[REL] Thomsen's Water V4.0 (10/12/2008) - The Pool results go live - NEW VERSION!!!
 

Let me say this again...

THIS MOD IS A TWEAK FOR OLCE2.
YOU NEED TO DOWNLOAD OLCE2, ENABLE IT, AND THEN ENABLE MY MOD ON TOP OF IT.
DONT WORRY ABOUT JSGME WHINNING ABOUT COMPATIBILITIE ISSUES, THATS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!


Hello everyone.

I think, and most people here agree, that OLCE2 is a must-have. I'm playing with it since it's first release.
But at the same time, since it's first release I'm making a little modifications on top of it, related to water.
I don't like the way that the water looks and feels. I agree with OLC that this is a question of taste.
Some of you will prefer this water, some of you will not.
Either way, I'm releasing it, cos I do know half a dozen people here that would love to use it.
I was going to make a whole environment mod, but I'll not anymore. It's way to complicated, it messes with sensors,
and besides I'm pretty happy with OLC's work.
So I'm releasing a mod that will only work ON TOP OF OLCE2.
That's right. You need to install the latest version of OLCE2 first.
I've made only changes in the waves, so this is almost the same as OLCE2.


Here's some pictures:


http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/977/90018493km1.jpg
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/2933/12832871ix5.jpg


This is not only an environment mod. This mod also changes the gameplay.

The wave sizes in stock sh3, or gwx, are way bigger than in the real life. You often see a ship sailing between two waves, the big waves makes the sailing behavior a joke and gives the feeling that the ships are really small, like plastic ships in a bathub.

And why is that?

Simple. The smaller the waves, the more waves need to be created to fill the same space. And the more waves on the screen, the more your CPU have to work to control each wave's movement, and more your VIDEOCARD have to work to render each wave and it's movement, dozens times per second. So, to make the waves as small as they are in real life, you would need to have a computer far too expensive for your pocket.

In this mod I've tryed a middle-ground, from stock and gwx to real-life water. So you'll have something more realistic, but not 100% realistic. Just a step closer.

With those smaller waves, things are a little different in gameplay:

- The ships are steadier now, they sail like big icebergs, without all that pitch and roll you're used to, which by the way is awful. You just can't have a 10 thousand tons ship bouncing up, down, left and right like that, it's just not acceptable. Sometimes you see a ship bouncing up and down on the water in terms of 8 or 10 meters, how are you supposed to aim a torpedo below it to explode magneticly?

- The ships looks bigger now, coz when you look at a ship, your brain takes whatever is closed to that ship to create a mental idea of the size of the ship, and normally the water is the closest to the ship, so the brain takes the size of the waves in comparison to the size of the ship and gives you the mental projection of the size, weight and feeling of what you're seeing thru binoculars or periscope. And everybody here knows real-life waves, thru movies or real experience. So when your brain see those big waves, the ship's sizes diminish drasticly, which is not forgiveble when it comes to a naval simulation.

Now, of course, the mod has it's eye-candy part too. I've always find the water in sh3 not acceptable. It never gave me the feeling of wet, the feeling of sailing on water. And if you stop to think, you're 100% of the time ON THE WATER! After all, it's a naval simulator. Some people might not think as me, as for they something must be more important, like the look of the officer's hats, or the color of the ship icon on the nav map. But that's what makes this community complete and amazing!

For the eye-candy part, the following:

- The water have a wet-feeling now. It's more reflective. It's hard to explain why, just download the part 1 video in my FileFront account (by clicking on my signature) and you'll see and understand what I mean.

- The water is transparent now. Not that you'll be able to see the uboat underwater, as I don't think this is possible in sh3. But you'll be able to see thru a small wave, when the water jumps.


Also, notice that this mod requires a much better system than SH3 or GWX. I don't have the minimal requirements yet, but you sure need to excess the recomended sh3 settings by 100%, at least. I had to trade my system to a brand new one so I could finally finish modding this. I'm having 70-90 fps with this mod, and my specs are:

C2D E4700 @2.6ghz
4 GB DDR2 800mhz dual-channel
Geforce 9600gt XFX 512mb

As for reporting, PLEASE, report the frame-rate you're getting, and what's your system. To enable FPS counter in sh3, just press CTRL+F8.


It's avaliable in FF page, by clicking on my signature. :up:

i love it, it looks great.:D

lol... :rotfl:

You love what? You didn't even had the time to download any of those videos!!!

Anyhow... thanks! You must be a fan! :up:

:arrgh!: Ive watched all the vedios.:D I dont like the stock wave effects, I went to the local boat ramp and looked at the waves (just had a tropical storm) the waves were three+ feet tall and looked alot how the waves in your vedio looked.;)

What can I say...

Its been released.:lol:

Wow. I have downloaded all three videos and watched them multiple times. I have to admit that it is definitely a huge improvement to GWX2.1 water. I have been switching between playing SH3 and SH4 lately and still consider SH3 superior to SH4 (as far as simulation and immersment in the game goes). I just wish the SH3 was running same graphic engine as SH4.
Anyway, what you did in this mod is probably as close as SH4 water as it gets!
Thompsen, you have done a hell of the job!:rock:
Already subscribed to this thread. When are you gonna release it?

Are there any known issues with other mods?

very good idea. i would like to test it. will this only be compatible to gwx or will there be a stock version, too?

Impressive! a big improvement.


Thomsen:

Is it possible to import new wave models into SH3?

I can provide loopable, animated wave meshes that can be made into seamless
grids if that is any use to anyone.

Well I watched the first video, you certainly have my attention, looks great Philipp!:up:

D/L'ed #'s 1&3.
I found #3 most interesting & thought the calmness of #1 a possible advantage to DD & DE's. Where as medium+ seas gives the sub better escape avenues. And so naturaly then I don't favor calm seas for attacks. I would add that it seems gunnery action might be easier to accomplish.
The visual effects are nice and all, please don't get me wrong. But I am thinking as to the changes this would make to gameplay.
Good luck with your work.

Game play can be changed to match the new water.

In my humble opinion, what us, modders, should do, is to get as close as possible from realism, and fix the "gameplay" according to the new parameters.

The alternative is to don't mess with the game to save the gameplay, but that way we are going nowhere fast.

Grids are the thing I hate the most in sh3 seas. To make it realistic, you have to make small waves, and small waves looking from distance looks freaking ridiculous. You can spot the grid moving together, same animation.

I tried the best to avoyd the grip appearance, but still you can see it if you seach for. I tried everything. Tried different numbers of horizontal lines and vertical lines, but the grid only changes its arrangement, you still can see the infinite lines. I even tried PRIME NUMBERS, like 7 and 13, hoping the grid to disappear, but still no luck. The arrangement changes a bit, but it's still there, in your face, driving me nuts. If I could just define the game to simulate grid's movements in turns, like odds and pairs or something, we could maybe fix it, or at least turn it into a more imperceptible sh!t.

At least, for my confort, the grid is almost invisible looking from the cameras attached to the uboat, like the deckgun or the conning tower. You would have to use the external camera to see the grid, so that's not a big spot of bother.

What do you people think about the sun halo on those videos? Looking ugly yet, right? Where's OLC when I need him... :hmm:

Already replied to your PM about that mate, but you never got back to me with the info I need to help you fix it...

Will have a look :yep:


RDP