SOON TO BE RELEASED -- THE TRUE PATCH ULTRA EDITIONA little over a year ago, I put up a post in which I stated that I was researching a way to add some DirectX 9 functionality to Bloodlines.For the record, VTMB is an older
DirectX 8 game. As such, it doesn't support later DirectX functions such as Bloom lighting, HDR lighting, advanced normal mapping and a slew of other graphical enhancements. This otherwise beautiful game has, therefore, always been hampered by such things as poor contrast, a lack of 3-D surface details, and an overall "rough" and washed-out appearance... due to its total lack of such things as native anti-aliasing, tangent-space normal mapping, luma-sharpening and digital vibrance... to name but a few.
Well, very soon all of that is going to change. Not in any extreme or radical way... because as most of you should already know, I don't believe in forcing radical changes into a third-party game patch. But I doubt very much if any of you would object to the introduction of some new game engine DLL's which will noticeably improve the overall sharpness and color vibrance of VTMB, as well as adding support for such things as advanced normal mapping techniques and similar DirectX 9 functions.
Short version: the next version of the True Patch will make VTMB look noticeably better, without ruining its classic "film noir" visual style. Mostly what you'll notice are more vibrant colors and more realistic looking surfaces in the game, as well as enhanced contrast and other such yummies.
To accomplish this wondrous feat, I've been in touch with the original author of the ENB and SweetFX software. With his permission, I've been developing a package that will infuse a custom-made addition to the True Patch, tailored specifically to VTM: Bloodlines.
For those of you out there who enjoy tweaking things, you will have the option to edit the options and tweak the various settings... until you achieve a "look" for VTMB that suits your own personal taste.
As an added bonus, this upcoming version of the True Patch will also add native anti-aliasing to VTMB... something which the original game has always (sadly) lacked.
No more jaggies. Purists will be relieved to hear that all of this will be bundled together in such a way as to allow the end user to have a choice: you will be able to either add the new DX9 files to VTMB, or else omit them if you prefer. It will be entirely up to you.
Once I am happy with all of my final adjustments, I'll post a video which will allow everyone to compare... in split-screen format... the "before" and "after" effects of the new files. That way, you will be able to see for yourselves just how much of an improvement these new additions actually make to the game. I personally feel that VTMB looks significantly
more realistic with these changes and hopefully, most of you will agree with my assessment.
For now... just imagine what Half-Life 2 looks like, in comparison to Bloodlines. Although both games were released within a couple of weeks of each other (back in 2004), Half-Life 2 was ported over to a DX9 engine, where as VTMB was still stuck with the original DX8 version of the Source engine. As such, its overall visual quality is rather poor in comparison to Half-Life 2.
All of that is about to change. I've been working with this for about a year now, and I think I've finally gotten it to the point where I'm happy with it. I think you will be, too.
Stay tuned... I'll post an update very soon, along with the side-by-side comparison video that I promised.
*** This will be the first major update to the True Patch in several years. Hopefully, it will be worth the wait.