Skydome

[41Sqn_Gravit]

Experience in photography, graphic design and cgi led me to an observation.

I'm aware the following is a very subjective matter..

 

In "nature" a pure white is actually very rare.

Colors (e.g. lights, direct and ambient) affect each other, they mix, influence their hue, brightness and saturation.

 

Essentially that's it.

I'll stop eavaluate my observation at this point because i simply don't want to bloat this post.

 

To depict reality in a virtual environment like a cgi-scene is not an easy task, i am - too - aware of that.

I don't want to step on the Devs feet here. Well, at least not too hard but this is what i see:

 

The skydome in BoS shows a too great amount of white along the horizon, both, in color and space it occupies.

It has the appeal of an over-exposed photo. In flight, this big stripe of white really draws attention.

It gets more and more apparent the higher the altitude.

The ambient blue radiation of the dome and the ambient radiation of the ground

(somewhat grey-ish in a winter scene - i'd say) is not mixed into the white.

Beside that the white segment is too big (vertically). Hence the over-exposed appeal.

 

See screenshots:

Left half original, right half some really quick photoshop.

Keep in mind that this are just photoshopped screenshots and not actually modified skydome.bmp.

 

It is an easy modifikation. I did it for personal use in Rise Of Flight.

All there is, is to modify the skydome.bmp - reduce the height of the white gradient and adjust the hue to a light blue-ish grey. 

In my opinion this makes a huge difference.

 

I hope my thoughts find their way into the development plane.

 

Thank you.

 

Thanks too for RoF and BoS - awesome sims, fun times 

[ParaB]

Yeah, the extreme horizon whiteout is an effect I'm not too fond of.

 

The photoshopped horizon IMO looks much more natural.

[MiK684]

+1 !

 

[76SQN-FatherTed]

I have the impression that RoF originally had a much less pronounced white band at the horizon.  I think it changed with the advent of the Channel map - I remember being disappointed.

 

@Gravit I guess that your mod for RoF would only work offline?

[41Sqn_Gravit]

@Gravit I guess that your mod for RoF would only work offline?

 

No. If "Modifications On" servers are online you can join them. You can't join regular servers - they are not listed in "Modifications On" game mode.

[senseispcc]

 

Experience in photography, graphic design and cgi led me to an observation.

I'm aware the following is a very subjective matter..

 

In "nature" a pure white is actually very rare.

Colors (e.g. lights, direct and ambient) affect each other, they mix, influence their hue, brightness and saturation.

 

Essentially that's it.

I'll stop eavaluate my observation at this point because i simply don't want to bloat this post.

 

To depict reality in a virtual environment like a cgi-scene is not an easy task, i am - too - aware of that.

I don't want to step on the Devs feet here. Well, at least not too hard but this is what i see:

 

The skydome in BoS shows a too great amount of white along the horizon, both, in color and space it occupies.

It has the appeal of an over-exposed photo. In flight, this big stripe of white really draws attention.

It gets more and more apparent the higher the altitude.

The ambient blue radiation of the dome and the ambient radiation of the ground

(somewhat grey-ish in a winter scene - i'd say) is not mixed into the white.

Beside that the white segment is too big (vertically). Hence the over-exposed appeal.

 

See screenshots:

Left half original, right half some really quick photoshop.

Keep in mind that this are just photoshopped screenshots and not actually modified skydome.bmp.

 

It is an easy modifikation. I did it for personal use in Rise Of Flight.

All there is, is to modify the skydome.bmp - reduce the height of the white gradient and adjust the hue to a light blue-ish grey. 

In my opinion this makes a huge difference.

 

I hope my thoughts find their way into the development plane.

 

Thank you.

 

Thanks too for RoF and BoS - awesome sims, fun times 

 

a painter myself, +1.

[1PL-Banzai-1Esk]

I agree wit OP and would like to see his proposal implemented.

[unreasonable]

That is convincing especially for weather conditions where the air is cold and cannot contain too much moisture (eg Russia in winter). Not sure about W Europe, channel etc,.

 

Is your mod available for RoF use? I would love to try it.

[Jaws2002]

Very good point Gravit. This is one aspect that was very noticeable since Rof. It gives you the impression that the horizon is moving up with the point of view.

The higher you go the higher the horizon moves and below it this white band becomes wider and wider the higher you go. If you get really high, you get the feeling of being inside a white cylinder.

I didn't know you can modify the sky dome in Rof.

This may have something to do with the landscape being flat in the game engine and not following the curve of the earth and the lighting engine not being able to render the round real world in a flat environment.

Clod landscape followed the earth curve and the lighting engine was very good at rendering the sky dome in a very natural way.

I wish at some point this can be done here as it jumped at you as natural the first time you took off.

Edited October 17, 2014 by Jaws2002

[avlSteve]

It does seem like it might be a "haze" effect that's going on... it seems to be more pronounced the higher you go.

 

I do like the "adjusted" look, though.

[unreasonable]

Well I suppose it should be more pronounced the higher you go, since looking down towards the horizon would then give you a sight line that contains more atmosphere than in the case of looking from ground level. (Not that I am saying that is how RoF derives the effect).

[41Sqn_Gravit]

I think the way the skydome "works" in BoS is quite good.

Jaws2002 has a valid point regarding the curve of earth, and the example CloD is in fact good, but to point this out was not my intention.

 

I just like to show a quick & easy modification resulting in a much more "balanced" picture without the Devs to rewrite existing code or to realize a totally new module.

 

@unreasonable

Sorry, the mod is not available. Got no backup of the file.

Edited October 17, 2014 by 41Sqn_Gravit

[VR-DriftaholiC]

With all that snow on the ground reflecting the sun I'm sure it's quite realistic as is. However the aliasing of the horizon is kinda silly even on ultra.

[41Sqn_Gravit]

Please google.. e.g. "winter aerial" (not "aerial winter" )

 

You'll see, not a single (neutral exposed) photo shows a bright white horizon.

[Camille88]

+1000!!

 

Devs pleas read this!

With all that snow on the ground reflecting the sun I'm sure it's quite realistic as is. However the aliasing of the horizon is kinda silly even on ultra.

I`m affraid that even in Summer the Horizon would look the same. The Engine is an Updated Version of the RoF Engine.

In RoF the high Altitude flighing look not realistic to me due to this efffect.

[76SQN-FatherTed]

Clod landscape followed the earth curve and the lighting engine was very good at rendering the sky dome in a very natural way.

 

Funnily enough this was one of the things I didn't like about CloD - I thought that RoF was much better.  Then, at some point, RoF seemed to "join in" with the fudged horizon.  I've not played enough BoS to know whether it's the same, but posts above seem to indicate so.  This is, of course, all subjective - neither one is right or wrong,  It's just interesting to me that opinions on this should be so divergent

[unreasonable]

I am reasonably sure that the horizon banding in RoF depends on the time of day as well - early morning missions on clear days having a much less obvious effect, (have not played for a while, memory may be just on the wane....)

[41Sqn_Gravit]

Here a comparison of the original RoF skydome.bmp vs. the modified + some ingame screenshots.

The same applies to BoS, but i can't test it in game.. that's why i used RoF to explain it.

It really is a simple modifikation. 

 

Yes, i'll upload the mod in the RoF forums when it's finished.

Edited October 18, 2014 by 41Sqn_Gravit

[Jaws2002]

Looks much better.

[unreasonable]

Thanks Mr Gravit. Maybe Jason will like it too and include your settings in a future update.

[41Sqn_Gravit]

Yup, i too hope it gets the devs attention.

 

Gravit out.

[Trinkof]

Maybe you can send a PM to han or zak. It seems very interesting !

[Heliocon]

Yes agreed on this one, devs take a look!

[LLv34_Flanker]

S!

 

 Looks a lot better than original. Great work.

[Dave]

I very much agree. Your example is an improvement. One small change however: the transition from dark to light should narrow and the sky above should darken with altitude as the remaining atmosphere above you decreases with altitude. At 60000' for example (obviously not going to happen in this game) the sky directly above is very dark.

 

If this suggestion is actioned, please also improve the very obvious banding (aliasing) in the skybox bitmap. It makes it incredibly difficult to track aircraft zooming - which inevitably favours LW pilots.

[Camille88]

Your work looks more realistic then the Orginal.

 

I was thinking that the white Sapce is reducing the field of View.

 

Devs pleas take Notice of this.