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  5. Hi, is it possible to get checkerboard SBS/TAB output with this version of 3DMigoto for 3dTV Play?

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    1. Hi there. This is something that unfortunately would require quite a bit of work to do, due to the fact that I started this fix on a much earlier version of 3DMigoto before SBS/TAB was introduced, but besides that addition, the functionality of one of it's features that I heavily used for this fix had changed in the newer versions that have the SBS/TAB capabilities, so that would require me to go in and modify nearly each and every shader that I fixed (nearly 400 of them) to this newer format, just to be able to incorporate SBS/TAB. I'm not saying that I won't ever do it, but it's not something I can promise anytime particularly soon.

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    2. Hold that thought. I just checked the version history of 3DMigoto, and fortunately it looks like SBS/TAB was introduced before the other change I was referring to by about 2 versions, so I should be able to use one of those older versions to include SBS/TAB without breaking the fix. I'll look into that tomorrow.

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    3. Looks to me like this fix is using 1.2.31, which predates SBS by one version (1.2.32).

      Might be worth updating the dlls and .ini to the latest version, and include the HLSL files from ShaderFixes for the SBS function. There should be no functionality changes, and this update would only take half an hour or so.

      It looks to me like the resource buffer copying should still work, but that's probably the piece you are concerned about. Might be worth a quick try to see for sure.

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    4. 1.1 fix update is live to include SBS/TAB support. I've tested to confirm the fix works with regular 3DVision still, but not yet on SBS/TAB, so if anyone could test and confirm that would be great.

      @bo3b: Yeah, the main thing I was worried about was the change in 1.2.35 that changed the #include handling path. As you pointed out, I noticed that SBS/TAB was introduced in 1.2.32, so I went ahead and updated to 1.2.34. I thought I had remembered those changes being in the opposite order, which would have been a little bit of a pain to have to go into each shader to change the #include path format, but thankfully that wasn't the case.

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    5. DJ-RK, thanks for the fix! I will test it on my 3DTV play projector and let you know.

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    6. Wow. This is a really effective piece of work. I really appreciate this. Where can I send a donation?

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    7. Glad you've gotten to enjoy this. This fix in particular took a long time due to the overall length of the game and number of broken effects, so the more people that play it makes it all the more worthwhile! I accept donations at Paypal: www.paypal.me/DShanz or by sending to rshannonca@gmail.com. Cheers.

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  6. Thanks again for looking into this. I selected the checkerboard option in control panel, copied all the files, uncommented the necessary line under "present". The game loads and I can turn on 3d (since it gets blurry). But the F11 button (to cycle sbs/tab modes) makes the game somehow go back to desktop or sthg (the projector blinks, tells me to wait and comes back to the game - the slow way it usually does). But the mouse cursor goes back to the desktop version (not the game version) and no longer responds. I can exit the game using the keyboard buttons.
    The game works find at regular 3DTV play setting of 1080p@24hz (including the different presents using CAPS lock).

    On the same projector and drivers (368.81) I am able to play Far Cry 4 and Fallout 4 using TAB/SBS mode.
    Sorry for my unprofessional and long descriptions but I am very new to this, just bought 3DTVPlay for this TAB/SBS mode and some games that are not available on Tridef (since it appears to have died).

    This mode works great with a native 1080p projector because 720p@60hz just makes the image much smaller and much more constricted somehow (apart from the apparent quality loss). The projector seems to just adjust its entire screen as if it becomes a 720p monitor with a smaller diagonal (instead of stretching the image).

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    1. I'm pretty sure I've implemented the SBS/TAB correctly, so only suggestion I can make is to try manually changing the x7 constant in the beginning of the d3dx.ini file to whatever format you want to use, rather than using the F11 cycle key.

      Unfortunately I cannot test this at all, my projector does not have checkerboard support, so I can't even select that option in the Nvidia control panel, it appears, but anytime I select it and hit apply it just goes back to 3D TV Play. I wonder if I can find an EDID somewhere that might help with that.

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    2. Also check if the F11 is used by something else, maybe the game. You can change the key used in d3dx.ini to anything for experiments. Having it start in the mode you want is the best bet though. It seems like it's making it change, it's just crashing or hanging or something.

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  7. Thanks for your replies, guys.

    How do you change the key? Is it in the constants area where it says "= F11"? I tried changing that to "= F9" and just the letter "p". Also is there any way I can make it so it goes straight into TAB reversed without cycling? I will try again when I get home tonight.

    DJ-RK, that's strange, I don't have checkerboard support on my projector either but the option works; the projector just blinks and the option is selected.

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    1. Also does this fix work with mods like the alien pack by long war studios?

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    2. "...is there any way I can make it so it goes straight into TAB reversed without cycling?"

      Yes, by changing the x7 = 0 to x7 = 5 in the constants section near the top.

      As for the fix working with mods/DLC's, I can't say for certain because I only played vanilla (with a couple extra mods to help me get through the game a little quicker/easier). I would say most mods should work fine, but DLC's I can't say. Odds are if there's anything that will add new game assets, then there will almost certainly be some minor broken effects (since nearly everything else in the game had at least something broken), but I hardly doubt it'll make it unplayable.

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    3. I tried x7 = 5 in the [constants] section but it did not seem to work. Also pressing F11 even once seems to permanently mess up the game (including regular 3dTVPlay as it appears to toggle resolutions and once the resolution changes, the mouse changes from the game pointer to desktop pointer and the keyboard does not react) until the fix is uninstalled and reinstalled again and the game's resolution is changed to normal with 3d disabled).
      I also tried fallout 4 (with 3dmigoto 1.2.42 - probably the wrong one anyway - but it works) with the same x7 = 5 command and it works - when I press ctrl + T to turn on 3d, it immediately comes on as TAB. Couldn't figure out how to do this with Far Cry 4 as the ini file was kind of a mess when opened with notepad (for people with not as good in logic as me)

      Also tried (not sure if it was right): [KeyChange3DVision2SBSOutputMode]
      key = F6
      but there's no response
      F11 seems to toggle different

      Meanwhile, regular 3dTV Play without checkerboard works fine.

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    4. Sorry mate, I hate to break it to you, but I've done lots of testing tonight which has brought me to the conclusion that SBS/TAB is not supported for this game. :(

      I figured out my issue with the whole checkerboard option not being set, which finally let me then get to do actual testing. From there, I'll spare you the details, but nothing I tried would get the game to switch over to SBS/TAB, meanwhile I went ahead an updated my fix for Street Fighter V, which previously did not have SBS/TAB support, and had no problems whatsoever getting it working there, which helped confirm my suspicion that for some odd reason, it's just this game that is blocking it.

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    5. DJ-RK, no problem and thank you so much for looking into this! I hope other modders will follow your suit and update their 3DMigoto fixes with TAB/SBS support when possible. Hopefully, this will win over crowds of people, especially those who have Nnvidia cards with projectors/TVs and who have been very unhappy with Tridef's lack of support or further tools for modding as well as 3dTv play's 1080p@24hz and 720p@60hz limitations. I will try to promote this solution and your games wherever I can on the different forums.
      Meanwhile, I tried your fix on my passive 27in LG monitor (with the Zalman EDID) - couldn't be more perfect and works with all the DLC as well - one mission so far but it was a great experience! And who would have thought that it would be possible to cycle through the different views! As it is a strategy game, 27in would be the better options anyway. Will check out Street Fighter V too when its on sale.

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  8. Just a note to everyone. I turns out that I forgot to enable a feature in 3DMigoto that helps increase performance and reduce large FPS drops (explosions, action cam). I intend on updating the fix to version 1.2 (in fact, I already have), but I currently am unable to login to the server to upload the file, so for the time being anyone on version 1.1 or lower can enable this feature themselves simply by editing the d3dx.ini file, and changing the option "cache_shaders = 0" to = 1.

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  9. SO GREAT JOB!!!
    Really Nice!!
    I don t speak english very well, but i would to say you with lot of ways, how i find you did a great great job!!
    Thank you!

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  10. The fix still works as of March 2018 for the base game. Unfortunately, it does not work for the "War of the Chosen" expansion, the shadows are off and there's some haloes.

    Any chances we'll see an update for this? In either case, thanks for your work.

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    1. Actually yes, I do plan on eventually coming back and updating the fix for the DLC. Can't give an ETA because a) I'm working on a couple other fixes at the moment, and b) the base game is on a shared account (not my own) and I'm waiting for us to procure a copy of the DLC on that account.

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    2. What's your steam account? I could gift you the game if that would make the release faster.

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    3. If you contact Pirateguybrush on the Geforce forums, then you can coordinate with him as he is effectively the administrator of the shared accounts. Since we already have the base game obtained there, it would make more sense to go that route than having to repurchase it along with the DLC to provide it for my personal Steam account.

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    4. Hey DJ-RK, any luck on checking out WOTC yet? :)

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  11. Ill have a look @ the DLC ... this is oth to have because its inoffically called Xcom 3 ^^

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    1. Ummm hey, I recently specifically requested to get the DLC for the shared shaderhackers account because I intend on looking at this myself next when I finish up on Final Fantasy XV, and no offense but I kinda didn't feel like we had a good working dynamic together on KDC so I'd rather it simply be left to me rather than another joint project. Good luck on whatever future fixes you plan on working on though.

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  12. Donating to you for this awesome fix for the awesome xcom 2 game. Thank you.

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  13. Damn, I bought WOTC without even thinking it wouldn't work. The original game looks fantastic with this, hopefully one day we will see a fix. I know I have no interest in playing it in 2d after this :)

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    1. Well, luckily for you then I just so happened to start making a fix for WotC a while back. Never quite got to finishing it 100%, and my gaming and fixing time has been extremely limited, but it's quite playable. In fact, I tried adding a whole bunch of new features to make it much more seamless to play, which I think were great additions, but some people have found the changes less exciting and preferred having a bit more manual control over the aspects that I've automated. Anyways, I'd need to do a whole new writeup for that, which I've already done over on the GeForce forums, so here's a couple links to get you going.

      Link to the WotC fix: http://www.mediafire.com/file/udr50qdwndhw136/XCom2_WoC_WIPv4.zip/file
      Link to the GeForce forum topic with details and instructions: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/914700/3d-vision/xcom-2/post/5346119/#5346119

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  14. Great work! I sent some money, hopefully others did the same. I assume you spent a lot of time on that!

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  15. Managed to get this fix to work, but convergence seems to be off, and the left eye has some rendering issues. Not sure how much work it would be to get it going again?

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    1. I'm not certain if War of the Chosen changes the fix, but I just tested the base XCom 2, and it was working correctly here. Driver 452.06, Win10 2004.

      Your installation sounds broken somehow, it's really rare to have only single eye issues. Try doing a DDU reinstall of the driver.

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  16. My WOTC executable is in to a different directory to the base game. Ensure you've extracted the fix to the correct folder.

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  17. WOTC is basically XCOM 2.5 as far as I can tell, so might be some pretty significant changes.

    Did a clean install of the 425 drivers, but perhaps 452 would work better? I've been using the 3d fix manager, but I could try doing it manually to the WOTC directory as @djgrege suggests.

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    1. If using 3DFM, edit the profile and and ensure you're pointing to the right directory. If I recall, I was also using 3DFM, and the default didn't point to the WOTC sub-directory.

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  18. Well, since there's been a few people commenting here recently allow me to announce I have a whole new fix already well in the works (about 80-90% completion) for X-Com 2 / WotC & also for the standalone game X-Com: Chimera Squad.

    I actually paused development on these about 2 weeks ago to work on another (much needed) rework project on another game that is at about 99% completion. I honestly thought that one would only be about a day or two's work, and instead I've been working non-stop on it since I started. On the bright side, I've got something extra nice cooking up in that project that I hopefully can transfer over and use to achieve my true vision for these X-Com fixes as well.

    So I know I've said it before here (and it's taken me months instead of days), but uhhhh, stay tuned guys. I got some good stuff coming down the pipeline soon for reals!

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    1. Great news! Once the new Long War mod for WOTC is finalized it's going to be epic to replay this.

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  19. Managed to get it to work with the 425 drivers, WOTC just crashes when I try to use 452. The problem was that the 3d Fix Manager only installed the fix in the base game directory, you have to manually install it to the WOTC directory as well.

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  20. Has anyone tried if you can get SBS working with new geo-11 3d driver?

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  21. Works great, TY! Please note that the hacking action seems to go off-screen. I zoomed out as instructed but it didnt help.

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    1. Same anon, if you have this problem, simply press the action key (space bar for me) even if you dont see the "hacking" screen. Its just a button press.

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