[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

[fruitsbar]

Ocean shaders is an issue for me currently.
So, there's this planet mod that requires Scatterer's ocean shaders to work.
So i install scatterer, alright, but the ocean shaders are too laggy. So I casually change the resolution to the lowest possible.
Nothing changed.
Is there any way I can fix this? 

[Heirloom]

14 hours ago, fruitsbar said:

Ocean shaders is an issue for me currently.
So, there's this planet mod that requires Scatterer's ocean shaders to work.
So i install scatterer, alright, but the ocean shaders are too laggy. So I casually change the resolution to the lowest possible.
Nothing changed.
Is there any way I can fix this? 

A planet pack shouldn't require ocean shaders. It's likely that the visuals would look poor without them, but it's not like the planet pack won't work unless you have them on. Lowering the scale or resolution won't help either, as it's the shader itself which is system-intensive and not the texture it relies on. Can you try disabling ocean-shaders in the Scatterer configs? Also, what's the planet pack that you're using?

[fruitsbar]

On 5/29/2019 at 3:14 AM, Heirloom said:

A planet pack shouldn't require ocean shaders. It's likely that the visuals would look poor without them, but it's not like the planet pack won't work unless you have them on. Lowering the scale or resolution won't help either, as it's the shader itself which is system-intensive and not the texture it relies on. Can you try disabling ocean-shaders in the Scatterer configs? Also, what's the planet pack that you're using?

The planet pack I used:

The planet pack requires ocean shaders and I have no idea why except that, without the ocean shaders, the water goes up to orbit...

as seen here.

 

[nmc]

Hi @blackrack, thanks for the super cool mod!

I have a bug report :-)

 

Issue: Scatterer's sunflare is not visible out of atmosphere when flying a vessel with B9 Part Switch parts

 

Running KSP 1.7.0.2483 (Windows x64) with DirectX3D11 and the following (maybe) relevant mods:

• B9 Part Switch 2.7.1
• EVE 1.4.2-2
• Kopernicus 1.7.0-1
• Scatterer 0.0540

Scatterer config:

@Scatterer_config:AFTER[Scatterer]
{
    @autosavePlanetSettingsOnSceneChange = False
    @disableAmbientLight = True
    @integrateWithEVEClouds = True
    @overrideNearClipPlane = False
    @nearClipPlane = 0.209999993
    @useOceanShaders = True
    @shadowsOnOcean = True
    @oceanSkyReflections = True
    @oceanPixelLights = False
    @fullLensFlareReplacement = True
    @sunlightExtinction = True
    @underwaterLightDimming = True
    @showMenuOnStart = False
    @useEclipses = True
    @useRingShadows = True
    @terrainShadows = False
    @shadowNormalBias = 0.720000029
    @shadowBias = 0.5
    @shadowsDistance = 100000
    @m_fourierGridSize = 64
}

 

How to reproduce: load a vessel out of atmosphere from save or Tracking Station with B9 Part Switch parts

 

Additional info:

This happens with any visual pack (AVE, SVE, Spectra, Sunflares of Maar) and with Scatterer's default sunflare

These visual packs use Kopernicus to disable the Stock sunflare, which results in no sunflare being visible at all

Interestingly enough, the following sequence is consistently reproducible:

• Load a vessel from the VAB/SPH or the LaunchPad/Runway with B9 Part Switch parts
• Hit Escape to pause the game after the scene change but before graphics load (screen still black, but Blizzy's Toolbar has moved from the VAB/SPH position to the Flight position)
• Notice that when the graphics load and the pause menu appears, the sky remains black (indicating Scatterer is not fully loaded?)
• Hit Alt+F12 to open the ingame console and put the vessel in Kerbin orbit (above the atmosphere), then hit Escape to unpause the game
• Notice that Scatterer's sunflare (either default or custom) is visible
• Exit to space center and the go back to the vessel
• Notice that Scatterer's sunflare is not visible anymore

 

Root cause:

I have no idea whether the problem originates in B9 Part Switch or Scatterer. I have no idea whether this is fixable in Scatterer or not.

I see that similar issues have been brought up, for instance by @harbingerdawn (30 pages and 14 months ago).

In my case, I observe a NullRef on a DepthToDistanceCommandBuffer caused (according to the stack trace) by a call to RenderProceduralDragCubes from B9 Part Switch. This causes Scatterer to give up ([Scatterer] Removing DepthToDistanceCommandBuffer) and fail to display the sunflare.

I suppose the NullRef could be happening here but I do not know the code and sadly I do not have the dev environment set up to recompile/debug it.

I have reverted to the Stock sunflare for now (albeit with Kopernicus), but if anyone has suggestions I am open to trying things in order to track down the root cause further.

 

Cheers.

[GroundControl2MajorTom]

Any idea when Scatter will work with ckan?

[Zesty]

Really looking forward to it as well! It's a great mod we're lucky to have.

[StarchildXVLII]

I'm new to the forums. I'm having an issue that I believe may be related to scatterer, judging by a few posts I've seen on Steam about how it can contribute to missing textures or sound. In my case, engines no longer have plumes at full burn, nor is there any sound accompanying it. The only way I can even tell the liquid jet engine itself is working is by the red glow on the engine itself. Also, I feel this may be related to the fact that on Spacedock, there's a warning stating Scatterer is an outdated mod and "is not known to work with the latest version of Kerbal Space Program. Proceed with caution." I have the latest version of KSP, 1.7.1.

And just in case it's needed, here's a screenshot of my Gamedata directory with all my current mods. 

https://imgur.com/a/8DoVsTf

[Tyko]

9 hours ago, StarchildXVLII said:

I'm new to the forums. I'm having an issue that I believe may be related to scatterer, judging by a few posts I've seen on Steam about how it can contribute to missing textures or sound. In my case, engines no longer have plumes at full burn, nor is there any sound accompanying it. The only way I can even tell the liquid jet engine itself is working is by the red glow on the engine itself. Also, I feel this may be related to the fact that on Spacedock, there's a warning stating Scatterer is an outdated mod and "is not known to work with the latest version of Kerbal Space Program. Proceed with caution." I have the latest version of KSP, 1.7.1.

And just in case it's needed, here's a screenshot of my Gamedata directory with all my current mods. 

https://imgur.com/a/8DoVsTf

Welcome to the forums. Before submitting a bug report for a mod it's a good practice to make sure you don't have any other mods installed. Remember that mod authors are contributing their time for free. While most are happy to help support their mod you can save them time by making sure your issue is actually caused by their mod and not something else.

In your case you have several mods that aren't Scatterer related - notably you have SmokeScreen installed, which isn't a Scatterer requirement. If you read the first line of the SmokeScreen description it says: 

"SmokeScreen is a plugin whereby artists can add improved engine effects"

I'd be willing to bet your issue is more likely related to SmokeScreen than to Scatterer. BUT before you go on the smokescreen forum and say "your mod's broke" you might want to research THAT mod a bit because SmokeScreen is really an enabler for other mods (like RealPlume) it's not designed IIRC as a standalone mod.

Some other suggestions to help you out:

1. The best way to test mod bugs is to just create a separate KSP install called KSP_TEST or something like that and only install the mod in question along with plus any dependencies. This way you can be sure you're reporting about the correct mod.
2. If the mod clearly states that it's for an older version of the game, then it's not really a 'bug' if it doesn't work in the newest version. Scatterer says it's a work in progress "[WIP]" and that it's designed for 1.6.1, so it's not intended to work with 1.7.1. In your case, i don't think that's the issue, but still a good thing to remember.

 

Edited June 7, 2019 by Tyko

[Inacio]

Is there a fix / way to prevent white skies?

[Gameslinx]

Hey! Scatterer+ terrain scatters such as trees and rocks causes a massive performance hit.

Would it be worth looking into optimization with the scatters?

 - Or, an option to ignore terrain scatters completely, it really is a massive hit at 4k resolution

[Gordon Dry]

So, I gave scatterer a chance again during the last days.
RO RP-1 RSS RSSVE on KSP 1.6.1

With -force-glcore (my favorite for obvious reasons).
And also with -force-d3d11

And with TU.

So, I can make it relatively performant and look good as well.

But 2 times I got a game crash after a scene change, loading launchpad from space center.
One time the game crashed as I was trying to recover a vessel from the launch pad.

Only when parts with reflectiviness by TU were used.

This kind of crashes does not occur for days when scatterer is removed.

I will try again, when the game crashes again (oh my, what a waste of time) I will post the full log and stuff.

[Cryptopygia]

On 6/8/2019 at 12:48 PM, Gameslinx said:

Hey! Scatterer+ terrain scatters such as trees and rocks causes a massive performance hit.

Would it be worth looking into optimization with the scatters?

 - Or, an option to ignore terrain scatters completely, it really is a massive hit at 4k resolution

I've got the same issue, as soon as the scatters load in, my FPS tanks.

[Nightside]

On 6/8/2019 at 9:48 AM, Gameslinx said:

Hey! Scatterer+ terrain scatters such as trees and rocks causes a massive performance hit.

Would it be worth looking into optimization with the scatters?

 - Or, an option to ignore terrain scatters completely, it really is a massive hit at 4k resolution

I didn’t know that stock terrain scatter objects were even affected by Scatterer, but just a similar name.

You can turn off stock scatter objects in the settings.

[Kerenatus]

On 6/10/2019 at 7:36 PM, Cryptopygia said:

I've got the same issue, as soon as the scatters load in, my FPS tanks.

i use a newly bought RTX2070,i7 9750,32G ram

everything is perfectly smooth until i load scatterer lol

the fps lag is real

[Majorjim!]

On 6/11/2019 at 6:21 PM, Kerenatus said:

i use a newly bought RTX2070,i7 9750,32G ram

everything is perfectly smooth until i load scatterer lol

the fps lag is real

Agreed currently scatterer causes far too much lag even on high end systems.

[Galileo]

Just now, Majorjim! said:

Agreed currently scatterer causes far too much lag even on high end systems.

I mean, I have a high end system and can run it 60+ frames with a buttload of other mods. So, I dunno. Really depends on the entirety of the pc specs, I suppose.

[Kerenatus]

15 minutes ago, Galileo said:

I mean, I have a high end system and can run it 60+ frames with a buttload of other mods. So, I dunno. Really depends on the entirety of the pc specs, I suppose.

it would appear that my fps drowns near that "forest" launchpad, everywhere else is fine with eve scatterer and many other major mods installed all at highest settings.

could it be the stock trees(scatters) lol?

[Galileo]

40 minutes ago, Kerenatus said:

it would appear that my fps drowns near that "forest" launchpad, everywhere else is fine with eve scatterer and many other major mods installed all at highest settings.

could it be the stock trees(scatters) lol?

It definitely could be. If too many are rendering, your system my not be able to keep up  but thats pretty normal for scatter and PQS objects

[Majorjim!]

3 hours ago, Galileo said:

I mean, I have a high end system and can run it 60+ frames with a buttload of other mods. So, I dunno. Really depends on the entirety of the pc specs, I suppose.

Yeah I can run it at 60fps but it does not alow you to use high part count craft as well sadly.

 Its a stunning mod dont get me wrong its just a bit of a luxury. Do you think it could be optomised more?

[davidy12]

Isn't working in 1.7.1

[kerbnub]

On 4/17/2019 at 1:31 AM, Phineas Freak said:

I also noticed them but no matter what value i used (up to 7500000 meters) would fix it. Weirdly enough, less than 2000000 meters are required for RSS (a larger body that even 10.6x scaled Kerbin) so i assume that something else is causing that (see final note).

Saw the same thing with just the default Scatterer distribution and a 10.6x rescale (see final note).

I...guess so? Give me some time and I'll whip something up.

Note: I would guess that both of these are caused by the fact that the default Scatterer configs/textures are not meant to be used "as-is" for rescales.

Edit: new version is up, now allows the user to define a custom clip value (located under "FarCameraFix/Configs/FarCameraFix_Settings.cfg"). Pinging @evileye.x for further testing.

Where did the upload (and pictures in previous post) go? Has a solution to the horizon artifacts while going to orbit been found?

[Gameslinx]

On 6/12/2019 at 8:49 PM, Galileo said:

It definitely could be. If too many are rendering, your system my not be able to keep up  but thats pretty normal for scatter and PQS objects

 

On 6/12/2019 at 8:07 PM, Kerenatus said:

it would appear that my fps drowns near that "forest" launchpad, everywhere else is fine with eve scatterer and many other major mods installed all at highest settings.

could it be the stock trees(scatters) lol?

From what I've seen, scatterer does seem to affect the scatter objects from rocks to trees in the surface.

Without the scatter's LOD decreasing with distance from the camera, you could be rendering hundreds of vertices on one single object that you can barely see (thus around 8 vertices would make do since the object only takes up a few pixels)

I'd it's true that scatterer is applying the shading to scatters, it's applying it to every single vertex. Even those way off in the distance are being rendered as if they were directly next to you.

I'm on a GTX 1080 and running at 4k with no anti aliasing, and get lag with Scatterer and scatter objects in dense places. If LOD of objects decreased with distance, or if scatterer didn't shade objects far away / at all, performance would be a lot better. 

[Kerenatus]

2 hours ago, Gameslinx said:

 

From what I've seen, scatterer does seem to affect the scatter objects from rocks to trees in the surface.

Without the scatter's LOD decreasing with distance from the camera, you could be rendering hundreds of vertices on one single object that you can barely see (thus around 8 vertices would make do since the object only takes up a few pixels)

I'd it's true that scatterer is applying the shading to scatters, it's applying it to every single vertex. Even those way off in the distance are being rendered as if they were directly next to you.

I'm on a GTX 1080 and running at 4k with no anti aliasing, and get lag with Scatterer and scatter objects in dense places. If LOD of objects decreased with distance, or if scatterer didn't shade objects far away / at all, performance would be a lot better. 

Eventually i decreased "reflection texture resolution" to 1024 and the fps is finally above 24 at dense forest area (with scatterer eve ,etc). i turn anti aliasing on to x8 though. In plain area fps stays at 100+ .

And yes all the trees in a large circle around my vessel indeed has the same details lol.

BTW does anyone know why de faque does reflection texture affect trees?

Edited June 14, 2019 by Kerenatus

[TriggeredSnake]

Man, I love this mod. I’m so exited that I may be able to upgrade my aging potato PC to something not from 2012, as that would actually allow me to use Scatterer at more than 2fps.

What kind of specs are ideal for Scatterer? e.g. Is the graphics card more improrsnt than CPU? Which model GPU should I get? And how much RAM does it need?

[Flibble]

Get the fastest gpu you can afford and at least 16 gb ram.