Not necessarily a request but an observation from a sailor....about clouds...

[gAiNiAc]

First off you folks doing the environmental stuff have done an incredible job.

I spent quite a bit of time out in the Pacific, South Pacific & Indian Ocean during my WESTPAC's.

The one and only thing that doesn't have me sold in terms of full on environmental immersion is the clouds.

One of the most particularly awesome things about being out in the western pacific was the incredible cumulous cloud formations.

Big giant puffy cotton balls. Add that to the amazing sunrises and sunsets with all the glorious colors going on and that nails it.

The clouds are the only thing I notice which throws the whole thing.

They just don't look like they really do out there.

This is not a snub, just an observation from someone whose spent quite a bit of time out there.

Thanks,

Martin

[Rockin Robbins]

Cool! Real observation! There is also a different character to clouds over land and clouds over water. Which do you think is most likely to be modded here? Do you have any photos to help the modders? Anyone else?

[capt_frank]

Try kriller's new PE clouds, they're the best available :up: :up:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=135124

[tedhealy]

Here are some cloud pics

http://www.kriyayoga.com/wallpapers/ocean_view/ocean_view-dsc02558.jpg

http://www.sreedhara.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/resort/slide0002_image002.jpg

http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/14056/oceansunset.jpg

[gAiNiAc]

Cool! Real observation! There is also a different character to clouds over land and clouds over water. Which do you think is most likely to be modded here? Do you have any photos to help the modders? Anyone else?

Sadly my cruise pictures went missing over 10 years ago.......

[gAiNiAc]

Try kriller's new PE clouds, they're the best available :up: :up:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=135124

Very nice...I've used PE....and ROW.......I'm using PE with TMO now........

Just isn't it though.........Fluffier cotton balls.........Not all the time mind you, on the really nice days though it was quite remarkable..........

[gAiNiAc]

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/127/416228425_e382dd8024.jpg


http://pictopia.com/perl/get_image?provider_id=318&size=550x550_mb&ptp_photo_id=282410

http://thump01.pbase.com/g6/82/265582/3/86309189.zyfP9Io7.jpg

Some "ballpark" pictures..........

[swdw]

I know what you mean gainiac. But few games outside of flight sims ever think of having clouds piled high like what you're talking about.

I think this has to do with 2 things.

1. How the clouds are rendered.
2. Then there's the issue with the visibility range. The fact that the range is only 20Km may be part of the problem too.

Keep your fingers crossed though. If it's possible, Kriller2 would be the one to find a way.

[CCIP]

Hmm, my first idea - back in Falcon 4.0 days long ago, clouds were also originally rendered as a flat layer. Then someone developed puffy clouds which were initially made up of a non-collidable, slow-moving air unit. Perhaps that's the direction someone ought to consider - see if just as with icebergs, neutral/environmental units could be generated to add 3D cloud/fog formations :hmm:

[Seeadler]

For this the rendering process of SH4 clouds layer must be changed but that is hardcoded.

Here is a attempt to change this with DLL injection and API hooking for overwriting the render calls and used shaders, but it is very unstable at the moment.

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/3572/newrender1rf1.th.jpg (http://img185.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newrender1rf1.jpg)http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/8517/newrender2jd8.th.jpg (http://img174.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newrender2jd8.jpg)
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/8599/newrender3rs0.th.jpg (http://img186.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newrender3rs0.jpg)http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/4282/newrender5hj9.th.jpg (http://img242.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newrender5hj9.jpg)

[gAiNiAc]

For this the rendering process of SH4 clouds layer must be changed but that is hardcoded.

Here is a attempt to change this with DLL injection and API hooking for overwriting the render calls and used shaders, but it is very unstable at the moment.

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/3572/newrender1rf1.th.jpg (http://img185.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newrender1rf1.jpg)http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/8517/newrender2jd8.th.jpg (http://img174.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newrender2jd8.jpg)
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/8599/newrender3rs0.th.jpg (http://img186.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newrender3rs0.jpg)http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/4282/newrender5hj9.th.jpg (http://img242.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newrender5hj9.jpg)

Nice blue!

I got a feeling it isn't possible to make big fluffy cotton ball clouds with the engine as is though.............

[gAiNiAc]

Hmm, my first idea - back in Falcon 4.0 days long ago, clouds were also originally rendered as a flat layer. Then someone developed puffy clouds which were initially made up of a non-collidable, slow-moving air unit. Perhaps that's the direction someone ought to consider - see if just as with icebergs, neutral/environmental units could be generated to add 3D cloud/fog formations :hmm:

That'll bring most folks machines to a crawl though......My PC could handle it!

[gAiNiAc]

I know what you mean gainiac. But few games outside of flight sims ever think of having clouds piled high like what you're talking about.




That's the rub... (hahaha...Beery! :) )

It's just such a part of the western pacific's look.........

First thing I noticed when I first played the game.......

I said to myself, "clouds ain't right".

[M. Sarsfield]

Seeadler,

Your second picture doesn't seem to be working.

[Rockin Robbins]

Looks just like Florida clouds! Makes sense because the latitude is similar.

[kriller2]

For this the rendering process of SH4 clouds layer must be changed but that is hardcoded.

Here is a attempt to change this with DLL injection and API hooking for overwriting the render calls and used shaders, but it is very unstable at the moment.

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/3572/newrender1rf1.th.jpg (http://img185.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newrender1rf1.jpg)http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/8517/newrender2jd8.th.jpg (http://img174.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newrender2jd8.jpg)
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/8599/newrender3rs0.th.jpg (http://img186.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newrender3rs0.jpg)http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/4282/newrender5hj9.th.jpg (http://img242.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newrender5hj9.jpg)

Looks great Seeadler, I hope you can get this to work in SH4, because I have hit a engine limitation-wall where nothing more can be done with the clouds.