A Modern Renderer - Rend 2 (Graphics Mod)

[W!zard]

So this has been posted on here already, (Mentioned by Cat Lady on Page 2 here),
but due to the latest suggestions and wishes for better Graphics in MB2( here and here ) it seems to me that the actual knowledge of Rend 2 isnt as spread as it deserves to be (and it deserves its own thread here aswell, imo).

To conclude what it does I just quote Xycaleth from JKHub:

What is rend2?
It's no secret that JKA is over 13 years old and arguably the graphics haven't aged well, compared to recently released games. With graphics having come so far in the past decade, and with JKA's engine source code now available, it would be a shame if nobody at least tried to bring something new to JKA's rendering engine

Rend2 is an attempt at this, and brings with it better utilisation of your graphics card for better and increased FPS. More importantly, it makes use of a variety of newer rendering techniques such as real-time dynamic shadows and lighting, normal mapping and specular mapping. Another big feature is physically based rendering: a relatively new feature in games that allows artists to create more realistic materials.

So if you love shiny graphics then hopefully this can be something that will appeal to you

It adds some extra depth to an otherwise ageing game. It does mean though that you will need a graphics card that was made in the last 6 years! Even if graphics don't matter to you, rend2 gives more stable and increased FPS to give the game a smoother feel.

Now this sounds great already, heres what this Mod actually adds:

What does rend2 have so far?
Complete

• Normal mapping
• Specular mapping
• Parallax mapping
• HDR + filmic tonemapping
• Multisampled Antialiasing
• Improved texture compression support

Working, but still in progress

• Real-time lighting
• Real-time sun shadows
• Image-based lighting

TODO

• Feature parity with the vanilla renderer - surface sprites, fog, flares, misc_bsp, ghoul2 marks.

Now which I find most impressive is the Real-Time lightning.
A few examples of Rend 2 in Action:

I know its hard to add into MB2 and its not finished, but those Videos are based on older Builds and the development on Rend 2 hasnt stopped. Most recently its being worked on for the DF2 Mod.
This in MB2 would be truly awesome

Now how to download?
Rend2 currently only avialable for OpenJK JKA, all important infos can be found here:
JKHub thread: Rend2 - A Modern Renderer
Big thanks to all the People over at JKHub who have worked/ are working on it!

Some newer stuff:

 

[hunGarry]

It looks pretty good! Make sure to post some pics if you can make it work in mb2!
Also normal and parallax maps dont appear from nowhere, they need to be created one by one for every texture in the game.

 

[Noob]

I think devs have said that mb2 is meant to be played by all pc's and that rend 2 is horribly optimized (as seen with the first clip).

 

[LoU]

Currently, only Windows builds for multiplayer are available. Downloads are available from: Index of /rend2/

 

[TeKilla]

i wish we have those shadows in mb2

 

[Sir Crusher]

Awesome

 

[ez.EpicLoyd]

You'll be even more amazed looking at this: Star Wars: Warzone - JKHub

 

[Sir Crusher]

You'll be even more amazed looking at this: Star Wars: Warzone - JKHub

 

[GoodOl'Ben]

Why's the latest rend2 build from October? I tried booting that up some time ago and it didn't have any of the cool stuff like PBR.

 

[Sir Crusher]

Why's the latest rend2 build from October? I tried booting that up some time ago and it didn't have any of the cool stuff like PBR.

it's because the base jka doesn't have the PBR materials and stuff. rend2 doesn't create, it just renders

 

[W!zard]

I think devs have said that mb2 is meant to be played by all pc's and that rend 2 is horribly optimized (as seen with the first clip).

The first Video is based on an early build from 2015, the performance should be far better(it just showcased the shadows well).
The change of the renderer is, when installed, just a command, so for the people with better rigs it even gives a performance boost and is and option to easily turn off for anyone when installed in OpenJK.
What im trying to say is that u could implement Rend2 while still being friendly to low spec users, its a toggle.
And you can even use rend 2 and turn specific things on and off, finding a good balance for your system. Modern Systems can drop in fps quite a bit in MB2 and Rend2 might improve the performance on those.

You'll be even more amazed looking at this: Star Wars: Warzone - JKHub

Yes it looks great, this even uses Rend2 aswell, just a custom version for his Warzone mod.

Why's the latest rend2 build from October? I tried booting that up some time ago and it didn't have any of the cool stuff like PBR.

They only made smaller changes and keep current versions for them for testing afaik. You can follow the only open thread for some news, last news being Rain effects added. Sadly the latest development which takes place on the DF2 Mod version of it is not publicly viewable anymore.

 

[W!zard]

And @DT85 keeps teasing if you read this I would appreciate some of your knowledge for the questions in this thread!

 

[GoodOl'Ben]

it's because the base jka doesn't have the PBR materials and stuff. rend2 doesn't create, it just renders

I know. I would love to play around and make my own PBR shaders etc, but seemingly there isn't any documentation or mention about PBR being in the October build.

The improved shadows, post-process tasks and all such would also be very nice to play around with as well.

I mean just look at this stuff. <3

They only made smaller changes and keep current versions for them for testing afaik. You can follow the only open thread for some news, last news being Rain effects added. Sadly the latest development which takes place on the DF2 Mod version of it is not publicly viewable anymore.

Doesn't that kind of go against the whole open source aspect? Of course this is okay if they'll release the source once they're done.

 

[Sir Crusher]

I mean just look at this stuff. <3

Looks very good!

 

[Sir Crusher]

I know. I would love to play around and make my own PBR shaders etc, but seemingly there isn't any documentation or mention about PBR being in the October build.

That's true, but I'm pretty sure @DT85 already knows how to work with that

 

[DT85]

Yeah so I ported rend2 to SP (with a little help here and there) for the DF2 Project, and SomaZ has been busy adding in some of the latest ioq3 rend2 updates and making some of his own additions/changes. The only noticeable changes so far is refraction (force push/pull), fix for force speed effect & PBR. SomaZ is working on adding Global Illumination and a lot of other things. FYI - rend2 MP is waaaay behind it's SP version.

PBR in "GL2" (our version of rend2 on SP):

- Albedo map
- Normal/Parallax map
- RMO "specular" map

RMO map is simply Roughness (red channel), Metalness (green channel) & Occlusion (blue channel).

We use Substance Painter/Designer to create PBR textures.

EDIT:

DF2's code isn't hidden, just the exe/dlls/assets on dropbox.

GitHub - DT85/OpenDF2 at rend2-sp

 

[{Δ} Achilles]

I'm all for a visual upgrade to MB2. I think the days of potato hardware have long since passed to safely perform said upgrade... so long as it is optimized relatively well.

 

[cgj26]

Looks great thought I was looking at that old mb3 footage at first, I'm all for it. At least if we start lagging we can look at these gorgeous models. It will also give the Peneke team something greater than polygons if I think that's how this works.

 

[hunGarry]

I just came across a new video and its spectacular, hard to believe its still quake3 engine!
It would be a mistake not to use this technology in the future

 

[DT85]

The changes we make with DF2's GL2 renderer can easily be ported to rend2 MP and I expect someone to do that once we're finished.


Tell you what though, it sure is fun making PBR textures.