Updated to v2.0 on 2021-05-23. See update notes below to see what's changed
The words "Trine" and "Stereo 3D" used to go together like peanut butter and jelly (or chocolate, if you're a Reese fan), and it truly is an ominous sign that 3D is all but abandoned by everyone except us enthusiasts when the latest game in the poster-child for 3D series did NOT have stereo 3D functionality built in. People cried out on the Steam forums, pleading to have 3D patched in and the developers have made it clear that they have no desire or intention to do so, which is a shame because Trine 4 is a marvelous game, both in gameplay and visual capacity. Well fear not, friends, for I have come to the rescue and it is a great honor for me to provide you with this fix to bring T4 to it's full 3D glory.
Version History
v2.0 on 2021-05-23:
- Entire fix remade after being broken from Melodies of Mystery DLC update
- Specular highlights are now at realistic depth
- Slightly better behaving auto-convergence shader during cutscenes
- Determined that certain issues were fixed only for 1440P (resolution I play at). This update adjusts these fixes to correctly work across all resolutions and all AA settings.
3D Fix Summary
Game Engine: Trine Engine - DX11
Fixed Issues:
- Lighting & shadows
- Specular highlights
- Halo effects
User Interface Features:
- Fully dynamic scene auto-convergence. This is a HUGE benefit to this game, as the camera zooms in and out a lot as you play through the levels, which having a static convergence would mean that the pop-out effect that is so desirable for these games would be lost when the camera would zoom out. It also caused the mouse cursor to constantly be off-axis with objects. This, however, would be remedied by having a 3D mouse cursor, which I did also incorporate.
I've tried my best to tweak the parameters of the autoconvergence shader to provide a constant state of having the player characters at screen depth, while also providing smooth enough transitions during cutscenes, but with such a wide range of convergence values it was tough to achieve and still has some quirks. You may find during some cutscenes the auto-convergence shader may keep shaking (aka judder) between 2 values (unfortunately the built in "anti-judder" failsafe doesn't seem to work), so in these cases it is possible to temporarily disable the shader via a toggle key until the next scene. - A 3D mouse cursor with toggle switch to set cursor to static depth as an option
- Cyclable HUD depth
Other Notes/Issues:
- This is NOT a game where you want to crank up your separation. Not only does it make the environments look unnaturally elongated, but doing so causes many visual anomalies, such as aggressive occlusion clipping which will have geometry in the background start disappearing/flickering as the screen moves, some blocky clipping on shadows, and misalignment of others things which have already been stereo-corrected. I find running at about 50% separation on my 27" screen and lower is about the correct scale and eliminates most of the anomalies, and going down to even about 25% still looks good in scale and completely eliminates all anomalies.
- Sometimes the game will randomly break some fixed shadows. Sometimes alt+tabbing will fix them, or just reloading the checkpoint will do it. Completely infuriating, and nothing I can do for it. See this post here for proof and details
- This game seems to have shaders used for multiple effects, which creates conflicts, as some of these effects are not correct in 3D and some are, and there seems to be no way of differentiating and separating them to fix what needs to be fixed without "fixing" the already correct effect, and in turn breaking it. Some examples are:
- Environment shadows vs character shadows. Character shadows are correct without any fix, however environment shadows need a stereo fix. Fortunately, when the convergence is at a value where the character is at screen depth then character shadows become correct as well, which is one of the main reasons I focused on achieving that through auto-convergence
- Certain HUD effects vs fog/smoke. This one here is just plain ridiculous that all these are handled by the same shader. Fog & smoke are stereo correct, but the visual effects like the "swish" lines when swinging on a rope, arrow shot trails, and the line that gets drawn when summoning boxes have way too much separation. Trying to fix these breaks fog & smoke, which I feel is not an option so I don't even bother, but. I do provide a key where you can disable all of these effects if you'd prefer.
- The blue outline when highlighting most levitatable objects vs the same outline on barrels. Another mind-f*ck this one is, because it's the same damn thing, but for one particular object (barrels) doesn't require a 3D fix, but all the rest do. So, ummm, f*** those barrels, more important to have the fix for everything else in place.
- Dust vs snow clouds. Snow clouds in Amadeus' first level are fine without a fix, but the dust in the background when you first enter the haunted manor as Pontius is a bit broken (not too bad if you follow my instruction to lower your separation) is. I've provided a toggle key to switch between the two if desired.
Instructions
1. Download fix: Trine 4 3D Fix v2.0
2. Extract fix contents to '..\Trine 4 The Nightmare Prince' folder where Trine4.exe exists
3. The following keybindings have been set up:
Key Effect
~ Enables or disables the auto-convergence shader. Default is enabled
F1 Cycles through HUD depth settings
F2 Disables HUD (for those perfect screenshots)
F3 Enables or disables the 3D mouse cursor. Default is enabled
F4 Enables or disables the fog/smoke and HUD effects shader. Default is enabled
F5 Toggles between the dust/snow fix. Default is diabled, so that the snow will be correct, since it comes in the level before the dust
Capslock or
Xbox L-Thumb If choosing to not use the autoconvergence shader at all, then this is a toggle key for low-convergence during cutscenes
stick
Tools used and special credits
-3DMigoto v1.3.16 by 3DMigoto development team
-Auto-convergence and 3D crosshair shaders by DarkStarSword
Donations
-Like my work and wish to show appreciation and provide funding towards future game fixes? Dontations can be sent by visiting: www.paypal.me/DShanz or by sending to rshannonca@gmail.com