______ ______ ______ ______ __ __ ______ ______ /\ ___\ /\ ___\ /\ ___\ /\ ___\ /\ "-.\ \ /\ ___\ /\ ___\ \ \ __\ \ \___ \ \ \___ \ \ \ __\ \ \ \-. \ \ \ \____ \ \ __\ \ \_____\ \/\_____\ \/\_____\ \ \_____\ \ \_\\"\_\ \ \_____\ \ \_____\ \/_____/ \/_____/ \/_____/ \/_____/ \/_/ \/_/ \/_____/ \/_____/ __ __ __ __ __ __ _____ ______ __ __ ______ __ __ /\_\_\_\ /\ \ _ \ \ /\ "-.\ \ /\ __-. /\ ___\ /\ \_\ \ /\ ___\ /\ \ /\ \ \/_/\_\/_\ \ \/ ".\ \\ \ \-. \\ \ \/\ \ \ \___ \\ \ __ \\ \ __\ \ \ \____\ \ \____ /\_\/\_\\ \__/".~\_\\ \_\\"\_\\ \____- \/\_____\\ \_\ \_\\ \_____\\ \_____\\ \_____\ \/_/\/_/ \/_/ \/_/ \/_/ \/_/ \/____/ \/_____/ \/_/\/_/ \/_____/ \/_____/ \/_____/ 2014-2015 (c) StaticZ ________________________________________________________________________________________ CONTENT 1.0 About ExShell 2.0 Install and Running 3.0 Requirements 4.0 Perfomance 5.0 Tested Games 6.0 Change Log ------------------- (1.0) About ExShell ------------------- "Essence XWnd Shell" aka ExShell is hook based application for force running old games (or ant other full screen applications) in windowed mode with different graphic filters (for example upscalers like 2xSaI). ExShell also provide some other abilities, like setting FPS limit or lowing CPU usage (see config for more details). ------------------------- (2.0) Install and Running ------------------------- For installing copy ExShell to any directory you whant and open exshell.ecd config file in any text editor (recomended Notepad++, you can import to it syntax higlight from *.xml file that are distributed with ExShell). To lunch your application you have to set path to it and it's screen resolution. The application you whant to run must be set in fullscreen mode, otherwise you get many problems and errors.Check other options and see comments there for more details. Be carefully, while saving config file, check that you use UTF8 (without BOM) encoding. Otherwise ExShell will have problems with reading it. ------------------ (3.0) Requirements ------------------ ExShell supports only windows x86 applications, that are based on DirectDraw or GDI. System requirements: Windows(R) XP/Vista/7 DirectX 9.0 Monitor, keybord, mouse, cheese, beer ---------------- (4.0) Perfomance ---------------- For compare speed of different filters, see table below. There values are average number of processor ticks for proccesing each pixel. All values were got by filtering screen 640x480 and dividing result for pixels count. As procesor ticks are very small values and exaclty value depends on many things, like current CPU loading the result where get as avarage for several minutes. _______________________ | Filter Type | Speed | |---------------+-------| | None* | <1 | | Simple | 5 | | Pixelate | 10 | | Scanlines | 10 | | ScanlinesTV | 17 | | AdMame | 17 | | Super2xSaI | 117 | | 2xSaI | 121 | | HQ | 680 | | LQ | 685 | | XBR | 696 | *---------------^-------* * According to exshell architecture "None filter" is real filter, that simply copy screen from one memmory block to other. So infact it's speed more depends on RAM speed then on CPU. As you can see ower winner is AdMame, it is very fast and give nice result, close to smth similar for Super2xSaI. ------------------ (5.0) Tested Games ------------------ ExShell was tested for compatibility with this games: 1. Jagged Alliance 2: Feeding Ground [OK] 2. Jagged Alliance 2: 1.13 [OK] 3. Jagged Alliance 2: Metavira [OK] 4. RPG Maker RT (aka 2003) [OK] * some features not supported 5. RPG Maker XP [OK] ---------------- (6.0) Change Log ---------------- (2014.09.28) ver 0.01 rev 011 build 14271 ------------------------------------------ * Intial realise (2014.10.09) ver 0.02 rev 018 build 14282 ------------------------------------------ * Fixed: FPS limit ignored after minimize\restore application * Fixed: SuperEagle filter crashed application. * Fixed: Related paths for $StartPEPath: don't work. * Change startup initialization for more safety * Change using instruction sets: MMX, SSE, SSE2, AVX * Added: EPX upscale filter * Added: info about selected filters and game mode in OSD * Added: saving screenshots by PrntScr hotkey (Ctrl+PrntScr to save original image) * Added: separating FPS limit for focused and unfocused application window * Added: sending customise keyboard keys scancode at lose and get focus. * Added: minor checks and validations (2015.11.05) ver 0.03 rev 030 build 15309 ------------------------------------------ * Added: Upscaler support GDI based games * Added: Downscale 2x filter * Added: VFS (Virtual File System) * Added: minor checks and validations * Change removed dependencies for AVX instructions