Hitman Contracts - Silver Contracts Patch

Thanks for backing it up, Did the later versions of the patch even introduce any fixes that one would miss out in 1.2?

 

also RE: Widescreen patch: 

Since the game uses D3D8 you can set the in-game/widescreen patch's resolution to 1280x720 then use dgvoodoo to force max/desktop resolution. This is a classic workaround to trick games into running in 720p with UI scaled for that resolution while internally dgvoodoo hooks on to the d3d8 renderer and runs at desktop/whichever resolution you want without issues, as a bonus this also preserves the scaling of effects (at 720p) as well as running better on modern GPUs. This is how I played Contracts and things looked fine without any glitches, in fact I would recommend against d3d8to9 (without rigorous testing) as late-DX8 games with more advanced effects sometimes lead to things breaking when converted to d3d9, Silent HIll 3 PC is one example.

2 hours ago, arhumSearcher said:

Thanks for backing it up, Did the later versions of the patch even introduce any fixes that one would miss out in 1.2?

Not really. 1.3 added the .exe patched with LAA 4GB memory patch, a "DX11-Wrapper" (??? no idea which one), the Widescreen patch+dgvoodoo2, a Reshade preset, AI upscaled skins (including the unused, HD 47 one and the uncensored skins) and the briefcase & blood decal textures from Blood Money.
1.4 just added more upscaled pistol textures and redrawn Silverballer engravings.
 

2 hours ago, arhumSearcher said:

also RE: Widescreen patch: 

Since the game uses D3D8 you can set the in-game/widescreen patch's resolution to 1280x720 then use dgvoodoo to force max/desktop resolution. This is a classic workaround to trick games into running in 720p with UI scaled for that resolution while internally dgvoodoo hooks on to the d3d8 renderer and runs at desktop/whichever resolution you want without issues, as a bonus this also preserves the scaling of effects (at 720p) as well as running better on modern GPUs. This is how I played Contracts and things looked fine without any glitches, in fact I would recommend against d3d8to9 (without rigorous testing) as late-DX8 games with more advanced effects sometimes lead to things breaking when converted to d3d9, Silent HIll 3 PC is one example.

I've seen the trick in the article. What bothers me is that effects scale will stay at 720p like you said; dunno how bad they look.
Also this is a Linux problem, but dgvoodoo2 crashes Wine with versions after v2.8, so I've been defaulting to DXVK since it got d3d8 support. I'm not implying Dege actively blocks Wine support, but they do have stated that Wine is not in their scope...
I don't doubt d3d8to9 or DXVK might have faults, that's why I didn't force either by default.

1 hour ago, silverkeeper said:

I've seen the trick in the article. What bothers me is that effects scale will stay at 720p like you said; dunno how bad they look.
Also this is a Linux problem, but dgvoodoo2 crashes Wine with versions after v2.8, so I've been defaulting to DXVK since it got d3d8 support. I'm not implying Dege actively blocks Wine support, but they do have stated that Wine is not in their scope...
I don't doubt d3d8to9 or DXVK might have faults, that's why I didn't force either by default.

I know some games like Chaos Legion on PC that have effects like depth of field tied to resolution; at 1080p it's muted to the point it's invisible but at 480p-dgvoodoo'd to 1080p the depth of field effect is low-res and pixelated. However, for Contracts I don't recall any type of resolution-dependant effects in use, I last played the game a few months ago and nothing in particular caught my eye unless I'm wrong as the only other system I've played it on is the PS3 HD edition.

Didn't take as many screenshots when I played but here you can see the bloom is intact and not pixelated as it is usually a resolution-tied effect in some games