Realistic Clouds

[Calius1945]

Gpreset fixed my cloud behaviour once and for all - I had the odd spinning and movement of clouds and can report the same - all gone - was something I put up with at the time as new to IL2 but slowly realised this wasn't the norm.

 

With 10.1 -  this is looking mint - superb mod a lot of TLC has clearly gone into this - new video & weather front is just another level so cant wait for that release

[vonGraf]

Just a question, don't think the issue is even related to this mod; but I have the sun shining through quite dense/thick grey clouds. Is this a thing of the game itself?

Somehow I have a recall that wasn't this way for me some time ago, the sun got always faded away/out when depicted behind clouds but I'm not really sure.

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by vonGraf

[rowdyb00t]

22 minutes ago, vonGraf said:

Just a question, don't think the issue is even related to this mod; but I have the sun shining through quite dense/thick grey clouds. Is this a thing of the game itself?

Somehow I have a recall that wasn't this way for me some time ago, the sun got always faded away/out when depicted behind clouds but I'm not really sure.

 

 I will check the opacity of the clouds later. I may have missed a line or so. Thanks 

[Columbar]

Hi rowdyb00t,

thank you very much for your excellent mods. Myny times flying with your mod I cought myself looking from cocpit and thinking: "wow, such a beautifull sky!" ?

 

Thank you very much again. 

 

Version 10.1 is too grey for me:

I will stay with versin 9 

 

On screenshots are similar quantity of clouds, but V10 looks like overcast.

[rowdyb00t]

   I have some more pics of some recent work. The lighting in the summer / autumn is now evened out with the ambient. The last few versions were kinda all over the place. Since I don't know yet how to edit the game shaders, I've worked on the way the cloud lighting shows in the game.

 

   These are some of the cloud fronts I'm working on ( Still tweaking for better FPS, although I believe they will still be a little taxing ) 

 

   Also since some of you guys do not like the grey sky, I plan on having two versions, one with and one without.

 

   Finally, I've redone the winter lighting which was also a bit over done. Also adding some of the new clouds as well.

 

Now the winter seems more blueish as it should.

 

Feel free to make suggestions 

[Beebop]

Nice work!  ?

I for one like the grey in the overcast settings.  It reminds me of the sky here in the Pacific Northwest.  I think you've done an excellent job with it.

All the variations look nice.

The only thing I would like is to be able to have precipitation, rain/snow, but as I understand it because of what you are doing to achieve this effect it changes the skies ability to fall upon us.  however I do notice that when flying in the clouds I still get the water droplets.

 

It's all OK though as rarely do I fly in inclement weather, as did real pilots I imagine, even in a war footing.

Keep up the good work! ?

[Columbar]

37 minutes ago, rowdyb00t said:

Also since some of you guys do not like the grey sky, I plan on having two versions, one with and one without.

Actually, that was point of my last post 

 

Thank you very much for your perfect work. All the picures look great!

[SCG_motoadve]

2 hours ago, rowdyb00t said:

   I have some more pics of some recent work. The lighting in the summer / autumn is now evened out with the ambient. The last few versions were kinda all over the place. Since I don't know yet how to edit the game shaders, I've worked on the way the cloud lighting shows in the game.

 

   These are some of the cloud fronts I'm working on ( Still tweaking for better FPS, although I believe they will still be a little taxing ) 

 

   Also since some of you guys do not like the grey sky, I plan on having two versions, one with and one without.

 

   Finally, I've redone the winter lighting which was also a bit over done. Also adding some of the new clouds as well.

 

Now the winter seems more blueish as it should.

 

Feel free to make suggestions 

Love the grey sky adds ambient for sure, only drawback is the faint red tint color on everything, apart from that is perfect.

Thanks for the mod.

[rowdyb00t]

  Modding these clouds can be frustrating at times 

  I feel like I haven’t been able to enjoy playing the game like I use to.  Everytime I release a newer version I soon become unsatisfied with it. It’s sort of funny how this becomes sort of an obsession for perfection. I am glad however that I share every change with the community. It provides good feedback. 
   Hopefully the next version will be final... but probably not. 
   On another note, I’m thinking that the newer clouds I’ve been working on may be too taxing for some In VR. I have a beast of a rig and it still causes ASW to kick in. Sometimes even lower. I suppose we will see. Maybe I’ll make two other versions. New clouds and grey / no grey. Original clouds and grey / no grey. 

[HappyHaddock]

10 hours ago, rowdyb00t said:

  Modding these clouds can be frustrating at times 

  I feel like I haven’t been able to enjoy playing the game like I use to.  Everytime I release a newer version I soon become unsatisfied with it. It’s sort of funny how this becomes sort of an obsession for perfection. 

 

I hear you on this one.  I've probably averaged less than an hour a month in the cockpit since the announcement of Flying Circus which was when I made the move from ROF and began looking at how much of the work I'd been doing to mod ROF I could carry forward into IL-2. However I'm pretty sure I've now spent over one thousand hours on my own mod work as I can see the untapped potential in so many different things, including in a small part the clouds. I know some others are focussing very much on technical changes but the bigger gains are to be had with artistic improvements. When the capabilities of the existing game engine are very much under-utilised, adding technical complexities seems unnecessary as the existing game engine can already deliver much more natural and impressive results than people are currently asking it to do.

 

When you last messaged me comparing your progress with cloud modding to my own I made the analogy to you of a game of a chess, where I felt you had reached the point of having learned how all the pieces move individually but that the real work is in finding strategies of how best to use them all to support one another as a winning army; that is to balance out and refine all the settings that can be adjusted. In so far as I can tell I'd say you are at about the point I was 12-18months ago of knowing "what does what" and that every change you make to improve one aspect has subtle knock on effects elsewhere which you need to fine tune out.... I doubt many people reading this will appreciate the work that goes into such mods, after all if it were quick and easy it would have been economic for the devs to have released the stock game with such features.

 

You said that that the more you try to refine and improve each different setting the more they want to merge back to all becoming the same again. It is a real fight to find the point at which a deviation from a theoretical ideal is sufficient benefit through offering variety, without being too much of a deviation from that ideal to actually feel obviously worse. The devs stock/vanilla game offers a wide variety of atmospheric options which all look so similar I suspect most probably wouldn't even realise they were flying under different conditions.

 

And if it is any comfort, reassure yourself you are only dealing with the clouds, myself I'm also fighting a bigger fight to overhaul and bring some balance to many other aspects of the in-game natural world. In that respect I've probably only shared screenshots of about 10-15% of what I'm working on.... I know (hope?) I'll be able to cut back a lot, but so far I've got close to 10GB of assorted data and test that are forming the basis of my "full" WIP.... The full IL-2 install across all modules, planes and maps is only about 50GB... It's frightening how such modding-work takes on a life of its own and becomes more of a hobby than playing the flight-sim itself.

 

Anyway keep up the obsessive fight for perfection

 

HH

 

 

 

[rowdyb00t]

  Thanks @HappyHaddock for the kind words. 
I have to say that you are right about the untapped potential, it’s like looking down a hole and you can’t see the bottom. I’ll bet that deferred shading will make it quite a bit deeper. Also when it’s released I fear it will cause many more nights of dry eyes while looking into the screen , while heading farther down the path of bringing that world to life. 

   
Cheers

[Goffik]

12 hours ago, rowdyb00t said:

Maybe I’ll make two other versions. New clouds and grey / no grey. Original clouds and grey / no grey.

 

I realise it will be more work, but it would be excellent if you can do this. As you know I'm not keen on the grey skies, and my poor 1060 is already pretty much maxed out running the game in VR as it is. (I literally can't play the BP map.) As much as I would like those weather fronts you're working on, if they hit performance even more then it'd render the sim unflyable for me.

Edited April 6, 2020 by Goffik

[HappyHaddock]

32 minutes ago, rowdyb00t said:

I have to say that you are right about the untapped potential, it’s like looking down a hole and you can’t see the bottom. I’ll bet that deferred shading will make it quite a bit deeper.

 

In itself deferred shading doesn't have to change any end result it is just about how efficiently you get to that particular end result. Of course the reason for changing systems is to make it more efficient to do things that previously would have overtaxed a PC, so it should create more new potential than it destroys existing potential ... We'll just have to wait and see how much potential it is economic for the devs to realise when the switch is made...

 

I'm sure we'll both be interested to learn how much any new systems impact upon the look of any particular output.  I'm not a betting man but I'd hazard a guess that there will be a lot of impressive stuff going on behind the scenes but that upon release most people won't notice any significant difference in the look of the game.... More that there will be a few subtle differences and that over time progressive improvements to better utilise the change to deferred shading will bring about further differences. I may be completely wrong but I can't see the devs imposing changes that require them to go back and rework all their existing files for maps, aircraft etc. so it is likely that the new system will be designed to utilise all the existing content without compromising their look; something that may in itself compromise how much of an improvement the change to deferred shading can initially bring about...

 

Of course I am merely speculating, on release we may see huge chunks of what we were familiar with gone to be replaced by something entirely different and radically better?

 

Cheers

HH

[Beebop]

4 hours ago, HappyHaddock said:

I doubt many people reading this will appreciate the work that goes into such mods

 

I don't know jack about how to mod this game but I DO know that it time consuming and must be frustrating.  My forays into the Mission Editor are fraught with frustration but when successful the results are incredibly satisfying.  I am sure your work has similar GRRR!/Reward feelings but on a much larger scale.

 

I think the work that HH and Rowdy are doing is tremendous and I am very pleased with rowdy's current "Better Clouds".  Having a game that looks as realistic as possible makes playing it a real joy.  Despite all the "difficulties" I have encountered I like this game so much I have all but quit playing IL-2 1946 after almost 19 years.

What impresses me most about both of you is neither of you are satisfied if you detect there is yet another improvement possible. 

And at no charge to us. 

You  Are  Saints!

Again my thanks to both of you for everything you have given us so far and for everything that is to come. 

[HappyHaddock]

59 minutes ago, Beebop said:

 

I don't know jack about how to mod this game but I DO know that it time consuming and must be frustrating.  My forays into the Mission Editor are fraught with frustration but when successful the results are incredibly satisfying.  I am sure your work has similar GRRR!/Reward feelings but on a much larger scale.

 

I think the work that HH and Rowdy are doing is tremendous and I am very pleased with rowdy's current "Better Clouds".  Having a game that looks as realistic as possible makes playing it a real joy.  Despite all the "difficulties" I have encountered I like this game so much I have all but quit playing IL-2 1946 after almost 19 years.

What impresses me most about both of you is neither of you are satisfied if you detect there is yet another improvement possible. 

And at no charge to us. 

You  Are  Saints!

Again my thanks to both of you for everything you have given us so far and for everything that is to come. 

 

Well it's kind of you to say so but so far all this community has had from me has been a few screenshots. Rowdy is the one putting out work as and when he makes each new little discovery or tweak. I told myself when I switched from ROF to IL-2 I wasn't going to go that route again, I'd wait until I'd actually completed all I knew was possible rather than keep sharing what I'd know to be incomplete experiments...

 

As for saints... well at this time more than any other I can imagine most folk would name those working in the medical/health care profession as true saints... To that end as a modest part of my profession entails making replica period costume for museums I'm no stranger to a needle and thread.... Our local NHS trust has been putting out a plea for more medical scrubs as they are getting through them at a far faster rate than usual... to that end, with not a lot of paid work on my books currently, I've spent the last few hours cutting out basic blue cotton fabric and now have a load of machining to do to stitch them all together.... My wife and I can't make enough scrubs to make any measurable difference but if everyone does what little they can then collectively society can make a difference, where if nothing else at least it shows all those doctors and nurses out there that their own efforts are appreciated.

 

HH

Edited April 6, 2020 by HappyHaddock

[Beebop]

1 hour ago, HappyHaddock said:

Well it's kind of you to say so but so far all this community has had from me has been a few screenshots.

 

Yes, but your work has been a motivator I'm sure.

 

1 hour ago, HappyHaddock said:

As for saints... well at this time more than any other I can imagine most folk would name those working in the medical/health care profession as true saints...

 

Absolutely.  I was speaking in terms of this flight sim.  All those front line workers and support staff are the true saints and hero's.  But the groundbreaking work you and others have done, for nothing more than personal satisfaction and the betterment of the community is saintly, at least in my opinion.

 

1 hour ago, HappyHaddock said:

Our local NHS trust has been putting out a plea for more medical scrubs as they are getting through them at a far faster rate than usual... to that end, with not a lot of paid work on my books currently, I've spent the last few hours cutting out basic blue cotton fabric and now have a load of machining to do to stitch them all together.... My wife and I can't make enough scrubs to make any measurable difference but if everyone does what little they can then collectively society can make a difference, where if nothing else at least it shows all those doctors and nurses out there that their own efforts are appreciated.

 

I heartily applaud you and your wife's efforts to assist those who put their lives on the line daily to help those most in need.  And although your efforts are small and may only make a small dent in the problem it does make a difference.  You have helped those few stay safe in the face of mortal danger.  Your work saves lives too.  THANK YOU!

Edited April 6, 2020 by Beebop

[Calius1945]

Not that it should have issue - but I just ran a load of AI battles and different cloud setting on the new update and all is well.

 

I fact I think all mods seem ok that ive used.

Edited April 8, 2020 by Calius1945

[mrBruce2]

Did this break with the 4.005 update? I feel like the clouds look different now

[rowdyb00t]

5 hours ago, mrBruce2 said:

Did this break with the 4.005 update? I feel like the clouds look different now

  Sorry I won’t be home till tomorrow to check, but I don’t believe anything was broke in the update. Possibly you had your gpreset change? If you don’t have this downloaded with the mod it’s available with the latest version on the first post. The stock game has the cloud samples set to 64 which is a it too low. The gpreset file restores the samples to 128. 

[vonGraf]

I did five missions in career and QME today and the cloud mod seems to be not affected by the update for me.

Edited April 9, 2020 by vonGraf

[Avyx]

On 4/5/2020 at 9:42 PM, rowdyb00t said:

   I have some more pics of some recent work. The lighting in the summer / autumn is now evened out with the ambient. The last few versions were kinda all over the place. Since I don't know yet how to edit the game shaders, I've worked on the way the cloud lighting shows in the game.

 

   These are some of the cloud fronts I'm working on ( Still tweaking for better FPS, although I believe they will still be a little taxing ) 

 

   Also since some of you guys do not like the grey sky, I plan on having two versions, one with and one without.

 

   Finally, I've redone the winter lighting which was also a bit over done. Also adding some of the new clouds as well.

 

Now the winter seems more blueish as it should.

 

Feel free to make suggestions 

The cloud look amazing

 

[Serdalf]

I find that in the early hours with a low sun, the landscape is a little too orange.
Is there a way to correct this, maybe by supporting it?
I have the preset file with the 10.1 file in JSGME
Ideas?

[rowdyb00t]

18 minutes ago, Serdalf said:

I find that in the early hours with a low sun, the landscape is a little too orange.
Is there a way to correct this, maybe by supporting it?
I have the preset file with the 10.1 file in JSGME
Ideas?

  That has been fixed. It will be with the next version. 

[Serdalf]

Great, thank you !

[peregrine7]

The new work looks awesome, as always. Minor note, is it just me or is the sunlight waaay too dim in all of your new shots?

Edited April 9, 2020 by peregrine7

[rowdyb00t]

11 minutes ago, peregrine7 said:

The new work looks awesome, as always. Minor note, is it just me or is the sunlight waaay too dim in all of your new shots?

Actually that’s a shade brighter than the stock light. These are pics from the mission editor which has different brightness and contrast than in game. So that’s why it seems darker. 

[mrBruce2]

14 hours ago, rowdyb00t said:

  Sorry I won’t be home till tomorrow to check, but I don’t believe anything was broke in the update. Possibly you had your gpreset change? If you don’t have this downloaded with the mod it’s available with the latest version on the first post. The stock game has the cloud samples set to 64 which is a it too low. The gpreset file restores the samples to 128. 

I never messed with the gpreset thing. Its just that now when the weather is set to overcast there are no longer any mammatus clouds and there are some gaps. It used to be a sheet of pure cloud. I will look into it, thanks

[jokerBR]

1 hour ago, peregrine7 said:

The new work looks awesome, as always. Minor note, is it just me or is the sunlight waaay too dim in all of your new shots?

Somehow, in the last few days I've observed what seems to be a "melted plastic" look on the clouds. They have "too much smoother" edges, doesn't seem like steam floating in the air... it is possible to see the effect on the image above, on the cloud at the upper right. I ended up bringing back the vanilla clouds and they look better, although with all the problems, like "boiling effects", etc. Dunno what happened. Clouds on HIGH.

[rowdyb00t]

1 hour ago, jokerBR said:

Somehow, in the last few days I've observed what seems to be a "melted plastic" look on the clouds. They have "too much smoother" edges, doesn't seem like steam floating in the air... it is possible to see the effect on the image above, on the cloud at the upper right. I ended up bringing back the vanilla clouds and they look better, although with all the problems, like "boiling effects", etc. Dunno what happened. Clouds on HIGH.

 I see that. I noticed the other day that some clouds aren’t as “soft” as they should be I’ll be working on it. Thanks

Edited April 10, 2020 by rowdyb00t

[RedeyeStorm]

Hi all,

 

Is it correct that since version 8 or so your mod no longer generates rain or snow? 

[Marvel]

Hi Rowdyb00t, I have installed v10.1 and gpreset but I noticed that when a plane flies with clouds as a background it has a halo around it. There is a way to avoid this? Thanks!

 

Ciao!

 

M

[mrBruce2]

I uninstalled my game and reinstalled it and the mod works again now. Got my fluffy clouds and rain/snow back

[rowdyb00t]

1 hour ago, Marvel said:

Hi Rowdyb00t, I have installed v10.1 and gpreset but I noticed that when a plane flies with clouds as a background it has a halo around it. There is a way to avoid this? Thanks!

 

Ciao!

 

M

  Unfortunately this is how the game renders the planes against the clouds. Hopefully Deferred Shading removes this. 

[Marvel]

40 minutes ago, rowdyb00t said:

  Unfortunately this is how the game renders the planes against the clouds. Hopefully Deferred Shading removes this. 

 

Sorry for my silly question, Deferred Shading will be a next game improvement or a new mod?

 

M

[rowdyb00t]

1 hour ago, Marvel said:

Sorry for my silly question, Deferred Shading will be a next game improvement or a new mod?

   It will be a game improvement. It was discussed some in the last Dev diary. 

Edited April 10, 2020 by rowdyb00t

[CanadaOne]

Just tried the clouds and some of the eye candy is first rate. I was flying the Ju-52 through some rough overcast weather and it was really nice.

 

A question: sometimes if there are just a few clouds they seem thin in height. Is this a random thing or are my settings off or just part of the mod?

 

In any case, really nice addition to the game. Thanks!

[rowdyb00t]

1 minute ago, CanadaOne said:

Just tried the clouds and some of the eye candy is first rate. I was flying the Ju-52 through some rough overcast weather and it was really nice.

 

A question: sometimes if there are just a few clouds they seem thin in height. Is this a random thing or are my settings off or just part of the mod?

 

In any case, really nice addition to the game. Thanks!

   Thank you as well! Are you using the gpreset file with the mod? Also the clouds should be set to High in the graphic settings. Extreme or is it Ultra, makes the clouds look awful. 

[Uufflakke]

6 hours ago, [Pb]RedeyeStorm said:

Hi all,

 

Is it correct that since version 8 or so your mod no longer generates rain or snow? 

 

That is indeed the last version with rain and snow.

[RedeyeStorm]

Just now, Uufflakke said:

 

That is indeed the last version with rain and snow.

 

Thanks for the info.

[CanadaOne]

22 minutes ago, rowdyb00t said:

   Thank you as well! Are you using the gpreset file with the mod? Also the clouds should be set to High in the graphic settings. Extreme or is it Ultra, makes the clouds look awful. 

 

I'll try that, thanks. No, haven't tried the gpreset, but I'll go back to your OP and look.

 

And no kidding, your overcast at dawn is just top shelf stuff. I have it on with the winter Kuban mod and it's some of the best immersion I've had in this sim.