Hype: The Time Quest Widescreen

[lk19]

I added patches for the following aspect ratios:
25:16, 16:10, 15:9, 16:9, 21:9, 32:9

I also wrote a short readme with instructions and known issues.
I called it version "3.1", but it is essentially just version 3 with more aspect ratios. So no need to download it, if you already have the 16:9 patch I uploaded earlier

@deton24: Would you mind updating the PcGamingWiki entry? Thank you!

[deton24]

Whoa! Done. Thanks.

[lk19]

Edit: These instructions are outdated. Please use the newest version of the widescreen fix (instructions how to set up dgVoodoo are included in the Readme)

Hi there! So I figured out how to run the widescreen patch in dgVoodoo instead of nGlide. The only real "advantage" is that it uses the direct3D backend (with nGlide, only Vulkan mode seems to be stable, direct3D crashes randomly). However it also causes two additional (but very minor) glitches. Therefore, I haven't uploaded a separate version of the patch, but instead I will provide instructions how to change the nGlide version of the patch to make it work with dgVoodoo. Of course, if many people are interested in running the game through dgVoodoo, I could upload a separate version of the patch here.

Remember how we passed custom Glide-window resolutions to the Glide API instead of pre-defined video modes? This ONLY works with nGlide, so we have to revert this change and switch back to video mode 0x7 (meaning 640x480). So all you have to do is the following:
Open the patched binary corresponding to your desired aspect ratio in a hex-editor. Look at the byte sequence at offset 9C915. It should look something like this: 68 80 02 68 01 (the last two bytes may be different depending on the aspect ratio). Simply replace this with 6A 07 90 90 90.

Now we're back at the good old widescreen image inside a 4:3 window that doesn't get properly stretched problem! But instead of using SWRU or reshade to fix this, we can use dgVoodoo's very own ROI (region of interest) functionality for this. So copy the necessary dll files into the game's directory and start the dgVoodoo configurator (make sure that you select the game's folder in the configurator). Then right click anywhere in the configurator window and select "Show all sections of the configuration". This will enable advanced settings. Here are the settings that I used:

• On the Glide tab, select "Enable inactive app state"
• On the General tab, select "Scaling mode" = "Stretched, keep aspect ratio" (you won't be able to change the next setting unless you do this first)
• On the GeneralExt tab, look at the field "Display ROI". Do not select any of the pre-defined options, but instead type in "16_9, pos:(0|0)", or whatever corresponds to your aspect ratio.
• Now there are 2 options:
  1. (Fullscreen Mode, lower resolution): On the Glide tab, select the highest 4:3 resolution that your screen supports (for me this is 1280x960); on the General tab, make sure that "Full Screen" is selected.
  2. (Borderless Window Mode, enables higher resolution): On the Glide tab, MANUALLY type in a 4:3 resolution that matches the x-resolution of your screen's native resolution (for me this would be 1920x1440); on the General tab, select "Windowed"; on the GeneralExt tab, select "Borderless".

Once you start the game, it may take a few seconds for the image to resize!

The two new glitches I experienced with dgVoodoo (these are independent of the widescreen modifications I made to the file; they also occur with the original binary):

• When you first start the game, the framerate seems to be very low (~20fps). Once you Alt+Tab out of it and go back, this should be fixed and you get a stable 48fps. Make sure you have checked "Enable inactive app state" in the dgVoodoo control panel, or the game will crash on alt-tabbing!
• Whenever you select a resolution that is greater than native (i.e. 640x480), you get "ghost images" on the inventory screen. E.g. if you scroll through the navigation pane on the left hand side of the inventory screen, you will still see fragments of the last item you have selected in the place where the newly selected item is displayed.

[deton24]

Thank you very much! That fix should be very useful for people w/o GPU supporting Vulkan - e.g. 8XXX and 9XXX GT series. I'll try to edit the wiki note properly. Regards!

[Manu270891]

Hi lk19!

First of all, thanks for your amazing fix! I tried it with the English release of the game and it works perfectly! Unfortunately, the Spanish version uses a different .exe than the English version. Could you release your fix for the Spanish version of the game? I could provide you the spanish "MaiDFXvr_bleu.exe".

Thanks!

[lk19]

So I've had a look at the Spanish game files, and for some reason they don't seem to work with the English .exe (which is strange, since my German game files work with it just fine).
In the end, I ended up just searching for all the relevant addresses and hacked the Spanish MaiDFXvr_bleu.exe in exactly the same way I altered the English binary file
The result is attached (intended for 16:9 aspect ratio).

EDIT: I added a ReadMe file to the archive containing instructions on how to adapt this patch for other aspect ratios.

[Thorn]

Hey All,

My cousin and I have been trying to get Hype to run on windows 10 but have had no luck. We also tried using windows XP vms with both ripped game CD files and actual copies of the game in physical disk drives but haven't gotten it to run on either. Would anyone be willing to walk me through the process of getting the game to work on Windows 10 or in a vm? I would prefer to not have to use a disk drive as I lost my copy of the game a long time ago but my cousin still has an actual disk copy if that's the only way it will work.

Thanks in advance!

[lk19]

Hey All,

My cousin and I have been trying to get Hype to run on windows 10 but have had no luck. We also tried using windows XP vms with both ripped game CD files and actual copies of the game in physical disk drives but haven't gotten it to run on either. Would anyone be willing to walk me through the process of getting the game to work on Windows 10 or in a vm? I would prefer to not have to use a disk drive as I lost my copy of the game a long time ago but my cousin still has an actual disk copy if that's the only way it will work.

Thanks in advance!

Could you describe, where exactly you run into issues? The modified .exe on the nGlide website doesn't require the CD to run. Hence, the widescreen patch (which is based on this .exe) doesn't require the CD in a physical drive either. Please try to get the game to run without the widescreen patch first, just to make sure it's not a problem with the patch itself.

The game installer (but only the installer) is 16-bit. So as far as I can tell, there should be at least four ways to install the game on modern 64-bit Win 10:

• Use an alternative installer
• Copy the files manually
• Install the game on a virtual machine and then copy everything over to your system
• Use winevdm to run the 16-bit installer

Methods 1 and 2 are described on https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Hype:_The_Time_Quest. The other two options shouldn't be too hard to figure out either (not 100% sure winevdm works, but if it does, it's probably the easiest way ).
Make sure that you replace the file MaiDFXvr_bleu.exe with the one from the nGlide website (some people also recommend to run it in Win XP compatibility mode.. for me this wasn't necessary). It is important that some .dll files end up in C:\Windows\Ubisoft\, otherwise the game will not run. So make sure that the files are there. The file ubi.ini, on the other hand, was simply ignored while it was in C:\Windows\Ubisoft\ in my case. I had to move it to %HypeGameFolder%\UbiSoft\ in order for it to be recognized (you need to change this file if you want to turn off FMVs, for example).

[deton24]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but also don't forget to install nGlide and check 3DFX in the game's configurator
It may fix some issues and/or performance.
E.g. dgVoodoo is not compatible with this widescreen fix ATM, it's only hackable in binary according to instructions.

[lk19]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but also don't forget to install nGlide and check 3DFX in the game's configurator
It may fix some issues and/or performance.
E.g. dgVoodoo is not compatible with this widescreen fix ATM, it's only hackable in binary according to instructions.

Yes, definitely remember to install nGlide! Sorry, I forgot that! Also make sure you run the nGlide configurator and choose the Vulkan renderer (otherwise, expect random crashes)!

Checking 3DFX in the configurator doesn't really change anything for me. I set it to D3D and the game would still run perfectly in Glide-mode, as long as you run the corresponding .exe (i.e. MaiDFXvr_bleu and not MaiD3Dvr_bleu).

[lk19]

Hi everyone! Thanks to Manu270891 for pointing out a bug: After you time-travel by using one of the sundials, the FOV value gets changed to 1.6 and stays at this value until the next loading screen. This is, of course, lower than the desired FOV for, let's say, 16:9 aspect ratio, which should be 1.786.
Turns out this "feature" was already present in the original game, where every time you use the sundial, you get a slightly larger FOV until the next loading screen (the standard is 1.5). Funny that nobody noticed this before
Here's what actually happens: To create the fancy "time-warp-tunnel" effect, the FOV gets changed to 1.6 and then increases in steps of 0.3 until it reaches 2.1. After the loading screen, the FOV starts at 2.92 and then decreases in steps of 0.08 until it reaches 1.64, and then is reduced one final time to 1.6. Good news is that I managed to trace the relevant values (like the "1.6") back through memory and found their location! Bad news is that they are located inside the .sna file of the area you are currently in (e.g. toras.sna or toras2.sna) I already found the values in the corresponding decrypted dump of these files generated by RayMap. So once we find a way to re-pack / re-encrypt these files, it should be an easy fix.

Until then.. if the lower FOV really bothers you and you cannot wait for the next loading screen.. here is a pointer to the address that you can change in Cheat Engine during gameplay to fix the FOV immeadiately:

• English .exe: [[60F07C]+8]+D4C
• Spanish .exe: [7DAED4]+7F0

Btw: I thought about hacking the code so that the relevant values get changed during gameplay, just like I did with the overall FOV value (which would also be a lot easier, if we could simply change the file fix.sna). But this would involve changing multiple addresses that are read from different files at different points in the game, and I think this is just way too much effort for such a minor issue

[deton24]

This decoder/encoder for SNA files from Rayman 2 is not useful somehow?
http://szymekk.me/rayman2/file_decoder.zip
(open in incognito mode if cannot be downloaded)

Actually Rayman Control Panel has a similar feature in Utilities>Decoders too, and it looks like the tool might be game specific (supports Rayman 2 and Tonic Trouble) so be aware. If it's really important, then RayCarrot maybe would be willing to help, since it's partially a step necessary for HD texture modding support iirc, if anyone cares (Tonic Trouble tex mod is still not made, but supported already link).

[lk19]

This decoder/encoder for SNA files from Rayman 2 is not useful somehow?

Unless they were updated in the last 1-2 months, neither the file decoder nor the rayman control panel work (I tested both at some point). Hype seems to use a different file format. It seems to be packed rather than encrypted (maybe both?). The only way I was able to unpack/decrypt the files was by loading them into the offline version of RayMap, which apparently comes with an unpacker/decoder for this file format Unfortunately, my programming skills are way too limited to understand how it works just by looking at the source code of this app

[deton24]

Bad news about SNA decoder in RCP.

I probably won't be adding that to RCP since that game handles it in a lot more complicated way, with each block being compressed I think.

But in case if

is looking for some challenge, here is the ping.

[Yeyo117]

Guys we have also a subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/HypeTheTimeQuest/. If there is something I can do let me know.

[AlphaYellow]

Could someone figure out how to remove the 48 fps cap ingame? I wanted to make a full walkthrough of this game on my channel, but playing at 48 fps is really confusing, and I wanted a smooth experience at solid 60, like other OpenSpace games I recorded (Tonic Trouble, Donald Duck Goin' Quackers and Rayman 2). If not, it's fine too.

[deton24]

I doubt it will work, but maybe check these DLL if they help:
https://www.vogons.org/download/file.php?id=83792

[AlphaYellow]

I doubt it will work, but maybe check these DLL if they help:
https://www.vogons.org/download/file.php?id=83792

It didn't work, it's an engine framerate cap. Maybe someone in the future will figure out how to disable it in the EXE code or something like that to unlock the weird 48 fps cap, it's beyond me why a dev would ever cap a game that framerate.

[Garo]

It didn't work, it's an engine framerate cap. Maybe someone in the future will figure out how to disable it in the EXE code or something like that to unlock the weird 48 fps cap, it's beyond me why a dev would ever cap a game that framerate.

They probably capped the framerate to 48 FPS because at the time PC's would probably never reach that frame rate. It's still an odd choice though.

[lk19]

It looks like nobody has found a way to recompress Hype's *.sna file format yet. I would love to fix the bug where the game's code changes the FOV in certain situations (i.e. time travellling). Also having a tool to decompress and recompress fix.sna would allow me to make the permanent FOV-fix less "hacky"
Not sure if it helps any, but the leaked Rayman 2 source code seems to contain the code for the *.sna file format (in a folder called tempgrp). It does mention encryption and checksums, but not compression... so maybe it's a completely different version of the algorithm (I was hoping that maybe Rayman 2 and Hype just use different parameters to create the sna-files). Unfortunately I don't know C very well and my programming skills are very limited. But maybe this information could be useful to someone
Nerver mind. Finally found a way handle Hype's *.sna file format (thanks to RayMap source code). Turns out you don't even need to recompress it, you just have to tell the game that the code is already decompressed (which is simply a byte in the header of each block in the sna-file). I'll have to do some more testing and if everything works fine, I'll write a little tool that patches new FOV-values into the sna-files.