Improve KSP sense of scale with this one simple trick

[Algiark]

Take a close look at both of these images:

What's the difference?

If you look at the KSP screenshot, the color of distant objects are basically the same as if you would view them up close. Yet in the below screenshot, distant objects has bluer color and fades away as well. I don't know the technical term for it, but normally as an object gets farther from the viewer, its color fades and become more blended with the color of the environment. Why hasn't KSP incorporated this effect yet? And more to the point, is this possible with an add-on?

[el_coyoto]

Yup, it's called "atmospheric scattering" and its does improve the feeling of depth in a scene a lot.

Although I'm not sure how expensive computationally it is (it's been a loooooong time I haven't coded graphics and shader stuff) nor how well Unity supports it.

I guess we'll have to wait for the guys who did graphics addon for KSP (cloud mod, etc.) to give their 2 cents.

[eRe4s3r]

The gfx term is distance "haze" (or just fog) ;P Most games use it to limit view-range (actually, something KSP could do with as well, to hide the ugly pop-up of terrain features to some extend and to prevent z-clipping over large distances when you fly very high)

Haze is in essence just volumetric fog. With some different color variations so as to produce proper night/day scenes. You can tell KSP currently has a problem with this by the way, because the horizon is near complete white with a very hard contrast border... exactly because there is no "Haze" to visually transition between ground and horizon.

It is one of these things that are definitely "graphical fluff" but would add a lot to the scale and mood. It should be an option, but it should be there.

I am actually surprised we have volumetric clouds before we have haze (via mods)

Ps.: Distance haze is computational dead simple, it's a simple fog volume centered on camera with distance effector applied. Now for proper effect you obviously need to do this via a shaders and not whatever Unity uses natively for fog. But it would be easy to do, and performance.. would be better than without. Because at the border of 100% blend over at the horizon you can stop rendering terrain without anyone ever noticing it.

It's however dependent on height as well. Basically, you need various haze shaders, one for low ground (below clouds) 1 for above clouds, and probably a check whether you are in space, so as to disable it. So maybe it's not dead simple ;p

In most games, aside from view distance "hack" haze is used to transition the visual border of ground to sky, pretty standard thing in most games.

Edited October 9, 2014 by eRe4s3r

[ratchet freak]

it's a simple addition in the fragment shader (aka pixel shader)

just add a blueish tint based on the depth of the pixel

[blizzy78]

Aside from all the fog, the difference I see in the pictures is lack of detail on KSP's side. Just compare the sheer number of objects in both pictures - which one does look more realistic?

Also, post #2222.

[eRe4s3r]

If you get into space it doesn't get prettier despite there being no details, we are missing HDR renderer, color mapping and exposure control Without that, "realistic" space can never be rendered. For example we shouldn't see stars while standing on the sunlit sight of the mun. And stuff like that. And just writing that I see your signature, and have a new mod I want to use and install

It's true that the ground detail level (especially the run-way and the way it's implemented) do not really serve to make KSP look pretty when starting a spy plane but it's also the shadows, the colors and lack of various other features (like dust/debris/godrays/leafs/birds/weather).

Overall I wonder what the volumetric cloud mod can do regarding haze? It would be complementing the clouds immensely...

Ps.: Spy plane? What? I meant space plane

Edited October 9, 2014 by eRe4s3r

[Proot]

KSPRC try to fake some similar effect via EVE. But yet I'm developing better results.

[eRe4s3r]

KSPRC is a good start, but it lacks 2 major graphical features Haze and DOF to be more exact, atmospheric scattering blurs the horizon. This requires a Depth of Field function and an additive haze blend that takes sky color into account.

Photoshop Mockup

Ps.: Also, why does KSP not have Bloom?

Edited October 9, 2014 by eRe4s3r

[The-Bean]

rbray89 was working on this in his mod a while back. This is how it looked at the time: http://i.imgur.com/CvemXUB.jpg

I'm unsure if any progress has been made so it's best to check/ask in the thread:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55905-0-24-7-4-Sep-9-2014-EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements

[eRe4s3r]

It would be really something if EVE looked like that screenshot I really dislike the cloud artifacts (near the horizon) when you view clouds from above, so I never used EVE much in 0.24 ....

For reference, this is how "reality" looks

http://flyerdavid.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sam_5616.jpg

Notice, haze, DOF, colors

[Starstrider42]

AFAIK Better Atmospheres has already done this.

[NathanKell]

KSP *does* actually do some of this. Really far away things do get blued.

[eRe4s3r]

I think the point of OP was to illustrate that more could be done, with what is already there and with new shaders, to improve atmospheric rendering... Haze, DOF, Bloom... all those things ,)

Or if you want to get fancy, DX10/11 shaders, volumetric particles, dynamic simulation of fire and smoke, HDR rendering, exposure control and color mapping etc. Or how about a realistic solar flare

KSP could look like a AAA title with a simple shader overhaul. (and, a working DX10/11 render path)

Edited October 9, 2014 by eRe4s3r

[NathanKell]

KSP is not going to look like a AAA title without quite a lot more work than just a shader patch.

And I am not saying it wouldn't be great, just that KSP already does something a bit like this, which means it's tweakable.

[CaptRobau]

rbray89 was working on this in his mod a while back. This is how it looked at the time: http://i.imgur.com/CvemXUB.jpg

I'm unsure if any progress has been made so it's best to check/ask in the thread:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55905-0-24-7-4-Sep-9-2014-EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements

That's so awesome. Really adds to the scale and adds a bit of mystery. I feel that I want to explore it more than I did when it was unhazy.

[Sandworm]

One common complaint from astronauts, especially those on the moon, was that space really distorts one's sense of distance. The lack of atmospheric effects makes things look much closer/smaller than they actually are. Pilots suffer similar effects at night. Things like lights on other aircraft look much closer due to the, proportional, lack of atmosphere. So KSP may be the more realistic option for a space sim.

Games like GTA, imho, exaggerate atmospheric effects to make their worlds seem larger than they actually are. Some even use then to hide poor draw distances (see Superman 1999). And I have yet to see a game that applied such effects to a three dimensional atmosphere such that vertically distant objects (Mun) were not as distorted as nearby objects (mountains).

[nli2work]

Unity's post effect shaders are already loaded in KSP; should be accessable by mods. There was a cinematic mod IIRC that did some post effects like chromatic abberation; grain; vignetting.

atmospheric haze is a global setting for unity project, should be able to manipulate it by plugin as well

[pingopete]

Rbray is working on a new overhaul that includes this effect, it's not complete but it adds haze to the terrain shader he's also implementing based on pixel distance to POV. It's incredibly effective even in its early stages. Here's some screen of it in on RSS:

I've also suggested he includes colour ramps, although that could be difficult to implement. Here's the effect in GoogleEarth (with the experimental photoreal atmosphere option on if you didn't know about it)

EDIT: sorry just realised this was mentioned on first page.. and that I kinda photo nuked the page

Edited November 3, 2014 by pingopete

[rbray89]

So far the effect in the EVE overhaul is in it's infancy, and requires that I replace almost all of KSP's existing shaders with those that have the "RenderType" tag in them. It uses the depth buffer, geometry, and some math to create a color overlay. I have a couple ideas on how to improve the effect, but still need to actually get some time to work on the features.