Ether Vapor

ETHER VAPOR

Developers
	Edelweiss
Release dates
Windows	July 12, 2007
Taxonomy
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Scrolling, Side view, Third-person, Top-down view
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Arcade, Shooter
Vehicles	Flight, Space flight
Art styles	Anime
Themes	Sci-fi
Series	ETHER VAPOR

ETHER VAPOR
Ether Vapor	2007
Ether Vapor Remaster	2011

Warnings

This game is not playable in English (see Localizations for supported languages).

ETHER VAPOR is an arcade shooter game developed by Edelweiss. It is notable among the indie gaming scene for featuring multiple shifting perspectives during gameplay, going from top-down view, scrolling side view, and third-person on-rails perspectives for cinematic effect and incorporating multiple gameplay styles.

The game was originally released during Summer Comiket 73 on July 12, 2007 for Windows. A "BOSS RUSH ONLY" version of the game was later released during Comiket 74.

Despite supporting resolutions up to 1280x960, it is only possible for Windowed mode as Fullscreen is limited only to 640x480. A remastered version of the game was later released during Summer Comiket 80 on August 13, 2011 and was later localized by Nyu Media in June 29, 2012. The original game, however, continued to be supported with patches up until April 21, 2012.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Original Japanese Comiket 73 release.
Retail		The BOSS RUSH ONLY version from Comiket 74.

The demo for the original game has been replaced in favor of its remastered version.

The higher quality soundtrack for this game and Fairy Bloom Freesia can be streamed and purchased from the developer's Bandcamp. A few samples of music from the game's original release can be downloaded from the game's website.

Essential improvements

Patches

The v1.05 patch for the game can be downloaded from the game's official website here.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Data\config.dat

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Data\ranking.dat

Video

General settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Only 4:3 resolutions up to 1280x960 in window mode are supported, while fullscreen is limited to 640x480.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		No Vsync setting, but a frame buffer and frame skip option are available.
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Capped at 60 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Ray tracing (RT)

Input

Key and controller remapping.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Only Z, X, C, V, A, S, D, F, Q, W, and E keys can be remapped. Esc is also reserved for soft resetting and quiting the game. Keyboard bindings are also tied to controller buttons.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Uses DirectInput. For XInput controllers, see Controller support for a workaround.
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Up to 12 buttons can be remapped. Movement is bound to the left analog stick and cannot be remapped. Controller mappings are also tied to keyboard bindings.
Controller sensitivity		Digital movement
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		See Controller support for XInput support.
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers
Button prompts		Keyboard and controller bindings are referenced by number.

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Controller support

A fix is required for D-pad and analog trigger support for XInput controllers.

Use XInput Plus

Download and run XInput Plus, then set the Target program to EtherVapor.exe. Go to the Key Assign tab, then go to Left Stick and assign it to Multiple Key, then check Left Stick and DPAD. Go to the DirectInput tab, check Enable DirectInput Output, then change the Guide button function to Button13 and LT/RT functions to Button 11/12 from their respective drop-down menus. Go to the Setting tab, uncheck Enable Init Beep to disable XInput Plus' confirmation beep sound and then click Apply to save the settings and install the XInput Plus *.dll files into the game's installation folder. The game should be able to register XInput D-pad and analog triggers as DirectInput buttons.

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		BGM, se.
Surround sound
Subtitles		Dialogue is entirely text-based.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
Japanese				Most of the menus are in English.

Issues fixed

Japanese text does not display properly

This game requires Japanese Unicode settings to display Japanese text correctly.

See here for a potential solution.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8.1
Shader Model support	1.4

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98, 2000, ME, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 1.4 GHz	Intel Pentium 4 2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB (98/ME), 384 MB (2000, XP)
Hard disk drive (HDD)	160 MB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce AMD Radeon 32 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.1b compatible