Making Bioshock Work with SM2.0 Cards! (Work in progress)

[ScottJG]

When I heard you needed a SM3 card to run Bioshock, I was mad. Here I had a video card that could run HL2, Stalker, and even upcoming Crysis, but not a game I had been looking forward to and had been getting good ratings everywhere.

So I started tinkering in the shader files of the Bioshock demo...

After an hour, I got it working on my card: and Ill tell you how

First, download this (which I made, and uploaded! )

http://rapidshare.com/files/50276163...ottJG.rar.html

(If you install the above and it doesnt work, then try downloading and installing this, which offers more of my configuration files: http://rapidshare.com/files/50284028...ottJG.rar.html )

Then, copy and paste all files to the C:\Program Files\2K Games\BioShock\Builds\Release directory

Boot up Bioshock, and you should now see your cursor (you couldn't before)


Note:

1)It will take a LONG time to load things now at check points. Wait at least 5 minutes when you get a loading screen up
2)Some textures will look really crappy (or be an entirely different color than they should be)


BEFORE




AFTER (Notice the textures)






This is a work in progress, so Im going to keep you guys updated

That being said, there is no reason they cant make this work on 2.0 cards: I made it work within 20 minutes!

[Fuzzy OneThree]

Nice job, but you still aren't there yet.

I hope you can find a better solution.

[iclone7]

good lookin! keep up the good work. some friends gonna be happy

[Freddo]

Very impressive! Well done!

[dexd]

Well done, that'll make some peeps very happy

The plane crash scene looks just as good as it should

[aznpxdd]

What's up with Irrational not supporting SM2 cards? Mark Rein of Epic said UT3 will support SM2 cards, so its not en engine problem.

[nightsilencer]

Thanks for this, please keep up the great work, I downloaded the demo, and I was quite dissapointed that my 9800XT couldn't run this game. Ok, I know it's an old card, but in terms of graphical power, it still surprises me sometimes.
This gives some hope that I will be able to play the demo and buy this game.
As many shader model 2 players will, probaly. Isn't that what matters? Making more costumers happy? Please, keep up the work, it might be too much to ask, but if you manage to come up with a playable patch for SM2 cards, I will personally hold you as my new god.

Cheers.

[GRYPHON_THEDOG]

but how will they sell new video cards? the poor presidents of nvidia and ati will go hungry if you FIX this card selling feature...

[ouch]

Thank you for showing them their stupid mistake. It's absolutuely insane that they don't support sm2. The engine works in dx9 so there is no reason for it to not work with sm2.

It just pisses me off that they could be so careless with thier customers. It's like they don't even care.

it makes you wonder if microsoft put them up to it...

[nightsilencer]

Man, the same thing happened to TES: Oblivion. A lot of people complaining that their Geforce 3/4 couldn't run the game, cause it required a SM2 card to run. And some guy came with an unofficial patch called Oldblivion, that made the game run on cards as old as Geforce 3! And Olbivion is like what, 1 and a half years old at most? sometimes the presidents of ATI and nvidia get really hungry, and I think that by making this game SM3 only, they showed that. What more reason could people need to buy new cards? This patch, if coming to a final playable version, only shows that the gamer community is in charge, not those money sucking CEOs from ATI and Nvidia.