Distant Terrain possible fix (under testing).

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

Since i got this game i have struggled with distant terrain or lack of it.
so have been doing lots of research and testing with the following Objective.


To be clear.
Nothing has been done to any game files to alter the distance at which things are rendered or displayed.
Only the quality of that rendering has been improved (much like Super sampling )

-Removal or reduction of "tree pop in"
-Removal or Improvement of Distant terrain Shimmers and Blurries
-Increased local (same grid) Terrain detail
-Increased landmark visual range/quality for better Navigation

Currently testing some alterations to distant terrain settings and other graphics settings/files to improve long range spotting Specifically Ground / Sea Targets from over 10Km Range

like in example Below
I can now spot the port buildings from over 40KM
I can even see runways i want to land at from over 50km or so. (given altitude)
Navigation in Random Expert is 10 times better as i can see river with an island in it from 50km away or a town from 40km
(top of the screen where blue text is about 70km from plane i am in (STILL VISIBLE)

New pic added showing ONE of the fixes.
Now possible to easily identify and bomb planes/targets from 9,450m Max range


This test was just a range test not quality (terrain detail was lowered in test just to see if other settings worked ok..




 

Edited February 1, 2017 by =r4t=Sshadow14

[unreasonable]

Well do not tease us, tell us what the settings are!

[Luft1942]

Tell us man!

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

few things,..

Can i clarify
ON ALL Maps the large grids = 10km (our circle around the plane on map = 10km Radius?

Dont get too excited still making sure its correct
also weather plays a big part with haze in this game.

[Luft1942]

few things,..

Can i clarify

ON ALL Maps the large grids = 10km (our circle around the plane on map = 10km Radius?

Dont get too excited still making sure its correct

also weather plays a big part with haze in this game.

Yes and yes.

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

Ok problem is while it looks great on some maps & weather combos on others its hard  to see a difference

Also some maps seem to have "other issues" for terrain textures (even with my changes off, still get odd blurries on 2 of the maps

Can't get a consistent test bed it seems - ripping my hair out..
Is it possible some MP servers are altering weather files and fog levels? that i cannot set in test mission?
 

Edited January 27, 2017 by =r4t=Sshadow14

[Habu]

 

 

Is it possible some MP servers are altering weather files and fog levels? that i cannot set in test mission?

No, there are no setttings in the dedicated server about weather which is choose by mission builder.

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

TESTING TESTING TESTING..

also im making sure things wont cause CTD's i dont want to end up covered in tar and feathers tied to some lamp post somewhere

Runway visible from 10,000M *above those fake high altitude clouds*
23km Ground distance
im not doing the trig to figure out exact range.


I honestly Wish i could get rid of these
"high altitude cirrus clouds that are on every map and not tied to weather unless i am wrong..
(The blue on right side of pic just under camera)



Thanks for weather info
 

Edited January 27, 2017 by =r4t=Sshadow14

[216th_Peterla]

Interesting

[216th_Jordan]

I highly doubt that you can see buildings further than 10km. Those 10km objects draw distance should be deeply coded into the engine. Now if you would provide a picture showing it otherwise I would surely not be able to close my mouth any time soon.

All other things you mention (runways, textures) are painted onto the map and don't apply to the 10km radius. There is a thread in the Tips subforum which explains how to get a better texture resolution, maybe this is what you did?

 

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/23699-make-il-2-look-stunning-improved-ground-detail-and-visibilit/

Edited January 27, 2017 by 216th_Jordan

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

not only terrain.cfg but other change aswell.. 

as for the buildings rendering further they render outside the 10K map bubble by default.

Also i have a rather low end old Computer and the frames for me are 50-70fps in MP

1080P on Ultra Preset
FX-8350 @ 4.2Ghz
GTX780 @ 1.05Ghz
16GB Ram @ 1875mhz
Normal HDD (No SSD)
Windows 10

To be clear.
Nothing has been done to any game files to alter the distance at which things are rendered or displayed.
Only the quality of that rendering has been improved (much like Super sampling )

Edited January 27, 2017 by =r4t=Sshadow14

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

I would have to wait until jason is back from vacation before i can release more info about the changes made
i will have to check with him if its ok and if the changes are allowed and also what a few "variables" are connected to exactly.

Also could a mod please move this thread to Apps please as a WiP -
Thanks muchly

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

Game objects are render further that standard distance and you can force them to show up? Sorry i doubt, BTW cites are painted on texture if looking from farawy , those are not objects.

Now what is possible is to make further textures not to be so blured.

Edited January 27, 2017 by 307_Tomcat

[216th_Jordan]

as for the buildings rendering further they render outside the 10K map bubble by default.

 

 

No they don't. Thats why bombing over 5000m becomes almost impossible.

Anyway suspicious to hear about your findings!

Edited January 27, 2017 by 216th_Jordan

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

5,000m is only 5km obviously we can clearly spot things 5km away 

Game objects are render further that standard distance and you can force them to show up? Sorry i doubt, BTW cites are painted on texture if looking from farawy , those are not objects.
Now what is possible is to make further textures not to be so blured.

Nothing has been done to any game files to alter the distance at which things are rendered or displayed.
Only the quality of that rendering has been improved (much like Super sampling )

Edited January 27, 2017 by =r4t=Sshadow14

[216th_Jordan]

5,000m is only 5km obviously we can clearly spot things 5km away 

 

Did you ever levelbomb? Obviously your bomb is not going to fall down straight. Assume this red line as a dropped bomb. (I know normally its a square function)

Edited January 27, 2017 by 216th_Jordan

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

yeah i know.. as in the above pic i post showing runway i say i cant be bother doing the trig to figure out Line of sight distance to that runway but i gave camera altitude and horizontal distance..

i am rather lazy in my old age

What vis test would you like??
5,000m Alt and how far from target horizontal? 10-20km?

Edited January 27, 2017 by =r4t=Sshadow14

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

Go to https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/23699-make-il-2-look-stunning-improved-ground-detail-and-visibilit/page-2

 

I posted challenge, it's old but please try.

[216th_Jordan]

yeah i know.. as in the above pic i post showing runway i say i cant be bother doing the trig to figure out Line of sight distance to that runway but i gave camera altitude and horizontal distance..

 

i am rather lazy in my old age

 

What vis test would you like??

5,000m Alt and how far from target horizontal? 10-20km?

 

Lets say 15km.

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

will try soon..

Currently Refueling

[SCG_Space_Ghost]

TL;DR - Nothing to see here folks, move along.

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

Heya did more testing lastnight then fell asleep at computer..

back into it today, firstly trying to find a clear weather preset to use..
i set it to clear (with cloud slider on min) but then there is always lots of fog (clear, summer, 28*C and its foggy :| )

So hard to test changes when its foggy

 

TL;DR - Nothing to see here folks, move along.

 

sorry i don't understand TLDR

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

yeah been busy playing more than testing.. (as i test almost purely in test missions not MP)

Anyways having a conflict at the moment i think with driver settings in control panel but otherwise it seems ok ..

i can't alter the range of object pop in.. i am only finding the best combination of certain setting to remove/improve long range blurries. and other things.

With the stock game you can already see say a train station from 15km when @ 2,500m alt

[MadisonV44]

Too long ... without any objective and precise info !

You are on the way to win  the best 2017 trolling award if you don't come out with tips and data m8  

[Blutaar]

For me it just looks like the stuff they did with these LOD thingi or what it was, where you edit the terrainconfig for more highres at longer distances.

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/23699-make-il-2-look-stunning-improved-ground-detail-and-visibilit/

So please tell us, what did you do that is so secret that you cant explain to us right now and let us test it ourselves?

If you come up with a solution for that blurry terrain and transition between high and low res which makes this game looks so ugly, you sir, will be a hero.

I patiently waiting but have low hopes because of that secrecy, we will see.

Edited January 29, 2017 by Ishtaru

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

No still testing results and have 1 or 2 other people also testing them for long hours without crashing and so on..

Also very busy this game takes crazy long to test PEOPLE!!.

You know how many times i have logged into the darn game in last 2 days about 250-300 times just for this testing please.. chill.

Change a setting - load the game - test it - close game
Change a setting - load the game - test it - close game
Change a setting - load the game - test it - close game
and repeat Wish i could get the autoplay demo to run then i could test things faster.

Also i will have to wait till i hear back from jason as to weather the changes are allowed within rules before i can provide more information obviously..

Sorry i should not have posted the thread yet till i heard back i guess.
also if i have 5-6 hours free i will spend 5 of those flying maybe 1 hour testing things in quick flights.
 

Edited January 29, 2017 by =r4t=Sshadow14

[Yakdriver]

*yawn*

Seriously...
Smoke and mirrors is all i see.

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

you know its all good..

if im allowed to release it i will do it to only a select few in private pm's and not to those being "impatient"
 

[SCG_Space_Ghost]

you know its all good..

if im allowed to release it i will do it to only a select few in private pm's and not to those being "impatient"

 

Nobody is being impatient. We're just pointing out the shit-posty nature of this thread.

 

You have fun with that, though.

[Blutaar]

If its not an engine limitation im sure we will see improvements from the dev side, in engine adjustments or so not this kind of editing.

Hopefully sooner than later, i would very much like it to get rid of that blurry bubblemess.

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

Still waiting for a pm reply nothing i can do..

not going to get banned for sharing (not allowed mod)

[Blutaar]

But you already shared it with 1 or 2 other guys. 

 

 

No still testing results and have 1 or 2 other people also testing them for long hours without crashing and so on..

Also very busy this game takes crazy long to test PEOPLE!!.
 

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

But you already shared it with 1 or 2 other guys. 

Have not shared the entire changes with anyone.

 

Only a few settings that anyone can change they were testing..

But not all of it

Edited January 31, 2017 by =r4t=Sshadow14

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

New pic added showing ONE of the fixes.
Now possible to easily identify and bomb planes/targets from 9,450m Max range


Whiles it not perfect its a major improvement
also take into account this is a jpeg converted from png reshade saves so quality not the same as in game or @ 4K (im only on 1080P)

Edited February 1, 2017 by =r4t=Sshadow14

[Habu]

Sorry, but between the 2 pic, i don't know what we should see as improvement. For me we see more details at the bottom of the picture (below the runway) on the vanilla plane. There is a black point on the runway which seem more visible on the right picture, but it's in searching something that we can find it. I'm not sure that it make any difference in flight with movement.

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

it was a lot easier to spot ingame than the pic.. its jpeg.. i should have saved it as lossless format but i did not..

you need to click on the pic to see bigger version save then zoom in..

the plane in second pic parked clearly on runway was much easier to spot.

there is maybe triple the amount of pixels in right pic representing the plane

Edited February 1, 2017 by =r4t=Sshadow14

[MadisonV44]

39 posts for a Pixel on the runway ... 

Teasing ? 

[Nocke]

As a bomber pilot I would be happy about the difference of seeing that plane on the runway, or not seeing it, and that SEEMS to be the case, here...

[Habu]

As a bomber pilot I would be happy about the difference of seeing that plane on the runway, or not seeing it, and that SEEMS to be the case, here...

For me, as a bomber pilote, it's the bridge that i would like to see, because doing a bombrun on a traget which appear too late is a quite difficult, specialy if you are a group of bomber.

[SCG_Space_Ghost]

Sshadow IRL: