[Katsuya]

I have been looking for a way to reproduce the bloom effect seen in a lot of today's PC games. (Need for speed most wanted, Guild wars, etc.) (not to mention some various PlayStation 2 and Xbox games)

I haven't had much success with using Pete's shaders before. Perhaps because I don't understand how to program shaders. Or my video card is too weak.

Could someone here help me achieve the desired effect?

(Also I found these pictures with a web search. Unfortunately no data to go with them)

 

[Grv]

You could ask on Pete's messageboard (which seems to be down at the time of writing). He has a OGL2 shaders board which is occupied by a few who are actively busy making all sorts of shaders, so if anyone, they have the know-how.

www.pbernert.com

 

[hushypushy]

please excuse me for only having an opinion, but no information (i woulda said what Gaurav said), but, in my humble opinion.....that second shot with shaders on is pretty ugly. to each his own however.

anyway, check Pete's site, he'll probably come to your side but a lot of talented shader makers also go there too, so good luck.

 

[Katsuya]

I also agree that the effect is not right. However it is most likely because that last FF9 shot was made with Photoshop I found out.

Here are some better examples of the effect made with the unreal game engine.

First shot without bloom, and last shot with bloom. I think that looks pretty good.

 

[hushypushy]

meh, i don't like it. i prefer sharp, clean, and clear. probably why i hardly use shaders or texture filtering in my emulation, i suppose. when i see those bloom pictures, they remind me of photo studio portraits, taken with a soft filter so everything is blurred and, well, soft.

 

[MaZa]

There are different levels of bloom effects. A slight bloom can be very fantastic. Look at the black&white 2.

 

[hushypushy]

i feel so old fashioned, i dont like bloom/HDR very much. HL2: Lost Coast was not very impressive to me :/

 

[masque]

bloom/HDR is fun to play around with, and it looks nice, but Its a showpiece right now. I usually disable it (except DOD: source, cause it makes the game more interesting) simply because its not worth the framerate drop.

 

[Cid Highwind]

i feel so old fashioned, i dont like bloom/HDR very much. HL2: Lost Coast was not very impressive to me :/

Seems like we have something in common. Although I prefer to have things slightly enhanced with bloom, I do not like it when it's done too much.

Some pc games really benefit with the effects when it's done right, but just like with most 'best new things' suddenly every game will be using it even if it might look better without or with a different technique.

Btw, the search option helps a lot on this topic, I remembered there was a thread about this before. You can find it here.

 

[hushypushy]

damn, good going there Cid. that thread is old man, i dont remember that (maybe because i never even posted in it..)

 

[Katsuya]

Yes, thank you Cid for trying to point out more information... Unfortunately that only works on ATI video cards and is also one of the most badly done bloom effects I have ever seen. If that is how hushypushy sees blooms then I can definitely understand why he would not enjoy it.

However, I have read that it can be altered to more acceptable levels. But it looks like it has no image color saturation. But I guess that can be fixed on NV cards with Digital vibrancy. Can any help me alter this Smartshader or perhaps create something comparable for NVIDIA cards using Pete’s GL or GL2?

I Found this text.

I’m not looking for an interpretation of HDR. I just need something that can. Raise saturation (if needed) by 25% then decrease the brightness by 25%, raise the contrast by 50%. Then to use some kind of Gaussian (blurring) filter. And negative multiply the new frame with the original one by 50% (the entire image.)

Can all this be done in a shader and be simple to adjust?

That sounds like a recipe for the effect I’m looking for. Is anyone here fluent in Shader and OpenGL programming?

Also, here are some examples from Metal Gear Solid 3 (ps2) (first one is good; last one is a little too strong but still good) I need something like that

 

[Cid Highwind]

Maybe you could try and get in contact with ChrisRay? He's the one that seems to know the most of nVidia hardware of all of us. Seeing he's usually in the hardware discussion and doesn't come here very often anymore pointing him out to this thread might help

damn, good going there Cid. that thread is old man, i dont remember that (maybe because i never even posted in it..)

Now it's only a matter of time before a n00b with an ATi card will click that link and revive the thread

 

[Grv]

Once again I refer to Pete's messageboard. I think I saw a shader posted there that allowed for contrast, brightness and saturation control (by manually editing the shader's variables).

Then there are shaders that give a blurring effect as well, which might very well be combined in one shader with the above one, if you so desire. Also, when you've made something work but feels too strong, remember that you can alter the level of the shader's appliance through Pete's plugin.

 

[Katsuya]

Hmmmm... Pete's messageboard is still down... (Not working) mirror links?

 

[Grv]

http://www.foren.de/system/index.php?id=pete_bernert&forumid=266904&page_forum=0

guest's shaderpack includes his latest version of a "Color shader". The included text file says it allows you to change brightness, contrast and saturation.

I have attached his pack for your convenience, in case this one somehow goes down too.

 

[hushypushy]

oh, Katsuya, i think you misunderstand. I'm just not a big HDR/Bloom fan in general. i've played HL2: Lost Coast and DOD:S and i just didnt like it. maybe if it was done very, very subtly, it'd be cool. as it is though in those games, every single light-to-dark sequence is played out like you're walking out of a dark closet into the midday summer sun.

sorry for taking over your thread though :emb: i think i got my point done, that's all i needed to say.

 

[SimoneT]

ShadX has written a bloom shader. I have tried it and it seems to work well, even if it's slow on my sys (Ati 9600).
You could download it at:

www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=19654

or visit the Pete´s Messageboard at:

http://www.foren.de/system/thread-h...d039sopengl2-pete_bernert-266904-2583122.html

Ciao.:emb: