[Mod] Arras Better Frontlines

[AEthelraedUnraed]

Dear fellow pilots,

 

I'm glad to present this small mod which aims to improve the frontline textures in order to better convey the impression of a muddy, cratered hellhole. Because a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll speak no further.

The new terrain looks best at medium-low altitudes (500-1500m or so), but should be able to hold its own against the default textures at both lower and higher altititudes.

 

I'd like to thank @jerrybasher who persuaded me to further develop my proof-of-concept (https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/74431-arras-crator-mod/?do=findComment&comment=1128880) and helped with testing.

 

For anyone interested in editing terrain surfaces themselves, don't forget to check out my Surface Editing Manual: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/73571-surface-editing-manual/. If you want a more in-depth read into what I did, read below:

Spoiler

The problem with the default terrain shaders is that they don't feature a controllable specular map. According to research by LizLemon, their specularity is based on the dot product of the RGB channels with a 0.3333 float. This works well for snow maps and I think was a neat way to cheaply accomplish specularity back in 2014 when computers were slow and IL2 only had the winter Lapino map. However, this also means that for dark textures such as the frontlines, spec will always be very low. Hence, for a modern game, a separate channel would be better.

We actually have the opportunity to use a more advanced shader model with a separate channel for Spec if we set our surface to be a Terrain Decal. I therefore knew that this would be the only way to improve the frontline textures. I stitched together the frontline maps from data\graphics\landscape_arras_sp\landtexturesquality and created a normal map from its alpha channel (which is sort of its height map). I then matched this with the terrain tiles by checking "Absolute texture space" on my surface object and adjusting the Tile and Offset values accordingly. I increased its Specular colour and value to give it the appearance of a muddy and bumpy surface. This gave good results in craters, but the ground outside of the craters (which is supposed to be drier) also reflected light and looked much too smooth. I therefore added an alpha channel to the Colour map, so that only craters have this smooth water-like appearance and the texture outside of any craters simply shows the terrain below. Another alpha channel on the Normal map gives more control over how specular certain areas are. This has the desired effect of highly specular, smooth craters and drier patches of land in between, where grass can still grow.

 

Known issues:

• You need to have Mods On (unless you've embedded it into a mission, see my Surface Editing Manual).
• The terrain switches between a couple of Levels Of Detail (LODs) depending on distance and viewpoint. Not all LODs feature the specular maps. Depending on your graphics settings, hardware, viewpoint, weather, time and the position of the moon relative to Jupiter when Capricorn is ascendant, the transition between two LODs may look anywhere between barely visible to annoyingly apparent.
• The terrain near rivers and lakes is still the old one. This is because it's not possible to add terrain shaders below rivers without making the rivers look completely ridiculous.
• Yes, it does tend to look a bit like plastic sometimes.

Anything else: No warranty, mileage may vary.

Compatibility: This mod is not compatible with other files that change the Arras surface. It should be compatible however with mods that enhance the frontline textures (such as meplanes1969's "arras crator mod", as long as these do not change the position of the craters.

Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/8t5s08ata0sfnot/BetterFronts.zip/file

Installation instructions: drop the contents of the unzipped BetterFronts folder into the game folder so that it matches the game's folder structure. Alternatively, install using JSGME.

Edited October 9, 2021 by AEthelraedUnraed

[jerrybasher]

AEthelraedUnraed has done a brilliant job making no mans land look a lot better, I've had no problems with LODs and to me it looks like proper mud instead of looking completely flat and lifeless. 

 

 

I recommend playing this with the Better Effects mod which works with this and adds more effects

 

It adds new craters to the map with other new effects such as realistic explosions for arty, battlefield smoke etc 

 

I have a old GTX 1070 and a old i7, no loss in frame rate when using both of these mods together

 

This picture below is from an early test version of this mod (with the better effects addon) you can easily see the difference between the old and the new: 

 

Edited October 9, 2021 by jerrybasher

[jerrybasher]

23 aircraft on screen with both mods:

 

Edited October 9, 2021 by jerrybasher

[SYN_Vander]

3 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Dear fellow pilots,

 

I'm glad to present this small mod which aims to improve the frontline textures in order to better convey the impression of a muddy, cratered hellhole. Because a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll speak no further.

The new terrain looks best at medium-low altitudes (500-1500m or so), but should be able to hold its own against the default textures at both lower and higher altititudes.

 

I'd like to thank @jerrybasher who persuaded me to further develop my proof-of-concept (https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/74431-arras-crator-mod/?do=findComment&comment=1128880) and helped with testing.

 

For anyone interested in editing terrain surfaces themselves, don't forget to check out my Surface Editing Manual: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/73571-surface-editing-manual/. If you want a more in-depth read into what I did, read below:

  Reveal hidden contents

The problem with the default terrain shaders is that they don't feature a controllable specular map. According to research by LizLemon, their specularity is based on the dot product of the RGB channels with a 0.3333 float. This works well for snow maps and I think was a neat way to cheaply accomplish specularity back in 2014 when computers were slow and IL2 only had the winter Lapino map. However, this also means that for dark textures such as the frontlines, spec will always be very low. Hence, for a modern game, a separate channel would be better.

We actually have the opportunity to use a more advanced shader model with a separate channel for Spec if we set our surface to be a Terrain Decal. I therefore knew that this would be the only way to improve the frontline textures. I stitched together the frontline maps from data\graphics\landscape_arras_sp\landtexturesquality and created a normal map from its alpha channel (which is sort of its height map). I then matched this with the terrain tiles by checking "Absolute texture space" on my surface object and adjusting the Tile and Offset values accordingly. I increased its Specular colour and value to give it the appearance of a muddy and bumpy surface. This gave good results in craters, but the ground outside of the craters (which is supposed to be drier) also reflected light and looked much too smooth. I therefore added an alpha channel to the Colour map, so that only craters have this smooth water-like appearance and the texture outside of any craters simply shows the terrain below. Another alpha channel on the Normal map gives more control over how specular certain areas are. This has the desired effect of highly specular, smooth craters and drier patches of land in between, where grass can still grow.

 

Known issues:

• You need to have Mods On (unless you've embedded it into a mission, see my Surface Editing Manual).
• The terrain switches between a couple of Levels Of Detail (LODs) depending on distance and viewpoint. Not all LODs feature the specular maps. Depending on your graphics settings, hardware, viewpoint, weather, time and the position of the moon relative to Jupiter when Capricorn is ascendant, the transition between two LODs may look anywhere between barely visible to annoyingly apparent.
• The terrain near rivers and lakes is still the old one. This is because it's not possible to add terrain shaders below rivers without making the rivers look completely ridiculous.
• Yes, it does tend to look a bit like plastic sometimes.

Anything else: No warranty, mileage may vary.

Compatibility: This mod is not compatible with other files that change the Arras surface. It should be compatible however with mods that enhance the frontline textures (such as meplanes1969's "arras crator mod", as long as these do not change the position of the craters.

Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/8t5s08ata0sfnot/BetterFronts.zip/file

Installation instructions: drop the contents of the unzipped BetterFronts folder into the game folder so that it matches the game's folder structure. Alternatively, install using JSGME.

I’ll check this out later when I’m home. Looks good!

Does it use bump mapping?

[AEthelraedUnraed]

2 hours ago, jerrybasher said:

This picture below is from an early test version of this mod (with the better effects addon) you can easily see the difference between the old and the new: 

 

That's a good one, thanks for posting. Yes, the top half uses the old maps and the bottom the new ones. Pretty stark difference, eh?

 

46 minutes ago, SYN_Vander said:

I’ll check this out later when I’m home. Looks good!

Does it use bump mapping?

It uses normal mapping, which is kind of an improved version of bump mapping. So yes, it does appear to show height differences that change depending on the sun and the viewpoint.

[Feathered_IV]

I don't know if it is just me, but I keep seeing raised domes rather than craters.  A similar thing happened for me when I was making a Rabaul map for the original Il-2 1946.  I found it necessary to give the craters on the bumpH/normals a solid neutral value and only use the bump mapping on the surrounding earth outside of the craters.  That way different times of day did not produce odd three dimensional effects.

 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

2 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

I don't know if it is just me, but I keep seeing raised domes rather than craters.  A similar thing happened for me when I was making a Rabaul map for the original Il-2 1946.  I found it necessary to give the craters on the bumpH/normals a solid neutral value and only use the bump mapping on the surrounding earth outside of the craters.  That way different times of day did not produce odd three dimensional effects.

Thanks for reporting this bug. I use normal maps (as in the geometrical "normal", not as in "standard") and not bump maps, but still thanks for the suggestion.

 

Looking at my own screenshots in the opening post, it's apparent from the shadows on the Spad that I suffer from the same problem (and judging from his screenshots, so does jerrybasher). Strange, cause I actually flipped the normal maps during testing exactly to solve this problem! I did some more testing in the Mission Editor (with the current version of the mod with wrong lighting), and lo and behold:

The lighting is correct, as can be seen from the tent roofs! The only explanation I can think of is that there's a bug in the Mission Editor that somehow flips all the normals.

 

Anyhow, I've flipped the normals back again and updated the file. After re-downloading, it should work.

[Vishnu]

Awesome job guys..thank you.

[Dupxo]

Could we expect that you will update your mod to Western Front map?