[REL] OLC Environment (Final Version)

[onelifecrisis]

This mod has now been superseded by OLCE2. See this thread for details:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=134186 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=134186)


Sunhalo Patch Released - see this post (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=823631&postcount=315) for details and DL links.
Lowest Possible Detail Level Released - see this post (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=823685&postcount=317) for details and DL links.
Water Stream Compatibility Patch Released - see this post (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=823800&postcount=318) for details and DL links.


Unaltered OLCE Screenshots

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3187/2333274507_7f9c85dedd.jpg (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3187/2333274507_6ca4190498_o.jpg)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2297/2333274687_2221a88b08.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2297/2333274687_560c02fdb1_o.jpg)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2156/2333274853_1af8a6175e.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2156/2333274853_003a41226e_o.jpg)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3161/2334485087_656e6bb385.jpg (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3161/2334485087_8a7169ef33_o.jpg)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2167/2334101800_45cfc640c7.jpg (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2167/2334101800_a060199eda_o.jpg)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3110/2333275149_b02b2286b9.jpg (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3110/2333275149_8a088400b7_o.jpg)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3246/2334101228_e4fa95a2f4.jpg (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3246/2334101228_333a6427ff_o.jpg)



About the Mod

All new environment colours.
Improved sky textures and fog.
Improved lighting and reflections.
Tweaked wave foam generation variables (there are no changes to the wave textures themselves).
A lot of miscellaneous environment and lighting fixes, including a more realistic size for the sun and moon*, and no more flickering night sky when water washes over the scope.
A 15km atmosphere with a much better looking horizon (no more ugly line on the horizon like you see the GWX 16km Atmosphere).*In the GWX 16km Atmosphere the moon is 2.0 degrees (wide) and the sun varies (!) between 1.2 and 2.0 degrees. In OLC Environment the sun and moon are both approximately 0.7 degrees at all times. The RL size of both the sun and the moon (as viewed from the surface of the earth) is 0.5 degrees.


Compatibility

This mod is designed for use with GWX 2.0 and GWX 2.1, though certain assumptions have been made about the latter which, at the time of writing this, has not yet been released.

The mod is not compatible with GWX Enhanced Damage Effects (or any other particles mod, for that matter).

This mod is compatible with OLC Improved Wave Textures and with Sobers 3D Waves, however, I don't recommend using Sober's 3D Waves because, again, the colours will look wrong. The normal GWX2 wave textures will look fine, and I would actually recommend those textures over mine to most players who want to use OLCE.

This mod already contains the RealWeatherFix by Stiebler. I therefore don't recommend using SH3Weather with OLCE.


Download Links

FileFront (http://hosted.filefront.com/onelifecrisis/)
OLC Mods Forum at Beyond The Shadows (http://www.bts-mods.com/forums/index.php?board=35.0)
Please note that the patches at the top of this post are not included in the main OLCE download, and so they must be downloaded and installed on top of OLCE.


Notes on Installation and Optimisation

OLCE should not be enabled mid-patrol.

OLCE should be installed instead of the GWX 16km Atmosphere, not in addition to it.

I strongly recommend you enable Geometry Instancing, AA and AF on your graphics card. Note that Geometry Instancing will improve the framerate (and of course AA and AF will not). Note also that AF does not need to be high; 2X is actually enough, but it is important not to turn AF off altogether. Setting AF too high can cause severe framerate drops in rough weather.

nVidia users, please see this thread (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=128517). It may resolve graphical problems, improve framerates, etc.

[KptLt Lindemann]

First SH3Cmdr, then IABL's freighter, now OLC environment...what a weekend!

Danke!:up:

[Ivan Putski]

I`ll second that, what a weekend it`s been, thanks OLC. Puts:rock:

[HanSolo78]

Again... I am speechless :ping:

[Redfox11]

Thank you for bringing a real improvement to SH3 there, OLC!:o IMPRESSIVE!:rock:

BTW, anyone tested this mod with RWF mid-patrol? I just started one and my patrols last around two weeks in real life to finish -I use saved games a lot-I don't want to screw up my install-works so fine now!-:oops:

[Erich Topp]

Great work, OLC)) I was the first to d/l, just noticed that your FF page refreshed)) Sorry)) Let's test this beauty)

[onelifecrisis]

Thank you for bringing a real improvement to SH3 there, OLC!:o IMPRESSIVE!:rock:

BTW, anyone tested this mod with RWF mid-patrol? I just started one and my patrols last around two weeks in real life to finish -I use saved games a lot-I don't want to screw up my install-works so fine now!-:oops:

Don't enable it mid-patrol! I've added this to the installation instructions, thanks for reminding me.

:up:

OLC

[ViperU48]

OLC! Kudos for this awesome mod!!

My biggest gripe in SH3 since its release was how the night looks, this mod finally gives it the feel i've been dreaming for!

The day time effects are just as amazing, thanks again for your work! :up:

[3Jane]

As it's advised not to use SHIII-C to adjust water clarity, will the water clarity be the normal slightly darker GWX.

[Sailor Steve]

Since I've long-ago changed the water clarity, I have to ask what the original setting is?

[Rubini]

Thanks mate by the hard work!

Feedback soon!:up:

[johnno74]

Hi OLC (or anyone else who has tried this ;)),

Roughly what % framerate drop will I get from the 8km and 16km versions of this?

Looks great, I want to try it but unfortunately my video card only just copes with standard GWX 2.0

Cheers

[Phoenix3000]

Hi Johnno,

Try installing all versions - begin with the highest, then medium and finally low.

During testing I noticed a huge difference between versions.

I also have a few extra mods running since, and it hasn't impacted at all.

Good luck, its worth it believe me! :up:

Px3000

[ViperU48]

OLC -

Just been using the environment mod for a few hours and have a few questions:

I noticed that far in the horizon the waves appear more jagged (as if AA has been turned down). I was wondering if this was a common side-effect that you are aware of or if it was intentional. Here's a picture of the 8km medium environment mod:
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/3025/olctestss7.jpg
And another from higher alt:
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/6199/olctest2pt6.jpg

I'm running a GF8800GTX with 16x AF and 4x AA (higher AA [16x] doesn't fix the problem, and 4x AA is the highest i can go without losing glare). I also notice this with both 8km and 16km settings, and on all low-medium-high setups. I'm just curious because if this is not intentional or meant to be seen at all, it may be driver related? What are your specs?

My second question is, if one were to want to reduce the water clarity, that is to say, add more fog so there is less underwater visibility, how would you recommend we should go about doing that? Could a reduced underwater visibility version be release perhaps if you have time?


Thanks again OLC, and I apologize if I am hijacking the thread. :up:

[Edit: **PROBLEM SOLVED**
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/4388/olcsolvedom4.jpg

Big thanks to Mikael who pointed it out and OLC: the graphical anomoly is due to an old GF8800 problem. A solution can be found in this thread by Rubini:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=128517

[Myxale]

:up:

Can i say..."Cong-Bilge-Rats-and-lotion" for finishing this baby!:lol:

Cheers OLC! Way to Rock the boot maestro!

[Rubini]

The mod is not yet compatible with GWX Enhanced Damage Effects (or any other particles mod, for that matter). Using OLC Environment with GWX Enhanced Damage Effects will not cause CTDs, but your particle effects will not be coloured correctly at night time (or you will simply not get the enhanced effects at all, depending on which mod you enable first).


OLC,

As was me that made the GWX Enhanced Damage effects i should like to say that probably it is totally compatible. I'm saying this because GWX EDE don´t have any new texture and all it's effects are just tweak/agregations of the default ones (no color changes as an exemple, exception to the oil leak but it´s much like the original). So if this new awesome mod don´t have problems with default GWX explosions and others GWX 2.0 default effects, then it also will have not problems with GWX EDEffects.;)

The unique problem could be if you modified something like the color scale for default effects but not for the ones added by GWX EDE on the particles.dat. But if this is the problem then an one minute task and its done. ( in truth only 5 or 6 effects are introduced by GWXEDE on particles.dat) :up: I can show then to you if necessary.

EDITED: don´t mind. I noticed that you used GWX default particles and not the one from GWX EDE. But they are almost equal only with those effects added to it. Sorry.:oops:

[3Jane]

I get a mesage in JSGME the the 'elite u-boat crew uniform' mod by Fubar ("Body01.dat" has already been altered by the "The Elite U-Boat Crew Uniforms" mod.
"body2.dat" has already been altered by the "The Elite U-Boat Crew Uniforms" mod.). Do you think I should I remove the uniforms mod or is this one of those times when no problems would arise.

[onelifecrisis]

I get a mesage in JSGME the the 'elite u-boat crew uniform' mod by Fubar ("Body01.dat" has already been altered by the "The Elite U-Boat Crew Uniforms" mod.
"body2.dat" has already been altered by the "The Elite U-Boat Crew Uniforms" mod.). Do you think I should I remove the uniforms mod or is this one of those times when no problems would arise.

If you want to you can disable the uniform mods, then enable OLC Environment, then re-enable the crew uniform mods, and ignore that warning message. The only problem will be that your crew might look a bit luminescent at night, but really not that much - you might not even notice it.

[Rubini]

The mod is not yet compatible with GWX Enhanced Damage Effects (or any other particles mod, for that matter). Using OLC Environment with GWX Enhanced Damage Effects will not cause CTDs, but your particle effects will not be coloured correctly at night time (or you will simply not get the enhanced effects at all, depending on which mod you enable first).


OLC,

As was me that made the GWX Enhanced Damage effects i should like to say that probably it is totally compatible. I'm saying this because GWX EDE don´t have any new texture and all it's effects are just tweak/agregations of the default ones (no color changes as an exemple, exception to the oil leak but it´s much like the original). So if this new awesome mod don´t have problems with default GWX explosions and others GWX 2.0 default effects, then it also will have not problems with GWX EDEffects.;)

The unique problem could be if you modified something like the color scale for default effects but not for the ones added by GWX EDE on the particles.dat. But if this is the problem then an one minute task and its done. ( in truth only 5 or 6 effects are introduced by GWXEDE on particles.dat) :up: I can show then to you if necessary.

OLC Environment contains a modified version of the GWX particles.dat file, so no, the GWX Enhanced Damage Effects will not be compatible. Like I said, using it will not cause CTDs, but colours will look wrong.

I noticed it and edited my post above.;)

[Mikhayl]

Hi Jane, OLC changed the lighting/shadows and stuff within body.dat, if you install the uniform mod on top of OLC env you will have some odd lighting on the crewmen (bright guys in the night or things like that).
The best is to install OLC env after the uniform mod, this way the crewmen will have the right lighting. The only thing you will lose is the "triangle on the neck" fix included in Fubars bodys.dat, but the uniforms will show ok.
Someone will probably soon release these specific bodys.dat with both the "triangle fix" and OLC's settings.
Hope this helps :up:

Edit : ok I'm a biiiit sloooowwww, anyway this is still valid

[3Jane]

Hi Jane, OLC changed the lighting/shadows and stuff within body.dat, if you install the uniform mod on top of OLC env you will have some odd lighting on the crewmen (bright guys in the night or things like that).
The best is to install OLC env after the uniform mod, this way the crewmen will have the right lighting. The only thing you will lose is the "triangle on the neck" fix included in Fubars bodys.dat, but the uniforms will show ok.
Someone will probably soon release these specific bodys.dat with both the "triangle fix" and OLC's settings.
Hope this helps :up:

Thanks

[onelifecrisis]

OLC -

Just been using the environment mod for a few hours and have a few questions:

I noticed that far in the horizon the waves appear more jagged (as if AA has been turned down). I was wondering if this was a common side-effect that you are aware of or if it was intentional. Here's a picture of the 8km medium environment mod:
http://207.6.219.28/joelshared/olctest.jpg
And another from higher alt:
http://207.6.219.28/joelshared/olctest2.jpg

I'm running a GF8800GTX with 16x AF and 4x AA (higher AA [16x] doesn't fix the problem, and 4x AA is the highest i can go without losing glare). I also notice this with both 8km and 16km settings, and on all low-medium-high setups. I'm just curious because if this is not intentional or meant to be seen at all, it may be driver related? What are your specs?

My second question is, if one were to want to reduce the water clarity, that is to say, add more fog so there is less underwater visibility, how would you recommend we should go about doing that? Could a reduced underwater visibility version be release perhaps if you have time?


Thanks again OLC, and I apologize if I am hijacking the thread. :up:

[Edit: I noticed (once again after posting first) that the "low" version does a bit to reduce the shimmering. My question now is: is there anything else that is reduced with the "low" setup? will I be missing any more goodies?)

Medium+AA+AF should not look like the screenshots you posted. Do you have the time and inclination to help me find the problem by testing different tweaks if I send them to you?

Edit: To answer your edit, no, there's no other difference between high/medium/low except the distant waves.

[ViperU48]

I am certainly ready and able to help you with this magnificent mod; however, i can't quite guarantee quick and speedy responses, especially during the week. But still, if you send 'em i'll test 'em. :up:

[mikaelanderlund]

OLC -

Just been using the environment mod for a few hours and have a few questions:

I noticed that far in the horizon the waves appear more jagged (as if AA has been turned down). I was wondering if this was a common side-effect that you are aware of or if it was intentional. Here's a picture of the 8km medium environment mod:
http://207.6.219.28/joelshared/olctest.jpg
And another from higher alt:
http://207.6.219.28/joelshared/olctest2.jpg

I'm running a GF8800GTX with 16x AF and 4x AA (higher AA [16x] doesn't fix the problem, and 4x AA is the highest i can go without losing glare). I also notice this with both 8km and 16km settings, and on all low-medium-high setups. I'm just curious because if this is not intentional or meant to be seen at all, it may be driver related? What are your specs?

My second question is, if one were to want to reduce the water clarity, that is to say, add more fog so there is less underwater visibility, how would you recommend we should go about doing that? Could a reduced underwater visibility version be release perhaps if you have time?


Thanks again OLC, and I apologize if I am hijacking the thread. :up:

[Edit: I noticed (once again after posting first) that the "low" version does a bit to reduce the shimmering. My question now is: is there anything else that is reduced with the "low" setup? will I be missing any more goodies?)

Medium+AA+AF should not look like the screenshots you posted. Do you have the time and inclination to help me find the problem by testing different tweaks if I send them to you?

Edit: To answer your edit, no, there's no other difference between high/medium/low except the distant waves.

It's Nvida GF8800 problem. Try this link Nvidia tweaks to SH3/SH4 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=128517) .

Mikael

[Voyd]

Again OLC, GREAT mod!! I will never patrol w/o it :up:

Congrats Mate,

Voyd

[Sailor Steve]

Just tried it out, and it's great! The night sky is dark. The daytime water was grey, which is probably because it's September. The sun and moon are tiny, but I realize that if I had a monitor that showed peoples' heads full size, the celestials would probably be pretty big too.

Overall I like it, but unlike Voyd I will be patrolling without it, but that's because with an FPS rate of 4, I have to wait for my long-needed upgrade!:damn:

Looks good!:rock:

[iambecomelife]

I have a major complaint to make about this mod...

I'm going to need to buy a new MoBo & Processor!

I tried out the 8KM high detail version, figuring it would be a minor improvement and I was blown away. It was like playing SH4! The only problem was that my computer, which used to PWN SH3 at any setting, was practically a slide show.

Now I'm going to have to spend a lot of hard-earned money and it's all OLC's fault. Don't download it, guys - you might end up like me. :rotfl:

In all seriousness, magnificent work. :up: The screenshots don't do it justice.

[Adriatico]

Finally got my early Sunday morning for quick testing...:up:

My prefered reference mission is Giblartar (December, 16.02pm):

All the great things are said :up: so just a frst impression:

Where are the colors ?
I've seen this mission in many color tweaks but never as "simply grey".
It still looks realistic, but to be honnest, it looks better with some drops of color, especially in sea surface. (just my impression)

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/9771/olcbetaue6.jpg

I know the first moments of mission well, ...it has never happend that "sub" itself - is the most colorfull thing in envirnment. It seems that (from Alpha) colors are washed out ? Correct me if I'm wrong...

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/2999/olcbetaans8.jpg

Also:

- Night horizon and sky finally look like real thing ...but I am not sure that we need all that light. Dark night issue is resolved, but could be just 3-5% decreased lightnig.

These are all constructive critics, aimed to help OLC in reaching perfection, in a final release...:up:

***
When I started "high detail 8km" - no serious FPS drops, but my cooler fans went crazy, all togather, it sounds like Mosquito squadron flying in my PC case... It too noisy for Atlantic calm feeling, so might be forced to revert to mid file.
Anyway it should be there for upcoming upgrades...:up:

Hope to get some further time...
:ping:

[d@rk51d3]

I am certainly ready and able to help you with this magnificent mod; however, i can't quite guarantee quick and speedy responses, especially during the week. But still, if you send 'em i'll test 'em. :up:

I was having the exact same problems with my ATI card.:yep:

I just uninstalled my vid card drivers, then re-downloaded the lastest ones and re-installed.

Works great now.:up:

[ViperU48]

I want to thank Mikaelanderlund and OLC for their help with my problem, that link did the trick! The jaggy sparkles (AA problem) was, as mentioned, an old Nvidia/GeForce 8800 driver problem; that nhancer fixes it.

Thanks all! This mod is great!!

[Voyd]

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/2999/olcbetaans8.jpg


:ping:
Mind if I ask which skin you are using here :hmm:? I like it a lot :p...

Happy Hunting,

Voyd

[Letum]

Great mod OLC!
Together with your interface mod, it is the only reason I still play SH3.

http://www.b3tards.com/u/57a418c694bc7c6296b3/ship2.jpg
*may not be actual screenshot

[3Jane]

Just tried it out, and it's great! The night sky is dark. The daytime water was grey, which is probably because it's September. The sun and moon are tiny, but I realize that if I had a monitor that showed peoples' heads full size, the celestials would probably be pretty big too.

Overall I like it, but unlike Voyd I will be patrolling without it, but that's because with an FPS rate of 4, I have to wait for my long-needed upgrade!:damn:

Looks good!:rock:
When I tested the mod the moon was tiny, but that was just launched through the desktop icon. When I rolled back SHIII-C and launched the game through that, the moon was a proper size. Also after a system restart.

[Letum]

The moon should be 1-2 degrees when looked at through your periscope.

[onelifecrisis]

Just tried it out, and it's great! The night sky is dark. The daytime water was grey, which is probably because it's September. The sun and moon are tiny, but I realize that if I had a monitor that showed peoples' heads full size, the celestials would probably be pretty big too.

Overall I like it, but unlike Voyd I will be patrolling without it, but that's because with an FPS rate of 4, I have to wait for my long-needed upgrade!:damn:

Looks good!:rock:

When I tested the mod the moon was tiny, but that was just launched through the desktop icon. When I polled back SHIII-C and launched the game through that, the moon was a proper size. Also after a system restart.

Steve, and iambecomelife, did you try the low detail version? It doesn't look that different from the high.

3Jane, the sun and moon are supposed to be small. As small as they are, they're still actually a bit bigger in OLCE than they are in RL. SHIII-C shouldn't have any effect at all on the moon.

[Adriatico]

OLC you are getting me confused...

As I revert to mid-setting file the picture looks better :hmm:

There are better details, reflection, color...??

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/6374/betamji9.jpg

And even more confusing:

As I revert to Alpha, it is the best sea surface (live surface) again...

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/4694/alphaamc2.jpg

Dont know what to say, ...still in a "deep love" with Alpha.

Like to hear the other people....

( Did you add some "fog element" in high settings Beta, new air that could became less transparent and "fade out" sea reflections and colors ? )

***

About that skin, it is not a topic here, some sailors PM also about it...
It is some mixture of various Yamato9 recent skins, with unfinished tower...
When I finish it ...let you know, ...i.e. Yamato9

Get back to topic...

:huh:

[onelifecrisis]

Ah, there you are! My favourite wrench thrower*!

*"wrench thrower" is a registered trademark of Philipp_Thomsen PLC

Where are the colors ?
I've seen this mission in many color tweaks but never as "simply grey".

Firstly, unlike stock/GWX, OLCE doesn't use the same colours for "partially overcast" as it does for "clear". Partially overcast days are slightly more grey than clear days.

Secondly, the arctic isn't the most colourful place in the world.
Edit: Ooops, that's not the arctic. My bad!

Those screens you posted look great to me! :rock:

[onelifecrisis]

As I revert to mid-setting file the picture looks better :hmm:

That shouldn't be the case - I'll check it when I get back home. Like-for-like screens would help a lot (when I say "like for like" I really mean identical apart from the version of OLCE).

Dont know what to say, ...still in a "deep love" with Alpha.

Use the alpha then?
IMO the alpha reflections do look better in certain conditions, but in other conditions they look terrible. The final release has reflections which look good in all conditions.

Did you add some "fog element" in high settings Beta

No.

[onelifecrisis]

As I revert to mid-setting file the picture looks better :hmm:

There are better details, reflection, color...??

That shouldn't be the case - I'll check it when I get back home.

You got me worried so I just downloaded my mod and did a quick hex comparison from here. As expected, the 16km High and 16km Medium files are all totally identical except for one setting, called LODfactor, which has no effect on reflections (except those on the horizon) and no effect on colours. You're imagining things mate! :roll:

[Adriatico]

Just pop in to my office... and guess what...

On my office LCD the colors are present in "first screens" ???
It is not grey ?

And Alpha screen looks too dark ?

It's all too much :nope: dependent on particular LCD... can't beleive that on this office c***p colors are 20% more intense than on my "gamers" screen :o

Anyway, remember your promise, you'll find some time, to deliver me Alpha with light night, if needed...

:ping:

[Adriatico]

As I revert to mid-setting file the picture looks better :hmm:

There are better details, reflection, color...??

That shouldn't be the case - I'll check it when I get back home.

You got me worried so I just downloaded my mod and did a quick hex comparison from here. As expected, the 16km High and 16km Medium files are all totally identical except for one setting, called LODfactor, which has no effect on reflections (except those on the horizon) and no effect on colours. You're imagining things mate! :roll:

I never mentioned 16km files... ?

It takes 10 min:

Just start High-Beta 8km in Giblartar mission, take a look at sea surface...
Than do the same with Mid-Beta, and take a good look at sea...

[onelifecrisis]

I never mentioned 16km files... ?

It takes 10 min:

Just start High-Beta 8km in Giblartar mission, take a look at sea surface...
Than do the same with Mid-Beta, and take a good look at sea...

I don't have access to SH3 right now, but I just hex-compared the 8km files (it takes 10 seconds) and they're identical as well (again, apart from LODfactor).

[Myxale]

I tested the 8k high just a few moments ago, and beside the better loading times compared to the 16k version I don't see anything out of the ordinary.

I never encountered this while testing all the versions a few days before!

Might be driver or card related. It reminds me of the jagged bow-waters some ships get sometimes!

Anyway...as for the better color thing...it's monitor related.
One can counter this to some degree.

I had rather pale colours while testing and OCL pointed that out one time, but once i tinkered around with some card-settings things look pretty well.
Changed the temperature for the image and some gamma and contrast settings. And things look pretty hot.:yep:

Anyway...lets hope we sort out that one! Adri!

[Adriatico]

Well, never mind... just noticed that sea surface is less "live" in High-example than in Mid-one.
Olso, sea color is bit more present in a Mid one...

In particular mission example...

[Phoenix3000]

Hi OLC,

I've now installed your final release - Medium Detail (in fact I re-installed all the mods I had running), and earlier today I got the nHancer program running that I read about recently.

What a difference!!

Using that application I now have AA and AF running at max settings, and can now run at a steady 60fps. I was accessing features I didn't know the card had!

Can't understand why it didn't like it before...

Oh well, time for a career - it certainly looks cool now!

Cheers

Px3000

[Sailor Steve]

Steve, and iambecomelife, did you try the low detail version? It doesn't look that different from the high.
No, but I thought of that later and will be trying it today. Thanks for the reminder.

[onelifecrisis]

Hi OLC,

I've now installed your final release - Medium Detail (in fact I re-installed all the mods I had running), and earlier today I got the nHancer program running that I read about recently.

What a difference!!

Using that application I now have AA and AF running at max settings, and can now run at a steady 60fps. I was accessing features I didn't know the card had!

Can't understand why it didn't like it before...

Oh well, time for a career - it certainly looks cool now!

Cheers

Px3000

That's great news, thanks for the update! I've edited post #1 and added a link to that fix; hopefully it'll help other people too. :up:

[Adriatico]

A bit of marketing... just an idea.
:|\\

It's 1024x1024...

http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/5789/555fb6.jpg

Alpha, of course :up:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Are we loading OLCE or GWX?

I think we're loading SH3... :hmm:

[ReallyDedPoet]

Nice work OLC :up:


RDP

[Philipp_Thomsen]

*"wrench thrower" is a registered trademark of Philipp_Thomsen PLC


:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

You can use this trademark whenever you want it, just put a ® (alt+169) after "wrench thrower/throwing :lol:

[java`s revenge]

Installation Instructions

The mod is JSGME ready. 16km users should install the OLC 16km Environment instead of the GWX 16km Atmosphere. As noted above, remember to apply the RWF fix to the scene.dat file if you use RWF.

Do not enable this mod mid-patrol.

I strongly recommend you enable both AA and AF on your graphics card, as this mod increases aliasing, and texture filtering is required to make the reflections look correct.

nVidia users, please see this post (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=128517). It may resolve graphical problems, improve framerates, etc.


OLC,
What do you mean with the RWF mod? I am a stupid dutchman and i am always fighting with the english abbreviations.

[Mikhayl]

Hi Java, "RWF" stands for "Real Weather Fix", see here : http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=130147
:up:

[bobchase]

OLC,

Very, very nice. I loaded the 16km high detail version and it put by brand spank'n new big-horse computer on its knees when I went to gods-eye view. It was running from 7 to 23 fps in gods-eye (F12) and thru the periscope. :oops: The rest of the screens run at 200+ fps.

Then I loaded the low detail 16 km and I was flying with around a 130+ fps in gods-eye view. And it looked great! :|\\

I'm still playing with the Omega drivers for my ATI card, so I may load up the medium file next week to test them out against the low res.

thanks again,

Bob Chase, ETC

[onelifecrisis]

OLC,

Very, very nice. I loaded the 16km high detail version and it put by brand spank'n new big-horse computer on its knees when I went to gods-eye view. It was running from 7 to 23 fps in gods-eye (F12) and thru the periscope. :oops: The rest of the screens run at 200+ fps.

Taking the external camera up very high view will certainly kill the framerate, but you shouldn't have any FPS trouble at all through the scope. :hmm:

Is the scope fps low when zoomed in, or when zoomed out, or both?

Cheers,
OLC

[Sailor Steve]

Steve, and iambecomelife, did you try the low detail version? It doesn't look that different from the high.
No, but I thought of that later and will be trying it today. Thanks for the reminder.
Update: As stated earlier I was getting 4-5 fps in Kiel with the high-res version. With medium res I got 15 fps, and it was jerky but workable. Then I tried low res, and it still said 15 fps, but it seemed to be running better anyway. Maybe all 15s are not created equal.:rotfl:

Anyway, it's more than usable, and should be a whole lot better when I finally get upgraded.:sunny:

[onelifecrisis]

BTW, it turns out that this nVidia problem isn't just on nVidia cards... some ATI cards seem to have it, too. Looks like some people might have been having it ever since they started playing SH3 but hadn't noticed because it's not so noticable until you crank up the LOD setting, as the OLCE does. If I hear of an ATI fix I'll update post #1 with the info.

@Steve

:hmm: hmm, fps should really be much better in the low version...

I really can't understand some of these fps reports. :doh:

[onelifecrisis]

Folks, please take a look at the following screenshots. They show, on the horizon, the difference (the only difference) between the detail levels in OLCE. As you can see, Medium looks almost exactly the same as High, so don't assume you're missing out if your PC can't run High. Mine certainly can't! ;)

Medium or Low is recommended for most people.

Cheers,
OLC

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2112/2339349669_3b2ff3c97f_o.jpg

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Hi OLC... have responded to your latest PM.:cool:

[Barbac]

Hi OLC,

I guess your mod cannot be used with any other atmosphere mods provided that
I am actually running GWX2.0 using SH3_Combined_Scene__Atmos2 and SH4_16k_scene_for_SH3_V1 by Reecek ... ?

Thx
Barbac

[onelifecrisis]

Hi OLC,

I guess your mod cannot be used with any other atmosphere mods provided that
I am actually running GWX2.0 using SH3_Combined_Scene__Atmos2 and SH4_16k_scene_for_SH3_V1 by Reecek ... ?

Thx
Barbac


Correct - it's not compatible. But choice is a good thing. ;)

[Barbac]

Thx for the reply friendo ;)

You are definitely right OLC, choice is a good thing but it can also be a hard thing when you consider the now available atmosphere and scene mods that make the environment so realistic :rock: :damn: :hmm:


Anyway :up:
Barbac

[mikaelanderlund]

Hi OLC,

Thanks for a nice mod. I have one annoying problem. I have GFX 8800 running with nHancer program, 4X AA, 8X AF and modified scen.dat horizon faktor to 2100 , to get rid of the black annoying artifacts connected to Nvida driver. With your mod I have my black artifacts back in the sun and moon only but I have a new problem with white flashing artifacts on the horizon:cry: . When I'm using GWX scen.dat the disappear. Any ideas?

Mikael

[onelifecrisis]

Hi OLC,

Thanks for a nice mod. I have one annoying problem. I have GFX 8800 running with nHancer program, 4X AA, 8X AF and modified scen.dat horizon faktor to 2100 , to get rid of the black annoying artifacts connected to Nvida driver. With your mod I have my black artifacts back in the sun and moon only but I have a new problem with white flashing artifacts on the horizon:cry: . When I'm using GWX scen.dat the disappear. Any ideas?

Mikael

16km?

[Iliaz]

Hey Kaleuns,

first i wanna thank OLC 4 putting together this sick (the good Kind ;)) Mod! :up:

i think i got a solution for the F.U.B.A.R. measurments some Skippers around here get. I reinstalled sh3 from square one and that (somehow) solved that problem. I think that is because some of the Mast hights are already doubled by previous releases of OLC Gui. After reinstalling (so i quess) the mast values are set back to normal and then (by the doublemastvalue toll) doubled to get the acurate values.

i just realised my english sucks big thoug i hope its become through what i mend

[onelifecrisis]

Hey Kaleuns,

first i wanna thank OLC 4 putting together this sick (the good Kind ;)) Mod! :up:

i think i got a solution for the F.U.B.A.R. measurments some Skippers around here get. I reinstalled sh3 from square one and that (somehow) solved that problem. I think that is because some of the Mast hights are already doubled by previous releases of OLC Gui. After reinstalling (so i quess) the mast values are set back to normal and then (by the doublemastvalue toll) doubled to get the acurate values.

i just realised my english sucks big thoug i hope its become through what i mend

lol, wrong thread Iliaz ;)

[Myxale]

Hi OLC,

Thanks for a nice mod. I have one annoying problem. I have GFX 8800 running with nHancer program, 4X AA, 8X AF and modified scen.dat horizon faktor to 2100 , to get rid of the black annoying artifacts connected to Nvida driver. With your mod I have my black artifacts back in the sun and moon only but I have a new problem with white flashing artifacts on the horizon:cry: . When I'm using GWX scen.dat the disappear. Any ideas?

Mikael
16km?
I encountered them once too while testing the high 16k beta. Looked like a streched
- # - On the far horizon where landmass and sky meet.
But once OLC sent me the newer files I was not able to reproduce them on my ATI x1300.

I also tested this with the stock ATI rivers (the newest; Since OLC told us to look-out for anything funny;)
And once in a while i would get a flickering sun or a black sky whenever I panned the cam towards the sun.
Whenever the glare was about to show the sky went black!

But once i restored my Omega's the problem was no more! :hmm:

This is getting a bit too voodoo for my taste...all this driver and card setups---:dead:

[mikaelanderlund]

Hi OLC,

Thanks for a nice mod. I have one annoying problem. I have GFX 8800 running with nHancer program, 4X AA, 8X AF and modified scen.dat horizon faktor to 2100 , to get rid of the black annoying artifacts connected to Nvida driver. With your mod I have my black artifacts back in the sun and moon only but I have a new problem with white flashing artifacts on the horizon:cry: . When I'm using GWX scen.dat the disappear. Any ideas?

Mikael

16km?

yes, low, medium and high res scene

[onelifecrisis]

Interesting. This problem (flickering sun/moon/horizon) is one that I've had since stock. It persists through every mod I've used. I've never seen it mentioned on the forums, and so I had presumed it was a fault with my GC (which has not been quite right ever since I pushed the OC too high about a year ago).

However, if you're getting it too, and you didn't get it before, that means its possibly fixable... :hmm:

Well the good news is I have absolutely no difficulty replicating the problem. :lol:

The bad news is, no setting I've changed has ever gotten rid of it on my machine. :(

BUT, propelled by the conviction that its in one of those settings somewhere, I'll dig deeper and see if I can find the problem! :arrgh!:

[mikaelanderlund]

Interesting. This problem (flickering sun/moon/horizon) is one that I've had since stock. It persists through every mod I've used. I've never seen it mentioned on the forums, and so I had presumed it was a fault with my GC (which has not been quite right ever since I pushed the OC too high about a year ago).

However, if you're getting it too, and you didn't get it before, that means its possibly fixable... :hmm:

Well the good news is I have absolutely no difficulty replicating the problem. :lol:

The bad news is, no setting I've changed has ever gotten rid of it on my machine. :(

BUT, propelled by the conviction that its in one of those settings somewhere, I'll dig deeper and see if I can find the problem! :arrgh!:

Thanks, you can get rid of the white flickering at the horizon by using Nhancer and the black flickering spots by increasing horizon ZMax factor from 2000 to 2100 (16 km scene.dat). This is troth for GWX scene.dat file. However, the white big spot flickering artifacts is new for me and I have only seen it with your modified scene.dat.

[onelifecrisis]

Interesting. This problem (flickering sun/moon/horizon) is one that I've had since stock. It persists through every mod I've used. I've never seen it mentioned on the forums, and so I had presumed it was a fault with my GC (which has not been quite right ever since I pushed the OC too high about a year ago).

However, if you're getting it too, and you didn't get it before, that means its possibly fixable... :hmm:

Well the good news is I have absolutely no difficulty replicating the problem. :lol:

The bad news is, no setting I've changed has ever gotten rid of it on my machine. :(

BUT, propelled by the conviction that its in one of those settings somewhere, I'll dig deeper and see if I can find the problem! :arrgh!:

Thanks, you can get rid of the white flickering at the horizon by using Nhancer and the black flickering spots by increasing horizon ZMax factor from 2000 to 2100 (16 km scene.dat). This is troth for GWX scene.dat file. However, the white big spot flickering artifacts is new for me and I have only seen it with your modified scene.dat.

Horizon ZMax affects sensors... :-?

Out of curiosity: the black flickering spots... I've never had them... are they in the sky or in the ocean?

[mikaelanderlund]

Interesting. This problem (flickering sun/moon/horizon) is one that I've had since stock. It persists through every mod I've used. I've never seen it mentioned on the forums, and so I had presumed it was a fault with my GC (which has not been quite right ever since I pushed the OC too high about a year ago).

However, if you're getting it too, and you didn't get it before, that means its possibly fixable... :hmm:

Well the good news is I have absolutely no difficulty replicating the problem. :lol:

The bad news is, no setting I've changed has ever gotten rid of it on my machine. :(

BUT, propelled by the conviction that its in one of those settings somewhere, I'll dig deeper and see if I can find the problem! :arrgh!:

Thanks, you can get rid of the white flickering at the horizon by using Nhancer and the black flickering spots by increasing horizon ZMax factor from 2000 to 2100 (16 km scene.dat). This is troth for GWX scene.dat file. However, the white big spot flickering artifacts is new for me and I have only seen it with your modified scene.dat.

Horizon ZMax affects sensors... :-?

Out of curiosity: the black flickering spots... I've never had them... are they in the sky or in the ocean?

Only in the sky. Black artifacts in the sky (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=127154&highlight=black+artifacts)

[onelifecrisis]

Mikael, would you try something please? Look at the sun or moon through the binocs (if looking at the sun it helps if there are partial clouds in the way so you see the actual sun instead of just seeing its halo) and tell me whether or not they still flicker.

[mikaelanderlund]

Mikael, would you try something please? Look at the sun or moon through the binocs (if looking at the sun it helps if there are partial clouds in the way so you see the actual sun instead of just seeing its halo) and tell me whether or not they still flicker.

When looking through the binocs there are no flicker.

[onelifecrisis]

Mikael, would you try something please? Look at the sun or moon through the binocs (if looking at the sun it helps if there are partial clouds in the way so you see the actual sun instead of just seeing its halo) and tell me whether or not they still flicker.

When looking through the binocs there are no flicker.

Thanks.

[mikaelanderlund]

Mikael, would you try something please? Look at the sun or moon through the binocs (if looking at the sun it helps if there are partial clouds in the way so you see the actual sun instead of just seeing its halo) and tell me whether or not they still flicker.

When looking through the binocs there are no flicker.

Thanks.

I hope you can solve the problem. I can live with the flickering sun but the white flashing spots/triangles in the sky near the horizon is more annoying. Do you have these flashing spots? I can see it clearly in overcast near horizon. If you need help with testing just let me know.

[onelifecrisis]

Mikael, would you try something please? Look at the sun or moon through the binocs (if looking at the sun it helps if there are partial clouds in the way so you see the actual sun instead of just seeing its halo) and tell me whether or not they still flicker.

When looking through the binocs there are no flicker.

Thanks.

I hope you can solve the problem. I can live with the flickering sun but the white flashing spots/triangles in the sky near the horizon is more annoying. Do you have these flashing spots? I can see it clearly in overcast near horizon. If you need help with testing just let me know.

Yes but I've always had them since stock.

Thanks, I might email you some files to test :up:

[Phoenix3000]

Hi guys!

I'm now experiencing something rather odd with this mod.

Yesterday I posted (in this thread) that I had the Medium version running with AF and AA on maximum and I was getting steady framerates to 60fps since using the nHancer program too.

However....

I didn't use the laptop much during the afternoon, but by evening I started the laptop and loaded up SH3 again. This time however it suffered! Fps was down to 12-15 on a calm sea with no cloud etc.

Closing SH3 I checked nHancer and nothing had changed there, so I decided to install the Low version of OLCE to see if that helped it - I figured if it ran smooth in Low res then it was the graphics settings - no difference! Fps was again down to between 10 to 15 fps...

I then disabled all settings from nHancer and ran the mod 'clean' - still no luck. Fps had only increased to 20-25fps and slowed down in heavy seas. I was always able to hold a steady 60fps at all times before regardless of what was happening on-screen (60 is the refresh rate of the laptop LCD and using vert-sync I get 'smooth' screen movement).

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm at a loss to figure this out, its only when using OLCE. Remove it via JSGME the fps jump back to normal levels.

If anyone has used nHancer can they specify what settings they have used for nVidia graphics cards? Mine has 512MB, the laptop is running 4GB with Intel Centrino Dual-Core etc. As I mentioned to OLC before, I'm able to play games such as Flight Simulator X Deluxe with High Detail, Steelbeasts Pro PE close to max settings and even first-person shooters like Brothers in Arms (all versions) at maximum graphics levels - even online play, yet SH3 is playing me up....

Cheers guys, any help is appreciated!

Px3000

[mikaelanderlund]

Hi guys!

I'm now experiencing something rather odd with this mod.

Yesterday I posted (in this thread) that I had the Medium version running with AF and AA on maximum and I was getting steady framerates to 60fps since using the nHancer program too.

However....

I didn't use the laptop much during the afternoon, but by evening I started the laptop and loaded up SH3 again. This time however it suffered! Fps was down to 12-15 on a calm sea with no cloud etc.

Closing SH3 I checked nHancer and nothing had changed there, so I decided to install the Low version of OLCE to see if that helped it - I figured if it ran smooth in Low res then it was the graphics settings - no difference! Fps was again down to between 10 to 15 fps...

I then disabled all settings from nHancer and ran the mod 'clean' - still no luck. Fps had only increased to 20-25fps and slowed down in heavy seas. I was always able to hold a steady 60fps at all times before regardless of what was happening on-screen (60 is the refresh rate of the laptop LCD and using vert-sync I get 'smooth' screen movement).

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm at a loss to figure this out, its only when using OLCE. Remove it via JSGME the fps jump back to normal levels.

If anyone has used nHancer can they specify what settings they have used for nVidia graphics cards? Mine has 512MB, the laptop is running 4GB with Intel Centrino Dual-Core etc. As I mentioned to OLC before, I'm able to play games such as Flight Simulator X Deluxe with High Detail, Steelbeasts Pro PE close to max settings and even first-person shooters like Brothers in Arms (all versions) at maximum graphics levels - even online play, yet SH3 is playing me up....

Cheers guys, any help is appreciated!

Px3000

SHIII is a challenge when using GFX 8800:cry: . Try this link for Nvida setting Nvidia tweaks to SH3/SH4 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=128517) .

[onelifecrisis]

Px3k, I have to ask... did you try a simple reboot?

[onelifecrisis]

I found the problem. Inadequate z-buffering in SH3 IMO. At any rate I can eliminate the flickering by adding more of a gap between the sky and the clouds and the sun/moon and the fog... but this has other effects besides stopping the flicker...

I'll keep you posted.

[Marko_Ramius]

Hi, OLC.

I made an entire patrol with OLCE Medium, and let me tell you something --> OUSTANDING :rock:


The night is just perfect for me ! ( i was a bit anxious with the "too dark" thing). It's beautiful, really.



When a ship is spotted at long distance, it's amazing to see it coming threw binocs, i don't really know how to explain this in english, but it seems so realistic to me, :rock:
OUSTANDING !!


And what say about the water rendering ? Well : OUTSTANDING :o :rock: We are on the ocean ; Great, great work :up:



As Michael said, i confirm the whites artefacts on horizon and on the moon ( i have a 8800GTS). Before, with stock GWX 16K, it was exactly those artefacts, but they were black. I tried the tweak ( 2100 for "horizon") with your mod, and it seems to work well, but it remains somes artefacts, howewer, a lot less than GWX stock, and the visible difference from GWX is they became white .. Odd.

You said this setting ( horizon) change the sensor, what can we expect in using 2100 ?



For the FPS hit : Is it possible to make a version just between the Low and Medium one ?

Cause with Medium, the rendering is perfect, but i have a few stutters sometimes ( same in SH4 :damn:). After a lot of testing, i think it's because of Vsync, and when the FPS have to go down 60 ( the fps go from 60 to 30 very, very quicly). This make a kind of Yo-Yo and gives stutters.

In the Low Version, the FPS is a lot better. But the water rendering is a bit to "near" the U-boat, it's obvious in heavy seas. ( And when we have seen the higher version, it's difficult to rollback !!)

It's just a suggest, but if you can do it easily, it would be great.



http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/%5BURL=http://imageshack.us%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img98.imageshack.us/img98/1737/olc2vx3.jpg%5B/IMG%5D%5B/URL%5D

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/%5BURL=http://imageshack.us%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2716/olc3lh9.jpg%5B/IMG%5D%5B/URL%5D

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/%5BURL=http://imageshack.us%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img377.imageshack.us/img377/9779/olc1jn4.jpg%5B/IMG%5D%5B/URL%5D

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/%5BURL=http://imageshack.us%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img377.imageshack.us/img377/2728/olc4eb4.jpg%5B/IMG%5D%5B/URL%5D


Again, a ton of thanks, so great work :up:

[Adriatico]

:hmm:
Dear OLC,
Since your long awaited best-seller " What should each wrench-thower know on brightening the Alpha night" is indefinitely postponed, due to your tight time schedule:

Is there anything that feable-minded artist could do with his MiniTweaker
or
it is "don't try this at home" procedure...?

In that case, hope that you keep up your promise, to e-mail it to me next Christmas...
My granny will confirm that I am a god boy and I behave myself,

Little Adriatico

:yep: :ping: :yep: :ping:

[mikaelanderlund]

I found the problem. Inadequate z-buffering in SH3 IMO. At any rate I can eliminate the flickering by adding more of a gap between the sky and the clouds and the sun/moon and the fog... but this has other effects besides stopping the flicker...

I'll keep you posted.

Cool:up: . I hope you can fix it. I'm sure you can:rock:

Mikael

[Phoenix3000]

Px3k, I have to ask... did you try a simple reboot?

Yep, forgot to mention that.

Each time SH3 is the same.... very odd.

Px3000

PS, I can test this again tonight - had to cut short the St.Paddy's day drink up! Monday night! - not a good day to do it...

[onelifecrisis]

OUSTANDING :rock:

Wow, thanks! :sunny:

You said this setting ( horizon) change the sensor, what can we expect in using 2100 ?

Glad someone asked. :lol:

You know how 16km doubles all the sensor ranges? Or to put it another way, it adds 100% to the sensor ranges. That's because it increases the ZMax from 1000 to 2000. If you increase it to 2100, it's like adding another 10% on to the sensor range, so the mod becomes a "16.8km" mod if you like, except that's not entirely accurate... but you get the idea.

It also affects the fogging in the same way (+10%).

The catch is, your visual range won't change at all because it is clipped. So you crew can see a bit further, and the enemy ships can see a bit further, and things get "fog coloured" a bit further away, but the maximum clipping distance remains the same. This isn't such a problem in terms of spotting distances because your crew are normally a bit blind anyway, but it's a problem graphically because instead of a ship gradually fading into the fog it will almost fade into the fog and then suddenly vanish.

+100 onto ZMax is a small enough increment that this probably won't be very noticable. It even depends to some extent on your style of play. Early in the war I like to shadow convoys right at the edge of visual range, so for me it's important that they fade in and out of the fog properly, rather than popping in and out noticably... but otherwise, I'd rarely (if ever) see a ship actually coming in/out of the horizon haze.

For the FPS hit : Is it possible to make a version just between the Low and Medium one ?

Cause with Medium, the rendering is perfect, but i have a few stutters sometimes ( same in SH4 :damn:). After a lot of testing, i think it's because of Vsync, and when the FPS have to go down 60 ( the fps go from 60 to 30 very, very quicly). This make a kind of Yo-Yo and gives stutters.

Yes that's exactly the cause (60-30-60 with VSync). Normally you would be able to fix this by forcing Triple Buffering, but unfortunately SH3 won't even run with Triple Buffering enabled. Anyway, yes, I'll be releasing an update at some point and I think the Medium and High detail levels will be reduced a bit, since it seems even monster machines can't run the current High detail setting!

In the meantime, if you want to DIY, al you need to change is the LODfactor (lower it a bit) :up:

[Hitman]

Well just tested it on a new patrol in my Monsoon Boat, and I must say: AMAZING :up: :up:

SH3 environment never looked that good :yep: The horizon is perfect, the night is fantastic, and I love the way everything changes in colour when teh weather changes. Very true to life, as seawater just reflects what's above. The storm is incredibly good, and the storm nights are now frightening :o you can't help feeling a bit scared as you really have that sense of being there :ping:

There are however minor things I'd like to point out (Not all are critics necessarily, just observations):

1) In my 8800 GTS I also see those damned artifacts, black (fewer) and white.

2) The load on the FPS is noticeable. In my rig (Pentium IV Dual Core 2.66 with 2GB RAM and the 8800 GTS card) I went from 100+ fps to 50-60. Obviously, that's still a good figure to play, but compared with the original one it's a big impact. Never mind, I have no problems with it, but others with less powerful machines....:hmm:

Aside from that, it looks lovely and I believe it's quite good for the North Atlantic, specially when you have bad weather -which in SH3 is quite usual- :damn: . In the Indian Ocean (Mediterranean, mid atlantic, etc.) however I would like to have a version that looks more blue when there are puffy clouds. The way the sea reflects the colour of the sky is nice, but in those intermediate situations when teh sky is clouded but weather is fair, it becomes a bit too greyish for tropical waters IMHO.

Note however that this is just pure nit-picking :p but you are responsable for this! The level of your mod is so high and the result is so cool, that you must be a real nit-picker to find something to be improved on it :lol: :up:

[onelifecrisis]

Px3k, I have to ask... did you try a simple reboot?

Yep, forgot to mention that.

Each time SH3 is the same.... very odd.

Px3000

PS, I can test this again tonight - had to cut short the St.Paddy's day drink up! Monday night! - not a good day to do it...

Hmm, I don't know what to tell you mate... I mean, you said it worked this morning, but not this afternoon... and the thing is, my mod hasn't changed during that time. You see what I'm saying. I would love to say "I'm all over it!" but in truth I don't have a clue why it worked for you this morning and not this afternoon. :-?

It does sound like your GC doesn't get on with SH3 very well, and my mod somehow makes this worse for you... but that's a hardware/drivers issue, not something I can fix. :(

[onelifecrisis]

In the Indian Ocean (Mediterranean, mid atlantic, etc.) however I would like to have a version that looks more blue when there are puffy clouds. The way the sea reflects the colour of the sky is nice, but in those intermediate situations when teh sky is clouded but weather is fair, it becomes a bit too greyish for tropical waters IMHO.

You're not the first to say, and after some playtesting I'm beginning to agree. I still think partial clouds should grey the water a bit, but I think I might have overdone it a tad.

Thankfully all the colours are in a spreadsheet, so I just change one formula and it all recalculates. :D Then I copy, paste, copy, paste... :shifty:

[onelifecrisis]

What should each wrench-thower know on brightening the Alpha night

You can use the OLCE EnvColor.dat files with alpha [Edit: on second thoughts, that might cause problems... I don't advise it]... or, you can open the EnvColor.dat files yourself and go through the colours setting them as you please. There are 882 colours in total, each comprised of three numbers between 0 and 255 (Red, Green, Blue) but don't worry - only 126 of them make up the "dark night" time. ;)

[Hitman]

I still think partial clouds should grey the water a bit, but I think I might have overdone it a tad.


You put it in the right words :up: However, the current configuration is IMHO still the best for the North Atlantic :yep: so don't drop it, just add new versions for different areas. In the end, I think that doing three different environment colours (Arctic, Atlantic, Tropical) will be the best solution, much better than any intermediate compromises :hmm: After all, 99% of the careers just play in one sea, so it's a matter of selecting the proper environment and enjoy :up: :up:

[mikaelanderlund]

Yes, the stormy water in the North Atlantic is very dark and grey and frightening so please don't change it.

[onelifecrisis]

I still think partial clouds should grey the water a bit, but I think I might have overdone it a tad.


You put it in the right words :up: However, the current configuration is IMHO still the best for the North Atlantic :yep: so don't drop it, just add new versions for different areas. In the end, I think that doing three different environment colours (Arctic, Atlantic, Tropical) will be the best solution, much better than any intermediate compromises :hmm: After all, 99% of the careers just play in one sea, so it's a matter of selecting the proper environment and enjoy :up: :up:

But that's just it... OLCE does have three different sets of colours already! One for each "ocean group" :yep:

Each med colour is different from each atlantic colour... although in some cases, the difference is subtle. Because of the aforementioned "grey" effect, it's probably easiest to see the difference on a clear day. But trust me, no two colours are the same. ;)

[onelifecrisis]

Yes, the stormy water in the North Atlantic is very dark and grey and frightening so please don't change it.

No plans to change clear-weather colours.
No plans to change overcast-weather colours.

:up:

I'm just going to push partially-overcast colours a little bit closer to those of clear weather i.e. less "grey"

[Hitman]

Yes I readed that before, but IIRC it won't work in campaign mode :damn: only in single missions. So, to have a campaign in the mediterranean or indian ocean as you intended it to be, wouldn't we need a separate version for each one? :hmm: (That's what I was trying to highlight)

[onelifecrisis]

Yes I readed that before, but IIRC it won't work in campaign mode :damn: only in single missions. So, to have a campaign in the mediterranean or indian ocean as you intended it to be, wouldn't we need a separate version for each one? :hmm: (That's what I was trying to highlight)

I believe SH3 commander fixes the problem... IIRC according to JScones it looks at your start location each patrol and tells SH3 which colour files to use.

[onelifecrisis]

I've looked into it and I can see four options.

1) Go back to the old, ugly 16km horizon. :-?
2) Make a new 16km horizon which is not as nice as the one I have now, but is nicer than the old 16km horizon. The problem here is that will hurt the framerate even more, so this option is a no-go I think.
3) Leave it as it is. :nope:
4) This one is complicated but to put it in a nutshell, I could make OLCE a 15km mod instead of 16km. This is the option I prefer.

With option #4, I could use that extra 1km to add extra space between the sky (which is a dome), the clouds (another, smaller dome, which is "inside" the sky dome), the sun and moon (which sit between the clouds and the sky) and the fog (which sits on the surface of the ocean). The horizon flicker is the fog "touching" with the cloud due to z-buffer problems, and the sun/moon flicker is the sun/moon "touching" the sky in the same way. In fact they don't touch, there is already space between them, but they are so far away that the hyper-z calculations are innacurate at that range.

This is not a problem in the GWX 16km Mod because they got rid of the horizon haze (the "fog" I mentioned) which meant they had only 3 layers (sky, sun/moon, cloud) instead of 4, and thus more space between the layers. By re-introducing the fog and "bunching up" the layers, I've confused the z-buffer.

What do you think, anyone?

[Progrocker]

Im using this 16 km mod version with GWX 16km atmosphere. I have read here, that the GWX 16 km atmosphere mod should be disabled when im using this mod. So are they compatible or not? :hmm:

[Knipper]

Just a quick (but very deserved) thanks and a tip o' the hat to OLC for the latest mod. It's awesome. Just wish I had the gear to run the hi-def version without it flickering. Still, maybe I can tweak up this Radeon X1600, if only I can work out how :88). But yes OLC, respect man, respect. :rock: :rock: :rock:

[Erich Topp]

Hello OLC. Great mod - I was waiting a lot to install it. Very, very impressive. However, some small questions - what exactly changed in particles.dat, torpedo.dat etc. What about dat files in Library folder? I am asking, 'cause I have few other mods and my own tweaks, which confronts with new ones. Maybe it also will be , but I will be very thankful if you can clear this a little bit more bright)) There is nothing said about torpedo effects (for example) on the 1st page)

[onelifecrisis]

Hello OLC. Great mod - I was waiting a lot to install it. Very, very impressive. However, some small questions - what exactly changed in particles.dat, torpedo.dat etc. What about dat files in Library folder? I am asking, 'cause I have few other mods and my own tweaks, which confronts with new ones. Maybe it also will be , but I will be very thankful if you can clear this a little bit more bright)) There is nothing said about torpedo effects (for example) on the 1st page)

The only thing that changed in the Library folder is the GlobalColorScale of a lot of bitmap particle generators. If you want to know more, send me a PM :up:

[Marko_Ramius]

Thanks for the precisions on the Sensor range and the "horizon" setting :up:

About the clipping, i didn't see some in my patrol using 2100 (at last when the weather was " Visual moderate", not sure for other state) The ships on the horizon was fading correctly.


yes, I'll be releasing an update at some point and I think the Medium and High detail levels will be reduced a bit, since it seems even monster machines can't run the current High detail setting!
Nice :D I was amazed when i tried the high one ( the first i tried), cause with a 8800GTS and a Core2 6750 @ 3,2 and in Lorient base, i had 15 FPS :o A bit surprised :rotfl:


What do you think, anyone?
Well the 4 seems to be a good idea :up: Might be some work for you, though. If the gameplay is not affected seriously, it could be a good way to go.

[NAZ2222]

Well I just want to congratulate OLC for his amazing work, I tested the Alpha and the Beta, and each time I was amazed by what this 3 year old game could look like, with some of "magic"!

It is a must have mod for all the SH3 players out there, it adds so mutch more to the feeling of the sea.:yep:

Superb Work OLC:rock: ,
whats next? realtime hull deformation perhaps... :p

[Adriatico]

In the Indian Ocean (Mediterranean, mid atlantic, etc.) however I would like to have a version that looks more blue when there are puffy clouds. The way the sea reflects the colour of the sky is nice, but in those intermediate situations when teh sky is clouded but weather is fair, it becomes a bit too greyish for tropical waters IMHO.

You're not the first to say, and after some playtesting I'm beginning to agree. I still think partial clouds should grey the water a bit, but I think I might have overdone it a tad.

Thankfully all the colours are in a spreadsheet, so I just change one formula and it all recalculates. :D Then I copy, paste, copy, paste... :shifty:

That is the first impression on my LCD, some clouds at normal sky should not eliminate sea color that much.
It is overdane... even for the North Atlantic.
:yep:

[onelifecrisis]

Thanks to all for the feedback. I really like the mod and I'm really glad that some of you do too :)

About the clipping, i didn't see some in my patrol using 2100 (at last when the weather was " Visual moderate", not sure for other state) The ships on the horizon was fading correctly.

It would only happen in clear weather (presumably called something like "Visibility Excellent" in GWX2).

[bobchase]

Taking the external camera up very high view will certainly kill the framerate, but you shouldn't have any FPS trouble at all through the scope. :hmm:

Is the scope fps low when zoomed in, or when zoomed out, or both?

Cheers,
OLC
OLC,
I will try the both medium & high detail 16 km versions this coming weekend and report back to you. I get home too late from work to play SH3 during the week anymore. :damn:

Bob

[Adriatico]

Just a general observation OLC,

If you mark intensity of changes (Alpha > BetaM) as index 100, I am deeply conviced that it should be 60-65.

Many things are overdone...

***

In a Bismarck mission, for some reason, contrast between sea color and your sea foam (wave textures) is "turned down" too much...

I've been personally sailing in a various cloudy storms, and waves foam was damn visible at cloudy overcast sky... it was even flying around.

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/8031/233gt1.jpg

Stormy sea in betaM simply lacks some contrast - to have such a wind and waves, in a few grey tones... ?

Grey is OK for a cloudy storm but it has to be a bit darker, compared to your foam textures...

As a most "supporting" observation... overdone.

(haven't tried 16km...)

[onelifecrisis]

Well, at least some of that was constructive Adriatico :p

Overcast conditions are very tricky because SH3 uses the exact same colours for overcast/light-fog as it does for overcast/heavy-fog. If I add too much contrast then heavy fog looks silly. But I do think the wave textures could do with a small tweak.

Also, keep in mind that
a) Bismarck mission takes place in only moderate wind (9m/s or maybe 10)
b) SH3 seems to actually model, to some degree, the build-up of waves over a time period. I'm still trying to work out how it does this, but if you have clear weather and suddenly the sky goes overcast and the wind picks up to 15m/s, the waves will not instantly jump to maximum size... they seem to take many hours to gradually build up.

[Adriatico]

I am "visuals maniac"... and you will hardly find people that care more about your mod, or any other visual enhancement...

I said many times that your "wave textures" improved SH3 as a "10 miles step"... so it was sad to see them washed-out in "Bismarck"... compared to Alpha.

* * *
I understand your technical explanation, so (maybe) we should compare how frequently heavy fog environment appears in SH3 engine - compared to other variety of "cloudy-windy conditions".
Should cloudy waves togather be sacrified to a heavy fog... is it worth it?
:hmm:

[onelifecrisis]

I'm going to post an updated version in about an hour, but before I do I wanted to post a discovery.

ATI users, enable Geometry Instancing on your graphics card!

I had this enabled already and didn't realise what a huge difference it was making to the framerate. If you're one of the people that's getting single digit framerates, this might be the cause. In one test, my average FPS went from 9 to 32.

[onelifecrisis]

Hi all,

I've made the following changes to OLCE:

Fixed flickering sun.
Fixed flickering moon.
Fixed flickering horizon.
Tweaked fog effects.
Tweaked wave generation variables.
The mod now comes in one version, not six.*
Atlantic colours are now used in all oceans.**
Tweaked "partial cloud" colours.***
Tweaked "overcast" colours.****
Tweaked before-sunset/after-sunrise colours.Thanks for all the feedback, and thanks to Mikael for testing the flicker fixes.

See post #1 for an updated download link, and please read the updated installation instructions!

OLC :ping:



* OLCE is now 16km with a detail level roughly equal to the previously released "16km Medium Detail" version, but with several improvements and fixes to both the detail level and the framerate. If anyone is actually using 8km, let me know and I'll release an 8km version.

** I found some problems with the Mediterranean and Arctic colours, so for now the Atlantic colours are used everywhere.

*** The "partial cloud" colours are a tiny bit less grey than before.

**** The "overcast" colours don't go quite so purple at sunrise/sunset (though still a bit) and I overhauled the lighting - this doesn't look massively different but the wave textures will show up better.

[Sailor Steve]

Gee and here I was about to experiment with disabling other mods, like Racerboy's u-boat smoke.

On the other hand, I have ATI and I can't find anything that tells me what GC or Geometry Instancing are, much less how to change it.:88)

[onelifecrisis]

Gee and here I was about to experiment with disabling other mods, like Racerboy's u-boat smoke.

On the other hand, I have ATI and I can't find anything that tells me what GC or Geometry Instancing are, much less how to change it.:88)

GC=Graphics Card :) (maybe I should edit that :hmm:)

Geometry Instancing should be somewhere in your 3D settings (in the Catalyst Control Center) if your card supports it. :up:

[Sailor Steve]

OLC took the time to find out I needed to update my Graphics Card's drivers. Now I can see what he's talking about, and tomorrow I'll see if it helps.

Thanks, mon.:rock:

[schnorchel]

Wow, great work!:up: dose this MOD compatible with real weather fix MOD?

[onelifecrisis]

Wow, great work!:up: dose this MOD compatible with real weather fix MOD?

yes

[Paco]

Great work,

thanks OLC,
Paco.

[bert8for3]

... On the other hand, I have ATI and I can't find anything that tells me what GC or Geometry Instancing are, much less how to change it.:88)

GC=Graphics Card :) (maybe I should edit that :hmm:)

Geometry Instancing should be somewhere in your 3D settings (in the Catalyst Control Center) if your card supports it. :up:

I've found it under 3D settings/more settings/Direct3D settings. On mine it's ticked but greyed out. The "live" one is "Support DXT texture formats" whatever that means. Then there's "alternate pixel center" which is live but not ticked.

[Adriatico]

Well... I'm using 8km, but if its only me... can live without it.

:ping:

[Phoenix3000]

Hi OLC,

I just logged in to say I found what caused the slowdowns after using your mod for a few days and SH3 tweaked with nHancer.

Very occasionally, the Dot1XCfg.exe service has been stopping. When that isn't running nHancer fails.... hence the problems! :damn:

Now I know what it is, I'm running smooth again :lol:

And I also notice a new version of OLCE available - Excellent!! :up:

I'll download that tonight when I get away from the office.

Cheers!!

Px3000

[Adriatico]

First time in 16km... you pushed me... :o

Again, Giblartar mission...

Not bad mate, maritime colors again :up:

Against sunlight view:
http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/1868/olc1or1.jpg

From sunlight view:
http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/2204/olc2re0.jpg

Live sea again :up: :yep:
...still prefer reflections in Alpha (Did you change Wave amplitudes ?)

Bismarck: cloudy-windy... Five stars mate, maybe the best so far, live Atlantic ocean:

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/9571/olc3zz4.jpg

Five stars ***** :yep:

:up: :up: :up:

Night... not that good:

Overall feeling is "NON OLC"... Reality feeling is lost.
- Uderwater visibility unreal
- Light coms from below (shining bottom surfaces of U-boat ?)
- original reality feeling is lost - looks like colored GWX sky and horizon, with sky too dark and shining water

( If you could only "lighten" Alpha night...) :ping:

Hope that first impresion was constructive...

Thanks for your "visuals" research Maestro!

[onelifecrisis]

You certainly have a way of putting things, Adriatico.
BTW, before you complain... sunset colours still need one small fix (water colour is too grey) which is coming very soon.

Now to answer your comments...


Wave amplitudes are the same in the release version as they are in GWX, however I did play with them at one point during dev so its possible that the Alpha had different wave amps (I can't actually remember for sure).
Low underwater visibility at night is needed for the scope fix. Personally I don't consider this a "sacrifice" since I like the darkness underwater at night. This won't change.
Night light coming from below might be fixed... I have an idea or two for that... but as it is now it is quite acceptable to me (nowhere near as bad as normal GWX - I can't believe you said "now its like GWX" :roll: - but admittedly it's still not perfect). This is low priority.
If you say "Alpha" one more time, I swear I will put you on ignore. :pOLC

[Graf Paper]

OLC, I just downloaded and unzipped your update. I've noticed there are no seperate folders for High, Medium, and Low.

Since your discovery about the "Geometry Instancing" feature, has this made the need for the High, Medium, and Low versions unnecessary? :-?

"Geometry Instancing" is a feature in my ATI Control Panel but, like bert8for3, mine is checked and greyed out. My vid card is a Radeon x1650 Pro 512MB AGP with the 7.10 drivers and the 7.2 AGP workaround (ati3duag.dll 6.14.10.510).

I have yet to try this mod as it seems you're releasing a new version every time I try to merge it with Real Weather Fix, Increased ASW, and Lite Harbor Traffic. Nevertheless I'm still looking forward to using it and very excited about the improvements it adds. :yep:

[Myxale]

Not there is no low/medium/high anymore!

[onelifecrisis]

OLC, I just downloaded and unzipped your update. I've noticed there are no seperate folders for High, Medium, and Low.

Since your discovery about the "Geometry Instancing" feature, has this made the need for the High, Medium, and Low versions unnecessary? :-?

"Geometry Instancing" is a feature in my ATI Control Panel but, like bert8for3, mine is checked and greyed out. My vid card is a Radeon x1650 Pro 512MB AGP with the 7.10 drivers and the 7.2 AGP workaround (ati3duag.dll 6.14.10.510).

I have yet to try this mod as it seems you're releasing a new version every time I try to merge it with Real Weather Fix, Increased ASW, and Lite Harbor Traffic. Nevertheless I'm still looking forward to using it and very excited about the improvements it adds. :yep:

Well another update is coming soon :lol:
There is now just one detail level as Myxale said. Nobody could run high, even with monster machines, and low had graphical problems, so I settled on Medium (actually its an altered version of Medium which looks better than the previously released one and has several tweaks to improve the framerate in situations where previously it would nose-dive).

And yes, Geometry Instancing will make a big difference to ATI players who didn't have it turned on. That said, if yours is checked and greyed out then I guess it's "always on" for your card.

HTH
OLC

[Graf Paper]

Thanks for the info, Myxale. :)

I managed to backtrack by several posts and read the fine print in OLC's post about the update.

This is to let you know I'm one of those 8km players, OLC. My machine may be able to support 16km, but I have my doubts. My hardware setup would be considered low-end by the standards of the average system SH3 players use today, an Athlon 2.4Ghz CPU with 333Mhz FSB, 2GB DDR333 RAM, 250GB UltraATA 133 7000rpm HDD, and that x1650 vid card mentioned before.

Anyone else with a similar setup that runs SH3+GWX with 16km distance or is 8km the limit for such computers?

[Knipper]

[Repost]
Hi OLC, re our discussion on lightning, here are some pix of it:

http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/2197/lightning3iu5.th.jpg (http://img377.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lightning3iu5.jpg)
http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/8195/lightning1gl1.th.jpg (http://img377.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lightning1gl1.jpg)
http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/3199/lightning2ad5.th.jpg (http://img377.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lightning2ad5.jpg)
I managed to capture these stills. I could let you have an avi if you like, but I think these show the problem well enough. You can see the irregular shapes quite clearly. I have seen much larger ones but they wouldn't appear when I had the screen recorder running of course (sod's law). As I mentioned in pm though, the lightning forks appear accurately, no problem there. I get the impression though that these odd shapes are designed to reproduce reflected lightning on clouds, or maybe lightning behind clouds. I'm no expert though.

My system (the bits that matter):
P4 3GHz
1GB RAM
ATI Raedon X1650 with AA, AF & GI enabled.

My active mods list:
GWX - Alternate Loadscreen - Full Circle
GWX - Lite Harbor Traffic
GWX - No Medals on Crew
OLC GUI for GWX 2.0 (1.1.5)
OLC Improved Wave Textures
Type IIA Camo_Graf_GWX2
U-boat
GWX - Main movie - 'Das Boot'
GWX - Late War Sensors Snorkel Antennas
GWX - 16km Atmosphere with OLC Night Sky Fix
The above arrangement works flawlessly, RL has prevented me from testing the low and high res versions, ditto trying it on anything other than the GWX Narvik mission (need to find a storm somewhere), but I will when I get some free time.

The problem ocurrs when I replace GWX - 16km Atmosphere, OLC Night Sky Fix with the new OLC Environment. i.e.

GWX - Alternate Loadscreen - Full Circle
GWX - Lite Harbor Traffic
GWX - No Medals on Crew
OLC GUI for GWX 2.0 (1.1.5)
OLC Improved Wave Textures
Type IIA Camo_Graf_GWX2
U-boat
GWX - Main movie - 'Das Boot'
GWX - Late War Sensors Snorkel Antennas
OLC 16km Environment (Medium Detail)

This is the set-up where it happens.



Hope this helps.

[onelifecrisis]

Thanks for the info, Myxale. :)

I managed to backtrack by several posts and read the fine print in OLC's post about the update.

This is to let you know I'm one of those 8km players, OLC. My machine may be able to support 16km, but I have my doubts. My hardware setup would be considered low-end by the standards of the average system SH3 players use today, an Athlon 2.4Ghz CPU with 333Mhz FSB, 2GB DDR333 RAM, 250GB UltraATA 133 7000rpm HDD, and that x1650 vid card mentioned before.

Anyone else with a similar setup that runs SH3+GWX with 16km distance or is 8km the limit for such computers?

Well your machine is much better than mine (2.6GHz Athlon with X800) and mine manages fine, so I'd say give it a try. And be sure to read my GC tips on post #1.

I don't want to release a lot of updates for this mod; I consider it very nearly finished as it is (assuming no more glitches are reported) so when the final version is released (should be soon) I will release an 8km version. Until then, sticking to one version allows me to find and fix problems faster.

[onelifecrisis]

GWX - Alternate Loadscreen - Full Circle
GWX - Lite Harbor Traffic
GWX - No Medals on Crew
OLC GUI for GWX 2.0 (1.1.5)
OLC Improved Wave Textures
Type IIA Camo_Graf_GWX2
U-boat
GWX - Main movie - 'Das Boot'
GWX - Late War Sensors Snorkel Antennas
OLC 16km Environment (Medium Detail)

is the set-up where it happens.



Hope this helps.

Looks like you've not downloaded my latest update. There's a new version available - it should fix the problem. :up:

[Phoenix3000]

Hi OLC,

OK, as mentioned on my previous post I downloaded the new release tonight and installed it.

I also used exactly the same nHancer profile settings as before, but....

FPS has dropped considerably again (having checked, the Dot1XCfg and nHancer services were both running). Standing on the bridge they were as low as 15fps on a calm sea with nothing around. Raising the camera it dropped below 10.

I tried the flak training mission - planes literally stuttered past!

I just don't get it - I had your previous Medium Detail version running smoothy - and from the bridge that kept more-or-less a constant 60fps.

Very strange. Each time I reloaded SH3 tonight (and rebooted) it was the same, with or without the nHancer tweaks. Something isn't agreeing with my system that's for sure!

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Cheers all, and Goodnight!

Px3000

[onelifecrisis]

Hi OLC,

OK, as mentioned on my previous post I downloaded the new release tonight and installed it.

I also used exactly the same nHancer profile settings as before, but....

FPS has dropped considerably again (having checked, the Dot1XCfg and nHancer services were both running). Stanfing on the bridge they were as low as 15fps on a calm sea with nothing around.

I tried the flak training mission - planes literally stuttered past!

I just don't get it - I had your previous Medium Detail version running smoothy - and from the bridge that a constant 60fps.

Very strange. Each time I reloaded SH3 tonight (and rebooted) it was the same, with or without the nHancer tweaks. Something isn't agreeing with my system that's for sure!

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Cheers all!

Px3000

If anyone else is getting low FPS, please say so, and state your system specs!

Px3k,

What are your AA and AF settings?

[onelifecrisis]

I've posted another update. Exactly the same as the one I posted this morning, but with tweaked sunset colours. Here's a preview (I like the sun reflection much better now!)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3082/2346592356_deaab20661.jpg

That's the last update for a while, cos I'm off on holiday.

I hope you like it :)

OLC

[Phoenix3000]

Hi OLC,

Running nHancer without any AA or AF it still drops to 15fps with the release I got earlier (before your announcement above) - I'll try that one too.

Previously I was using Multisampling AA at 4x and AF at 16x.

Both Supersampling and Combined AA gave a few stutters, but Multisampling is fine.

Cheers mate! Have a good holiday, and put your feet up!

Px3000

[d@rk51d3]

That's the last update for a while, cos I'm off on holiday.

OLC

Have a great one M8. :up:

[onelifecrisis]

Hi OLC,

Running nHancer without any AA or AF it still drops to 15fps with the release I got earlier (before your announcement above) - I'll try that one too.

Previously I was using Multisampling AA at 4x and AF at 16x.

Both Supersampling and Combined AA gave a few stutters, but Multisampling is fine.

Cheers mate!

Px3000

Criminey.

This new update shouldn't be any different in terms of FPS (although with your machine, you never know!!! :roll:)

It doesn't help that I use ATI and am unfamiliar with nVidia settings, nHancer, and all that stuff. All I can suggest is, play around with the settings and let me know what happens. If you find a setting, any setting, which improves FPS (even if it looks awful) let me know, cos it will give me a clue what's causing the stutter.

[ReallyDedPoet]

That's the last update for a while, cos I'm off on holiday.



Have a good one OLC :yep:


RDP

[Phoenix3000]

OLC,

I'll do some more playing around over the weekend all going well and let you know the outcome.

Have a good one! :up:

Px3000

[onelifecrisis]

Thanks RDP/Darkside/Px3k, I will! :)

Px3k,

Try this (http://rapidshare.com/files/100840598/scene.dat.html) alternative scene.dat, it may help.

[Graf Paper]

Thank you very much for your speedy response, OLC!

You've given me more confidence to use the 16km version. It ought to be a real treat after spending so long playing at 8km! :D

I can hardly wait for you to finish this true masterpiece. It ought to be a standard feature in GWX 2.1! :rock:

Phoenix3000, there is a bug in SH3 with the particle renderer and nVidia cards that I recall being a problem long ago. The old workaround I remember was to use CTRL+P in game to toggle the renderer on/off. I do not know if this was ever fixed by Ubisoft or the modders.

If you have the latest nVidia drivers installed, you may need to downgrade back to an older version as I have read some posts here and elsewhere that the newer nVidia drivers do not work well either with older cards or older games like SH3.

On the other hand, maybe you do need to upgrade if it's been a while since you updated your drivers. Don't neglect updating other drivers fro you laptop, including the ones made by the laptop manufacturer.

You should also check to make sure you have not picked up a trojan or spyware that is hiding in the background and eating up resources. Also make sure nothing like scheduled tasks (disk cleanup, defrag, etc..) or antivirus is running.

Certain firewalls also do not like SH3.

...Oh! Have a great holiday, OLC!

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Athlon XP 3000+ @1300mhz
1 gb ddr (2x512 333 dual channel)
80gb seagate barracuda
256mb geforce 5700LE
MSI K7N2-Delta MOBO

Less then 10 fps on freecam

With Reece's SH4 scene it was around 60 fps.

Have a great trip! :up:

[Adriatico]

Small misunderstanding...
I wanted to say that night underwater visibility is too clear, should be much darker... :|\\

If waves are the same as GWX, I could tweak them in MiniTweaker to look again like in ...you now what. :lol:

:ping: :ping: :ping:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Small misunderstanding...
I wanted to say that night underwater visibility is too clear, should be much darker... :|\\

If waves are the same as GWX, I could tweak them in MiniTweaker to look again like in ...you now what. :lol:

:ping: :ping: :ping:

Yes, you can use minitweaker to edit the waves to be as high as a building if you want. Actually you can even edit this in a .cfg file. (dont remember which one right now).

And this "darker" or "brighter" thing is complicated. Its too bright on your monitor, on mine its pitch black dark, and this variates too much from one monitor to the other. Besides, if its good enough to OLC, then its settled. After all, you can ajust the brightness of your monitor much easier then for OLC to change it on the mod again. :up:

[Mikhayl]

I almost didn't play SH3 at all except a half-patrol to see the last update, looking great as usual :p. Enjoy your time off !

[onelifecrisis]

Yes, you can use minitweaker to edit the waves to be as high as a building if you want. Actually you can even edit this in a .cfg file. (dont remember which one right now).

Be warned that if you make the waves too big, ships will sink in high seas.

And this "darker" or "brighter" thing is complicated. Its too bright on your monitor, on mine its pitch black dark, and this variates too much from one monitor to the other. Besides, if its good enough to OLC, then its settled. After all, you can ajust the brightness of your monitor much easier then for OLC to change it on the mod again. :up:

There's certainly something to be said for using your monitors brightness setting :yep:

I've actually set OLCE very slightly brighter than I would like, and when I play I turn down my monitor from 50% brightness (default) to 33%, and it looks great. I did this because on most screens its easy for people who find it "too bright" to darken their screens (without losing daytime brightness) but its difficult/impossible for players who find it "too dark" to brighten things up without making it looked washed out.

Anyway, I'm about to start a patrol and, as ever, I will keep in mind your comments while I sail, Adriatico.

[onelifecrisis]

Added to post #1:


I also recommend setting the colour temperature on your monitor to 6500K. This is what it should be set to anyway for entertainment (Games, Movies, etc) but most monitors default to 9300K because that's better for business use. When you first change it things will look odd because you're not used to it. Give it some time before you decide. Google "monitor colour temperature" and you'll likely find all the info you could want on this issue.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Added to post #1:


I also recommend setting the colour temperature on your monitor to 6500K. This is what it should be set to anyway for entertainment (Games, Movies, etc) but most monitors default to 9300K because that's better for business use. When you first change it things will look odd because you're not used to it. Give it some time before you decide. Google "monitor colour temperature" and you'll likely find all the info you could want on this issue.


Im my monitor 6500k looks VERY yellowish. Its normal? The settings for 6500k are R91, G81, B61. Are they correct?

[onelifecrisis]

Added to post #1:


I also recommend setting the colour temperature on your monitor to 6500K. This is what it should be set to anyway for entertainment (Games, Movies, etc) but most monitors default to 9300K because that's better for business use. When you first change it things will look odd because you're not used to it. Give it some time before you decide. Google "monitor colour temperature" and you'll likely find all the info you could want on this issue.


Im my monitor 6500k looks VERY yellowish. Its normal? The settings for 6500k are R91, G81, B61. Are they correct?

The actual RGB values will vary from one monitor to another. My monitor, for example, uses R71 G50 B38 to produce 6500K. Anyway...

It should look "warm" i.e. enhanced reds, oranges, and yellows. Fire up SH3 and look at your crew in the command room, and take particular note of the flesh colours (hands, faces, etc). Your crew should now look like they actually have some blood in their veins. ;)

It's not for everyone, but from everything I've read, 6500K is where your monitor should be set. Most TV's are set to something like that; it's only monitors which are set to the "cool" (blue) 9300K.

BTW a good test (if you're as fussy about this sort of thing as I am) is to get your PC connected to your monitor and TV in "clone" mode (both screens showing the same image) then play a DVD. You will likely find that the monitor looks the same/similar to the TV when set at 6500K, but very different (too blue) at 9300K.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Added to post #1:


I also recommend setting the colour temperature on your monitor to 6500K. This is what it should be set to anyway for entertainment (Games, Movies, etc) but most monitors default to 9300K because that's better for business use. When you first change it things will look odd because you're not used to it. Give it some time before you decide. Google "monitor colour temperature" and you'll likely find all the info you could want on this issue.


Im my monitor 6500k looks VERY yellowish. Its normal? The settings for 6500k are R91, G81, B61. Are they correct?

The actual RGB values will vary from one monitor to another. My monitor, for example, uses R71 G50 B38 to produce 6500K. Anyway...

It should look "warm" i.e. enhanced reds, oranges, and yellows. Fire up SH3 and look at your crew in the command room, and take particular note of the flesh colours (hands, faces, etc). Your crew should now look like they actually have some blood in their veins. ;)

It's not for everyone, but from everything I've read, 6500K is where your monitor should be set. Most TV's are set to something like that; it's only monitors which are set to the "cool" (blue) 9300K.

BTW a good test (if you're as fussy about this sort of thing as I am) is to get your PC connected to your monitor and TV in "clone" mode (both screens showing the same image) then play a DVD. You will likely find that the monitor looks the same/similar to the TV when set at 6500K, but very different (too blue) at 9300K.

I agree on whatever you're saying, but one thing is true. After using 9300k for 10 years or more, its a difficult thing to accept. Weird change. But if its for the best, 6500k it is, from this day foward. Thanks for the tip, OLC!

[onelifecrisis]

Worth a read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D65

[Edward]

onelifecrisis

Just wanted to tell you how much I'm enjoying your latest OLC Environment (the latest Update) :) It's really a very fine piece of work. I think you've got the night sea and sky down perfectly and it really enhances the already great GWX 2.0 SuperMod. You've also done such a great job improving the waves and lighting. I really appreciate your taking the time to keep improving this and get the environment to such an excellent state :cool: Fantastic job!

Edward

[onelifecrisis]

onelifecrisis

Just wanted to tell you how much I'm enjoying your latest OLC Environment (the latest Update) :) It's really a very fine piece of work. I think you've got the night sea and sky down perfectly and it really enhances the already great GWX 2.0 SuperMod. You've also done such a great job improving the waves and lighting. I really appreciate your taking the time to keep improving this and get the environment to such an excellent state :cool: Fantastic job!

Edward

Glad you like it! :D
I'm on patrol right now and I must say, I did good in this latest version! :rotfl:
It's nice to be able to sail without seeing anything which makes me go "Damn, that's not right!" and start fixing.

BTW did you see the (brand new) sunset colours yet? I found a mistake in them and posted another update about 5 hours ago. Big improvement IMO. All the other colours remain unchanged from the version before that.

Cheers
OLC

[d@rk51d3]

OLC, why are you still here? :stare:


Go on........ go enjoy yourself.

:lol:

[onelifecrisis]

OLC, why are you still here? :stare:


Go on........ go enjoy yourself.

:lol:

:lol:

I'm not actually on holiday yet. I leave tomorrow.

Anyway, I am enjoying myself. One medium cargo down... another million to go. :lol:

:rock:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

OLC, why are you still here? :stare:


Go on........ go enjoy yourself.

:lol:

:lol:

I'm not actually on holiday yet. I leave tomorrow.

Anyway, I am enjoying myself. One medium cargo down... another million to go. :lol:

:rock:

thats the spirit!

keep those bastards away from england!

[Adriatico]

Small misunderstanding...
I wanted to say that night underwater visibility is too clear, should be much darker... :|\\

If waves are the same as GWX, I could tweak them in MiniTweaker to look again like in ...you now what. :lol:

:ping: :ping: :ping:

Yes, you can use minitweaker to edit the waves to be as high as a building if you want. Actually you can even edit this in a .cfg file. (dont remember which one right now).

And this "darker" or "brighter" thing is complicated. Its too bright on your monitor, on mine its pitch black dark, and this variates too much from one monitor to the other. Besides, if its good enough to OLC, then its settled. After all, you can ajust the brightness of your monitor much easier then for OLC to change it on the mod again. :up:

* I'm not increasing the waves, to obtain larger fragments of reflection you should decrease the waves amplitudes

**What I meen is - to be less transparent night water, under surface.

There is no way you could see, from some 20 m distance clear image of u-boat submerged - under Atlantic midnight.

:|\\

[Myxale]

If any ATI users here have a few useful tips of useful tweaking tools just share it.
It's good to have a few options left!
----
On a side note!
While testing the beta, I for example had terrible problems with the latest Catalyst Centre. It caused weird card behaviour and made my sys freeze on occasions! Playing OLC mod with it was ocean of bad!
But that settled with the Omega Driver!


And some folks have rather “weak aka greyish” ocean colour wit their ATI cards.
If anyone knows the mojo to improve this please share!

Cheers!


And OLC…enjoy you holydays!:arrgh!:

[Graf Paper]

Guru3d.com is the absolute best authority on tweaking your vid card and using alternative drivers and control panels for nVidia and ATI. They are to vid cards what Subsim is to SH3.

ATI Tray Tools is a favorite alternative to Catalyst Control Center and there are several modded drivers and other tweaks to choose from.

Whether you use nVidia or ATI, Guru3D has tons of useful info as well.

[moscowexile]

I have had nightmarish problems with graphics since upgrading at the New Year when I bought a Saphire ATI Radeon HD2600 Pro card. Never again shall I purchase ATI, though I've been loyal to them for several years up to now.

Problem is, AGP versions from HD2600 up are not officially supported by ATI! It seems that it's up to the 3rd party makers to put on their sites the drivers with the updated .inf files so that the card is recognised! So for the past 2 months I've been downloading "hotfix" drivers and "hotfix" Catalyst control centers from Saphire and AMD/ATI customer service sites: the effects on my gaphics display have been phenomenonally bad and the crashes countless. I get the distinct impression that GWX 2.0 and especially OLC's superb targetting and environment mods "don't like" Catalyst CC.

All, however, is in order now after much tweaking. (Touch wood!)

I've said that before on numerous occasions. The real test will come when I end my present mission and start the next one. After installing the above mentioned card, the graphics have gone haywire when I have started a new mission.

[Wilcke]

OLC,

Good work man! Enjoy your vacation!

[java`s revenge]

Its a great mod. The feeling that you`re at sea is much better.

[Hylarion]

Hi,

I am getting this weird geometric rendering using this environment (medium 16km)

http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/8718/sh3img213200818183515gy8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Anyone knows what may cause this ?

My settings are: 8600 GT 512 Mb, 2 MB ram w/ AMD 3700+, Win XP, resolution 1600x1200(but game in 1024x768, not using resolution dll trick)

nhancer parameters:

Enhancements page:
check MultiSampling 4x
check Super- Transparency AA
check AF 16x or 8x
check Vertical Sync Applicaion,

Optimizations page:
Texture filtering High Quality
Tril. opt. Off
Aniso sample opt. Off
Neg LOd Bias Clamp
all the others settings unchanged

(Rubini settings)

Thanks for your help

Compatibility page:
AA Compatibility 20000000: EA Strategy Games

[java`s revenge]

pick the latest version. The latest is one version.

[3Jane]

[quote=Hylarion]Hi,

I am getting this weird geometric rendering using this environment (medium 16km)

Anyone knows what may cause this ?




That kind of effect is a present all the time in SHIII.

[Hylarion]

Indeed, I kind of missed the little 'updated' detail :nope:

Gonna try it now, Thanks a lot

[hocking]

I installed this mod today, and was using it for about an hour. It looks great, but I do have one question. It appears as if I am back in an 8km atmosphere based on the distances my crew are seeing ships. According to the installation instructions, it says we are supposed to install this OLC mod in place of the GWX 16 Atmosphere mod, which is what I did. When doing this, I can only see ships within about 8500km, and my crew does not see ships until they are within about the same distance. Did I do something wrong.

Here is what I have installed:

GWX Enhanced Damage Effects
Type IX Open Hatch
Type VII Open Hatch
OLC GUI 1.2.3. Core Files
Doublemast Values
OLC GUI 1.2.3. Dark Files
OLC Improved Wave Textures
OLC Environment

If you see anything here that may cause me to be stuck in an 8km atmosphere, please let me know. If you see any other issues that I may have with these mods in that order, also please let me know. Thanks for the help.

[jmr]

I experienced the same thing as well but I chalked it up to weather conditions.

[KeldorKatarn]

I experienced the same thing as well but I chalked it up to weather conditions.

Same here.. OLC? Is it really correct we have to deinstall GMX 16km? I had it installed before when I used your alpha and then the 16km range still worked fine...

[onelifecrisis]

I experienced the same thing as well but I chalked it up to weather conditions.

Same here.. OLC? Is it really correct we have to deinstall GMX 16km? I had it installed before when I used your alpha and then the 16km range still worked fine...

Yes its correct. Check the weather. I patrolled in OLCE the other day and my crew were spotting ships at full range no problem. 8.5km is about right for "light fog" (or whatever they've called it in GWX2 - probably "Visibility Moderate").

Light Fog and No Fog look almost the same to the player. You have to ask your WO what the weather is.

[NiKuTa]

Great mod :D. The night is great.
But could you do something to get more FPS. When i install your mod i have about 20 FPS on bridge. After install this lite scene file i have 25 FPS but on bigger waves i have 20 or less fps :(. i think that detailed waves are too far for my computer :/. Maybe you could cut some far waves :), ore something like that.

[onelifecrisis]

Great mod :D. The night is great.
But could you do something to get more FPS. When i install your mod i have about 20 FPS on bridge. After install this lite scene file i have 25 FPS but on bigger waves i have 20 or less fps :(. i think that detailed waves are too far for my computer :/. Maybe you could cut some far waves :), ore something like that.

- Have you downloaded the latest version of the mod and, if so...
- Have you tried the alternative scene.dat on post #1?

[bert8for3]

I was getting an fps hit with the old low detail 16K, have put on the alternative scene.dat and much better fps. Tks to OLC for the alternative file.

[NiKuTa]

Great mod :D. The night is great.
But could you do something to get more FPS. When i install your mod i have about 20 FPS on bridge. After install this lite scene file i have 25 FPS but on bigger waves i have 20 or less fps :(. i think that detailed waves are too far for my computer :/. Maybe you could cut some far waves :), ore something like that.
- Have you downloaded the latest version of the mod and, if so...
- Have you tried the alternative scene.dat on post #1?

-Yes
-Yes

[Phoenix3000]

Hi OLC,

Welcome back.

Thought I would update you on the situation using the alternate SCENE.DAT file.

OK, fps is still suffering. Using nHancer, and all possibly combinations of the tweaks I can still get about 25-30fps standing on the bridge - lower in storms. Removing all nHancer settings, and playing SH3 'un-tweaked' gives no improvement to the frame rates.

So, just to see what would happen I used the Scene.dat file from your previous Low-Res (final) release. Amazing! Steady 60fps regardless of what is happening on screen. I loaded it up with high settings using nHancer:

AA: Combined 4xS
AF: 16x
Vert Sync: Application
Optimisations: Texture Filtering - Highest Quality
etc.

No matter what I viewed it was steady. I then launched the Bismarck mission - again I was able to pan around watching the naval engagement with no slowdowns.

So, the question is.... Is it possible to update or re-release the low-res file with the tweaks you provided in the latest release? I think this would help a lot of people who experience the same issues. Perhaps two files (sorry mate!), one using low-res, and the other perhaps somewhere between low-res and medium - a sort of 'middle distance' so-to-speak when viewong tje horizon.

As we have discussed before though, it's strange how this only affects SH3. Last night I launched Flight Sim X and was flying around the Swiss Alps with good frame rates, on high detail settings and it never stuttered once....

Oh well, hope you can help mate :know:

Cheers
Px3000

(edited)

[Marko_Ramius]

Yes, the FPS hit is my only complain about this great mod. With the alternative Scene.dat, it's a lot better, but not enough to my taste.

I use a 22 monitor in native res ( 1680/1050) and because of the stutters mentioned before, i need a huge amount of fps to run the sim smooth.

I tried to look at the data for "LodFactor", but i'm not a modder at all, and i can't figure it out :oops: I can just put 2100 instead of 2000 for horizon, but no more :rotfl:( speaking of that, with 2100 and last ver. = no more artefacts at all, blacks or whites )


I don't know why, but it seems that i can now change water clarity with SH3 Cmdr 3.0 and last OLCE with no graphic glitches ( i had problem with first Ver. and SHCmdr 2.7).


Anyway, great job done on colours OLC :up: Have some good hollydays.

[R48]

So, the question is.... Is it possible to update or re-release the low-res file with the tweaks you provided in the latest single release? I think this would help a lot of people who experience the same issues.

It would help me also. The old low-res worked fine. The new all-in-one version gives me a low enough frame rate that I can't use it.

[Marko_Ramius]

One between the old low-Res and new one should be better IMHO.

Water rendering in old low-res was too much near the U-boat ( again, IMHO), while i don't see the need to the "far-away rendering" of other Ver.


Lot of differents rigs, lot of differents taste, well ... Please, forgive us, OLC :rotfl:

[KeldorKatarn]

I experienced the same thing as well but I chalked it up to weather conditions.
Same here.. OLC? Is it really correct we have to deinstall GMX 16km? I had it installed before when I used your alpha and then the 16km range still worked fine...
Yes its correct. Check the weather. I patrolled in OLCE the other day and my crew were spotting ships at full range no problem. 8.5km is about right for "light fog" (or whatever they've called it in GWX2 - probably "Visibility Moderate").

Light Fog and No Fog look almost the same to the player. You have to ask your WO what the weather is.

It was most likely light fog and it was about 8.5km when the ship was out of visual range.
Ok then this works as intended. Just wanted to re-check =)

[HundertzehnGustav]

Your environments wreaks HAVOC with my FPS.
cut in half!
Jesus H Christ!
but eh, its worth it... single digit FPS even.
:lol: :o

:up:

[onelifecrisis]

If I release a low detail version all that will happen is people will complain that it looks ugly (and to be fair, it does). Furthermore it would only be sidestepping what I consider to be the real issue: driver problems. I'm fairly sure that with the right set of drivers and driver settings, you'll be able to get the mod running sweet (after all, it runs fine on my PC - with the latest official ATI drivers, mind you! - and my PC is older than SH3).

When I get back from hols I'll send some PM's around and see if people having FPS issues would be willing to try different drivers and utilities.

In the meantime, those who have posted saying they have low FPS... please state what your graphics card is. Thanks.

[onelifecrisis]

Great mod :D. The night is great.
But could you do something to get more FPS. When i install your mod i have about 20 FPS on bridge. After install this lite scene file i have 25 FPS but on bigger waves i have 20 or less fps :(. i think that detailed waves are too far for my computer :/. Maybe you could cut some far waves :), ore something like that.
- Have you downloaded the latest version of the mod and, if so...
- Have you tried the alternative scene.dat on post #1?

-Yes
-Yes

Then I can't help, sorry. BTW, AFAIK 25FPS is (exactly) the game industy's benchmark/target for an acceptable framerate when developing games.

[Graf Paper]

Is it just me or is it that the majority of users with glitches and framerate problems tend to have LCD monitors? :hmm:

As for my own experience...

With your being on holiday, OLC, I figured this would give me the opportunity to get "OLC Environment (Updated!)" properly integrated into my SH3+GWX2.0 installation.

I merged together a handful of mods, in this order...
GWX2 Enhanced Damage Effects
Increased ASW-a
Thomsen's No Instant Death Screen 1.1
OLC Environment (latest)
Real Weather Fix 2Additional mods that may have a bearing on the OLC Environment, installed seperately...
GWX Improved Wave Textures
Racerboy's Exhaust SmokeRelevant System hardware configuration:
MSI KT4V VIA KT400 chipset mobo with FSB set to 333Mhz with onboard LAN and 6 USB ports, 6 PCI Slots and 1 AGP slot 2/4/8x (set to 4x)
BIOS Settings have caching of BIOS and Video BIOS disabled, AGP aperture set to 256MB, RAM Spread Spectrum Disabled. Other resources managed automatically by BIOS, ACPI, and SPD.
AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (true 2.4Ghz clock with unlocked Barton core)
System RAM 2GB DDR333 as two 1GB sticks.
Seagate 250GB 7000rpm Ultra-ATA 133 HDD
Diamond Extreme 7.1 24-bit Sound Card
ATI Radeon X1650 Pro 512MB DDR2 AGP Video card.
KDS 19" Flat CRT Monitor.Relevant Software configuration:
Windows XP Pro SP2 with all current updates.
Silent Hunter III 1.4b
GWX 2.0
SH3 Commander 3.0
ATI Catalyst Drivers 7.10 with 7.2 ati3duag.dll AGP workaround
All other drivers are current.My ATI Catalyst Control 3D settings used were:
Anti-aliasing 4x (No Temporal AA)
Anisotropic Filtering 4x
Catalyst A.I.- Standard
Mipmap Detail Level- Performance
Wait for Vertical Refresh- On, unless application specifies
Adaptive AA- Second mark from "Smooth" with Multi-sampling methodMy monitor's settings are (on a scale of 1-100):

Contrast 100 (no contrast)
Brightness 83 (medium-high)
Color Temperature 9300k
Desktop Resolution 1024x768
Color Depth 32-bit
I tested this over the course of several hours last night during a patrol that took my u-boat from Kiel all the way around the north of the Orkneys and south to the west of Ireland.

I checked the overall look of the u-boat and environment during dawn, midday, and night on many different days throughout the patrol and took numerous representative screenshots both surfaced and submerged from various depths, down to approximately 110 meters.

Initial results are spectacular, to say the least. :D

Although my system is older, it handles the 16km distance and full harbor traffic without any difficulty. Framerates are, overall, very smooth with only an occasional mild slowdown of 2-3 fps during heavy seas (hardly noticeable, really).

The 16km distance makes the game far more realistic. Crew tend to sight ships when there is only smoke visible on the horizon from the smokestack, which makes stalking and shadowing a far less hazardous task than in the 8km environment I'm used to, where it was common for crew to spot ships only when your u-boat was also well within the visual range of the enemy.

The 16km environment is a paradigm shift in how I hunt and that feature alone is a revelation. I feel as if I had been playing half blind with the old 8km.

The look and feel of the lighting is very natural with realistic highlights and shadow. Glare and reflections are remarkably rendered and coloration from dawn and sunset are also natural and realistic.

My favorite feature is the nighttime environment. No more "bright nights"! :up: The sky is realistically dark and the stars stand out as brilliant points and even the crew on watch are suitably muted in the sparse light, giving you the very natural feel of true night.

The dark band that has long been a feature of the horizon is gone at last, thanks to you, OLC! Spotting the smoke and sillohuettes of ships on the horizon is now possible. Nighttime visual spotting of ships is also, once again, realistically difficult.

When diving the u-boat, the light conditions are very well rendered and the rippling highlights of light refracted by waves overhead gives you an excellent "undersea" feeling. Darkness increases gradually with increasing depth until you reach about 80 meters, where the darkness is near absolute, rendering the u-boat as a dimly perceived sillohuette. This is even more pronounced when diving at nighttime.

When attacking enemy vessels, explosion effects and water plumes are well rendered. There appears to be no conflict with using your 'paticles.dat' file with the 'particles.psd' file from the "GWX Enhanced Damage Effects mod". I can offer more input on this after engaging more targets to better able observe the smoke and fire effects.

"Racerboy's Exhaust Smoke" mod for u-boats works very well with your environment mod. No apparent conflicts observed.

All this being said there are two matters you may wish to consider improving.

The "sub lit underneath" phenomenon Adriatico was complaining about does exist. When diving deeper, past 80-90 meters, if you move the camera to look up at the u-boat's underside, the light suddenly does brighten and the u-boat becomes clearly visible as if it were at a shallow depth of less than 40 meters.

I must say that this is a feature common to the SH3 engine and has little to do with your environment mod. I've observed this behavior many times before with stock SH3 and GWX. If you are able to fix this bug then by all means do so, if only to have another feather in your modding cap. Otherwise don't worry about Adriatico's nitpicking.

My only true complaint is the moon. I realize you wanted a realistically sized moon but it looks so tiny that it appears as a mere white blot to the naked eye. I've spent many an evening looking at the real moon from my back porch and can tell you that the mares and large craters are easily observed with the naked eye, with the moon appearing at least twice as large as OLC Environment renders it in the game.

Very excellent work, OLC. It seems ill-fitting to call this merely a "mod". It is more akin to the artistry of old-world craftsmanship. This mod is most certainly one of the all-time greats and I would recommend anyone to add it to their "must-have" list! :rock:

There you have it, my two cents. I hope this helps you with any future questions others may ask.

Given my aging system setup, I'd have to say that most, if not all, of the complaints about appearance and framerates is due to people just not knowing how to properly configure their systems or maintain their hardware drivers. Others might just have the misfortune of being saddled with Windows Vista. I'd recommend they upgrade to Windows XP.:p

There are many good forums and websites to help with such matters. Guru3D.com is especially useful for video card information, tweaks, hacks, and configuration. MSFN Forums and their website is an excellent place for anything to do with Windows.

[Adriatico]

As I had a feeling that some of live-sea reflections are missing, compared to the origine of mod, due to your decision to stick with GWX reflection/wave structure in latest release.... I did some tweakings in your latest version "in a hunt" for original beauty, ...at least in my taste (or lack of taste)

Calm sea aginst sun

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/3453/47945335nl2.jpg

Calm sea from sun

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/2766/29222219qu7.jpg

Giblartar

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/6796/66005967ro7.jpg

With my modest understanding of Wave State structure and good old MiniTweaker, I hope to find a realistic intensity and shape of sea reflections...

Looking forward Maestro to your updates...

( hope that your polishing of night is far from over... )

:up:

[onelifecrisis]

@Graf Paper
Wow, that's what I call feedback! Thanks for taking the time to write it. I'm glad you like the mod, and I'll look into the problems you pointed out.


@PT
If you're reading... that's the one person. ;)


...due to your decision to stick with GWX reflection/wave structure in latest release...

I said wave amplitudes are the same as GWX. Reflections are not. I should think that's fairly obvious to even a casual observer, no? ;)

( hope that your polishing of night is far from over... )

I'm pretty sure I already answered that...

[Graf Paper]

You're certainly welcome, OLC! It was actually as much of a pleasure to write that review as it was sailing the Atlantic with your mod added to the experience. I fully support what you're trying to accomplish and it is beyond merely impressive, the fixes and enhancements you've managed to achieve. I'm just surprised noone else had done it before now.

If it were my judgement being relied upon, I'd say this mod is fully complete and no longer need be regarded as beta. I know there are probably many tweaks and a few surprises left in store, but it's done insofar as acheiving stability and compatibility with GWX 2.0.

I figured it was about time someone actually did a thorough evaluation of the mod overall, not just finding fault but also noting what you did right, for you to use as a means to continue your work and improvement upon the mod. I'll post those screenshots or zip them for you to download and look over, whichever you'd prefer, as soon as I sort through them and make annotations.

I want to urge everyone to understand this is indeed 100% your creative genius and brain sweat at work here, OLC, regardless of how others may wish to see it turn out. Even my own complaints about the moon are entirely secondary to your vision of how this mod turns out. Technical matters notwithstanding, a great artist sticks with that vision and holds to his convictions, regardless of critcism and arguments about what is "real".

I suppose certain environmental features are more dependent upon the matter of the individual's taste rather than realism.

The reflectivity of the water that Adriatico seems to prefer is far from realistic, unless you're sailing a u-boat in a swimming pool or large pond where the water is fresh, not salt, and is very still, where it has a glassy placidness, and thus mirror-like in its properties.

The ocean is almost always in motion and the salt water with its silt, algae, and various microscopic life tends to be less reflective and more refractive when interacting with ambient light and light reflected from objects. This has a tendency to mute reflections, giving them a softer and less defined appearance. The small ripples and swells alone, even the ones created by the vessel and its wake, would be enough to scatter the image back upon itself and foreshorten a reflection.

Perception is everything in a game but it has little to do with what is "realistic".

It is not my intention to belittle what you perceive is "wrong" with OLC's mod, Adriatico, but one almost gets the impression you're "throwing wrenches" as if this was your mod and not OLC's hard work, that you won't be satisfied until he tailors it to fit your demands.

If you so strongly disagree with his efforts, instead of derailing OLC's work, why not go a step further with the tweaks you've done and make your own environment mod suited exactly to your own preferences. Then you can sit back and enjoy the endless posts of complaints, nit-picking, and wrench-throwing about your own mod.

I say this not to hurt your pride or start a flame-war but to make everyone stop and think, to have consideration for OLC. It is his willingness to endure these things that has brought you this environment mod. Try to keep that in mind and put yourself in his shoes. He's already responded above and beyond the call when he could have easily taken the stance of "Here's the mod. If it works for you, great, otherwise tough luck."

In fact, this is the attitude we should hold with anyone who offers up a mod with the same quality and consideration for the community as OLC has done time and again.

That being said, I think it is a wonderful skill you have demonstrated with your tweaks to OLCe, Adriatico. I know any mod you attempted would be a welcome addition to SH3. I can draw u-boat emblems, but this stuff is pure witchcraft to my understanding and will likely remain a mystery until the day I die. :lol:

This is a game mod that alters a very specific set of features only in SH3, not your operating system or hardware drivers. Within the limits of the technical aspects of his mod, he can and should make every reasonable effort to resolve issues affecting the proper functioning of the game, but he should by no means be asked to become a general tech-support for problems that have more to do with your own hardware and software configurations.

I've been noticing the discussion of OLCe has taken a turn towards whining, negative criticism and outright coercion about this mod and everyone expecting OLC to solve their troubles and complaints as if it were all his fault the mod drops your framerates instead of it being Windows Vista or a hardware problem you should resolve by looking to the appropriate sources.

Computers are not merely game consoles. It takes some effort and willingness to learn if you expect to get the most out of your experience with using your system.

That's all I really wanted to say for now.

Good job, OLC.

[Adriatico]

- Well, I have to repeat the first sentence: "...at least in my taste (or lack of taste)"

- If anybody has repeatidly said that OLC mod is gorgeous, it's me

- Some people could be delighted with a complex mod, but still see detail that could, should or must be polished. Some can not...
Thats why Alpha, Beta,... etc. are being released to forum.
In my strong opinion, you would much more help the Artist to reach the optimum in pointing to details... Instead of repeating 10 times that mode is great... as if he doesn't know that

- FORUM is a public place, where people exchange their opinion on topic and discuss the issues... some people see it as "repeated wrench throwing".

It's not TV... so you like or dislake Football game score...

***

Don't want to go any more out of OLC topic, this is art thread

Looking forward Maestro...
:ping:

[Wolfehunter]

Onelifecrisis is it possible for you and Reece to work together with your god like abilities to reshape this world into a dream come true?:up: I ask him the same question. I enjoy both your mods but each of you have unique qualities that could be moulded together. So what do you think?:hmm:

[NiKuTa]

Great mod :D. The night is great.
But could you do something to get more FPS. When i install your mod i have about 20 FPS on bridge. After install this lite scene file i have 25 FPS but on bigger waves i have 20 or less fps :(. i think that detailed waves are too far for my computer :/. Maybe you could cut some far waves :), ore something like that.
- Have you downloaded the latest version of the mod and, if so...
- Have you tried the alternative scene.dat on post #1?
-Yes
-Yes
Then I can't help, sorry. BTW, AFAIK 25FPS is (exactly) the game industy's benchmark/target for an acceptable framerate when developing games.

Yes on open see, but when i see a convoy FPS are really low.
I thought that you can cut some far waves witch i don't see in periscope, In your mod waves are almost up to the horizon.

[onelifecrisis]

Graf Paper,
Now to give you a proper (and sober!) answer...

Is it just me or is it that the majority of users with glitches and framerate problems tend to have LCD monitors? :hmm:

Your imagination - the monitor doesn't affect that sort of thing.


There appears to be no conflict with using your 'paticles.dat' file with the 'particles.psd' file from the "GWX Enhanced Damage Effects mod". I can offer more input on this after engaging more targets to better able observe the smoke and fire effects.


Please do!

The "sub lit underneath" phenomenon Adriatico was complaining about does exist. When diving deeper, past 80-90 meters, if you move the camera to look up at the u-boat's underside, the light suddenly does brighten and the u-boat becomes clearly visible as if it were at a shallow depth of less than 40 meters.

I must say that this is a feature common to the SH3 engine and has little to do with your environment mod. I've observed this behavior many times before with stock SH3 and GWX. If you are able to fix this bug then by all means do so, if only to have another feather in your modding cap.

I've never noticed this (I've just never watched the sub dive past 80m on external view) so I'll test for it and see if it's fixable.

My only true complaint is the moon. I realize you wanted a realistically sized moon but it looks so tiny that it appears as a mere white blot to the naked eye. I've spent many an evening looking at the real moon from my back porch and can tell you that the mares and large craters are easily observed with the naked eye, with the moon appearing at least twice as large as OLC Environment renders it in the game.

I know, but you have to try to convert what you see with the naked eye into the game world. Imagine you are viewing a 55-degree-wide section of the sky, and imagine that what you're seeing is divided into only 1024 pixels, and you should begin to appreciate why the OLCE moon looks "wrong" at first glace. Alternatively, wait for a night when you can see both the moon and a well known constellation, and compare their size (both IRL and in the game).

Or just take my word for it, if you will ;): the OLCE moon is actually bigger than the moon IRL. I like it as it is, it feels "realistic" to me, so I'm going to leave it.

I'll post those screenshots or zip them for you to download and look over, whichever you'd prefer, as soon as I sort through them and make annotations.


Posting them here would be fine with me, or you can email them if that's easier. :up:

[onelifecrisis]

Onelifecrisis is it possible for you and Reece to work together with your god like abilities to reshape this world into a dream come true?:up: I ask him the same question. I enjoy both your mods but each of you have unique qualities that could be moulded together. So what do you think?:hmm:

I think you should read the forum more, as this has been discussed at length already. :p

[Wolfehunter]

Onelifecrisis is it possible for you and Reece to work together with your god like abilities to reshape this world into a dream come true?:up: I ask him the same question. I enjoy both your mods but each of you have unique qualities that could be moulded together. So what do you think?:hmm:

I think you should read the forum more, as this has been discussed at length already. :p:o :D Dangit man why didn't you say so in the first place dude.:up:

Thats cool man.:smug:

[onelifecrisis]

Yes on open see, but when i see a convoy FPS are really low.

Just a thought: are you using GWX Enhanced Damage Effects?

[Marko_Ramius]

Hi OLC,

Finally, i could figure out the LodFactor setting with S3d ( i was trying with minitweaker with no luck), so i could test some settings.


It appears, on my rig, that a value of 24 seems to be a good compromise between Fps and rendering quality. I'm even surprised, cause the quality is still very good with this value.

I test this on "Bismarck" single mission, first school trip, and "Gibraltar" mission. Not so deep test, i admit. But really, on a first look, a setting like 24 don't disfigure your mod at all IMO, it seems to keep all his beauty.


Howewer, maybe there is some kind of hidden issues and that's why you didn't reduced this so drastically ?

Some complaint about Fps, some don't. I don't know, maybe the mod + SH3 engine doesn't react the same with Nvidia Vs ATI, or something ..


I know this seems like cutting in a Artwork :oops:, but if there is a chance that more people with Fps problem can use this so great masterpiece, i think we should take this chance.


These are three screens with OLCE V.3 with 24 setting ; SH3Cmdr Waves 1.5 bigger ; 16AF // X4 AA MultiSampling // HighQuality //EA Games Comp.(Nhancer)//Improved Wave Textures // 2100 ("horizon", Minitweaker) (Camera Y, S3d) for my 8800.


http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/175/olc11zh6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/%5BURL=http://imageshack.us%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img101.imageshack.us/img101/4397/olc13tu9.jpg%5B/IMG%5D%5B/URL%5D
[/URL]http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/4778/olc13mt3.jpg (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/%5BURL=http://imageshack.us%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img101.imageshack.us/img101/4778/olc13mt3.jpg%5B/IMG%5D%5B/URL%5D)


[URL="http://imageshack.us"]http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/4452/olc12aj4.jpg (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/%5BURL=http://imageshack.us%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img101.imageshack.us/img101/4452/olc12aj4.jpg%5B/IMG%5D%5B/URL%5D)
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/%5BURL=http://imageshack.us%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img212.imageshack.us/img212/175/olc11zh6.jpg%5B/IMG%5D%5B/URL%5D

[Mast]

Got to try this out yesterday and today. All I can say is wow! While on patrol, I surfaced and the skies were grey and overcast. What made me go wow was the color of the water along with the sky. :up: Great mod!!

Mast

[Philipp_Thomsen]

OLC, How much damage will I cause if I enable your mod with gwx enhanced damage effects?

Which one would you enable first?

And I have to enable the GWX 16km with your mod? Or just yours?

[Myxale]

Lo Thomsen!

Do not use the GWX16k and do not use the GWX Damage effects!

Just use the OLC-Mod and that's it!

:up:

[flakmonkey]

Hmm since you updated the mod it kills the framerate!!!

Previously i was using the medium setting one and getting a comfortable 60-80fps now its barely above 10:down:

What did you do OLC?? you`ve mangled your mod.

[NiKuTa]

Yes on open see, but when i see a convoy FPS are really low.
Just a thought: are you using GWX Enhanced Damage Effects?

No. I dont use this mod

[Dolfo91]

I have a question
This Mod creates darker sky at night and darkest when clouds are heavy
So i can't spot ships with the binoculars

The question is:
Is the range of spotting of my and enemy ships inhaltereted or is changed????
Is it smaller????

[Graf Paper]

As for GWX Enhanced Damage Effects and OLCe...

I merged these two together by simply copying the OLCe files and overwriting the EDE files in a new folder named 'OLCe+GWXEDE'. If you're using JSGME instead, make sure you enable EDE first, then OLCe.

To make a long story short, OLCe's 'particles.dat' file seems to work fine with the EDE 'particles.dsd' file. Particles effects seem to behave just fine through half a patrol so far.

Look at my previous review post to see what mods I combined like this into one single mod for compatibility's sake.

This is all experimental, so proceed at your own risk.

[Myxale]

The range is affected by the weather conditions!

So in fog you and you watch-crew will spot ships later than in clear weather!

[onelifecrisis]

OLC, How much damage will I cause if I enable your mod with gwx enhanced damage effects?

Which one would you enable first?

I've never even tried it (TBH I don't like/use GWX EDE). If you want to try them together I'd enable EDE first then OLCE, as advised by Graf Paper. :up:

And I have to enable the GWX 16km with your mod? Or just yours?

Now I know that's a wind-up. :p

[onelifecrisis]

Howewer, maybe there is some kind of hidden issues and that's why you didn't reduced this so drastically ?

No, the problem isn't "hidden" in fact I can see some of it in the shots you posted. It's most visible in clear weather looking towards the sun.

[onelifecrisis]

Hmm since you updated the mod it kills the framerate!!!

Previously i was using the medium setting one and getting a comfortable 60-80fps now its barely above 10:down:

What did you do OLC?? you`ve mangled your mod.

Read post #1.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Hmm since you updated the mod it kills the framerate!!!

Previously i was using the medium setting one and getting a comfortable 60-80fps now its barely above 10:down:

What did you do OLC?? you`ve mangled your mod.
:hmm: Ok then....


RDP

[Philipp_Thomsen]

OLC, Im trying desperatedly to use your mod, but so far no donut for me.

These images shows my problem:

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/2666/resizeofsh3img253200814oy9.jpg
OUTSIDE CAMERA, FOR ME MORE THEN 18 FPS IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR PLAYING. 28 IS PERFECT.

http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/9290/resizeofsh3img253200814op6.jpg
SAME VIEW, ONLY SHOWING A LITTLE MORE THE HORIZON. BETWEEN 6-7 FPS.

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/2636/resizeofsh3img253200814ky7.jpg
THIS IS SHOWING FULLY THE HORIZON AND SKY, SOMETIMES DROPS TO 2 FPS, 4 FPS MAX.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/244/resizeofsh3img253200814io9.jpg
ON THE CONNING TOWER, LOOKING AT THE MEN'S BOOTS. THATS THE SAME FPS INSIDE THE CONTROL ROOM.

http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/8245/resizeofsh3img253200814so2.jpg
NOW LOOKING AT THE HORIZON AND SKY.

Its kinda harch to play with this fps, and I figure that in the middle of a convoy with ships blowing up my system will probably crash.

The same screens with Reece's mod "sh4 scene for sh3" I get usually between 60-80 fps, on the outside, looking at the horizon and sky, so Im a little curious on whats the deal.

I could use a little help from you to figure out what can I do to improve my performance. What do I need to edit? You made this mod so Im pretty sure you know exactly where is my problem.

I wish I had a decent computer to run this excelent mod, it looks very very beautiful. :cry:

Thanks in advance.

[onelifecrisis]

Its kinda harch to play with this fps...

Agreed. I certainly wouldn't play with it!

The same screens with Reece's mod "sh4 scene for sh3" I get usually between 60-80 fps...

I'm not entirely sure how this is a constructive criticism of OLCE. :hmm:

I wish I had a decent computer to run this excelent mod...

I wish you did, too.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Its kinda harch to play with this fps...

Agreed. I certainly wouldn't play with it!

The same screens with Reece's mod "sh4 scene for sh3" I get usually between 60-80 fps...

I'm not entirely sure how this is a constructive criticism of OLCE. :hmm:

I wish I had a decent computer to run this excelent mod...

I wish you did, too.

NONONONO, you got all wrong... Im not throwing wrenches, Im just requesting your assistance for some sort of tweaking to make this a little "lighter" for my machine, just until I buy a new one. I have a feeling that it must be related to the rendering of each wave (looks like TONS of more waves then stock or gwx).

And I just mentioned my fps with Reece's mod for a proof that my system is not the whole problem. If my fps with GWX were somewhere near 15 fps, I wouldnt come here asking for help, coz I would know that my system is the problem (not that its not, but you get the point).

Im just trying to figure out which bolt I have to loose or tighten for this masterpiece work with my sh!itty computer. :damn:

[Graf Paper]

Thomsen, try cranking down or turning off your anisotropic filtering. High settings for this can really cause a FPS hit because the Vid card is working overtime to correct the "parallel lines" effect that you would notice with viewing the ocean from medium to long distances in SH3, where the water and waves appear as uniform rows similar to a plowed field or tiled floor.

What are your system specs, BIOS settings, operating system, DirectX version, hardware drivers versions, video card settings, and your SH3 settings and mods?

Old hardware is a huge stumbling block but I just have a hunch some of this has to do with drivers and/or settings.

I'm willing to help you try getting some of your framerate back, if you're willing to gather the info needed to diagnose the troubles, Thomsen.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Thomsen, try cranking down or turning off your anisotropic filtering. High settings for this can really cause a FPS hit because the Vid card is working overtime to correct the "parallel lines" effect that you would notice with viewing the ocean from medium to long distances in SH3, where the water and waves appear as uniform rows similar to a plowed field or tiled floor.

What are your system specs, BIOS settings, operating system, DirectX version, hardware drivers versions, video card settings, and your SH3 settings and mods?

Old hardware is a huge stumbling block but I just have a hunch some of this has to do with drivers and/or settings.

I'm willing to help you try getting some of your framerate back, if you're willing to gather the info needed to diagnose the troubles, Thomsen.

AF OFF, AA OFF, EVERYTHING I COULD POSSIBLY TUNE IS TUNED FOR PERFORMANCE, NOT FOR QUALITY.

My videocard is overclocked, so is my cpu. There's nothing more I can do with my rig, except to buy a new one. But since people with a dual core and a 8800 gtx are having amazing fps hits, I'm afraid of this problem persisting even with a new rig.

My current specs are:

Athlon XP 3000+ @2200mhz
1 gb ddr 333, 2x 512 dual channel
geforce fx5700le, overclocked @275 2D, @350 3D, @480 ram
seagate barracuda 7200 80gb
MSI K7N2-Delta Platinum Premium Motherboard with Dinamic Overclock Technology Enabled
Windows XP SP2 with all the latest drivers and patches, formatted 2 days ago.
Not ONE program running on the background.

The mods I use is on my signature.

[onelifecrisis]

PT, reduce LODfactor (in scene.dat) using Silent 3ditor (don't use minitweaker). It affects the amount of detail in the waves. Normally it's set at 1. In OLCE, it's set at 128!

Edit: This will likely fix your FPS but I don't promise it'll look nice!

BTW did you try the "alternative" scene.dat? There's a DL to it on post #1. It has an LODfactor of 64.

[onelifecrisis]

PT, there's every chance that OLCE fps issues will persist if you buy a new machine with a stronger card. It's impossible for me to judge just how many people (as a percentage of the total downloads) are having issues, but one thing seems certain: it's more of a case of "luck of the draw" than anything else. Just read this thread through and you'll see some people with supposedly strong cards getting much lower framerates than other people with supposedly weaker cards. It seems that OLCE pushes certain specific aspects of the graphics in ways that some cards can handle easily and others can't handle at all, and the power/strength of the card seems to me to have little bearing on which of those two catogories any given card falls into. It's some sort of driver optimisation issue, I'm sure.

[Graf Paper]

The bottleneck is definitely your video card, PT.

Aside from my computer having an extra 1GB of RAM and an X1650 Pro 512MB vid card, your system is similar but newer and better than mine, yet I have absolutely no trouble with this mod.

I used to play stock SH3 with an nVidia 5200FX 128MB AGP video card and can tell you that any of the 5000 series cards are seriously inadequate for using any eye-candy mods. Even stock particle effects caused serious slowdowns with explosion effects and heavy weather. I had to keep the particle density cranked down to 40 just to keep the framerate drop tolerable.

If your mobo has a VIA chipset, you should also be aware that there is a known incompatibility with nVidia 5000 and 6000 series AGP cards that seriously degrades the vid card's performance when installed on a mobo using VIA chipsets.

Get a better vid card and your trouble will be solved.

[NiKuTa]

PT, reduce LODfactor (in scene.dat) using Silent 3ditor (don't use minitweaker). It affects the amount of detail in the waves. Normally it's set at 1. In OLCE, it's set at 128!

Edit: This will likely fix your FPS but I don't promise it'll look nice!

BTW did you try the "alternative" scene.dat? There's a DL to it on post #1. It has an LODfactor of 64.
How to change this lodfactor ?

[Adriatico]

Don't want to be a "smartey"... but it is as simple as that:

PC visual beauty comes with a price...

All the sailors that want to refresh poor old SH3 with a new visuals, must forget the hardware that was supporting original simulation.

512 RAM on your video card is normal (mid) in March2008.

I have ATI that is almost neglected, don't even remember when and which drivers I installed, not even sure if I have compleatly cleared previous nVidia driver... and I have beautiful picture with movie frame rate (permanent 2xAA 4xAF)

If you think that this mode is "hardware hog" try SH4 and see what will happen.

( To be honnest OLC, you where announcing that this mode will work fine with museum video cards... I assumed it wouldn't... )

:dead:

[NiKuTa]

PT, reduce LODfactor (in scene.dat) using Silent 3ditor (don't use minitweaker). It affects the amount of detail in the waves. Normally it's set at 1. In OLCE, it's set at 128!

Edit: This will likely fix your FPS but I don't promise it'll look nice!

BTW did you try the "alternative" scene.dat? There's a DL to it on post #1. It has an LODfactor of 64.
How to change this lodfactor ?
oki i found It. could you tell me how to change a visible of detailed waves ? I want cut some far waves :) just how far i will see a good looking waves. I don't need see waves up to horizon.

[onelifecrisis]

All the sailors that want to refresh poor old SH3 with a new visuals, must forget the hardware that was supporting original simulation.

That isn't a very accurate statement IMO.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

If OLC were modding this for the old rigs, I would be pissed, coz development pushes the future. The main purpose is making SH3 better and realistic, screw the hardware requirements, we all can buy new rigs if thats the case. I was just asking to understand what was causing this, I work with computers for living, both hardware and software, I was curious about it. Also coz I wanted to play this mod while I dont buy a new machine.

And you guys are wrong thinking that videocard is the most important piece of equipment for SH3. More then 75% of the game is based on the CPU, loads of calculations. If I had a QuadCore with 4gb of ddr2 ram and this same sh!itty videocard, I would play this mod no problem.

@OLC, I found the right numbers, I can run smoothly with LODFACTOR = 8. Thanks for pointing it out! :up:

[Mikhayl]

Just my 0.02 euros : on my config, Pentium D 3Ghz, 2GB RAM and an ATI 1650 256MB, in the same kind of condition as P_T, I have a steady 33FPS in external view. depending where I look it can go above but never below. In "bridge view" I have a steady 40+ FPS. I have 6x AA and no AF, and that's with the catalyst center stuff that doesn't work that good compared to my previous drivers except for the AA. I'll try the omega when I have a minute.

@PT, I think that SH3 doesn't even make use of a dual core, so forget about the quad :)

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Just my 0.02 euros : on my config, Pentium D 3Ghz, 2GB RAM and an ATI 1650 256MB, in the same kind of condition as P_T, I have a steady 33FPS in external view. depending where I look it can go above but never below. In "bridge view" I have a steady 40+ FPS. I have 6x AA and no AF, and that's with the catalyst center stuff that doesn't work that good compared to my previous drivers except for the AA. I'll try the omega when I have a minute.

@PT, I think that SH3 doesn't even make use of a dual core, so forget about the quad :)

You have a much better CPU and 100% more RAM, thats makes the world of diference.

There are software for forcing programs to use multi-core processors. Besides, SHV is coming out in the 2009.

[Marko_Ramius]

You are right, Philipp, SH3 is heavy dependant on the Cpu. Much more than the video card, even if a good one help, specially with filtering and in high Resolution.



in fact I can see some of it in the shots you posted. It's most visible in clear weather looking towards the sun
Hi again OLC, can you tell me exactly what kind of issue you see, and which ones can i expect in lowering this setting ?

Please forgive me, i don't have your artist eyes, i think .. ;) It's important, cause maybe i can reduce those issue with a little bit higher setting, like 32.


Edit : Oupss .. Why the quote is blue ? Sorry for that.

[Graf Paper]

Okay, so how do the rest of you explain that my 5-year old, AMD Athlon 2.4 Ghz CPU - single core, which is slower than the 3.0 Ghz CPUs and Dual Cores you guys are sporting on your rigs, runs this mod like a breeze with all of its particle effects plus the added particle effects from GWX Enhanced Damage Effects, Racerboy's Exhaust Smoke mod, as well as GWX Improved Wave Textures?

Do any of you seriously expect me to believe my crusty old, beat down, extremely outdated computer handles SH3+GWX 2.0 with OLCe and many other eye-candy mods better than your newer systems? :huh:

There goes the CPU-intensive argument.

I'm even running my AGP card at 4x because my mobo can't handle 8x!

Something is really wrong here and I wish I had a better grasp of the common factors causing these framerate drops, but this is like doing brain surgery while wearing a blindfold.

[onelifecrisis]

Hi again OLC, can you tell me exactly what kind of issue you see, and which ones can i expect in lowering this setting ?

Please forgive me, i don't have your artist eyes, i think .. ;) It's important, cause maybe i can reduce those issue with a little bit higher setting, like 32.

I think I'd be doing you a favour by not telling you. You know how once you've seen something, you can't unsee it? Well count yourself lucky you can't see it and play with the lower LOD setting. :up:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Okay, so how do the rest of you explain that my 5-year old, AMD Athlon 2.4 Ghz CPU - single core, which is slower than the 3.0 Ghz CPUs and Dual Cores you guys are sporting on your rigs, runs this mod like a breeze with all of its particle effects plus the added particle effects from GWX Enhanced Damage Effects, Racerboy's Exhaust Smoke mod, as well as GWX Improved Wave Textures?

Do any of you seriously expect me to believe my crusty old, beat down, extremely outdated computer handles SH3+GWX 2.0 with OLCe and many other eye-candy mods better than your newer systems? :huh:

There goes the CPU-intensive argument.

I'm even running my AGP card at 4x because my mobo can't handle 8x!

Something is really wrong here and I wish I had a better grasp of the common factors causing these framerate drops, but this is like doing brain surgery while wearing a blindfold.

The same reason that I can play Need For Speed Carbon with maximum resolution and everything on HIGH like a breeze, while people with dual cores, 2gb ram and 8800gtx keeps complaining of slowdowns and lags on the same game, with ALMOST everything on HIGH. And the reason is this: Old hardware dont support certain features, certain textures, it just dont emulate it, cuts off, so basically you are running the game with a LOT less texture to process, coz if the hardware dont support the feature, it just skips it, and then with one thing less to process, runs like the wind.

What is your videocard?

[Marko_Ramius]

I think I'd be doing you a favour by not telling you. You know how once you've seen something, you can't unsee it? Well count yourself lucky you can't see it and play with the lower LOD setting. :up:

:rotfl: Your are right !! :up:




Edit : But what's happening with my quotes ? Sorry again ..

[Wilcke]

Hi OLC,

I will chime in with my observations. I am currently running the latest version of
Environment. I have tested it a multitude of times in the Bismarck Single Mission and it can really make the CPU work hard. I see anywhere from 90 fps to 10fps. It just depends which unit camera I switch to or just outside camera.

I noted that with the cameras the FPS would fluctuate considerably depending on the viewing angle.

Suffice to say that if I stay in the sub and use the scopes its nice and steady at 35 fps. This is using the ingame FPS counter.

I run AA and AF at 4. AMD X2 4800 4 gigs of RAM and a BFG 7950 GT OC. Now even with a Dual Core I am CPU bound with many sims, FSX, IL-2. I think the same is going on with SH3 as we push the boundaries of its environmental engine. The Bismarck Mission is in itself pretty taxing.

Overall with my system I am quite happy with what it does with OLC Environment.
Overall if I was in a campaign where I do not use the event camera or external camera, there is no FPS issue for me when using the periscopes.

[Graf Paper]

PT, my video card is an ATI Radeon X1650 Pro 512MB DDR2 AGP.

My AGP BIOS settings are:
AGP Timing: 4x
Aperture Size: 256MB
AGP Fast Read: Off
AGP Fast Write: Off
AGP Read Synchronization: Off

See my OLCe review post for a detailed description of my ATI Catalyst Control Center settings and other info.

Older hardware will indeed cause a game to scale back the eye candy, if the game is programmed to do so, but that is not the case here. My hardware passes all the most current diagnostics for the latest DirectX 9 and also passed the SH3 diagnostics when I installed the game.

That's why this technical issue you and others are having with OLCe has me so puzzled, Thomsen. There has got to be some problem with hardware, drivers, or other installed mods, unless the SH3 particle rendering is fundamentally flawed in some way that was only just now uncovered by OLC's mod here.

I do know for a fact that SH3 does have a bug with particle rendering using nVidia cards from the 5200 to the 6200, which includes your card.

Whether or not that was ever solved by a driver update is unknown to me, but I do not believe it was ever addressed for older nVidia cards such as yours. The only workarounds I was ever aware of was to turn the 'Max Particles' setting in SH3 down to 60 or less or to use the CTRL+P keyboard command.

For those using the increased resolution mod to run SH3 in settings greater than 1024x768 screen size, you should disable it and try the stock resolution. There are some bugs and stability issues with it that I remember reading and it does conflict with some mods that affect particles and effects.

[Adriatico]

All the sailors that want to refresh poor old SH3 with a new visuals, must forget the hardware that was supporting original simulation.

That isn't a very accurate statement IMO.

You are right... Wanted to say when it was relased, few years ago.:oops:

And most of people are complaining in a pure sceene environment;

Could you imagine two burning tankers and flak barrage at Ju88 formation, in the same sceene... FPS in action ?

:dead:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

All the sailors that want to refresh poor old SH3 with a new visuals, must forget the hardware that was supporting original simulation.

That isn't a very accurate statement IMO.

You are right... Wanted to say when it was relased, few years ago.:oops:

And most of people are complaining in a pure sceene environment;

Could you imagine two burning tankers and flak barrage at Ju88 formation, in the same sceene... FPS in action ?

:dead:

I saw one time a formation of 57 bombers (campaign)flying over me, bombing a taskforce comming from scapa flow, 2 battleships and some other warships, that quantity of planes I've never seen in sh3. It kept my game at 1 FPS for 15 minutes... I went down the have lunch and watch some tv. After they were gone, the game was back at 50 fps. CPU LOAD! Everything related to QUANTITY is cpu's problem.

[Adriatico]

Good one...:rotfl:

I thought example in Malta single mission, when Ju88 gets hit, not the bombing of Hamburg...
:ping:

[NiKuTa]

I set lodfactor to 32 and it oki. :D What is "EarthRadius"?? this option interesting me :].

[onelifecrisis]

I'm having second thoughts about this 6500K thing. Movies definitely look better, but SH3? I'm finding that R=50, G=50, B=50 looks best to me on my monitor. :roll:

Oh well, so much for that bit of research. I've removed that bit of advice from post #1. :oops:

[ichso]

Do any of you seriously expect me to believe my crusty old, beat down, extremely outdated computer handles SH3+GWX 2.0 with OLCe and many other eye-candy mods better than your newer systems? :huh:

I think I still can beat you with a 1.6GHz single core CPU.
SH3 1.4b + GWX2.0 + other eye candy runs fine though.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Soon there will be people beating me up with a 486... :damn:

[Mikhayl]

Soon there will be people beating me up with a 486... :damn: Yeah, but that wouldn't be fair, they have the "turbo" button :p

[onelifecrisis]

Soon there will be people beating me up with a 486... :damn: Yeah, but that wouldn't be fair, they have the "turbo" button :p

:rotfl:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

ive the turbo button on my keyboard, but it doesnt work... :damn:

[skookum]

I made the tweak to the scene.dat file, reducing LOD to 8 and it solved my FPS issues. Not sure what else it did visually, but I'm pretty happy. The reflections still look great and the horizon is still crisp (no banding).

Great mod OLC.

[Herr Trigger]

I've been following this thread with great interest, have been suffering framerate problems only just recently and then last night decided to go for it and d/loaded OLCE.
I uninstalled SHIV to SH3 scenery, Green Atlantic, Improved Wave Textures and U-Boat 1.2. Installed OLCE (over EDE) and instantly had improved FPS. I set off from Wilhelmshaven got to the busy bit around Tirpitz without any probs. It hasn't run this well since it was stock. Oh yes, forget Dual Core I'm running on a Celeron! with 1.5 gig ram and a not so good Geforce 6200, yes my war machine is 4 years old, war worn and weary, high spec costs stuff I haven't got so well done Mr. OLC for a good job.

Herr Trigger.

[hocking]

The night looks great in this mod, however there is one really big problem. I am using OLC 1.2.3, and I also use the "Dark" files to this mod. Even with the "Dark" files, I still cannot see anything through my periscope because the torpedo control panel on the right side of the periscope view is still way to bright. It would have to be darkened about 3 or 4 times what it is now in order for me to see through my periscope at night using this mod. I can see through my observation scope just fine at night.

Any way to darken your OLC 1.2.3 mod a little bit more so we can see things through it at night using your "Environment" mod.

I also have one more question. I hear people talk about "Improved Wave Textures", "OLC Improved Wave Textures", and "GWX Improved Wave Textures" mods in this thread. The only wave texture mod package that I have seen available for download is "OLC Improved Wave Textures".

Are there any other "Improved Wave Texture" mods that I am not aware of? Is there such a thing as a "GWX Improved Wave Texture" mod? Or, are people just using these terms interchangeably or something?

[onelifecrisis]

The night looks great in this mod, however there is one really big problem. I am using OLC 1.2.3, and I also use the "Dark" files to this mod. Even with the "Dark" files, I still cannot see anything through my periscope because the torpedo control panel on the right side of the periscope view is still way to bright. It would have to be darkened about 3 or 4 times what it is now in order for me to see through my periscope at night using this mod. I can see through my observation scope just fine at night.

I use them both as well, and I can see fine - in fact I've turned the gamma down to 0.75 and I have my monitor brightness set at only 50%, and I can still see fine. Different screens, different eyes, different rooms... etc etc etc

Any way to darken your OLC 1.2.3 mod a little bit more so we can see things through it at night using your "Environment" mod.

Yep. Open up the dark files folder and you'll find a bunch of semi-transparent TGA's which are used to darken everything. Change them to whatever brightness (transparency) level you like.

[onelifecrisis]

I'll shortly be releasing the final version of OLCE. It's the same as the currently available version, plus:

It'll once again have high/med/low detail versions.
The sun is now the same size as the moon (it's a tiny bit smaller in the currently available version).
The sun halo (glare) is smaller (now matches the sun size).
New sun reflection at sunrise/sunset (huge improvement IMO).
Fixed a small problem with the horizon haze when AA is turned on.
RWF fix is included. This should (hopefully) ensure GWX 2.1 compatibility (in case you don't know, GWX 2.1 includes the RWF scene+campaign file fixes).

[onelifecrisis]

The "sub lit underneath" phenomenon Adriatico was complaining about does exist. When diving deeper, past 80-90 meters, if you move the camera to look up at the u-boat's underside, the light suddenly does brighten and the u-boat becomes clearly visible as if it were at a shallow depth of less than 40 meters.

I must say that this is a feature common to the SH3 engine and has little to do with your environment mod. I've observed this behavior many times before with stock SH3 and GWX. If you are able to fix this bug then by all means do so, if only to have another feather in your modding cap.

Unfortunately I can't even replicate this problem, let alone fix it. :-? I'm going to leave it - after all it doesn't sound to me like a major problem. I mean, just how often do you put the camera under your sub at a depth of 100m+? ;)

But out of curiosity, do you have a screenshot?

[Mikhayl]

I'll shortly be releasing the final version of OLCE.

Great :D I'm really trying the last version for the first time (with RWF too), I love it (but I think you know that eh ? :p ).
By the way I changed the default ATI catalyst stuff for the omega drivers, when I set AA 6x and AF 16x, from the bridge view I have 20 FPS when looking at the exhaust smoke and 35/40 the rest of the time in any situation so far.

Now slightly OT, the only problem with the omegas is that the game "forgets" the settings and turn back to application default with no AA etc, does anyone have the same odd glitch ?

[Adriatico]

Maestro,
just two points:

- Does this list meens that previous night env. will remain unchanged ?

- Why do you say final version... before "Vox populi" ... you have reached optimum or simply fed-up with tweaking ?

:ping:

[onelifecrisis]

Now slightly OT, the only problem with the omegas is that the game "forgets" the settings and turn back to application default with no AA etc, does anyone have the same odd glitch ?

Have you tried making a profile for sh3.exe in ATT? That seemed to do the trick for me. It applies your chosen 3D settings every time you launch SH3.

[onelifecrisis]

Maestro,
just two points:

- Does this list meens that previous night env. will remain unchanged ?

- Why do you say final version... before "Vox populi" ... you have reached optimum or simply fed-up with tweaking ?

:ping:

I'm quite happy with the night env. and amazingly, most other people seem to be happy with it it too, so no I'm not changing it. If it aint broke, don't fix it.

What's Vox populi?

I'm not exactly fed-up with tweaking, but certainly getting a bit fed-up with some of the limitations of the engine! OLCE contains maybe 40% of all the things I tried to do with the SH3 environment. Despite this, it looks good to me... good enough that when playing the game I'm really enjoying the scenery for once. :D

[Adriatico]

I'am ejoying too but... bit of this-bit of that... could always be changed... in a week, month... etc.

(Latin phrase that means voice of the people, public opinion...)

[onelifecrisis]

OK the Final Version has finished uploading to FF, and post #1 is updated.

I'm off on another patrol. :rock:
Knowing my luck, I will spot a previously unnoticed bug in the first 5 mins. :roll:

BTW, I hope folks like the new sunset reflection :up:

OLC

[Adriatico]

OLC you are killing me...
Don't you know that I have to get up early in the morning :damn:

***

Thanks for your effort Maestro
:up: :up: :up:

[panzer 49th]

Great mod OLC!
Together with your interface mod, it is the only reason I still play SH3.

http://www.b3tards.com/u/57a418c694bc7c6296b3/ship2.jpg
*may not be actual screenshot



Dear god Letum what have you done to your game that looks great i want the mods your using.