[1.12.x] Parallax - PBR Terrain and Surface Objects [2.0.8]

[lemon cup]

Congrats on Thread of the Month! 

It’s been a treat watching this mod develop into what it is today.

[Gameslinx]

7 minutes ago, lemon cup said:

Congrats on Thread of the Month! 

It’s been a treat watching this mod develop into what it is today.

Thank you! In that case, I should probably detail what's coming to Parallax down the line. I took a month off for my exams but now that they're finished I'm continuing where I left off on the following features:

1. Rewriting the loader to prepare for Scaled and Asteroid Parallax versions (coming in the future)
2. Finalizing Adaptive Parallax which will allow a much greater level of detail close up at a better performance
3. Better lighting with accurate ambient and shadow levels
4. Different shader versions that run based on your terrain shader quality (meaning a much faster version of Parallax without the tessellation, and a version that supports older hardware!)

Here's a picture of the new lighting in action in the unity editor:

Here is the concept of Adaptive Parallax (spoiler):

Spoiler

This allows for a much greater level of detail with less vertices - Better performance!

 

Edited June 2, 2021 by Gameslinx

[Vovical]

7 hours ago, Gameslinx said:

Thank you! In that case, I should probably detail what's coming to Parallax down the line. I took a month off for my exams but now that they're finished I'm continuing where I left off on the following features:

1. Rewriting the loader to prepare for Scaled and Asteroid Parallax versions (coming in the future)
2. Finalizing Adaptive Parallax which will allow a much greater level of detail close up at a better performance
3. Better lighting with accurate ambient and shadow levels
4. Different shader versions that run based on your terrain shader quality (meaning a much faster version of Parallax without the tessellation, and a version that supports older hardware!)

 

Good to hear Parallax's performance will only improve from here (even though the performance it had before was already fabulous)

Here's to hoping that the invisible staircase bug gets fixed lol

[Spaceman.Spiff]

9 hours ago, Gameslinx said:

Adaptive Parallax (spoiler):

Wasn't this the thing that would allow bigger Parallax textures?  Like RSS or just very high res textures?

[Gameslinx]

1 hour ago, Spaceman.Spiff said:

Wasn't this the thing that would allow bigger Parallax textures?  Like RSS or just very high res textures?

This is what should hopefully allow Parallax to work on RSS  

[hypervelocity]

congratulations on TOTM @Gameslinx, I have been following the development of Parallax and your work is truly mesmerizing! Can't wait to try it out on RSS! Thank you very much for your work!

[ocharni]

@Gameslinx first off, great work on this, installed the mod today and was blown away by the difference it makes. 

that being said, sadly I have an issue I cant quite figure out. 
After installing the mod I'm having issues with the ground level. 
Example A the little fella on the mun. Exit the Hab and run around uphill and he stays on the ground. Start running downhill again and suddenly he just walks into thin air(or vacuum in this particular case). 
After I stop running around just stand he sloooowly starts dropping down again but not nearly as fast as when using the jetpack and then floating down or jumping. 
Also had the issue on Kerbin when testing a lander. It sits on the launchpad just fine, then lifts off and lands a few hundred metres beside the launchpad and sinks into the ground for lets say half a meter. 

For reference these are the other mods I run and best I can tell there should be no compatibility issues. 

AstronomersVisualPack
ClickThroughBlocker
ToolbarControl
CommunityResourcePack
Deployable Engines
DynamicBatteryStorage
EngineLightRelit
EVE
KerbalEngineer
Kopernicus
MJ2
ModularFlightIntegrator
The NearFutureSeries of Mods(dont wanna list 'em all here, all of them basically)
Parallax
ParallaxStockTextures
PlanetShine
RealPlume
RealPlume-Stock
Sigma
SmokeScreen
Squad
TriggerTech
StatioPartsnExpandedRedux

[Spaceman.Spiff]

1 hour ago, ocharni said:

@Gameslinx first off, great work on this, installed the mod today and was blown away by the difference it makes. 

that being said, sadly I have an issue I cant quite figure out. 
After installing the mod I'm having issues with the ground level. 
Example A the little fella on the mun. Exit the Hab and run around uphill and he stays on the ground. Start running downhill again and suddenly he just walks into thin air(or vacuum in this particular case). 
After I stop running around just stand he sloooowly starts dropping down again but not nearly as fast as when using the jetpack and then floating down or jumping. 
Also had the issue on Kerbin when testing a lander. It sits on the launchpad just fine, then lifts off and lands a few hundred metres beside the launchpad and sinks into the ground for lets say half a meter. 

For reference these are the other mods I run and best I can tell there should be no compatibility issues. 

AstronomersVisualPack
ClickThroughBlocker
ToolbarControl
CommunityResourcePack
Deployable Engines
DynamicBatteryStorage
EngineLightRelit
EVE
KerbalEngineer
Kopernicus
MJ2
ModularFlightIntegrator
The NearFutureSeries of Mods(dont wanna list 'em all here, all of them basically)
Parallax
ParallaxStockTextures
PlanetShine
RealPlume
RealPlume-Stock
Sigma
SmokeScreen
Squad
TriggerTech
StatioPartsnExpandedRedux

The floaty issue is known. Make sure you have the latest version of Parallax (1.2.3) 

[ocharni]

2 minutes ago, Spaceman.Spiff said:

The floaty issue is known. Make sure you have the latest version of Parallax (1.2.3) 

well, I have the latest. 

but words apparently matter, "parallax  float" delivers the answer in the first google result "parallax sinking into ground" returns nothing relevant. 

[jordanjay29]

5 hours ago, ocharni said:

well, I have the latest. 

but words apparently matter, "parallax  float" delivers the answer in the first google result "parallax sinking into ground" returns nothing relevant. 

I came to find the same issue a couple weeks ago, so here's the two places I found it in this thread:

 

[Jackaroo0505]

On 11/15/2020 at 3:12 AM, Carni35 said:

@AustralianKerbal

KSRSS team is already working on integrating  parallax for their next release. So yes

Is there any update on this? Would love to see it.

[VladTonk]

Hello. I face with incorrect mod work. While walking, the kerbal climbs like a ladder. Also, while on the ground, the jetpack almost does not work. If the kerbal jumps, then everything works normally. A link to a video, a log file and a list of mods are attached.
p.s. sorry english is not my native language

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17vFSagAXMj6-evEJBgYGnH3EwQYQAlkh/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gWRsHje9_btQAFXVupYF6ti8YRbdXVbm/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qLnKQ2gLLDNOExE9SXv5r1KE89GwM1su/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1znmi6G2IZoTKQJ5wTp2Ae8zL2HG9fJh0/view?usp=sharing

Edited June 7, 2021 by VladTonk
incorrect translation into English

[Gameslinx]

Hey all, I've been working on the mesh detail problem that has plagued Parallax since the very beginning, and I've made some more progress.

I've briefly mentioned this before but I'm using a technique I'm calling "Advanced Subdivision" to generate a much higher level of detail in the terrain. Using the craft position, I can take a set of coordinates on a mesh and subdivide them. I have a version of this working in-game:

 

[Spaceman.Spiff]

3 minutes ago, Gameslinx said:

Hey all, I've been working on the mesh detail problem that has plagued Parallax since the very beginning, and I've made some more progress.

I've briefly mentioned this before but I'm using a technique I'm calling "Advanced Subdivision" to generate a much higher level of detail in the terrain. Using the craft position, I can take a set of coordinates on a mesh and subdivide them. I have a version of this working in-game:

 

This is gonna be so awesome!! What do you expect the performance impact to be?

Spoiler

Also the title is a bit out of date. Should be 1.2.3 

 

[Gameslinx]

3 minutes ago, Spaceman.Spiff said:

What do you expect the performance impact to be?

I'm expecting it to improve a fair amount. The total amount of vertices being rendered will decrease and the range of tessellation will also decrease. I've also made huge optimizations to the shaders themselves. In the unity editor my framerate was:

at 2560 x 1440, but this is unlikely to be indicative of performance in-game  

[Emperoreddy]

Awesome mode. Was able to get most of the troubleshooting fixes from past posts. Forcing Direct X 11 and unstalling planetshine got performance running smooth and fixed a floating rocks issue I had, though it does get quite dark at night. 

 

Only small issue I noticed and was having trouble finding an answer for is I've noticed flags seem to sink into yhe ground when you timewarp. Is it related to the Kerbal floating issue?

[LHACK4142]

I seem to have 2 ParallaxGlobal files and 1 .ParallaxGlobal.cfg file in my Config directory. Which one should I use to change the settings?

When I open either of the ParalllaxGlobal files, I get what is expected, but the ParallaxGlobal.cfg file does not work in vi.

Really loving your mod by the way, thank you for developing it.

[Gameslinx]

The tessellation detail up close is now way better!

The Mun now looks a lot more realistic

I've also been working on a new lighting implementation to give the Mun its unique look. Lighting now drops off a lot faster on vacuum worlds, and the ambient light works correctly now:

All this running at a much higher framerate than before!

 

 

[Spaceman.Spiff]

8 minutes ago, Gameslinx said:

tessellation detail up close is now way better!

I’ll say!!! This looks incredible!!

8 minutes ago, Gameslinx said:

ambient light works correctly now:

Potentially fixing the Planetshine issues, or is that something else?

 

AND better performance?????
You’re spoiling us! 

[Gameslinx]

1 hour ago, Spaceman.Spiff said:

Potentially fixing the Planetshine issues, or is that something else?

Maybe. PlanetShine is old and uses a reflection probe to apply the colouration unless you change to Vertex mode. Using a reflection probe causes the terrain to be rendered again for every planet in range, so it's very performance demanding

[Neebel]

On 6/2/2021 at 5:35 PM, Gameslinx said:

In that case, I should probably detail what's coming to Parallax down the line.

Are you also going to resume work on the Beyond Home update to implement the ground collisions from the newer Parallax versions?

[Gameslinx]

1 hour ago, Neebel said:

Are you also going to resume work on the Beyond Home update to implement the ground collisions from the newer Parallax versions?

Yes. I'm uncertain of the future of the collisions as of yet. In the update I'm working on, the ground features are smaller so there might not be a need for the collisions any more. Once I release this update to stock, I'll continue the Beyond Home update

Edited June 13, 2021 by Gameslinx

[Al2Me6]

19 hours ago, Gameslinx said:

The tessellation detail up close is now way better!

<snip>

This. Is. Stunning!!!

[123nick]

sorry if this qeustion is asked befroe, but, what happens if you use parralax with a planet pack not configured too use it? 

[Vovical]

Do you think the new update will break configurations created for other planet packs?

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/200080-jnsq-parallax-settings-bumpy-roads-up-ahead-version-10/