Setup v0.7.7

What's new in 0.7.7

New

• F1 > Graphics > Softer sunlight on characters (native renderer): Off (the default, as the game has it), Soft or
  Softer. The game lights the Autobots and their vehicles far more strongly in direct sun than in shade, until bright
  paint turns almost white; this tones that strong light down. Shade and the enemies are not changed.

Changed

• Local contrast no longer makes what is already bright brighter: a sunlit car in the grass was lifted as a whole and
  its paint went white. Rocks, ice and metal keep their extra detail.
• Windows: the movie decoder (FFmpeg, cut down to what the game uses) is now built into the game, so no FFmpeg files sit
  beside it any more: fewer files that Windows' Smart App Control can refuse. It cannot stop Smart App Control from
  judging the game itself; see the troubleshooting page.

Fixed

• An update that stopped at the link with "LNK1136" (a damaged file) no longer stops there every time you press Try
  again. When a compiled file in the build folder was damaged after it was made (a crash or the PC switched off before
  the file reached the disk, an antivirus, a disk fault), every later build took it as finished and failed at the same
  place. The build now finds such a file, makes it again by itself and says so. Thanks to SirCebollo.
• Very far 3D (and Full 3D) no longer drop the game to half speed in thick forest. Since 0.7.3 they could make so many
  trees 3D that the picture fell to about 15 a second; now at most 2,200 trees are 3D at once and the farthest stay
  flat. Near 3D, the default, is not changed.
• Photo mode (F8): the Autobot knocked down no longer keeps tumbling while photo mode is on, looping sounds no longer
  play on, and F8 does nothing during a cutscene or a movie (a short note says so). Thanks to bbatts.
• The flying enemies' motion trails were drawn too bright. With Motion trails set to Original they now look as on the
  console, thin dark streaks behind the body, instead of large pale sheets over it; with Smooth (the default) the soft
  trail now takes the body's own colour instead of white. Thanks to bbatts.
• Shiny metal (such as Hot Shot's chrome) no longer shows black and white dots on faces turned away from the
  camera, a speckle that came with 0.7.1's sharper reflections. Thanks to bbatts.

The setup program for the Transformers (PS2) PC port, v0.7.7 (built from 8dc65f4).

Download tfa-setup.exe, run it, pick your own Transformers (USA, SLUS-20668) disc image and a folder: it installs the tools the build needs, then builds the game on your PC from your disc. The setup contains no game code and no game data.

Setup v0.7.6

What's new in 0.7.6

Fixed

• 0.7.5 could fail to build in its last step ("Unknown arguments specified" in CopyFfmpegDlls.cmake) on PCs that
  have an older CMake, version 3, such as Visual Studio's own. If your update to 0.7.5 said the build failed, update
  again.

The setup program for the Transformers (PS2) PC port, v0.7.6 (built from 6a8ee91).

Download tfa-setup.exe, run it, pick your own Transformers (USA, SLUS-20668) disc image and a folder: it installs the tools the build needs, then builds the game on your PC from your disc. The setup contains no game code and no game data.

Setup v0.7.5

What's new in 0.7.5

New

• Linux: the optional Vulkan renderer (built with TF_VULKAN and SDL3) now builds and runs; its shaders are made at build
  time as on Windows, and the game quits at once on Ctrl+C or when the session ends. Thanks to TPepperoni.
• Linux (SteamOS, Bazzite): ./update.sh and the game's own F1 > About > Update now build in the build container by
  themselves when the system has no build tools, and the game starts on the system afterwards. ./setup.sh --packages ubuntu (or debian, fedora, arch) prints the packages the build needs. The README says how to add play.sh to Steam
  where the file manager's "Add to Steam" refuses it. Thanks to TPepperoni.

Fixed

• When Windows 11's Smart App Control refuses the game or one of its files (the game is built on your PC and is not
  signed), the setup, the updater, the launcher and Play.bat now say so in plain words, with where to see what was
  refused and where the switch is, instead of a bare "Bad Image" or "Application Control policy" error. If only the HD
  texture maker is refused, the setup and the update finish without HD textures. Fewer files are copied beside the game.
• With a frame rate cap of 240 (or any cap the game runs right at), a few pictures a second were left out since
  0.7.2, which could show as tiny hitches on fast screens. Every picture is shown again; loading screens and menus
  still keep to the cap.
• The setup's launcher (Steam and other launchers) could, in rare cases, keep waiting on an unrelated program after
  the game had restarted itself and closed.
• Vibration after the game restarts to apply a setting is now exactly as the game set it: save states remember the
  controller's motor setup. Thanks to TPepperoni.
• In vehicle mode the mouse turns the camera freely all the way round the car; the camera eases back behind the car
  only after the mouse has been still for a moment (1.5 seconds), instead of pulling against the mouse while it
  turns. A controller works as before.
• The game's Look Spring option now takes effect at once when you change it in a level (before, the camera kept
  springing back, or kept still, until the next level).

The setup program for the Transformers (PS2) PC port, v0.7.5 (built from 74967c8).

Download tfa-setup.exe, run it, pick your own Transformers (USA, SLUS-20668) disc image and a folder: it installs the tools the build needs, then builds the game on your PC from your disc. The setup contains no game code and no game data.

Setup v0.7.4

What's new in 0.7.4

Fixed

• On some PCs the game showed only a black window, with sound (and F1 did not show either). When the usual way of
  showing the picture fails, the game now switches to another one, and the log says what failed.

The setup program for the Transformers (PS2) PC port, v0.7.4 (built from e4580d6).

Download tfa-setup.exe, run it, pick your own Transformers (USA, SLUS-20668) disc image and a folder: it installs the tools the build needs, then builds the game on your PC from your disc. The setup contains no game code and no game data.

Setup v0.7.3

What's new in 0.7.3

New

• F1: a Back to game button beside Quit game closes the menu.
• F1 > Gameplay > Crosshair: Original (the game's own crosshair, the default: it moves with your aim and with what is
  under it) or Fixed (it stays still in the exact centre of the screen, and shots go where it points; with mouse or
  controller). It changes at once, no restart, and is remembered.
• F1 > Gameplay > Crosshair size: a slider under it that makes the crosshair smaller, from 100% (the game's own size,
  the default) down to 25%. It shrinks in place: where it points does not change. The row under it, Crosshair look,
  is the old Crosshair row (Small cross or the game's ring).
• F1 > Graphics > Trees: one choice for how far the trees are real 3D models: Console (as on the PS2), Near 3D (the
  default, the same look as before), Far 3D, Very far 3D and Full 3D (every tree). The separate Forest distance, Far
  trees and Every tree 3D rows are still there under Show all settings.
• F1 > Display > "Menus and movies": the shape of the start screens, the main menu, its loading and save screens and
  the movies. Original (4:3), the default, shows them at the shape they were made for, with black at the sides. 16:9
  widens them to 16:9, and Stretched fills the screen. Levels and the headquarters are not changed by it. It replaces
  the two start screen rows of 0.7.2 (if you had set those to Stretched, the new row starts as Stretched).

Changed

• The crosshair moves as in the original game again by default (choose Fixed in the new Crosshair row to keep it
  still).
• On laptops with built-in graphics the picture's resolution now adjusts itself to keep the frame rate up: it drops
  where the graphics chip cannot keep up and comes back when there is room. F1 shows it as Render scale: Auto; pick a
  value there to fix it.
• The Low preset (the start on laptops with built-in graphics) now leaves Smooth edges off, for a higher frame rate.
  You can turn it back on in F1 (Graphics).
• In a window on Intel graphics (and other cards that hand pictures over through the processor), the pictures are
  now spaced more evenly, so play looks smoother at a frame rate cap. Thanks to TheBrousse.

Fixed

• Waterfalls, rivers and the jungle's background sounds no longer fade away during a long session (after about half
  an hour a waterfall could go silent). Thanks to bbatts.
• Movies no longer lose their top and bottom edges and no longer look squeezed tall: with the game's widescreen
  setting on, every movie was cut and shown too narrow, and the films inside the levels were cut at 4:3 as well. A
  movie now has the same shape whatever the aspect ratio setting. Thanks to wayneng1997.
• HD movies: the Melbourne House logo no longer looks squeezed flat, with thin black bars above and below it.
• The main menu's background and the save and loading screens around it are no longer stretched on a wide screen.
  Thanks to wayneng1997.
• After loading a saved state from the title screen, the picture no longer stays at the title's narrow shape for a
  while.
• A hint on screen no longer mixes controller and keyboard prompts for a moment (a keyboard key beside "Left analog
  stick") when you switch between the two.
• F1 > Make HD textures now says what really happens: the HD textures are made in a small window after you close the
  game. A line under the button shows where it stands (waiting for the game to close, how many are made, done), the
  small window's title shows its progress, and when it is done it comes up and says so.
• Waterfalls, rivers and other continuous sounds could go silent after a big fight and stay silent until the level
  was loaded again. Now a sound crowded out by the battle comes back as soon as there is room, as on the PS2. (A
  waterfall that had already gone silent in an older version comes back when the level is loaded again.)
• F1: a long help text at the bottom of the menu is no longer cut off by the window's edge (most noticeable in a
  4:3 or small window), and no longer runs into the Restart button.
• Starting the game over Remote Desktop, or on a PC whose graphics driver is not installed at that moment, no longer
  resets your graphics settings and no longer removes your HD textures.
• F1 > Graphics > HD textures no longer shows a third button "1" when the settings file says TF_HIRES=1 (written by
  hand or by an older version): it shows On, as the game treats it.
• The farther 3D trees no longer lose their crowns: beyond a certain distance many 3D trees were drawn as bare
  trunks, because the game's budget for leaves and fronds was made for the console's shorter tree distance. In thick
  forest this can cost a few percent of the frame rate on mid-range graphics cards; laptops on the Low preset are not
  changed by this.
• Trees at the far edge of the 3D trees no longer turn half see-through and then pop in as flat trees (also when you
  zoom in with the aim view): a 3D tree now stays solid until its flat picture is in place behind it.
• A wide screen (21:9 and wider) or a wider Field of view no longer shortens how far the trees are 3D. On a 21:9
  screen at Field of view 1.2 thick forest now shows about 30 to 70% more 3D trees, as the setting promises, for a
  frame rate about 2 to 3% lower there. At 16:9 and the normal Field of view nothing changes.

The setup program for the Transformers (PS2) PC port, v0.7.3 (built from 9d97c48).

Download tfa-setup.exe, run it, pick your own Transformers (USA, SLUS-20668) disc image and a folder: it installs the tools the build needs, then builds the game on your PC from your disc. The setup contains no game code and no game data.

Setup v0.7.2

What's new in 0.7.2

New

• F1 > Graphics > Upscaler: AMD FSR 3 and FSR 4 (FSR 4 on Radeon RX 7000 / 9000 drivers that offer it) with Quality /
  Balanced / Performance presets; the setup downloads AMD's upscaler files.
• Setup: "Go easy on my PC (slower)" now covers the whole setup and every update: the game is built with half the
  processor at low priority, for laptops that overheat or shut down while building. If a setup stops partway, the
  setup now shows the step it stopped at.

Fixed

• The copyright screen at start shows the Transformers and Hasbro logos at their real shape, no longer stretched wide
  (at 4:3 a little, on wide screens a lot). F1 > Display > Copyright screen logos: As on the PS2 brings the old look
  back. Thanks to wayneng1997.
• On a wide screen the title ("Press Start") and the memory card notices at start are shown at 4:3 with black at the
  sides, no longer stretched. F1 > Display > Start screens on a wide screen: Stretched brings the old look back.
  Thanks to wayneng1997.
• The cutscenes and logos now play at the shape they were made at (16:9). The HD movies were shown about a fifth
  too narrow, and the game's own movies a little narrow, as on the PS2. Thanks to wayneng1997.
• Forest distance 4x and Far trees "3D to the edge" no longer go back to Auto at every start. Your settings
  are now moved to the new Ultra preset's forest at most once, and anything you set after that stays. Thanks to
  wayneng1997.
• The frame rate cap now also holds on loading screens, in the menus and at start-up, also with Intel graphics: a
  30 cap no longer shows 60 or 120 frames a second there. Thanks to bbatts.

The setup program for the Transformers (PS2) PC port, v0.7.2 (built from 1f256b8).

Download tfa-setup.exe, run it, pick your own Transformers (USA, SLUS-20668) disc image and a folder: it installs the tools the build needs, then builds the game on your PC from your disc. The setup contains no game code and no game data.

Setup v0.7.1

What's new in 0.7.1

New

• An objective guide (off by default, Gameplay in the Options): a small arrow at the bottom of the screen points to
  your next objective in the story, with its name and distance. It follows each level's own story order, also when
  you start from a later warp gate.
• The PC settings are now also pages in the game's own Options menus (the Start menu, the HQ and the pause menu), with
  QUIT GAME in the main menu on every platform. The mouse now also works on the saved games list, the HQ's
  hologram panels and the button bar at the bottom of a menu. Thanks to TPepperoni.
• A native Linux and Steam Deck version, no Proton needed: set up with ./setup.sh --iso <your disc>, play with
  ./play.sh, update with ./update.sh. On the Steam Deck it starts full screen with Deck button prompts and Deck
  controls (R2 fires, L2 jumps), and uses less CPU and battery. Thanks to ravioli-gh.
• Xbox button prompts are drawn like the pad plugged in: Xbox One / Series or Xbox 360. The update also repairs an
  install whose font images went missing. Thanks to TheBrousse.

Changed

• Laptops and PCs with built-in graphics: this update puts the graphics settings back to the recommended laptop
  settings once (the frame rate cap to 60, field of view, picture shape and texture pack too; controls, sound and
  gameplay stay). Your old settings are kept in settings.ini.bak-071. The renderer goes back to Native, except on Intel
  drivers older than 2023, which keep your choice.
• Frame rate cap Unlimited now follows what your PC can draw, smoothly and from the first moment of a level: no
  more slow motion in a level's first seconds or after a movie, and about 10-16% more frames on PCs that cannot
  hold the very top rate. Capped rates (60, 144, 240 ...) work as before.
• Built-in graphics (Intel, and AMD's in the processor) now start on the Low preset, drawn at a render scale of
  67% and enlarged with FSR 1: about 40 frames a second instead of 29 on a UHD 620 laptop, still sharper than the
  PS2. Only settings you never changed start there; your own choices stay. Stronger built-in graphics can raise the
  preset in F1 > Graphics.
• VSync now reads "On (no tearing)" or "Off (may tear)", and a new Screen line under it in F1 > Display tells your
  screen's refresh rate, its FreeSync range and whether the screen is following the game. If you see the picture
  tear (a line across the screen), turn VSync On. With FreeSync and a frame rate cap at your screen's rate or above,
  the game now stays a little under the screen's top so FreeSync keeps working.

Fixed

• First person: the HQ calls, the Mini-Con and Data-Con discoveries and the other cutscenes now play out in their own
  view to the end (an HQ call up to your Confirm), then the view eases into first person, instead of jumping into first
  person while the scene was still up.
• With the mouse and keyboard the crosshair now stays on one spot of the screen while you turn, aim with the right
  button or look at near and far things, in first and third person: the game's reticle and the small cross alike.
• Crashes, black screens and loads that never finish while the HD textures were still being made: the game started
  making the rest of them beside itself, and on some graphics cards (a GTX 1660 SUPER) the two together stalled the
  card until Windows reset it. Now the rest is made in its small window once you close the game; it waits while you
  play. (To make them during play anyway: "Keep making HD textures while I play" in the setup.) Thanks to SirCebollo.
• The Autobot no longer spins during the HQ calls, the Mini-Con and Data-Con discoveries and the other cutscenes, his
  back turned to the moving camera (new in 0.7.0, with the still crosshair): he stays where the scene puts him, as on
  the PS2. Thanks to wayneng1997.
• The very first start after installing (or after a graphics driver update) no longer freezes for about half a minute
  on some Intel laptops: the main menu now comes as quickly as on any later start. A save state made in the first
  seconds after the start is also no longer slow there.
• The first level after installing (or after a graphics driver update) no longer freezes for a few seconds at its
  start while the graphics driver prepares the game's shaders: they are prepared ahead, while the title and the menus
  show. Most noticeable on Intel laptops.
• Invert Y set with a controller (or the keys, or the mouse) in the game's own Options is now kept: it went back to No
  after Accept, in the HQ's Controller Settings and in the pause menu's Options alike. Thanks to bbatts.
• Intel graphics: the start-up movies no longer stutter (a picture held about a fifth of a second every few seconds).
  Some NVIDIA cards also show their pictures through a faster path now.
• The game window no longer uploads an unused placeholder picture every frame while the native renderer is on (a
  little less CPU work).
• Motion trails (the after-image behind flying enemies, dashes and melee swings) are now a soft blur instead of
  sharp slivers, so flyers no longer look doubled. F1 > Graphics > Motion trails: Smooth (default), Original, Off.
• Intel graphics: boxes of flat colour no longer flash over the HUD (the health and weapon bars, the insignia) after an
  autosave.
• The sun's glare now fades out smoothly when something moves in front of the sun, instead of switching off at once.
• Sounds beside or behind you (waterfalls, ambiences) no longer fade out on laptop and TV speakers: the game's Pro
  Logic II surround encoding is replaced by plain stereo by default (F1 > Sound > Surround encoding).
• Antarctica, played again after finishing it: crossing the cliff edge no longer changes the music (from the Research
  Center end it switched to Starscream's theme there).
• Deep Amazon: if you skip the temple, Cyclonus's fight now plays its own music, not the temple's (the original game's
  own slip).
• Looking at the sun no longer hides the crosshair, shots, blasts, the warp gate's light and the Mini-Con glow (on every
  graphics card).
• Characters' chrome reflections no longer flash single bright triangles; they now match the original's reflection.
• The Tractor Mini-Con's beam no longer shows a solid white ball.
• Save states: a state made with mods on and loaded without them (or the other way round) is now refused with a clear
  message, instead of the game getting stuck in its next load.
• Sharpening no longer over-sharpens bright, near-white areas. Thanks to TheBrousse.
• The river no longer seems to rush: the HD textures' reflection maps (the sky seen in water and chrome) had thin bright
  lines the upscaler added, which the waves swept across the water. Reflections now use the game's own soft maps.
• HQ: Cybertron's Situation text in More Info is shown whole (it stopped mid-word, at "Autobot mis").
• Vibration now works after "Restart to apply" and on Proton / Steam's virtual pad under Wine. Thanks to TPepperoni.
• European disc: the keyboard and mouse hints now also name the mouse wheel and cover the Mini-Con texts in French,
  German, Italian and Spanish. Thanks to TheBrousse.

The setup program for the Transformers (PS2) PC port, v0.7.1 (built from 3efc2a7).

Download tfa-setup.exe, run it, pick your own Transformers (USA, SLUS-20668) disc image and a folder: it installs the tools the build needs, then builds the game on your PC from your disc. The setup contains no game code and no game data.

Setup v0.7.0

What's new in 0.7.0

New

• HD texture presets: Fast, Balanced and Best. Choose one in the setup window (it suggests one for your graphics
  card), on its update screen, or later in F1 > Graphics > HD texture preset. Fast is about 0.6 GB and the quickest
  to make, Balanced (the default) about 1.4 GB, Best about 2.3 GB. Each kind of texture is now enlarged only as far
  as it visibly needs, so the sets are smaller and quicker to make. Thanks to galaxyisme.
• Setup: "Go easy on my graphics card", for a PC that restarts or freezes while the HD textures are made. The
  graphics card then works in short bursts with rests in between; making them takes about three times as long.

Changed

• Best now uses a size for each kind of texture instead of the largest size for all of them, so an existing HD set
  becomes smaller. The update adjusts it once: most images are shrunk on the processor in a few minutes and a few
  are made again on the graphics card. Changing the preset later only shrinks or makes what changes.

Fixed

• HD textures: when the graphics driver kept resetting while they were made, the set was marked finished with many
  of them missing. It now stays unfinished, and the next start of the game (or an update) makes the rest.

The setup program for the Transformers (PS2) PC port, v0.7.0 (built from 688fd1e).

Download tfa-setup.exe, run it, pick your own Transformers (USA, SLUS-20668) disc image and a folder: it installs the tools the build needs, then builds the game on your PC from your disc. The setup contains no game code and no game data.

Setup v0.6.9

What's new in 0.6.9

Fixed

• Warping from the HQ into a level no longer sometimes stops on a "Generic fatal error" screen when you play with
  keyboard and mouse.

The setup program for the Transformers (PS2) PC port, v0.6.9 (built from ac5d0b2).

Download tfa-setup.exe, run it, pick your own Transformers (USA, SLUS-20668) disc image and a folder: it installs the tools the build needs, then builds the game on your PC from your disc. The setup contains no game code and no game data.

Setup v0.6.8

What's new in 0.6.8

New

• F1 > Display > Low-latency pacing: shows each picture as soon as it is drawn, for a little less input delay at the
  cost of less even frame pacing (best with FreeSync / G-Sync). Off by default.
• F1 > Controls > Mouse > Right-click aim: Click (as before) or Hold (aim while you hold the button; the mouse wheel
  steps the zoom then). The mouse wheel can now be bound to any action in Controls > Keys, for example Jump.
• F1 > Graphics > Upscaler: AMD FSR 1 for a sharper picture when the render scale is under 100% (choose FSR 1 or
  Auto; Bilinear, the old stretch, stays the default for now). At 100% nothing changes.
• F1 > Graphics > Sharpening: a sharper picture when the render scale is under 100%, at no cost to the
  frame rate (Auto sharpens only then; On always; Off never). Thanks to TheBrousse.

Fixed

• Keyboard and mouse: the Mini-Con descriptions and the equip page now name your keys ("Press E to launch a missile",
  "Left-click to fire") instead of controller buttons.
• European disc: with the keyboard, the hints in French, German, Italian and Spanish name your keys too. Thanks to
  TheBrousse.
• Built-in graphics (Intel and similar): a finished picture no longer waits before it reaches the screen, so the
  stutter at a steady 60 is much smaller (the lowest frame rates rose from about 30 to about 45 on an Iris Xe laptop).
• The setup window no longer uses a slice of your processor the whole time it builds (about 40 times less now).
• First-person view: the camera no longer jolts with your robot's landing, skidding and shooting animations.
• If the game cannot find a screen when it starts (a monitor switched off or unplugged), it now says so instead of
  crashing.
• Save states made in another folder or on another PC now find their files again when loaded.
• Mouse: the crosshair (the game's original one too) stays still and no longer shakes while you turn and aim, near
  or far, and your shots go where it points.
  (F1 > Controls, "Still crosshair", with Show all settings: With the mouse / Always / Off.)
• Mouse: right click now enters the aiming view while walking or running too (it only worked standing still), and
  quick clicks are no longer lost.
• Mouse: the game's Look Spring no longer pulls the camera back to level while you walk; it stays on for the
  controller's right stick.
• Mouse: in Greenland the camera no longer swings into the cliffs, high above or straight down on your robot when you
  turn quickly, and moving the mouse while a level loads no longer throws the view around when it starts.
• Deep Amazon temple: the wall torch's fire no longer shows as flickering white blocks with the DX12 renderer.
• When the graphics driver restarts in the middle of play (a GPU hang), the game no longer goes on with the slow
  emulated drawing for the rest of the session: it saves where you are, starts itself again and carries on from that
  moment, and says so. If it happens again in the same session it suggests lower graphics settings.
• If the graphics driver restarts too often and the game goes on with the emulated drawing, you now see the game
  instead of a black screen. After the settings' Restart now, the menus are drawn at your screen's size again (they
  were drawn at full Resolution, slower), and a Renderer changed to Emulated before the restart is used.

Changed

• The frame rate is capped at 60 by default. Choose a higher limit or Unlimited in F1 > Display > Frame rate limit
  (a limit you already chose is kept).
• Built-in graphics: lowering the render scale now saves much more graphics time, because the game's effect passes are
  drawn at the lowered size too (a ThinkPad T480s at 720p and 50% needs about a third less per frame).
• Behind the scenes: more of the Vulkan renderer (the way to Linux and the Steam Deck), still off by default. Thanks to TPepperoni.
• "Straight to the main menu" now gets you to the menu in about 1.5 seconds instead of about 14.

The setup program for the Transformers (PS2) PC port, v0.6.8 (built from e9642f4).

Download tfa-setup.exe, run it, pick your own Transformers (USA, SLUS-20668) disc image and a folder: it installs the tools the build needs, then builds the game on your PC from your disc. The setup contains no game code and no game data.