 
DX-Tweaker Public Beta 3

Copyright (c) 2005 nonatainment 
All rights reserved.

Bugs, mistakes and suggestions (e.g. corrected or new localisations) are welcome to be mailed to dxtweaker@nonatainment.de.


Whats new?

Beta 3:

- Complete new user interface
- Help via tooltips
- Optimized plug-ins
- New language localisation (via external .xml files)
- Higher compatibility
- Program minimize to tray icon

Beta 2b:

- Higher compatibility with several new games and game-engines, also more compatibility with older DX7 and DX8 games

Beta 2a:

- Removing problems with some Windows 2000 installations

Beta 2:

- Alphatest AA has more options.
- Shader Display Plugin allows free selection of colors.
- Present Changer allows to select the refresh-rate in fullscreen mode
- New Plugins: Force NPatch, Post Filter, Shader Grabber, Super Sampling

Requirements:
- DirectX 9.0c
- .Net Framework 1.1


Compatibility:
- DX 9.0 applications
- DX 8.0 and 8.1 applications (not fully supported)
- DX 7 application (experimental)


Installation:
This BETA VERSION has no setup program. To install this software, extract the files with the original paths onto your HDD.


Deinstallation:
To remove this software, delete all files from the directory. Remove the registry key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\nonatainment\DXTweaker" with the registry editor.


Start:
To start the program, simply execute the "DXTControl.EXE" file.


Create a new configuration:
In the project area, right mouseclick opens the context menu and choose New Program to create a new configuration.


Delete a configuration:
To delete a configuration, select the the specified entry, open the context menu and choose Delete. After a confirmation the configuration is deleted.


Start a configuration:
To start a application with a specified configuration there a several ways. First, select the corresponding configuration, open the context menu and click Start. Second, just double click on the desired configuration.

ATTENTION: Though program always starts, the tweaks are only active if you check the Active entry in the properties area of the configuration.


Changing a configuration:
A configuration has 5 properties.
 - Name: The name of the configuration. You can freely choose a name with the same restrictions as for a valid filename.
 - Active: Enables or disables the tweaks on application start.
 - Path: The full path to the tweaked application.
 - Arguments: Options parameters to start the application.
 - Working Path: The working path for the application.
When choosing an application with the open file dialog, the working path is set automatically. Also the name of the configuration is set to the application name.


Plugins:
All tweaks are plug-ins. To choose a plug-in, check the selected plug-in in plug-in list. To change the options of a plug-in, select the name of the plug-in. Then change the options in the option panel that appears right next to the list.



List of Plug-ins:

1. AF Control: 
Forces a certain texture filter per Sampler (Stage).

2. Alpha Test AA: 
This plug-in uses a nonatainment-exclusive algorithm to smooth alpha-test edges previously untouched by MSAA. To do this, the plug-in requires both the installed graphics hardware to properly support masked multisampling and additionally the D3D-application to request a masked-AA Buffer.
If the D3D-application does not request such a buffer, you can use the "Present Changer Plug-in" to compensate for this.
To get all available cases it is possible to write a log ("Write Use Case"), that writes the "DXTAlphaTest.log" after ending the application. 


3. Caps Changer:
This plug-in enables the user to alter the DirectX caps-bits the driver forwards to the D3D-API, which in turn informs the D3D-application upon request.
ATTENTION: To change or add previously unsupported caps to a given graphics hardware can cause graphical errors and other unforeseeable things in the D3D-application.
For further details regarding specific caps-bits, please refer to the DirectX-SDK.


4. Force NPatch:
Forces global activation for N-Patch Tesselation if available on the graphics adapter.


5. Force Shader FP:
This plug-in changes the shader-code sent to the graphics hardware to make use only of DX9-full precision (depending on your graphics hardware FP24 or FP32) for all pixelshader calculations.


6. Force Shader PP:
This plug-in changes the shader-code sent to the graphics hardware to make use of speed-enhancements through reduced precision for all pixelshader calculations.


7. Ident Changer:
Enables the user to change both Device/Vendor ID and DriverID forwarded to the respective D3D-application.

8. Null Render:
This Plug-in suppresses the forwarding of rendering jobs to the graphics hardware after pressing a configurable hot-key.


9. Post Filter:
Allows post-filtering with different effects.


10. Present Changer:
Enables the user to change the requested backbuffer capabilities (size, format, antialiasing) forwarded to the D3D-application.


11. Shader Display:
This plug-in color-codes all rendered pixels with regard to their max. used pixelshader-version. Colors can be selected freely.


12. Shader Grabber:
Saves shaders used by the application in a file or folder.

13. Statistic:
Stores information for each rendered frame into a file.
Storing can be started and interrupted by a pressing a specified key. The time in milliseconds, the number of objects as well as the vertices in this frame is stored.
NOTE: The CPU time is measured. Due to the prerendered buffers this does not have to be identical with the time required by the GPU for this frame.


14. Super Sampling:
Activates 4x Supersampling mode.
ATTENTION: The maximum resolution depends on the used hardware and can be lesser than normal.


15. Texture Format Display:
After pressing a configurable hot-key, this plug-in color-codes all textures with regard to their respective format. Formats regarded and colors to be used can be selected freely.


16. Texture Size Display:
This plug-in colorizes all textures depending on their respective size after pressing a hot-key. Min/max size and the colors used for the respective textures can be selected freely.


17. Wireframe:
A configurable hot-key switches the renderer into wireframe mode and back.




COPYRIGHT AND WARRANTY

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

THIS SOFTWARE IS A FREE OF CHARGE BETA VERSION. IF YOU HAD TO PAY FOR THIS SOFTWARE THIS WAS WITHOUT OUR AGREEMENT AND AGAINST OUR LICENSE AGREEMENTS.

ALSO THIS BETA VERSION IS COPYRIGHTED AND SHOULD NOT BE PUBLISHED IN ANY CASE WITHOUT PERMISSION.
 
