[1.1.2][1-1-2] May 13-2016 EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements

[Capt Snuggler]

@pizzaoverhead: That image is great!

also as your altitude increases the fog should clear.

thinking about it now, how does it work with the Sky being blue at sea level? does it swap out the sky box from a blue one to the space one?

[montyben101]

Please please please change the name from boulder co since you cant use this with the texture compressor!

[Ralathon]

Please please please change the name from boulder co since you cant use this with the texture compressor!

You can, just dump both in the same folder. They don't interfere with one another other than that.

[Bekiekutmoar]

Great new release ... ! Those volumetric clouds appears to have no influence on performance of the game, despite my computer not being the fastest; Pentium i3 3,4Ghz (Duocore), 8 GB RAM, GTX650 videocard, Windows 7 64-bit.

Gotta say I got pwned last night by those volumetric clouds; was flying in the clouds and couldn't see much, when suddenly a large mountain became visible just dozens of meters ahead of me. Too late to turn away and the plane plunged into the mountain at 150 m/s or so ... !

[ShadyAct]

Are you gonna take volumetric clouds off the attempt list?

@Bekie Ouch. I'd probably laugh if that happened to me though.

[Hyomoto]

I've been getting more gobbledygook than I remember out of city lights. I know they've never been quite perfect but they seem to have far more visual artifacts than I remember. I adjusted the levels so its easier to see. The lights clip into the ground, but that isn't what is off-putting, its the oscillations like they are changing altitude or position or something. Did the topography of Kerbin change? I updated everything so it shouldn't be out of date, but still, is this working correctly?

[rbray89]

Thanks! So I change the "volume = " value to false for each planet?

Or you can disable it for all in the main settings at the top.

CLOUD_LAYER_PACK
{
	volume = True
	CLOUD_LAYER
	{

- - - Updated - - -

I've been getting more gobbledygook than I remember out of city lights. I know they've never been quite perfect but they seem to have far more visual artifacts than I remember. I adjusted the levels so its easier to see. The lights clip into the ground, but that isn't what is off-putting, its the oscillations like they are changing altitude or position or something. Did the topography of Kerbin change? I updated everything so it shouldn't be out of date, but still, is this working correctly?

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n48/Hyomoto/screenshot745_zpsf2d4c4fa.png~original

I'll have to look into a way of making it look better. I'm thinking it can be done. We'll have to see.

Edited April 4, 2014 by rbray89

[rbray89]

V1

http://i.imgur.com/UsHgrzc.png

V2

http://i.imgur.com/VOTDphQ.png

Both WIP

PS What happen to the bump textures?

I had to remove them to make the lighting blend well it is also an added drain on graphics. If it is really needed, I can add them back in, but for the most part, I think the detail texture works well enough.

[rbray89]

Are you gonna take volumetric clouds off the attempt list?

@Bekie Ouch. I'd probably laugh if that happened to me though.

Hmmm. Thought I did.

- - - Updated - - -

Great new release ... ! Those volumetric clouds appears to have no influence on performance of the game, despite my computer not being the fastest; Pentium i3 3,4Ghz (Duocore), 8 GB RAM, GTX650 videocard, Windows 7 64-bit.

Gotta say I got pwned last night by those volumetric clouds; was flying in the clouds and couldn't see much, when suddenly a large mountain became visible just dozens of meters ahead of me. Too late to turn away and the plane plunged into the mountain at 150 m/s or so ... !

It is way too easy to do unfortunately. I really think someone needs to implement radar of some sort.

[rbray89]

@pizzaoverhead: That image is great!

also as your altitude increases the fog should clear.

thinking about it now, how does it work with the Sky being blue at sea level? does it swap out the sky box from a blue one to the space one?

There is an atmosphere thing that KSP implements. Not sure if it swaps out the skybox or not.

[rbray89]

First off. Congratulations on a absolutely fantastic mod! This makes the game look SO much better.

Now I'm sorry if people have mentioned this before. would it be possible to add atmosphere scattering (soft distance fog)

This is what I'm talking about:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/atmos/atmpic/bluesky.jpg

See how the hills in the distance look bluer the further away they are. it would give you a much better sense of scale.

I think Duna and Eve would really benefit from this.

I'm surprised this hasn't been added already.

Unity has some camera fog settings. I could look at something that uses the depth buffer, but then KSP would likely laaaaaaaaag even more than it does now. Might be possible to swap out the terrain shader. Wouldn't effect ships and whatnot in the distance though.

[rbray89]

Volumetric clouds are great! Say, if I want to melt my PC, how can I increase the distance at which clouds disappear?

You can edit the settings.cfg file in EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements to increase the radius and devisions of the hex segments.

ENVIRONMENTAL_VISUAL_ENHANCEMENTS
{
	volumeHexRadius = 12000
	volumeSegmentDiv = 3
}

[rbray89]

V1

http://i.imgur.com/UsHgrzc.png

V2

http://i.imgur.com/VOTDphQ.png

Both WIP

PS What happen to the bump textures?

Also: looking Good! I notice though that you may have the same problem I had with my particles when I was starting out. GIMP and PS hide the non-alpha components of a transparent pixel, so I had "Jaggies".

This outlines the problem visually:

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/136689-PNG-to-TGA-remove-artifacts-from-the-transparent-textures

Here is how to fix it in PS:

http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/10302/messy-alpha-problem-white-around-edges.html

I used GIMP, extracted the alpha as a filter, solidified the non-alpha component, and applied the alpha filter again to bring back transparency.

[White Owl]

I really want to like the update with the volumetric clouds. Really, I do. But... it's looking kind of funky. All the clouds are screaming by at hurricane speeds. Launch a rocket, and the clouds move faster than the rocket as it climbs. Once in low Kerbin orbit, the clouds are clashing with city lights in a kind of jittering fashion that somewhat resembles z-fighting.

I think the volumetric clouds would look amazing if they would just move about a hundred times slower, or even hold completely still.

[Azimech]

I love it!! Wonderful stuff!

Now whenever I land it's like i'm on Ferenginar, always clouds above my head, just without the rain :-)

[Proot]

Rbray, is there a way to fade more kerbin1.png in the areas where volumetrics are generated? The "open hole" effect is too evident immo, and the too obvious horizontal texture in that zone spoil the volumetric effect. Maybe the volumetrics and the fading with that texture should work like the detail blending? I mean, as you approximate to the clouds and in the center of the volumetrics kerbin1.png should be barely visible and completely replaced by the detail texture and the volumetrics clouds. Despite that the fading effect is close to perfection but maybe too short in distance for my taste. Could it be increased?

[rbray89]

Rbray, is there a way to fade more kerbin1.png in the areas where volumetrics are generated? The "open hole" effect is too evident immo, and the too obvious horizontal texture in that zone spoil the volumetric effect. Maybe the volumetrics and the fading with that texture should work like the detail blending? I mean, as you approximate to the clouds and in the center of the volumetrics kerbin1.png should be barely visible and completely replaced by the detail texture and the volumetrics clouds. Despite that the fading effect is close to perfection but maybe too short in distance for my taste. Could it be increased?

I'll expose it as a config item in the next release. IIRC I already added it into the shader, just never exposed it.

[rbray89]

I really want to like the update with the volumetric clouds. Really, I do. But... it's looking kind of funky. All the clouds are screaming by at hurricane speeds. Launch a rocket, and the clouds move faster than the rocket as it climbs. Once in low Kerbin orbit, the clouds are clashing with city lights in a kind of jittering fashion that somewhat resembles z-fighting.

I think the volumetric clouds would look amazing if they would just move about a hundred times slower, or even hold completely still.

Yeah, I have to re-do the speed at which the clouds move. In the meantime, you can change them in the BoulderCo/Clouds/cloudLayers.cfg file or the GUI (alt+N)

[FenrirWolf]

I've been getting more gobbledygook than I remember out of city lights. I know they've never been quite perfect but they seem to have far more visual artifacts than I remember. I adjusted the levels so its easier to see. The lights clip into the ground, but that isn't what is off-putting, its the oscillations like they are changing altitude or position or something. Did the topography of Kerbin change? I updated everything so it shouldn't be out of date, but still, is this working correctly?

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n48/Hyomoto/screenshot745_zpsf2d4c4fa.png~original

Been getting this issue as well. It's a relatively minor annoyance though, the clouds make it all worthwhile

[rbray89]

Been getting this issue as well. It's a relatively minor annoyance though, the clouds make it all worthwhile

Yeah I think I may have a way around this. We'll see...

[Kerboman]

The only thing this mod needs now is weather...

Having occasional rainstorms and the like on Kerbin would be truly amazing.

[aval5]

you know what we need? weather like rain (or for awesomeness from space, thunderstorms!)

[sidfu]

kerboman and aval before that we need 64bit or u wouldnt bealbe to have many mods and weather

[White Owl]

Yeah, I have to re-do the speed at which the clouds move. In the meantime, you can change them in the BoulderCo/Clouds/cloudLayers.cfg file or the GUI (alt+N)

Thanks for the tip! I slowed them way down, and they definitely look good that way.

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

Blown away by the new clouds () aerobatics through the clouds is a revalation, , Please dont make it rain... I'm english and I hate rain, keep up the beyond good work, cant wait to see what comes next, Cheers