[1.12.2]Sci-Fi Visual Enchancements V-1.6 (high performance alt to SVE)

[panzer1b]

21 hours ago, Waxing_Kibbous said:

These ideas sound good to me, I like Kerbin's current coverage in that it is nicely varied. You are asking for opinions but at the same time are doing a great job at it. Currently my only critique is that Jool is a bit harsh, but you already mentioned that is on the todo list.

Is it possible to add cloud shadows? What is a good setting to get some low budget shadows? I also think it would be neat to have solar panels get obscured by the various vapors but that may be beyond the scope of the code being used.

Cloud shadows are an option i knowingly decided to disable for 2 reasons:

One, it does come with some performance hits (not huge but i just decided to take the slightly less authentic look over the extra lag).  They are easy to enable if you want to give em a shot though.

Two, it comes with artefacting on transparent surfaces which drives me up the wall.  Not a big deal if you never use landing gear or are anywhere near the runway, but its something that im waiting on EVE to fix before i even consider shadows as something that will be enabled with this mod.

 

 

If you are interested in trying shadows out, open the EVE control panel (default key is alt+0) navigate to the cloud editor, slect the "clouds.cfg" for editing (the file with cloud layers), then scroll to the very bottom and there is a check for shadows somewhere on the 2D layer panel.  Just check it and alter the shadow multiplier until you get the prefered level of darkness behind the clouds.  From what im aware of, there is no way to optimize shadows, it is just a on/off thing that can be selected per layer.

Also, new screenie of WIP V-1.2 edition's kerbin cloud thing

Edited December 20, 2016 by panzer1b

[HafCoJoe]

1 hour ago, panzer1b said:

Two, it comes with artifacting on transparent surfaces which drives me up the wall.  Not a big deal if you never use landing gear or are anywhere near the runway, but its something that I'm waiting on EVE to fix before i even consider shadows as something that will be enabled with this mod.

So that's what's causing it? Hm, I guess that would explain why I only see it at certain times. I wonder if there's a way to make cloud shadows only apply to the terrain below them, and not parts on your craft? I wonder if that would fix it (and maybe reduce a slight bit of lag)? Brainstorming

Edited December 20, 2016 by Avera9eJoe

[panzer1b]

V-1.2 is released in preliminary form.  Its very likely that i will be making a few alterations and tweaks over the next few days but not too much will change.

All planets get 4096x2048 textures (kerbin gets 8192x4096) for the best combo of performance to lag (doesnt eat too much ram either from my experience).  All planets have unique custom made textures for the clouds (no 2 planets are the same with the possible exception of being a sphere).  Detail textures are all 1024x1024 for good variety and a lack of tiling issues with using smaller textures.  I also tried to minimize horizon artefacting with EVE by avoiding too thick solid layers, but given a few planets kinda needed solid layering (such as Eve) there is only so much i could do.

Please give me a day or 2 to update the screenies since im not just gonna snap one like that, but set up a few ships (mostly battles) in orbit and on the ground before doing so and that takes time.

Enjoy and try not to crash into planets too much because you forget to look down since the clouds are so pretty...

[Whovian41110]

On 12/16/2016 at 3:25 PM, Whovian41110 said:

I cannot get these configs to work here's my log

Anyone?

[panzer1b]

3 hours ago, Whovian41110 said:

Anyone?

I found this in your logs:

EVEManager: Issue loading CloudsManager! Error:
UnityEngine.UnityException: Unable to apply node! ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at Atmosphere.CloudsManager.ApplyConfigNode (.ConfigNode node) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at EVEManager.EVEManagerBase.Apply () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
  at EVEManager.EVEManagerBase.Apply () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at EVEManager.EVEManagerBase.LoadConfig () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at EVEManager.GenericEVEManager`1[T].Setup () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at EVEManager.GlobalEVEManager.Setup (Boolean late) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

You need to make sure to download the 1.1.3 version of EVE from their page.  Also, try to get stock EVE to work before installing my pack.  Once you get stock EVE clouds to show you need to delete the entire boulderco folder (this contains the default EVE clouds and textures) and after that place sci-fivisualenchancements into gamedata from my archive.  Do not override or even copy the environmentalvisualenchancements folder supplied in my archive at all because that one is for 1.2.x and not 1.1.x. 

Other then that, it looks like you have a massive slew of mods, and with that many there is a possibility that something is interfereing with EVE.  If you have a clean backup, try to install just EVE and then get my configs to work before migrating this to your normal game.  If it works there and stops working in the fully modded game then you have a conflict and you need to remove mods and place them back until you find which one is incompatible.

Anyways, this is all the advice i can give you, im not a coding expert or anything but from these logs it appears that EVE itself isnt loading correctly, so look there first.  The cloud configs here should be 100% compatible with the EVE version for 1.1.3, and after vacation ill make a version that works with 1.1.3 (and comes with prepackaged 1.1.3 EVE), but i just dont have time this instant since its like Christmas and i have actual real life things i need to get done.  If this advice doesnt help you might want to check in the EVE thread, im pretty sure @Waz knows way better then me why EVE isnt working since all my mod is is cloud config files and textures.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Love it! 

Light weight and extremely good looking. I actually prefer the clouds in this mod compared to other "heavier" visual mods, they just look better to me.

The slightly alternate "Sci-Fi" inspired color scheme really matches the Kerbals themselves and the tone of the game even better than the stock visuals do in my opinion, I'll definitely be recommending this to anyone who asks about graphics mods. Bravo sir!

Edited December 25, 2016 by Rocket In My Pocket

[KerbalMan23]

Its not working!

You can see the scifi visual enhancements here in my gamedata

But in game its not there!

help me pls

[Waxing_Kibbous]

@KerbalMan23 you also have stock visual enhancements installed, perhaps scifi is getting over-ridden (lots of code works from the top down, maybe KSP reads mods the same way?)

Anyhow, SCFiVE is meant to be a stylized low resource alternative to SVE.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Waxing_Kibbous

[KerbalMan23]

Just now, Waxing_Kibbous said:

@KerbalMan23 you also have stock visual enhancements installed, perhaps scifi is getting over-ridden (lots of code works from the top down, maybe KSP reads mods the same way?)

Yeah I have stock visual enhancements. I'm gonna try it without stock visual enhancements

[KerbalMan23]

Nope doesn't work. EDIT: apparently it was actually because of Planet Cryan

Edited January 16, 2017 by KerbalMan23

[A_name]

Any chance we can have this on CKAN?

[Biggen]

Going to download tonight. I have a pretty high end system (GTX 1060) but i enjoy mods that are "lite" and dont come with a dozen dependencies.

Does this mod do anything for terrain or just atmospheric visuals?

[klugeh01]

While I no longer need this visual pack when on my primary computer (now a custom desktop I built myself) it makes the game much more enjoyable when I'm traveling and using my laptop. Keep up the good work, @panzer1b!

[Biggen]

Great job on this! Duna looks beautiful from orbit. Havent landed yet to see the dust storms.

I kinda agree that Kerbin is a bit too blue for my tastes but still looks cool.

Is this mod compatible with OPM? I realize you dont have have textures for the new planets, but I just want to make sure nothing breaks if I install it

[panzer1b]

9 hours ago, Biggen said:

Great job on this! Duna looks beautiful from orbit. Havent landed yet to see the dust storms.

I kinda agree that Kerbin is a bit too blue for my tastes but still looks cool.

Is this mod compatible with OPM? I realize you dont have have textures for the new planets, but I just want to make sure nothing breaks if I install it

It SHOULD be fully not breaking with OPM installed but the planets will NOT get effects out of the bat.  You will need to modify the configs to make the effects show up on different planets, and this is done by altering the name of the planet in front of the effect section (say you want kerbin's clouds on another planet in OPM, rename "kerbin" to "opm plaet name goes here").  Otherwise i cant see any possible reasons it would cause problems, but i do not have OMP on my own machine so i cannot be certain (its possible one day ill add native OPM support to this mod, but that will defenetely not be in the next update)...

[Biggen]

4 minutes ago, panzer1b said:

It SHOULD be fully not breaking with OPM installed but the planets will NOT get effects out of the bat.  You will need to modify the configs to make the effects show up on different planets, and this is done by altering the name of the planet in front of the effect section (say you want kerbin's clouds on another planet in OPM, rename "kerbin" to "opm plaet name goes here").  Otherwise i cant see any possible reasons it would cause problems, but i do not have OMP on my own machine so i cannot be certain (its possible one day ill add native OPM support to this mod, but that will defenetely not be in the next update)...

Thanks! I probably wont even mess with trying to get your visuals applied on the new OPM planets. I just was curious if Id break anything on the stock planets trying to run OPM alongside your mod since OPM also requires Kopernicus.

Thanks, Ill give it a try.

BTW, I was aerocapturing at Duna and the views of the atmosohere, clouds, dust, whatever...Beautiful... Job well done for such a lightweight mod. Had to quit sightseeing and remind myself I still had a craft still moving 1000m/s in the upper atmosphere to pilot!

[KerbalKore]

This mod is incredible! So little lag, with awesome visuals! I love it! 

[Biggen]

Wanted to say that I had uninstalled your mod to try out SVE with Scatterer a couple of days ago and I've already gone back to yours.  I actually prefer your Eve better than SVE's Eve.  Your seems more "crisp".  Also, SVE would cause KSP to crash occasionally and I've never had that problem with yours.

Can't wait to see what you have in store for the next version!!

Edited February 20, 2017 by Biggen

[MaxZhao]

Just wondering what the difference is between this mod and Para-Sci High-Performance Atmosphere Pack?

BTW your mod looks awesome! I'm hoping it will run on my macbook air without it burning through the table!

[Biggen]

2 hours ago, MaxZhao said:

Just wondering what the difference is between this mod and Para-Sci High-Performance Atmosphere Pack?

BTW your mod looks awesome! I'm hoping it will run on my macbook air without it burning through the table!

Not wanting to speak for the mod maker but but judging from the visuals and descriptions of the mod you linked, it is missing volumetric clouds, dust storms, different textures, etc...

This mod here has "brighter" colors and more oversaturation of colors in general to give it more of a movie sci-fi look.

Edited February 23, 2017 by Biggen

[Marcus Aurelius]

Just wanted to report that the mod causes the game run at around 30-ish FPS on somewhat high end PC ( i5-4690k, GTX 970, 8 GB RAM etc. )

Tried to lowering the game's visuals like turning off AA and lowering quality of textures but that didn't help a single bit and I doubt it is caused by my PC.

[panzer1b]

On 2/23/2017 at 11:32 AM, Marcus Aurelius said:

Just wanted to report that the mod causes the game run at around 30-ish FPS on somewhat high end PC ( i5-4690k, GTX 970, 8 GB RAM etc. )

Tried to lowering the game's visuals like turning off AA and lowering quality of textures but that didn't help a single bit and I doubt it is caused by my PC.

Every single visual mod will result in SOME framerate drop.  Ive done everything i can to keep the frames reasonable and 30FPS is NOT what id consider bad especially since im used to like 10-15 (try loading 1000+ part capital ships in KSP without the welding mod).

 

 

 

Anyways, in other news, work on 1.3 is going well.  Im currently focused on redoing the cloud layers substantially.  The idea i came up with is to take advantage of the way EVE implements detail textures at shorter range which fade away when you get far enough away.  The plan is to make all planets especially kerbin have much more clouds all over the planet, as well as some thicker distinct cloud systems in places, while at the same time thinning out the detail textures so the clouds are no longer so solid at closer ranges.  Duna as can be seen below is one of the more extreme examples, where the clouds are super ultra thin while the total planet wide coverage has been increased substantially from before with a few more thick patches as well as more thinner patches placed here and there.  Ive done the same basic treatment to kerbin and laythe, except a bit less overkill with the detail texture thinning, it has its share of clear open patches and there is still a solid amount of coverage.  Kerbin's detail texture is a combo of wispyness like on Duna, and thick fluffy clouds like on a sunny day on earth.  laythe has been overhauled a bit more, with my best attempt at creating a sort of rainy hurricane planet.  Im working on adding rain underneath the clouds but this may or may not end up in release since i also have to be mindful of how it will affect performance, and having rain particles between 0 and 5km isnt going to be without its framerate drops.  That said, if it does get in the final release, it will make the current laythe look like absolute trash visually.

Id love some feedback from you guys on what you like better, the new ultra-thin Duna clouds im planning for 1.3 or the older 1.2 styled thicker but less planetary coverage?

[Biggen]

Im for more clouds personally. Gives the atmosphere more depth and realism.

And rain?! That sounds awesome!! Cant wait to see pics of this.

[klugeh01]

On 2/23/2017 at 10:32 AM, Marcus Aurelius said:

Just wanted to report that the mod causes the game run at around 30-ish FPS on somewhat high end PC ( i5-4690k, GTX 970, 8 GB RAM etc. )

Tried to lowering the game's visuals like turning off AA and lowering quality of textures but that didn't help a single bit and I doubt it is caused by my PC.

Do you have V-sync on? If your monitor's refresh rate is 30hz, your frame rate will be limited to 30hz with V-sync. On the hardware side, it could be that your CPU is the choke point, as my understanding is that the physics calculations (which are done on a per-frame basis), use your CPU, and are a large portion of the performance demand of the stock game. For reference, I have a GTX 1070, 16Gb of RAM, and an i7-6700K and get about 90-120 FPS on a heavily modded game with SVE. You should be just fine to run stock with SciFiVE on your build, and I would expect 60+ fps, as I got more than 30 on my laptop with stock + SciFiVE.

 

PS: I got caught by the V-sync thing when I completed my current build. Started a new game totally stock and couldn't figure out why I was only getting 60fps from a computer I had literally just assembled.

Edited March 2, 2017 by klugeh01

[panzer1b]

Ok here is a near finalized WIP of Kerbin's new cloud detail textures.

I am pretty happy with teh results, because it lets me lower the details and increase cloud coverage as a whole around kerbin, but it doesnt look like trash when you get close up like many mods that use solidish details.  One thing i dont like is the fact that i was forced to include multiple cloud types in the textures since im only willing to have 1 cloud layer on any given planet, but i think the end result was good enough for now.  I may eventually add a second layer since i cant think of any ground based effects i want to add to kerbin but either way, i think this will make 1.3 much better then 1.2.  Im not done with the oribital maps yet, but you can expect much more coverage throughout kerbin.

Also the artefacting near the cloud layer altitude is a bit worse in this version, but i did my best to minimize this by adding plenty of gaps between clouds in teh detail layers.  Again, not perfect and im going to work on improving this aspect, but i think its an overall step in the right direction...

Edited March 4, 2017 by panzer1b