[WIP][1.9.x-1.12.x] Scatterer-atmospheric scattering (0.0838 - 14/08/2022) Scattering improvements, in-game atmo generation and multi-sun support

[Darkway]

I'm glad you guys are enjoying this. Unfortunately, I have to say that development is going to slow down a LOT, mainly because I'm going to be working a job from 9am to 5pm starting next monday, so I won't have half as much free time as I used to. That kind of sucks.

Be patient guys, be patient. Even if this is one of the most awesome looking graphic mods in KSP history.

[John FX]

Be patient guys, be patient. Even if this is one of the most awesome looking graphic mods in KSP history.

It's already pretty awesome. I'd have a (can't think if anything not too rude for the forum so I'll say giggle) if we could have this and EVE clouds...

[blackrack]

I know I haven't updated in a while but I've been really busy with a new job and most days I don't have any time to work on the mod or I'm just too tired.

I will continue to work on the mod whenever I can. Right now I'll try to make EVE clouds visible in the sky (this is requested a lot and should be pretty easy), compatibility with postprocessing will come later. I'll also try to put in persistent settings and fix the reported memory leak. After this is done I'll do multiple planets.

First, let met say that this mod is fantastic. It have the same impact on KSP than the EVE mod, giving KSP as small change that change it all. In a very great way.

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/536269871030807996/9EFCBF9BB7441DE55AB43BA8539C9B60B684E3BE/

Please ignore the ugly message caused by steam versus KSP key mapping conflict

As you can see, there is a beautiful fog effect with the default install of this mod.

Seeing this raises some questions :

- Is it possible to have more than one scatterer on a planet ? One on top or inside the other ?

- And if yes, can we : - use it to create a "less brutal" frontier between atmosphere and space ? (I'm referring to the "blue celling" effect)

- use it to create some zones with heavier density based on random distribution map (as I don't know the correct technical words, please forgive me to be unclear). The goal being simulating foggier zones and create clouds like object. Or moving fog. Or both.

And, even if it's still "strangely behaving", we (daughters and me) beg you to gives us your sea update It's to spectacular to be kept away from the (demanding) masses.

This post made me feel really good about dedicating time to the mod for some reason. If you really want to see the water ingame, I already posted a link in page 40 to a build that has it(http://wikisend.com/download/915958/scatterer.zip) just remember it's a really bad idea.

As for using multiple scatterers, yes it works but it's probably a really bad idea performance-wise, also, keep in my mind if you're going to use in only some areas to create clouds it won't be visible unless seen from above or when it's between you and terrain. Altyhough that could be workedaround, it'd be too much work for really bad results.

I was wondering if anyone experiences memory leak problems. I zeroed it in to scatterer 0.14. With it the RAM footprint just grows, without it stays stable around 2.614 MB.

The only other visual mods that I have installed s Distant object enhancement and planetshine. When i remove them the leak is still there so i must be this mod. Anyone got an idea how to plug the leak?

I'm investigating this now, can you confirm you only have the leak in 0.014? Previous versions work fine?

I got scatterer and eve working together and in OpenGL without the bloody lines. I had to force anisotropic off in the Nvidia panel and set the texture filtering to performance.

Here is a screen shot.

http://i.imgur.com/H10SxRf.png

How did you manage to get these working?

[Gaalidas]

I got scatterer and eve working together and in OpenGL without the bloody lines. I had to force anisotropic off in the Nvidia panel and set the texture filtering to performance.

Here is a screen shot.

http://i.imgur.com/H10SxRf.png

Holy epic wide screen...

[TMS]

Does everybody else get this hexagonal effect above 200km over Kerbin?

[blackrack]

So the clouds are now visible in the sky (low-res pics because I'm on a laptop):

A few issues:

When the clouds pass in front of the sun, the ugly stock sunglare and sky shines through them. Since I disabled the stock sky, this is either a really weird bug or rbray implemented clouds this way to give the illusion of light shining through them.

They also generally look out of place I think because they don't receive light and generally look off.

Keep in mind that postprocessing still draws over them, this will take more work and I will do it another day.

Edited May 6, 2015 by blackrack

[Proot]

So the clouds are now visible in the sky (low-res pics because I'm on a laptop):

http://i.imgur.com/h6AGRR1.jpg

A few issues:

http://i.imgur.com/KSOAFGG.jpg

When the clouds pass in front of the sun, the ugly stock sunglare and sky shines through them. Since I disabled the stock sky, this is either a really weird bug or rbray implemented clouds this way to make the sun shine through them.

http://i.imgur.com/IziZgeT.jpg

They also generally look out of place I think because they don't receive light and generally look off.

http://i.imgur.com/lz0nyN6.jpg

Keep in mind that postprocessing still draws over them, this will take more work and I will do it another day.

EDIT: I'm absolutely in love with the shining effect through clouds. That is a feature, not a bug!

Edited May 6, 2015 by Proot

[HafCoJoe]

So the clouds are now visible in the sky (low-res pics because I'm on a laptop):

http://i.imgur.com/h6AGRR1.jpg

A few issues:

http://i.imgur.com/KSOAFGG.jpg

When the clouds pass in front of the sun, the ugly stock sunglare and sky shines through them. Since I disabled the stock sky, this is either a really weird bug or rbray implemented clouds this way to give the illusion of light shining through them.

http://i.imgur.com/IziZgeT.jpg

They also generally look out of place I think because they don't receive light and generally look off.

http://i.imgur.com/lz0nyN6.jpg

Keep in mind that postprocessing still draws over them, this will take more work and I will do it another day.

It's beautiful...

[Thomas988]

HALLELUIAH

uncaps

[blackrack]

Does anybody have a good config file parser for KSP/unity? The stock xml reader appears to be limited to one file per mod and it'd save me time to not have to implement my own.

Edited May 6, 2015 by blackrack

[V8jester]

This is really shaping up to be epic!

[rbray89]

The KSP implementation is great. You use attribute tags ( [persistent] ) for flagging members in a class. Then you can use the KSP config load to instantiate the class from the config file. Works really well.

[sysgen]

May I ask, how do you get the KSP to load the shaders? How do you add parameters?

[NoMrBond]

So the clouds are now visible in the sky (low-res pics because I'm on a laptop):

That's glorious

Did you have any luck with fixing the camera in regards to replacing the stock water, or has that remained stubbornly jump up and flood the worldish?

Best of luck with settling into your new job in any case, do you have a paypal or patreon etc for donations and such?

[Wyseman76]

Does everybody else get this hexagonal effect above 200km over Kerbin?

http://i.imgur.com/L2uOX4Z.png

Yes I get the same effect, I also notice at about 90k +/- there is a layering effect that begins to appear in the atmosphere. once I'm a few 100K out there is a circular moire pattern that emerges ever so slightly.

This is the layering I was talking about.

This is the moire pattern at a distance.

The way I was getting this to show the clouds was just lowering the global alpha of the post process effect of scatterer in the settings. It isn't perfect and appears Blackrack is on track to solving it internally.

Here is a shot or two I liked from the moon trip I did while testing.

[Errol]

Which version of EVE should we be trying with this in 1.0.2, or is there not a dev version available yet?

No stress if it isn't possible, I'm not playing very seriously yet anyway, still waiting for a bunch of things to settle down.

[RyanRising]

So the clouds are now visible in the sky (low-res pics because I'm on a laptop):

http://i.imgur.com/h6AGRR1.jpg

A few issues:

http://i.imgur.com/KSOAFGG.jpg

When the clouds pass in front of the sun, the ugly stock sunglare and sky shines through them. Since I disabled the stock sky, this is either a really weird bug or rbray implemented clouds this way to give the illusion of light shining through them.

http://i.imgur.com/IziZgeT.jpg

They also generally look out of place I think because they don't receive light and generally look off.

http://i.imgur.com/lz0nyN6.jpg

Keep in mind that postprocessing still draws over them, this will take more work and I will do it another day.

Woohoo! I guess the sunflare is ugly when you keep the default one, but luckily I don't. I hope to see this Soon.

Also, have you noticed that the ground seems to be lower resolution? Is that intended, or does it just break easily?

[LaydeeDem]

I wasn't aware this mod added black holes to the game.

EDIT:

Oh my goooooooooooooooood

[blackrack]

The KSP implementation is great. You use attribute tags ( [persistent] ) for flagging members in a class. Then you can use the KSP config load to instantiate the class from the config file. Works really well.

Is it possible to read multiple config files from a single class?

May I ask, how do you get the KSP to load the shaders? How do you add parameters?

I use this https://github.com/blackrack/Scatterer/blob/master/scatterer/ShaderTool.cs lines 52-62

That's glorious

Did you have any luck with fixing the camera in regards to replacing the stock water, or has that remained stubbornly jump up and flood the worldish?

Best of luck with settling into your new job in any case, do you have a paypal or patreon etc for donations and such?

Oh I haven't had time to give the water shaders another try, I figured I'll take care of easier stuff first.

Woohoo! I guess the sunflare is ugly when you keep the default one, but luckily I don't. I hope to see this Soon.

Also, have you noticed that the ground seems to be lower resolution? Is that intended, or does it just break easily?

It's not intended but I know why it's happening and it should be really easy to fix once I'm releasing a new version (Although I like the low-res ground more).

I wasn't aware this mod added black holes to the game.

http://i.imgur.com/AL3510v.png

EDIT:

Oh my goooooooooooooooood

http://i.imgur.com/QJHzXPA.png

You definitely changed something in the scale parameters or are playing with a mod that changes the scale of things.

[DeepOdyssey]

This is awesome, but i guess there's nothing you can do to fix the black space when you pass 6km mark?

[Bluejay0013]

It's not intended but I know why it's happening and it should be really easy to fix once I'm releasing a new version (Although I like the low-res ground more).

I hope you make it able to have an option for low res textures or normal textures rather than just how it is right now.

[John FX]

Total awesomeness.

+1 from me.

[Red Iron Crown]

I just tried this on a basic 1.0.2 install with no other visual mods and using the default settings in dx9, looks fantastic. Well done!

One thing I have noticed is it seems to break the thermal overlay (the F11 one that shows the vessel in colors from red to white based on their temps). Activating the overlay with this mod installed has no effect, the image of the vessel does not change at all.

[rbray89]

I just tried this on a basic 1.0.2 install with no other visual mods and using the default settings in dx9, looks fantastic. Well done!

One thing I have noticed is it seems to break the thermal overlay (the F11 one that shows the vessel in colors from red to white based on their temps). Activating the overlay with this mod installed has no effect, the image of the vessel does not change at all.

My guess is that the new shaders from KSP haven't been pulled, so when we run shader replacement, it breaks new shader features Squad added between updates.

- - - Updated - - -

Is it possible to read multiple config files from a single class?

I use this https://github.com/blackrack/Scatterer/blob/master/scatterer/ShaderTool.cs lines 52-62

Oh I haven't had time to give the water shaders another try, I figured I'll take care of easier stuff first.

It's not intended but I know why it's happening and it should be really easy to fix once I'm releasing a new version (Although I like the low-res ground more).

You definitely changed something in the scale parameters or are playing with a mod that changes the scale of things.

Hmmm... I never thought about that one. You could manually populate the entries, or you could split the config items into sub-classes and load them individually. Keep in-mind, the configs are organized not by file, but by config node.

[diegzumillo]

I constantly crash while orbitin kerbin. It's very pretty but I think I'll wait until the experimental phase is over.