Beebop Posted February 23, 2020 Posted February 23, 2020 "...Only thing they have in them is a correct sun size..." Ahh, that explains it. I already had the 'Sun Size Correction' mod installed. No wonder I got that huge dialog about sun size when I went to install it via JSGME (the only way I install mods), and the sky looked a bit...odd, Thanks for the heads up.
rowdyb00t Posted February 23, 2020 Author Posted February 23, 2020 (edited) @LizLemon I see the artifacts in the in the light.bmp’s. Seems like the when I tweaked the shading and lighting I caused those. I’ll work on them to smooth out. As for the old sky color skydome.dds I have not changed anything in that one. I did adjust the second skydome however and on that I have a question. When saving it, there are about 15 different save options for that, I picked the one that showed the least amount of banding. Possibly I picked the wrong one? I also noticed too the banding in the stock game as well. I definitely acknowledge the light may not be perfect during some of the days, however I was going for the feel that not every day has the same lighting. Especially days with a heavier atmosphere. Anyway, I appreciate the constructive criticism. I am no expert at modding. Your advice is always welcome. Thanks Liz Edited February 23, 2020 by rowdyb00t 1
Beebop Posted February 23, 2020 Posted February 23, 2020 I like your transparency rowdy. It's refreshing in this world of obfuscation.
rowdyb00t Posted February 23, 2020 Author Posted February 23, 2020 8 minutes ago, Beebop said: I like your transparency rowdy. It's refreshing in this world of obfuscation. Thanks Beebop.
LizLemon Posted February 23, 2020 Posted February 23, 2020 16bit floating point with no mips. The default skydome has banding in it despite being 16bit - I think someone made a mistake in how they generated it. If you aren't editing/saving it in 16 bit then you are only going to exacerbate that issue, but the only real solution is to make an all new skydome. As for lighting, green is never the color of sunlight. And that is what the stock game light.bmp suffers from and your mod as well. That throws the colors of everything out of whack especially with HDR enabled. If you do work out the color for the light.bmp by taking a target sun color and subtracting the ambient then you can get an accurate/appropriate white balance for light at any time of day.
Hopper64 Posted February 23, 2020 Posted February 23, 2020 When you refer to removing better overcast, is that the no fog/blue tint mod? Thanks. Appreciate your diligent work!
rowdyb00t Posted February 23, 2020 Author Posted February 23, 2020 (edited) 12 minutes ago, Hopper64 said: When you refer to removing better overcast, is that the no fog/blue tint mod? Thanks. Appreciate your diligent work! I’m not sure what you are referring to. On the first post I have a mod for better overcast, if you have that installed, you need to remove it before installing version 9 @LizLemon I suppose I’m not seeing this green your talking about because I don’t use HDR. Or maybe I’m slightly colorblind. Could you send a pic of one of your light.bmp’s for an example? Also maybe send a pick of mine with the error hilighted? Edited February 23, 2020 by rowdyb00t
rowdyb00t Posted February 23, 2020 Author Posted February 23, 2020 1 hour ago, LizLemon said: 16bit floating point with no mips. these are my save options
Hopper64 Posted February 23, 2020 Posted February 23, 2020 2 hours ago, rowdyb00t said: I’m not sure what you are referring to. On the first post I have a mod for better overcast, if you have that installed, you need to remove it before installing version 9 @LizLemon I suppose I’m not seeing this green your talking about because I don’t use HDR. Or maybe I’m slightly colorblind. Could you send a pic of one of your light.bmp’s for an example? Also maybe send a pick of mine with the error hilighted? Thanks for the clarification! BTW-This is the mod I was referring to:
LizLemon Posted February 23, 2020 Posted February 23, 2020 2 hours ago, rowdyb00t said: these are my save options There isn't an option for it. Use https://github.com/GPUOpen-Tools/Compressonator and select ARGB16F As far as light.bmp goes, I have posted an example download in this very thread. I have also gone over why its important several times now. So I'll just leave it at this 1
Dijital_Majik Posted February 23, 2020 Posted February 23, 2020 @rowdyb00t I just got the mod, which looks incredible, but was getting the skydome banding effect. Just thought I'd let you know the I think current gppresets folder structure is misspelled. It should be "luascript", and not "lauscript", right?
rowdyb00t Posted February 23, 2020 Author Posted February 23, 2020 (edited) 21 minutes ago, Dijital_Majik said: @rowdyb00t I just got the mod, which looks incredible, but was getting the skydome banding effect. Just thought I'd let you know the I think current gppresets folder structure is misspelled. It should be "luascript", and not "lauscript", right? Hello The banding happens in the evening and mornings and is related to the clouds. It can be annoying but not much can be done about it. Although I think one of my skydomes has a little more. I will iron that out later on. I also smoothed out the lighting too. I’m going to release a small fix in a bit. As for the gpresets I will fix that also Thanks! Edited February 23, 2020 by rowdyb00t
Dijital_Majik Posted February 23, 2020 Posted February 23, 2020 4 minutes ago, rowdyb00t said: Hello The banding happens in the evening and mornings. It can be annoying but not much can be done about it. Although I think one of my skydomes has a little more. I will iron that out later on. I also smoothed out the lighting too. I’m going to release a small fix in a bit. As for the gpresets I will fix that also Thanks! Oh I only mentioned the banding because I read here that the gppresets helped reduce the effect, and that's why after some investigation I found the misspelling. Looking forward seeing this mod develop even further though, you've done great work already!!
rowdyb00t Posted February 23, 2020 Author Posted February 23, 2020 Alright.... I updated the first post with Version 9.1 Its a quick fix where I forgot to take out the textures folders that are not needed ( I had some things modded in them) also I smoothed out the light.bmp's. 7 1
rowdyb00t Posted February 24, 2020 Author Posted February 24, 2020 11 minutes ago, vonGraf said: Did you enhance the cirrus clouds too? Just a bit. I also added a custom one 2 1
HappyHaddock Posted February 24, 2020 Posted February 24, 2020 (edited) @rowdyb00t It's been interesting to watch you follow down more or less the same path I myself have walked and you really are starting to deliver some impressive results. Playing with multiple variants of the sky and lighting files was what really allowed me to tailor effects much more to suit particular weather conditions, I settled on a few more than you are currently using but the real challenge is always the fine tuning as it is so easy to improve one thing whilst simultaneously upsetting another. There are many ways to "skin a cat" as the saying goes and whilst LizLemon seems to favour a very technical approach which contrasts with my own artistic methods, fundamentally we are both working to re-balance everything to make allowances for the way the game engine handles lighting. I guess from the comments above you found the dds plugin you were asking me about recently? Anyway I'm pretty swamped with commission work at the moment so it's been a while since I last had a chance to work on my IL-2 mods, where what little time I have had has been focussed on other aspects of my modding on the natural world rather than sky/lighting. Anyway keep up the good work Cheers HH Edited February 24, 2020 by HappyHaddock 1
rowdyb00t Posted February 24, 2020 Author Posted February 24, 2020 Thanks @HappyHaddock Yup I found a plug-in that will open the skydome. To be honest, I never thought I would have put in as much time as I have on this. It’s sort of funny, it’s hard to leave it alone. I’m sort of meticulous when it comes to things so I reckon this is why I can’t stop the wheels in motion! It seems endless ( well sort of ) the things you can do to achieve a more believable atmosphere. Cough cough cumulonimbus. The lighting was bothering me in the stock game as well as the sky. I was thinking just the other day about how no day is EXACTLY the same as the next. Especially the lighting and density of the atmosphere. So now I have 2 different skydomes and 6 different light.bmp’s. although I believe you would almost need 20 skydomes and 50 light.bmp’s to match up with having a more real world. Heck I have seen the sky green and the clouds too. Anyway hope all is going well for you and thanks for the kind words HH Cheers 1 1
HappyHaddock Posted February 24, 2020 Posted February 24, 2020 7 minutes ago, rowdyb00t said: Thanks @HappyHaddock To be honest, I never thought I would have put in as much time as I have on this. It can be a very time consuming thing to do well and make everything balance , plus in my case the sky, clouds and lighting are only a modest part of all I'm working on (they're simply the bit I've mentioned most as they are likely to be of greatest interest to others)... I started before IL-2 BOS was released so as much as I am also playing with "new" things I'm still looking at transferring "old" things I was playing with for ROF. In terms of the work on the sky, lighting and clouds you are now working with pretty much all the files I deemed important to re-work where the effort is in extracting the full potential this game engine has. One of many reasons I've been taking so long is that I pretty much elected not to "mod" what the devs put out in any sense others might use the word "mod". Instead I chose to study how they use their game engine and then build from nothing each file I wanted even if what I am building is in many ways replicating much what they have done. It makes it so much easier to build in the balance I want as a lot of the subtleties that make a difference in game aren't that apparent when viewed as isolated files but nevertheless they all need to reflect common elements.. HH 1
vonGraf Posted February 24, 2020 Posted February 24, 2020 9 hours ago, rowdyb00t said: Just a bit. I also added a custom one Beautiful. I'll test 9.1 now, I like how this work has envolved. 1
Oyster_KAI Posted February 24, 2020 Posted February 24, 2020 wow, this mod getting better and better, and it's seems extreme cloud setting cause worse cloud instead, "high" is OK.
Goffik Posted February 24, 2020 Posted February 24, 2020 48 minutes ago, Oyster_KAI said: it's seems extreme cloud setting cause worse cloud instead, "high" is OK. Pretty sure @rowdyb00t has mentioned that his clouds are based on the "high" setting, so don't use extreme. 2
Blitzen Posted February 25, 2020 Posted February 25, 2020 On 10/13/2019 at 11:28 AM, Avyx said: I moved the folder I downloaded, into the MODS folder, and than I activated with JSGME Same question...will JSGME work or must I install manually?
Goffik Posted February 25, 2020 Posted February 25, 2020 (edited) 29 minutes ago, Blitzen said: Same question...will JSGME work or must I install manually? JSGME works fine for pretty much all IL-2 mods if you make sure the folder structure is correct. In the case of this mod, unpacking the archive directly into the MODS folder is enough, followed by activating it in JSGME. MODS\clouds.V9.1\data is what it should look like. Edited February 25, 2020 by Goffik
Guster Posted March 9, 2020 Posted March 9, 2020 Nice work, rowdy! I particularly like the cirrus clouds! I'd love to try this - does your mod address the aliasing issue with planes in front of clouds?
rowdyb00t Posted March 9, 2020 Author Posted March 9, 2020 28 minutes ago, Guster said: Nice work, rowdy! I particularly like the cirrus clouds! I'd love to try this - does your mod address the aliasing issue with planes in front of clouds? Thanks! Unfortunately It doesn't change how the planes are rendered against the clouds
rowdyb00t Posted March 9, 2020 Author Posted March 9, 2020 I've been working on some grey-sky cirrus overcast for the summer maps or at least the illusion of it. Above the cirrus clouds the skydome is not blue because i changed the skydome color to make it work. Still WIP though, I want to do the same for some winter conditions. 8 1
Guster Posted March 11, 2020 Posted March 11, 2020 On 3/9/2020 at 7:56 PM, rowdyb00t said: Thanks! Unfortunately It doesn't change how the planes are rendered against the clouds Oh well, your mod looks good nevertheless! I get slightly better FPS and spotting is easier. It's a pity with the aliasing issue - actually it's a bit of a deal breaker for me, and the reason why I'm not a 100% sold on this series. Playing hide and seek in the clouds is an essential part of air combat in my book. I much, much prefer the way it looks and works in RoF. I always select Clear because of this issue (preset 00_clear_08 in the Mission Editor for my own missions), and your cirrus clouds do add more variation. 1
VampireNZ Posted March 12, 2020 Posted March 12, 2020 (edited) Can't d/l v9.1. Just keeps saying.... Generating new download key We are generating a new download key for this file. Click the button below to continue. Continue button does nothing, just restarts countdown endlessly.... Downloaded V9 instead ok. Edited March 12, 2020 by VampireNZ Edit
VampireNZ Posted March 13, 2020 Posted March 13, 2020 13 hours ago, rowdyb00t said: @VampireNZ I fixed the link try again That did the trick - thanks! Also thanks for the great mod - before the clouds looked pretty average and had this strange stutter/movement every second or so. Yours look amazing and are smoooth! ? 1
RedeyeStorm Posted March 13, 2020 Posted March 13, 2020 I have an issue. Although it may be just on my end. Currently I am flying on Bodenplatte and I have a strange issue with the lightning of the cities. When I first look at them they are dark end when I continue to look at them they suddenly light up to a verry bright color. I have never experienced this on the Moskow map. Is it just me?
rowdyb00t Posted March 13, 2020 Author Posted March 13, 2020 3 hours ago, [Pb]RedeyeStorm said: I have an issue. Although it may be just on my end. Currently I am flying on Bodenplatte and I have a strange issue with the lightning of the cities. When I first look at them they are dark end when I continue to look at them they suddenly light up to a verry bright color. I have never experienced this on the Moskow map. Is it just me? Yes I have noticed that too. I think that the buildings have a different texture than they use too. Much too shiny. I don’t believe that it has to do with the mod as I have noticed it in the stock game as well.
RedeyeStorm Posted March 13, 2020 Posted March 13, 2020 I can conform that. Although I also noticed if I use Coconut's cloud mod for VR it is less pronounced. And it is not just the building in the cities. I also notice it with sandbag emplacements.
rowdyb00t Posted March 13, 2020 Author Posted March 13, 2020 20 minutes ago, [Pb]RedeyeStorm said: I can conform that. Although I also noticed if I use Coconut's cloud mod for VR it is less pronounced. And it is not just the building in the cities. I also notice it with sandbag emplacements. I have multiple kinds of lighting in the mod that’s probably why it’s more pronounced. Coconut only changed the noise amp in the sky.ini files, so the lighting and everything else is vanilla. When I get back home I’ll compare the Rheinland building textures to the previous ones. Maybe it can be toned down a bit.
Tom25briklebritt Posted March 13, 2020 Posted March 13, 2020 When flying and looking out of the cockpit, the clouds are wobbling at the edges of each cloud. Is there a fix to remove it?
rowdyb00t Posted March 13, 2020 Author Posted March 13, 2020 43 minutes ago, Tom25briklebritt said: When flying and looking out of the cockpit, the clouds are wobbling at the edges of each cloud. Is there a fix to remove it? I haven’t noticed this. What are your graphic settings in game?
sniperton Posted March 13, 2020 Posted March 13, 2020 1 hour ago, rowdyb00t said: I haven’t noticed this. What are your graphic settings in game? He's probably using the mod with the default value of 64 for clouds_samples in the gpresets.cfg file. Possibly you should clearly state in the opening post what base settings this mod is designed for. For me it gives best experience on "ultra" with clouds set to "high". Anything lower than 128 in gpresets results in wobbling edges. Same as banding, which is unavoidable as I understand, but more prominent with low gpresets values. Anyway, thank you for this great mod, it's really a game-changer. I wish you could correct the lights, the scenery is sometimes too green. 2
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