Kitserver 2010 Manual

Usually, the most up-to-date version of this documentation, and the translations to many languages, are located here: http://kitserver.ath.cx/docs/. Documentation for Kitservers 5-8 can also be found there.

1. Introduction

Kitserver 2010 is an add-on program for Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 (and Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 DEMO). It is a loader and manager for various modules.

Below is a quick summary of the available features. Follow the link in the left column to get more details about a particular module.

2. Installation / Removal

As with previous version of Kitserver, you have to unpack the archive to your PES installation folder. It should look like this:

Then go to kitserver folder and run the setup.exe.
Select the game executable - it should already be preselected. You can
also select your settings.exe (if say you wish to by-pass the quality
checks, for example. Otherwise, it is not necessary).
Once you select the files, click "Install".
What this does is it "attaches" the kitserver to the game: now whenever you start the game, the Kitserver DLLs will be loaded into memory.

If you decide that you don't want to use Kitserver any longer, run setup.exe again and click "Remove", and it will detach the kitserver from the game EXE.
You can also install/remove Kitserver
only for one exe by setting the other one to "no action".

2.1. Advanced usage of setup.exe

The kitserver setup.exe program can also be run without GUI - in a so-called batch or command-line mode. This can be useful, if kitserver is part of a bigger patch, which contains an installer, and typically the last step of the installer is to attach kitserver to the game EXE file. This can be accomplished by running the setup like this:

setup --install --gfile={game-exe} --sfile={settings-exe}

setup --remove --gfile={game-exe} --sfile={settings-exe}

Example:

setup --install --gfile=..\pes2010.exe --sfile=..\settings.exe

2.2. config.txt

Kitserver uses a file called config.txt as its main configuration file. A lot of things are specified there, including which modules
to load, what settings those modules should use, and etc. Go to your kitserver folder and you should see a file called config-sample.txt. (I gave it
a different name on purpose: so that those who upgrade their kitserver installation don't accidently overwrite their existing config.txt). If you aren't
upgrading then the chances are that you don't have an existing config.txt, in which case just rename (or copy) the sample config into config.txt. Otherwise
you may want to compare the sample config with yours and see if you need to make changes to your config: such as add new modules in the [kload] section,
for example.

Remember: if you don't have config.txt in your kitserver folder, kitserver will not do much. But it will log the fact that it couldn't find the config.txt. So if you think kitserver doesn't work for you, check the pes2010.log file for error messages

3. Usage and configuration

3.1. Main configuration file: config.txt

The main configuration file for kitserver - config.txt - is located in the
kitserver folder. If you don't have it there - re-read the section 2.2 above.
Here is an example of what can be in config.txt:

[afs2fs]

debug = 1

img.dir = "c:\mypesfiles\root1"



[camera]

angle = 30



[kload]

dll = afsio.dll

dll = afs2fs.dll

dll = lodmixer.dll

dll = camera.dll

dll = time.dll

Each module can have its own configuration section, which starts with [module-name], and typically has one or more options following it. Now, normally you wouldn't need to modify config.txt file, except for the cases, when you need to modify the behaviour of a particular module (DLL), or enable/disable such DLL.

To disable a particular module - just comment out the corresponding line in the [kload] section by putting a '#' symbol at the beginning. (Or you can delete that line altogether.)

The order of the DLLs is important. In particular: zlib1.dll, libpng13.dll, afsio.dll must be loaded in that order before kserv.dll; afs2fs.dll after kserv.dll. Only in very rare situations you should try re-arranging the DLLs.

3.2. Configuration tool - config.exe

Formerly known as lodcfg.exe (it used to be the GUI tool for LOD mixer only, but now it covers other configuration options as well), this simple GUI program allows to modify some configuration settings in config.txt. It's a helper tool and all that it does, you can also do manually, by editing config.txt in your favourite text editor. In fact, some things you can only do manually - like adding and removing modules (DLLs). But for simple things - like changing resolution, or choosing camera angle - it's faster and easier to just launch config.exe, quickly adjust things, then click [Save] button, and you're done.

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4. AFS2FS Module (afs2fs.dll)

This module allows to organize your BIN-files into folders on disk, instead of inserting them into AFS(*.img) files, which is sometimes a pain, and may require a lot of extra disk space.

Several people over the last few years had suggested similar solutions, but ultimately it was Str@teG who kept talking about this idea of organizing BINs into folders, and eventually i decided to just go ahead and do it. So now this is realized in the this module - afs2fs.dll. From personal experience, i know that people are sometimes reluctant to install big patches that require an AFS-rebuild, not because it's particularly difficult or anything, but because it can be time-consuming and disk-space-hungry. With afs2fs, this is now very easy: you just put the BIN into correct folder and that's it. And, of course, there are no size constraints - the bins can be as large as needed!

The module is also handy, when you want to try a patch without risking
totally destroying the content that you already have. Putting a new patch into
a separate AFS-root and modifying config.txt is all you need to get it going.
Removal as easy too: delete the correspoding "img.dir" line in config.txt, and
then delete the AFS-root folder. Multiple patches is no longer a management nightmare :). (See more info on AFS-roots in the sections below)

4.1. How to set up the folders

Start by choosing a location where you would be putting your files.
For example, let's take c:\mypesfiles\root1. This will be your so-called
AFS-root. Inside that folder, create a folder called img. (This is
very important that you have the folder named "img", since the game relies
on particular names). Then, inside img, create folders, as needed,
named - dt00.img, dt01.img, dt0b.img, and so for.
That's where you're going to be putting the BIN-files.

It's important to name the folders correctly: a folder must
have exactly the same name as the corresponding AFS-file. For instance,
if you call a folder dt00, instead of dt00.img, things will not work.

This is how my img folder looks:

4.2. How to name the files

In general, you can name the files whichever way you want, but you must follow one rule: there must be a BIN number in the name, and it must be preceded by an underscore character ('_'). Also, the filenames CANNOT be longer than 63 characters.

Examples of correctly named files:


unknown_317.bin

goalnet_41.bin

ball_9.bin

unknow_9 (.bin extension is optional)

music_11.adx (a file can have a different extension: .adx is typically used for music and sound files)

Examples of incorrectly named files:


unnamed10.bin - no underscore symbol before the BIN number.

face.bin - no BIN number.

4.3. AFS roots

By default, the AFS2FS module will not search any "special" default paths. Instead you must specify your AFS roots explicitly: In [afs2fs] section of config.txt, you can speficy the location of your root, which can be anywhere on your hard disk. You can also have multiple roots, which is very useful if you have several patches, and you don't want to lose track of which BINs came from which patches (so that you can easily uninstall a patch by just deleting its root folder).

Here is an example with 3 different roots are configured:

[afs2fs]

img.dir = "c:\mypesfiles\root1"

img.dir = "patch-RPL"

img.dir = "afs-root3"

The order of the roots is significant, when it comes to resolving "collisions". Say, you have a dt0b.img/ball_9.bin in the second root (patch-RPL), and dt0b.img/superball_9.bin in the third root (afs-root3). Even though the files are actually named differently, they intend to replace the same BIN - #9 from dt0b.img, and therefore we have a "collision". The rule is simple: the lower root in the list wins. Which means that in this situation, the dt0b.img/superball_9.bin file will be used, since its root is listed last in the [afs2fs] section.

IMPORTANT thing to remember:
The root is the folder that contains "img", not the "img" folder itself. In other words, if the full pathname is c:\mypesfiles\root1\img", then in the config.txt you should have: img.dir = "c:\mypesfiles\root1"

4.4. Names for balls and songs

When replacing songs with AFS2FS, it is also possible to change the title of the song and the artist's name, by using a songs.txt map-file, which should be put into afs-root folder.




Here's an example of such songs.txt file:

# Song names map

# Format: <binId>, "<title>", "<artist>" 

# Note that double quotes are required.



11, "??? ???? ???????", "????? 312"

12, "I'm mad about you", "Sting"

IMPORTANT: as with all other map-files and config files that Kitserver uses,
the encoding of the file needs to be Utf-8 or Unicode, especially
of you use non-latin symbols - like in the example above. (ANSI encoding
is ok if you only use Latin-1 characters.)

Similarly with balls, if you are replacing ball BINs, you probably want to
adjust their names too. One easy way to do that is to use a balls.txt map-file, which should be put into afs-root folder:

# Ball names map

# Format: <ball-number>, "<name>"

# Note that double quotes are required.

# (Ball numbers go from 1 to 16)



8, "Nike-ball Blue"

9, "????? ??????????"

It is worth noting that each afs-root folder can have its own songs.txt
and balls.txt. Since each afs-root may contain music files and ball files,
it makes sense to tie the names to them this way. If you have multiple afs-roots(as when for example you have multiple patches, and each patch uses its own
afs-root), then the "conflicts" are resolved the same way as they are with BINs (see above for details). In other words, if one afs-root has name for song 11, and another afs-root has a name for song 11, then whichever afs-root is specified lower in the list (in config.txt) - will win.

Here's a picture to clarify where songs.txt and balls.txt files should be placed. In this case "root1" is my afs-root:

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5. LOD Mixer (lodmixer.dll)

LOD-Mixer is the module that allows to fine-tune some aspects of PES2010 graphics engine.

Currently the following features are implemented: screen resolution and aspect ratio correction. All of these can be configured manually in kitserver's main
configuration file (kitserver/config.txt), but you can also use Kitserver's configuration tool (config.exe).

5.1. Aspect Ratio.

Many LCD monitors are neither 4:3 nor 16:9. Often, a 16:10 ratio is
used, or even 16:9.6. This results in the picture being distored: players either
too fat or too skinny, and ball is not round. In this year version, Konami
are again using the black bars (as they were in PES2009) to compensate for the
case when aspect-ratio is different (LB checkbox). However, if you
don't like the black bars, then run settings.exe, turn off the LB checkbox, and then use Kitserver's aspect-ratio correction feature instead:

With LOD Mixer, you can set the aspect ratio to whatever you want. Either let
LOD Mixer calculate it automatically - at run-time, using the current screen
width and height in pixels - or set the value manually. Automatic way would work quite
accurately, assuming the pixel is square. Sometimes, however, you would want to
set it manually. For example, i play on widescreen monitor, but using a 800x600
resolution, because my video card is not powerful enough. The automatic
calculation would give 4:3, but since the view is stretched to fill the entire
screen, we need to account for that. Setting aspect ratio to 1.6 (which is a
natural AR for my laptop) does the trick.

5.2. Screen Resolution.

You can set any screen resolution you want, if you play in a Windowed mode. Even
crazy screens like 1234x487 will work, but you're likely to suffer from
performance problems on such cases.
Hidden fullscreen resolutions are fully unlocked now as well. However, only those
that your video card really supports in full-screen mode, will work. If you
accidently choose an unsupported fullscreen resolution, then PES should still
be able to start in a window.

5.3. Controller check

This feature may be useful to people who like to play a tournament - a league or
cup together. PES 2010 doesn't allow human players to control both teams, unless
both of their selected teams are playing against each other in the match. With
this new feature, you can remove that limitation.
Now, even if it is for example, P1 vs. COM game, or P2 vs. COM -
you can freely select which team you control
with each controller. So, you can both play on the same team, or you can let
your friend control the opposition - to make things more interesting.
You can also now choose a "Spectator" mode for in tournaments.

Another possiblity opened by this feature: in training mode, you can
play for defence and/or goalkeeper. Very handy to train penalty saves!

5.4. LOD configuration.

LOD (Level-Of-Detail) algorithms are used in graphics engines to improve both
the picture quality and the speed of rendering, when drawing objects at various
distances from the viewer. The basic idea is that when the object is close to
the camera, one (very detailed) model is used. When it is far - another, simpler
model with less detail is used instead. It's much faster to render a low-poly
model of the object, and it typically looks better, when drawn in small size,
because it suffers less from aliasing. In theory, at least,
that is how it is supposed to work.

Unfortunately, PES series had always suffered from an overly-
conservative LOD configuration, where the switch to low-poly models would happen
way too soon, and that would result in various visible artifacts. In PES4-PES6,
examples were: balding players, and missing details on kits. In PES2008-PES2010, the players and referees appear to have blurred generic faces, once they move slightly away from
the camera.

So, if you have a good PC and a powerful videocard with GPU cycles to spare, you
may fancy tuning the LOD sligtly to make the game engine display more detailed
models, even when they players are a bit away from the camera (Animation quality seems
to be affected by this as well). To do that, move the sliders to the right.

Also, if on the contrary, your machine is stuggling to run the game at a smooth
frame rate, you can try moving the LOD sliders in the opposite direction - thus
making the engine switch to the low-poly models sooner than normal. This may
improve the framerate, although at the expense of picture quality. To achieve
that, move the sliders to the left.

5.4.1. Choosing optimal LOD config

Configuring LOD well takes time and is best done via trial-and-error method. (If it was
easy, it would've been probably done right in the first place!) I'd like to mention a
few considertations here that should help you with LOD configs.

Myth #1: if I move all sliders to the right, I will always have the best picture.

That is simply not true. You will get the most detailed and expensive rendering, yes, but
NOT NECESSARILY the one that looks the best. More-detailed objects at far distance
actually look worse than less-detailed ones, because of the aliasing effect.

Myth #2: my GPU (video card) is really good, surely it can handle anything thrown at it.

That is not true either. Current generation of games has become quite sofisticiated and
resource-hungry. GPU and CPU are working hard to process the rendering, physics, AI logic.
60 FPS is the typical minimum frame-rate at which a game needs to run, in order to provide
nice and smooth gameplay. That means the rendering of the entire scene must fit into 1/60th of
a second and still leave some time for other tasks to be done. (Physics, in particular is often
run at the same rate as rendering, so that the picture doesn't suffer from noise.) To make sure
rendering time doesn't escalate dramatically as more objects are rendered, LOD is often employed
as the optimization technique. By moving all sliders to the right, you are effectively
disabling the LOD algorithm and telling your GPU: "render all objects on the screen at the
most possible detail. And if you fry while doing that, i don't care!". Ok, so maybe it's not a funny example,
but you get the point.

Now, coming back to our game, as i said, in many cases, you only really need to adjust 1 slider
or two to get the desired effect, and still keep the smooth frame-rate. Let's consider some examples:

1. Problem: during regular gameplay, the game engine switches to low-quality models of players too soon, so we have artifacts like washed-out faces, untucked shirts suddenly become tucked-in, players models become too robot-like. Solution: slide "PLAYERS (Gameplay) S3" slider to the right - around 0.060 or maybe 0.050. That should take care of it. You may also want to try moving the S2 slider to something around 0.70, but on my card that didn't really give noticeable difference.
   



2. Problem: during free-kicks, the faces of the players in the wall are all washed-out, even though they can be pretty close to the camera. Similarly - with corners.Solution: move the
   "PLAYERS (Cut-scenes, Highlights, etc.) S3" slider to the right. The value 0.050 should be enough.
   



3. Problem: referees suffer from the same problems as described above - during both gameplay and during replays. Solution: move the REFEREES sliders to the right. Again, you don't really need to max them out - something around 0.060 - 0.050 should be good.
   

These are just some examples. You might notice some other artifacts that you'd like to fix.
The main thing is: experiment with your LOD configuration, don't just blindly set everything
to maximum quality - on most systems that will result in stuttering and loss of frame-rate, because your
GPU (and CPU also) gets a lot more work to do. In many cases, adjusting just one or two sliders gets the
effect you want, without hurting the frame-rate.

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6. Camera module (camera.dll)

For reasons known only to Konami product managers, for the third(!) year running, they took away the interface feature that allowed to adjust camera angle (it was in PES3-PES6, but it disappeared starting with PES2008). The underlying logic is still present in the game executable though, and this module allows you to take advantage of it. You can adjust the camera angle: standard values are 0 - 9, but you can actually set a bigger value, which will result in camera turning even more. For example, i like to play with angle value set to 30.

Choose any value from 0 to 2^32-1. Angles like 20, 40, 100 give quite a different perspective of play. More fun :)

Use Kitserver configuration tool (config.exe) or, you can also edit
your config.txt file manually, like this:

[camera]

angle = 30

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7. Time expander (time.dll)

This tiny module allows to stretch the length of the match to normal 90 minutes, if you want, but really you can choose any number of minutes between 1 and 255.
Going beyond 90 will make the seconds flow slower than normal. Also, another extreme is setting the match time to 1 minute. This is a whole new experience too: you have to really treasure the ball - keep posession, or you risk not getting it back at all, before the final whistle! Also, if you get a scoring chance, better put it away, because chances are it'll be the only one you get.

To set the match time use match.time setting:

[time]

match.time = 90

Credits

Programming: juce and Robbie

Big thanks to England (from PesWe.com forums) for help with 1.1 EXE support

Beta-testing: members and guests of Evo-Web and PesWe.com forums.


Original idea for afs2fs modules: Str@teG


Many other ideas came from users of Evo-Web forums and PesWe.com forums

Special thanks go to: administrators of PesWe.com website and members of PesWe.com forums.