Draw Dist

[Moogie]

Hello! Hope this post works, as the forum is refusing to send the email verification code.

I'm patching out LOD/draw distance limitations. Decent success so far, but I'm stumped on the final hurdle.

I've managed to make the following edits:

-Unlimited zoom (to the skybox, at least)
-Full LOD on all objects at any distance, including people and creatures
-Certain buildings/forests stay visible at medium distance rather than disappearing
-No gradual transparency fade of distant objects--they're either visible, or they're not
-No "darkening to black" of distant objects

It looks pretty good already, but things still disappear at a certain distance away, and every object treats this differently. For instance, sheep disappear SUPER quick when you pull back, whereas trees stay visible for a very long time. They all seem to be comparing against the ESI register, but I have to admit, I'm just an enthusiastic beginner to hacking and my fumbling attempts have not gotten to the bottom of this yet.

I want to make everything -- including villagers -- remain visible, no matter how far out you zoom. I know some people here have made attempts at this in the past, but all the threads are old, links are dead, and information is scant. I'm posting in the hopes that someone might still be around to help out or give me some pointers (no pun intended) so that I might make and upload my own patch for y'all.

Here's some comparison shots:
Unpatched
Patched

In a gif for easier viewing

[.]

The post works, but can you explain more about the problem with the forum refusing to send the email verification code?

I know some people here have made attempts at this in the past, but all the threads are old, links are dead, and information is scant.

Not just attempts, both I and Kratzean succeeded.

http://bawsite.com/forum/showthread.php?...d=18#pid18
http://bawsite.com/forum/showthread.php?...d=38#pid38
You can see the the results here.

Which links are dead?

There isn't much information released about this, you probably can find all of the released information about this in that thread.

-Unlimited zoom (to the skybox, at least)
-Full LOD on all objects at any distance, including people and creatures
-Certain buildings/forests stay visible at medium distance rather than disappearing
-No gradual transparency fade of distant objects--they're either visible, or they're not
-No "darkening to black" of distant objects

You listed several separate changes and they aren't enough, but from what I remember I changed less than 10 bytes to do this, and Kratzean changed even less than I did.

I didn't bother making the zoom unlimited, though.

[Moogie]

Yes I've seen those threads, unfortunately they don't give any specific information/offsets regarding draw distance. The dead links are Kratzean's Genesis mod.

The bytes I've changed so far amount to 8 bytes across three separate offsets: NOPing the instructions at ###### and ######, and then changing the value at ###### from ## ## ## ## to ## ## ## ##

[Kratzean]

Sorry! I have much different versions of the Genesismod and at next I want to upload a newer version, also with an installer, which make it some easier.

[.]

http://bawsite.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=47

The last link to Genesismod in the first post is not dead.

There are no offsets listed in that thread, but that doesn't mean that I and Kratzean haven't succeeded to increase the draw distance. They weren't only attempts.

I edited your message to hide those values for the same reason I haven't released the values I found.
You can send such values in private messages in the future.

From what I have seen in your values, though, you use 1.20. You should be using 1.30.

I am going to send you a private message with a hint.

[Moogie]

http://bawsite.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=47

The last link to Genesismod in the first post is not dead.

There are no offsets listed in that thread, but that doesn't mean that I and Kratzean haven't succeeded to increase the draw distance. They weren't only attempts.

I edited your message to hide those values for the same reason I haven't released the values I found.
You can send such values in private messages in the future.

From what I have seen in your values, though, you use 1.20. You should be using 1.30.

I am going to send you a private message with a hint.

I'm using 1.41. I skipped 1.3 as per the recommendation in the install guides (no glove, no need for 1.3)

Apologies for posting the values, I thought this was an open modding community. I can't say I understand the need to keep it a secret, being a singleplayer game and not a MMO, but I will respect the rules of the forum. I'll take any further discussion to PMs with anyone who wishes to discuss it.

[.]

There is no 1.41. The last version is 1.3. It is the recommended version in the installation guide in this site and you need it for some modifications you can get here to work.

http://bawsite.com/forum/showthread.php?...245#pid245

Read this. I worked on fixing the problems with graphics for months and then more than a month on the patch program itself, but the thief just took those results and pretended he fixed those problems and made the crack.

There aren't any rules in this forum about keeping the values a secret, but you mentioned those values because I provoked you to do that, so it would be my fault if the thief would see them and I would end up contributing to that fake 1.41 again.
If I remember correctly, the thief already expressed the desire to include the increased draw distance by asking Kratzean for the needed values.
I am glad Kratzean kept the changes for the increased draw distance a secret, otherwise the thief would just add them to that fake 1.41 and pretend that it was him who found how to increase the draw distance in the first place.

http://bawsite.com/forum/showthread.php?...d=53#pid53

Some changes, like these fixes for the statistics, are too complex for the thief to replicate in 1.20, and probably wouldn't be noticed by most players anyway, so I did risk releasing them.

And about this being an open modding community, it isn't only about modding.
It is sad that players mostly don't discuss the game itself here.

[Moogie]

Oh, I was completely unaware about the problems surrounding 1.41. How unfortunate someone would do that. But I understand now.

Re: people discussing the game, I guess because it's such an old game, mostly everybody's already said all there is to say about it. I spent years discussing it on the Lionhead forums back in the day, now I'm more interested in modding and learning about the inner workings. I love how much half-finished and hidden stuff can be found in BW1's files. Things like the developer notes are humanizing in a way you don't often get to see.

If I do find that last value and end up making a patch for it, I'd just give credit to you guys anyway. IDGAF about being credited as long as people finally get some much needed improvements to the game.

There's some other things I want to try fixing as well. If I make any progress there I'll just give you the values to add to your files. That seems like the easiest route to actually get them out into the public and avoid all this shady business with the 1.41 thief.

[Kratzean]

There is no 1.41. The last version is 1.3. It is the recommended version in the installation guide in this site and you need it for some modifications you can get here to work.

http://bawsite.com/forum/showthread.php?...245#pid245

Read this. I worked on fixing the problems with graphics for months and then more than a month on the patch program itself, but the thief just took those results and pretended he fixed those problems and made the crack.

There aren't any rules in this forum about keeping the values a secret, but you mentioned those values because I provoked you to do that, so it would be my fault if the thief would see them and I would end up contributing to that fake 1.41 again.
If I remember correctly, the thief already expressed the desire to include the increased draw distance by asking Kratzean for the needed values.
I am glad Kratzean kept the changes for the increased draw distance a secret, otherwise the thief would just add them to that fake 1.41 and pretend that it was him who found how to increase the draw distance in the first place.

http://bawsite.com/forum/showthread.php?...d=53#pid53

Some changes, like these fixes for the statistics, are too complex for the thief to replicate in 1.20, and probably wouldn't be noticed by most players anyway, so I did risk releasing them.

And about this being an open modding community, it isn't only about modding.
It is sad that players mostly don't discuss the game itself here.

But... If I give him the values I found, then they are useless for him, because I only know the Values of the CI Version, not of B&W 1.3 or B&W 1.2. I am still more modding for CI, not really for BW.
So there is no hurry and he don't asked me about the values I mean.

I found much different values in CI, but I don't know ho to find them in BW. Some values also are different or used by more than one function.

[.]

To Moogie:

I am not sure how sending the values to me to add to my patch would be better than you releasing your own patch.
Probably the only way this would be better if your version would be for 1.20, but your private message suggests it would either be for 1.30 or for all versions at once.
If the result of this will be released to the public the thief would obviously have access to it, too.
I guess I can't stop you from releasing your patch, though. At least it wouldn't be my fault if the thief will steal this...

I am also not sure why would you give us credit.
For achieving the increased draw distance first?
You are doing this mostly independently, though.
For the hints?
Maybe.

I guess one of the reasons they don't discuss the game here is that the thief tried to remove information about this site even from sites that he doesn't own.
Though, if I remember correctly, for some reason some players asked questions in the thief's forum even about things they found at bawsite.com.

To Kratzean:

They are not useless. Most of the code seems to be the same. Finding the same code in other versions is easy enough. BaW Patch even modifies the different .exe files the same way and doesn't check which version of the game an .exe file is from.
The main differences are probably which registers are used and the memory locations of values.

I found a log where you mentioned he found out that you increased the draw distance and wanted to add it to "his fanpatch".

I am not sure why you don't know how to find in B&W the values you found in CI.
Near the values that you want to find in B&W find something that should be the same in both CI and B&W, such as relative jump instructions ("jz", "jnz" and others). Then try to search for bytes of those instructions. If there are too many results, find something else to search for.