Realistic Clouds

[rowdyb00t]

1 hour ago, Beebop said:

With most recent version and "gpreset" installed I'm getting slight flickering at bottom edges of clouds where the cloud line meets the distant fog.  It's hardly noticeable and frankly I'd rather have that than the stock clouds this mod is that good. But if I could get rid of the flicker I'd be in Hound Heaven.

   I see the flickering at the bottom or the clouds too. Maybe @LizLemon can elaborate on this

[vonGraf]

9 hours ago, rowdyb00t said:

@Goffik @vonGraf

 

    I think that I might have found the problem. In the graphic presets the lines here in Balanced Settings :

//Post effects
    post_effects_enable=true
    post_bloom_enable=false
    post_contrast=true
    post_sharpen=true
    post_drops_enable=true
    post_hdr=2
    saturation=0.80
    post_motion_samples=16;

 

 I've highlighted the ones that I changed to remove aliasing. Here is my Gpresets attached. Try this and let me know if 

this is of any help.

 

gpresets.zip 687 B · 4 downloads

 

I did use your gpresets (settings on 'high') and the aliased cloud edges were gone in my case. Nice work.

[LizLemon]

Clouds are rendered at a lower resolution than what the screen is set to; ie 1/2 res, 1/4 res, ect depending on settings. This is part of the jaggies on the bottom. An easy "fix" for this is to run the game with supersampling, which at 2xSSAA will make the clouds render at native res.

 

The other issue that might be happening here is to get the horizon extinction of clouds the game is blending them with the skydome. During the day some issues related to this aren't really noticeable but problems can pop up at dawn/dusk. A really easy test to see what I am talking about is to make the skydome.dds have a sharp amount of contrast between the sky and horizon (which often times makes the landscape look a lot better). This will manifest itself as a 'line' visible through the clouds when the camera is about cloud height. Something akin to this may be happening here.

 

Third probably issue - you did something with sharpness settings that makes the cloud edges more pronounced. Alternatively it could be the, lets call it contrast adjustment on clouds, that is controlled by suncolor/ambientcolor in sky.ini is making those edges more noticeable.

[rowdyb00t]

     I've updated the first post with Version 7, I fixed the aliasing issue and lighting. I have also redone the cloud map on one of the heavy clouds, its more like an over cast now. 

See what you guys think of it and let me know if I missed something.

 

[Beebop]

First, the good news, flickering is almost non existent!  It's still there but you really have to look for it.  great modification.

Now for the "bad"...
and this is personal opinion only....
Here are two screenshots, the first from version 7, the second from version 6.

Map info:

Time: 0930

Map: Lapino Winter
2000M clouds viewed from 3000M

 

As you can see the clouds are "bumpier" in v6 than v7 and the sky has more character, in my opinion.

From below 2000M in this setting the clouds look fine in either version with v7 winning due to decreased flickering.

I realize how hard it is to tweak.  Change 'A' and 'B' gets affected.  Fix 'B' then 'C' needs tweaking.

At this point I am happy with both and have both in JSGME so I can switch as desired.  You are doing excellent work here and I look forward to any other tweaks or mods you come up with.
Thanks for your efforts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 29, 2019 by Beebop

[rowdyb00t]

6 hours ago, Beebop said:

As you can see the clouds are "bumpier" in v6 than v7 and the sky has more character, in my opinion.

From below 2000M in this setting the clouds look fine in either version with v7 winning due to decreased flickering.

  The odd thing here is that I haven’t change any parameters in the overcast. So I’m not quite sure what’s happening. 
   While on the overcast subject, I’ve been messing around with making realistic overcast    ( like the first two pics I posted above ). It may cost a few FPS but I think it would be worth it. 
 

EDIT: If you used the QMB, the overcast is random. There are 10 different kinds of overcast cloud settings. 

Edited November 30, 2019 by rowdyb00t

[Beebop]

13 hours ago, rowdyb00t said:

  EDIT: If you used the QMB, the overcast is random. There are 10 different kinds of overcast cloud settings. 

Ah-HA!  I did not know that!  Let me test some more then.  Results a bit later.

 

A Bit Later:

Right you are!

The "bumpiness" is back and in the second shot I have my "sky with character".

My life is now complete (except for no flyable B-25 yet)  ?

 

Thank you!

 

 

Edited November 30, 2019 by Beebop

[vonGraf]

I got the best results when the 'distance of cloud rendering' is at 100 km or even less, more than 100 brings the aliased bottoms back on the very far clouds. For me it's ok.

 

It seems to depend much from where you're looking at the clouds; from above or below and the time of the day (sun position) and more. Sometimes they're very good rendered in other cases not so. In some few missions I had these fast moving/jerking edges on almost every cloud visible again, like the unmodded game has.

This mod is a good enhancement, I don't want to miss it anymore! Thanks for your effort.

Edited December 2, 2019 by vonGraf

[rowdyb00t]

1 hour ago, vonGraf said:

In some few missions I had these fast moving/jerking edges on almost every cloud visible again, like the unmodded game has.

  I also seen that yesterday. I’ll have to find it and fix 

[rowdyb00t]

 

 

 

 

          new overcast

     better overcast.zip

Edited December 1, 2019 by rowdyb00t

[Beebop]

Is this separate from "better clouds"?

[rowdyb00t]

It is for the overcast only. Add it to the JSGME and it should overwrite the overcast files in better clouds. 

[Beebop]

OK.  That's kind of what I thought.

 

Some screenies taken above and below the "better overcast", various times of day and weather.

 

[HappyHaddock]

@rowdyb00t   back in July when you first messaged me asking how I was going about producing my own WIP efforts to overhaul the look of the natural world in this sim, and subsequently when you started this, your own thread about your own efforts I "welcomed you to the slippery slope" of interconnected factors that leads from one thing to another.

 

Since then I've periodically checked back in here to see if you've discovered anything new I could "borrow" for my own work; it's been interesting to watch you follow more or less exactly the same steps I myself was taking a year or more ago, starting with the "low hanging fruit", more recently moving onto creating new cloud maps to replace some of the flat 2D overcast clouds with 3D particle based ones... it makes a huge difference doesn't it?

 

If you continue down the same path as myself I suspect your next steps may be those that offer the biggest potential for improvement but at the same point some of the most demanding work fine tuning and balancing things.

 

Any way I wish you well with your endeavours as I continue with my own.  To date the 300-400 files I'm currently working on for the on the clouds comprise less than a third of everything I'm trying to work into my own project,  though with close to 5GB of "clutter" spread across various experiments it is taking some whittling down and unifying. Who knows the slow progress I'm making trying turn all this into a suite of balanced mods might mean that by the time it is ready, then in one way or another you'll have covered a good chunk of similar content with your own efforts and we'll end up meeting on some sort of common ground in the middle!

[rowdyb00t]

    Thanks for the kind words @HappyHaddock
this definitely is a constant tweak of things. It’s also fun to get results and get the community’s reaction to it. I doubt that I will get in this as deep as you are. Thanks again 

 

[HappyHaddock]

15 minutes ago, rowdyb00t said:

    Thanks for the kind words @HappyHaddock
 I doubt that I will get in this as deep as you are. Thanks again 

 

 

Don't be too sure of that when I started tinkering with ROF about 5 years ago I didn't think I'd be getting into things as much as I have, but I'm now trying to be disciplined about finishing what I have started before moving onto learning more programming languages to tackle things I'm adding to my "to-do" list.

Edited December 2, 2019 by HappyHaddock

[rowdyb00t]

54 minutes ago, HappyHaddock said:

Don't be too sure of that

 
   I’ve a feeling you could be right about that  .

By the way, how do you keep the precipitation in the overcast when rewriting the file. I think I should have left some //overcast lines in it? I have the precip. lines still there but no precip. 

 

Edited December 2, 2019 by rowdyb00t

[SCG_motoadve]

2 minutes ago, rowdyb00t said:

 
   I’ve a feeling you could be right about that  .

By the way, how do you keep the precipitation in the overcast when rewriting the file. I think I should have left some //overcast lines in it? I have the precip. lines still there but no precip. 

 

Your overcast is great.

I have tried it many times, and sometimes it has precipitation.

Dont change the precipitation, because right now we get it sometimes and other times we dont, which is good.

Sometimes lots of visibility under the clouds, some other times more limited visibility.

 

Its working great!

[HappyHaddock]

22 minutes ago, rowdyb00t said:

 
   I’ve a feeling you could be right about that  .

By the way, how do you keep the precipitation in the overcast when rewriting the file. I think I should have left some //overcast lines in it? I have the precip. lines still there but no precip. 

 

 

Like you I've tried various options relating to precipitation but the code doesn't seem to produce rain in game, so I was kinda hoping you might figure that one out as it seems hard coded into the flat 2d cloud templates. However I'd adopted the approach of motoadve of deciding overcast doesn't mean the same as raining so use different approaches for different end results.

 

 

Edited December 2, 2019 by HappyHaddock

[LizLemon]

There is rain in game, its just kinda broken.

[HappyHaddock]

5 minutes ago, LizLemon said:

There is rain in game, its just kinda broken.

 

Cheers but I think we were both aware of their being rain applied in the stock settings, the issue was more about getting the sim to apply those effects without having to accept the overcast clouds based upon flat textures

[Redwo1f]

Just a thanks for v7 - they are looking great! Also your shading is much better now than previous and the clouds visually have more depth - really good progress here and I am indeed liking you v.7. ?

 

Also, just an FYI - been doing some standardized testing using the Remagen Benchmark (it's in the Hardware/Software forum) - but I also get a 3.4% increase to FPS using your cloud mod vs. stock. ?

[HappyHaddock]

55 minutes ago, Redwo1f said:

 

Also, just an FYI - been doing some standardized testing using the Remagen Benchmark (it's in the Hardware/Software forum) - but I also get a 3.4% increase to FPS using your cloud mod vs. stock. ?

 

Given the wide variation in possibilities with the clouds I've found with my own work that getting any kind of consistent comparison to test frame rate isn't easy so I'd be curious to know exactly what/how much you've tested against what to arrive at any particular percentage change?

 

Has this been a systematic like for like before/after test of each sky.ini file using missions prepared through the mission editor, or simply comparisons of whatever settings came up next through general game-play as I've found (and mentioned before) that within about +/- 5% is kind of the variation you get with the stock clouds anyway  so without strict regulation/definition  of a base line control it's very easy to get very different results each time you run such tests.

[Redwo1f]

5 minutes ago, HappyHaddock said:

 

Given the wide variation in possibilities with the clouds I've found with my own work that getting any kind of consistent comparison to test frame rate isn't easy so I'd be curious to know exactly what/how much you've tested against what to arrive at any particular percentage change?

 

Has this been a systematic like for like before/after test of each sky.ini file using missions prepared through the mission editor, or simply comparisons of whatever settings came up next through general game-play as I've found (and mentioned before) that within about +/- 5% is kind of the variation you get with the stock clouds anyway  so without strict regulation/definition  of a base line control it's very easy to get very different results each time you run such tests.

 

No no, I am just meaning specifically the Remagen Benchmark.  Running with stock clouds (everything being equal) vs the modded clouds here, for this particular test, I gained 3.4 % framerate increase on my average final framerate over the 3 min testing mark - that is all I am reporting

 

 

 

Edited December 2, 2019 by Redwo1f

[Marvel]

Hi Rowdy, I installed v7 and clouds are much better now! Thanks for your efforts!

 

Ciao!

 

M

[JSOflyer69]

I know your clouds are an improvement on stock ones,

but can you tell the reason we get shimmering clouds,is it some dds files are to higher resolution?

in the sky folder I have a sub folder summer and another sub folder textures,inside has lots off dds files they are very large in size, if they are such high resolution then why are the clouds in this sim not very good,is it much more complicated,I do know the devs said nothing can be done bar a new game engine!

excuse my ignorance in this matter .

is it a shaders issue?

[rowdyb00t]

@meplanes1969

   The shimmering is the noise amp. and I think the contrast in the ski.ini files. 
 As for the dds files in textures, I think that the ones for the clouds are for the overcast.Then you have precipitation, sun, moon, stars, sun glare, etc. I didn’t include them in the mod but, there are more dds files in the summer and winter files. They are for cloud shape and cirrus clouds. 
   If you’ve downloaded the overcast, I included the cloud maps in the summer folder. These are for the cloud design and how much they cover.
   I do think that we can squeeze a little more realism out of the sky yet.  

Edited December 3, 2019 by rowdyb00t

[JSOflyer69]

I can live with shimmering clouds, keep up the good work ?

[rowdyb00t]

I noticed some shimmering in a few. I may have missed a line. 

[Atomic_Spaniel]

Very nice overcast - thanks!

[Goffik]

@rowdyb00t

 

Sorry I never got back to you before, but it's been some time since I've been able to have a proper go on IL-2. I've just tried using your v7 clouds but something just isn't working right. Still getting the horrible jaggies on mid/distant clouds, and still getting very obvious banding even in Summer at 12 noon.

 

I just don't get it because before the most recent patches and when I was using v2 of your mod, everything worked fine and looked fantastic. Given that others are not having issues to the same degree as I am, it must be a problem on my end rather than with your mod. I'm at a loss now so I'm just going to wipe everything, reinstall the game, and start from scratch.

[Goffik]

Hey mate, I just found a little "bug" in part of your mod. In your Graphic Presets download there is a folder named LauScripts. It should be LuaScripts. 

 

Other than that, I am happy to report that a full reinstall did the trick! Something, somewhere must have gotten messed up thanks to all the patching and installing/uninstalling mods. Now I'm enjoying your clouds in all their glory with far less jaggies and almost no noticeable banding. Look fantastic, so I'm well happy. Thanks! 

[rowdyb00t]

@Goffik

   Thanks for the LuaScripts heads up!

i also have redone some of the overcast, have you seen it a few posts up. 

[Goffik]

1 minute ago, rowdyb00t said:

i also have redone some of the overcast, have you seen it a few posts up. 

 

Yep, saw that but haven't tried it yet. Now that everything else is working properly, it's next on the list. 

[SCG_motoadve]

2 hours ago, rowdyb00t said:

@Goffik

   Thanks for the LuaScripts heads up!

i also have redone some of the overcast, have you seen it a few posts up. 

You have a link for the newest one?

 

[rowdyb00t]

@SCG_motoadve

     I was referring to the one that was posted already. He said that he had been away for a while. 

[JG_deserteagle540]

@rowdyb00t

 

Very nice work this V7 & the overcast, thanks!

This is definitely a good improvement over the stock clouds & overcast!

 

Are snow and rain also random with overcast selected?

[rowdyb00t]

@JG_deserteagle540

   The precipitation is random. 

[LizLemon]

Precipitation isn't random, its defined by weather.cfg in each maps scg folder.

[rowdyb00t]

40 minutes ago, LizLemon said:

Precipitation isn't random, its defined by weather.cfg in each maps scg folder.

   It is random in the QMB. 
 

Edited December 12, 2019 by rowdyb00t