Screenshots:

Open/Known Bugs with dgVoodoo2 on this game

1) This game has double cursor glitch when played via dgVoodoo2, where both the game cursor and system cursor are displayed on top of each other. Sometimes alt-tabbing in and out of the game makes this glitch go away.
2) On some systems, the game does not start if "Fast Video Memory Access" setting of dgVoodoo2 is not enabled. You can read about it at the link below.
Spec Release dgVoodoo version (with Debug Layer)
3) The screenshots taken using the in game screenshot system (by pressing F12) are glitched. Some are completely black and some has missing textures. FRAPS screenshots are fine. Just take lots of screenshots using F12 button to replicate this bug.
4) "Unforced" scaling mode combined with "Max" Resolution forcing through dgVoodoo2 sometimes makes the game start in a small rectangle on top left side of the screen. Choosing Centered AR or Stretched AR scaling modes makes this glitch go away. When I use FRAPS this glitch happens all the time. If I don't have FRAPS running, it is a random glitch. Use FRAPS to replicate it.
5) Z-fighting issues (as reported by ZellSF).

CoolGamer wrote:

Open/Known Bugs with dgVoodoo2 on this game […]
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Open/Known Bugs with dgVoodoo2 on this game

1) This game has double cursor glitch when played via dgVoodoo2, where both the game cursor and system cursor are displayed on top of each other. Sometimes alt-tabbing in and out of the game makes this glitch go away.
2) On some systems, the game does not start if "Fast Video Memory Access" setting of dgVoodoo2 is not enabled. You can read about it at the link below.
Spec Release dgVoodoo version (with Debug Layer)
3) The screenshots taken using the in game screenshot system (by pressing F12) are glitched. Some are completely black and some has missing textures. FRAPS screenshots are fine. Just take lots of screenshots using F12 button to replicate this bug.
4) "Unforced" scaling mode combined with "Max" Resolution forcing through dgVoodoo2 sometimes makes the game start in a small rectangle on top left side of the screen. Choosing Centered AR or Stretched AR scaling modes makes this glitch go away. When I use FRAPS this glitch happens all the time. If I don't have FRAPS running, it is a random glitch. Use FRAPS to replicate it.

Has the z-fighting issues been fixed or did you just forgot mentioning it?

ZellSF, I did not even know about the z-fighting issues. Thanks for mentioning them. I will add it to the list. Since it is a fast paced racer, I guess I never paid attention to z-fighting.

Star Wars Episode I Racer was released on GOG yesterday!!! GOG version comes with a wrapper (ddraw.dll) that outputs in DirectX9, but you can replace that wrapper with dgVoodoo2.

On a separate note, I would appreciate if somebody can name the wrapper that comes with the GOG version of the game. It is probably an opensource wrapper, but I did not post it here in case it turns out to be copyrighted. I used a hex editor on it, but could not find any strings in it that shows its name. There is also no license text file associated with the wrapper.

I don't think it's an open source wrapper. I don't know of any ddraw>d3d9 wrapper that can run 3D games at all. I'm guessing it's something either the developer or GoG has thrown together especially for this game. In which case I'm not impressed:

Here's dgVoodoo2 at the same place:

If only it wasn't for the z-fighting issues dgVoodoo2 would be perfect for this game.

ZellSF wrote:

I don't think it's an open source wrapper. I don't know of any ddraw>d3d9 wrapper that can run 3D games at all. I'm guessing it' […]
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I don't think it's an open source wrapper. I don't know of any ddraw>d3d9 wrapper that can run 3D games at all. I'm guessing it's something either the developer or GoG has thrown together especially for this game. In which case I'm not impressed:

SWEP1RCR 2018-05-03 17-15-55-31.jpg

Here's dgVoodoo2 at the same place:

SWEP1RCR 2018-05-03 17-17-21-41.jpg

If only it wasn't for the z-fighting issues dgVoodoo2 would be perfect for this game.

Different versions of that wrapper were also included with Requiem Avenging Angel and Shadows of the Empire. I couldn't find any such wrapper anywhere on the net when I looked back then so I assumed GOG created it. I couldn't get it to work with any other game either so they probably only implemented the minimum features required for those particular games.

PS: Fix for the double cursor.

ZellSF and teleguy, thanks for the clarifications regarding the DirectX wrapper that comes with the game.

Teleguy, thanks for the double cursor fix. Compatibility shim that you created works and hides the double cursor. I wonder why dgVoodoo2 needs this shim, while the game's own wrapper does not.

Dege, is there anything you can do regarding the z-fighting issues that ZellSF reported? I wrote the link to his original post below. Sadly the Youtube video that he posted is down.
Re: dgVoodoo 2 for DirectX 11

You exchanged a couple of messages with ZellSF on this subject. In your last reply to him, you mentioned something about using 24bit depth buffer. After that the issue was never discussed further.
dgVoodoo 2 for DirectX 11

Thanks.

CoolGamer wrote:

Teleguy, thanks for the double cursor fix. Compatibility shim that you created works and hides the double cursor. I wonder why dgVoodoo2 needs this shim, while the game's own wrapper does not.

Maybe the game cursor is a software drawn one by the game itself while the white arrow cursor is the real physical cursor that cannot be hidden because of the Win compat layer, or sg like that. Never debugged.
If dgVoodoo were game specific then I could make that disappear.

CoolGamer wrote:

Dege, is there anything you can do regarding the z-fighting issues that ZellSF reported? I wrote the link to his original post b […]
Show full quote

Dege, is there anything you can do regarding the z-fighting issues that ZellSF reported? I wrote the link to his original post below. Sadly the Youtube video that he posted is down.
viewtopic.php?f=59&t=34931&p=436044#p436044

You exchanged a couple of messages with ZellSF on this subject. In your last reply to him, you mentioned something about using 24bit depth buffer. After that the issue was never discussed further.
viewtopic.php?f=59&t=34931&start=1020#p436767

Yes, I've just implemented the forcable internal depth-buffer bit depth feature. Now the game seems to be much better. I checked some well visible rude points like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiDPb7qtG1o&t=13m12s

and those kind of artifacts disappear with forced 24 bit depth buffers. Other games like Miracle Boards and Tonko4 (both with heavy z-issues) also get cured with forced bit depth.

Dege, thanks for the 24bit depth buffer feature. Z-fighting was the big ticket item in terms of bugs and now it is resolved. ZellSF reported the double cursor glitch (system cursor+cursor drawn by the game) for other games such as "Battleship Surface Thunder". Whenever you have some time, please see if you can debug and come up with a solution that works for Star Wars Racer and other games with the double cursor glitch. If it is impossible to fix via dgVoodoo2, don't worry about it.

I also noticed that when I alt-tab out of the game and alt-tab back in during the race, the camera gets reversed permanently. I don't know if it is a game engine bug or dgVoodoo related bug.

Now I have some good news for everybody. I made some improvements to the game EXEs of the US CD and GOG versions. I patched both to show the hidden "Game Cheats" menu. I patched the US CD version to remove the resolution check. I explained the changes below and listed the resources that I used.

It turns out that the developers of the game implemented a secret debug menu named "Game Cheats" under the race pause menu. This Game Cheats menu was accessible in the Nintendo64 version of the game but it was thought to be missing from the PC version. The existence of this menu in the windows PC version of the game was discovered by Jannik Vogel (aka JayFoxRox). Jannik is the creator of OpenSWE1R project that aims to reverse engineer and remake the game engine of Star Wars Episode 1 Racer. I linked the github page and gitter chat of the OpenSWE1R project below. If you have programming skills, please consider helping Jannik with his awesome OpenSWE1R engine remake project.
https://github.com/OpenSWE1R/openswe1r
https://gitter.im/OpenSWE1R

I came up with a way to display the hidden "Game Cheats" option under the race pause menu by using Jannik's research.

I changed the following addresses using OllyDbg to display the Cheat Menu.

1ADDRESS   ORIGINAL VALUE             CHANGED VALUE 
20042ADF6  NOP                        MOV DWORD PTR DS:[50C044],1
30042B555  RETN                       MOV DWORD PTR DS:[50C048],3F
40042B55F  NOP                        RETN
500445954  CALL SWEP1RCR.0042AE00     CALL SWEP1RCR.0042ADF6

Jannik also compared the GOG version of the game to the US CD version. One useful difference is that, GOG removed the resolution check from the exe to allow the game to work with all screen resolutions. I ported this improvement to the US CD version. Now you can enumerate and choose any resolution you want using dgVoodoo2 in the CD version of the game too.

I changed the following addresses using OllyDbg to remove the resolution check. This is identical to the way GOG removed resolution check from their EXE.

1ADDRESS    ORIGINAL VALUE            CHANGED VALUE
200488FBF   CMP EAX,200               JMP SHORT SWEP1RCR.00489037
300488FC1                             NOP
400488FC2                             NOP
500488FC3                             NOP

I linked the relevant pages from Jannik's reverse engineering research below:
https://github.com/OpenSWE1R/swe1r-re/tree/ma … er/swep1rcr.exe
https://github.com/OpenSWE1R/swe1r-re/blob/ma … e/Debug-Mode.md
https://github.com/OpenSWE1R/swe1r-re/blob/ma … lution-Check.md
https://github.com/OpenSWE1R/openswe1r/issues/142
https://github.com/OpenSWE1R/openswe1r/wiki

The attached zip file contains three files:
-US CD Version with resolution check removed. I used Official patched version from Lucas Arts FTP as the base.
-US CD Version with resolution check removed and Game Cheats Menu enabled. I used Official patched version from Lucas Arts FTP as the base.
-GOG version v1.0_hotfix3_(20791) with Game Cheats Menu enabled. GOG version already had resolution check removed.

To access the Game Cheats menu, just press ESC during the race to bring up the pause menu. "Game Cheats" will be shown as the last item on the pause menu. You can increase variables under the Game Cheats menu by pressing "Enter" and decrease them by pressing "A".

Wow, thanks for the 24 bit depth buffer feature. I'll download it as soon as I can.

Thanks for the exe for cheats, Coolgamer. Now the only thing left I want for this game is no geometry culling. With the 3D Vision fix I published, (check the helixmod blog), I made a Hor+ widescreen mod for any aspect ratio or zoom levels (real time hotkeys). It unstretches the game from 4:3 (don't use a 16:9 resolution in the game config launcher / registry because it's Vert-) by modifying the X axis of the main vertex shader, but extra content at the sides has culling that can be annoying.

By the way, extra info about dgVoodoo in this game: the higher the original resolution you are trying to override, the more CPU limited you will be. That's why I use 640x480, and then 2560x1440 in dgVoodoo.

masterotaku wrote:

By the way, extra info about dgVoodoo in this game: the higher the original resolution you are trying to override, the more CPU limited you will be. That's why I use 640x480, and then 2560x1440 in dgVoodoo.

Fast vidmem access enabled should help, I tried it. This game locks the depth buffer for each frame like Drakan, to see if Suns or other light sources are visible.

Yep, that was it! Now in non GPU limited situations I can get a lot more fps than before. Maybe triple the fps than before. And thanks for the recent z-buffer option. It fixes all z-fighting issues in this game. I have updated the helixmod blog post with these settings.

masterotaku, I have good news for you. I found the fix to the culling problem you have in your widescreen mod. I found the FOV address in Star Wars racer that fixes the widescreen without any culling. I used CheatEngine for this.

Memory address 00DFB1F0 contains a float 1.0 which is the FOV. If you use a disassembler you will see that the game executable's 004832EE address writes a hardcoded float 1.0 (hexadecimal float 3F800000) to the memory address 00DFB1F0. This value is hardcoded into the executable (not calculated).

All you have to do in your widescreen fix is to modify this memory address according to the formula below. I used my monitor's 1366x768 aspect ratio as the example.

NEW FOV = (Desired Wide Screen resolution aspect ratio) / (Game's original aspect ratio) = (1366/768) / (640/480) = 1.7786 / 1.3333 = 1.33398
Set Address 00DFB1F0 to float 1.33398. You can use CheatEngine to test this.

Results are below. Download the images and switch between them in fullscreen to see the difference. Notice how you can see more of the orange pod racer located on the right. Also notice how the size and aspect ratio of Anakin's pod racer and the mountain do NOT change. We add extra view to the sides of the screen without messing up anything in the 3D game world. Sadly the HUD gets stretched.

The only issue is that the double Suns in the sky shift down a little (and become slightly oval) since they are drawn with the HUD, but this issue is acceptable. In your mod, I think you figured out how to fix the HUD. You can prevent the culling problem by using my FOV address change trick and fix the HUD using your original fix. I am assuming that your mod is able to manipulate memory addresses.

I also found the memory addresses that control the HUD resolution (00EC86C4 width and 00EC85E8 height). Changing these two address to a 4:3 resolution (such as 1024x768) prevents the HUD from getting stretched but it does not center it. 😢 In other words the HUD gets drawn in a 4:3 rectangle relative to the upper left corner of the screen. If anybody with good debugger/disassembler skills can find a way to fix the Suns and the HUD, it is much appreciated. 😀 If we can center the HUD at a 4:3 ratio, using a memory hack or an EXE hack, we will be golden.

Strange. In my case, that 00DFB1F0 address modifies both horizontal and vertical FOV, so I don't see any aspect ratio change. For example, a big value like 3 or 5 is very zoomed out. I'll experiment with this more.

masterotaku, you also have to change the resolution in game's video configuration tool (e.g. to 1366x768) before you start the game. If you don't change the resolution, and only modify 00DFB1F0 address, you will see a zooming in/out effect. 00DFB1F0 address does not change the rendering resolution. That address is like a viewing cone that zooms in or out.

Oh, right. So it's a way to compensate the zoom in of the Vert- widescreen. I can control HUD, sun and lens flares at will with my 3D fix, so I'll try to reach a perfect solution. Or something with the least possible drawbacks (definitely better than culling).

Thankfully the game is alt+tab friendly even in 3D. If not, I wouldn't be able to use cheatengine properly :p.

I have fixed the HUD and sun / lens flares in the shader 😀. Sun and lens flares needed a x1.333333 correction to the Y axis and the HUD needed the inverse, a x0.75 correction to the X axis.

Edit: ugh, images don't have a "max-width: 100%;" rule here it seems. Open it in a new tab.

Here's the updated 3D fix but under a different name, until I decide 100% what options I should make default: https://s3.amazonaws.com/masterotaku/Star+War … IR_FOV_test1.7z

In this one (remember to uninstall my older mod), press "8" (not numpad) to enable the HUD/sun fix after you've used CheatEngine for 16:9 mode (I've included a cheat table in the fix file. The hotkey for now only corrects from 4:3 to 16:9. I may add more presets later, after I try a 48:9 resolution and others). My aspect geometry ratio mod is disabled by default.

For non 3D Vision use, remember to comment or delete this block of code in d3dx.ini:

1;Shadows and boost meter.
2[TextureOverrideHUD3]
3Hash=6bdb699f
4filter_index=2

Otherwise, the boost bar and yellow circle will remain in 4:3.

The only remaining issue is that the fix thinks that the two repair columns are part of the sun / lens flares content (because they have the same texture hash), so it will be partially hidden by the bottom border of the screen (it's affected by the Y axis correction). But it's an HUD element that is relatively unimportant. It was either that or leaving the sun/lens flares at an incorrect position.

I'll update the helixmod blog post with a definitive version and updated instructions for CheatEngine. I wish this FOV mod could be made by patching the exe or using a config file. But this is great nonetheless.

Another edit: btw, I can also decide if I want to modify only the HUD or only sun/lens flares. But in this fix I fix both at the same time.

masterotaku, I can patch the EXE to modify 00DFB1F0 address. The issue is it will be a specific FOV modification that works perfectly only for a single Aspect Ratio, such as 16:9 (as you did with the cheat engine table). I can't insert a complicated code that calculates aspect ratio and modifies FOV address accordingly. As you know, some ultrawide gaming monitors use 21:9 or many other aspect ratios.

Do you want me to patch the EXE for 16:9 mode? For 16:9 Mode memory address 00DFB1F0 will be set to 1.33333, which is 3FAAAAAB in hexadecimal representation.