Fixing Lighting Issues, Crushed Whites, and Environmental Pop-In (Technical Improvements – part I)

Hi everyone!

Today’s post is somewhat special. While testing some non-texture-related files of the game, I was able to edit a few things I never thought were possible to change…

I’d like to be clear that I have no coding knowledge or anything like that. I’m just terribly obstinate! What you’ll see here is the result of hours of “what if I change this <random number> with another <random number>” trial-and-error hex-edits. In the end, I learned the function of certain bytes of data.

So if someone asks: “Could you fix <some other issue> as well?” The answer will be: “I have no idea if that’s possible right now.” haha ;-P

I fixed the following issues (you’ll find a comparison video at the end of the post):

• Lighting Pop-In

This is by far the most annoying graphical glitch to my eyes… This problem happens in rooms where the player has the flashlight on.

This issue depends entirely on Leon’s closeness to the 3D model… The problem is that some 3D models don’t react to the light until Leon is too close to them.
The solution I found is really cheap, but 100% effective: I just placed extra polygons (not visible in-game) all around the model at a certain distance. The game engine will “notice” the model is closer to Leon than before and it will start reacting to flashlight light at longer distance than before. The result is a nice and soft gradient from dark to light.

• Crushed Whites

Something that always bothers me when I play this game is when I see lights that literally make the surroundings look completely white. All detail is lost!
It seems this is a general problem throughout the game and no edited gradient file or Sweet FX configuration can fix that. You can make the white darker using those options, but you’ll never get back the lost image detail from a crushed white area.

The solution: I found the bytes inside the LIT file for each room that controls the intensity, contrast, and brightness of the overall light in the room. The problem is resolved by reducing the contrast!

• Cold and Warm Ambient Colour

Another issue I noticed while playing this port is a specific point where the color of the ambient light changes from warm to cold (this occurs in the castle, specifically in the puzzle room with the paintings).

The solution: This was a glitched effect (not sure which one). I edited the EFF file of that room and deactivate that broken effect. The right color-temperature for that room is the cold one. 🙂

• Pop-Up Trees

Did you notice the trees popping in the distance all of a sudden when you approach them in the first area?

This was likely an optimization method Capcom implemented because the number of polygons in that area is huge. This is now unnecessary given that we are no longer bound by the Gamecube’s hardware limitations.

The solution: Fortunately, I found the bytes inside a LIT file (every room has its own LIT file) that control the distance to the player before certain models are rendered on screen. But those numbers doesn’t control all models… So, after some additional research I also found the bytes that control the density of the fog at that distance as well!

And here’s a comparison video for all 4 corrected issues!:

I hope you like these edits… And as always, feel free to comment about them!