Rose
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Destroy All Humans! 2 - Reprobed ultrawide cutscenes fix
🕑 Added 2022-09-08 07:08:06 +0000 UTCEvery now and then on WSGF we get questions about universal solutions. A single patcher for all games? One at least for Unreal Engine 4? Some of the creators tried, while others are thinking about it. Rightfully so, because who doesn't want to work less or have more time available for games on other engines?
However, the reality is that it's a pipe dream. There are definitely characteristics and functions common to each engine, but the developers do not always use them and they implement their own.
The last case in point is Destroy All Humans! 2, which is a mix of various scaling behaviors. The main gameplay field of view is properly scaled, with the vertical view preserved. The cutscenes? Pillarboxed but causing the view to be vert- when the black bars are removed. The local co-op modes? Hor+ in the horizontal split screen but vert- in the vertical. The game outputs two separate FOV values and treats those split screen views as separate displays.
How do you even fix something like this? Well, it's definitely not the first time that most of the past findings had to be set aside. My main goal, as always in those cases, was locating the more tailored and game-specific functions in the pile that is the code of a modern application. Redirecting from there and onto the native, common or my own functions is the goal.
It took some time, but I managed to get it done for the cutscenes, fulfilling the recent request.
As for the PK Tennis mini-game that I discovered "at the last minute", that has been a real challenge. I see that it's doable, as with everything in this field given enough time and dedication, but when do you stop to prevent that burnout? When does a new game require more attention?
A good time may be when a tiny part of a game takes up many hours more that the rest, which it certainly has here. Then if I do crack it, do I make a trainer just for that complex issue? Do I code in new conditions just for it? Is it worth it, given that it's also a bug of the game itself? For now, my answer is having submitted it as a bug report, hoping that the developer brings the mini-game to parity with the main gameplay view.
Don't mind me though. As I was saying, most of those who play the game won't even know of any Tennis mini-game specific to local multiplayer. I'm just very picky.
Oh, and I also tested the game at countless resolutions for a very detailed Detailed Report on WSGF.
Comments
Rose
If you don't own the game (yet?), I covered it in the WSGF report too. 16:9: https://www.wsgf.org/f/u/imagecache/node-gallery-display/contrib/dr/30155/extras/Destroy%20All%20Humans%202%20Tennis%20%284%29.png 21:9: https://www.wsgf.org/f/u/imagecache/node-gallery-display/contrib/dr/30155/extras/Destroy%20All%20Humans%202%20Tennis%20%283%29.png My fix basically makes it as bad at 21:9 as natively at 32:9: https://www.wsgf.org/f/u/imagecache/node-gallery-display/contrib/dr/30155/extras/Destroy%20All%20Humans%202%20Tennis%20%282%29.png You can achieve the same result if you add the YFOV command to the config, so at least it's not just my fault!
Eleriam
I'm curious about what the tennis mini-game looks like now. :)
