[REL] Living breathing Ocean

[leovampire]

Updated: October 04 2007 with my new Reflections on the Water Work in the scene file.

To truly understand what this mod does for the game play the game patched to 1.3 first and see for yourself how the ocean and wave states work. Then add this mod to your game and see the difference. It is truly black and white in effect's!

First: before anything thank you TimeTraveller for your Mini tweeker
because all this would be beyond my abilities without it! And NVDrifter
for the scene aduster to use with mini tweeker. And extra credit to
AkbarGulag and Jaketoox for making the tweeker scene file even better.

Second: thanks to UBISOFT for making a game engine that can
handle these kind of effects,conditions and visualization!

Third: thanks to a friend of mine, Bob Wood, who gave me the
technicle data on wave Armonics and Coeficiants! He makes
custom speed boats both for ocean going and fresh water so
understands all of that to make them operate properly.

Forth: To the creater's of the 9KM visual MOD Kosh & or Probex because my LBO
is now built onto your visability work. Redwine 30m underwater Visability mod.
Canonicus for the Rain Mod.

Fifth: Thank you veery much to Jæsen Jones for your JSGME program or
I know I would have screwed up my game time and time again without it!!!

What this does to start with is gives a rime and reason to the
oceans movments vs Wind direction and speed and also matches
up sea foam effects with newly formed waves.

Second it eliminates all flying sub and ship effects from the
game. And no longer does the ocean just do it's thing and
ignors what comes in contact with it. And at the same time
no ship or sub can glide along like on an invisable rail.

Thrid it creates the same feelings old time mariners got when
they were on the ocean and the reason why so many men wanted
those kinds of jobs because the ocean is a facinating and
wonderous thing to see in all motions and movments and living
force.

Now there is an actual current and force to the ocean in it's
every movment and wave. And depending on how much thrust a ship
or sub uses against it and the direction you are going vs the
wind and ocean waves now effects how much control you have over
your sub. Ships and Subs have to lean into turns to manuver
through the current and waves. And when you are stoped and
just sitting there in ruff and or stormy sea's you will get
moved around like a rag doll in a kids hand's. As the waves
push against the sub you can watch the ballast guages to the
left of your planes man fill up with water and expell it again.
If you turn your rudder while you sit there the ocean will
turn your sub because there is an actual current.
Just hope you and your men don't get sea sick! LOL!


This is all a build up effect so you have to look at it for a
few seconds or so for everything to kick in so going from the
command room to the bridge and then free cam each time you have
to give it a few seconds to see and get the full effects the way
the game engine works!


Just a ready to use MOD link now that has 9km visability and 30m underwater
visability and the rain mod!

(LBO)_Living_Breathing_Ocean_VS3_with_New_Reflecti ons_Work



Now enjoy your living breathing ocean!

Known Problem Fix: When you are in time compression on the Sub's NAV map
PAUSE the game then go to 1x normal time compression
Before going to outside view's. This gives the game's
rendering engine a chance to catch up with what is going
on and stops the Ocean morphing and shaking effect's.

I will post some pictures lator on but believe me when I say no picture you ever create will do it justice.

Please give me credit if you use this with anymod you make
I have a lot of time and effert into research and testing for all
of this. And it is nice to be remembered.
Other than that this is freeware to do with as you please.

The mini tweeker program link:

TIMETRAVEL"SMINITWEEKER

the new improved scene dat file to add to mini tweeker or you can not make the proper changes:

TWEEKERFILEFORSCENEMODING

And here is the download link for the JSGME program by Jæsen Jones

JSGMEMODINSTALLER



On a somber note, Most of you now know that we lost one of our own in the comunity. Deepbluewolf. He lost his life avoiding a child crosing the street while he was driving. Looking back at the early posts and finding something on the main site in Ubisoft I see he was a strong suporter of LBO and me.
So I would like to dedicate this mod to his memory and wish him the calmer sea's of LBO where ever he is!!!

Dave
LeoVampire

[supposedtobeworking]

sounds incredible..downloading now..thanks for the work!

[wovik]

I've got to try this!

Downloading now..

[leovampire]

As you can see the waves are now complex and in a single scene one dosn't match another both above and under the ocean.
And 15 meters per second wind dosn't mean the waves and ocean is it's meanest because when a true storm comes it is much more intence.
In the last picture you can see even though the wind is down to 0 meters per second there are still eddies and currents and slight waves.

[Fearless]

Utterly awesome. Will download this for sure when I get home from work.

[Digital_Trucker]

THis is great! Thanks for all the hard work on it. If this game gets much more immersive I'll embarass myself by trying to put my old blues on.

Now can you add fish, so that we have something to do when there is nothing to sink? Just kidding, great work!

[CaptainCox]

Excellent work Leo. Did not yet have the opportunity to check in stormy seas, but judging from those pics, it looks awesome. Cheers!

[Canonicus]

Leo...

I'm amazed at how the ocean in SH 4, now seems as real as I remember it when I was In the service. I feel like I'm standing at the railing leaning over the side of my old destroyer, staring intently at the play of the waves. Uncanny... the similarities to the real thing!

You are to be highly commended for you efforts... for a quantum leap in realism has been attained!

Simply.....STUNNING!!

[nattydread]

how does it impact FPS?, Im interested but I dont want to have stutters

[leovampire]

I don't have a problem with any slow downs or anything so i can not tell you
that nattydread.

And thank you very very much Canonicus that is what I wanted to acheave with this. We spend so much time on the ocean it should keep that facination and deatail that everyone has put into our subs.

And face it we needed some real time physics to go with the rest of the game.

It was the last thing that needed to be done without adding all new stuff to the game in my eyes.

2 words of warning: torpedo depth settings on ships in heavy seas and storms should be reduced.

Second: it is much easier to dive in heavy seas if you slow down so if your running from something and trying to dive good luck!!!!!!

Also as you reduce the force of the engines the influence of the ocean becomes more pronounced because it takes equal amount of force against force to compinsate same goes for the ships the lighter the ship and slower the speed the more it gets bounced around so if it is a crippled ship torpedo's should be set near the surface but sometimes the waves detinate them if your not close.

[Fearless]

Cant wait to stand on deck and get a bit green in the face.

[Ducimus]

I applied the changes cited in the 9KM visual distance dat ive been using, and the visual difference is striking.

The following pictures were taken in the first sub school mission.

Enviormental effects, glare, PPF, etc were off.

Before applying this mod, windspeed at 5kts.




After applying this mod, windspeed at 5kts.



I didnt notice too much of a difference in visual effects at a 15 kt wind, my assumption is thats because of the foam, or i possibly applied the changes wrong for those wavestats and need to go over it again. Regardless, this is a top notch mod and is nothing short of a landmark of progression for SH4.

I have a few concerns reguarding high winds and small craft like fishing boats and such (will they catch fire and sink on their own?), but otherwise, this is really excellent work, job well done leovampire!

[leovampire]

Comming from you I take this a serious compliment thank you!

And new picture posted of calm sea's

So far the only thing I did notice is that ships with holes sink a little faster because of the force factor of the ocean when it is at it's peak!

But now ships actualy ride the waves better so the damage factor is actualy down never saw a fishing boat on fire or sink from it yet.

And how close you are to shore makes a difference in wave effects because of the shallower waters. When you move back out to sea they calm down a little more.

Also in the download link there are 2 dds files for the sea foam and cloud effects for stormy weather that you should use as I based my sea foam effects on that dds file.

[Camaero]

Holy hell this might be the absolute best immersion mod so far. Thank you sir!

[Ducimus]

Did i mention i really really love this mod?

Decided to pay a visit to my favorite Destroyer.

This time, enviromental effects are on, no glare, or PPF., 5kt wind, in deep water, nowhere near land.