[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

[blackrack]

  On 6/27/2021 at 5:10 PM, pp3d said:

The AsyncGPUReadback Plugin should have support for metal(mac)

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KSP doesn't run on metal but runs on opengl on mac

Edited June 27, 2021 by blackrack

[R-T-B]

  On 6/27/2021 at 5:54 PM, blackrack said:

KSP doesn't run on metal but runs on opengl on mac

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Why oh why they never added say, a Vulkan renderer, is beyond me.  Opengl is a dinosaur.

[Anbelizac]

I downloaded the mod and put it in my GameData folder, using the 1.12 KSP version, and nothing changed when I loaded up KSP. The little squares in the bottom right to change the settings for Scatterer are there, but nothing changed. Help please.

[Spaceman.Spiff]

  On 6/29/2021 at 3:54 PM, Anbelizac said:

I downloaded the mod and put it in my GameData folder, using the 1.12 KSP version, and nothing changed when I loaded up KSP. The little squares in the bottom right to change the settings for Scatterer are there, but nothing changed. Help please.

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Did you download the configuration files?

  On 6/28/2021 at 1:23 AM, R-T-B said:

a Vulkan renderer

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Mod time 

[R-T-B]

  On 6/30/2021 at 12:23 AM, Spaceman.Spiff said:

Mod time

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It would require a lot more effort than I have time for, but don't let me hold anyone up if they want to start the ball rolling, lol.

[Anbelizac]

Where can I get the configuration file?

[OrdinaryKerman]

  On 6/30/2021 at 12:23 AM, Spaceman.Spiff said:

Did you download the configuration files?

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  On 6/30/2021 at 3:23 AM, Anbelizac said:

Where can I get the configuration file?

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Scatterer should already have the required configs preinstalled, so try reinstalling Scatterer

[Anbelizac]

  Quote

Scatterer should already have the required configs preinstalled, so try reinstalling Scatterer

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I did that, multiple times, but I was still stuck with the same water texture. I got it to work one time, I did the same thing I did but nothing happened.

[OrdinaryKerman]

  On 6/30/2021 at 1:49 PM, Anbelizac said:

I did that, multiple times, but I was still stuck with the same water texture. I got it to work one time, I did the same thing I did but nothing happened.

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Open Scatterer settings, Advanced mode or something like that, and enable water shaders

[Anbelizac]

  Quote

Open Scatterer settings, Advanced mode or something like that, and enable water shaders

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I did, nothing happened. Do I put scatterer in Kerbal Space Program > GameData? Or Kerbal Space Program > GameData > Squad?

[Dr. Kerbal]

I went to the download file and it said it might not be compatible with KSP. And CKAN wont install certain mods. 

[OrdinaryKerman]

  On 6/30/2021 at 2:44 PM, Anbelizac said:

I did, nothing happened. Do I put scatterer in Kerbal Space Program > GameData? Or Kerbal Space Program > GameData > Squad?

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Scatterer should go in GameData,

[Anbelizac]

  Quote

Scatterer should go in GameData,

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And it was there, why won't it work? It worked the last time I used it, but I reinstalled KSP because it got stuck loading on "Loading Part Upgrades". Edit: It finally worked! The problem was that it was in KSP > GameData> GameData. So I moved it from there to GameData and it finally worked! Thanks for helping!

Edited June 30, 2021 by Anbelizac

[Hadron27]

my computer go boom

[FDAUT]

i'm having this issue where atmospheres end very suddenly. As in there is no real fade just a very clear and distinct line where the atmosphere starts:  

annoyingly it dose not show up as well in screenshots and looks more like what I actually want, a gradual fade out to transparency. I've troubleshooted all day and it seems this is related to scatterer. Only thing i can find is this in  the scatterer/config/planets folder :

Scatterer_atmosphere
{
    Atmo
    {
        name = Kerbin
        flattenScaledSpaceMesh = 0.6
        experimentalAtmoScale = 2
        cloudColorMultiplier = 3
        cloudScatteringMultiplier = 0.2
        cloudSkyIrradianceMultiplier = 0.05
        volumetricsColorMultiplier = 1
        Rg = 600000
        Rt = 608490.375
        RL = 0
        atmosphereGlobalScale = 1
        EVEIntegration_preserveCloudColors = False
        HR = 10
        HM = 1.2
        BETA_MSca = 0.004,0.004,0.004
        m_betaR = 0.0058,0.0135,0.0331
        m_mieG = 0.78
        rimBlend = 20
        rimpower = 600
        specR = 80
        specG = 72
        specB = 65
        shininess = 75
        assetPath = scatterer/config/Planets/Kerbin/Atmo
        godrayStrength = 0.7
        configPoints
        {
            Item
            {
                altitude = 200
                skyExposure = 0.25
                skyAlpha = 1
                skyExtinctionTint = 1
                scatteringExposure = 0.23
                extinctionThickness = 1
                postProcessAlpha = 1
                postProcessDepth = 0.08
                extinctionTint = 0.5
                openglThreshold = 10
                viewdirOffset = 0.012
            }
            Item
            {
                altitude = 1000
                skyExposure = 0.25
                skyAlpha = 1
                skyExtinctionTint = 1
                scatteringExposure = 0.23
                extinctionThickness = 1
                postProcessAlpha = 1
                postProcessDepth = 0.1
                extinctionTint = 0.5
                openglThreshold = 10
                viewdirOffset = 0
            }
            Item
            {
                altitude = 250000
                skyExposure = 0.2
                skyAlpha = 1
                skyExtinctionTint = 1
                scatteringExposure = 0.2
                extinctionThickness = 1
                postProcessAlpha = 1
                postProcessDepth = 0.1
                extinctionTint = 0.5
                openglThreshold = 10
                viewdirOffset = 0
            }
        }
    }
}

I've tried finding out what each of these values actually does but cant seem to find anything, so I had a little play with some values ( i was hoping rimBlend/rimpower was what i was looking for but they didnt seem to do anything) but came up empty handed. Anyone give some ideas or  point me in the right direction???

[pckbls]

  On 7/2/2021 at 8:30 AM, FDAUT said:

i'm having this issue where atmospheres end very suddenly. As in there is no real fade just a very clear and distinct line where the atmosphere starts:  

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I was able to solve this issue by disabling Dithering in Scatterer's settings.

[OrbitalManeuvers]

Hello - I am looking for advice on how to improve (or even discuss) the situation you see below. My scatterer settings are set to the highest quality preset. Below you can see how clumpy the mascara is on my towers when scatterer is installed. With it removed, and that being the only change, I then get the image you see on the bottom.  Basically ... what is this? I don't even know what to call it, let alone address it. Is this an AA problem?

Here are the two 20 second videos the above shots were taken from:

  Reveal hidden contents

Here's with scatterer. If you view it large you can see the everything shimmer and wiggle with bad ... AA?

Here's without scatterer. Uglier but look how crisp the far background is.

 

 

 

[RyanRising]

  On 7/7/2021 at 8:32 PM, OrbitalManeuvers said:

Hello - I am looking for advice on how to improve (or even discuss) the situation you see below. My scatterer settings are set to the highest quality preset. Below you can see how clumpy the mascara is on my towers when scatterer is installed. With it removed, and that being the only change, I then get the image you see on the bottom.  Basically ... what is this? I don't even know what to call it, let alone address it. Is this an AA problem?

Here are the two 20 second videos the above shots were taken from:

  Reveal hidden contents

Here's with scatterer. If you view it large you can see the everything shimmer and wiggle with bad ... AA?

Here's without scatterer. Uglier but look how crisp the far background is.

 

 

 

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You’re not imagining things, that is bad antialiasing. Scatterer has recently included as default a rendering mode using the depth buffer that’s incompatible with MSAA. It includes SMAA as a substitute to try to help smooth out some jagged edges, but you’ve seen firsthand the limitations of that method. 
Really, if you want that detail back (as I understand it) the only way is to turn off depth buffer mode in the scatterer settings. This will allow you to use MSAA again, but will break compatibility with Parallax and terrain scatters, as well as decrease your FPS from 17% to 41% (from the changelog.) I did that, and I miss those frames and the ability to scatter scatters,* but just couldn’t ignore how ugly  looked without MSAA. 
 

*render atmospheric scattering over terrain scatters, that is. That’s a funny phrase.

Edited July 7, 2021 by RyanRising

[blackrack]

  On 7/7/2021 at 8:52 PM, RyanRising said:

You’re not imagining things, that is bad antialiasing. Scatterer has recently included as default a rendering mode using the depth buffer that’s incompatible with MSAA. It includes SMAA as a substitute to try to help smooth out some jagged edges, but you’ve seen firsthand the limitations of that method. 
Really, if you want that detail back (as I understand it) the only way is to turn off depth buffer mode in the scatterer settings. This will allow you to use MSAA again, but will break compatibility with Parallax and terrain scatters, as well as decrease your FPS from 17% to 41% (from the changelog.) I did that, and I miss those frames and the ability to scatter scatters,* but just couldn’t ignore how ugly  looked without MSAA.

*render atmospheric scattering over terrain scatters, that is. That’s a funny phrase.

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This pretty much explains everything.

I will just add that in depth buffer mode you can also use TAA, but it has other issues with flickering shadows. So pick your poison in the end.

[OrbitalManeuvers]

  On 7/7/2021 at 8:52 PM, RyanRising said:

Really, if you want that detail back (as I understand it) the only way is to turn off depth buffer mode in the scatterer settings. 

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Well, this probably ruins my credibility, but on my system there is no visual difference between projector mode and depth buffer mode. I am doing my best to make sure that I'm testing very carefully, and I've gotten rid of tufx for the time being just to make sure nothing else is touching Unity's AA settings. But if I select projector mode, and close the UI, and click on the launch pad and pick the ship from the video - the background towers look terrible, and if I revert, and go back to the space center, turn on Use depth buffer, with SMAA set to 2, and repeat the above steps - the background towers look exactly as terrible as before. Just like the video and still picture I posted earlier. I suppose it's possible that depth buffer version is "worse" ... but honestly, just changing the camera angle completely changes the background items so it's impossible to say which is worse. Neither is good right now.

[blackrack]

  On 7/7/2021 at 11:35 PM, OrbitalManeuvers said:

Well, this probably ruins my credibility, but on my system there is no visual difference between projector mode and depth buffer mode. I am doing my best to make sure that I'm testing very carefully, and I've gotten rid of tufx for the time being just to make sure nothing else is touching Unity's AA settings. But if I select projector mode, and close the UI, and click on the launch pad and pick the ship from the video - the background towers look terrible, and if I revert, and go back to the space center, turn on Use depth buffer, with SMAA set to 2, and repeat the above steps - the background towers look exactly as terrible as before. Just like the video and still picture I posted earlier. I suppose it's possible that depth buffer version is "worse" ... but honestly, just changing the camera angle completely changes the background items so it's impossible to say which is worse. Neither is good right now.

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Make sure the game's MSAA is enabled after you switch back to projector mode (normally it should be re-enabled).

Also can you take some clean, preferably uncompressed screenshots? Compression in video doesn't help

Edited July 7, 2021 by blackrack

[OrbitalManeuvers]

  On 7/7/2021 at 11:42 PM, blackrack said:

Make sure the game's MSAA is enabled after you switch back to projector mode (normally it should be re-enabled)

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First - thank you for answering, and for scatterer in general!

Maybe there's a nit here ... if you use Highest, the KSP settings still says 8x. So when you go to projector mode, KSP shows 8x, but it's actually off. So I had to go to 4, then back to 8, then save. 

So projector mode totally solves the previously pictured AA issue for me.  I have KSP capped at 60fps, and I have 60fps on the pad with this setting. I don't know what scattering the scattered scatters does or what else I'm giving up, but this allows me to film on the ground, and if I am missing anything I'll turn it back on for other shots. This is a fine workaround/workflow for me.

I do have an additional observation after lots of testing:

  Reveal hidden contents

When you compare the red against the red, you're like "Yup, that's AA" 

When you compare the green against the green you go "hmmm..."  Idk what this means, if anything - it's just how my system looks.

Better view of the distances...

 

 

[Dominiquini]

I'm seeing some exceptions when I enter VAB or SPH. Also when I exit the game:

KSP.log: https://www.dropbox.com/s/df5meot2fxx68cr/KSP(Scatterer).log?dl=0

Player.log: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3awf6o82vzp4y88/Player(Scatterer).log?dl=0

Thanks.

[FDAUT]

  On 7/6/2021 at 5:28 PM, pckbls said:

I was able to solve this issue by disabling Dithering in Scatterer's settings.

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thank you good sir  this is what id been looking for for over a week 

[OrbitalManeuvers]

Just to follow up, here's where I'm at with le settings du jour ...

There's two supersize=2 images here. First one is projector mode, KSP set to 8x. Second one is using Highest Very High preset. Both have tufx with/zorg's vintage preset. I've been so focused on details that I'm not sure I'm seeing everything and comparing everything I should, so I'm happy to experiment more ... but so far projector mode is doing it for me.

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Edited July 8, 2021 by OrbitalManeuvers
figured out name of option