Caustics or not?

[kapitan_zur_see]

Hi mates :arrgh!:

Following my fiddling with submarine bubbles, i made some tweaking to the files to bring back caustics while underwater. It does of course fade off as you dive deeper and will appear only on places where submarine hulls is exposed to sun (if sun is on your left, you won't see caustics on the right side).
I might consider adding it to my bubbles mod (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=122676) as an option (since it does implies the same files, releasing it seperatly will conflict when bubbles mod will be install)

What do you think about it?

without modification:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1018/1463201951_1186fbdf88_o.jpg


With modification:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1249/1464057260_845ef83839_o.jpg


Thanks
Alan

[tater]

Wow. Looks nice.

[mrbeast]

I'm sure I still get caustics on my boat. Not really checked I shall have a look when I continue my patrol in the East China Sea, just arrived on station.

Would be cool if we could get caustics on the conning tower aswell as the hull.

[l3th4l]

indeed it does!

wasn't that enabled by default at one time? i vaguely remember seeing this somewhere before... :hmm:

[The General]

Great work with the bubbles and everything Bro :up:

[kapitan_zur_see]

indeed it does!

wasn't that enabled by default at one time? i vaguely remember seeing this somewhere before... :hmm:

In fact, it is enabled by default but it's toned down to such an extent that you barely sees it. I'm trying to enable it on conning tower, but for strange reasons, it doesn't work (deck gun dissapear etc.)

[kriller2]

hi Kapitan_zur_see, the new caustics look good, I am allso enjoying the new submarines bubbles :cool:

[kapitan_zur_see]

hi Kapitan_zur_see, the new caustics look good, I am allso enjoying the new submarines bubbles :cool:

Thanks to all :ping:
However, i just can't manage to add caustics to the conning tower... Caustics is controlled via a node called UnifiedRender. It is not present inside the conning tower dat file, as opposed to the hulls one. Adding one will result in strange behavior like deckgun becoming translucent and blue etc.

[leovampire]

BTW your talking about the reflection of the ocean waves on the hull of the sub underwater right?

So your trying to enhance them more and how they look on the sub if I am understanding this correctly.

[kapitan_zur_see]

BTW your talking about the reflection of the ocean waves on the hull of the sub underwater right?

So your trying to enhance them more and how they look on the sub if I am understanding this correctly.
Yep :ping: such effects are called "caustics" in Computer Graphics, and thus, in SH4 also (see texture caustic_new3.dds for example)

[MONOLITH]

I'm a big fan of the caustics. I vote to have them. :up:

[kapitan_zur_see]

Seeing people reaction, i think i'll add it to my bubbles mod. Just hope i could also make them to works on conning tower but i have few hopes at present.

However, i'll make caustic as an option, since in real life, on such big object like a submarine in ocean water, you wouldn't have that much caustics. It sure has a little "swimming pool" effect lol but i believe i prefer that for the sake of eye-candyness ;)

[jean74]

Yeah

The better underwater mod :up:

Very good work

Many Thanks Alan



Jean

[leovampire]

But I did it so that the deeper the sub gets away from the surface the more it fades away because before it was always there no matter how deep you went if you look at the way the game works Vanilla wise.

I just never did anything to enhance them all I did was cause the fade out of it and make it so they look realistic and reflect the waves instead of a random look. But I did this with other files than the sub's.

I did this with the Scene.dat file. What Kapitan_zur_see is doing is enhancing the effect using the sub's file's and taking it a step further.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Looks good with :up:


RDP

[FooFighters]

I vote.. with :up:

[Jhereg]

Hi Kapitan, I was just in SH3 trying out GWX-TA and the caustics are working on the conning tower without out any side-effects.

Maybe you could compare the files and see what the devs may have broken since SH3. It might give you a lead into fixing this. HTH:yep:

[Hawk_345]

sounds to me as it cant hurt to have it. so i say include it.

[kapitan_zur_see]

Hi Kapitan, I was just in SH3 trying out GWX-TA and the caustics are working on the conning tower without out any side-effects.

Maybe you could compare the files and see what the devs may have broken since SH3. It might give you a lead into fixing this. HTH:yep:

Great idea ;)

[kapitan_zur_see]

okay i've done some research on GWX. Bad thing is, the caustic effect looks not implemented the same way at all, nor is it coded the same way as in SH3. This means i cannot use GWX as a guideline to get caustic on conning tower.
BTW i don't even think i can do it now. I'm totally out of clues :nope:

[leovampire]

okay i've done some research on GWX. Bad thing is, the caustic effect looks not implemented the same way at all, nor is it coded the same way as in SH3. This means i cannot use GWX as a guideline to get caustic on conning tower.
BTW i don't even think i can do it now. I'm totally out of clues :nope:

Without the proper self ilumination, Reflection and other dds files the sub's hull is set up for you can not get the effect. I have changed with the scene file how the effect's show up on the sub's hull and how soon the end vs depth of the sub. But the only reason why it happend is because the hull's of the sub's have more files incorporated into them make all this work. Before I adjusted the scene file the reflection caustics use to happen all the time no matter how deep it went. I stoped that from happening to create a more realistic effect.

[Jhereg]

Hey Kapitan, was just reloading SH4 and ROW and when I enabled the sub reflections I noticed it replaces the Turm9c_3_hd.dat and was wondering since that is probably a carry over from SH3, perhaps it has the proper underlying maps to enable caustics on the conning tower.

I have never tried the mission editior, so maybe you could set up a mission with the Type IXC submereged and see if it works(that just gave me another idea LOL, import a type IX from SH3 and see if it has the caustics on the Turm).

Just trying to think out of the box, since I do not have any of the tools for modding nor the artistic skills. Anyhow hope these ideas lead to a solution.:damn:

If not I will just be quiet.....:arrgh!:

[kapitan_zur_see]

yep, why not try. I will pay a visit to the museum watching a type 9 underwater though i recall that in vanilla SH3, you wouldn't have caustic on tower also...

Sorry Leo, i don't really precisely understand what you mean. :dead:

[leovampire]

yep, why not try. I will pay a visit to the museum watching a type 9 underwater though i recall that in vanilla SH3, you wouldn't have caustic on tower also...

Sorry Leo, i don't really precisely understand what you mean. :dead:

The sub's hull's have self elumination files and reflection file's in the textures folder for them but none of the sub's conning tower's have these. The conning towers are treated as a seperate entity so they can change over time from early war to late war. Those same type's of lighting and reflection maps have to be added to and for the conning towers to make them work the same way the sub's do in game.

[Jhereg]

Kapitan, just checked standard unmodded SH3 and it has caustics on the Turm.

Leo, I am just hoping that the Type IX in SH4 has the proper light maps etc....if it does you guys could possibly copy them to the other subs with some adjustments.
The Turms in SH3 changed as the war went on also Leo, just like SH4 and I believe the Turms are treated as seperate also.

Thats my hope:up:

[leovampire]

Kapitan, just checked standard unmodded SH3 and it has caustics on the Turm.

Leo, I am just hoping that the Type IX in SH4 has the proper light maps etc....if it does you guys could possibly copy them to the other subs with some adjustments.
The Turms in SH3 changed as the war went on also Leo, just like SH4 and I believe the Turms are treated as seperate also.

Thats my hope:up:

I will install SHIII on my other PC and pull it apart and see what we need to get this working for the Sub's in here! At least with a reference it will go a lot easier.

Thanks again Jhereg

[Jhereg]

Hey Leo and Kapitan, that Type IXC in the museum sure has some purty caustics on its turm!

I did not even think of the museum Kapitan, great idea:up:

God how I wish the developers had not broke so many things that work just fine in SH3.

While your in SH3 Leo check out the sea effects in GWX as far as the motion and its smoothness in any camera view, may be a clue to the jelly ocean in there.

Thank you both for all the great mods:rock:

[kapitan_zur_see]

Hey Leo and Kapitan, that Type IXC in the museum sure has some purty caustics on its turm!

I did not even think of the museum Kapitan, great idea:up:

God how I wish the developers had not broke so many things that work just fine in SH3.

While your in SH3 Leo check out the sea effects in GWX as far as the motion and its smoothness in any camera view, may be a clue to the jelly ocean in there.

Thank you both for all the great mods:rock:

You sure about that mate? i don't have any caustic on the u-boat running the museum...
It really looks caustics are not made the same way in SH4

[Jhereg]

Kapitan, yes I have em, I will post a pic when I get back home.

[leovampire]

And the Dinamic shadows and the caustics are there like we want for the US Sub towers. So it is a doable thing.

[kriller2]

And the Dinamic shadows and the caustics are there like we want for the US Sub towers. So it is a doable thing.
great work LeoVampire can't wait to see the new caustics on the conning tower in game :cool:

[Jhereg]

Here they are:rock:

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/8837/uboatturmcausticseo3.th.jpg (http://img233.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uboatturmcausticseo3.jpg)


http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/280/uboatcaustics2fc2.th.jpg (http://img233.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uboatcaustics2fc2.jpg)

I think the devs just ran out of time as all this works in SH3 and as is shown above in SH4, would be nice if publishers could give developers more time.