BBFSS 0.9.10 Preview 2 — Updater-compatible GGX release

BBFSS 0.9.10 Preview 2 — Windows x64

Release associated with #1. Includes all four commits since Preview 1: native skin SSS, Hunter's Dream sky seam/zenith changes, POM bracket/cache corrections and native-anchored directional GGX.

Download and run

Download BBFSS-0.9.10-Preview2-windows-x64.zip, extract the complete BBFSS folder to a writable location, and run BBFSS.exe. Select your own legally obtained decrypted Bloodborne 1.09 game folder. Requires Windows 10/11 x64 and a compatible Vulkan GPU with current drivers. The self-contained launcher needs no .NET SDK, Python or development toolchain. Keep the whole package together. The launcher is unsigned and may trigger SmartScreen.

New since Preview 1

• Native-anchored directional GGX: optional softer specular tails with native-reference normalization. Enable Directional GGX under Game effects and restart Bloodborne. Default-off. Diffuse, local lights and environment/SSR remain native. Persistent shader binaries stay native so disabling and restarting restores original specular.
• Native skin SSS: optional live material-profile scattering, default-off, with resource/status checks.
• Hunter's Dream sky: seam correction enabled by default; opt-in zenith gradient correction.
• POM first-hit correction: repair the dithered first-hit bracket and version affected cached shaders, preserving unrelated variants.
• Exact compiled-module/pipeline capture, strict native replay, material/angular controls, runtime-emitter regressions and paired GPU timestamp tools. Authored billboard diagnostics remain research-only; no billboard replacement is enabled.

Evidence and limits

The Windows engine and distribution launcher were rebuilt. Runtime dependency closure, package/source checksums, conservative defaults and forbidden-file exclusions were verified. The bundled GPU-capability executable runs with a minimal PATH.

Both captured native packed targets reproduce exactly. Runtime GGX matches the offline candidate byte-for-byte on two scenes and 16 material / 58 angular rows, preserving diffuse and specular alpha. Focused regressions, settings checks and SPIR-V/GPU validation passed. A local in-game GGX comparison received positive visual feedback, not broad GPU/map certification.

GGX is an authored compatibility response, not full PBR. Sampled mean directional specular rises about 48%; rough grazing peaks can reach 1.93x native. Offline RTX 4060 Ti timestamps suggest about +8% median cost for this captured pass (~0.004 ms), with noisy tails; no whole-game FPS claim. Native SSS depends on available resources. Screen-space/disocclusion limitations remain. Exposure/DOF, displacement follow-up and billboard integration remain parked.

Integrity, source and credits

SHA256SUMS.txt verifies the downloadable ZIP. Inside are per-file checksums, corresponding source in BBFSS-source.zip, LICENSE, NOTICE and dependency notices. No Bloodborne game data, DLC, saves, accounts, captures, generated experimental game shaders or personal settings are shipped. Tracked redistributable FSR shader assets remain in the dependency source.

Based on Lantern Engine by Awaken. Unofficial; not affiliated with Sony Interactive Entertainment or FromSoftware. Combined project GPL-3.0-or-later; third-party terms remain applicable.

Published as a preview prerelease. The associated PR remains open.

Source commit: b1ed44f

Preview 1 upgrade compatibility

This release uses v0.9.10-beta.2, which Preview 1's existing version parser recognizes as newer than v0.9.9-bbfss.1. The included launcher is stamped 0.9.10-beta.2 and the package manifest agrees. Separate BBFSS.exe and package.json assets allow the existing updater to identify and install the full engine package rather than attempt a launcher-only update.

In Preview 1, select the beta update channel in Settings and check for updates. BBFSS distribution builds disable automatic startup checks by default; users must check manually or enable them. Stable-channel users do not receive this prerelease. All updates remain on fromsoftserve/BBFSS, not upstream Lantern Engine.

This supersedes the earlier 0.9.9 Preview 2 release for updater compatibility. Rendering changes are the same; this revision corrects release/version packaging. The associated PR remains open.