[Rubini]

Hello dear mates,

First, excuse me by my bad english. Frequently is very difficult to me to explain in good and few words, in english, exactly what i should like to say. Anyhow, lets try to say it. By the above, this can be a bit long, sorry!

Seems that this wip/project/mod is bring some discussion what is always good for a good mod perspective. And is also very usefull for the modder. I can assure you that is more productive for the final work to have feedbacks, good or bad, than have any.

Like i said, since the first post here, the main contribution from this wip is that now we have a solid way to put ANY particle or amount of particles (in size, type, color, etc, etc) in the sh3 environment. This openned the door for a potencial new enhanced environment.

To start this discussion i should like to recall what was said on the readme about this first version: it is more a "foggy" env than real clouds and also that we cant expect a Sh5 type of clouds here. I also should like to mention about the "random" version that is inside the version 1.0 as optional. In this "random" version the foggy&fog&tiny clouds are not always there, but here and there, sometimes on, sometimes off, making the whole thing less previsible and more dynamic. And to finish, this mod is adjusted for my personal environment and could not fit well for others.

Below i will try to "reply" the 3 main questions/feedbacks that we had until now:

1. "I don´t like the "wall" fog effect all around, it´s so much near you"

- By sh3 engine limitation, the particles are generated in a restricted area around you at first - i guess that for 8km it is ok, but not for 16km env. Is always possible to put this "circle around you" here and there, changing it´s coordenates, but also with some limitations (not seen in the ship´s smoke, to note on). If we put them to much away, they will start to flick/glitch and also they will saw as a big fog ball (because they are much and big) - not really similar to a cloud or fog - or even will be just not visible at all (because they are almost white, the opposite of the ship´s smoke). Recently i tested my theory about LOD setting on scene.dat, but seems that it have not any effect, good or bad. Seeadler suggested to find a z-axis/z-buffer (or something like this) setting but I didn´t found anything similar on the particles system that could fix this "far distance" problem. For now, the unique way to avoid this "wall" fog is to have compact clouds, but it will also have the same "max. distance" limitations that was explained above.

2. "The fog/clouds are so much odd/weird at sunrise/sunset/dusk and eventually at might"

- In RL the clouds are also very dark when they are directly in front of the sun area, you can find a lot of pics of this effect on the net. The problem here is that the shape/opacity of the fog/clouds are yet worse in these situations. We can try with colors, opacity, size, density ... I can say that i have tried a lot to find a way to "fix" partially this odd color/opacity/shape problem at these sun light times, but i have not much hope that this can be fixed as we would like it. This is a wip area of the mod for sure.

3. "I don´t liked the colors/opacity at all" or "I don´t liked the shape/size of the clouds"

- This is more relevant for the guys that have tried the v2 beta, where we have a first try on the "compact" clouds.
- The colors and shadowing are very limited on the sh3´s particle system. If we acquire satisfactory colors for day ... humm ... well... they could be not that good at night or at lower sun light times. We will need a compromisse here.
- The same can be said about opacity and size of the particles. For example, to "yet" have "clouds" at optics zoom the particles needs to be small. But small particles gives not a good shape/color effect because is very difficult to adjust all them (the clouds goes quickly to a "ball" effect). Also small particles leads to a large number of particles per cloud what will kill frame rates.
- Shape is defined by the internal movement/velocity of the particles and/or layers of particles what isn´t that easy to acquire. Needs a lot of try&error, in other words, very, very time consuming task.
- Size is directly related to particles size, particles movement and particles distance what was already explained few lines above.

We yet have some other things that i like to comment:

- this mod only works now for noclouds or partial clouds, with or without light fog, because for more clouded and fogged wheather these particles will be generated almost totally behind the stock sh3 fog wall. Eventually in medium fog we yet can see a bit about it.

- the pictures that can be taken from this mod can be really fantastic or just about odd moments of it - like a lot of things (to not say anything) in sh3 world. It´s an old and limited engine...

So, this is a wip. A small team could accelerate the work a lot. I should like to say thankyou for the generous help from some mates here, and with their help i will try to push this mod further. Sh3 is our beloved subsim game. I like very much to enhance it for my own use and obviously to contribute to our great community. This must be the spirit here.

For my initial taste - and awared about it´s limitations - I´m already satisfied by the results as they are now, I´m really enjoying my new "fogged/clouded" environment, it´s, for me, much better than the static one that we had before. But I´m also very confident that we yet have much more to get from it. So, please, comment, ask, throw here yours ideas, say what you think about it (good or bad, don´t matter), this will really help our work!

Ahoy!

Rubini.