Realistic Clouds

[rowdyb00t]

  The first pic had the haze set to max with fog. That’s the reason for the extreme pink at sunset. 
   I’ve redone all the light and medium clouds for V15. They all seemed weak, so I enlarged them a bit without filling the sky like the heavy. I’ll post a pic in a bit. Fixed some of the fog color in a few files too. I’m debating on not changing the VR clouds. They seem ok to me with the performance being great. What does everyone think? If I enhance them it will effect FPS. 

[rowdyb00t]

Here's some of light and medium clouds in both Winter and Summer.

 

Winter light

 

Winter medium

 

Summer light

 

Summer medium

Edited February 28, 2021 by rowdyb00t

[BladeMeister]

I asked a while back and you said you developed this mod on the 'high cloud' setting. I am currently running IL2 on Ultra with everything at top adjustment. Should I try your mod or am I better to just stick with the stock IL2 Ultra settings including the highest cloud setting? Thanks for any advice in advance.

 

S!Blade<><

[Stonehouse]

Just my opinion - I too run everything at ultra except I have clouds set to high and use Rowdy's mod - v14 grey sky plus cumulonimbus and after some experimentation a gpreset clouds_samples value of 80. The difference between stock and modded clouds and weather "look" is astounding and fps is very good (for me) with the mod enabled. 

 

For me stock ultra clouds look very plastic and unnatural.

[BladeMeister]

Thank you No457_Stonehous, I shall up-vote you tomorrow as I am out for today.

S!Blade<><

 

 

S!Blade<><

One more question. I have noticed that in the Gpresets that the folder in the mod folder is 'luascripts' and In the IL2 data folder it is 'LauScripts'

Is this correct that the Cloud mod is introducing its' own folder 'luascripts' alongside the IL2 folder 'LuaScripts' ???

 

S!Blade<><

 

Edited March 1, 2021 by BladeMeister

[BladeMeister]

31 minutes ago, BladeMeister said:

S!Blade<><

One more question. I have noticed that in the Gpresets that the folder in the mod folder is 'luascripts' and In the IL2 data folder it is 'LauScripts'

Is this correct that the Cloud mod is introducing its' own folder 'luascripts' alongside the IL2 folder 'LuaScripts' ???

 

S!Blade<><

 

Damn auto merge!

[rowdyb00t]

30 minutes ago, BladeMeister said:

One more question. I have noticed that in the Gpresets that the folder in the mod folder is 'luascripts' and In the IL2 data folder it is 'LauScripts'

Is this correct that the Cloud mod is introducing its' own folder 'luascripts' alongside the IL2 folder 'LuaScripts' ???

   I don’t have LuaScripts folder in the mod. I do remember spelling that incorrectly a long while back when I had the gpreset file posted but I was fixed shortly after. 
  As for the mod, you can max out everything, I just think the clouds look the best on “HIGH”. You can use any setting though. Extreme makes them look a bit plasticy. 

[Stonehouse]

1 hour ago, rowdyb00t said:

   I don’t have LuaScripts folder in the mod. I do remember spelling that incorrectly a long while back when I had the gpreset file posted but I was fixed shortly after. 
  As for the mod, you can max out everything, I just think the clouds look the best on “HIGH”. You can use any setting though. Extreme makes them look a bit plasticy. 

I just ungtp'd scripts.gtp and can advise that the actual game folder is luascripts 

 

However, I also do not believe that windows is case sensitive at all so for example LUASCRIPTS from it's point of view is the same as luascripts (I actually rechecked this just now by having a folder called luascripts and trying to make a folder LUASCRIPTS in the same location. You get the "already have a folder called...." warning)

 

Unlike anything Unix like where case and capitalisation matters

Edited March 1, 2021 by No457_Stonehouse
typoX2 lol

[Goffik]

22 hours ago, rowdyb00t said:

I’m debating on not changing the VR clouds. They seem ok to me with the performance being great. What does everyone think? If I enhance them it will effect FPS. 

 

If the changes will negatively affect FPS then my vote would be not to change them. Most people, even those in VR, will be running this performance-hungry sim on a mid-range PC, so I think it would be a blow to those who can't afford the latest and greatest tech. Someone with the newest hardware can always use the "non-VR" version if their rig can handle it, but those with more mainstream hardware can't "downgrade" any further than the current VR version. VR is all about compromise, unfortunately.

 

Of course, you could always have two VR version for different hardware, but I think there are already enough versions of this mod. It's already a lot for you to maintain, and would be more confusing for those who are new to the mod.

 

Anyway, many thanks for your continued dedication to this project. Just got back into IL-2 since getting a new PC and this mod is always the first one I install... it's a must. I still can't use the "best" version in VR, but the VR version is still a massive improvement over the stock clouds. ?

[Beebop]

1 hour ago, Goffik said:

this mod is always the first one I install

Ditto! 

[tbauchot]

On 2/28/2021 at 7:01 PM, rowdyb00t said:

I’ve redone all the light and medium clouds for V15. They all seemed weak, so I enlarged them a bit without filling the sky like the heavy.

Thank you very much, very good initiative, these light and medium clouds also seemed to me, too thin and scattered ! ?

[BladeMeister]

I installed this mod with JSGME and I had both sky and cloud banding really bad on heavy and overcast. I uninstalled everything and now with mods off the clouds are completely banded directly overhead. Any thoughts, solutions before i do a fresh install?

 

S!Blade<><

Edited March 2, 2021 by BladeMeister

[rowdyb00t]

10 minutes ago, BladeMeister said:

I installed this mod with JSGME and I had both sky and cloud banding really bad on heavy and overcast. I uninstalled everything and now with mods off the clouds are completely banded directly overhead. Any thoughts, solutions before i do a fresh install?

 

S!Blade<><

  The clouds have banding no matter mods on or off. It happens at certain times in the morning or evening. 

[Stonehouse]

Turn mods off in the game options and see if there is banding still. If there is then there is no possibility it can be the mods fault as the game will not look at anything that is a mod with the check box unticked.

 

As Rowdy said banding is part of the stock game, there was actually a mod around to try to make it better. Do a search for "banding fix". I have a copy if you can't find it although I do not know how successful it is anymore as it was quite old.

 

<edit> to make it easier for you [MOD] Banding fix - Mods - IL-2 Sturmovik Forum

Edited March 2, 2021 by No457_Stonehouse

[BladeMeister]

I am not trying to call out the mod creator, I am just reporting what I saw. I will do some more testing today with the same setup but at 12 noon and see what happens. I run everything at ultra, possibly this mod doesn't play nice at this setting? I will report what I find. That pic is from cloud mod uninstalled and mods off in game. 

 

S!Blade<><

[Stonehouse]

All good, I meant no tonal inflection to my post. Was just suggesting a method of confirming whether it was a mod issue or something else and I guess trying to steer you away from needlessly doing a reinstall of IL2 due to unwarranted fears the cloud mod had corrupted something. Perhaps try the banding fix mod, I noticed later today that someone reported that it still worked late Jan and I don't seem to see your issue and I do run that mod but also reshade so not sure which apparently solves the banding for me.

Edited March 2, 2021 by No457_Stonehouse

[BladeMeister]

NP, I might as well test and see what happens. It is what it is. This is a fresh install so I will reinstall as a last measure as I don't have much time invested in this install anyway. I want it to work so I will give it my best shot.

 

S! Blade<><

[BladeMeister]

Deleted

Edited March 2, 2021 by BladeMeister

[Beebop]

5 hours ago, BladeMeister said:

I run everything at ultra, possibly this mod doesn't play nice at this setting?

I run Ultra too except my clouds are set to "High".  I do see a less than desirable difference if I run the clouds on "Extreme".

Other than that I have no issues with the cloud mod(s) except with the haze change made a while back by the Dev's.  (I'm not real fond of it).

But other than that I at least, don't have any issues.

I use JSGME to install the mod so that way if there's something I don't like I can remove it and get the stock ( ? ) clouds back.

All JSGME does is (with mods enabled), is to tell the game to look for and use different texture sets and once they are disabled via JSGME or using Mods is turned off, the game uses whatever the current "official" textures are.  At least I have never had an issue with any mod "corrupting" or changing the game.  Sometimes there are leftover artifacts (very, very rare for me), and when that happens just shutting down the game and re-starting it has solved the problem.

I personally highly doubt the mod is the issue but it could just be my machine.

 

My Machine:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7, 1700.  8 Cores and 16 threads. 3.19GHz adaptive up to 3.7 GHz.

GPU:  Sapphire RX 580 w/8Gb DDR 5.  Drivers up to date.  DirectX12 installed.

Mobo: AMD AB350 Gaming K4.

Memory: 16Gb DDR 3.

Power Supply: Coolermaster G750M

 

[BladeMeister]

I have clouds on extreme, so maybe that is the problem.

 

S!Blade<><

[tbauchot]

15 hours ago, rowdyb00t said:

The clouds have banding no matter mods on or off. It happens at certain times in the morning or evening. 

I confirm, and sometimes also in broad daylight with heavy clouds, but fortunately in very rare cases ! ?

[rowdyb00t]

41 minutes ago, tbauchot said:

I confirm, and sometimes also in broad daylight with heavy clouds, but fortunately in very rare cases ! ?

  I seen that when I was working on the mod. I’m pretty sure I fixed the issue there. When the clouds are thin like that, they band. 

Edited March 2, 2021 by rowdyb00t

[tbauchot]

1 hour ago, rowdyb00t said:

 I seen that when I was working on the mod. I’m pretty sure I fixed the issue there. When the clouds are thin like that, they band. 

For more information, the picture refers to : "summer\03_Heavy_09\sky.ini"; ?

[rowdyb00t]

12 minutes ago, tbauchot said:

For more information, the picture refers to : "summer\03_Heavy_09\sky.ini"; ?

Yup. Those were redone 

[Mysticpuma]

13 hours ago, rowdyb00t said:

Yup. Those were redone 

 

Rowdy, I posted this a while back regarding the lines.

 

Does your mod fix this issue? It frustrates the hell out of me that this game has some real visual beauty and yet this appear and takes away all the immersion

[rowdyb00t]

1 hour ago, Mysticpuma said:

Does your mod fix this issue? It frustrates the hell out of me that this game has some real visual beauty and yet this appear and takes away all the immersion

   It’s less noticeable. Not gone though. Honestly I don’t think the banding fix works or at least not anymore. 

[BladeMeister]

I did some more testing at 12:00 using the the QMB. I had much better results with and without mods ticked. Is that a good way to test or should I be using a normal mission and not the QMB? I can use the ME and know how to change weather in that. Is the ME the best way to pick the exact weather condition to test/use this mod?

 

S!Blade<><

[rowdyb00t]

10 minutes ago, BladeMeister said:

I did some more testing at 12:00 using the the QMB. I had much better results with and without mods ticked. Is that a good way to test or should I be using a normal mission and not the QMB? I can use the ME and know how to change weather in that. Is the ME the best way to pick the exact weather condition to test/use this mod?

 

S!Blade<><

  I use the ME to build the mod, so yes that’s the best way test things for that. 

[rowdyb00t]

Take a look at this page here. It explains the banding very well. 
https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/40836-work-in-progress/page/6/?tab=comments#

 

[vonGraf]

I got the banding in the SKY away by using reshade, nothing else had a real effect in my game in this regard.

The strange stripes in the clouds comes from the game rendering itself as I read several times here in the forum, but I'm glad I have it very rarely. More or less only when looking above on some few sorts of clouds for a short time and It's neglectable for me.

[Mysticpuma]

On 3/3/2021 at 7:07 PM, vonGraf said:

I got the banding in the SKY away by using reshade, nothing else had a real effect in my game in this regard.

The strange stripes in the clouds comes from the game rendering itself as I read several times here in the forum, but I'm glad I have it very rarely. More or less only when looking above on some few sorts of clouds for a short time and It's neglectable for me.

 

Yep, this was and is my issue

 

 

[Beebop]

I have a modest machine by most standards:

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7, 1700.  8 Cores and 16 threads. 3.19GHz adaptive up to 3.7 GHz.

GPU:  Sapphire RX 580 w/8Gb DDR 5.  Drivers up to date.  DirectX12 installed.

Mobo: AMD AB350 Gaming K4. Memory: 16Gb DDR 3.

Power Supply: Coolermaster G750M

 

...but have never had the banding issue.  I do use the Better Clouds mod(s) and have since they came out.

One thing I have noticed is that if I use the 'Extreme' setting for clouds I do get some odd results (not banding though) so as per rowdy's recommendation use 'High'.

I have also noticed that trying to use my cards enhancement settings I get less than desirable results.

If you are using 'Extreme' clouds and any card enhancements you might consider using 'High' settings in game and "let application decide" for your card.

Here are my graphics settings from the startup.cfg if it's any help;

[KEY = graphics]
    3dhud = 0
    adapter = 0
    bloom_enable = 0
    canopy_ref = 0
    desktop_center = 1
    detail_rt_res = 2048
    draw_distance = 1.00000
    far_blocks = 1
    fps_counter = 1
    fps_limit = 80
    full_height = 1440
    full_width = 2560
    fullscreen = 1
    gamma = 0.80000
    grass_distance = 200.00000
    hdr_enable = 0
    land_anisotropy = 2
    land_detail = 0
    land_tex_lods = 3
    max_cache_res = 1
    max_clouds_quality = 2
    mgpu_compatible = 0
    mirrors = 1
    msaa = 0
    multisampling = 2
    or_ca = 0.00000
    or_dummy = 0
    or_enable = 0
    post_sharpen = 1
    preset = 3
    prop_blur_max_rpm_for_vr = 155
    rescale_target = 1.00000
    shadows_quality = 2
    ssao_enable = 0
    vsync = 0
    win_height = 1440
    win_width = 2560

 

Just a thought.

Edited March 7, 2021 by Beebop

[vonGraf]

51 minutes ago, Mysticpuma said:

 

Yep, this was and is my issue

 

 

 

Wow, that's a quite strong visible issue. Would annoy me too.

 

[LizLemon]

On 3/3/2021 at 6:16 AM, rowdyb00t said:

   It’s less noticeable. Not gone though. Honestly I don’t think the banding fix works or at least not anymore. 

 

What banding fix are you talking about?

[rowdyb00t]

1 hour ago, LizLemon said:

 

What banding fix are you talking about?

 Your mod. Does it still work. I can’t notice a difference.

  I understand that that mod has nothing to do with fixing the way the clouds are drawn  
Was this a shader edit?

Edited March 7, 2021 by rowdyb00t

[LizLemon]

57 minutes ago, rowdyb00t said:

 Your mod. Does it still work. I can’t notice a difference.

  I understand that that mod has nothing to do with fixing the way the clouds are drawn  
Was this a shader edit?

 

Yes it still works. Do you notice a banding issue without it? Because if not then I have no idea what you think it does.

[rowdyb00t]

3 minutes ago, LizLemon said:

 

Yes it still works. Do you notice a banding issue without it? Because if not then I have no idea what you think it does.

  I’ve never really noticed the banding issue. Of course I know it’s there. And yes I know your mod fixes this. 

[LizLemon]

1 hour ago, rowdyb00t said:

  I’ve never really noticed the banding issue. Of course I know it’s there. And yes I know your mod fixes this. 

 

Then why do you think the mod stopped working? If you don't really notice banding then why would you think it doesn't do anything?

[rowdyb00t]

12 minutes ago, LizLemon said:

 

Then why do you think the mod stopped working? If you don't really notice banding then why would you think it doesn't do anything?

I installed it and didn’t really notice a difference like I said earlier. So therefor, I assumed it may not be working. Maybe it’s not noticeable in VR. 
   As for the banding that was being discussed in the earlier posts, I was referring to the clouds and how it was noticeable on a thinner layer. 

[peregrine7]

On 3/8/2021 at 10:59 AM, rowdyb00t said:

I installed it and didn’t really notice a difference like I said earlier. So therefor, I assumed it may not be working. Maybe it’s not noticeable in VR. 
   As for the banding that was being discussed in the earlier posts, I was referring to the clouds and how it was noticeable on a thinner layer. 

 

The banding Liz is referring to is this kind of thing (left image)

 

See how the colour does not smoothly change across the planet? This is a particularly glaring example of how bad banding can be.
IL2 has similar issues though, especially when looking through the window at the sky. Depends on time of day etc.

The image on the right has had dithering applied, to great effect. Something I'd love to see in IL2 (though truth be told I'd rather they do some work on lighting and colour depth, skyboxes and colour calibration).
 

Dithering, at a shader level, is quite easy to fix. See this article:
https://developer.oculus.com/blog/tech-note-shader-snippets-for-efficient-2d-dithering/?locale=nl_NL

Edited March 9, 2021 by peregrine7