Tech Vixion

Power of DirectX 10, Lost Planet 1.4

2008-06-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

Kerjasama dan sponsorship nVidia dengan Capcom menghadirkan kualitas visual terbaik Lost Planet versi PC nya. Jika anda memainkan game ini di WinXP (DX9-mode), anda masih jauh dari sempurna! Eye-candy yang sebenarnya ada di versi Vista dengan DirectX 10. Namun apakah dengan menjalankannya pada mode DX10 di Vista anda sudah dapat menikmati kualitas visual tertinggi? Masih juga belum! Anda perlu mem-patch ke versi 1.4 untuk bisa menikmati visual efek keren ini sepanjang permainan, dari awal hingga akhir.

Hanya segelintir gamer yang memainkan game ini di mode DX10, mungkin karena OS Vista yang konon kabarnya buggy. Namun dengan Vista SP1 yang telah lama keluar, tidak ada lagi alasan untuk tidak menjalankannya di mode DX10. Lebih2 jika patch 1.4 yang dulu hanya tersedia di STEAM, kini bisa didapat via link dibawah ini:

Part 1 ; Part 2 ; Part 3 ; Part 4

Soul Calibur & Dead or Alive 2 PC Version

2008-05-18T02:23:00.000-07:00

Habislah riwayat SEGA Dreamcast (DC) ketika Sony merilis Playstation2 8 tahun lalu. Meski demikian, DC yang konon berbasiskan mesin Arcade NAOMI 2 itu sempat menjadi platform dengan grafis terbaik pada jamannya. Soul Calibur dan Dead or Alive2 adalah dua game yang mampu menyuguhkan framerate supercepat, per-pixel lighting, dan high-poly character di DC. Bahkan saat seri Tekken dibawa ke PS2, DOA2 dan SC masih mampu bersaing dari segi grafis walau Emotion Engine dan Graphic Synthesizer pada PS2 bukan merupakan tandingan Hitachi SH-4 dan PowerVR2 milik DC. Meski demikian, secara hardware DC masih jauh lebih powerful dari hardware PC pada saat itu. Sehingga banyak PC Gamer yang menelan ludah melihat kedahsyatan mesin tempur milik SEGA dan Sony tersebut.

Sekarang, gamer yang dulu pernah menjadi saksi bisu perhelatan seru antara DC dan PS2 dapat bernostalgia dengan memainkan SC dan DOA2 di PC. Berkat GPU modern dan Prosesor dual-core, dua game tersebut dapat berjalan mulus di resolusi High-Definition, plus efek Bloom, Ambient Occlusion Culling, FSAA dan Depth-of-field. Sambungkan dengan HDTV maka kita akan lupa bahwa game ini dibuat 8 tahun yang lalu! Timing yang pas untuk mengobati dendam kesumat lenyapnya genre fighting di PC.

Recommended specs:

Prosesor Dual Core minimum 2.8GHz keatas
Grafik card kelas GeForce 8800 / seri 9600 keatas
1GB RAM minimum / 1.6GB HDD Space / Gamepad

Download nullDC Dreamcast emulator

NB: Gunakan versi nullDC yang tersedia diatas untuk tampilan grafis maksimum. Game Soul Calibur dan Dead or Alive 2 dapat dicari di Google, rata2 filesize 400mb compressed rar. Untuk sementara efek depth-of-field dihilangkan dan akan direvisi pada versi berikutnya.

Virtua Tennis 3 PC [Enhanced GFX]

2008-04-29T07:47:00.001-07:00

When Virtua Tennis 3 (VT3) hit the next-gen consoles for the first time, we're blown away by its revolutionary design. It simply pushed away its closest competitor Top Spin series which also specifically made for consoles. The VT3 features motion blur, depth of field, along with excellent physics engine and high definition graphics to boot at very fast 60fps. Couple of months later, PC version of VT3 hit the market, it's luckily becoming a good port of its console's cousin while it might lack of certain features. Now, we have the chance to put back what's missing, and at the same time, even pushes the graphics even further by adding bloom and color correction. This enhanced VT3 is truly intended to envy your console-gaming friend.

To add depth of field effects, you need to apply official patch version 1.01 HERE
*Note: Only work for nVidia cards featuring SM3 (6x00 and above)
add the line "DEPTHOFFIELD = 1" in VT3.ini located inside the game folder

To add bloom effects with color correction, extract THIS FILE to the installation folder:
Now don't forget to turn the anti-aliasing on. Enjoy the game!

Kojima Not Happy With MGS4 Graphics

2008-04-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

Life's a real pain in the ass sometimes and we cannot always get what we want. Hideo Kojima, lead designer on Metal Gear Solid 4, wanted to set certain standards with the fourth installment in the popular stealth/action series. Hideo explains that due to certain PS3 restrictions he was unable to accomplish the visual punch he initially imagined.

"The graphic, side things like motion-blending and the size of the map, totally was not accomplished to my original vision - to my satisfaction," he said. "I remember saying three years ago that we wanted to create something revolutionary, but in reality we couldn't really do that because of the CPU. We're using the Cell engine to its limit, actually."

This whole issue, however, was more about setting the bar too high, rather than expressing basic discontent with the capabilities of the PS3.

"The original vision was to go ten steps further, the reality was just one step, which isn't to say we didn't progress." And he continues by saying: "I'm not criticizing the PS3 machine, it's just that we weren't really aware of what the full-spec PS3 offered - we were creating something we couldn't entirely see."

From: MGS Insider

Guitar Hero automated hardware cheat system!

2008-04-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

Dijuluki AGH1000, device ini dihubungkan antara TV-input dan video-out konsol Nintendo Wii. Format video output Wii adalah NTSC video komposit, sehingga semua sinyal yang diperlukan untuk menampilkan gambar di monitor yang tentunya melalui satu kabel (RCA). Nah disini, AGH1000 mengambil sinyal dari video komposit output pass-through dari Wii dan kemudian dapat menekan nada yang benar pada waktu yang tepat. AGH1000 memiliki 4 bagian, yakni Analog Processing Board, Digital Processing Board, Driver Board, dan Opto-Isolator Board. Lihat saja gambar dibawah...

HDR visual effects for Guitar Hero III (PC)

2008-04-16T00:19:00.000-07:00

Rich visual elements presented on the console version of Guitar Hero III (GH3) leaves the PC version pale and unpolished. The lack of visual effects such as depth-of-field and bloom make it looks less shiny compared to its console release. With the magic touch of HDR, it brings back the graphics quality to life. It's even surpassing its console version. The stage has never been this live before, and the sensation of true live show is there!

Check out the screenshots :

To produce the HDR effects showed above, you just need to copy the file d3d9.dll and enbseries.ini to the GH3 installation folder. Some of you who might want to customize it can come back to this blog later, stay tuned! WARNING: Applying this mod has NO noticeable decrease on performance! Have fun!

Download link: http://rapidshare.com/files/107895576/GH3HDR.rar.html