New volumetric clouds P3D v5.4

[Ray Proudfoot 8,964]

Will those who reply to a post not quote the whole thing including images. It’s extremely lazy and irrelevant especially when you post such a short comment.

Swipe across relevant text and use Quote Selection.

[charliearon 3,025]

3 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Will those who reply to a post not quote the whole thing including images. It’s extremely lazy and irrelevant especially when you post such a short comment.

Swipe across relevant text and use Quote Selection.

And please limit the screenshots to no more than 2 to show progress on your improvements or problems.  A lot of members
use a phone to scroll through the forums and it takes a long time for those shots to appear.

If this is not adhered to, your posts will be removed!

[shermank 170]

As noted above, I was using the new shader set before clearing out TOGA SHADERS.

 

Similar image after TOGA SHADERS were cleared. This flight was on approach to KGNT with light overcast clouds according to ACTIVE SKY and ACTIVE SKY CLOUD ART

https://imgur.com/a/rYITxfD

 

Sherm

 

 

 

Edited March 25 by shermank
change photo art

[Alexandre Blumberg 24]

19 hours ago, shermank said:

As noted above, I was using the new shader set before clearing out TOGA SHADERS.

Similar image after TOGA SHADERS were cleared. This flight was on approach to KGNT with light overcast clouds according to ACTIVE SKY and ACTIVE SKY CLOUD ART

https://imgur.com/a/rYITxfD

Sherm

The first image look better, the clouds and colors. The second almost the same, but your plane was under the shadow of a cloud, or toga shaders makes it more bright?

I am working on some errors pointed here before in shader compilation, I get rid of them and soon I call for a new version.

[shermank 170]

I agree the first shot looks better, but that might be because of weather changes. The two pictures are not in the exact same position, which also could account for the difference.

again, I am sure I speak for the Community with a grateful thank you for your work improving  P3D…

 

sherm

[Rogen 1,092]

On 3/25/2024 at 11:23 PM, Alexandre Blumberg said:

@Rogen, great effort too,

My goal is make the simulator a little better and involve the community in this effort. Sorry about the errors, actually I didn't check that in my system (content error is off), but if you can share the corrections that you made and make it better, all is good and thank you for that. I looking forward to view your corrections.

Regarding the clouds, I noticed that you need to restart the simulator a couple of times, to get the shaders correctly compiled in shader cache, after that the clouds get more volume and became nice and natural. Your P3D 4.3 is very good too.

Nice Regards

Hi @Alexandre Blumberg,

Yeah sure I'll send you the changes I've made, just PM me your email address and I'll zip and send.

List of changes in the spoiler below.

Spoiler

TBM 27/03/2024
===============================================================================

Reference AVSIM & LM Forum thread URLs
==========================================

Alexandre Blumberg's TrueSky configuration:
https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/643384-new-volumetric-clouds-p3d-v54

Ozone Shader mods discussions:
https://prepar3dsimulation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=144145&sid=a22c538b54522f11ca5bd91e773ec875&start=45
https://prepar3dsimulation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=144145&sid=a22c538b54522f11ca5bd91e773ec875&start=120

Dark Cockpit:
https://www.prepar3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=242877#p242877

Non-EA Haze management:
https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/628335-haze-intensity-fix-for-p3dv53-hf2-non-ea/

 

Files List
===============================================================================
Cloud.fx
DeferredComposite.fx
FuncLibrary.fxh
PrecipParticle.fx
HDR.hlsl (located in ShadersHLSL\PostProcess)
VolumetricClouds.cfg

ShadersHLSL
===============================================================================

 

Cloud.fx
==========================================

Replace all TAB charactors with 4 spaces.

//TBM 25/03/2024 shadow darkness, default value 0.5, return float2(1.0f-cColor.a * 0.8,In.z);

#if defined(SHD_VIEW_SHADOW)
float2 PS(GS_OUTPUT In): SV_TARGET
{
    const CloudMaterialInstanceData cloudMaterial = sb_Materials[In.uMaterialIndex];
    float4 cColor = txBindless(cloudMaterial.uBaseTextureID).Sample( samWrap, In.uv );
    return float2(1.0f-cColor.a * 0.8,In.z);

==========================================

 

DeferredComposite.fx
==========================================
Replace all TAB charactors with 4 spaces.

            const float3 filter = (0.5, 0.75, 0.5);
            clouds.rgb = saturate(lerp((RGBToLuma(clouds) / RGBToLuma(filter)) * filter, clouds.rgb, lerp(1.2, 0.48, EATwilightInterpolate())));

with
            static const float3 filter = float3(0.5, 0.75, 0.5);
            clouds.rgb = saturate(lerp((RGBToLuma(clouds.rgb) / RGBToLuma(filter)) * filter, clouds.rgb, lerp(1.2, 0.48, EATwilightInterpolate())));

to resolve errors like example below.

Shader compilation failed - Error Msg: [name of shader] warning X3081: comma expression used where a vector constructor may have been intended

==========================================

 

FuncLibrary.fxh
==========================================
Replace all TAB charactors with 4 spaces.

Following lines updated as below:
Line 508:    static const float3 filter = float3(0.5, 0.7, 0.5);
Line 515:    static const float3 EAtd_sky_filter = float3(0.55, 0.60, 0.50);
Line 515:    const float inScattering = lerp(1.0, 0.15, pow(abs(cb_mDayNightInterpolant), 0.80));
Line 605:    const float haze_scalar = 0.65f; //recommend values of 0.65 to 0.85 to manage non-ea haze levels. Higher values increase haze. Default 0.8f

==========================================

 

PrecipParticle.fx
==========================================
    // TBM 26/03/2023 change the calculated value for a smaller looking rain/snow effect.
    float height = precipMaterial.fQuadSize * precipMaterial.fQuadSizeHeightScale / (2.4 - (cb_uPrecipType * 1.65));
    float width = precipMaterial.fQuadSize * precipMaterial.fQuadSizeWidthScale / (1.0 - (cb_uPrecipType * 0.25));

    // Original lines.
    //float height = precipMaterial.fQuadSize * precipMaterial.fQuadSizeHeightScale;
    //float width = precipMaterial.fQuadSize * precipMaterial.fQuadSizeWidthScale;

==========================================

 

ShadersHLSL\PostProcess
===============================================================================

HDR.hlsl
==========================================
Add uncharted2 tonemap to expand contrast with the effect of making cockpits less dark (as well as everything else).

// TBM 25/03/2024  uncharted2 tonemap. Uncomment/comment the definition below to enable/disable.
#define SHD_CUSTOM_TONEMAP
float3 CustomToneMap(float3 color)
{
    color.r = EvaluateCustomToneMapCurve(color.r);
    color.g = EvaluateCustomToneMapCurve(color.g);
    color.b = EvaluateCustomToneMapCurve(color.b);
    return color;
}

float3 Uncharted2Curve(float3 color)
{
    const float shoulder_strength = 0.22;
    const float linear_strength = 0.30;
    const float linear_angle = 0.10;
    const float toe_strength = 0.20;
    const float toe_numerator = 0.01;
    const float toe_denominator = 0.30;

    return (((color * ((shoulder_strength * color) + (linear_angle * linear_strength))) + (toe_strength * toe_numerator)) / ((color * ((shoulder_strength * color) + linear_strength)) + (toe_strength * toe_denominator))) - (toe_numerator / toe_denominator);
}

float3 ToneMap(float3 color)
{
#if defined(SHD_CUSTOM_TONEMAP)
    const float exposure_bias = 2.0;
    const float white_point = 11.2;
    return saturate(Uncharted2Curve(color * exposure_bias) / Uncharted2Curve(float3(white_point, white_point, white_point)));
#else
    return ACESToneMap(color);
#endif
}

==========================================

VolumetricClouds.cfg
==========================================
no changes.

==========================================

===============================================================================
END:

I also made a few changes outside of those files, being in Cloud.fx and PrecipParticle.fx.

And in HDR.hlsl I implemented the uncharted2 tonemap, which was a little tricky due to the following code.

#if(QUAD_RENDER_SHADER_FLAGS & SHD_FLAGS_MISC_2)
#define SHD_CUSTOM_TONEMAP
#endif

From my testing I don't see how "#define SHD_CUSTOM_TONEMAP" is conditionally set.

Also in my testing I couldn't see #define SHD_CUSTOM_TONEMAP ever being enabled, so as a workaround I just defined it directly at the level of the uncharted2 tonemap where a manual comment/uncomment will enable either ACES or UNCHARTED2, noting uncharted2 makes a big overall difference. If you have any ideas yourself ?

HDR.hlsl with ACES enabled

HDR.hlsl with UNCHARTED2 enabled

Cheers

[Rogen 1,092]

On 3/26/2024 at 4:21 AM, charliearon said:

And please limit the screenshots to no more than 2 to show progress on your improvements or problems.  A lot of members
use a phone to scroll through the forums and it takes a long time for those shots to appear.

If this is not adhered to, your posts will be removed!

How about a separate P3D screenshot/video forum i.e. a media forum under the P3D Forums heading  (and same for XPlane and other sims under their own headings) ?

That way posting pics and vids don't have to go in what is essentually the MSFS screenshot forum...

Times change, personally I'm about to update my phone and internet to 5G, better than the internet options otherwise available and cheaper too.

And yes I've seen many posts disappear, some times right in front of my eyes including what seem to be innocuous postings, but hey when you have absolute power...

Anyway these are my thoughts as a member.

[shermank 170]

I agree with Rogen. Frankly, wading through post after post about MSFS or Xplane is a waste of time. Each of the platforms should have their own forums, for comment, screenshots, etc. I hope the admins at Avsim will consider this adaptation.

Sherm

[ywg256 75]

I agree. The screenshots forum is almost all MSFS. There are some really nice screenshots but I prefer seeing the P3D stuff. It's mostly why I joined both the V5 and V6 facebook groups..Some of the stuff being posted on their is really great to see.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,964]

There is a subforum for letters to AvSim if you want to formalise the request.

https://www.avsim.com/forums/forum/118-letters-to-the-editorial-staff-of-avsim/

 

[shermank 170]

On 3/29/2024 at 5:12 PM, Ray Proudfoot said:

There is a subforum for letters to AvSim if you want to formalise the request.

https://www.avsim.com/forums/forum/118-letters-to-the-editorial-staff-of-avsim/

Sherm

 

It looks as if this has already been asked and answered...bottom line, suggestions not adopted.

 

[dave2013 1,130]

Frankly, I wouldn't allow any embedded screenshots in the forum, unless one or two are necessary to point out a problem or clarify a question or answer.  They eat up hard disk space unnecessarily.

If people want to post pretty pictures of their sim, which some here do in a prolific way, they can upload them to other sites and simply include a link to them in their post.

Dave

[Rogen 1,092]

On 3/30/2024 at 9:12 AM, Ray Proudfoot said:

There is a subforum for letters to AvSim if you want to formalise the request.

https://www.avsim.com/forums/forum/118-letters-to-the-editorial-staff-of-avsim/

 

I don't see an official reponse past the reply of "Possibly some of your suggestion may be discussed at future Board Meetings."

But given that was over a year ago I assume the modest proposal was not progressed any further than the response in the thread ?

I guess placing my faith in corporate boards is not yet validated.

Cheers

Edited April 1 by Rogen

[Rogen 1,092]

12 hours ago, dave2013 said:

Frankly, I wouldn't allow any embedded screenshots in the forum, unless one or two are necessary to point out a problem or clarify a question or answer.  They eat up hard disk space unnecessarily.

I actually host all my pics on Steam.

And I also have my browsers set to clear their cache on close.

No website disk space usage problems at all.

My suggestion was for a separate P3D only media forum that can be easily browsed and linked.

Cheers

[Alexandre Blumberg 24]

After some days of testing new colour, dealing with small shaders errors. I would update the file and share with community. New HDR option (thanks to Rogen)  based on ACES tonemap or you can use new tonemap adapted from P3Dv6, just comment, uncomment the line 148 in HDR.hlsl to enable or disable that specific option. Clouds have been improved and continue working.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w2eYeEtwFjMR1bWXSt6_BOGZw08Ak2zM/view?usp=drive_link