Brighter terrain, darker cloud shadows - DONE!

[Oliver Ooi 85]

With the new haze, distant mountain never look so good! Happy!

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Hate to rain on this parade but there are some real deal breakers here

 

1.) Trees are bright green - stick out like a sore thumb

2.) Buildings are all white - stick out like a sore thumb

3.) Has turned FTX Global textures from probably to green to brown - this was interesting actually looked more believable with some work

 

So long story short this looks to be very nice in day time at dusk and dawn its just wrong - I used provided 3 files - tried the alternatives and it was worse - well just my 2 cents - not using it - needs work but has potential

 

Went to Russian site and couldn't make heads or tales of it even though its translated it doesn't make any sense  

[GSalden 4,655]

Here I only use a bit darker cloud shadows.

No groundtexture edititing done as that will cause your trees and house issue .

 

Regarding the haze : I use ASN with Mult Vis Layers enabled + Vol Fog and I already have this kind of haze...

I was wrong thinking that Vol Fog would cause a framerate drop , as it is caused by the Mult Vis Layers from ASN. But as I want a working Max Upper Visibility I need the settings this way.

 

It's all about balance with those mods : a little too much making one thing look very nice might make something else look worse.

So make small mods and then test at dawn, day, dusk and night....

[KNOSSOS 122]

Manual tweaking of GPUTerrain.fx:

 

open [Prepar3D]\ShadersHLSL\GPUTerrain.fx.

 

on line 720:

 

const float3 sunAmbient = cb_mLights[sUN_LIGHT].mAmbient.xyz * 0.1;

 

Add * 0.1 at the end, just before ; The smaller the coefficient, the darker the shadows are. 0.1 worked for me. I've tried 0.5 also, it was good also, but I like darker shadows (more realistic).

 

line 1013, shed further light on the illuminated areas:

 

const float3 finalSunColor = (sunAmbient + saturate(sunDiffuse * (sunContrib * 1.8f * shadowContrib)));// + pointLightsDiffuse);

 

add * 1.8f, the more the brighter terrain should be, I didn't experimented with other values, 1.8f is just right in my case.

 

 

 

Hi! Thanks for testing these tweaks. Great work Pe11e! 

Some notes:

- const float3 finalSunColor = (sunAmbient + saturate(sunDiffuse * (sunContrib * 1.8f * shadowContrib)));// + pointLightsDiffuse); 

I'm not use this tweak in 3.2. This make autogen (buildings, trees) looks awful IMO- overlit like a sore thumb )

- const float3 sunAmbient = cb_mLights[sUN_LIGHT].mAmbient.xyz * 0.1;

 

if such low value (0.1) is used, terrain/clouds shadows become very deep and the other rendered objects on terrain become overlighted in shadow. 

Therefore it needs to turn on shadow receveing for autogen (buildings, trees).

And furthermore, the depth of shadow should be adequately coordinated for autogen.

It may be done by editing one more shader - General.fx  :wink:

            cDiffuse = cBase * (float4( saturate( 

                (cb_mLights[sUN_LIGHT].mAmbient.xyz*0.1 + (shadowContrib * (sunDiffuse * fDotSun))) + 

                (cb_mLights[MOON_LIGHT].mAmbient.xyz + (shadowContrib * (moonDiffuse * fDotMoon)))), 1) + cDiffuse);

 

But IMO 0.1 is extremely low value anyway. I prefer 0.75 for gputerran.fx and general.fx

Hope it helps.

[GSalden 4,655]

 

Hi! Thanks for testing these tweaks. Great work Pe11e! 

Some notes:

- const float3 finalSunColor = (sunAmbient + saturate(sunDiffuse * (sunContrib * 1.8f * shadowContrib)));// + pointLightsDiffuse); 

I'm not use this tweak in 3.2. This make autogen (buildings, trees) looks awful IMO- overlit like a sore thumb )

- const float3 sunAmbient = cb_mLights[sUN_LIGHT].mAmbient.xyz * 0.1;

 

if such low value (0.1) is used, terrain/clouds shadows become very deep and the other rendered objects on terrain become overlighted in shadow. 

Therefore it needs to turn on shadow receveing for autogen (buildings, trees).

And furthermore, the depth of shadow should be adequately coordinated for autogen.

It may be done by editing one more shader - General.fx  :wink:

            cDiffuse = cBase * (float4( saturate( 

                (cb_mLights[sUN_LIGHT].mAmbient.xyz*0.1 + (shadowContrib * (sunDiffuse * fDotSun))) + 

                (cb_mLights[MOON_LIGHT].mAmbient.xyz + (shadowContrib * (moonDiffuse * fDotMoon)))), 1) + cDiffuse);

 

But IMO 0.1 is extremely low value anyway. I prefer 0.75 for gputerran.fx and general.fx

Hope it helps.

 

 

The master himself appeared ... :smile:

Thanks for those tweaks...

 

Which tweakes would you suggest with P3D v3.2 ?

Any preferred values ?

 

Thanks

[A340Juri 1]

I ditched shade after some testing, it completely ruined that natural ambient occlusion like shadows that P3D has. I suggest you to ditch it laso, you can control the intensity of cockpit shadows with sky textures. For example REX sky textures have pretty pale shadow setting. One darn pixel in sky_noon.bmp controls the shadow color, and I changed it to my preference.

 

Can you tell which pixel excatly controls the cockpit shadows? I assume it would be "Ground/aircraft shadowing color" on this diagram?

 

 

 

Thanks for your help!

[GSalden 4,655]

In the beginning of this topic it is written :

 

const float 3 sunAmbient = cb_mLights [sUN_LIGHT] .mAmbient.xyz * 0.1   

 

 

while in the files it is written

 

 

const float 3 sunAmbient = cb_mLights [sUN_LIGHT] .mAmbient.xyz * 0.1f

 

I suppose the last one is correct ?

 

 

Is there a way to modify the haze as a standalone and what lines needs to be modified in the GPUTerrain.fx? 

[KNOSSOS 122]

The master himself appeared ...  :smile:

Thanks for those tweaks...

 

Which tweakes would you suggest with P3D v3.2 ?

Any preferred values ?

 

Thanks

 

I use Cloud.fx_alternative, HDR.hlsl  variants in Pe11e's pack

in GPUTerrain.fx variant use this modification:

const float3 sunAmbient = cb_mLights[sUN_LIGHT].mAmbient.xyz * 0.75;

instead of

const float3 sunAmbient = cb_mLights[sUN_LIGHT].mAmbient.xyz * 0.1;

and don't modify this line

const float3 finalSunColor = (sunAmbient + saturate(sunDiffuse * (sunContrib * 1.8f * shadowContrib)));// + pointLightsDiffuse);

 

Default sky textures, no Reshade, HDR is on (brightness = 1.10, bloom = 0.3, saturation=1.2), volumetric fog is on.

 

 

In the beginning of this topic it is written :

 

const float 3 sunAmbient = cb_mLights [sUN_LIGHT] .mAmbient.xyz * 0.1   

 

 

while in the files it is written

 

 

const float 3 sunAmbient = cb_mLights [sUN_LIGHT] .mAmbient.xyz * 0.1f

 

I suppose the last one is correct ?

 

 

Is there a way to modify the haze as a standalone and what lines needs to be modified in the GPUTerrain.fx? 

 

both strings are correct, no difference.

Too many lines need to be listed IMO, it's easier just to compare default and tweaked files to find differences.

[MindYerBeak 73]

I would like to use these tweaks but I don't want anything that could cause this: 

 

quote:

--------

 

1.) Trees are bright green - stick out like a sore thumb

2.) Buildings are all white - stick out like a sore thumb

3.) Has turned FTX Global textures from probably to green to brown

 

---------------

 

 

I'm only interested in the shadows and the haze but no "side effect". 

 

What do i do ?

 

 

Thanks

[Fi5kuS 57]

I must be doing something wrong. Clouds are very dark. Too dark during daytime. I also think ground shadows are extremely dark. However, for some reason, the ground shadows seems to follow my viewpoint as I pan around, either inside or outside the cockpit. So..

 

1. Are clouds supposed to be this dark? From the video it seemed as they changed accordingly during transitions from dark - light

 

2. Shadows following my viewpoint? Anyone else experiencing this? Maybe it has something to do with EZdok. From the pictures you can clearly see the border.

 

I am using the Realism Shader Pack v1

 

EDIT!

 

2. I solved the "square" or shadow border around me while panning by upping cloud shadows cast distance. Did not know this had such a high impact. Unfortunately it chews FPS as well.

 

 

 

 

[Cruachan 705]

Hi,

 

I wonder what the guys at ORBX and the GEX developers think about all this? Surely a great deal of time and effort was spent optimising their respective ground textures so that they are lit appropriately within the constraints imposed by the sim while using the sim's default shader file settings? What we are seeing now with these tweaks certainly looks impressive but is it, in fact, closer to reality? Jury's still out here.

 

Mike

[Pe11e 812]

I want to encourage people to give this a try. I just set it up on my system and upon initial impressions, it looks pretty good.

 

 

How do you edit the sky texture?

 

Also, do you know if it is possible to utilize a different two rows of pixels in the sky_noon_x.bmp to define the haze color? 

 

You can edit the sky texture either in Paint or Photoshop, it is a standard BMP file. The bottom two rows of pixels strictly defines haze color per my testing.

 

Hate to rain on this parade but there are some real deal breakers here

 

1.) Trees are bright green - stick out like a sore thumb

2.) Buildings are all white - stick out like a sore thumb

3.) Has turned FTX Global textures from probably to green to brown - this was interesting actually looked more believable with some work

 

So long story short this looks to be very nice in day time at dusk and dawn its just wrong - I used provided 3 files - tried the alternatives and it was worse - well just my 2 cents - not using it - needs work but has potential

 

Went to Russian site and couldn't make heads or tales of it even though its translated it doesn't make any sense  

 

To avoid sore thumb effect you must enable cast shadows on trees and buildings. But again that is a temporarysolution until I test the tweak that Knossos suggested here for autogen.

 

 

Hi! Thanks for testing these tweaks. Great work Pe11e! 

Some notes:

- const float3 finalSunColor = (sunAmbient + saturate(sunDiffuse * (sunContrib * 1.8f * shadowContrib)));// + pointLightsDiffuse); 

I'm not use this tweak in 3.2. This make autogen (buildings, trees) looks awful IMO- overlit like a sore thumb )

- const float3 sunAmbient = cb_mLights[sUN_LIGHT].mAmbient.xyz * 0.1;

 

if such low value (0.1) is used, terrain/clouds shadows become very deep and the other rendered objects on terrain become overlighted in shadow. 

Therefore it needs to turn on shadow receveing for autogen (buildings, trees).

And furthermore, the depth of shadow should be adequately coordinated for autogen.

It may be done by editing one more shader - General.fx  :wink:

            cDiffuse = cBase * (float4( saturate( 

                (cb_mLights[sUN_LIGHT].mAmbient.xyz*0.1 + (shadowContrib * (sunDiffuse * fDotSun))) + 

                (cb_mLights[MOON_LIGHT].mAmbient.xyz + (shadowContrib * (moonDiffuse * fDotMoon)))), 1) + cDiffuse);

 

But IMO 0.1 is extremely low value anyway. I prefer 0.75 for gputerran.fx and general.fx

Hope it helps.

 

 

Hey Knossos! Why thank me when you, I suppose, did all the terrain/shadow tweaks? If you did, thank you once again! I gave credit to you and Leo Grant in the readme file incuded in the pack.

Now, you think that above tweak in general.fx will fix overlit trees and buildings even with shadows cast option on? I can't test that now since I'm not home, but if it will fix that issue we have a winner!

 

Can you tell which pixel excatly controls the cockpit shadows? I assume it would be "Ground/aircraft shadowing color" on this diagram?

 

 

 

Thanks for your help!

 

I'm not sure, I think it is the third pixel from the left - "CLoud dark shadowing color". Must check that later today. If it is not third pixel, it is first from the left.

[Fi5kuS 57]

My GTX 970 struggles really bad when enabling terrain and cloud shadows.

 

I also need to keep cloud shadows on at least 20 000m in order to avoid this circle around me. 

[Pe11e 812]

I have GTX 960 and cloud shadows enabled at 80 000 does not affect fps on my machine. Terrain shadows do, I keep them enabled at 20 000 only for VFR slow and low flights.

[Fi5kuS 57]

I have GTX 960 and cloud shadows enabled at 80 000 does not affect fps on my machine. Terrain shadows do, I keep them enabled at 20 000 only for VFR slow and low flights.

 

Yes I figured out that I don't need terrain shadows. Cloud shadows enabled does not affect performance that much though.