Bloom Plugin!!!

[Guest weeniemcween]

So, I was perusing the IL-2 Sturmovik forums and I came upon this bloom/etc plugin (i don't think it's actually HDR) people are using with various games, developed by some Russian programmer. http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=3121&page=2From there I navigated to a linked Lock On thread, where someone posted the directx 9 version of the plugin.http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=29752&page=14pluginhttp://forums.eagle.ru/attachment.php?atta...18&d=1208563162Long story short, it works in FS2004 AND FSX!!!before, fs2004http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/3557/beforedm5.jpgafter, fs2004http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/716/afterus2.jpgbefore, fsxhttp://img145.imageshack.us/img145/6333/before2ms1.jpgafter, fsxhttp://img145.imageshack.us/img145/6267/after2uz8.jpgThe best part is, negligible performance hit with a recent card with just bloom on. Also it's a fully customizable effect. The default bloom is too much during the day and general brightness too dark at night-and I like a slightly brighter day-so here are some of my settings which differ from the download:parentheses are heading brackets (BLOOM)BloomPowerDay=7BloomConstantNight=2(COLORCORRECTION)DarkeningAmountDay=-5DarkeningAmountNight=0

[Guest weeniemcween]

The instructions are in the readme. You just copy the contents into the root folder of either fs9 or fsx (does not overwrite anything). Then when playing, you press shift-f12 to turn it off and on.The settings are in an ini file.Very simple and noninvasive.I have no idea whether it works in fsx directx 10 mode, however.IMPORTANT, or it will eat up framesIn enbseries.ini under EFFECT turn off everything except EnableBloomSo make last five =0EnableBloom=1EnableOcclusion=1EnableReflection=1EnableMotionBlur=1EnableWater=1EnableShadow=1

[Guest dswo]

I tried this with the settings recommended here. Some comparison screenshots: http://picasaweb.google.com/dokwok/BloomPluginInFSX. For easy viewing, click "Slideshow" after the page loads.Impression: What FSX would look like on the Hallmark Channel.I'm nervous -- will it make FSX less stable? use too much video RAM? -- so I disabled it after testing. But it does work, and it's not hard to install. DIdn't do enough testing to determine impact on FPS.Hardware: E6600 2.4, 4 Gb RAM, Nvidia 8800GT (512Mb).Other add-ons used in these screenshots: FEX, Flight Replicas Me-109G, German Airfields 3 (at EDHG, Lueneberg), ActiveSky 6.5.

[Guest Nils79]

Thanks for the hint, i will try it.Does Motion Blur also works? That could be very cool for racing :)

[Guest Nick_N]

Massive resource hit (no matter how it is set up)Video memory use goes through the roofcontrol of the plugin is limited and the visual result is not appealing or reflective of realistic lighting (no pun intended)You could do better by adjusting your monitor settings in the video drivers... contrast/brightness and gammaNO shader tweak is going to come cost free... if you enable shaders passes it MUST come with a cost

[MeatWater 2]

Sorry , but that simply isn't the case. Using following settings I get NO Framerate hit at all and it looks very well.[EFFECT]EnableBloom=1EnableOcclusion=0EnableReflection=0EnableMotionBlur=0EnableWater=0EnableShadow=0DepthBias=0[bLOOM]BloomPowerDay=5BloomFadeTime=2000BloomConstantDay=1BloomQuality=0BloomScreenLevelDay=60BloomCurveDay=0BloomPowerNight=25BloomConstantNight=2BloomCurveNight=0BloomScreenLevelNight=20BloomAdaptationScreenLevel=80BloomAdaptationMultiplier=10BloomAllowOversaturation=1[colorCORRECTION]DarkeningAmountDay=5ScreenLevelDay=60ScreenLevelNight=20DarkeningAmountNight=0GammaCurveDay=0GammaCurveNight=2ColorSaturationDay=0ColorSaturationNight=0UsePaletteTexture=0 -------------------MeatWater

[Guest Nick_N]

Are you running 8xS AA by any chance? or are you allowing the sim to control AA and AF?tested this with heavy weather running at the same time with 8xS AA?I refuse to set the drivers/FSX up any other way than what I run normally which produces a perfect result just to run something like this. I find the lighting changes are not realistic, at alland yes I did set the .ini file up as listed aboveI have also monitored the card/system resource use and it does impact VC memoryAre you running a Nv 8000 adapter?Video adapters and the drivers being used will also affect results. Not everyone will see the same thingI read the instructions and they were quite clear that high AA will impact performance with this mod.As mentioned, I wont change my driver settings to use something that not only makes lighing much less realistic (too bright in heavy weather no matter how it is set) it impacts resources and true performanceI did however find that setting frame lock to UNLIMITED reduced and nearly eliminated the stutters created by the resouce hit from the change. When locked at 30 the frame rate ran on average too low for smooth flight at the scenery settings I run.

[barryward12345 0]

I am afraid to say that, from the screenshots postd, I can't see anything that would meke me excited regardless of impact on framerates. Those shots just look to me like the screen brightness has been increased.I don't get it at all.Barry

[Guest Nick_N]

Thats what I mean... you can adjust your monitor GAMMA and get similar results and no hit at all

[Guest Nils79]

It's a little bit more but i wouldn't use it everytime.For me, it's more a 'fun' thing.BTW, any news about FSWC? And many thanks for your Sun-Fix!

[Guest Nick_N]

This mod will work differently for different people based on how they run their sim and what card/driver they use. With my system everything appears too color dodged and the gamma is way off, and, its hits my system because of the AA I run.FSWC is being dev'd by Ashton Lawson and Paul Wheeler The website is up now http://fswaterconfigurator.com/Ashon or Paul would be better suited to comment on where its at in releaseI am neck deep in GEXn Europe right now.You can see a few quickie rural sneak peek screenshots here: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/Ya...=1208470733/0#4

[Guest weeniemcween]

But maybe you just don't like bloom effects in general? It's quite akin to what you see in many games, although such an effect is always a compromise for a computer monitor.Of course no real effect comes free, that's why I said "recent card" which means sizeable vram. But many people with such cards have extra vram not being used by fsx (yet which obviously uses more than fs9, so that's something to think about). And on a recent card, running 8s aa in fsx (but not fs2004) gives a noticeable performance hit in heavy weather anyway, unless maybe you have two cards running sli i don't know. It is definitely not just like adjusting the settings on your monitor. It's real bloom.Point is, it's very customizable and can be turned on and off with a keystroke (for example in a weather situation) or installed/uninstalled in two seconds. While the screenshots I posted above are not subtle as I was excited and trying to be clear about the effect, one can change that easily as Meatwater has done. And I think that it can be very realistic, as a real horizon often does appear oversaturated. For the vast majority of people running directx 9, this might be a better option than the standard framerate killing bloom box in fsx. It's also more noticeable most of the time. It definitely breathes new life into fs9 at least. I wouldn't recommend trying it if it weren't so simple and harmless. No hacking involved; it's just a plugin. NOTE: You can also alter the ini settings while fsx or fs9 is running and it will apply the changes.

[Guest Nick_N]

I can see how this may help FS9 because FS9 does not handle light, glare or reflection anything like FSXFor FSX I find it completely overbearing and unrealistic but then again, I am assessing that based on the hardware and drivers/settings I use. My monitor is also professionally calibrated so even small changes can have a very profound effect.Some will find this handy and like it, I'm sure :)And I do agree the default bloom is overbearing. They should have provided a slider for that. It would be worth it to me if someone came out with a way to access the default bloom and dial it back

[barryward12345 0]

I have just been playing around with this - and also the default bloom effect - using the "gathering storms" weather setting and early morning sun.Ever since I bought FSx , I have not used the bloom effect because it is said that it badly affects FPS. The first thing I noticed is that bloom has no effect at all on my system - clouds and autogen are the killers for me.But anyway - I can certainly see a difference between bloom/no bloom - but I am unable to even say which I prefer. Bit of a non-issue to me really , and probably introduces just one more thing that can go wrong.I am more interested in finding out why some of my a/c "dis-assemble" themsleves onscreen. -- ie they look like a 3d disassembled blowup, like you see with plastic a/c models (how to assemble diagrams) :-) Barry

[Guest weeniemcween]

Yeah if you don't like it that's cool. I don't consider myself egotistically invested in this, although I did want to emphasize that it is quite customizable and one can achieve results much more subtle than what I posted above. Well try just one more thing and see if you like it.Change BloomAllowOversaturation=1 to =0This will, as it indicates, get rid of the oversaturation.And increase/fiddle with BloomPowerDay and BloomConstantDay. For instance 10, and 2. You can do this while fsx is running if you don't have an alt-enter problem to begin with. If you make the levels super high the picture gets very foggy (which may be nice under the right conditions), but at the settings above it looks subtle and more like the fsx bloom box, but at much less cost.At the very least, this package shows that graphical dll plugins are possible for fs9 and fsx, something developers should examine if they aren't already doing so.