Fog to enhance terrain texture.

[CaptainTurbomuffin]

If you zoom out on the launchpad, you see that the vast majority of the planet is being loaded. Also, the textures are far from good. It's just enough to look at the water: you can see the same piece of texture being repeated, giving a sight like minecraft.

.If you look at the left, you can have a perfect look at the mountains, that are far-far away. In real life, after you move further from an object, due to the atmosphere, you will have a less accurate, and slightly blue image of it. On the mountains at the back, you can hardly see the landscape. On the mountains in the middle, you can spot the trees. On the closest mountain, you can see the branches of the trees, the flowers, the grass.

If the atmosphere in KSP would behavie such like that, low resolution textures could be used for distant objects, andhigher and higher resolution textures for the closer terrain, and, because very far terrain is not visible, the half planet shouldn't be loaded. This would not only make it look realistic, display the distance(good for landings!), and lower the system requiements, but really high, and diverse textures could be used for closer landscape, and it would look like awesome.

Currently in the game, I have observed that 3 types of texture resolution is used. The one you see from space; where the ocean is even blue;

The one you see from atmospheric flights, that looks like a creased paper;

And the one you see when you are closer to the landscape. This is what you see during low-altitude flights, and while walking on the ground. Altough the texture is terrible from close, this is used as many times at low altitudes, that it's homogeneous

.

3 is not enough. Altough the fog would help it, we need at least 10 types of resolution.

Due to the fog, the mountains at the left shouldn't even be visible, but a high-resolution, excellent texture should be used for the grass you are walking on. Of course, on higher altitudes, due to the rare atmosphere, even distant objects become visible. A lower-resolution texture should be used for the mountains, and the launch site too.

I am waiting for your replies, if you find a problem with it, tell it me so I can update this thread.

[r4pt0r]

I support any improvement on the games graphics, you have my vote.

[gmiddlemass]

Isn't this what the "Scatterer" mod does? Not sure if it does the texture changes though.

[Red Iron Crown]

You could try Scatterer to see what "fog" effects would look like in game.

Also shown: Texture Replacer, HotRockets and Environmental Visual Enhancements.

There's a variety of visual effects mods that make KSP downright beautiful, hopefully some or all of them will be added to the core game at some point.

Edit: Ninja'd!

[CaptainTurbomuffin]

Isn't this what the "Scatterer" mod does? Not sure if it does the texture changes though.

You could try Scatterer to see what "fog" effects would look like in game.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/61004449/KSP/1.0.4/screenshot654.png

Also shown: Texture Replacer, HotRockets and Environmental Visual Enhancements.

There's a variety of visual effects mods that make KSP downright beautiful, hopefully some or all of them will be added to the core game at some point.

Edit: Ninja'd!

Scatterer places the fog (wich is not as intense with the default options, as it should be, of yourse, I always increase that) over the low texture terrain. You will have a better sight, but increased requiements. There should be lower textures at distant areas, and very good textures at close areas. My aim is not to have fog, for realistic look, but to have higher texture resolutions, witouth the game going mad.

Edited July 27, 2015 by CaptainTurbomuffin

[Windspren]

How would having fog improve the game's performance? It would do the opposite!

[sal_vager]

How would having fog improve the game's performance? It would do the opposite!

Fog has been used in 3D games for a very long time to reduce the load on the CPU and GPU, as you can hide stuff in the fog and then you don't have to draw it at all.

[lukethecoder64]

I also support this.

But when you go above a certain altitude you should see a baked (pre-processed/rendered) version of the atmosphere. This way looking at kerbin from, say, a mun base would not triple your lag, like looking at the kerbals in the VAB/SPH.

Sorry if i got technical there.

Luke

[Wjolcz]

I'm all for that if it would improve my FPS. Would also be an eye candy.

[clivman]

How would having fog improve the game's performance? It would do the opposite!

You tried World of Warships yet? It uses a similar concept and looks and performs amazing.

[Castille7]

I love visuals and KSP has lots of eye candy, fog sounds great, I vote yes and my mind is clear about that!

[Willbl3pic]

my mind is clear

Your vision won't be when the fog comes.

Ontopic: I like this idea, although maybe just in 'scatterer' form. No more textures for the ground, it seems unnecessary.

[nothingSpecial]

Yes. Yes please. Not sure about more mipmaps, but definitely yes for fog.

[waterlubber]

Fog would be nice. And maybe a way to have terrain detail/easter eggs be universal

[BudgetHedgehog]

Add fog and you'd get people complaining about the low draw distance and wanting a settings slider to increase/decrease it (depending on GPU). Fog works ok on stuff like Tomb Raider, where the area around the player is a cave or jungle or something, but when you have literally an entire planet before you, fog everywhere doesn't make too much sense.

My vote would be for Scatterer and/or some procedural noise generator in the game textures to avoid the tiling effect. That said, I think Scatterer really only plays with the shaders and if you improve them, it becomes far less of an issue. Take a look at the WIP Scatterer water:

[SquaredSpekz]

How would having fog improve the game's performance? It would do the opposite!

Fog can increase game performance dramatically when used correctly. Because of fog, less detail is being handled in rendering from the GPU and it help the CPU as well.

[Slam_Jones]

-snip snip-

That water looks pretty epic!