Realistic Clouds

[Beebop]

What a dilemma.  As an apprentice mission builder I can't use cloud mods as others who play my missions with me online do not all have/use the mod so their skies are overly hazy and blind.  So from this point on, when mission building, I am disabling the mod so I can see what others see.

It's a damn shame too as I REALLY like the cloud mod, especially the overcasts.  I can even live without the snow but to make playable across the board missions, no cloud mods can be enabled during the creation process.

Sadly the stock clouds leave much to be desired now that I've left the farm and seen the Big City but I intend to continue using the mod for my personal flying.

??️⛅?️?️

Thanks again to rowdy, Liz and Happy for all their hard work.  You have really made the game, at least for me, a real treat to fly. ???

 

Maybe someday.....

Edited March 19, 2020 by Beebop

[Guster]

I really like your work, rowdy.

 

To tell you the truth I was just about to give up on IL2 and uninstall the whole shebang for the third time, again because of the stock clouds. They are just too taxing on my rig which is not really the devs fault. I just think I get a lot more eye candy in RoF and much better performance with clouds on i RoF. But add to that the mysterious aliasing bug which really bothers me.

 

Now at least I can fly with clouds off and enjoy better and more varied cirrus layers.

[VampireNZ]

Really have to say this is an awesome mod!

Just been flying a few A-20 Havoc over the Kuban Campign missions and taking in the awesome lighting and clouds while enroute. I personally think decent clouds in a flight sim is pretty high on the priority list as you spend the majority of time amongst them! I have never experienced big puffy clouds like these that don't rotate or flicker when you look at them/fly past them - is very enjoyable.

 

Thanks! ?

[rowdyb00t]

     Ok so, I’ve got a couple of videos with the new grey sky. One in winter and one in summer. Some of the heavy clouds and overcast have this applied to them. I can’t remember off hand which ones but, about 4 for both heavy in summer, winter and same for the overcast. I have also worked on the lighting a bit. The night lighting is the same across the board now, unless heavy clouds or overcast is present. I have 5 skydomes and 4 different lighting for spring/summer/autumn and 4 skydomes and 4 different lighting for winter. Adjusting these meant I had to go through all the sky files and re-work the cloud and haze colors, so needless to say it took some time. I plan on updating tomorrow sometime 

 

 

 

[Oyster_KAI]

Great job!!! 
quick glance at these 2 screenshot, it's feel like real photo!!
 

[Dijital_Majik]

Seriously at this point, 1CGS should just sort out a deal with you and make these clouds officially part of the game

[wonders9]

5 hours ago, Dijital_Majik said:

Seriously at this point, 1CGS should just sort out a deal with you and make these clouds officially part of the game

 

It's just what I think.

[SCG_motoadve]

10 hours ago, rowdyb00t said:

     Ok so, I’ve got a couple of videos with the new grey sky. One in winter and one in summer. Some of the heavy clouds and overcast have this applied to them. I can’t remember off hand which ones but, about 4 for both heavy in summer, winter and same for the overcast. I have also worked on the lighting a bit. The night lighting is the same across the board now, unless heavy clouds or overcast is present. I have 5 skydomes and 4 different lighting for spring/summer/autumn and 4 skydomes and 4 different lighting for winter. Adjusting these meant I had to go through all the sky files and re-work the cloud and haze colors, so needless to say it took some time. I plan on updating tomorrow sometime 

 

 

 

This is awesome, been waiting for this for ages!

Thanks for the mod.

Will this be a separated mod?

So far I use Better overcast, and really like it.

[rowdyb00t]

1 hour ago, SCG_motoadve said:

This is awesome, been waiting for this for ages!

Thanks for the mod.

Will this be a separated mod?

So far I use Better overcast, and really like it.

  No this is incorporated into the mod. It will be in the next version. With the newest version, you will not need the better overcast any longer like version 9.  It’s all in one package. The grey sky’s are in with the heavy and overcast selections. About four out of ten are grey sky in heavy and the same for the overcast. 

[Beebop]

Oh.  I thought Bettter Overcast was already incorporated into v9.1.  Guess I better reinstall it until the next update. The overcasts still look good in the base 9.1.

Edited March 21, 2020 by Beebop

[rowdyb00t]

4 minutes ago, Beebop said:

Oh.  I thought Bettter Overcast was already incorporated into v9.1.  Guess I better reinstall it until the next update. The overcasts still look good in the base 9.1.

Better overcast is in version 9.1 and higher. No need to install better overcast anymore. 

[Jade_Monkey]

@rowdyb00t

 

Very nice grey sky mod!

 

The first video the colors of the plane and ground are a bit off (looks almost like a black and white video), it's probably related to the game's lighting system.

The second one though, that one really sells it, absolutely amazing. It looks like real footage with the exception of the cockpit area. I'm actually a little bit in shock.

Edited March 21, 2020 by Jade_Monkey

[Beebop]

@ rowdyb00t, Ah ha.  I thought so.  I just mis-read the post.  Looking forward to the improved version.

It just keeps getting better and better. 

Thanks for helping make the game look even more realistic.

[rowdyb00t]

@Jade_Monkey

 

Yes the color is a bit dull in the winter vid. So the  skydome and lighting for the first vid are pretty much as you point out, black and white. This was really the only way to achieve it, but if you think about it all colored things are bit more dull on an overcast day. The second vid has less black and white in the skydome and lighting. Not all are going to be the same. I have quite a bit of variety in the mod now. You’ll get to check it out after while when I upload it 

Thanks JM 

[Uufflakke]

1 hour ago, rowdyb00t said:

 You’ll get to check it out after while when I upload it 

 

 

Hurry up!!!

 

[hayraddin]

Im kinda doing the same hahaha, waiting for him to upload to play Il2 

[rowdyb00t]

@Uufflakke

   What’s the pic?? It’s blank or at least on my phone. 
 

   Don’t worry guys I’ll be home in a couple hours 

[Uufflakke]

Just now, rowdyb00t said:

@Uufflakke

   What’s the pic?? It’s blank or at least on my phone. 
 

   Don’t worry guys I’ll be home in a couple hours 

 

It is the notorious animated .gif of a finger rapidly pressing the F5 button. ??????

 

 

[rowdyb00t]

Alright gang, version 10 is on the first post. Let me know if there’s any issues 

 

I suppose I should right what the changes are

 

- Added grey sky to some of the heavy and overcast sky files. 

 

- Adjusted the night lighting to be the same across the board for both summer and winter cloud files

 

-Re-Adjusted the cloud colors due to the change in lighting  
 

-Added a modded stock overcast in winter so that it evens out with summer for precipitation. 
 

-Added 2 more skydomes in summer and winter files for more variety. 
 

-Added 2 more light.bmp’s to summer and 1 more to winter. 
 

Edited March 22, 2020 by rowdyb00t

[SCG_motoadve]

Love the clouds and grey sky, however under the overcast or heavy clouds, there is a very bright white haze that looks very un natural, also the color of the terrain below looks bright, like if it was being hit directly for the sun light.

 

Thanks for the mod.

 

 

[rowdyb00t]

@SCG_motoadve

 

  I see. I must have missed that since I have my gamma turned down to the lowest setting. I’ll look into it. 
Thank you 

40 minutes ago, SCG_motoadve said:

Love the clouds and grey sky, however under the overcast or heavy clouds, there is a very bright white haze that looks very un natural, also the color of the terrain below looks bright, like if it was being hit directly for the sun light.

  Just for a quick test, does it look better if you turn down the gamma?

  I will put mine at stock and adjust accordingly

Edited March 22, 2020 by rowdyb00t

[SCG_motoadve]

My gamma is  .8 which is already low , which works best with the HP Reverb.

Here is a shot over the clouds.

Looks over exposed.

 

[rowdyb00t]

@SCG_motoadve

 

  I suppose I didn’t turn down the brightness of the clouds enough. What I’m stumped by is that it looks ok on mine ( Vive Pro ) and my gamma is also .8 Are all of your clouds that bright?

 

EDIT : Well it seems that the clouds are too bright. Thanks for the heads up I will get a hot fix before the weekends up. I did darken up the grey sky a bit.

 

 

Edited March 22, 2020 by rowdyb00t

[Beebop]

Clouds v10 look's  r e a l  good to me. ?

 

MAP: Velikie Luki
TIME: 0855
DATE: Dec. 12, 1941
CLOUD SETTING: Overcast_08

GAME SETTING: Gamma .8, Ultra, almost everything maxed out.

 

 

Edited March 22, 2020 by Beebop

[VampireNZ]

With the Rift S I noticed it seemed super bright also, with very bright blue sky. Will have to check my gamma setting, think it is still on 1.

[Goffik]

To be fair, if your mod has been designed/optimised using non-default game settings then this really needs to be stated in the OP. Otherwise people are going to be very confused as to why their results never look like your own screenshots. Personally I use default gamma on a Rift S and haven't really noticed too much of an issue so far, but I haven't tried v10 yet. Think I'll wait for the fix, given the screenshots above.

 

Another thing I noticed recently that might be worth noting. After reinstalling IL-2 and mods, I was getting "boiling" clouds and banding, despite having your mod installed. Your mod appeared to be working as the clouds were not the defaults, so it took me a while to work out what the problem was. It turns out it was the gpresets file. The modified settings in that file didn't "take" until I changed my graphics options to something else (from High to Medium), restarted, and than changed them back again. I'd always assumed that the game uses the settings in that file each time it starts, but apparently not.

 

Edit: Ignore the second paragraph. Must have been something else on my end. 

Edited March 22, 2020 by Goffik
Correction

[sniperton]

58 minutes ago, Goffik said:

It turns out it was the gpresets file. The modified settings in that file didn't "take" until I changed my graphics options to something else (from High to Medium), restarted, and than changed them back again. I'd always assumed that the game uses the settings in that file each time it starts, but apparently not.

Are you sure? Each time I restarted the game with a modified clouds_samples value I could see its effect both visually and on my FPS counter.

 

Apart from that, I fully agree with the rest you said.

 

@rowdyb00tI still have to test v10, but concerning the two videos above, the ground seems to me too colourless on #1, and too colourful on #2.

[Goffik]

1 hour ago, sniperton said:

Are you sure? Each time I restarted the game with a modified clouds_samples value I could see its effect both visually and on my FPS counter.

 

Well, that's the way I think it worked for me this time, as I definitely didn't see the cloud sample changes (and a few others I made) until I'd switched between presets. I'm going to go try again now though since you're seeing something different... perhaps it was some other cause on my end? ?

 

Edit: Yep, you're right. Changed the cloud samples again and the change took affect immediately with no need to change settings. Must have been some other cause which I've overlooked.

Edited March 22, 2020 by Goffik
Correction

[rowdyb00t]

Ok the first post is updated to 10.1. Thanks guys for pointing these things out. Again let me know if anything is off, it looked good to me in VR and 2D. But as you can see I miss things. 
 

@Goffik

You are correct, I’ve mentioned that to myself here in a post a while back. It makes sense to build a mod while using “stock” gamma or saturation, I will do this from now on. However it will always be different for people, considering the preferences and hardware are never the same. 
 

@sniperton

Let me know what you think about the colors after testing. 

[Beebop]

1 hour ago, rowdyb00t said:

Ok the first post is updated to 10.1. Thanks guys for pointing these things out. Again let me know if anything is off, it looked good to me in VR and 2D. But as you can see I miss things. 

 

Whaaat?  You're not perfect?

I'm crushed! ?

 

Thanks for the upgrade! ?

[rowdyb00t]

49 minutes ago, Beebop said:

Whaaat?  You're not perfect?

I'm crushed! ?

 

Thanks for the upgrade! ?

Your welcome! Hope fully this version is going to be ok. I’m starting to realize when I use the mission editor to edit my build, it does not display the same as in the game. Also the difference between VR and 2D also varies. 

[Beebop]

My squad complained about the last mission I made saying the sky was too hazy and hard to see.  I had made the mission using  v9.1 and although I share my mod discoveries with them several did not have it installed.  When I went back after unloading the mod I saw what they meant.

For for all future builds, and I would recommend this to all mission builders, especially if you are making a mission for public consumption, disable the mod when building especially if you are using overcast skies.  Then, as you said, you will see what those who do not use the mod will.  It can be a game changer.

 

v10.1;

Overcast Over Stalingrad:

 

[HappyHaddock]

2 hours ago, rowdyb00t said:

 I’m starting to realize when I use the mission editor to edit my build, it does not display the same as in the game.

 

From what I recall of my own experiments it uses  a stripped back version of the lighting engine so is merely a useful tool for broad brush changes, fine refinements need to be tuned in game

[LizLemon]

4 hours ago, rowdyb00t said:

Your welcome! Hope fully this version is going to be ok. I’m starting to realize when I use the mission editor to edit my build, it does not display the same as in the game. Also the difference between VR and 2D also varies. 

 

Because the mission editor isn't doing any gamma adjustment, not that it matters much since stock game isn't doing it right either. Otherwise it's almost the exact same.

[SCG_motoadve]

6 hours ago, rowdyb00t said:

Your welcome! Hope fully this version is going to be ok. I’m starting to realize when I use the mission editor to edit my build, it does not display the same as in the game. Also the difference between VR and 2D also varies. 

This version is fantastic, thank you!

Clouds look soft and love the grey sky, good job.

[jokerBR]

Your work brings a lot of atmosphere to the game.

Returned home after a long period out (working at another city). Installed the 10.1 version but I'm confused as I'm *not* seeing my game like your pictures. I'm using everything on ULTRA/MAX/etc except clouds (HIGH, per instructions). Using the mod, clouds are looking worst than vanilla extreme clouds (boiling and ripple effects), so there's something clearly wrong on my side... 
Do I have to alter the gpresets and alter gamma like some posts above in order to achieve your results, or should this 10.1 be a "vanilla install"? Just want to be sure before I jump into this and start changing things, as I have my game perfectly tuned to my hw by now.

(Tip: I think it could be useful to put the whole ordeal on the first topic, if this is the case). 

 

[Beebop]

@ jokerBR,

I don't know if it will be of any help but here are my graphics settings that gave me the screenshot in my previous post, 5 up;

 

ULTRA

Left Column;
Screen Resolution: 2048X1152 (Native resolution)
UI Scale: 100%
Shadows Quality: High
Mirrors: Simple
Distant landscape detail: x4
Horizon draw distance: 150km
Landscape Filter: Sharp
Grass Quality: Normal
Clouds quality: High
Target FPS: Off
Antialiasing: Off (I let my card do it to save CPU cycles)

Gamma: .8

 

Right Column;
Only items checked are:
HDR
Sharpen
Use 4K textures
Distant buildings

 

 

I have not modified any gpresets, Gamma is default.  Just loaded the mod in via JSGME.

[rowdyb00t]

@jokerBR

 

If you have the gpresets installed, remove and try this one or add if you don’t have it. 
https://www.mediafire.com/file/isu7649zz6o1ml9/Graphic_Presets_(2).zip/file

 

I have almost the same settings as @Beebop. Except my draw distance is at 70km ( this helps with the bad ailiasing on the clouds at a far distance )  Also I don’t use HDR because of the awful green blooming effect. 

 

sorry for the confusion, I explained this in the first post. 

Edited March 23, 2020 by rowdyb00t

[Beebop]

Hmmm, I don't seem to have antialiasing issues with the clouds and haven't noticed a green bloom using HDR but I'll give them a try. 

Anything to improve the (already good) look of the game.

Thanks for the (indirect) tips rowdyb00t.

[jokerBR]

Thanks Rowdy, the gpresets file did the trick. 

Would also thank to Beebop for trying to help! Much appreciated.