Sunday, August 26, 2007
Old Fix Summary (Obsolete)
Installation Instructions
Note: These instructions are for Windows XP. They may or may not work with Windows Vista.
Note: These instructions are for the Bioshock PC demo. They may or may not work for the Retail (Full) version of the game.
[ ShaderShock Forums ]
A new forum set up to allow a more organized development process. This will probably become the best place to find the latest releases.
ScottJG's Blog
[ http://bioshocksm2.blogspot.com/ ]
ScottJG's blog should be updated with the latest fix, but it may occasionally fall behind the latest developments in the fix thread.
2K Games Forum Thread
[ Making Bioshock Work with SM2.0 Cards! (Work in progress) ]
The 2K Games forum thread chronicles the development of the grass-roots Bioshock Shader Model 2.0 Fix. The latest files can probably be found there, if you have the time to sift through the posts.
Beta 1 (Current Release)
[ Beta 1 Release Post ]
This release eliminates nearly all of the incorrectly-rendered surfaces, at the cost of many of the game's dynamic surface lighting effects that were working in Alpha 2.
Alpha 2
[ Alpha 2 Release Post ]
Previous releases performed better with "High Detail Shaders" off, but this release performs better with "High Detail Shaders" on.
Alpha Release Files (Obsoleted)
The Alpha Release can be found on ScottJG's blog here: http://bioshocksm2.blogspot.com/
Original Patch Files (Obsoleted)
[ Original Patch Files ]
[ Updated Patch File ]
Note: These two updates are supposedly superseded by the Alpha, but some Demo users may find these two files produce better overall results. Alpha 2 appears to be the best option, however.
Instructions for Reducing Load Times:
(McKack has created a batch file to automate this process which can be found here. Being designed for Vista, this may or may not work with Windows XP.)
Ideal Graphics Settings
Be sure to have Real Time Reflection turned On and High Detail Shaders turned On.
Previous releases performed better with "High Detail Shaders" off, but the Alpha 2 release performs better with "High Detail Shaders" on.
Shader Model Compatibility Chart
[ Shader Model Compatibility Chart ]
This chart describes which video cards support which shader models. Note that cards such as the Radeon X800 and X850 support Shader Model 2.0b, and will see significantly greater improvement with the patch (in its current form) than Shader Model 2.0 cards such as the Radeon 9600 and 9800.
Tips for speeding up testing
[ Tips for speeding up testing ]
These instructions are useful for speeding up testing if you plan to be going in and out of the game often.
Shader Editing Tool
[ Shader Editing Tool Download ]
Phazz has put together this tool to extract and repack the contents of the shaders.spk file, allowing technically-proficient users to edit the scripting of these files themselves.
Accessing the Development Console
[ Dev Console Instructions ]
This may or may not be useful - currently no critical functioning commands have been found.
Demo Trainer
[ Demo Trainer Download and Instructions ]
A "trainer" application that provides a number of cheats for the Bioshock Demo, such as infinite ammo, infinite Eve, and others, but most notably the ability to Save and Load a teleport position in the level. Note: I have not tested this application - exercise caution in downloading and using software from sources unknown to you.
Note: These instructions are for Windows XP. They may or may not work with Windows Vista.
Note: These instructions are for the Bioshock PC demo. They may or may not work for the Retail (Full) version of the game.
- Install the Bioshock Demo
- Locate your demo installation folder
- The default is C:\Program Files\2K Games\Bioshock Demo\
- For Steam, the default is C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\bioshock demo\
- Delete the ShaderCache.pcs and ShaderCache.pcs10 files from the Builds\Release\ folder.
- Extract the files for the current fix into the Builds\Release\ folder
- Follow the instructions below for Reducing Load Times
- Play the Bioshock Demo
[ ShaderShock Forums ]
A new forum set up to allow a more organized development process. This will probably become the best place to find the latest releases.
ScottJG's Blog
[ http://bioshocksm2.blogspot.com/ ]
ScottJG's blog should be updated with the latest fix, but it may occasionally fall behind the latest developments in the fix thread.
2K Games Forum Thread
[ Making Bioshock Work with SM2.0 Cards! (Work in progress) ]
The 2K Games forum thread chronicles the development of the grass-roots Bioshock Shader Model 2.0 Fix. The latest files can probably be found there, if you have the time to sift through the posts.
Beta 1 (Current Release)
[ Beta 1 Release Post ]
This release eliminates nearly all of the incorrectly-rendered surfaces, at the cost of many of the game's dynamic surface lighting effects that were working in Alpha 2.
Alpha 2
[ Alpha 2 Release Post ]
Previous releases performed better with "High Detail Shaders" off, but this release performs better with "High Detail Shaders" on.
Alpha Release Files (Obsoleted)
The Alpha Release can be found on ScottJG's blog here: http://bioshocksm2.blogspot.com/
Original Patch Files (Obsoleted)
[ Original Patch Files ]
[ Updated Patch File ]
Note: These two updates are supposedly superseded by the Alpha, but some Demo users may find these two files produce better overall results. Alpha 2 appears to be the best option, however.
Instructions for Reducing Load Times:
(McKack has created a batch file to automate this process which can be found here. Being designed for Vista, this may or may not work with Windows XP.)
- Locate your Bioshock Application Data folder. (You may need to have "Show Hidden Files and Folders" turned on in Tools - Folder Options.)
- In Windows XP this is located in:
- C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\Application Data\Bioshock\
- In Windows Vista this is located in:
- C:\Users\Your User Name\AppData\Roaming\Bioshock\
- In some cases, you may be able to easily access this folder by going to Start - Run and running the command %appdata%/Bioshock/
- If there is a ShaderErrors folder there, delete it.
- Create an empty text file with no extension in this \Bioshock\ folder and name it ShaderErrors. (You will need to have Hide Extensions for Known File Types turned off in Tools - Folder Options to ensure no .txt extension is created for the file.)
Ideal Graphics Settings
Be sure to have Real Time Reflection turned On and High Detail Shaders turned On.
Previous releases performed better with "High Detail Shaders" off, but the Alpha 2 release performs better with "High Detail Shaders" on.
Shader Model Compatibility Chart
[ Shader Model Compatibility Chart ]
This chart describes which video cards support which shader models. Note that cards such as the Radeon X800 and X850 support Shader Model 2.0b, and will see significantly greater improvement with the patch (in its current form) than Shader Model 2.0 cards such as the Radeon 9600 and 9800.
Tips for speeding up testing
[ Tips for speeding up testing ]
These instructions are useful for speeding up testing if you plan to be going in and out of the game often.
Shader Editing Tool
[ Shader Editing Tool Download ]
Phazz has put together this tool to extract and repack the contents of the shaders.spk file, allowing technically-proficient users to edit the scripting of these files themselves.
Accessing the Development Console
[ Dev Console Instructions ]
This may or may not be useful - currently no critical functioning commands have been found.
Demo Trainer
[ Demo Trainer Download and Instructions ]
A "trainer" application that provides a number of cheats for the Bioshock Demo, such as infinite ammo, infinite Eve, and others, but most notably the ability to Save and Load a teleport position in the level. Note: I have not tested this application - exercise caution in downloading and using software from sources unknown to you.
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