Pacific environment 4 RELEASED

[Nisgeis]

HI Nisgeis, I like your new shaders so made some more work on the environment colours and textures, is there any way we can make the water less transparent? so that the water have a colour between the surface and the bottom, (see the last picture)
Just sent you experimental shader number 5. It has altered reflections, that are less distorted and give more detailed waves. The water colour should also be more representative of what is in scene.dat, so you shouldn't have to change your values too much - sorry if you already did!. The reflection brightness is also reduced a bit. I think it looks quite nice.

I've just co-incidentally been working on water fogging, as there is a disparity between stock above water transparency and below water transparency. Below water seems to be much cloudier that the above water view would suggest, so I've been trying to get a fogging effect on the refracted image, with the amount of water between the camera and the hull affecting how foggy the hull is.

I also discovered why torpedoes aren't visible under water, but haven't got a fix yet. It's not something that can be solved in the pixel shader though.

[vickers03]

I also discovered why torpedoes aren't visible under water, but haven't got a fix yet. It's not something that can be solved in the pixel shader though.
interesting:hmm: more details please:yep:

[Nisgeis]

interesting:hmm: more details please:yep:

The torpedo is rendered underwater, but it has no 'depth' information associated with it, so the game doesn't consider it close to the surface.

I don't know, but have a suspicioon as mentioned earlier, that the torpedo needs a unit_ship controller attached to it, but so far I haven't been able to spare any time to test that. I've spent about 30 hours on the shader code so far, so no free time :D.

[Orion2012]

interesting:hmm: more details please:yep:
The torpedo is rendered underwater, but it has no 'depth' information associated with it, so the game doesn't consider it close to the surface.

I don't know, but have a suspicioon as mentioned earlier, that the torpedo needs a unit_ship controller attached to it, but so far I haven't been able to spare any time to test that. I've spent about 30 hours on the shader code so far, so no free time :D.

WOW, thats way more patience then I have!

Does anyone know, or tested the new PE with OM?? (op monson)

[kriller2]

interesting:hmm: more details please:yep:

The torpedo is rendered underwater, but it has no 'depth' information associated with it, so the game doesn't consider it close to the surface.

I don't know, but have a suspicioon as mentioned earlier, that the torpedo needs a unit_ship controller attached to it, but so far I haven't been able to spare any time to test that. I've spent about 30 hours on the shader code so far, so no free time :D.

Your new work is awesome, here is a litlle screenshot from the new more detailed ripples on the water: ( its hard to show on a screenshot though..)
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/6971/pe4newshader5sd3.th.jpg (http://img515.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pe4newshader5sd3.jpg)

Thanks for workin on this :yep:

[kriller2]

interesting:hmm: more details please:yep:
The torpedo is rendered underwater, but it has no 'depth' information associated with it, so the game doesn't consider it close to the surface.

I don't know, but have a suspicioon as mentioned earlier, that the torpedo needs a unit_ship controller attached to it, but so far I haven't been able to spare any time to test that. I've spent about 30 hours on the shader code so far, so no free time :D.

WOW, thats way more patience then I have!

Does anyone know, or tested the new PE with OM?? (op monson)

No I haven't got time, been testing with TM intensly and working with Nisgeis to make the water more lifelike, but now it works with TM so next thing to test is TM + OM..

[Orion2012]

interesting:hmm: more details please:yep:
The torpedo is rendered underwater, but it has no 'depth' information associated with it, so the game doesn't consider it close to the surface.

I don't know, but have a suspicioon as mentioned earlier, that the torpedo needs a unit_ship controller attached to it, but so far I haven't been able to spare any time to test that. I've spent about 30 hours on the shader code so far, so no free time :D.
WOW, thats way more patience then I have!

Does anyone know, or tested the new PE with OM?? (op monson)
No I haven't got time, been testing with TM intensly and working with Nisgeis to make the water more lifelike, but now it works with TM so next thing to test is TM + OM..

Good to know, as I have actually found the UBoat addon to be a lot of fun since lurker has reworked the campaign.

My biggest problem with it, is that the boats are glued onto rails. Even in 15foot swells it dosent move.

[kriller2]

interesting:hmm: more details please:yep:
The torpedo is rendered underwater, but it has no 'depth' information associated with it, so the game doesn't consider it close to the surface.

I don't know, but have a suspicioon as mentioned earlier, that the torpedo needs a unit_ship controller attached to it, but so far I haven't been able to spare any time to test that. I've spent about 30 hours on the shader code so far, so no free time :D.
WOW, thats way more patience then I have!

Does anyone know, or tested the new PE with OM?? (op monson)
No I haven't got time, been testing with TM intensly and working with Nisgeis to make the water more lifelike, but now it works with TM so next thing to test is TM + OM..

Good to know, as I have actually found the UBoat addon to be a lot of fun since lurker has reworked the campaign.

My biggest problem with it, is that the boats are glued onto rails. Even in 15foot swells it dosent move.

This will be fixed with the new PE4,including undewater bubbles for all the german u-boats , the S-42 and S-18. btw the sub pitch and roll part of PE4 is allso working with Trigger Maru now.

[TDK1044]

now it works with TM so next thing to test is TM + OM..

This is great news. Looking forward to adding this excellent mod to lurker's excellent OM mod. Please be sure to post the installation order, K2, so that luddites like me don't get conflicts. :D

[Orion2012]

Pitch and roll, for OM is excellent news!!

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how to edit the dive times or buoyancy for the submarines??

Judging by some posts in the OM forum, the crash dives are a hard code issue, but the dive times themselves can be adjusted. and the buoyancy seems off because you can still surface with an almost completely flooded boat, and they NEVER hold there correct depth, the deeper you go, the shallower it will run fro desired depth.

Don't expect the problem to be corrected with PE4 but was hoping some one could point me in the right direction.

[swdw]

Dive times are not hardcoded, but can only be adjusted so much, same with crash dive. It takes a LOT of playing to get them close. The RFB boats all have their dive and crash dive times adjusted and some work was done on the german boats too.

For Kriller

Youtube pacific storms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiAK9CpJH80
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yncZsWTW3Xw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE_ri8PkihE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4GRpZ0KV2s&feature=related

There are more, but these show how the color changes based on how much light pokes through the clouds. When you look at the movies, watch the colors of the whitecaps to make sure the white balance is correct. For example, there's a video on youtube where the ocean is very blue, but the whitecaps aren't white, they're blue, so all the colors are off.

[Orion2012]

Dive times are not hardcoded, but can only be adjusted so much, same with crash dive. It takes a LOT of playing to get them close. THRFB boats all have their dicve and crash time dives adjusted and some work was done on the german boats too.

Thanks, for that info, so the If I enable RFB and OM the dive times are adjusted and would adjusting thedive times adjust the bouyancy?? I can easily surface a flooded boats with three compartments full of water.


Kriller,

Wasn't really sure where to put this, since PE3.3 isn't necessarily compatible with OM, and since PE4 will be and you mentioned work in it was next I thought I'd post it here.

The problem seems to be whenever the ship is split in two pieces the reflection stretches all the way to the horizon, and none of the nice oil and debris don't generate.

This isn't the best picture, but does show what I'm talking about.
http://i316.photobucket.com/albums/mm333/Orion3049/SH4Img2008-08-18_225011_375.jpg

If any of this is already known and excuse my ignorance.

Utmost respect for your work.

[swdw]

Thanks, for that info, so the If I enable RFB and OM the dive times are adjusted and would adjusting thedive times adjust the bouyancy?? I can easily surface a flooded boats with three compartments full of water.

The displacement was way off on one of the u-boats and was corrected. Can't remember which one.

[Fish40]

Any new progress on this?:hmm: This post almost slipped to the bottom of the page without anything new. I'm itching for this one, too be sure:yep:!

[cdrsubron7]

You aren't the only one, Fish40. :up:

[Nisgeis]

Does anyone have the almost beta package that Kriller sent out? I waited a few days to download it and it seems it's not available anymore and Kriller is taking a break. If someone knows a link that works, could you PM it to me? Thanks!

[swdw]

Does anyone have the almost beta package that Kriller sent out? I waited a few days to download it and it seems it's not available anymore and Kriller is taking a break. If someone knows a link that works, could you PM it to me? Thanks!

I'm in the same boat. I thought I'd downloaded it, but I didn't. So now I can't get it and he wanted me to check a couple of things out.

So PM both of us please.

[kriller2]

Sorry guys, I just have to correct some bugs, before you would PM me with it :), will upload the newest version now.

EDIT: check your PM's

[Nisgeis]

Sorry guys, I just have to correct some bugs, before you would PM me with it :)
I'm not observant enough to spot bugs. I make bugs that other people to spot :D.

[Digital_Trucker]

Sorry guys, I just have to correct some bugs, before you would PM me with it :)
I'm not observant enough to spot bugs. I make bugs that other people to spot :D.

:rotfl:Now we know where all the bugs are coming from:lol:

[kriller2]

Sorry guys, I just have to correct some bugs, before you would PM me with it :)
I'm not observant enough to spot bugs. I make bugs that other people to spot :D.

:rotfl:Now we know where all the bugs are coming from:lol:

Yep.. from me and Nisgeis :lol: , btw is it just me or is the waterline around the submarine glowing when it gets dark? :o

@ Nisgeis I set the setting we pm'ed about some time ago to 0.5 from 0.2, maybe that's why? it gives the water a more natural look when it reflects the environment more, especialy when the waves are small.

[Carotio]

A while back, I was making some photos of the clouds, and it makes me wonder:
there are more than one dds file making clouds in SH4, right?

which are the ones, then?

Sofar these are the ones, I suspect, right?
Data/Misc:
clouds
CloudShadow
CloudsTransition
noise0
noise1
Nori00
Nori01

I wanted to try and make something out of these photos, at least try, just as my sea floor mod was made of real photos.

[kriller2]

A while back, I was making some photos of the clouds, and it makes me wonder:
there are more than one dds file making clouds in SH4, right?

which are the ones, then?

Sofar these are the ones, I suspect, right?
Data/Misc:
clouds
CloudShadow
CloudsTransition
noise0
noise1
Nori00
Nori01

I wanted to try and make something out of these photos, at least try, just as my sea floor mod was made of real photos.
yes the above files are responsible for how the engine renders the clouds, but it's tricky, because the engine uses two layers of clouds to make the clouds, so it's allmost impossible to f.ex. make cumulus clouds. I got it working once after alot of testing, but then you would see the same clouds hanging around all the time :damn: lately I discovered that the shaders and the scene and the env.data files alllso have a BIG influence on how the clouds look like.

But try work with the noise0.dds and the noise1.dss :).

[billko]

A while back, I was making some photos of the clouds, and it makes me wonder:
there are more than one dds file making clouds in SH4, right?

which are the ones, then?

Sofar these are the ones, I suspect, right?
Data/Misc:
clouds
CloudShadow
CloudsTransition
noise0
noise1
Nori00
Nori01

I wanted to try and make something out of these photos, at least try, just as my sea floor mod was made of real photos.
yes the above files are responsible for how the engine renders the clouds, but it's tricky, because the engine uses two layers of clouds to make the clouds, so it's allmost impossible to f.ex. make cumulus clouds. I got it working once after alot of testing, but then you would see the same clouds hanging around all the time :damn: lately I discovered that the shaders and the scene and the env.data files alllso have a BIG influence on how the clouds look like.

But try work with the noise0.dds and the noise1.dss :).

At this point, I wonder if you knw even more about the engine than the devs do??? ;)

Bill

[Nisgeis]

Sorry guys, I just have to correct some bugs, before you would PM me with it :)
I'm not observant enough to spot bugs. I make bugs that other people to spot :D.

:rotfl:Now we know where all the bugs are coming from:lol:

Yep.. from me and Nisgeis :lol: , btw is it just me or is the waterline around the submarine glowing when it gets dark? :o

@ Nisgeis I set the setting we pm'ed about some time ago to 0.5 from 0.2, maybe that's why? it gives the water a more natural look when it reflects the environment more, especialy when the waves are small.

New shader sent, project Top Secret appears to be succesful and a few other changes. That value you set to 0.5, I set to 0.35 in the new shader, 0.5 although looks good in general, it has a negative effect on project Top Secret up close.

[Nisgeis]

Sub from above water high and looking down, the sub is at 120 ft on this picture:
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/9237/pe4newtransparencyfromaxp4.th.jpg (http://img295.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pe4newtransparencyfromaxp4.jpg)

To me, that just looks awful with the white pixels. Is that stock? I rellay don't remember ever seeing it like that, except for SH 1.5.
Yes it's a shame, I have allways had this :hmm: If you can make this bug go away alot of people would be very happy...
I forgot to mention that I get the white lines while submerged no matter what the depth of water is. If that issue could be fixed I would be the happiest person on the forums! :lol: It has always drove me crazy. :dead:

Prepare to be the happiest person on the forums. I may have fixed this, just trying to get rid of a side effect of it.

[kriller2]

Sorry guys, I just have to correct some bugs, before you would PM me with it :)
I'm not observant enough to spot bugs. I make bugs that other people to spot :D.

:rotfl:Now we know where all the bugs are coming from:lol:

Yep.. from me and Nisgeis :lol: , btw is it just me or is the waterline around the submarine glowing when it gets dark? :o

@ Nisgeis I set the setting we pm'ed about some time ago to 0.5 from 0.2, maybe that's why? it gives the water a more natural look when it reflects the environment more, especialy when the waves are small.

New shader sent, project Top Secret appears to be succesful and a few other changes. That value you set to 0.5, I set to 0.35 in the new shader, 0.5 although looks good in general, it has a negative effect on project Top Secret up close.

:rock: :rock: :rock: top secret mission looks good, awaiting reponse, but all I can say right now is wow, you have made a dream come true..

[The General]

the top secret mission looks good, awaiting reponse, but all I can say right now is wow, you have made a dream come true..Top Secret huh? Hmm, what are you guys up to? :hmm:

[Syxx_Killer]

Prepare to be the happiest person on the forums. I may have fixed this, just trying to get rid of a side effect of it.

That awesome!

http://img99.exs.cx/img99/8577/yupi3ti.gif http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/rrclimber/smilies/bananaWrench.gif http://jannisforum.foren-city.de/images/smiles/disco.gif http://forums.site5.com/images/smilies/dancingparty.gif

[Nisgeis]

Top Secret huh? Hmm, what are you guys up to? :hmm:

Nothing. :cool:. Nothing at all.

All will be revelead. :|\\.

There was an effect I've been working on that I didn't want to mention, in case I couldn't get it to work. It needs testing.

[swdw]

btw is it just me or is the waterline around the submarine glowing when it gets dark? :o


Yes . . . . . it's baaack . . . .:eek:

If it was a green glow you could blame it on an algae that glows green when disturbed and creates a faint green glow in a ships wake. (It's downright beautiful when it happens on a moonless night).

[swdw]

BTW, I like the scenetest file settings.

Here's a pic in 40ft of water where you can see the bottom. You can see it if you look over the side of the bridge too. You can also see how the ability to view the bottom changes as the angle to the water changes
http://www.kickinbak.com/posts/pe4shallow.jpg

lookin good.

Really like the storm effects in this one too. Even my wife went "WOW" on the new wave effects under different weather.

You and Nisgeis are wunderkinds in my opinion.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Damn, I need to get home to test the new stuff :yep: Just got back from vacation, so RL has kept me busy.
Plus most of the vacation was in NYC, so it is an adjustment coming back to rural living :doh::lol:


RDP

[Nisgeis]

BTW, I like the scenetest file settings.

Here's a pic in 40ft of water where you can see the bottom. You can see it if you look over the side of the bridge too. You can also see how the ability to view the bottom changes as the angle to the water changes

<SNIP>

lookin good.

Really like the storm effects in this one too. Even my wife went "WOW" on the new wave effects under different weather.

You and Nisgeis are wunderkinds in my opinion.
There's more to come, things have moved on already since the scene change.

I also prefer the new scene change - the waves look better, whereas before I think they were a bit too pointy in fairly calm seas.

The seeing the bottom will change as well, at the mo it's a bit buggy, so hopefully I'll be able to improve on that and make it look better. I'm also toying with adding in colour shift. Plus of course, project Top Secret!

[kriller2]

yep there sure is ;) , thanks for testing swdw and nisgeis, then I will use the last scene for PE4 :up: It's good to hear you like the storms now swdw.

BTW I don't know if you noticed the new bow wave when testing, but I have worked some more on it including a shader where the wave is bigger and folowing the submarine with new water streams, here is how it look now:
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/3118/newbowwave1qw7.th.jpg (http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newbowwave1qw7.jpg)
And now the water will spray up in the air alot more in high waves and full speed:
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/8463/newbowwave2id7.th.jpg (http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newbowwave2id7.jpg)

[Wilcke]

Very well done guys, very well done! Running the current PE4, its awesome and just getting better.

This is a must have mod!

[kriller2]

After ALOT of work and brainstorming I finaly got the sunset the way it should be, now the reflection will folow the sun all the way to dusk and change colour, it was very dificult to make.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/1821/pe4sunsetyellowzu5.th.jpg (http://img209.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pe4sunsetyellowzu5.jpg)

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/4801/pe4sunsetreded8.th.jpg (http://img209.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pe4sunsetreded8.jpg)

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/815/pe4sunsetdarkredru3.th.jpg (http://img185.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pe4sunsetdarkredru3.jpg)

[DeepIron]

:o:o:o I think "WOW" would be an understatement K2...

[AVGWarhawk]

Kriller, you are astonishing. Just when I think you can do all you can with this mod you come out with more work and for the better. Now, the real question, when can I have it? :D That red sky at night shot is just out of this world. :up:

[ReallyDedPoet]

Yeah, looks good big-time :up:. Testing a bit tonight, like the bow wake, I take it this has been re-done.
Sorry if this has been discussed as I have been out of the loop for a bit.


RDP

[bert8for3]

Just stunning :up:

[Syxx_Killer]

:o:o:o:o:o Amazing job, guys!!!

[Fish40]

Stomps foot repeatedly on floor in classic Herman Munster style: I WANT IT!, I WANT IT!, I WANT IT!, :yep:

[Task Force]

Darn this waiting thing is realy starting to get to me.:doh: Whats the ETA.:ping: you have done a incrediable job Kriller2

[Falkirion]

Absolutely amazing. Can't wait to get this one!

[Digital_Trucker]

Stomps foot repeatedly on floor in classic Herman Munster style: I WANT IT!, I WANT IT!, I WANT IT!, :yep:

:rotfl:Me. too:rotfl:

[Fearless]

Absolutely awesome K2:rock:

[skwasjer]

At the moment, I have worked out what everyone does, but it's a matter of what scale things are. I know which variable has the water depth information in, but I don't know what values mean what in it. Is 400 massively large, or laughably small? It's quite hard to test when you can't see what values the variables passed have!

A little late reply, but a tip to visualize the values/range. Overrule the shader code in pixel and vertex shader by a custom implementation where you choose from a gradient color based on a value you want to determine.

Say a value passes in as 128, later as 255, and later again as -200. I assume the range is 0-255 (but have no idea at first), and interpolate the value within that range. 0=Blue, 255=Red. The resulting pixel color tells me the value. Now if the value is outside that range, I will render it with two different colors, less=Yellow, more=Green.
In game these colors indicate the value and if it's outside the assumed range. As per the example, 128 would render as purple, 255 as Red, and -200 as Yellow. I can now finetune it by using a factor to extend the range and/or offset it by another factor.

Basically, you do a lerp on two colors...


Such tricks I've used before and while they are not perfect (not always the desired visual result), you can get some more clues this way when trying to find values and their ranges that pass through the shaders. It's a bit tedious to set up, but after you have some basic code working (preferably in a shared function) it's reusable for other shaders too...

The progress so far made on the new env is excellent, keep it up!

[Nisgeis]

At the moment, I have worked out what everyone does, but it's a matter of what scale things are. I know which variable has the water depth information in, but I don't know what values mean what in it. Is 400 massively large, or laughably small? It's quite hard to test when you can't see what values the variables passed have!

A little late reply, but a tip to visualize the values/range. Overrule the shader code in pixel and vertex shader by a custom implementation where you choose from a gradient color based on a value you want to determine.

Say a value passes in as 128, later as 255, and later again as -200. I assume the range is 0-255 (but have no idea at first), and interpolate the value within that range. 0=Blue, 255=Red. The resulting pixel color tells me the value. Now if the value is outside that range, I will render it with two different colors, less=Yellow, more=Green.
In game these colors indicate the value and if it's outside the assumed range. As per the example, 128 would render as purple, 255 as Red, and -200 as Yellow. I can now finetune it by using a factor to extend the range and/or offset it by another factor.

Basically, you do a lerp on two colors...


Such tricks I've used before and while they are not perfect (not always the desired visual result), you can get some more clues this way when trying to find values and their ranges that pass through the shaders. It's a bit tedious to set up, but after you have some basic code working (preferably in a shared function) it's reusable for other shaders too...

The progress so far made on the new env is excellent, keep it up!

This is what I have been doing, except the shaders use floats between 0.0f and 1.0f for the RGBA colour information. So, if you've got a number that could be 0 - 1000, then you have to divide it by various numbers to get it to give something that isn't saturated over 1.0f and take it from there. It's just a bit tedious and quite time consuming, but I have it all worked out now. Thanks for the tips.

[kriller2]

Hi,

Thanks for all the comments! :up:

We are currently working on a new water shader and want this to be as good as possible, if everything turns out the right way you will be very surprised to see what we are working on.

The rest of the mod including textures, colours, bow wave etc. is finished and as soon we have the shader working without to many bugs, I will send out a full pack including submarine pitch and roll, special effects etc. to the testers and we will start betatesting PE4 with different mod-combinations, like OM, TM, RSRD etc.

Sorry for keeping you waiting, but I realy would like to include Nisgeis excelent shader-work and test PE4 with different combinations of mods, to avoid to many updates/patches right after release.

[skwasjer]

This is what I have been doing, except the shaders use floats between 0.0f and 1.0f for the RGBA colour information. So, if you've got a number that could be 0 - 1000, then you have to divide it by various numbers to get it to give something that isn't saturated over 1.0f and take it from there. It's just a bit tedious and quite time consuming, but I have it all worked out now. Thanks for the tips.
Yea, I didn't mention to normalize the values for the sake of clarity ;)

[Nisgeis]

Yea, I didn't mention to normalize the values for the sake of clarity ;)

Normalizng is a bit hazy... I thought normalizing was for vectors, how does it work for things that aren't vectors?

[skwasjer]

Yea, I didn't mention to normalize the values for the sake of clarity ;)

Normalizng is a bit hazy... I thought normalizing was for vectors, how does it work for things that aren't vectors?

If colors are expressed in 0-255, then a value of 255 'normalized' is 255/255 = 1. I wish I knew the correct term.
3D normals however are usually clamped, so they can't exceed the range -1 to 1, whereas in this specific case, an arbritrary value you pick to visualize with the shader could be > 1 or < 0... (f.ex. 400/255) In such a case as I said earlier I would pick a completely different color so you know you are out of your range and at what end (instead of over/under saturating).

[edit] Turns out the term IS correct, just interpreted differently:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/normalize
https://www.opends.org/wiki/page/DefinitionNormalizedValue

So, to recap, normalized colors in shaders are 0.0f to 1.0f, just like you already have worked with ;)

[Ishigami]

http://www.kickinbak.com/posts/pe4shallow.jpg



http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/1821/pe4sunsetyellowzu5.th.jpg (http://img209.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pe4sunsetyellowzu5.jpg)

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/4801/pe4sunsetreded8.th.jpg (http://img209.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pe4sunsetreded8.jpg)

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/815/pe4sunsetdarkredru3.th.jpg (http://img185.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pe4sunsetdarkredru3.jpg)

Thats amazing! :up:

[Nisgeis]

If colors are expressed in 0-255, then a value of 255 'normalized' is 255/255 = 1. I wish I knew the correct term.
3D normals however are usually clamped, so they can't exceed the range -1 to 1, whereas in this specific case, an arbritrary value you pick to visualize with the shader could be > 1 or < 0... (f.ex. 400/255) In such a case as I said earlier I would pick a completely different color so you know you are out of your range and at what end (instead of over/under saturating).


Ah OK, I was confused because there's a normalize() function in hlsl, which applies to vectors only, so that why I didn't get you. :D

[Syxx_Killer]

Hi,

Thanks for all the comments! :up:

We are currently working on a new water shader and want this to be as good as possible, if everything turns out the right way you will be very surprised to see what we are working on.

The rest of the mod including textures, colours, bow wave etc. is finished and as soon we have the shader working without to many bugs, I will send out a full pack including submarine pitch and roll, special effects etc. to the testers and we will start betatesting PE4 with different mod-combinations, like OM, TM, RSRD etc.

Sorry for keeping you waiting, but I realy would like to include Nisgeis excelent shader-work and test PE4 with different combinations of mods, to avoid to many updates/patches right after release.
As much as I, and everybody else, want the mod now, take your time and make sure it works right. It is definitely worth the wait no matter how long it takes you guys. Just seeing these screenshots leave me in awe at how you guys have transformed the environment within SH4! :rock::up:

[Nisgeis]

As much as I, and everybody else, want the mod now, take your time and make sure it works right. It is definitely worth the wait no matter how long it takes you guys. Just seeing these screenshots leave me in awe at how you guys have transformed the environment within SH4! :rock::up:
I think Kriller and I are going to decide what we want to accomplish for this release and then stick to that. We could just keep improving things, but then we'd never get anything out, so time to call for a freeze and hopefully there'll be no more feature creep. You never know though, there's always that killer effect you want to get in at the last minute, but for testing better to freeze.

There are many things I have changed and then Kriller has changed other things to compliment my changes and then I've changed some more stuff and he's changed it a bit and we're both pulling in the same direction, so that's good. To the shaders, I've added in refraction, so the viewing angle now has a bearing on what you can see, whereas before it was just the depth of water between the object and the camera. I've also changed reflections so they give much more wave details, you can now see more levels of wavelets, Kriller has adjusted the brightness of the reflections to match the new pattern. Increased viewing depth down to your sub (from above due to refraction). You can now see the sea floor, if you are close to the shoreline. Kriller and I have been working on making torpedoes visible from above the water, but no luck so far.

Most important for some, I'm almost certain the white line around the sub at shallow depths effect has been fixed, with no side effects, but testing will make sure.

Lastly, I'm almost 100% sure that Project Top Secret is workable without any serious errors. I didn't want to give any details before we were sure it was possible and I'm almost 100% sure that it is bug free, but testing will make sure.

Project Top Secret is:

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg307/Nisgeis/PE%204/1.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg307/Nisgeis/PE%204/2.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg307/Nisgeis/PE%204/3.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg307/Nisgeis/PE%204/4.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg307/Nisgeis/PE%204/5.jpg

Now, even I, as unobservant as I am, can see there's a difference there. It only works close to the shore, I'm hoping I can get it to work at all depths, but I don't know yet. I've obviously chosen the best angles to take screenshots of, so in some angles it doesn't looks as good, like flying up 1,000 feet in the air for example.

[Syxx_Killer]

I think my eyes are deceiving me! That's brilliant! :o:o:o:rock:

I'll probably play SH4 just to watch the water! :lol:

[Digital_Trucker]

Will someone please explain to my wife why my jaw just dropped to the floor, which is now covered with drool?:ping:

[Defiance]

Lol DT

Yeah mine did about the same he he

Dang i am waiting patiently for as long as it takes after seeing the above pics :D

Awesome work Guys :up:

[ivank]

i thought i was in the tropics after seeing those pictures just mind blowing

[Task Force]

The way you did the coast looks amasing.:cool: I love this mod, It looks like some picture ive seen.:D You two are doing a great job, UBI should have done this with the origional game.

[Will-Rommel]

This new aqua water is really impressive. It's really a step forward. I only miss the sun on the waves, like in Environmental mod.

[AVGWarhawk]

Excellent work and very realistic!

[momo55]

WAAAaaawww !..Have no words ...but i like Top Secret Projects...nice ..nice :up:

[Ishigami]

Holy **** this really is amazing! :up:

I hope you find a way to see the torps running from above the surface. That would be awesome.

[Orion2012]

Wow...

[kriller2]

As much as I, and everybody else, want the mod now, take your time and make sure it works right. It is definitely worth the wait no matter how long it takes you guys. Just seeing these screenshots leave me in awe at how you guys have transformed the environment within SH4! :rock::up:
I think Kriller and I are going to decide what we want to accomplish for this release and then stick to that. We could just keep improving things, but then we'd never get anything out, so time to call for a freeze and hopefully there'll be no more feature creep. You never know though, there's always that killer effect you want to get in at the last minute, but for testing better to freeze.

There are many things I have changed and then Kriller has changed other things to compliment my changes and then I've changed some more stuff and he's changed it a bit and we're both pulling in the same direction, so that's good. To the shaders, I've added in refraction, so the viewing angle now has a bearing on what you can see, whereas before it was just the depth of water between the object and the camera. I've also changed reflections so they give much more wave details, you can now see more levels of wavelets, Kriller has adjusted the brightness of the reflections to match the new pattern. Increased viewing depth down to your sub (from above due to refraction). You can now see the sea floor, if you are close to the shoreline. Kriller and I have been working on making torpedoes visible from above the water, but no luck so far.

Most important for some, I'm almost certain the white line around the sub at shallow depths effect has been fixed, with no side effects, but testing will make sure.

Lastly, I'm almost 100% sure that Project Top Secret is workable without any serious errors. I didn't want to give any details before we were sure it was possible and I'm almost 100% sure that it is bug free, but testing will make sure.

Project Top Secret is:

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg307/Nisgeis/PE%204/1.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg307/Nisgeis/PE%204/2.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg307/Nisgeis/PE%204/3.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg307/Nisgeis/PE%204/4.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg307/Nisgeis/PE%204/5.jpg

Now, even I, as unobservant as I am, can see there's a difference there. It only works close to the shore, I'm hoping I can get it to work at all depths, but I don't know yet. I've obviously chosen the best angles to take screenshots of, so in some angles it doesn't looks as good, like flying up 1,000 feet in the air for example.

Fantastic work on the shaders Nisgeis!, I think that both me and this community owe you one for the amount of work you have put into making this wish come true :rock:

I am making some more adjustments to the mod after the new shader have arrived to match Nisgeis work on the shader, so the beta testing should start sometime next week.

[Ishigami]

So if no serious problems occur we may see it for download in two weeks? – Sweet!
Can't wait!

[Nisgeis]

The large explosion stock special effect seems to be getting a bad press at the moment, but is there something that you think should be changed?

Previous things that have been complained about have been changed, for example the deck gun impact effect was re-done, so was the depth charge effect. No one seemed to notice the depth charge change, even though it is quite different, so perhaps that wasn't altered enough?

Anyway, you have your say, what special effects (think smoke/fire and explosions) would you like to see done differently?

So, have your say... oil fire effect looks like Marge Simpson's hair? Depth charge a bit weedy? Explosions too violent? Cavitation effects too cartoony? Flak gun explosions have no smoke and vanish too fast? Tell us and we (possibly) will change it to something (that may or may not be) better.

Remember that I used to play text adventures and that was all the graphics that I needed, so I'm relying on you to tell us what needs to be improved.

[Digital_Trucker]

Tell us and we (possibly) will change it to something (that may or may not be) better.

That's got to be the best disclaimer I've ever seen:D

[Nisgeis]

I have a question not regarding special effects but another annoyance :)
Did you guys looked at the drawing distance for the harbours ?
I did some attempts a few weeks ago, with all the basic settings maxed out the harbours fade out at 3km, it's a real killer :damn:
I tried a few things but came up with no result at all.

Hi Mikhayl,

What's the killer bit? There are different draw distances in the various files, what is it you think we should have looked at? :D Is it on approach that you don't get the harbour defenses? I know Kriller made sure that the reflections are all there.

[Carotio]

Regarding the harbours, which I don't know is related to PE, but I suppose so.
Some of the buildings on the docks in Europe (I haven't noticed this with Far East ports, since it's a while since I last played there) dissapears, when turning and zooming in/out with the camera both seen from bridge and free move.

[Will-Rommel]

Nisgeis, i think all you mentionned should be looked at!

Importance giving to the Flak and cavitation first i think.

[Syxx_Killer]

I've been meaning to ask, are the lifeboats in the game suppose to be empty most of the time? Could they have some more people placed in them? I just find it odd to sink a large ship and a bunch of the lifeboats be totally empty. I can understand a small ship where the crew may not have enough time and all, but a large ship should have some people in the boats. I suppose it is a general setting, though, that regulates the number of people in the lifeboats? Here is how I have PE3 installed if that matters:

#1 PE3 Install
#2a PE3 Special effects for Stock
#3a PE3 Submarine bubles and caustics and roll pitch
#4 PE3 Ship_debris_SH4_with bodies
#5 PE3 real reflections for harbour and objects

[LukeFF]

I've been meaning to ask, are the lifeboats in the game suppose to be empty most of the time? Could they have some more people placed in them? I just find it odd to sink a large ship and a bunch of the lifeboats be totally empty. I can understand a small ship where the crew may not have enough time and all, but a large ship should have some people in the boats. I suppose it is a general setting, though, that regulates the number of people in the lifeboats?

It's an individual setting in each ship's CFG file (Survival Rate and Survival Percentage). The former determines the chance of lifeboat crew being rendered, and the latter determines how many of them will be rendered.

[LukeFF]

Anyway, you have your say, what special effects (think smoke/fire and explosions) would you like to see done differently?

So, have your say... oil fire effect looks like Marge Simpson's hair? Depth charge a bit weedy? Explosions too violent? Cavitation effects too cartoony? Flak gun explosions have no smoke and vanish too fast? Tell us and we (possibly) will change it to something (that may or may not be) better.

The oil fire effect indeed needs to have more dispersion, yes.

Also, don't know if it's anything you can change, but the animated ship crew isn't rendered until one is very, very, very close to the ship. It results in odd things like seeing flak guns rotating and firing without any crewmen on them.

[swdw]

Feedback: New bow wave issue.

While working on the IXD2 dive times, I noticed the bow wave was still being rendered even though the boat was at >30ft.

[kriller2]

thanks for reporting swdw :up: I am currently testing and have found out a way to make the sky and clouds impact the sea alot more, which adds alot to the feeling of being on the sea, allso now the storms have some more violent waves, but without the sub on rails issue.

@Nisgeis check your Pm ;)

[kriller2]

Hi all,

Here you can see a preview of PE4's new sunsets:

Click here to watch video of a sunset in PE4 part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyX3LzFmKLY)

Click here to watch part 2 with high TC to see colour-change (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w84pKuSD_RI)

This one is dedicated to you swdw, because of the help on getting the colours right :up:
Submarine rolling in storm part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GsMpiSgO4o)

Submarines pitch in storm part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJupl5qu_GU)

I will try to upload some more videos later, btw the colour may seem a little odd (the storm is more grey and the sunset is more yellow in sh4), but that's because of the change I did with the shaders, it looks good in realtime.

[AVGWarhawk]

Excellent stuff Kriller. Looking forward to sailing in the weather!:D

[kriller2]

Thanks AvgHawk :D , sorry for keeping you and others waiting, but we want this to be as good as possible and we are still discovering new things as we work and test the files.

[Syxx_Killer]

Those videos look sweet, kriller! Awesome job!

[kriller2]

For all his guidance and work on the new water shader, watch it with a CD playing waves hitting the shore :D

PE4 Nisgeis new water shader with shallow water (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_K0pT69wYE)

[Carotio]

Hi all,
Here you can see a preview of PE4's new sunsets:
Click here to watch video of a sunset in PE4 part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyX3LzFmKLY)
Click here to watch part 2 with high TC to see colour-change (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w84pKuSD_RI)

This one is dedicated to you swdw, because of the help on getting the colours right :up:
Submarine rolling in storm part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GsMpiSgO4o)
Submarines pitch in storm part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJupl5qu_GU)

I will try to upload some more videos later, btw the colour may seem a little odd (the storm is more grey and the sunset is more yellow in sh4), but that's because of the change I did with the shaders, it looks good in realtime.

Nice videos :up:

Haven't heard from you about the cloud textures, I sent you. Are they useable or what do I need to change in order to avoid the "square pattern" in the sky? Because I would like to have the storm clouds look more terrifying than the usual grey.

[Defiance]

It just keeps getting better and better K2 and "The Crew" :rock:

I myself don't mind the wait after seeing the above posts, and then you saying you're finding new things to do :)

Keep up the great work guys :rock:

[Fish40]

The new shallow water shaders look great, as dose the new sunset colors in the videos:up: One thing I never noticed, was if there was ever a dynamic surf line in this game as there is in IL2. It would be cool to see the surf rolling in and out along the shoreline:yep: Then again, you're on the water, not on land or flying over it to see anything anyway. And besides, even though the water action in IL2 is great, it is a real FPS killer:nope: Keep up the great job guys! I'm eagerly awaiting this release!

[kriller2]

Thanks :) check your pm there should be something you can use.
Hi all,
Here you can see a preview of PE4's new sunsets:
Click here to watch video of a sunset in PE4 part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyX3LzFmKLY)
Click here to watch part 2 with high TC to see colour-change (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w84pKuSD_RI)

This one is dedicated to you swdw, because of the help on getting the colours right :up:
Submarine rolling in storm part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GsMpiSgO4o)
Submarines pitch in storm part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJupl5qu_GU)

I will try to upload some more videos later, btw the colour may seem a little odd (the storm is more grey and the sunset is more yellow in sh4), but that's because of the change I did with the shaders, it looks good in realtime.

Nice videos :up:

Haven't heard from you about the cloud textures, I sent you. Are they useable or what do I need to change in order to avoid the "square pattern" in the sky? Because I would like to have the storm clouds look more terrifying than the usual grey.

[kriller2]

I have a question not regarding special effects but another annoyance :)
Did you guys looked at the drawing distance for the harbours ?
I did some attempts a few weeks ago, with all the basic settings maxed out the harbours fade out at 3km, it's a real killer :damn:
I tried a few things but came up with no result at all.

I know LeaVampire worked on the drawing distance of the buildings and he got it working with ROW and SH4 1.4, but after the SH 1.5 his changes don't seem to affect in game, maybe it's because the devs increased the scene's drawing distance or something. Anyway the file to work with is harbourkit.dat in there are some visib values which should be changed for every object with S3D (there alot of those 250 or something..)

[Metus]

Great work !

Any chances PE4 will be incorporated into the RFB Mod ?

Or maybe RFB into PE4 :p ?

Can't wait for the release. :up:

[Nisgeis]

RFB uses W_Clear's Environmental Effects mod, so probably not.

[Orion2012]

Great work !

Any chances PE4 will be incorporated into the RFB Mod ?

Or maybe RFB into PE4 :p ?

Can't wait for the release. :up:

I believe SWDW is working on a RFB compatibility "patch" for PE4.

[extraterrestrial]

Wow, i like the new bow wave, especially that it's getting higher when it hits the waves. This was'nt in stock game, was it?

[The General]

No, that's certainly not stock E.T.

I want to applaud K2 for the amazing work shown in those videos, I was gobsmacked! :o

[swdw]

Great work !

Any chances PE4 will be incorporated into the RFB Mod ?

Or maybe RFB into PE4 :p ?

Can't wait for the release. :up:
I believe SWDW is working on a RFB compatibility "patch" for PE4.

Actually, Observer is going to be doing a good chunk of the compatibility as he's rewritten the zones.cfg file for the new damage models being incorporated. He's also double checking the files for the subs to make sure I haven't missed something.
So when it's done, he'll deserve the most credit for this by far.

[kriller2]

Great work !

Any chances PE4 will be incorporated into the RFB Mod ?

Or maybe RFB into PE4 :p ?

Can't wait for the release. :up:
I believe SWDW is working on a RFB compatibility "patch" for PE4.

Actually, Observer is going to be doing a good chunk of the compatibility as he's rewritten the zones.cfg file for the new damage models being incorporated. He's also double checking the files for the subs to make sure I haven't missed something.
So when it's done, he'll deserve the most credit for this by far.

Hi Swdw, sounds good you guys are working on making these 2 mods compatible, it's one more burden on my shoulders lifted. If you need any info on what the changes I made you are more than welcome to ask.

Right now im working on making the final package 100% compatible with TM and OM and that's not as easy as it sounds, because of the different zonefiles, I had a crash lately, but now I know for certain that it's either the zones / special effects mod or the dat file for submarine making the trouble :hmm: the strange thing is it's only when I press "quit" in the menu options I get the CTD.

[Uber Gruber]

Loved the sunsets, loved the shore blues, loved the picth 'n roll but hated the bow wave. Maybe its me but it looks too fluffy and cartoonish, like its been drawn on afterwards using chalks or something.

Sorry, but honest feedback all the same.

[kriller2]

Loved the sunsets, loved the shore blues, loved the picth 'n roll but hated the bow wave. Maybe its me but it looks too fluffy and cartoonish, like its been drawn on afterwards using chalks or something.

Sorry, but honest feedback all the same.

Thanks for the feedback ubergruber. Me to that's why I have modified some more, it looks more realistic now.

EDIT: btw do you mean it's movement or the colour/texture of the bow wave?

[darkerbeats]

Any way I can download it? :D

[W4lt3r]

It is WIP = Work in Progress. No download yet. Be patient

*edit* and welcome to the Subsim.

[Orion2012]

Great work !

Any chances PE4 will be incorporated into the RFB Mod ?

Or maybe RFB into PE4 :p ?

Can't wait for the release. :up:
I believe SWDW is working on a RFB compatibility "patch" for PE4.
Actually, Observer is going to be doing a good chunk of the compatibility as he's rewritten the zones.cfg file for the new damage models being incorporated. He's also double checking the files for the subs to make sure I haven't missed something.
So when it's done, he'll deserve the most credit for this by far.

My mistake.

[LukeFF]

Loved the sunsets, loved the shore blues, loved the picth 'n roll but hated the bow wave. Maybe its me but it looks too fluffy and cartoonish, like its been drawn on afterwards using chalks or something.
Have to agree with him. The texture needs more transparency so it blends in with the surrounding environment better.

On a related subject, Kriller, the texture for the torpedo wake (at least in PE3) has a faint but still noticeable horizontal line at the top and bottom of the texture in-game. Probably just needs a bit of re-positioning, but I thought I'd let you know nonetheless.

[kriller2]

Hi LukeFF and UberGruber,

I have worked some more on the bow-wave and have increased the gravity in the shader so it don't look so fluffy, here is a screenshot:

http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/5503/bowwavepe4fj9.th.jpg (http://img383.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bowwavepe4fj9.jpg)

Is it better now or should it be more transparent?

[Will-Rommel]

I like it. :|\\

[Orion2012]

Looks Great Kriller, keep up the good work!!

[LukeFF]

Is it better now or should it be more transparent?

Much better!

[Uber Gruber]

Thats a lot better Kriller, a lot better. I can still see a little bit of fluffyness in the center of the wave splash but i'm sure thats only noticable in screenies. Do you have a quick vid taken from captain's angle on bridge in a storm so we can see it in action.

Yes, I know, i'm a demanding fellow but your work deserves good feedback cos its ground breaking stuff. :rock:

[The General]

Is any of this fabulous work gonna result in reduced FPS? I'm running Core2Duo 1.6 GHZ, with 2 Gig DDR2 RAM and a Nvidia 8500 DX10 card. This is more powerful than the original recommended specs, but I am still only getting about 25 fps from the Bridge.

[Nisgeis]

Is any of this fabulous work gonna result in reduced FPS? I'm running Core2Duo 1.6 GHZ, with 2 Gig DDR2 RAM and a Nvidia 8500 DX10 card. This is more powerful than the original recommended specs, but I am still only getting about 25 fps from the Bridge.

You may find that there is a slight performance increase.

[The General]

You may find that there is a slight performance increase. Wow, this is great news! I am currently trying out Fall of the Rising Sun and am down to about 20 fps with that.

Thanks Nisgeis! :up:

[swdw]

Bow wave still visible until the conning tower goes underwater :hmm:

Does this affect surface ship bow waves too? Working on some changes, the Mogami bow wave and prop spray seemed a bit overdone.

[kriller2]

Bow wave still visible until the conning tower goes underwater :hmm:

Does this affect surface ship bow waves too? Working on some changes, the Mogami bow wave and prop spray seemed a bit overdone.

Hi swdw, I think it has allways been that way, but before you didn't notice it. I havent edited how long the bow wave should be seen, but only the speed and angle of which the water/foam should be sprayed and the shape/texture of it.
Yes there are alot of the ships which bow-wave looks realy weird, try the "philiines single mission" and zoom in on some of the ships, the kongo f.eks. have a bow wave which starts away from the bow:o and the fleet carier have bow wave that is way to long :hmm:

EDIT: or maybe not..?
http://ntl.bts.gov/DOCS/narmain/narmain_files/nimitzcl.jpeg

It seems as we try to improve on the game some more work needs to be done...! :rotfl: It's the same thing with the new water shader, now that we can see the bottom of the sea it's allso very visible that the depth of the sea somewhere is allmost random....

[kriller2]

Thats a lot better Kriller, a lot better. I can still see a little bit of fluffyness in the center of the wave splash but i'm sure thats only noticable in screenies. Do you have a quick vid taken from captain's angle on bridge in a storm so we can see it in action.

Yes, I know, i'm a demanding fellow but your work deserves good feedback cos its ground breaking stuff. :rock:

Good to hear Uber Gruber :up: I will try to capture the new bow wake on youtube later.

[TDK1044]

Do we have a rough eta on this mod, K2?

[kriller2]

Do we have a rough eta on this mod, K2?

Yep! We have some problems with the new shader and the depth of the water as I wrote further up in this thread and Nisgeis has contacted one of the devs, but if we can't fix it, then I will release PE4 next weekend and then later a patch if we get it working later on, this mod has been long enough underway allready, but the main reason is that we have discovered alot of nice things which we wanted to include in PE4.

[GlobalExplorer]

I'm testing different environmental mods with my new system (that can finally handle SH4) and I am most convinced by 3.3, it has the most realistic look overall, especially during the evenings.

I am looking forward to PE4 when it comes out and hope to be able to test it!

[Nisgeis]

Do we have a rough eta on this mod, K2?
Yep! We have some problems with the new shader and the depth of the water as I wrote further up in this thread and Nisgeis has contacted one of the devs, but if we can't fix it, then I will release PE4 next weekend and then later a patch if we get it working later on, this mod has been long enough underway allready, but the main reason is that we have discovered alot of nice things which we wanted to include in PE4.

Yes, there are quite a lot of improvements, but there is a problem with the shallow water colour change and a limittaion of what may be the engine. Ref has given some help with this and has suggested contacting the devs, which I have done. Many changes for the better will be included with this release, but there may be a couple of things that don't make it.

I don't think major changes to the particle effects will make it into this release, perhaps a later 4.1 release, but as it stands, people want PE 4 and they want it now!

I for one wouldn't be happy releasing something that I knew had flaws, no matter how insignificant. Still, Kriller and I have got the lid off the engine now and we can see all the bits that make it work.

This, as they say, is only the beginning. If you're impressed by the way graphics look now, then there's more to come, isn't there Kriller?

[kriller2]

Sounds good Nisgeis. Yes there should be something to look forward to after PE4, but lets take one step at a time and concentrate on making the release as good as possible, then later we can work some more on our ideas ;)

[Syxx_Killer]

You guys are just to much! I thought you had reached the ceiling with the SH4 engine, then you say you just opened the lid. I can't wait to see what you guys got cookin down the road! :rock:

[DeepIron]

Um... <DI shuffles feet and looks generally sheepish> Does this mean a public release.... er, soon?

[Task Force]

Great job on this mod.:D SH has never had such Good enviormental effects.;)

[The General]

K2 & Co's work is amazing and I, like many others, cannot wait for the big unveiling of PE4. I do have one question though, sorry ;).

I have recently tried 'Fall of the Rising Sun' and have to say that it has the best configuration for the way the sub behaves in swells I have yet seen. I just wondered what we can expect from PE4 on this front?

[GlobalExplorer]

Thanks to kriller for giving me access to the beta.

Before I go into nitpicking, I was very impressed. With the right hardware and PE4 SHIV really begins to shine. Let me also say that I had very few problems with the mod. It works excellent with most seastates. I would give it 10/10 for esthetics and 8/10 for consistency, which is much better than any other environment mod I have tried (there is always the danger of going overboard with photorealistic effects and ruin the balance).

I generally consider this a keeper.

It was already stated by the creators that the mod is not perfect yet, and here are some minor issues I had:

Ship wakes glow red during sunsets. This is not nice, probably well known. I would think the problem is that white areas reflect sunlight and ship wakes are white, couldnt this be improved by making them more blue?

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/thumbs/PE4_problems2.jpg (http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/PE4_problems2.jpg)

There was one seastate that I particularly did not like, and that was when the sea was very calm and slow moving. There was an unrealistic reflection, which looks like flashes/lightnings underwater. It stayed during a whole day, so I think it is related to the seastate. Maybe the screenshot helps to understand what I mean:

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/thumbs/PE4_problems1.jpg (http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/PE4_problems1.jpg)


Subjective experiences:

Everything (waves, ripples) moves a tad too fast.

Underwater view: transition is often unrealistic. I have done SCUBA diving in a lot of places around the world, and I can say water is more blue, and less cyan. I think SHIII was about right in that respect.

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/diving.jpghttp://i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto/Articles/2268615/scuba-diver-main_Full.jpg
http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/florida/images/s/miami-scuba-diving.jpg
I also find the ocean at bright days is too bright and too cyan, maybe you got a bit carried away with photographs that show lagunas and such?

Now here some more nice things:



I think this mod gets better when the sea gets worse. My favourite was this seastate, that should work right in any oceans, atlantic ocean or arctic seas too.



http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/thumbs/PE4_screen2.jpg (http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/PE4_screen2.jpg)


Fog generally worked like a charm.



http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/thumbs/PE4_screen4.jpg (http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/PE4_screen4.jpg)


The following screens also show that calm sea does not always look bad, in fact it often looks spectacular:


http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/thumbs/PE4_screen3.jpg (http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/PE4_screen3.jpg)




I found this mod works practically flawless during sunset / dawn. Sunsets look extremely well, and never over the top!


http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/thumbs/PE4_screen1.jpg (http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/PE4_screen1.jpg)


Final comment, I already like this for its understated effects, but in the end I think it would work even better if everything is toned down a little bit.

I also followed krillers instruction for PE3.3 of enabling dynamic shadows, I hope that is right.

[DrBeast]

*DrBeast collapses on the floor*

Damn I need a vacation!

Yes, I know I just had one, but I need another one! Moving is tiring business! It's doubly tiring business when you combine two households into one, like I just did with my g/f (and soon-to-be fiancee!)! :dead:

Anyway, we found some really cool new digs, and I'm back to the Uni, as of today. My research for my PhD thesis will once again consume most of my time. However, I now have access to a computer again, and an internet access from the Uni (no internet at home yet, but it's on the to-do list), so in my spare time I'm thinking of picking up SH4 again.

Having read all the previous posts though, with regards to the PE4 WIP, I wonder if it's no longer 1.4-compatible. Does any of the beta testers use 1.4? If not, and if there's still time before the release, I'd gladly test it out to see how it performs on 1.4.

[kriller2]

@Global Explorer
Thank you for the nice review, yes there are some things which needs changing, but it's getting there.
BTW did you run TC over 2048 ? - it will make SH4 go nuts and produce the strange ocean you posted about, the issue has allways been there and it's a shame, because it wasn't in SH3.

@Dr. Beast.
Welcome back.
I need you onboard again :yep: , when you have time to take a look at the special effects for Trigger Maru. After alot of testing it seem "something" is making SH4 go nuts when using PE, so to ensure compatibility with TM I have excluded the zonefile untill we found out what's causing the error.

The RFB team has made a zonefile for RFB and will write about how to use PE4 with RFB.

The above change allso means that you can now run TM + Om without any problems.

@ to testers of PE4
There are 3 issues with the new pack I send to you guys, which I have been PM'ed about I willl try to fix before the release.
1. the new detailed clouds had some pixel - errors, this is now corrected.
2. the sub seems to jump to much in high seas, so I will try to use the storm settings from the first alpha.
3. Bug in the bow-wave, when the submarine have 2 engines, there is 2 bow wakes.

is the ocean better with the less reflective water ? that was the only thing I changed in the scene.dat, that's why im a bit confused how that can affect the submarines behavour in high seas :damn: anyway will go back to use the settings from the first alpha which most of you liked :)

[DrBeast]

welcome back Dr. Beast.
I need you onboard again :yep: , when you have time to take a look at the special effects for Trigger Maru. After alot of testing it seem "something" is making SH4 go nuts when using PE, so to ensure compatibility with TM I have excluded the zonefile untill we found out what's causing the error.

The RFB team has made a zonefile for RFB and will write about how to use PE4 with RFB.

The above change allso means that you can now run TM + Om without any problems.

Glad to be back, my man :D
Hm...I had made a TM-compatible zone file for TM a while back. Did you use that one? Also, what do you mean by going nuts? CTD, slow-downs, wonky sinking behavior? I'll redownload TM to check, so feel free to PM me the link to the PE4 beta :yep:

ETA: Yeah, rain-check on downloading TMaru...I have a notoriously slow connection today, I doubt I'll have downloaded its 350MB before I leave for home. Argh!

[kriller2]

SH4 runs okay with the TM-zone file you made, but then when I go to the menu screen and press "quit" my computer restarted without warning, so I tested the submarine mod with and without and the zonefile. It seems Ducimus have made some changes in the TM 1.5.2 :hmm: your location problems have first priority ,so only look at this if you have time ;)

Will send you the newest, check your PM soon.

welcome back Dr. Beast.
I need you onboard again :yep: , when you have time to take a look at the special effects for Trigger Maru. After alot of testing it seem "something" is making SH4 go nuts when using PE, so to ensure compatibility with TM I have excluded the zonefile untill we found out what's causing the error.

The RFB team has made a zonefile for RFB and will write about how to use PE4 with RFB.

The above change allso means that you can now run TM + Om without any problems.


Glad to be back, my man :D
Hm...I had made a TM-compatible zone file for TM a while back. Did you use that one? Also, what do you mean by going nuts? CTD, slow-downs, wonky sinking behavior? I'll redownload TM to check, so feel free to PM me the link to the PE4 beta :yep:

[DrBeast]

SH4 runs okay with the TM-zone file you made, but then when I go to the menu screen and press "quit" my computer restarted without warning, so I tested the submarine mod with and without and the zonefile. It seems Ducimus have made some changes in the TM 1.5.2 :hmm: your location problems have first priority ,so only look at this if you have time ;)


Ah yeah, I saw you mentioning that in a post, didn't notice it was zones.cfg-related. One can only skim through 6 pages of posts this thoroughly ;)
I hope the connection problems will be gone tomorrow, so I can try and download both TMaru and RFB...hm no wait, I'll wait until the new release of RFB is out, with the new sinking model. Something tells me I'll "borrow" that part of the mod for my home-made brew (for personal use, of course!). Something tells me however, that these connection problems will persist, as long as they're installing the optical fiber network. You can't postpone releasing the mod a couple or three months, can you? :rotfl:

[Nisgeis]

is the ocean better with the less reflective water ? that was the only thing I changed in the scene.dat, that's why im a bit confused how that can affect the submarines behavour in high seas :damn: anyway will go back to use the settings from the first alpha which most of you liked :)

I think I may have seen the high sub in the version before the last one you sent out just before the weekend. It may not be related to your most recent changes.

[GlobalExplorer]

Having read all the previous posts though, with regards to the PE4 WIP, I wonder if it's no longer 1.4-compatible. Does any of the beta testers use 1.4? If not, and if there's still time before the release, I'd gladly test it out to see how it performs on 1.4.

I used 1.4, because I dont have anything else .. No problems afaik.

[kriller2]

Having read all the previous posts though, with regards to the PE4 WIP, I wonder if it's no longer 1.4-compatible. Does any of the beta testers use 1.4? If not, and if there's still time before the release, I'd gladly test it out to see how it performs on 1.4.

I used 1.4, because I dont have anything else .. No problems afaik.

Thats good news. Thank you for testing! :up: (now I better get back to the manual and bug fixes )

[GlobalExplorer]

Since yesterday I had it running some more, there were still some minor problems with slow moving waves, but as I said, 90% of the time it's excellent.

[kriller2]

(this picture is from the museum at 7 o'clock and the black sea is gone?)
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/5125/pe4newri1.th.jpg (http://img258.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pe4newri1.jpg)

New bow wake which looks like water, I have used the stock shader for the bow wake, there were to many problems with the new one, but will look into it after release..
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/6294/bowwakedy3.th.jpg (http://img123.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bowwakedy3.jpg)

Sunset
http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/2204/sunset2zp8.th.jpg (http://img116.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sunset2zp8.jpg)

All the listed bugs is now corrected, so will release the mod friday as planned.

[Syxx_Killer]

That looks so awesome! I can't wait for the release! :rock:

[Fish40]

Ditto!!:up:

[USS Santa]

i can't waiting for it. :ping:

[W_clear]

(this picture is from the museum at 7 o'clock and the black sea is gone?)
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/5125/pe4newri1.th.jpg (http://img258.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pe4newri1.jpg)

New bow wake which looks like water, I have used the stock shader for the bow wake, there were to many problems with the new one, but will look into it after release..
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/6294/bowwakedy3.th.jpg (http://img123.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bowwakedy3.jpg)

Sunset
http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/2204/sunset2zp8.th.jpg (http://img116.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sunset2zp8.jpg)

All the listed bugs is now corrected, so will release the mod friday as planned.

WoW,--------------Ti's great work!
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/6294/bowwakedy3.th.jpg (http://img123.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bowwakedy3.jpg)FoamWave too Good .:up:

[TDK1044]

Dave would be incredibly proud to see just how far you've taken this, K2. :D

[DrBeast]

All the listed bugs is now corrected, so will release the mod friday as planned.

Holy hamburgers, I have to hurry and test some stuff then!

ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

*rushes off home to commence testing!*

Hm...forgot I have to download and bring along TMaru as well! Bleh!

[kriller2]

All the listed bugs is now corrected, so will release the mod friday as planned.

Holy hamburgers, I have to hurry and test some stuff then!

ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

*rushes off home to commence testing!*

Hm...forgot I have to download and bring along TMaru as well! Bleh!

Hi Dr. Beast.

Yes please do that, but wait untill I send you the new files, so you wont find the bugs again ;)

Will send the latest later today.

[kriller2]

Thanks Wclear for the comment.

The waves are still not the colour of your mod, it's more dark pacific blue, but the reflection of the clouds that "was to much" you wrote to me is now corrected.

Along with the green underwater,it's now blue as you wrote Global Explorer.

I hope everybody likes the new edition of ROW / PE, there is no turning back of the release date now :lol:

[Topo65]

You have done a wonderful job. After bought my new 9800GTX, I can at last enjoy your excellent mod. Thanks in advance, Kriller2. :up:

I wait impatient the new release. :rock:

[C DuDe]

:o ok... eurm... lost for words, great job guy's

Release next Friday, heh.. Leaves me just enough time to get back to port.:up:

[DrBeast]

:o ok... eurm... lost for words, great job guy's


if I had a Eurocent for every time Kriller2 and team left me speechless, jawless, and with my eyes well out of their socket, I'd be a millionaire! :rotfl:

[kriller2]

Uploading the full PE4 beta mod (82 mb. packed, 340 unpacked), which I would like the members of PE and testers to try, should be ready in 30 minutes :up:

Still needs some more work on the manual though.

BTW this pack includes everything so please uninstall all previous versions of test-files before trying this, it contains alot of bug-fixes.

EDIT: AVGWarhawk, GlobalExplorer, reallydedpoet, Torps
DrBeast, Gunfighter, Nisgeis, swdw, Torps check your PM's :)

[DrBeast]

I like it when I come to work and fine nice presents waiting for me...makes me want to rush through all the experiments! :D

ETA: just noticed this, why does Torps have to check his PM twice? :rotfl:
ETA #2: beta testers, expect a PM soon; I've ran into some problems and need your help.

[kriller2]

I like it when I come to work and fine nice presents waiting for me...makes me want to rush through all the experiments! :D

ETA: just noticed this, why does Torps have to check his PM twice? :rotfl:
ETA #2: beta testers, expect a PM soon; I've ran into some problems and need your help.

Sounds good if you can make a zones file for the TM-users Beast, if not the users don't get your nice before death sequences with submarine leaking oil, submarine fire and explosions and the other great stuff you have added to the PE mod :yep:

I can send you the zones.cfg when I get home later today in 7 hours from now, unless some of the other team-members or testers have the file and send it to you.

Now get back to the experiements with stuff exploding and boiling! :rotfl:

[DrBeast]

I can send you the zones.cfg when I get home later today in 7 hours from now, unless some of the other team-members or testers have the file and send it to you.

Now get back to the experiements with stuff exploding and boiling! :rotfl:

Cheers mate. Yeah, if I don't receive the file from someone else within the next three hours, I'm afraid I'll lose a whole night's worth of troubleshooting. What's that you said? Sleep? What's that? :D

Today's menu involved lots of slicing and dissecting. No explosions yet! :rotfl:

[GlobalExplorer]

I did not have a lot of time to run with the new version, about 1 hour maybe. Generally I am quite happy with the blue ocean now, where was no more strange transition to underwater. I personally think the colors are very realistic now, especially the more blue ocean at day, to improve from here on would require us color calibrate our displays.

What I found not so well was transparency in shallow water, the seafloor appears as black / grey areas, it looks really strange or the effect is not working. I would drop these extreme transparency effects: you can see the floor in a cenote, but salt water is surprisingly opaque! I personally would not find it odd if transparency ends at 4-5m

Generally I was quite happy, though I think the reduced reflections was better (less cheesy sunsets) but I have no hard evidence against this.

[GlobalExplorer]

As usual I try to present evidence in the form of screens ..

Hopefully you see what I mean with the transparency not looking nice. I thought I had taken another screenshot with the black / grey areas, but I dont find it anymore .. Generally I felt there were really odd colors when the sea was shallow. You see the kay walls, even in the far distance, it's not nice imo.

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/thumbs/SH4Img@2008-09-10_00.00.42_265.jpg (http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/SH4Img@2008-09-10_00.00.42_265.jpg)


The underwater color is right now, I think:

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/thumbs/SH4Img@2008-09-10_00.20.10_468.jpg (http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/SH4Img@2008-09-10_00.20.10_468.jpg)


Finally one of the many many nice views I got with the new beta ..


http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/thumbs/SH4Img@2008-09-10_00.20.51_437.jpg (http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/SH4Img@2008-09-10_00.20.51_437.jpg)

[Ishigami]

What I found not so well was transparency in shallow water, the seafloor appears as black / grey areas, it looks really strange or the effect is not working. I would drop these extreme transparency effects: you can see the floor in a cenote, but salt water is surprisingly opaque! I personally would not find it odd if transparency ends at 4-5m

On screens earlier in this topic it looked awesome. Maybe it’s a problem on your side?
I just want to suggest that you may want to make it an optional installation before kicking it out completely as I’m very interested in the eye candies.


I can’t wait for the release.

[Nisgeis]

Hopefully you see what I mean with the transparency not looking nice. I thought I had taken another screenshot with the black / grey areas, but I dont find it anymore .. Generally I felt there were really odd colors when the sea was shallow. You see the kay walls, even in the far distance, it's not nice imo.

Yes, that part is broken, I've got until Friday to fix it and if I can't we'll roll back to my previous version without sea floor and shallow colours. It's probably not a good sign that Tesco are offering Stella Artois for half price... :hmm:

I'm having trouble, because in the game, the earth is round, but the sea and sea bed are flat. I think this is what causes the stadimeter errors at close range - the ship moves over the spherical Earth, but the flat sea clips it off, making it appear lower in the water than it should be. Still, if I wanted an easy time, I'd mod 'Professional Tic-Tac-Toe' (noughts and crosse). I haven't quite worked out which bits make the flat sea clip off at the round sphere...

[Orion2012]

I'm having trouble, because in the game, the earth is round, but the sea and sea bed are flat. I think this is what causes the stadimeter errors at close range - the ship moves over the spherical Earth, but the flat sea clips it off, making it appear lower in the water than it should be. Still, if I wanted an easy time, I'd mod 'Professional Tic-Tac-Toe' (noughts and crosse). I haven't quite worked out which bits make the flat sea clip off at the round sphere...


Nisgeis, you know the issue with that damn infernal stadimeter has given me issues with close range targets, generally less then 700 yards, so much, I have begun to just ping the close range target, regardless of a DD's presence, not even having a clue what could cause its malfunctioning, but you sir, I believe have hit the nail on the head.

[kriller2]

As usual I try to present evidence in the form of screens ..

Hopefully you see what I mean with the transparency not looking nice. I thought I had taken another screenshot with the black / grey areas, but I dont find it anymore .. Generally I felt there were really odd colors when the sea was shallow. You see the kay walls, even in the far distance, it's not nice imo.

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/thumbs/SH4Img@2008-09-10_00.00.42_265.jpg (http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/SH4Img@2008-09-10_00.00.42_265.jpg)


The underwater color is right now, I think:

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/thumbs/SH4Img@2008-09-10_00.20.10_468.jpg (http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/SH4Img@2008-09-10_00.20.10_468.jpg)


Finally one of the many many nice views I got with the new beta ..


http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/thumbs/SH4Img@2008-09-10_00.20.51_437.jpg (http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/pe4/SH4Img@2008-09-10_00.20.51_437.jpg)

Hi GlobalExplorer,
Thank you for taking time in trying the new version, yes now I see what you mean and we do have a problem with the transparent water and the reflections when there are alot of shallow water, which Nisgeis is trying to solve. If we can't get it working before friday we will use the water shader with the transparent water, but not the azure shores, this should take care of the problem untill we/Nisgeis maybe can get the shader working better.

It's good to hear you like the underwater colour more now, but for the best effect try turn light shafts on :)

Are you running PE4 with all available options set to on in the video options? - can I ask you to post a screenshot of nr. 4 single mission "Battle of the philipines sea" so I can compare the colours with mine?

BTW The settings for my screenshots are 2 x AA, 16 x AF, mutisampling to allmost smoothen. Brightness / gama set to middle. SH4-graphics setting all to max.

[Nisgeis]

I'm having trouble, because in the game, the earth is round, but the sea and sea bed are flat. I think this is what causes the stadimeter errors at close range - the ship moves over the spherical Earth, but the flat sea clips it off, making it appear lower in the water than it should be. Still, if I wanted an easy time, I'd mod 'Professional Tic-Tac-Toe' (noughts and crosse). I haven't quite worked out which bits make the flat sea clip off at the round sphere...


Nisgeis, you know the issue with that damn infernal stadimeter has given me issues with close range targets, generally less then 700 yards, so much, I have begun to just ping the close range target, regardless of a DD's presence, not even having a clue what could cause its malfunctioning, but you sir, I believe have hit the nail on the head.

[thread hijack]

Sorry, I meant to say long range :oops: . It must be the effect of the Stella that I haven't bought yet. There is a discussion of the problem and a solution for the stadimeter range problems here that you could try:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=134349&highlight=stadimeter+ranges

It may help with the problem you are having.

[/thread hijack]

[DrBeast]

Beta testers, expect a PM soon; I've ran into some problems and need your help.
Nevermind guys, download's here. I'll get on it as soon as I get home.

[kriller2]

Here is how it looks in the single mission "Battle of the philipine sea" on an ATI x3850 with the settings I posted further up in this post, I hope that most of the users gets the same experience :up:
http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/6737/philipinesssinglemissioqd0.th.jpg (http://img55.imageshack.us/my.php?image=philipinesssinglemissioqd0.jpg)

[Gunfighter]

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f163/ABThing/DC1.jpg
DC 1 Explosion


http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f163/ABThing/DC2.jpg
DC 2 water colour changes will this be normal as it looks good, disappears after a few seconds
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f163/ABThing/OilorWater1.jpg
again after torp strike

[kriller2]

Hi Gunfigher,

No this is a bug which Nisgeis has corrected and the fix will be included in the full PE4, but only if Nisgeis can get the depth of the sea to work in all areas of the game, as he wrote further up in this thread it is very dificult to correct the depth of the sea and the sh4-engine wasn't build for what we are trying to do..

BTW if you have strange sea, try save the game and reload it to get back the high detail waves and don't run more than 2048 TC, the wave-states will get out of sync when running high TC.

[kriller2]

Beta testers, expect a PM soon; I've ran into some problems and need your help.
Nevermind guys, download's here. I'll get on it as soon as I get home.

So you have the zones from TM now? - if not I can send it to you right away.

[DrBeast]

Beta testers, expect a PM soon; I've ran into some problems and need your help.
Nevermind guys, download's here. I'll get on it as soon as I get home.
So you have the zones from TM now? - if not I can send it to you right away.
Yup, got it, checked, confirmed there's something wrong, corrected ;) Beta testers, expect a PM soon with Special Effects for TMO 152. Those of you who use TM, please give it a go and see if all works (I can't test it as I don't have the add-on).

Now, with regards to PE4...let me get some caffeine into my system and I'll be back, ok? ;)

ETA: Beta testers, check your PMs...need more caffeine!

[TDK1044]

With TM, I've always run with Volumetric Fog enabled and Environmental Effects disabled as Duci pointed out that this produces the best results. The game looks great with thoser settings, but will I need to enable Environmental Effects with this mod, K2? :D

[kriller2]

Yes with PE4 it is important to run with the EE effects, because I made a little trick with the cloudsshadows - shader so that it lights up the sea instead of darken it, to get rid of the black sea during sunsets.

The devs didn't finish the cloud shadows shader, so the shadows you see on the sea in stock SH4 is random and doesn't follow the clouds, it's a shame and I tried pm'ing Seeadler about it and it's because the devs didn't make a vertex shader for it.

it's allso best to run with Postprocess filtering as I allso edited the shaders controlling how the colours should be affected by it to archive a more realistic light of the game, before if you enabled it during the sunsets the pps filters would make the game look strange at sunset / sunrise with to much saturation.

[Ishigami]

it's allso best to run with Postprocess filtering

Will you include a mod to remove the grain effect of ppf?

[TDK1044]

Yes with PE4 it is important to run with the EE effects, because I made a little trick with the cloudsshadows - shader so that it lights up the sea instead of darken it, to get rid of the black sea during sunsets.

The devs didn't finish the cloud shadows shader, so the shadows you see on the sea in stock SH4 is random and doesn't follow the clouds, it's a shame and I tried pm'ing Seeadler about it and it's because the devs didn't make a vertex shader for it.

it's allso best to run with Postprocess filtering as I allso edited the shaders controlling how the colours should be affected by it to archive a more realistic light of the game, before if you enabled it during the sunsets the pps filters would make the game look strange at sunset / sunrise with to much saturation.


Cool. Many thanks.

[kriller2]

it's allso best to run with Postprocess filtering

Will you include a mod to remove the grain effect of ppf?

Yes the no grain effect is included as default in PE4 :) (and PE 3.3 btw)

[Syxx_Killer]

it's allso best to run with Postprocess filtering
Will you include a mod to remove the grain effect of ppf?
Yes the no grain effect is included as default in PE4 :) (and PE 3.3 btw)

On the flip side, could you release an option that re-enables it? :oops::lol: I liked it in the stock game. I've read that if I replace the noise.dds file with the stock it should re-enable the grainy effect. However, I have never had that be the case. I had to delete some shader file from the mod before enabling. With all the work PE puts into the SH4 environment, I don't want to mess something up by deleting a shader file. :88)

[KrOkOZyABrA]

I like grainy effect too!!!:up::up::up: Sorry...:roll::roll::roll:

[kriller2]

Sorry this will not be included in PE4 tommorow...

[TDK1044]

Hi K2,

My install order for TM and Operation Monson is:

TMO 152
TMO_sboat_engine_Patch
OM V400
OM V400 Patch 2
OM_V400_Uboat_Damage_Mod_RC1
TMO_Enable_Uboat_V4

Will your mod go after TMO_sboat_engine_patch and before OM V400?

[kriller2]

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/1537/pe4seafaomlu3.jpg

Credits goes to Wclear for letting me use some of his work in PE4, I just modified his seafoam a little to match the blue sea, thanks Wclear :up:

[Ishigami]

It's Friday here on my end where is the download? :hmm:

Just joking ofc :rotfl:

[kriller2]

It's Friday here on my end where is the download? :hmm:

Just joking ofc :rotfl:

It's allmost night here, so you should be able to download the mod today ;), just need to make some more screenshots of the installation with TM and OM etc. (and sleep Zzz..)

[Archie]

It's Friday here on my end where is the download? :hmm:

Just joking ofc :rotfl:
It's allmost night here, so you should be able to download the mod today ;), just need to make some more screenshots of the installation with TM and OM etc. (and sleep Zzz..)

Who said that you were allowed to sleep Kriller? ;)

[Fish40]

Please tell me this will be compatable with RFB:yep:????

[claybirdd]

:rock: I can't wait, thank you in advance guys for all of the hard work.:up:

[The General]

I'm sitting at my computer with a knife & fork, 'cos I cannot wait to dig into this! :D

[DrBeast]

*DrBeast hands The General a shovel*

Here, this will help with the digging :rotfl:

Quick question: is ROW Sounds discontinued? It wasn't included in the beta download. :hmm:

[kriller2]

@Nisgeis check your pm.

@Dr. Beast no the row sounds are still a part of PE, it's just on an external site because of it's size.

EDIT: btw I tried your special effects yesterday together with TM and OM and it works! Thanks :up:

[DrBeast]

@Dr. Beast no the row sounds are still a part of PE, it's just on an external site because of it's size.

EDIT: btw I tried your special effects yesterday together with TM and OM and it works! Thanks :up:
Ah, ok. Just bear in mind that it might lead to crashes if used over TMaru or RSRDC, as those mods have introduced new sounds that are not covered in ROW's sounds.sdl file. Best bet would be to re-release that mod without that file, will save a lot of hassle with CTD issues.

Ah, that's good to hear!

[TDK1044]

Will PE 4 conflict with my German voices mod as I'm playing Lurker's OM Atlantic Campaign right now? :D

[ReallyDedPoet]

Stop asking so many questions T., it will all work out for you....

j\k :lol::lol:, I can't see where it would conflict with the voices mod.


RDP

[kriller2]

Hi all,

I got good news and bad news regarding PE4.

The bad news is that we can't make the azure shallows work with the current SH4-depth engine, it wasn't build for what we are trying to do. The problem is very complicated, but have something to do with the way the engine draws the seabed with a flat ocean and a earhtshaped world. Sorry for that and it will take some more time before we are ready to release PE4, probaly 7-8 hours from now on.

The good news is that we have the same shader as above working with the neon glow around the submarine corrected and the water still looks transparent when in shallows so you can see the seabed from above, so that's what we will include in PE4. Allso the bug with the azure explosions Gunfighter posted about should be corrected now.

We will try our best to make the release today :rock:

[DrBeast]

Will PE 4 conflict with my German voices mod as I'm playing Lurker's OM Atlantic Campaign right now? :D
Any sound mod that contains new entries in sound.sdl will clash (i.e. lead to CTD) with ROW Sounds ONLY if ROW Sounds is installed on top, unless said file is removed from ROW Sounds before installing it. However, it doesn't contain voice files, so you're safe there.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Will PE 4 conflict with my German voices mod as I'm playing Lurker's OM Atlantic Campaign right now? :D
Any sound mod that contains new entries in sound.sdl will clash (i.e. lead to CTD) with ROW Sounds ONLY if ROW Sounds is installed on top, unless said file is removed from ROW Sounds before installing it. However, ROW Sounds doesn't contain voice files, so it won't clash.
What I was thinking, that nothing specific to PE itself will conflict with sounds\voices.


RDP

[DrBeast]

What I was thinking, that nothing specific to PE itself will conflict with sounds\voices.


RDP

That is correct, but I still consider ROW Sounds as part of PE, even though it is a separate, optional download and install :yep:

[TDK1044]

Thanks, Guys. I'll play safe and use the new PE mod without the ROW sounds. :D

[ReallyDedPoet]

What I was thinking, that nothing specific to PE itself will conflict with sounds\voices.


RDP
That is correct, but I still consider ROW Sounds as part of PE, even though it is a separate, optional download and install :yep:
Stop being difficult Beast :lol::lol: Ok if we are getting technical then you are
correct Sir :oops:

It's a great Mod, ROW Sounds :)


RDP

[kriller2]

@Dr. Beast no the row sounds are still a part of PE, it's just on an external site because of it's size.

EDIT: btw I tried your special effects yesterday together with TM and OM and it works! Thanks :up:
Ah, ok. Just bear in mind that it might lead to crashes if used over TMaru or RSRDC, as those mods have introduced new sounds that are not covered in ROW's sounds.sdl file. Best bet would be to re-release that mod without that file, will save a lot of hassle with CTD issues.

Ah, that's good to hear!

I have another suggestion to the sound mod difficulties, just to add to the confusion... :lol: What if the users simple apply the ROW sound mod as the last mod, then it should work. I can write that in the manual :hmm:

[DrBeast]

I have another suggestion to the sound mod difficulties, just to add to the confusion... :lol: What if the users simple apply the ROW sound mod as the last mod, then it should work. I can write that in the manual :hmm:
Nope, that's a recipe for CTD, my friend :D What you can write is, if you're using either TMaru or RSRDC, go to ROW Sounds\Data\Sounds and delete sound.sdl, THEN install it on top of the other mods. That'll work :yep:

@realldedpoet: it's the curse of a scientist to nitpick :rotfl: Plus, I'm rather grumpy as a result of having to take care of some students' paperwork. Honestly, those who can't fill in a simple application form correctly should be banned from Uni! :shifty:

ETA: Yes, ROW Sounds is a GREAT mod, most of the sounds I'm using are from that mod, with only a handful being from the Ultimate Sound Mod (another great sound mod, IMHO), and a few I've tweaked a bit myself.

[W_clear]

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/1537/pe4seafaomlu3.jpg

Credits goes to Wclear for letting me use some of his work in PE4, I just modified his seafoam a little to match the blue sea, thanks Wclear :up:

You are welcome, Please use seaform of E4.7.:up:

[ReallyDedPoet]

Please use seaform of E4.7.:up:
Nice work on the foam W_clear :yep:


RDP

[swdw]

Have latest beta installed. Since I was working on the IXD2 dive rate I noticed an issue with the reflection. THe reflection is very blocky. This image was grabbed from a resolution of 1280 x 960
http://www.kickinbak.com/posts/9d2pe4.jpg

[The General]

Have latest beta installed. Since I was working on the IXD2 dive rate I noticed an issue with the reflection. THe reflection is very blocky. This image was grabbed from a resolution of 1280 x 960Could it be anthing to do with dynamic shadows being switched on? I don't really know what I'm talking about and it shows ;)

@Dr Beast

Thanks for the shovel, I owe you one.

[Nisgeis]

Goodbye cruel work in progress thread!

[The General]

Oh yes, here we go....

[DeepIron]

Oh yes! Thx guys... :up::up::up:

[kriller2]

Hi all subsimmers,

The time has come to show you what me and Nisgeis has been using the last many days on, try the new PE4 from the first page of this thread.

Enjoy it :sunny:

[Nisgeis]

I think it deserves a new [REL] thread!

[kriller2]

I think it deserves a new [REL] thread!

Be patient.. and don't forget to change your signature :lol:

[Nisgeis]

I think it deserves a new [REL] thread!
Be patient.. and don't forget to change your signature :lol:
Oh, touché! :D

[The General]

Astonishing! :o I can't believe what you guys have done. Bravo K2 & Co.

[Nisgeis]

You must have a quick download there General. It took me 15 mins to get the previous complete version.

[TDK1044]

I don't know how you do it, K2. I'm running the full version of P4 with TM and OM, and not only does this mod look stunning, but my fps has actually increased by an average of 3fps running with all graphics set at full, including environmental effects and volumetric fog. Amazing stuff!:rock:

[The General]

@Nisgeis

Hey, I'm in the U.K. and we got everything from a Diddle-Eyed Joe to a damned if I know ;)

I just saw my first Sunset and I almost wept. :yep:

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/8977/sh4img20080912231005933zx5.th.png (http://img529.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4img20080912231005933zx5.png)

[Will-Rommel]

Excellent job on this project guys, out for the sea! :ping:

[Rockin Robbins]

Two minutes 36 seconds on this slow American broadband. Whew!
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/PE4download.jpg

I'm ready to roll! Thank you kriller2 and the whole team!

[swdw]

Kriller- just noticed at 5m wind speed I get a small touch of the jello water close to the ship when on the bridge, and the small wavelets (the tiny ripples) tend to have a noticeable geometric pattern to them. I dunno if I'm the only one that picked it up, but then I've been told I have an ability to see patterns easily.

Am also getting some purple tint in the reflections on the water from the bridge without a cloud in the sky.. Time 10 am (6 hours after sunrise).

[Carotio]

K2,

Why couldn't you wait till sunday to release it?
I just wanted to make a quick check in the forum before going to bed, and then it's released, so I have to wait till sunday to check it out. DAMN :stare: :nope: :damn:

Oh, well, I hope my mind won't be messed with this, when looking at all the pretty girls tomorrow.... :cool: :oops:

Just kidding of course. I look forward to try it out. :up:

If you want alternative hosting, then BtS is also open for you.

[Egon01]

Great job guys! Respect :up:

BTW I have one question:

Glowing edges during night of all ships http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4ln0.jpg (http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4ln0.jpg) is it bug, did I do something wrong during installation or it should be like this ?

Cheers

[Syxx_Killer]

Great job guys! Respect :up:

BTW I have one question:

Glowing edges during night of all ships http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4ln0.jpg (http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4ln0.jpg) is it bug, did I do something wrong during installation or it should be like this ?

Cheers

Those glowing edges were introduced in patch 1.4 I believe.

I must say PE4 looks awesome! It is how SH4 should have been from the get go. Not only that, I get better FPS, too! Not having those white lines around the sub while submerged it so cool! I've just one question though. I actually kind of like the stock camera better than the modded ones. If I use the stock camera, will that mess anything up?

[TDK1044]

Just experienced attacking a merchant in light fog. Looks excellent. :D

[W_clear]

Great work!:up:

[claybirdd]

cant wait till I get off work tonight so i can get this LONG awaited installment. BTW DAVE WOULD BE VERY PROUD.:up:

[billko]

This an exceptional release! It's better than 3.x (of course) but seems to be less stressful on the CPU at the same time!

I thought 3.x was good; this is awesome! Yes, I agree. Dave would be proud to see how far you've gone beyond his original effort. This is what he was trying to achieve, and that you've carried on and made his dream real, well... need I say more?

Also, a special thanks to the team for making sure that the people with less than stellar machines could also enjoy the mod. My machine is a bit dated, but running with the lower res stuff enables me to enjoy an enhanced experience even at my level. I know a lot of effort went into this part as well, and I thank you for that!

Bill

[Topo65]

Amazing work! 60 FPS all time! Greats effects! I really enjoy it! Thanks, Kriller! :up:

Q6600 + 4gb + FX9800GTX.

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/8753/sh42008091300430167ry0.jpg

[Nisgeis]

If I use the stock camera, will that mess anything up?
If you use the cameras.dat file from stock, it won't mess anything up. Some on the camera positions are changed by the submarine files and that may have an adverse effect if you changed them.

[The General]

Amazing work! 60 FPS all time! :up: *The General spits tea all over the keyboard*

'60 fps' !? Wow, I can only dream of such power. I was happy with 24 fps ;)

[The General]

By-the-way, is there anyway to move the default camera position in the control room? I like to stand near the aft
bulkhead and see all the crew at once. It helps with submersion.

I don't want much do I? :rotfl:

[Nisgeis]

By-the-way, is there anyway to move the default camera position in the control room? I like to stand near the rear bulkhead and see all the crew at once.

This is off the top of my head, so may be wrong, but I think the positions for the station cameras are in the submarine .cam file. There's one for each type of sub. Open up the .cam file and look for something like dummy_controlroom and adjust the position of that.

[The General]

Stay safe all you folks in Texas.

[Freakwave]

Thank you all for your hard work:up:

Cant wait to see how it looks.

[Captain Dave]

Thanks to all involved with this new Mod. I just purchased the 1.5 Add-on and will be looking forward to PE4s enhancement of my ocean cruises.:up:

[Task Force]

One word. Beautiful.:D

[Nisgeis]

Kriller- just noticed at 5m wind speed I get a small touch of the jello water close to the ship when on the bridge, and the small wavelets (the tiny ripples) tend to have a noticeable geometric pattern to them. I dunno if I'm the only one that picked it up, but then I've been told I have an ability to see patterns easily.

Am also getting some purple tint in the reflections on the water from the bridge without a cloud in the sky.. Time 10 am (6 hours after sunrise).

Were you getting the noticable pattern and the purple tint in the previous version? As far as I know, the only thing that has changed in the past couple of weeks is an increase of reflectivity in the scene.dat, to get around a problem with dark water at dusk and dawn. Is the purple water also at 5m/s?

Although the above water shaders were changed at the last minute (about 45 mins before the release was packaged up), they haven't been changed from the shaders in use for the past 2-3 weeks in the test version. The only thing that was removed was the shallow water colour, as it wasn't working 100%.

A change in reflectivity would account for the wavelets appearing differently, as after all the waves don't actually exist, they are only there because of the calculated reflections. Strange this is, Kriller only changed them for the dawn/dusk time period. :hmm:

[Torps]

I will be taking donations for Kriller :rotfl: Just Kidding.


Great work as always Kriller!:up:

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/6561/smoothwb0.jpg

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/1166/sunnyzb3.jpg

more pics at http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=108977&page=109

[kylania]

Is there still a 'no floaters' option for PE4? Or can you just use the same thing that worked with PE3?

[Task Force]

Was the blue coastline effect included in this release. My coast lines are the same as the ocean..;)

[kriller2]

Hi Kylania,
No I took it out because now the floaters are allmost transparent, but you can use the one from PE3.

Is there still a 'no floaters' option for PE4? Or can you just use the same thing that worked with PE3?

[kriller2]

Great job guys! Respect :up:

BTW I have one question:

Glowing edges during night of all ships http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4ln0.jpg (http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh4ln0.jpg) is it bug, did I do something wrong during installation or it should be like this ?

Cheers

Those glowing edges were introduced in patch 1.4 I believe.

I must say PE4 looks awesome! It is how SH4 should have been from the get go. Not only that, I get better FPS, too! Not having those white lines around the sub while submerged it so cool! I've just one question though. I actually kind of like the stock camera better than the modded ones. If I use the stock camera, will that mess anything up?

Thanks SyxxKiller, if you are playing stock SH4 + PE then it should be okay to use the stock camera if not then you might get a CTD as Ducimus changed alot of stuff in the camerafile.

[Nisgeis]

Was the blue coastline effect included in this release. My coast lines are the same as the ocean..;)

There were problems with it, so it was removed. It may make it back in if said problems can be resolved.

[Defiance]

Thankyou K2 and the rest of the "Crew" that worked on this :rock:

Finally found time to install it :D

:up:

[ivank]

THIS IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!! THANKS SOOO MUCH!!!! UPS THE VISUAL FACTOR BY 1000:rock::rock::rock::rock::up::up::up:

[TDK1044]

I'm running this mod with TM and Lurker's OM, plus a German Voices mod. I run with graphics maxed out and Environmental Effects and Volumetric Fog selected. Having just made a dusk attack in light fog and rumbling thunder, this mod really takes the game to a new level.

Many thanks to all involved. :D

[C DuDe]

Hi Modders,

The sun Rises and sun downs are excellent and make a real impact on the game.

However I have some trouble with night vision as the screen is very blue and I can't make out where the ships are due to it. The difference between sky and water is almost non existing (This was 03H00 slightly overcast).
During day time the crew and sub aren't sharp edged, a bit blurred so to speak.

Turning PP off helps a little but not much, turning E.E and or turning VF on or off doesn't seem to affect any.
It's a bit like I need to clean my glasses if you understand what I mean the contours aren't sharp. (Thing is I don't have glasses).

Is this normal or a side effect and more importantly, am I the only one with this issue?

CD

[Sea Otter]

Kriller,

Thanks for all you've done to improve the game!

[Vorkapitan]

Kriller 2,

That's the most AMAZING water I've ever seen in a game. Truely amazing!!

:rock: :rock: :rock: :rock: :rock: :rock: :rock: :rock: :rock: :rock: :rock: :rock:

[Topo65]

This is my new video clip. This time, I used PE4 for make it. One more time... THX, Kriller!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92_1p4lTSbs

:up:

[ivank]

I love the mod, but I noticed when I was playing with the Admiral Hipper the engine sound dissappeared!? Im using Admiral Hipper, PE4, ROW sound effects v9, DAS Boot music

[kriller2]

This is my new video clip. This time, I used PE4 for make it. One more time... THX, Kriller!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92_1p4lTSbs

:up:
Hi Topo65, Thank you :D My wife saw it with me and in the begining of the movie she asked me if it that was my mod, it looked so real..

Well done :up:

[kriller2]

I love the mod, but I noticed when I was playing with the Admiral Hipper the engine sound dissappeared!? Im using Admiral Hipper, PE4, ROW sound effects v9, DAS Boot music
Hi Ivan, Thanks, that sounds strange. Maybe Torps or LukeFF have an idea what causes the Hippers engine sound to dissapear ?, they are the sound-wizards from the ROW/PE team ;)

[Fish40]

Kriller, I'm speachless as usulal my friend!:o Outstanding!:up:

[Task Force]

Was the blue coastline effect included in this release. My coast lines are the same as the ocean..;)

There were problems with it, so it was removed. It may make it back in if said problems can be resolved.

:cry: Still a great mod

[ReallyDedPoet]

Big-time congrats on the new version k2 :yep::up:


RDP

[kylania]

I'm having horrible luck with this mod. My watch crew will call out they've spotted a plane and I'll quickly switch to bridge view to check that type of plane it is. My captain will get out "crash di---oooh look how pretty the waves are!" and I'll end up staring at the sea as I get bombed to the sea floor. :p Great work!

[Syxx_Killer]

I have just discovered a major bug with PE4! Every time I start playing the game, PE4 turns the game into a photo shoot. Hard drive space is decreasing rapidly as the folder size increases from all the pics I am taking! Btw, this is after I save them as JPGs and delete the BMPs. :oops::lol:

Here's one such example. I was leaving Pearl early in the morning with my new Tench and the "shutter bug" reared it ugly (or pretty) head again! http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/images/icons/icon10.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/Syxx_Killer/SH4%20Shots/SH4Img2008-09-14_205318_718.jpg

[cdrsubron7]

@ Kriller. You and all the people who contributed to this fabulous mod are to be congradulated, it is fantastic. They say that one picture is worth a thousand words.


http://i33.tinypic.com/2aj0rjt.jpg




Need I say more. :up: :rock:

[Falkirion]

Cant wait to get this installed on my system tonight Kriller. Great work!

[billko]

Would you like an easy 10fps increase without really diminishing the eye candy that is PE4? It's quite simple: uncheck the "Detailed Waves" video option! While this may sound like a drastic measure, the crew here did such an excellent job with the waves that even "undetailed" waves are still incredible to look at! Actually I like them better because the detailed waves were a bit busy for my personal taste. I'd like some feedback on this if you would. I'm curious to see if others think this is an acceptable price/performance ratio hit.

Bill

[DrBeast]

I love the mod, but I noticed when I was playing with the Admiral Hipper the engine sound dissappeared!? Im using Admiral Hipper, PE4, ROW sound effects v9, DAS Boot music

Does Admiral Hipper ship (no pun intended) with a sounds.sdl file? Check to see if the mod has a Data\Sounds folder, and if yes, look inside it to see if you can find the file I mentioned. If it does, remove ROW Sounds with JSGME, look in its Data\Sounds folder and delete sound.sdl (or move it somewhere as a back-up). Now reinstall the mod. You should be ok.
I chose to stay at home this weekend, so I still haven't downloaded the mod :p Shame on me! :rotfl: