Fixing a Direct3D9 bug in Far Cry (2018) (opens in new tab)

The last image of this article shows the bug supposedly solved. But it does not show the same image with the bug. The images to show the bug are from different points of view, where it is difficult to appreciate the problem as the last image does.

saejox11mo ago

it is a subtle bug. mostly concerning preservationists. players are likely more worried about bandits shooting at them than mountains not reflected on the water.

extrememacaroni11mo ago

> bandits shooting at them

through walls and from kilometers away, since this is Far Cry 1 on modern systems :P

ryao11mo ago· 1 in thread

> Community has since found a way to fix this issue - it is possible to use WineD3D, a Direct3D to OpenGL wrapper for Windows, and then everything looks fine. However, it comes at a price – performance can be lowered by as much as 75%! That can result in unacceptable framerates even on modern PCs.

Has anyone tried DXVK?

Delk11mo ago

The post is from 2018, so dxvk either wasn't there or was too immature.

From today's point of view, the post may not be that interesting in the practical sense of running the game. But some might find the obscure feature of custom clip planes interesting, or how a change or a detail in API specs lead to a regression.

If course today you'd want to use dxvk.

Thev00d0011mo ago

Nowadays of course you would simply use DXVK for this. The wonders of Linux gaming spilling back over onto Windows.

boristsr11mo ago

Excellent deep dive and explanation of the process of tracking down and fixing it. Thanks for sharing it, it was a fun read. Will definitely keep this in mind next time I fire up farcry for some nostalgia!

immibis11mo ago

I expect that clip planes are invalidated by changing matrix transforms. It reads to me like the code that emulates the old clip planes is probably converting them from world space to clip space using the current transforms when the clip planes are set, then not redoing the conversion if the transforms change.

northhnbesthn11mo ago

Yeah - a lot of devs don’t know about clip planes but they have their uses and they kind of function outside of the normal pipeline.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

15 comments

14 comments · 7 top-level

perching_aix11mo ago· 4 in thread

What is this site?

This is the actual site from the actual modder: https://cookieplmonster.github.io/2018/07/07/farcry-d3d9-bug...

This looks like a copycat site? What for?

EdSchouten11mo ago

It looks like @HoussemNasri forked @CookiePLMonster's website repo:

https://github.com/HoussemNasri/HoussemNasri.github.io

Maybe that person simply wanted to have a nice template to work with, but forgot to scrub all the old content?

hnuser12345611mo ago

The download links and patreon links on the copied page link to those for this person. Strange.

mrkramer11mo ago

He probably has 2 domains that link to the same website.

1 more reply

anotherhueOP11mo ago

I was unaware of this.

gustavorg11mo ago· 2 in thread