ZenRen

High performance 3D viewer for Gothic 1 & 2 levels & assets (VDF or single files).
Uses a custom renderer that attempts to closely recreate original G1/G2-AddOn look and lighting.

Requires a DirectX 11 capable GPU.

⭳ Download (Windows) & How-To-Use

• https://github.com/Katharsas/ZenRen/releases/latest

Options

  --level     Level ZEN name.
                Example: "WORLD.ZEN"
				 
  --vdfDir    Root dir containing VDFs to be loaded (will check all subfolders).
                Example: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Gothic"
				 
  --assetDir  Root dir containing additional assets (will check all subfolders).
                Currently supports .TGA files.
                Example: ".\my-mod-assets"

Screenshots

Build (Windows 10+ only)

• Clone repo with --recurse-submodules
• Install Visual Studio 2022+ (Desktop C++)
• Install Windows 11 SDK (any version, also works on Windows 10, can be installed through VS Installer)
• Visual Studio CMake (recommended)
  • Enable CMakePresets.json in Tools -> Options -> CMake -> General
  • Configure run arguments in launch.vs.json
  • Build and run target ninja-x64-release with zenren.exe startup item
• CMake CLI or GUI
  • Install CMake version 3.25 or higher (CMake 4.xx not yet supported!)
  • Install Ninja by running winget install Ninja-build.Ninja
  • Find x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2022 in your start menu and run it
  • Navigate to the repository and run

    cmake --preset ninja-x64-release
    cmake --build --preset ninja-x64-release
    cmake --install out/build/ninja-x64-release
    

  • EXE and resources will be copied to out/install/ninja-x64-release
• The logfile ZenRen.log.txt might contain useful info if a problem occurs!

Features

Currently supports

• Worldmesh (ZEN)
• Static Objects (VOBs, MOBs, Decals)
• Static Lighting like in G1/G2 (Baked Lighting, Static Lights)
• Distance Fog
• Sky
  • Time-Of-Day Skylight
  • Sky Layer Animation
• Asset File Formats
  • Single Files or VDF/MOD Container
  • Level: ZEN
  • Objects: MRM, MDL, MDM+MDH
  • Textures: TEX, TGA, PNG

Renderer Overview

• Frame Limiter
• Forward Renderer
  • Linear Colors
  • MSAA
  • Transparency Multisampling (Alpha-To-Coverage with Sharpening)
  • Resolution Scaling (up to 4x SSAA equivalent)
  • Transparent / Blended Surfaces
• Static Geometry
  • Preprocessing
    • Asset Data Validation (Normals, MipMaps, etc.)
    • Pre-Instantiation into 2D Morton Grid Cells
    • Texture/Material Batching
    • LOD Generation
  • Rendering
    • Merging of adjacent Cell's Draw Calls
    • Per-Cell Frustum Culling
• Static Lighting
  • Level
    • Lightmaps
    • Per-Vertex Baked Brightness
  • Per Object
    • Precalculate single "accumulated" Light from all visible Static Lights
    • Sample Color from Ground Face
• Postprocessing
  • Tonemapping
  • Gamma, Brightness, Contrast
• UI
  • Detailed Settings
  • High DPI Aware

TODO

• Effects
• Dynamic Lights
• Dynamic Objects
  • Light Updates
• Transparent Surface Sorting
• Sky Celestials (Sun, Moon)
• Asset File Formats
  • Objects: 3DS, MDS
• Loading single objects without level

Non-Goals

• Animations
  • Morph-Meshes
  • Skeletal Animations

License

This software is licensed under AGPLv3 (see LICENSE.TXT), excluding third party code & libraries which are distributed under their own terms:

Third-Party

• lib/DirectXMath - MIT
• lib/DirectXTex - MIT
• lib/g3log - Public Domain / Unlicense
• lib/imgui - MIT
• lib/magic_enum - MIT
• lib/octree_attcs - MIT
• lib/tinyobj - MIT
• lib/ZenKit - MIT
• lib/meshoptimizer - MIT