Bloom?

The only shader hack for Halo Custom is Bloom.

Yeah because, if you dont install it right, it fuxes up the shaders in Halo

I think he just means something like Bloom, not something that has to do with messing with your gfx card configurations.

Increased specular?

Its not dynamic lighting if that is what your implying. It looks like a really low res cubemap.

That's probably all it is. Unless it's real time reflections, but I doubt it.

You made the shaders look ugly to get an extra 2 frames per second?

All I can think of are the ENB series hack for REAL Bloom, and the Surreal Filter using DXTweaker that emulates HDR lighting.
The ENB Series one looks much better but it will lag horribly because it is not coded as well as it COULD HAVE BEEN. It also requires a Shader Model 2.0a (I think) card or higher.
Surreal filter causes negligible performance loss, but it can be a bit eye-burning, as it is FAKE HDR. It forces your eyes to change according to color, but that doesn't work well with computer screens. It takes away color from the screen, rather than adding it (like real HDR lighting would), and the bright areas can be... ridiculously bright. I cannot even use the night-vision scope on a sniper.

sum1 go hax wit teh graphix kode and mak new gud graphix hax plxirz

Bloom =/= HDR
Bloom =/= Fake HDR
Surreal effect is an effect that simply edits the screen levels. As it is a pixel shader.

You know, Marty O' Donnell composed the Mr. Clean song. Random comment, I know.

The shader hack makes the cubemaps and bumpmaps come to live more. I use it. To me, looks really cool.

I fail to see what your argument is with the bloom =/= HDR.
Especially since I never even SUGGESTED or ATTEMPTED TO SUGGEST that they were the same.

Edited by Enzo03 on Dec 26, 2008 at 01:06 PM

If you said that bloom was FAKE Hdr then that is inferring that they are similar.

surprised dee, for somebody who knows c++, i thought you would know that != means "not equal to", not =/=

I dont talk in C++. I was to lazy to get the ≠ symbol.

Point out where I said that bloom was fake HDR.

And?
I still do not see anywhere where I said that bloom = fake HDR.

What I said was that the only two graphical enhancements for Halo that I could recall were the ENB Series hack for BLOOM, and the surreal filter, which seemed to me like fake HDR.
The only relation between these two are that they work for Halo.

I explained both of them separately, as well.
A simpler explanation:
ENB = bloom.
Surreal Filter = high contrast.

Now, if you want to argue with me about this, you will POINT OUT WHERE I SAID THAT BLOOM IS FAKE HDR.
Edited by Enzo03 on Dec 26, 2008 at 04:53 PM

Another two cents: If anyone thinks the Surreal Filter is bloom at all, that's fail. Bloom is the effect of light wrapping around dark areas, which cannot be done by a filter. I never even said that the Surreal filter does this.
You can see this effect by trying to block out the sun with your gun in Halo... that's about the only bloom effect in the entire game (that, and I think there might have been something in the engine room on The Maw, but I haven't played that level in forever, so...)
Edited by Enzo03 on Dec 26, 2008 at 04:55 PM

The surreal filter uses Assembly HLSL. It lowers the maps levels and then spreads highlights as it lowers it contrast. This is basically bloom as it still blurs its highlights. You then said that the filter is fake HDR. Which it is not.