[REL] Thomsen's Water V4.0 (10/12/2008) - The Pool results go live - NEW VERSION!!!

[Philipp_Thomsen]

December 10th.

New version:

Changelog:
1. Smoother water
2. Darker water
3. Better sun reflection on the water.

Here's some teasers:
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/1450/86799466es3.jpg
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/3986/22912650em6.jpg



November 22th.

New version.

Changelog:

1. Fixed the sun reflection on the water. Instead of a thin runway, a larger and less bright conical reflection. Based on some photos I've seen, this is pretty much it.
2. Deleted some unnecessary files. Files the mod wasn't using and were causing JSGME to accuse conflicts.

Feedback at will!


Let me say this again...

THIS MOD IS A TWEAK FOR OLCE2.
YOU NEED TO DOWNLOAD OLCE2, ENABLE IT, AND THEN ENABLE MY MOD ON TOP OF IT.
DONT WORRY ABOUT JSGME WHINNING ABOUT COMPATIBILITIE ISSUES, THATS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!

Version 3.3 is out

Changelog:

1. Fixed the moon reflection
2. Increased the size of the moon by 50%



VERSION 3.2 IS OUT

Changelog:

1. A little bit darker water
2. Better reflection of the sun in the water
3. Fixed problem with SH3 Commander, now you can use "seasonal waves" with this mod
4. Reduced the pointed waves with bad weather
5. Tweaked waves to look better
6. Fixed the problem with the "speedy water movement", when you had the impression of being at high TC.

I was going to fix the lack of moon reflection, but I didn't find where the hell is the controller for that. I'm kinda busy with the ship's mod, so if anyone could help me with the moon reflection, I would be very happy.

:up:



VERSION V3.1 IS OUT!

Changelog:
Small fix with the colours at night. The sky was too bright and the water was bright blue like if you were in another planet, with radiatin or something.

This is what it looks now.
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/7540/76093370pg8.jpg

It's already avaliable for download!



VERSION V3 IS OUT!

I was going to call this a 2.1 version, but since it has as much modifications as from 1.0 to 2.0, or maybe more, and besides it's not just about water reflections and scene.dat, I decided to call it 3.0.

This version corrects the bug with the weather change. I only did tests with the 0, 4, 8 and 12 m/s winds, but I discovered that the weather between those values were looking terrible. I don't understand yet how this game engine works, but it's full of surprises. Now I understand what you meant, Wolfehunter!

This version also corrects the reflection of the sun, reworked stuff from SH4.

Changelog.
* Fixed the sun reflections on the water
* New TGA controlling the brightness the sun inflicts on the water
* Fixed the weather change bug
* Tweaked the waves on higher wind speeds.

Here's a picture of the new reflections of the sun:
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/848/79587465qt3.jpg
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/153/55820270mp1.jpg
http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/1011/74483308lf7.jpg

It can get better, and it WILL get better! :up:

It's being uploaded to my FF page, once you see "Thomsen's Water V3" there, you can download it! :up:


NEW VERSION AVALIABLE!

Lot of changes in wave sizes, wave formats and water reflection, lots of improvments.

Here's the trailer of the new version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acaxRlv5XuI

Youtube is rubbish quality, if you want decent video quality, download the video from my FF page, together with the mod.

Download the 2.0 version in my FF page, by clicking on my signature.

Hello everyone.

I think, and most people here agree, that OLCE2 is a must-have. I'm playing with it since it's first release.
But at the same time, since it's first release I'm making a little modifications on top of it, related to water.
I don't like the way that the water looks and feels. I agree with OLC that this is a question of taste.
Some of you will prefer this water, some of you will not.
Either way, I'm releasing it, cos I do know half a dozen people here that would love to use it.
I was going to make a whole environment mod, but I'll not anymore. It's way to complicated, it messes with sensors,
and besides I'm pretty happy with OLC's work.
So I'm releasing a mod that will only work ON TOP OF OLCE2.
That's right. You need to install the latest version of OLCE2 first.
I've made only changes in the waves, so this is almost the same as OLCE2.


Here's some pictures:


http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/977/90018493km1.jpg
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/2933/12832871ix5.jpg


This is not only an environment mod. This mod also changes the gameplay.

The wave sizes in stock sh3, or gwx, are way bigger than in the real life. You often see a ship sailing between two waves, the big waves makes the sailing behavior a joke and gives the feeling that the ships are really small, like plastic ships in a bathub.

And why is that?

Simple. The smaller the waves, the more waves need to be created to fill the same space. And the more waves on the screen, the more your CPU have to work to control each wave's movement, and more your VIDEOCARD have to work to render each wave and it's movement, dozens times per second. So, to make the waves as small as they are in real life, you would need to have a computer far too expensive for your pocket.

In this mod I've tryed a middle-ground, from stock and gwx to real-life water. So you'll have something more realistic, but not 100% realistic. Just a step closer.

With those smaller waves, things are a little different in gameplay:

- The ships are steadier now, they sail like big icebergs, without all that pitch and roll you're used to, which by the way is awful. You just can't have a 10 thousand tons ship bouncing up, down, left and right like that, it's just not acceptable. Sometimes you see a ship bouncing up and down on the water in terms of 8 or 10 meters, how are you supposed to aim a torpedo below it to explode magneticly?

- The ships looks bigger now, coz when you look at a ship, your brain takes whatever is closed to that ship to create a mental idea of the size of the ship, and normally the water is the closest to the ship, so the brain takes the size of the waves in comparison to the size of the ship and gives you the mental projection of the size, weight and feeling of what you're seeing thru binoculars or periscope. And everybody here knows real-life waves, thru movies or real experience. So when your brain see those big waves, the ship's sizes diminish drasticly, which is not forgiveble when it comes to a naval simulation.

Now, of course, the mod has it's eye-candy part too. I've always find the water in sh3 not acceptable. It never gave me the feeling of wet, the feeling of sailing on water. And if you stop to think, you're 100% of the time ON THE WATER! After all, it's a naval simulator. Some people might not think as me, as for they something must be more important, like the look of the officer's hats, or the color of the ship icon on the nav map. But that's what makes this community complete and amazing!

For the eye-candy part, the following:

- The water have a wet-feeling now. It's more reflective. It's hard to explain why, just download the part 1 video in my FileFront account (by clicking on my signature) and you'll see and understand what I mean.

- The water is transparent now. Not that you'll be able to see the uboat underwater, as I don't think this is possible in sh3. But you'll be able to see thru a small wave, when the water jumps.


Also, notice that this mod requires a much better system than SH3 or GWX. I don't have the minimal requirements yet, but you sure need to excess the recomended sh3 settings by 100%, at least. I had to trade my system to a brand new one so I could finally finish modding this. I'm having 70-90 fps with this mod, and my specs are:

C2D E4700 @2.6ghz
4 GB DDR2 800mhz dual-channel
Geforce 9600gt XFX 512mb

As for reporting, PLEASE, report the frame-rate you're getting, and what's your system. To enable FPS counter in sh3, just press CTRL+F8.


It's avaliable in FF page, by clicking on my signature. :up:

[Task Force]

i love it, it looks great.:D

[Philipp_Thomsen]

i love it, it looks great.:D

lol... :rotfl:

You love what? You didn't even had the time to download any of those videos!!!

Anyhow... thanks! You must be a fan! :up:

[Task Force]

:arrgh!: Ive watched all the vedios.:D I dont like the stock wave effects, I went to the local boat ramp and looked at the waves (just had a tropical storm) the waves were three+ feet tall and looked alot how the waves in your vedio looked.;)

[Philipp_Thomsen]

:arrgh!: Ive watched all the vedios.:D I dont like the stock wave effects, I went to the local boat ramp and looked at the waves (just had a tropical storm) the waves were three+ feet tall and looked alot how the waves in your vedio looked.;)

What can I say...

[Task Force]

:arrgh!: Ive watched all the vedios.:D I dont like the stock wave effects, I went to the local boat ramp and looked at the waves (just had a tropical storm) the waves were three+ feet tall and looked alot how the waves in your vedio looked.;)

What can I say...

Its been released.:lol:

[conus00]

Wow. I have downloaded all three videos and watched them multiple times. I have to admit that it is definitely a huge improvement to GWX2.1 water. I have been switching between playing SH3 and SH4 lately and still consider SH3 superior to SH4 (as far as simulation and immersment in the game goes). I just wish the SH3 was running same graphic engine as SH4.
Anyway, what you did in this mod is probably as close as SH4 water as it gets!
Thompsen, you have done a hell of the job!:rock:
Already subscribed to this thread. When are you gonna release it?

Are there any known issues with other mods?

[Jaeger]

very good idea. i would like to test it. will this only be compatible to gwx or will there be a stock version, too?

[Letum]

Impressive! a big improvement.


Thomsen:

Is it possible to import new wave models into SH3?

I can provide loopable, animated wave meshes that can be made into seamless
grids if that is any use to anyone.

[Reece]

Well I watched the first video, you certainly have my attention, looks great Philipp!:up:

[danurve]

D/L'ed #'s 1&3.
I found #3 most interesting & thought the calmness of #1 a possible advantage to DD & DE's. Where as medium+ seas gives the sub better escape avenues. And so naturaly then I don't favor calm seas for attacks. I would add that it seems gunnery action might be easier to accomplish.
The visual effects are nice and all, please don't get me wrong. But I am thinking as to the changes this would make to gameplay.
Good luck with your work.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

D/L'ed #'s 1&3.
I found #3 most interesting & thought the calmness of #1 a possible advantage to DD & DE's. Where as medium+ seas gives the sub better escape avenues. And so naturaly then I don't favor calm seas for attacks. I would add that it seems gunnery action might be easier to accomplish.
The visual effects are nice and all, please don't get me wrong. But I am thinking as to the changes this would make to gameplay.
Good luck with your work.

Game play can be changed to match the new water.

In my humble opinion, what us, modders, should do, is to get as close as possible from realism, and fix the "gameplay" according to the new parameters.

The alternative is to don't mess with the game to save the gameplay, but that way we are going nowhere fast.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Impressive! a big improvement.


Thomsen:

Is it possible to import new wave models into SH3?

I can provide loopable, animated wave meshes that can be made into seamless
grids if that is any use to anyone.

Grids are the thing I hate the most in sh3 seas. To make it realistic, you have to make small waves, and small waves looking from distance looks freaking ridiculous. You can spot the grid moving together, same animation.

I tried the best to avoyd the grip appearance, but still you can see it if you seach for. I tried everything. Tried different numbers of horizontal lines and vertical lines, but the grid only changes its arrangement, you still can see the infinite lines. I even tried PRIME NUMBERS, like 7 and 13, hoping the grid to disappear, but still no luck. The arrangement changes a bit, but it's still there, in your face, driving me nuts. If I could just define the game to simulate grid's movements in turns, like odds and pairs or something, we could maybe fix it, or at least turn it into a more imperceptible sh!t.

At least, for my confort, the grid is almost invisible looking from the cameras attached to the uboat, like the deckgun or the conning tower. You would have to use the external camera to see the grid, so that's not a big spot of bother.

What do you people think about the sun halo on those videos? Looking ugly yet, right? Where's OLC when I need him... :hmm:

[onelifecrisis]

Where's OLC when I need him... :hmm:

Already replied to your PM about that mate, but you never got back to me with the info I need to help you fix it...

[ReallyDedPoet]

Will have a look :yep:


RDP

[h.sie]

looks nice!!
will it be compatibe with OLCE2?
or is it intended to replace it?

[Philipp_Thomsen]

looks nice!!
will it be compatibe with OLCE2?
or is it intended to replace it?

It's designed to be installed on top of the latest version of OLCE2! :up:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

@ OLC

thanks for all your help, mate! :up:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

So the water is too bright, mirror-like.

I want to make it darker, like a lake. Anybody with me?

The main objective was to make the water look wet, and that's done... now the color...

[mengle]

Mister Thomsen, i use the scene dat file from WAC 3.0 in my GWX 2.1 is it possible to do the same with that file? would be great:hmm:

[Cezbor]

I'm eager to see it as a mod in my JSMG window:yep: Keep on good work. By the way I love your soundpacks.....:up:

[Fish40]

Looking real good.:up: Can't wait to give it a try:yep:

[Uber Gruber]

Very impressive stuff Thomsen, really enhances the "scale" of things and makes the water look a lot more realistic. If this could be incorporated with OLC2 such that OLC's periscope, TDC and Binnoc views fit the scale then we'd be on to the best sea mod i've seen.

Of course i've not played with it so this is either conjecture or I haven't got a clue what i'm talking about.
:up:

[Myxale]

Lools really cool!

I'm impressed. I wouldn't mind the double CPU work for my machine, if I can enjoy such waves.:rock:
I just would love to see the water darker. Like in OLC's E²

This game Still rocks!

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Mister Thomsen, i use the scene dat file from WAC 3.0 in my GWX 2.1 is it possible to do the same with that file? would be great:hmm:

not sure what you mean... this mod would replace scene.dat and the environment files and textures and colors and the whole shabang...

[Sag75]

So the water is too bright, mirror-like.

I want to make it darker, like a lake. Anybody with me?

The main objective was to make the water look wet, and that's done... now the color...


Hi Thomsen, your videos are fantastic ...unluckly I'll not be able to see your mod on my slow pc...

Anyway, i think, like other people here, the colour should be just a bit darker and blue. Maybe is better test the colour in midday time w/o clouds.. unlucky i usually see the Atlantic Ocean just by airline, but from that altitude, the sea is a deep blu. Here just samples to share:


http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/3677/9033191666c70d84aqy4.th.jpg (http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=9033191666c70d84aqy4.jpg)

http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/3052/oceanrm8.th.png (http://img399.imageshack.us/my.php?image=oceanrm8.png)

http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/1053/3372620ac5b07ecfbqa4.th.jpg (http://img399.imageshack.us/my.php?image=3372620ac5b07ecfbqa4.jpg)

http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/747/69655289ss9.th.png (http://img399.imageshack.us/my.php?image=69655289ss9.png)

[Philipp_Thomsen]

So the water is too bright, mirror-like.

I want to make it darker, like a lake. Anybody with me?

The main objective was to make the water look wet, and that's done... now the color...


Hi Thomsen, your videos are fantastic ...unluckly I'll not be able to see your mod on my slow pc...

Anyway, i think, like other people here, the colour should be just a bit darker and blue. Maybe is better test the colour in midday time w/o clouds.. unlucky i usually see the Atlantic Ocean just by airline, but from that altitude, the sea is a deep blu. Here just samples to share:


http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/3677/9033191666c70d84aqy4.th.jpg (http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=9033191666c70d84aqy4.jpg)

http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/3052/oceanrm8.th.png (http://img399.imageshack.us/my.php?image=oceanrm8.png)

http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/1053/3372620ac5b07ecfbqa4.th.jpg (http://img399.imageshack.us/my.php?image=3372620ac5b07ecfbqa4.jpg)

http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/747/69655289ss9.th.png (http://img399.imageshack.us/my.php?image=69655289ss9.png)

Hey, thanks for sharing!!!

Yes, it's deep blue... let's see what I can do about it! :up:

[Kpt. Lehmann]

looks nice!!
will it be compatibe with OLCE2?
or is it intended to replace it?

No it won't be compatible.
But choice is a good thing, right? :up:

Edit:
Cross-posted.
@PT
Huh? :doh:
Those are not OLCE2 videos... not even similar. And how can this possibly be compatible with OLCE2?

Coz I built this on top of your mod! I'm using your textures and particles. :lol:

Well, firstly they're not my particles, they're GWX particles with tweaks to the way they are lit by light sources in the environment.
More importantly, OLCE2 is rather more than a few wave textures. You're not using the scene.dat by the look of it, nor the colour files from OLCE2... in fact I'm hard-pressed to see anything at all from OLCE2 apart from those wave textures. You can't just grab a couple of textures and call it 'compatible'. :roll: :nope: Just say it like it is: it's an alternative. Not the same thing as compatible. :know:

Onelifecrisis is quite correct.

Furthermore, just because a thing is made to be different, doesn't always make a thing BETTER. It only makes a thing different.

Secondarily, messing around with the environmental files can really screw up AI performance if you don't know what you are doing.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Edited.

[OuNiS]

The third one is:

- Wind 4 m/s
- Medium clouds
- Medium fog
- No rain
- 9:00 hours

http://files.filefront.com/Thomsens+Ocean+Part+3wmv/;11718841;/fileinfo.html

This is a good one to see how the small waves make a difference in the ship size. The Titanic looks really huge with those small waves around him, and looking from the bridge it's a real monster. It really makes you feel like you should never cross it's path, avoid a collision at all costs. I'm not happy with the water in the morning time yet. While it looks great in certain angles, it looks crispy and pixeled in others. Like I said, this is a WIP yet. Any feedback is welcome.



Very nice Herr Thomsen, but i'm disappoint, because i expect a really big KAAAABOOOOM on this movie!;)

[Philipp_Thomsen]

The third one is:

- Wind 4 m/s
- Medium clouds
- Medium fog
- No rain
- 9:00 hours

http://files.filefront.com/Thomsens+Ocean+Part+3wmv/;11718841;/fileinfo.html

This is a good one to see how the small waves make a difference in the ship size. The Titanic looks really huge with those small waves around him, and looking from the bridge it's a real monster. It really makes you feel like you should never cross it's path, avoid a collision at all costs. I'm not happy with the water in the morning time yet. While it looks great in certain angles, it looks crispy and pixeled in others. Like I said, this is a WIP yet. Any feedback is welcome.



Very nice Herr Thomsen, but i'm disappoint, because i expect a really big KAAAABOOOOM on this movie!;)

Like a nuclear torpedo?

[OuNiS]

Like a nuclear torpedo?

I think one (maybe two) traditional torpedo filled with torpex will be enough.

[Task Force]

Whats the status on this now.:D

Il be on tommorow (FRIDAY):rock: getting ready to go to sleep.;)

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Whats the status on this now.:D

Il be on tommorow (FRIDAY):rock: getting ready to go to sleep.;)

The status? Stopped....

I'm not working anymore on this coz there seems to be a huge lack of interest on it from people at subsim. For me, that water is looking 10 thousand times better than any other, not only the look of it, but also the feel of it and the sailing behavior on it. So I'll just use it for myself.

[Wolfehunter]

Its a shame PT that your willing to let others to turn you down. Take your time dude. Make your dream come true. Who know? You might stumble on to something and make magic happen.

I'm intersted. I'm also patient. Don't give up dude ok.;)

I also agree that SH3 water could use some work with all that floats in it.:D

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Its a shame PT that your willing to let others to turn you down. Take your time dude. Make your dream come true. Who know? You might stumble on to something and make magic happen.

I'm intersted. I'm also patient. Don't give up dude ok.;)

I also agree that SH3 water could use some work with all that floats in it.:D

I don't get why people don't care about how the water looks like and how it affects the sailing behavior... I mean, 100% of the time, WE ARE IN THE WATER!!!

What's wrong with those people anyway... :nope:

[Sag75]

yeahhh... bad people around here... :nope:


anyway, I provided you some sea photos !! :smug:


:up:

[Myxale]

You've been modding SH3 for a long thime Phil, you know how there are always voices that say "nay".

I think this water mod looks damn fine and it would be cool to see it happen!

Take care old Pirate!:arrgh!:

[h.sie]

a community is living from different opinions and constructive criticism.

[kenijaru]

yeah, please share with us that magnificent sea... uhm.. wave thingy. (at least it SOUNDS great, as i haven't been able to download the videos myself... i hate FF :damn:)

[onelifecrisis]

You have a strange way of measuring things PT. I remember when you first posted your sound mod... within a week you PM'd me complaining that you'd had "only" 200 downloads. :o In less than a week! :roll:

Try to keep things in perspective. ;)

[pkl75]

Oh I want to see that sea mod developing. Do not stop quite yet, PT!!

Please do not care about unconstructive criticism...

Your water mod is perhaps the best, along with WAC's.
:rock:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Alright...

I need beta testers... volunteers?

[Sag75]

unlucky may laptop has not such perfomance.. GMA950 video card!

[kenijaru]

I'm more than willing :yep:
(uhm... does it need the OLCE2 to run? because i run GWX2.1)

[Task Force]

Me Me pick me.:D Id love to beta this.:rock: :D

[Uber Gruber]

Me too, and my wife, and my pet squirrel....PLEASE!:lol:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Alright.. let's start this beta testing...

So far I have 5 candidates, one wife and one squirrel. :lol:

I'll change the thread's title and upload the files to my ff account.

[Task Force]

How long should this take.:D

[Philipp_Thomsen]

How long should this take.:D

Just the time you'll take to download it! :lol:

UPDATED THE FIRST PAGE, CHECK IT AND READ IT ALL PRIOR TO DOWNLOAD! THANKS!

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Thanks, RDP! :up:

[Task Force]

Im getting CDT`s when I try to start the game.:-?

My mods
GWX alternative Flotillas
GWX axis medeterranean Aircraft Skins
GWX Enganced Damage Effects
GWX Late war sensors snorkel antennas
GWX merged campaign
GWX No meadls on crew
GWX open hatch mod
GWX VIIC41 Player sub
Hallys dive sounds
VIIB bow fix
Arrow tanker
wasserbomben chalkboard
Twisty periscopethingy mod
Von Hallys SOS messages
T2 tanker
Lifeboats and debris
Gwx fixes
Water stream and exhaust smoake
Titanic mod
Torpedo damage final 2.0
Thomsens environment 1.0

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Im getting CDT`s when I try to start the game.:-?

My mods
GWX alternative Flotillas
GWX axis medeterranean Aircraft Skins
GWX Enganced Damage Effects
GWX Late war sensors snorkel antennas
GWX merged campaign
GWX No meadls on crew
GWX open hatch mod
GWX VIIC41 Player sub
Hallys dive sounds
VIIB bow fix
Arrow tanker
wasserbomben chalkboard
Twisty periscopethingy mod
Von Hallys SOS messages
T2 tanker
Lifeboats and debris
Gwx fixes
Water stream and exhaust smoake
Titanic mod
Torpedo damage final 2.0
Thomsens environment 1.0

Try disabling GWX enhanced damage effects

[Task Force]

Am currently playing with this mod.:D I had a ship installed that inst working write and that was the problem. Beautiful mod.:D

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Am currently playing with this mod.:D I had a ship installed that inst working write and that was the problem. Beautiful mod.:D

Now you must report back some things...

1) FPS on the bridge
2) Your system specs
3) Flaws you found.

[kenijaru]

i made one really quick cruise, just to see what i was getting into and the water i get has this weird spots, like it has a rash or something (black spots surrounded by shiny water, it seems to reflect the clouds but it looks weird)

mods I'm running:
GWX - Lite Harbor Traffic
GWX - Main movie - 'Das Boot'
OLC GUI 1.2.6 Core Files
OLC GUI 1.2.6 Dark Files
LifeBoats&Debris_v3B
Thomsen's WhispeRING RING mod
Thomsen's Environment V1.0

--
I'll try to give more feedback (plus FPS count and system specs) later.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

i made one really quick cruise, just to see what i was getting into and the water i get has this weird spots, like it has a rash or something (black spots surrounded by shiny water, it seems to reflect the clouds but it looks weird)

mods I'm running:
GWX - Lite Harbor Traffic
GWX - Main movie - 'Das Boot'
OLC GUI 1.2.6 Core Files
OLC GUI 1.2.6 Dark Files
LifeBoats&Debris_v3B
Thomsen's WhispeRING RING mod
Thomsen's Environment V1.0

--
I'll try to give more feedback (plus FPS count and system specs) later.

And the black spots seems to come and go real fast?
A screenshot would be nice! :up:

[kenijaru]

i made one really quick cruise, just to see what i was getting into and the water i get has this weird spots, like it has a rash or something (black spots surrounded by shiny water, it seems to reflect the clouds but it looks weird)

mods I'm running:
GWX - Lite Harbor Traffic
GWX - Main movie - 'Das Boot'
OLC GUI 1.2.6 Core Files
OLC GUI 1.2.6 Dark Files
LifeBoats&Debris_v3B
Thomsen's WhispeRING RING mod
Thomsen's Environment V1.0

--
I'll try to give more feedback (plus FPS count and system specs) later.
And the black spots seems to come and go real fast?
A screenshot would be nice! :up:

I'll try to post a screen tomorrow.
it like.. a chess board, and the squares get bigger or smaller all the time (almost if like they were flickering). also, when i sailed (on the bridge) using TCx8 i realized the pattern moved and changed, as if it was a reflection of the clouds. there isn't much i can tell you without posting a screen. too bad i have to get up at 6am tomorrow...

[Task Force]

Im getting 50 to 60 FPS on the bridge and 50 to 59 free view.

AMD 64 X2 2.8 ghz processor

Nvidia 8800 gtx 6** mb version

3 gig ram

Vista home preimum 32 bit.;)

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Im getting 50 to 60 FPS on the bridge and 50 to 59 free view.

AMD 64 X2 2.8 ghz processor

Nvidia 8800 gtx 6** mb version

3 gig ram

Vista home preimum 32 bit.;)

That's a good framerate!

This game is playable above 15fps.

Did you find any bugs? Something to fix?

[kenijaru]

I've got 2x FPS when attacking a convoy (that's the "strain test" right? :yep:) and i have one screen to show the "weird" thing (pm'd it to you).

system:
processor: Athlon AMD 2.2ghz
2gb ram
Geforce 6600 GT (256mb)

[vince0018]

I'm not sure how to post screenshots, i've read how a long time ago but have completely forgotten. But here's my experience:
I put your mod overtop OLCE2 environment and his GUI and it runs ok but i'm not sure if there's any adverse effects I am not aware of.

Specs:
MS Windows XP SP3
256MB ATI Radeon HD2400Pro graphics card
3GB DDR2 memory
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+

For this test i used 2x anti-aliasing and 4x anistrophic filtering but I think i'll try again soon with less anistrophic because it seems to slow my fps down.
In the command room: 45-55fps
On the bridge: 20-30 fps.

This seems somewhat low compared to other peoples tests but it still seems relatively smooth to me when I'm playing. I've also noticed that fps drops when looking towards the sun and there's lots of sun reflection on the water. But this should be expected I suppose.

[vince0018]

Also here are all the mods I have running. The top of the list starts with the first ones loaded on, and the last ends with the most recent loaded. And please tell me if i have several mods that should not be running together at the same time, or that are pointless to have running simultaneously:

GWX 2.1
SH3 Commander 3.1.3.185

Torpedo Damage Final ver2.0
Ice Age
GWX - Main Movie - 'Das Boot'
GWX - Merged Campaign
GWX 2.1 sil tga fixes
Thomsen's Sound Pack V3
PT_SoundPack_V3.1
PT_SoundPack_V3.2
GWX Late War Sensors Snorkel Antennas
OLCE2
Officer Faces 2
Lifeboats&Debris_v3B
GWX_ships_Buoyance&draught_mod
OLCE2 - Adjusted GWX 2.1 Crew Skins
WBNN Messages
OLC GUI Special
OLCE2 Adjusted GWX 2.1 Normal Particles (with reflections)
Crash Dive 40 Metres!
Contact Fix
RealWeatherFixMod
interior diving angles
LRT v2.02 Final
SB_cameras_mod_SH3
Intro Music - Das Boot Theme
GWX 2.1 fix patch LRT 2.02
OLCU Special GUI LRT 2.02 Final patch
SB & LRT 2.02 & OLC GUI Special
Grey U-Marker
New Icons 153281
Ultimate Aircraft Soundmod
Reworked GWX SH.sdl file for Ultimate Aircraft Soundmod
Thomson's Environment v1.0
GWX - Captain America's Officer Icons

I have written the entire modlist letter for letter so there should be no spelling errors. I realize that New Icons (officer faces in crew management) overwrites Officer Faces 2 but i've been too lazy lately to take out the ones i don't need because then i have to re-arrange the entire list, and in the case of OLC mods, LRT mods and SB cameras mods i'd have to do massive rearranging.
Also on the water when I run the game with no AA or AF there seems to be small spots on the water, but I don't think that has much to do with just your mod, I think it's the game but I thought I'd mention it. I run the game with at 2x AA mostly anyway.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Also here are all the mods I have running. The top of the list starts with the first ones loaded on, and the last ends with the most recent loaded. And please tell me if i have several mods that should not be running together at the same time, or that are pointless to have running simultaneously:

GWX 2.1
SH3 Commander 3.1.3.185

Torpedo Damage Final ver2.0
Ice Age
GWX - Main Movie - 'Das Boot'
GWX - Merged Campaign
GWX 2.1 sil tga fixes
Thomsen's Sound Pack V3
PT_SoundPack_V3.1
PT_SoundPack_V3.2
GWX Late War Sensors Snorkel Antennas
OLCE2
Officer Faces 2
Lifeboats&Debris_v3B
GWX_ships_Buoyance&draught_mod
OLCE2 - Adjusted GWX 2.1 Crew Skins
WBNN Messages
OLC GUI Special
OLCE2 Adjusted GWX 2.1 Normal Particles (with reflections)
Crash Dive 40 Metres!
Contact Fix
RealWeatherFixMod
interior diving angles
LRT v2.02 Final
SB_cameras_mod_SH3
Intro Music - Das Boot Theme
GWX 2.1 fix patch LRT 2.02
OLCU Special GUI LRT 2.02 Final patch
SB & LRT 2.02 & OLC GUI Special
Grey U-Marker
New Icons 153281
Ultimate Aircraft Soundmod
Reworked GWX SH.sdl file for Ultimate Aircraft Soundmod
Thomson's Environment v1.0
GWX - Captain America's Officer Icons

I have written the entire modlist letter for letter so there should be no spelling errors. I realize that New Icons (officer faces in crew management) overwrites Officer Faces 2 but i've been too lazy lately to take out the ones i don't need because then i have to re-arrange the entire list, and in the case of OLC mods, LRT mods and SB cameras mods i'd have to do massive rearranging.
Also on the water when I run the game with no AA or AF there seems to be small spots on the water, but I don't think that has much to do with just your mod, I think it's the game but I thought I'd mention it. I run the game with at 2x AA mostly anyway.

Interesting... those back spots go away with anti-aliasing! :hmm:

[vince0018]

It seems I was wrong, at least partly, about the AA reducing or removing the spots. AA still helps make them less noticeable but in screenshots you can see they are clearly still there.
I've also noticed that when looking at the water up close there are small round-ish waves or ripples and I think perhaps the black spots in the distance may be caused by this. Just like ship reflections in the distance become distorted the game is distorting these small ripples.
I may be wrong about the water ripples but it seems plausible to me. I know little about modding and have no real graphics knowledge so please correct me on anything I am mistaking.
I hope this helps though.
And it seems that in areas where the sun is shining on the water, or reflecting, the black spots get far worse. and darker areas have almost none.

[vince0018]

Another thing I noticed is that there are more spots where there's cloud cover. But mostly where the sun is shining on that area at the same time. Like a sunset/sunrise or overcast sky with the sun behind the clouds.
Areas with no sun and cloud cover have no or few spots.

[onelifecrisis]

I've not seen any screenshots of these "spots" so I can't say for sure but - try enabling AF, that might fix them.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Look at the water on a clear dark night and tell me what do you see!

[Task Force]

I got little black triangles on the horison.:huh:

[SeaWolf U-57]

i have been running the water mod for a short time and it looks very good i have read about the black spots ...:hmm: when i run the mod i dont have spots but a very dark green pattern on the waves which to my mind looks good the only matter i can see is the way the waves break over the bow but that is only a small thing and i have not seen it in light or heavy sea's only in 7m winds, dam good try though :up:

[vince0018]

The black spots look similar to reflections cast by ships at a distance. How they look quite distorted. If someone can tell me how I may be able to post screenshots.
And I'm checking out night time right away.

[Task Force]

1 get a acount with a image hosting site.

Copy pics Adress/code.

Put code in post.

Or look at the SH3 pic thread. Dowly put in a tutoral.;)

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Forget the pictures for now. I've changed completly the way that reflections works. The V1.1 version is being uploaded on my filefront page, as well as the first post has been updated with the changelog and some pictures.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/9030/87476301ow1.jpg
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/579/76469250wj8.jpg
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/656/29656259im4.jpg
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/9576/97026654uu6.jpg
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/2696/80207444up5.jpg



Those screens have been posted on the first post of the thread, along with some new info.

The V1.1 of this mod is already avaliable for beta-testing at my FileFront page, by clicking on my signature.

[vince0018]

I am speechless.
I just tried the new version at daytime settings and nighttime settings.
This is the most beautiful water... Everything is perfect, the ripples are longer like how you see in lakes and stuff (I've never seen the ocean but I'm sure it has ripples like that.)
This is a huge step from the stock SH3 water. There is no way I'm ever gonna stop using this water, it is perfect. I actually feel like I'm sailing over real water now.
Thank you so much for your long hours of hard work.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

I am speechless.
I just tried the new version at daytime settings and nighttime settings.
This is the most beautiful water... Everything is perfect, the ripples are longer like how you see in lakes and stuff (I've never seen the ocean but I'm sure it has ripples like that.)
This is a huge step from the stock SH3 water. There is no way I'm ever gonna stop using this water, it is perfect. I actually feel like I'm sailing over real water now.
Thank you so much for your long hours of hard work.

Vince, my friend... you have no idea how good is to read those words after two weeks working straight on this sh!t... It's almost an orgasm...

I was trully losing my patience with it. I fixed one thing, two other problems poped-up.

But still, this is not perfect. I was working my ass off on top of the 4m/s wind sea condition, coz that's the way the sea conditions are at the start of the game, it's the state that stays most of the time out there, so it's the state you'll see the most. But the other ones, like 8m/s and 12m/s are not good yet. The zero m/s wind condition is very much the same as the 4m/s wind condition, so there's no much problem there. Also, there's a problem with the sky, something like a stitch... It's a problem with one of those .tga files, don't know which one tho... I've messed up with all of them. Also, the collors are modified for one of the sea conditions. If it's aproved, I'll pass up for the other ones. Also, the sun is not ok, I guess. I didn't get the sun halo to behave like I wanted.

... argh... I really could use some help...

If you guys aproove the 4m/s sea condition, collors and everything, then I can move on to the 8 and 12m/s sea conditions, and it will be easier since I have a good base.

[Task Force]

Cool, But how did you get the sun to look like that with Antialiseing on. When I do this the AA goes down horiably and the lines are all jagid.:hmm: Should be getting even better FPS sence that funny texture is gone.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Cool, But how did you get the sun to look like that with Antialiseing on. When I do this the AA goes down horiably and the lines are all jagid.:hmm: Should be getting even better FPS sence that funny texture is gone.

I swear to god, I didn't understand anything you just said... :lol:

[Task Force]

Cool, But how did you get the sun to look like that with Antialiseing on. When I do this the AA goes down horiably and the lines are all jagid.:hmm: Should be getting even better FPS sence that funny texture is gone.

I swear to god, I didn't understand anything you just said... :lol:

Im talkin about the sun, my sun is a giant ball in the sky, And i have t opush shift page up to get it to look anything like that. Good night everyone. Gotta go to school tomorrow.:damn:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Cool, But how did you get the sun to look like that with Antialiseing on. When I do this the AA goes down horiably and the lines are all jagid.:hmm: Should be getting even better FPS sence that funny texture is gone.

I swear to god, I didn't understand anything you just said... :lol:

Im talkin about the sun, my sun is a giant ball in the sky, And i have t opush shift page up to get it to look anything like that. Good night everyone. Gotta go to school tomorrow.:damn:

Thanks for the tip... I didn't know about that SHIFT+PGUP thingy! :o

Nice to play around with the sun light & halo. I found an even better light. Now everything looks better!

I recommend everyone to play around with this settings and find yourself a nice sun!

[vince0018]

About what you said earlier, I think that your 0/ms and 4/ms water looks great and you should go ahead on the heavier wind ones. I haven't had the chance to see what the waves look like in those winds right now but at least I have a heads up from you not to expect perfection. But from what I've seen so far your work is heading in a great direction. I've heard so many people in the past talk about how water in SH3 couldn't be changed too much and how it was impossible to make it look more realistic.
Well Mr. Thompsen it would seem you have achieved the impossible. I never would have expected SH3 water to look this good. And don't worry about the 'You can't see through from the bottom to the top' thing because the top of the water is what people see the most.

Oh I was also wondering, weren't you colorblind, or partly colorblind? I know you did sound mods and stuff but never heard of you doing a graphics mod before and I think you were saying you had to get the colors right. I hope asking this does not offend you, I mean no offense. Just pondering.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

About what you said earlier, I think that your 0/ms and 4/ms water looks great and you should go ahead on the heavier wind ones. I haven't had the chance to see what the waves look like in those winds right now but at least I have a heads up from you not to expect perfection. But from what I've seen so far your work is heading in a great direction. I've heard so many people in the past talk about how water in SH3 couldn't be changed too much and how it was impossible to make it look more realistic.
Well Mr. Thompsen it would seem you have achieved the impossible. I never would have expected SH3 water to look this good. And don't worry about the 'You can't see through from the bottom to the top' thing because the top of the water is what people see the most.

Oh I was also wondering, weren't you colorblind, or partly colorblind? I know you did sound mods and stuff but never heard of you doing a graphics mod before and I think you were saying you had to get the colors right. I hope asking this does not offend you, I mean no offense. Just pondering.

There's no offense! :D

I'm collorblinded. Not totally, but I often pot the brown ball thinking it's the green or the red ball, in snooker. I also have trouble finding differences between blue and purple, yellow and green, etc. Let's say that my eyes (or my brain) is not as sensitive to collor differences as for the normal human beings. More than often I see something beautiful and everybody else think it sucks. But I've learn to adapt myself to that and find a middleground.

But collorblindness is the last of my problems. I've been diagnosis (what is the past of diagnostic?) with dislexy and a low level of autism. I have serious problem talking to people, making a conversation, or even facing someone I don't know yet, while on the other hand I can solve complicated mathematical problems mentally. My I.Q. on a test I was submitted was 157, but at the same time I have problems focusing on anything. I can't read a single page on a book without distracting myself with something, float mentally to another place, and I find myself drifting away often, so I have to read the same page about 10 times to understand it. I have problems with letters, often I'll try to write a word like "SMILE" and I start with the M first. If you ask me to read out loud a sequence like M Q F O X G Q P V G H E S, I will read it all wrong. In my head, I know the first letter is M, but I'll say out loud something like P or S. A malfunctioning between brain and mouth, I guess... :lol:

I don't know.... I'm all weird.... Don't even let me begin with woman. They love me at first, but then... :lol: ... my longest relationship was about 1 month and a half. I don't know why, as I don't fight, don't argument, I'm always on good mood, but somehow people find a reason to stay away from me, they get annoyed and angry for some reason. Perhaps OLC can explain this better than me... :lol:

[SeaWolf U-57]

to me the new version water looks fantastic ......But the sky now has what seem to be join lines running north to south and sometimes they appear east to west too :hmm: they look like wallpaper that the pattern is off set :o

[Philipp_Thomsen]

to me the new version water looks fantastic ......But the sky now has what seem to be join lines running north to south and sometimes they appear east to west too :hmm: they look like wallpaper that the pattern is off set :o

Yes, it is offset. But thats piece of cake to fix! :up:

[SeaWolf U-57]

About what you said earlier, I think that your 0/ms and 4/ms water looks great and you should go ahead on the heavier wind ones. I haven't had the chance to see what the waves look like in those winds right now but at least I have a heads up from you not to expect perfection. But from what I've seen so far your work is heading in a great direction. I've heard so many people in the past talk about how water in SH3 couldn't be changed too much and how it was impossible to make it look more realistic.
Well Mr. Thompsen it would seem you have achieved the impossible. I never would have expected SH3 water to look this good. And don't worry about the 'You can't see through from the bottom to the top' thing because the top of the water is what people see the most.

Oh I was also wondering, weren't you colorblind, or partly colorblind? I know you did sound mods and stuff but never heard of you doing a graphics mod before and I think you were saying you had to get the colors right. I hope asking this does not offend you, I mean no offense. Just pondering.

There's no offense! :D

I'm collorblinded. Not totally, but I often pot the brown ball thinking it's the green or the red ball, in snooker. I also have trouble finding differences between blue and purple, yellow and green, etc. Let's say that my eyes (or my brain) is not as sensitive to collor differences as for the normal human beings. More than often I see something beautiful and everybody else think it sucks. But I've learn to adapt myself to that and find a middleground.

But collorblindness is the last of my problems. I've been diagnosis (what is the past of diagnostic?) with dislexy and a low level of autism. I have serious problem talking to people, making a conversation, or even facing someone I don't know yet, while on the other hand I can solve complicated mathematical problems mentally. My I.Q. on a test I was submitted was 157, but at the same time I have problems focusing on anything. I can't read a single page on a book without distracting myself with something, float mentally to another place, and I find myself drifting away often, so I have to read the same page about 10 times to understand it. I have problems with letters, often I'll try to write a word like "SMILE" and I start with the M first. If you ask me to read out loud a sequence like M Q F O X G Q P V G H E S, I will read it all wrong. In my head, I know the first letter is M, but I'll say out loud something like P or S. A malfunctioning between brain and mouth, I guess... :lol:

I don't know.... I'm all weird.... Don't even let me begin with woman. They love me at first, but then... :lol: ... my longest relationship was about 1 month and a half. I don't know why, as I don't fight, don't argument, I'm always on good mood, but somehow people find a reason to stay away from me, they get annoyed and angry for some reason. Perhaps OLC can explain this better than me... :lol:

Your not the only one sometime i have to use spell checker in word because even the simple words get all mixed up and when reading i cant make head nor tail of a word :damn: it got me in a lot of trouble because i read things not the way they were ment :nope: but there you go we keep trying

[vince0018]

Mr. Thompsen I think we have a thing or two in common. Though I don't have dyslexia problems, some of those other things I can relate to.
I have problems interacting with people socially. I get anxious or nervous around people especially when there's lots of people like in shopping malls. I have a strange feeling of guilt always about my head, where I feel guilty for everything bad that happens anywhere even though it's not my fault. My concentration is very poor as well, I dropped out of high school because whenever I try to memorize stuff out of a textbook I seem to forget everything I've read right away. (However the stuff I find interesting I watch on tv and stuff and remember it very well. I love learning history.)
I'm not very colorblind but I can often get red and pink mixed up. Sometimes in strategy games there's a team color I know is red, and it's been red far in the past but for some reason now it's bright pink and it annoys the hell outta me. Also my IQ is 149.
I was on some medications in the past but after an "episode" I took myself off of them and stayed off for over 6 months. But now I've been back on for about a week but haven't noticed any difference in my behavior yet.
It's neat to meet someone similar to myself and yet so different.
P.S: Diagnosed is the past tense for diagnoses.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Mr. Thompsen I think we have a thing or two in common. Though I don't have dyslexia problems, some of those other things I can relate to.
I have problems interacting with people socially. I get anxious or nervous around people especially when there's lots of people like in shopping malls. I have a strange feeling of guilt always about my head, where I feel guilty for everything bad that happens anywhere even though it's not my fault. My concentration is very poor as well, I dropped out of high school because whenever I try to memorize stuff out of a textbook I seem to forget everything I've read right away. (However the stuff I find interesting I watch on tv and stuff and remember it very well. I love learning history.)
I'm not very colorblind but I can often get red and pink mixed up. Sometimes in strategy games there's a team color I know is red, and it's been red far in the past but for some reason now it's bright pink and it annoys the hell outta me. Also my IQ is 149.
I was on some medications in the past but after an "episode" I took myself off of them and stayed off for over 6 months. But now I've been back on for about a week but haven't noticed any difference in my behavior yet.
It's neat to meet someone similar to myself and yet so different.
P.S: Diagnosed is the past tense for diagnoses.

Diagnosed... that's right. It was 4am when I was writting that last post, so my english was messed up, along with my head. My english is not that great as well.

But red and pink? lol... those collors are faaaaar different in my head, I can't imagine mixing them up. :lol:

This "episode" got me curious... :hmm:

[vince0018]

The "episode" isn't anything to be too concerned about. My medication for some reason started doing pretty much the opposite thing it was suppose to. I got really depressed and tired and slept most of the day. It's really no big deal but back when I was going through that it seemed like a big deal. It was very stressful. All is well now though, at least for the most part, and things are getting better. I'm gonna work towards finishing highschool, though I have to go to a special one now because I'm too old. I can feel it, there will be better things for me in the future.
And don't worry about your english too much. I can understand what you say perfectly.

[Task Force]

Should the underwater scene be black at night. (Dark green and blue would look better).;) Other wise, Great work.

myself I hate haveing to go to things that have alot of people at them and am kind of shy when it comes to new people I dont know.

PS after listening to the people around here, I can understand anyones english.

Im starting to think that this black water thing is only in the artic areas.

[Task Force]

Also I find Im the only one in my entire grade that likes Subs and WW2, Im sure none of them play any of the SH series.:-?

[Subtype Zero]

PT, you have a PM.

[h.sie]

hi PT,

i tried your mod with the bismarck single mission. this is what i saw.....

http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shot1221773097hf1.jpg

greetings,
h.sie

[Task Force]

New british ASW weapon, makes it hard to see out of the periscope.;)

[Letum]

Testing Report:

2.0 GHZ AMD single core 3000+
1GB RAM
256mb Radon x1600 pro

FPS on convoy training mission: 20-26

The water looked much better overall. Enough to excuse the bugs even.

Things I did not like:
The water looks much better looking away from the sun. Looking towards the sun it is too shiny.

Above 7 windspeed everything goes crazy. Especially if SH3 commander adjusts the wave height. I ahve a S.Shot if you want it.

Underwater looks great, but on a cleat day when you look back up at the waves from a distance you can see the edge of the waves where they stop being rendered.

even at low windspeed the waves clip into each other.

No other bugs.

[Task Force]

Letum he hasent made any bigger waves yet, they stop at 7 wind speed.;) He is going to though

[Myxale]

The new screenies look divine! Great work Phil! :up:
I'm so tempted to abandon my patrol and try this mod!:o

[Fish40]

Looks real good! I didn't have time to read the whole thread. I was wondering if this mod is compatable with both GWX2.1, and OLC'S GUI for GWX. I would love to try it, but not without either of those mods:nope:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Should the underwater scene be black at night. (Dark green and blue would look better).;) Other wise, Great work.

myself I hate haveing to go to things that have alot of people at them and am kind of shy when it comes to new people I dont know.

PS after listening to the people around here, I can understand anyones english.

Im starting to think that this black water thing is only in the artic areas.

Artic and mediterran were not messed around it. Work stays only in atlantic for now.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

hi PT,

i tried your mod with the bismarck single mission. this is what i saw.....

http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shot1221773097hf1.jpg

greetings,
h.sie

Looks great, heh? :lol:

You're probably using SH3 Commander, aren't you?

The wave amplitude on my scene is 128, and the normal game is 256, as 320 for GWX. If you set SH3 Commander to fix the wave amplitude on it's options, then you'll have bugs like that. Manually change the wave amplitude for 128 and you'll be fine.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Testing Report:

2.0 GHZ AMD single core 3000+
1GB RAM
256mb Radon x1600 pro

FPS on convoy training mission: 20-26

The water looked much better overall. Enough to excuse the bugs even.

Things I did not like:
The water looks much better looking away from the sun. Looking towards the sun it is too shiny.

Above 7 windspeed everything goes crazy. Especially if SH3 commander adjusts the wave height. I ahve a S.Shot if you want it.

Underwater looks great, but on a cleat day when you look back up at the waves from a distance you can see the edge of the waves where they stop being rendered.

even at low windspeed the waves clip into each other.

No other bugs.

You have to see some pictures of the sea. Looking at the direction of the sun, the reflection on the water is pretty intense, specially if the water is calm. You can change it a little bit to fit your taste by pressing SHIFT+PAGE UP or PAGE DOWN. Also check your monitor brightness.

The SH3 Commander sets the wave amplitude, so you have to make sure it's 128. The stock value is 256 and 320 for GWX, but my scene works with 128 only. More than 128 and everything will be fliped crazy. Fix that manually if you use sh3c.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

The new screenies look divine! Great work Phil! :up:
I'm so tempted to abandon my patrol and try this mod!:o

There's no need, Myxale! You can enable this mod even with a savegame! :up:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Looks real good! I didn't have time to read the whole thread. I was wondering if this mod is compatable with both GWX2.1, and OLC'S GUI for GWX. I would love to try it, but not without either of those mods:nope:

Yes, works with gwx 2.1 and olc's ubermod. :up:

It's in beta-testing yet, so don't expect for a finished product. Lots of flaws yet.

Besides, this mod changes the gameplay a tad. Still testing to see if something have to be changed in sensors or configs to match the new environment.

That's why I need beta-testers.

Lots of people downloaded this mod already, but I have two or three guys reporting back with bugs. I expect more. I don't want somebody to download this mod, try it, find bugs and forget about it. ITS BETA-TESTING TIME!

[Horsemann]

So well... I like, as looks water and sun in Thomsen's Environment, but I like also effects OLCE. I hope that finally it will be possible to use the best features of each of them. :up:
By the way, what files in this case change water and the sun? Often I simply combine parts of various mods (if they are badly compatible), achieving the necessary result.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

So well... I like, as looks water and sun in Thomsen's Environment, but I like also effects OLCE. I hope that finally it will be possible to use the best features of each of them. :up:
By the way, what files in this case change water and the sun? Often I simply combine parts of various mods (if they are badly compatible), achieving the necessary result.

Not necessary, my friend. This mod was made ON TOP of OLCE. It has the same particles and materials. Also, this has some effects from SH4.

Beta-test it for me please. I need a list of bugs and things to fix, I want to release a version of it before the end of the year. :lol:

[Uber Gruber]

hi PT,

i tried your mod with the bismarck single mission. this is what i saw.....

http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?i...1773097hf1.jpg (http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shot1221773097hf1.jpg)

Looks like you stumbled on the Endurance locked in ice.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Ive changed some textures and want you guys to check the results.

Uploading the new V1.2 version to my filefront page now.

Check the first post for the changelog.

[Horsemann]

I would like to see a moon reflections in this mod, if it coincides with wishes of the author. :yep:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

I would like to see a moon reflections in this mod, if it coincides with wishes of the author. :yep:

But the moon does reflects on the water! :o

Are you saying you want to see a screenshot posted here?

Gentleman, look at the stars at a clear night. You're gonna have a surprise!

[SeaWolf U-57]

Lates version went all wrong on my machine i had a big black square attached to the sun and the land mass went a strange grey/yellow colour But the sea looked Great

[Task Force]

Lates version went all wrong on my machine i had a big black square attached to the sun and the land mass went a strange grey/yellow colour But the sea looked Great

Only thing good was the sea.:rotfl:

[vince0018]

On the latest version for me most stuff looked pretty good, I never saw the land though. But the sun was strange. It looked like it was 'painted' into the sky. It looked very fake. This was tested on the Naval Academy Convoy scenario.
I tried playing around with AA and AF but it did no good. The sun looks just like a big yellow circle in the sky with minor shading. Ocean looks beautiful though.

[Myxale]

The sun in SH 3 -truh all it's incarnations- has been a problem. For every Kaleun the sun would shine differently (pun all the way) :arrgh!:

I'm not sure if there is anything that we can do!

[vickers03]

I'm not sure if there is anything that we can do!

try out different sunhalos, just take a sunhalo.tga from
another mod and see if it works.

[Jaeger]

hi PT,

i have an issue with the sky and the moon.

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/2170/sh3img209200812404346su9.th.png (http://img520.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh3img209200812404346su9.png)http://img520.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

the watercolor is a little bit too purple in my opinion and the waves look a little bit pixy. perhaps because of the transparent effects?

in your version 1.2 you should also rename the directory IN the rar file to v1.2.

keep on working, this will be a really good mod:up:

and you should mentionj in your first post that players should use OLCE bevor installing your mod. without OLCE, it looks a little bit strange (huge waves, strange colors etc.)

greetz, Jaeger

[Task Force]

I hav a line going accrost the sky one side is darker and one side is lighter.:-? Also my moon is a square (sun looks fine to me);) Im sure some of your hair is gone cause of this mod.:lol:

[SeaWolf U-57]

Im just useing the sea files :up:

[Jaeger]

Im just useing the sea files :up:
could you post a screenshot? perhaps, my config is broken?

I hav a line going accrost the sky one side is darker and one side is lighter.:-? Also my moon is a square (sun looks fine to me);) Im sure some of your hair is gone cause of this mod

same here, the sky needs some overwork. hope this helps, keep on!

[SeaWolf U-57]

Im just useing the sea files :up:
could you post a screenshot? perhaps, my config is broken?

I hav a line going accrost the sky one side is darker and one side is lighter.:-? Also my moon is a square (sun looks fine to me);) Im sure some of your hair is gone cause of this mod

same here, the sky needs some overwork. hope this helps, keep on!

ok these screens are seas of 12m.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8536/newpictureyt9.jpg

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/3967/newpicture1cm3.jpg

[kenijaru]

Phoenix1957, what mod adds the flag?



http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/2170/sh3img209200812404346su9.th.png (http://img520.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh3img209200812404346su9.png)http://img520.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

OH MY GOD! the brits cloned Ramiel, we are doomed! the war is lost!...

(uhm... neon genesis evangelion anyone? :lol:)

[SeaWolf U-57]

Phoenix1957, what mod adds the flag?



http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/2170/sh3img209200812404346su9.th.png (http://img520.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh3img209200812404346su9.png)http://img520.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

OH MY GOD! the brits cloned Ramiel, we are doomed! the war is lost!...

(uhm... neon genesis evangelion anyone? :lol:)

yes thats what happend on my machine thats why i only use the sea files

the flags are on Tomi 099 turn i removed the Turm files and use them on all the subs i use

[Myxale]

I'm not sure if there is anything that we can do!
try out different sunhalos, just take a sunhalo.tga from
another mod and see if it works.


For me the sun/halo problem ended when i switched back from the Omega drivers to Stock ATI ones. :hmm:

[Task Force]

Phoenix1957, what mod adds the flag?



http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/2170/sh3img209200812404346su9.th.png (http://img520.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh3img209200812404346su9.png)http://img520.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

OH MY GOD! the brits cloned Ramiel, we are doomed! the war is lost!...

(uhm... neon genesis evangelion anyone? :lol:)

yes thats what happend on my machine thats why i only use the sea files
the flags are on Tomi 099 turn i removed the Turm files and use them on all the subs i use

Ya know tomi`s uboat makes my game crash.:-? anyone know why.

[SeaWolf U-57]

Phoenix1957, what mod adds the flag?



http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/2170/sh3img209200812404346su9.th.png (http://img520.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh3img209200812404346su9.png)http://img520.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

OH MY GOD! the brits cloned Ramiel, we are doomed! the war is lost!...

(uhm... neon genesis evangelion anyone? :lol:)

yes thats what happend on my machine thats why i only use the sea files
the flags are on Tomi 099 turn i removed the Turm files and use them on all the subs i use

Ya know tomi`s uboat makes my game crash.:-? anyone know why.

Something to do with the sensor files the u-boat will only work in single Missions in 1942 and above but sometimes it wont work at all:hmm:

[Horsemann]

Water looks perfectly, but bright blue illumination of ocean looks unnaturally at night. I feel myself on other planet. :ping:

[Task Force]

Thomsen... where are ya....:D (What folder are the sea files in so i can at least use the sea files?)

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Sorry you guys. Spent the weekend on my gf's home. While there was internet there, lacked interest of using it. :lol:

Anyway, I'm back now, with refreshed brain, let's get to work.

I'll release a new version very soon, fixing the sky colours, so don't worry about it.

@Horsemann> I know exactly what you mean. Easy to fix.

Also, I'm trying to fix the sunhalo.

People, be patient. Don't try to use the mod without the sky or only use the parts of the mod you like and exclude the rest, coz by doing this you're not helping at all. You should be using everything and reporting me what is wrong so I can fix it. If everybody uses only what you think it's great, then this mod will never be finished.

I need help!

[SeaWolf U-57]

Sorry you guys. Spent the weekend on my gf's home. While there was internet there, lacked interest of using it. :lol:

Anyway, I'm back now, with refreshed brain, let's get to work.

I'll release a new version very soon, fixing the sky colours, so don't worry about it.

@Horsemann> I know exactly what you mean. Easy to fix.

Also, I'm trying to fix the sunhalo.

People, be patient. Don't try to use the mod without the sky or only use the parts of the mod you like and exclude the rest, coz by doing this you're not helping at all. You should be using everything and reporting me what is wrong so I can fix it. If everybody uses only what you think it's great, then this mod will never be finished.

I need help!

Sorry Phillipp Thompsen The sky still looks as if it is two half’s one darker than the other the sun on my machine has a dark square attached to it. The land colours seem to have also been affected…………. There is a improvement to the overall look of the sky but not quite right yet. also the night sea colour is sometimes dark purple on my machine and not light blue as already reported. When you look at the water affect when reacting with a ship it looks really good a great improvement. I like the sea as it is.

[Task Force]

Good to hear form ya tompsen, been testing it and only found the problems I posted.;)

[SeaWolf U-57]

Here is a screen shot taken in bad weather looks good dont you think.:hmm:

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/6708/rainrq6.jpg

[flakmonkey]

I havent had the beta long enough to give a verdict on framerates but a couple of problems became immediatly apparent.

1. Youve resurrected the old stock problem of flickering black triangles on the horizon on certain ATI and Nvidia cards (im on an nvidia 9600gt), change the ZMax value to 2100 or higher to fix this (using minitweaker its under the horizon heading for scene.dat)

2. Underwater fog seems unusually bright, it looks correct for the middle of the day but it stays looking the same even at dawn/dusk and looks a bit odd.

Other than that its a fine mod and certainly improved the look of sh3.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

I havent had the beta long enough to give a verdict on framerates but a couple of problems became immediatly apparent.

1. Youve resurrected the old stock problem of flickering black triangles on the horizon on certain ATI and Nvidia cards (im on an nvidia 9600gt), change the ZMax value to 2100 or higher to fix this (using minitweaker its under the horizon heading for scene.dat)

2. Underwater fog seems unusually bright, it looks correct for the middle of the day but it stays looking the same even at dawn/dusk and looks a bit odd.

Other than that its a fine mod and certainly improved the look of sh3.

Thanks for the tip on ZMAX, and don't worry about the underwater look, I haven't start working on it YET! :D

[Task Force]

How long untill V1.3 is gona come out?:D

[Task Force]

Earth to Thomsen (raido crackel) Earth to Thomsen, (raido crackel)are you in Thomsen.(raido static).:D :rotfl:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Earth to Thomsen (raido crackel) Earth to Thomsen, (raido crackel)are you in Thomsen.(raido static).:D :rotfl:

:lol:

Yep, I'm... but I wish I wasn't.

This new issues I found with the environment are cracking my head open.

You guys will need to wait at least one more week for a new version.

I'll not fix just one of the 333 problems and release a beta-version to test. I prefer to fix all 333, so I can have brand new 333 problems to fix later.

[SeaWolf U-57]

Keep at it Philipp Thomsen when its finnished it will be Great and worth the effort:up: :up: ....although you might want to put some padding on that brick wall :damn:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Guys.

Download the video on my filefront page. Movie_002 or something. 27mb.

I dare to say that, it's impossible to make SH3 water to look any better than that.

I DARE!

[Task Force]

You cant. When are you going to release the version with the sky fixed?:D

[Philipp_Thomsen]

You cant. When are you going to release the version with the sky fixed?:D

If you want a little taste of it for now, download OLC's Environment 2.4.3, which have much better colours then I can produce for now, and replace his scene.dat with mine, from environment 1.2 in my filefront.

I'm not happy with the water in some parts of the day, with some sunlight effects.

When I'm happy with the results, I'll release the mod. :up:

[Task Force]

Will do.:yep: You did a good job on this one even if you dont finish it.;) (1.2 has a issue with rendering the waves on the surface when looking underwater.;) any way to fix this.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Will do.:yep: You did a good job on this one even if you dont finish it.;) (1.2 has a issue with rendering the waves on the surface when looking underwater.;) any way to fix this.

I didn't start messing around with the underwater yet. Let's worry about the surface first.

Afterall, when the hell is a kaleun loking underwater?

[Task Force]

Where can I get the OLC enviorment mod, I see something that is only like 21mb (im sure its bigger).:-?

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Where can I get the OLC enviorment mod, I see something that is only like 21mb (im sure its bigger).:-?

That's the one mate! Just download it and you're good to go!

OLC found out a way to shrink his files, using a new dehydratation method. Once the mod is downloaded, you just need to put water in it, and it will enlarge as a cookie on a coffee cup. :lol:

[Task Force]

All I got is read me files.:-?

[Philipp_Thomsen]

All I got is read me files.:-?

Fixed that?

[makman94]

hello everybody,
PT i like your mod very much and i have a request for your new version:
is it possible to hear the 'pirates of the carribean' IN the game? i mean ...not at the menu or option or something like that ,but i want to hear when forexample attacking a ship!

ps. don't tell me to press the play button on cd player before the attack !!!

i am joking ... gongratulations for your mod

bye

edit:sorry for the wrong post ( i am talking for your sound mod !)

[Philipp_Thomsen]

hello everybody,
PT i like your mod very much and i have a request for your new version:
is it possible to hear the 'pirates of the carribean' IN the game? i mean ...not at the menu or option or something like that ,but i want to hear when forexample attacking a ship!

ps. don't tell me to press the play button on cd player before the attack !!!

i am joking ... gongratulations for your mod

bye

edit:sorry for the wrong post ( i am talking for your sound mod !)

:lol: :rotfl: :up:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

hello everybody,
PT i like your mod very much and i have a request for your new version:
is it possible to hear the 'pirates of the carribean' IN the game? i mean ...not at the menu or option or something like that ,but i want to hear when forexample attacking a ship!

ps. don't tell me to press the play button on cd player before the attack !!!

i am joking ... gongratulations for your mod

bye

edit:sorry for the wrong post ( i am talking for your sound mod !)

:lol: :rotfl: :up:

At you guys: Just decided that I won't make an environment mod. Just a water mod. The OLC's environment don't have anything to improve, it's just perfect.

But still, I'll release the modifications I use, which is the waves and water reflection, as shown in the pictures.

Expect it for tomorrow!

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Mod released.

As you can find at the first page (recommended read), this mod is made to be used on top of the last version of OLCE2. It's the same OLC environment, with little touches in the water, as you can see in the screenshots (again in the first page).

It's good enough to be released already, but not good enough to call it finished.

This is version 1.0.

Expect this to reach versions like 3 or 4.0 soon.

Any feedback and criticism is welcome! :up:

[Task Force]

Gonna try it out after I get IL2s install finished and install m*******o*******d*******s on it.;)

[Wolfehunter]

Yup I just bought a new rig so waiting for its delivery then I'm going to setup this nice mod..

Give ya feedback once done...

Thanks PT Plus team.:rock:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Yup I just bought a new rig so waiting for its delivery then I'm going to setup this nice mod..

Give ya feedback once done...

Thanks PT Plus team.:rock:

What team?

[Task Force]

I think he means you and us beta testers.;)

[Sledgehammer427]

:o
fantastic thomsen!

[Wolfehunter]

I think he means you and us beta testers.;)Yup :up:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

I think he means you and us beta testers.;)Yup :up:

Yeah, for sure!

Without the beta-testers, it wouldn't be possible! :up:

[SeaWolf U-57]

Hi Philipp I have installed your water mod and went out on patrol to grid AN29 I had a nice cruse out to an29 looking in real-time from the tower at the water effect using your mod looks nice really good to say the least. It was mid morning and the sea was calm my watch crew reported that visibility was unlimited. Still looking around at the ocean I happen to look down at my subs interface bar and noticed the sub emblem was coloured Red no warning reports have been made by the watch crew so I searched the horizon but no contacts where visible so fearing for the safety of my sub I ordered a dive to periscope depth the sub icon turned green I waited for sonar to finish a sweep but no contacts were found so I ordered the sub to surface.
As soon as the sub broke the surface the icon again turned Red we returned to periscope depth this time the sonar guy found a contact at extreme range way over 10,000 meters away so again we surfaced and headed towards the contact at ahead full again the sub icon turned red on surfacing. We closed to 8,000 meters when the watch crew identified the contact as a small merchant….. I am thinking that there maybe something wrong with the fact the merchant spotted me at such a extreme range ….. after sinking it well headed west when again my sub icon again turned Red this time I stayed surfaced and ordered ahead full and manned all the guns then waited to see what happened nothing on radar no contact spotted by the watch crew we kept heading west then radar contact so I highlighted the contact which told me it was a fast moving contact we turned north to face side on to the contact it was an aircraft which we dispatched with no damage to ourselves. So the point of this report to you is that I think somehow your mod has changed the silhouette of my sub so as it can be seen at extreme range way before we can detect the contact :hmm:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Hi Philipp I have installed your water mod and went out on patrol to grid AN29 I had a nice cruse out to an29 looking in real-time from the tower at the water effect using your mod looks nice really good to say the least. It was mid morning and the sea was calm my watch crew reported that visibility was unlimited. Still looking around at the ocean I happen to look down at my subs interface bar and noticed the sub emblem was coloured Red no warning reports have been made by the watch crew so I searched the horizon but no contacts where visible so fearing for the safety of my sub I ordered a dive to periscope depth the sub icon turned green I waited for sonar to finish a sweep but no contacts were found so I ordered the sub to surface.
As soon as the sub broke the surface the icon again turned Red we returned to periscope depth this time the sonar guy found a contact at extreme range way over 10,000 meters away so again we surfaced and headed towards the contact at ahead full again the sub icon turned red on surfacing. We closed to 8,000 meters when the watch crew identified the contact as a small merchant….. I am thinking that there maybe something wrong with the fact the merchant spotted me at such a extreme range ….. after sinking it well headed west when again my sub icon again turned Red this time I stayed surfaced and ordered ahead full and manned all the guns then waited to see what happened nothing on radar no contact spotted by the watch crew we kept heading west then radar contact so I highlighted the contact which told me it was a fast moving contact we turned north to face side on to the contact it was an aircraft which we dispatched with no damage to ourselves. So the point of this report to you is that I think somehow your mod has changed the silhouette of my sub so as it can be seen at extreme range way before we can detect the contact :hmm:

That is very, very weird. I'm approaching convoys and lone ships during both day and night, and they don't spot me that easily.
I'll redo one version of the scene.dat for you to run a test for me, ok?

[SeaWolf U-57]

Hi Philipp I have installed your water mod and went out on patrol to grid AN29 I had a nice cruse out to an29 looking in real-time from the tower at the water effect using your mod looks nice really good to say the least. It was mid morning and the sea was calm my watch crew reported that visibility was unlimited. Still looking around at the ocean I happen to look down at my subs interface bar and noticed the sub emblem was coloured Red no warning reports have been made by the watch crew so I searched the horizon but no contacts where visible so fearing for the safety of my sub I ordered a dive to periscope depth the sub icon turned green I waited for sonar to finish a sweep but no contacts were found so I ordered the sub to surface.
As soon as the sub broke the surface the icon again turned Red we returned to periscope depth this time the sonar guy found a contact at extreme range way over 10,000 meters away so again we surfaced and headed towards the contact at ahead full again the sub icon turned red on surfacing. We closed to 8,000 meters when the watch crew identified the contact as a small merchant….. I am thinking that there maybe something wrong with the fact the merchant spotted me at such a extreme range ….. after sinking it well headed west when again my sub icon again turned Red this time I stayed surfaced and ordered ahead full and manned all the guns then waited to see what happened nothing on radar no contact spotted by the watch crew we kept heading west then radar contact so I highlighted the contact which told me it was a fast moving contact we turned north to face side on to the contact it was an aircraft which we dispatched with no damage to ourselves. So the point of this report to you is that I think somehow your mod has changed the silhouette of my sub so as it can be seen at extreme range way before we can detect the contact :hmm:

That is very, very weird. I'm approaching convoys and lone ships during both day and night, and they don't spot me that easily.
I'll redo one version of the scene.dat for you to run a test for me, ok?

No problem i will remove all other mods running and re-install your mod just to make sure please let me know which file you want me to try. :up:

Pps. i am not running GWX i am running Seawolves

[SeaWolf U-57]

I have an update for you Philipp when I had this problem I was playing GWX but I have just tried playing using Seawolves and had no problem at all I am going to play using Seawolves for a while do you want me to continue to report in while using this mod ?? :hmm:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

I have an update for you Philipp when I had this problem I was playing GWX but I have just tried playing using Seawolves and had no problem at all I am going to play using Seawolves for a while do you want me to continue to report in while using this mod ?? :hmm:

I wish I knew if more people are having problem with sensors, being spotted and spotting.

This thread is feedbackless. :damn:

[SeaWolf U-57]

Re-loaded GWX no problems now the fault was there when i used Tomi 099 turm but not now it was possibly that that caused it :hmm:

[SeaWolf U-57]

my page colour used to be black but today its turned white :doh: do you know why :hmm:

[SeaWolf U-57]

oh my god take a look at that picture i know i have been through a bad time lately but come on :lol:
its change already ????????

[Philipp_Thomsen]

my page colour used to be black but today its turned white :doh: do you know why :hmm:

Bottom left of your screen, it's haylazblue, select smartdark. :up:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

:up: New version avaliable guys! Give it a try! :up:

[Haddock]

Moin Thomsen
I do a little test with your "2.0 Water" ( not really beta-testing, only some single missions. I don't have much time for SH3 at the moment. :shifty: ) and i have to say it looks really great.
IMOH, the SH4-water looks beautyfull on screenshots, but Thomsen's water looks great when "moving" too.
Great piece of work, thanks very much, Thomsen. :up:

Ps: btw, love your soundmod. A must have for me.

[SeaWolf U-57]

using 2.0 water at night you have bright stars but no moon??? first light the sky and sea turned a bright blue it did not look right at all

[Philipp_Thomsen]

using 2.0 water at night you have bright stars but no moon??? first light the sky and sea turned a bright blue it did not look right at all

Funny... that doesn't happen to me.
This is just a wave modification over OLCE2, so it's mainly OLCE2 with different waves and reflections, so I don't see how would your nights turn blue. Are you sure you'd enable this mod on top of the latest version of OLCE2?

[mengle]

difficult to choose mister thomsen between the scene dat./env. from you and the one from WAC 3.0 in my GWX 2.1

[Philipp_Thomsen]

difficult to choose mister thomsen between the scene dat./env. from you and the one from WAC 3.0 in my GWX 2.1

:lol:

Good thing is that you can choose! :up:

[Wolfehunter]

PT I'm going to give my old system a try with your mod.. See if I don't CTD or just lag on FPS.:D I'll let you know what happens.

My new rig should be arriving any day now. Can't wait to set that baby up...:rock:

[SeaWolf U-57]

using 2.0 water at night you have bright stars but no moon??? first light the sky and sea turned a bright blue it did not look right at all

Funny... that doesn't happen to me.
This is just a wave modification over OLCE2, so it's mainly OLCE2 with different waves and reflections, so I don't see how would your nights turn blue. Are you sure you'd enable this mod on top of the latest version of OLCE2?

No i didn't :damn: :damn:

[Wolfehunter]

Here is my review on PT's wonderful mod Water 2.0 and enhancement to OLC great uber mod.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-10.jpg

My current system spec are,

Intel P4 3.2E GHZ 800MHz 1mb L2 cache PGA 478
Intel D865PERLX motherboard w/snd w/lan
OCZ Titanium Dual Channel PC3200 1meg chips 2325
XFX Nvidia GeForce7600GT 256meg AGP
Soundblaster X-Fi Elite Pro
Western Digital WD2000JD 200Gigs SATA
LG GSA-H10L DVD Burner
Antech True 480 powersupply

NVidia settings,
AS filtering 2x
AA gamma correction on
AA Setting 8xS
AA Transparency Multisampling
TF Negative LOD bias allow
TF Quality High
Triple buffering on

Using resolution 1680x1050

I used fraps to get the FPS rates.

Mods activated,
CapZapEmblemsPack
Beethoven's Symphonies
Lutzow Music Mod 5.0
Pacos_German_Folklore_SubEmblems_Mod_V1.2
AOTD-AA-Ship-Schleuse-Bugfix
Multiskin_Bismark_Tirpitz
GWX - Contact Color
DD_all_types_OH_V2
Thomsen's Sound Pack V3-2
Reworked GWX SH.sdl file for Ultimate Aircraft Soundmod
Ultimate Aircraft Soundmod
Rbs7Flags
VIIB_splashwave_fix
RB_Rubini_combo_wakefix_exhaust
WH_VIIB_Plain_2048
Testskins
OLCE2
OLCE2 - Adjusted GWX 2.1 Enhanced Particle Effects (with reflections)
OLCE2 Adjusted GWX 2.1 Crew Skins
OLCE2 Fixed GWX 2.1 Ship Reflections
STzSinkingShipFix 2.1
Thomsen's Water 2.0

Results,
I was expecting to have major frame rates hits but actually turn out better than with OLC default. Even in the harbour it was rather nice. Still low but better FPS than with OLC alone.

After in the ocean FPS averaged about 19 to 25 FPS depending on the direction of LOS. Flag in the back of the conningtower took out 3 to 4 FPS but was acceptible.

Bad weather I had decent frame rates also. Ranging 18 to 24.

Top down was 31 to 35

Night or day didn't make a difference.

Some pic below,
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-9.jpg
and,
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-11.jpg
Only issue with the calm seas was the sun reflection made the water too white. If you can somehow figue a balance PT your on track to perfection.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-7.jpg
Looking top down shows the wave looking very real.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-8.jpg
PT is it possible to make the reflection like the sun show in the sea similar to the clouds. If I look top down you can see the reflection of the clouds barely. Nice touch.

In high waters I receave incorrect wind speeds and waves that looked weird.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-6.jpg
,
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-5.jpg
,
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-4.jpg
If I was with the waves I couldn't move. Also my U-boat when below the water more often than floating above it.

If I went against the waves then I was spearing through them I could move.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-3.jpg
,
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-2.jpg


Even the NPC boats had a hard time but managed.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-1.jpg

In my opinion your large uber waves need some work. I think I understand what your trying to acheive and your very close. High waves with the arches on top but it doesn't look right yet. Need some more tweaking.

So in calm water you have mastered its look, 10 on 10
In rough waters your close to mastering it. 6\10

Average all around 3D FPS was 23 for me and in 2D it was 40 night and 60 day.

I like the look of the calm waters. If only you can get the sun to reflect on it would finish the details of the game.

I don't know what your minimum requirement but I force my system and it works well. If you use default resolution 1024x768 I don't think you think you will have a problem running this mod on older systems... But I haven't check yet so can't really confirm that.

Thanks philipp thomsen for this mod. I can't wait to see your future works.:up:

Your fan,

WH.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Thanks for the review, Wolfehunter!

Are you using SH3 Commander? If so, go to SH3C options and disable the "set wave height". The problems you're experiencing with high waves might be caused by that, cos in my system the waves on high seas don't look NOTHING like that. I'd put a warning about that with huge green letters on the first post of the thread.

Also, about that sun reflection on the water, I'm trying to fix that, it annoys me too. I'm working on that, and I'll release a version with better sun reflection soon, it's killing the look of the water when looking in the sun direction, really looks terrible.

Did you see my video? On high wind speeds, the waves look like that! From your pictures, looks like something is wrong, and I think it might be that SH3 Commander option, about the "wave high". You should leave it disabled.

[Wolfehunter]

Thanks for the review, Wolfehunter!

Are you using SH3 Commander? If so, go to SH3C options and disable the "set wave height". The problems you're experiencing with high waves might be caused by that, cos in my system the waves on high seas don't look NOTHING like that. I'd put a warning about that with huge green letters on the first post of the thread.

Also, about that sun reflection on the water, I'm trying to fix that, it annoys me too. I'm working on that, and I'll release a version with better sun reflection soon, it's killing the look of the water when looking in the sun direction, really looks terrible.

Did you see my video? On high wind speeds, the waves look like that! From your pictures, looks like something is wrong, and I think it might be that SH3 Commander option, about the "wave high". You should leave it disabled.:o :damn: oops crap I did read that and I forgot to do it... lol:damn: :damn: :damn: :doh:

Sorry I'll update it shortly..:88)

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Thanks for the review, Wolfehunter!

Are you using SH3 Commander? If so, go to SH3C options and disable the "set wave height". The problems you're experiencing with high waves might be caused by that, cos in my system the waves on high seas don't look NOTHING like that. I'd put a warning about that with huge green letters on the first post of the thread.

Also, about that sun reflection on the water, I'm trying to fix that, it annoys me too. I'm working on that, and I'll release a version with better sun reflection soon, it's killing the look of the water when looking in the sun direction, really looks terrible.

Did you see my video? On high wind speeds, the waves look like that! From your pictures, looks like something is wrong, and I think it might be that SH3 Commander option, about the "wave high". You should leave it disabled.:o :damn: oops crap I did read that and I forgot to do it... lol:damn: :damn: :damn: :doh:

Sorry I'll update it shortly..:88)

:rotfl:

Don't worry, no problem.

I think I'll make this mod compatible with SH3 Commander's wave height option, cos from where I'm looking, a lot of people use that option. I don't, I use purelly my mod to control the waves. But a few tweaks here and there and you guys will be able to use "seasonal" option from sh3 commander with my mod! :up:

[Wolfehunter]

Arg... I was hoping to get some bad weather shots and I get a convoi on the 5th day in sea. lol BE88 was the location and I took out 11 ships one destroyer, one aux cruiser and 2 large merchant ships 1 medium few small and a passenger ship.

Total kill 68000+ tons.

well I do have some nice shots for the water look but no bad weather yet...:nope:

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-15.jpg
Nice shot leaving the bay.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-14.jpg
Water looks great.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-13.jpg
My favorite shot of the evening.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-12.jpg
Unlucky large merchant had a bad day. Nice fire reflection on the water.:up:

Oh well back to SH3..;)

[Task Force]

Nice shots Wolfehunter.;) The third one is the best.:yep:

[Wolfehunter]

Yup its a beauty... You have to thank PT and OLC for that.. With out their work this would be only a dream.:yep:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

That fire & smoke reflection on the water looks terrific!

Thanks for the pictures, wolfe! :up:

You should publish those pictures in the screenshot thread!

[Task Force]

I am currently going from Reykjavik back to Lorient, water looks great.:D ;)

[Philipp_Thomsen]

I am currently going from Reykjavik back to Lorient, water looks great.:D ;)

Thanks! :D

Report back any bugs you find!

I'm reworking the reflection of the sun on the water for the next version. It's just too wide, and too bright!

[Task Force]

Yea I noticed the reflection.;) I love the way the waves make the distroyers adility to hit you drop.
Just attacked a convoy that was leaving Reykjavik and stunk two liners, one distroyer, and a converted whaleing tanker for 30,000+ tons.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Yea I noticed the reflection.;) I love the way the waves make the distroyers adility to hit you drop.
Just attacked a convoy that was leaving Reykjavik and stunk two liners, one distroyer, and a converted whaleing tanker for 30,000+ tons.

You love the way the waves do what? :hmm:
Didn't understand that part... what do you mean?

[Task Force]

The waves make the distroyers pitch and roal as they go up and down waves.;) There accuracy is lowered because they are no longer stable and able to get clear shots.:yep:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

The waves make the distroyers pitch and roal as they go up and down waves.;) There accuracy is lowered because they are no longer stable and able to get clear shots.:yep:

You mean in bad weather situations?

[Task Force]

Yep, The weather was horiable, waves going over my boat. Even periscope debth was not a save place from them.:yep: They would expose large portions of my boat. I also noticed that the large tanker and liners were haveing trouble sailing. There bows would come up out of the water as in real life.:up: This is a must have mod to go with OLC`s enviormen mod.:yep:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Actually, that was a mistake in the development.

I fixed that.

The weather was great at 4m/s, great at 8m/s but terrible at 6m/s. Who the hell understand this game engine anyway? Isn't 6m/s weather supposed to be something between 4 and 8m/s weather? :nope:

Anyway, this is fixed now, looking a lot better. Updated the first page.

[Task Force]

So that distroyer should have had a clear shot at me.:huh: Yikes, playing with death.

[CCIP]

Looking reeealy nice there Thomsen!

I haven't had any issues trying it out with my S-Boot so far. Runs really well on my little laptop with a GeForce 8600. The FPS does drop quite a bit when I take the free camera high above the boat, but from the first-person, conning tower perspective it's smooth sailing (~40-50fps at sea, 20-30fps in port or near convoys, which is perfectly normal for this system) :up:

I like that you changed the sun reflection since last version. Looks much more realistic now.

[Task Force]

Good job, This is a realy great mod!:up:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Thank you guys, it means a lot! :up:

[Yorktown_Class]

WOW #3 is awesome so far great job:up:

[R1fl3M4n]

v3 really kicks ass!! :rock:

[Konovalov]

This water mod looks gorgeous. :|\\ Going to d/l and try it tonight when I get back to SHIII after a 2 month break.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Thanks guys!

And please, report any bugs you find! :up:

[SeaWolf U-57]

This version 3 makes me want to stop my U-Boat and go to the rear AA gun deck and do a couple of hours fishing while taking the beautiful and peaceful effects of the ocean …..aircraft spotted …dam this war :nope: Didn't even have chance to catch one :down:

As for you mod Philipp 10/10 :rock:

[Task Force]

This version 3 makes me want to stop my U-Boat and go to the rear AA gun deck and do a couple of hours fishing while taking the beautiful and peaceful effects of the ocean …..aircraft spotted …dam this war :nope: Didn't even have chance to catch one :down:

As for you mod Philipp 10/10 :rock:

Ha Ha, Im in 1941 and I havent seen a plane so far in this carear (well there were two), we got are poles and are catching fish.:yep: Off the american east cost you can catch fish that Croak called croaker. Heres a pic of my weapons officers catch. (Actual fish on the east cost that actualy Croak, Ive cought them I should know.):D
http://static.squidoo.com/resize/squidoo_images/-1/draft_lens1542908module9302245photo_1209347232atla ntic-croaker.jpg

[Philipp_Thomsen]

LMAO @ Task % Phoenix!

:rotfl:

:up:

[Marko_Ramius]

I can't believe it :o

OLC and you are the ones :up:


I don't have time for SH3 for the moment, but for sure, i will soon be on duty, and i am so glad that the most annoying thing is on the way to be "fixed" and improved --> The water :up: :up:

OLC did a fantastic job on the environment, but the water rendering was making me a bit sad :cry: , and tonight i come here and see this thread :sunny:



Fantastic job, P.T. , you have earned a good bottle of whiskey :up:

[SeaWolf U-57]

This version 3 makes me want to stop my U-Boat and go to the rear AA gun deck and do a couple of hours fishing while taking the beautiful and peaceful effects of the ocean …..aircraft spotted …dam this war :nope: Didn't even have chance to catch one :down:

As for you mod Philipp 10/10 :rock:

Ha Ha, Im in 1941 and I havent seen a plane so far in this carear (well there were two), we got are poles and are catching fish.:yep: Off the american east cost you can catch fish that Croak called croaker. Heres a pic of my weapons officers catch. (Actual fish on the east cost that actualy Croak, Ive cought them I should know.):D
http://static.squidoo.com/resize/squidoo_images/-1/draft_lens1542908module9302245photo_1209347232atla ntic-croaker.jpg


Bottle of whiskey for Philipp and I am off to join Task Force catching some of those nice looking fish :up:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

greeeeeeaaten...

....... two bot... HIC!...
............... bottles of... HIC!.......

.............. fine whIC!... whiskeeeeeeeeeyyy... HIC!

:()1:

[Schwuppes]

I will start playing SH3 GWX again soon.... after a lomg break (just too busy) and this mod will be on top of my install list! Looks absolutely fantastic!

Thanks for this great work Thomsen! :rock:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

:o

All those ships were sinking all by them selves?

Jeez...

And the water looks damn calm...

I've never seen anything like that in my patrols... what mods are you using?

[Task Force]

I have taken my sub all on the west and east coast of britan, middle of the atlanic, close to and almost in the Med sea. american and canadian east cost, off Iceland and greenland. Ive been on the coast of norway, all the way up to narvik, Realy realy close to scapa flow, Up to that stupid whaleing station,(there was nothing in it, Waste of a patrol) The english channel, Been inside of dover and anouther port, In between Britan and Ireland.:-? I think I got them all.:rotfl:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

:shifty:

[Wolfehunter]

Unfortunately this is only a partial review because my game ctd when targeting a destroyer after I wounded it and went for it again later.

I have to say that the FPS has improve abit now averaging a steady 24 to 25 FPS on calm seas. Underwater goes 40 and top down gives me 40 to 44 FPS rather than the old Version 2.

Whatever you did PT to it seems to help.

Some wonderful shots to show off the reflections hehe.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-17.jpg

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-18.jpg

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-19.jpg

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-20.jpg
Under water scenes are amazing now.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-22.jpg

After 2 days sailing I find a convoi and went after it... Well it was a big mistake because it was well defended and they weren't rookies.

I sunk one of their lead destroyer missing it 2 out of 3 torpedos and then tried sinking a large merchant and ammo ship which all missed.:damn:

4 more black destroyers came hunting for me for 4.5 hours RL. I though I would never make it alive.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-21.jpg

I though I was the hunter?;) Wrong.

I managed to survive with minor damage from scraping the ocean bottom at 128 meters.

3 hours later Second convoi pops up on my screen.:o

Thats when I started hunting again and tried to sink the lead destroyer to open the way up and hit it but then CTD.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-23.jpg

Not my lucky day but great enviromental effect PT but at night is the water suppose to reflect like that?:hmm:

Thanks PT for this mod.:up:

[SeaWolf U-57]

Everything looks great the only things that I have noticed is that the range your spot or are spotted by your targets is increased. :o
And the game slows right down when you are attacked by fighters that are also using there machine guns at you when the little window appears showing a close up of the fighters attacking. :hmm:
If you close this window the speed returns. So in all no real problems to report I love it and will be using it from now on. :up:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

@ Wolvehunter, you're right mate, I forgot to fix that night brightness. It's just a quick fix on a TGA file, I took stock at that, and was going to fix it, but I forgot about it and ended up releasing the mod without fixing it. Thank you for spotting that! It's great to see how excited you get about it, writting reviews and posting pictures. Makes me excited too! :up:

@ Phoenix, yeah, that event camera makes the rendering work doubled, and as the mod already takes a good load on cpu and video card, making it render twice is not a good idea. I don't use the event camera, but what you said is not a surprise. This mod works on a medium-range computer if you keep on the bridge or not to high on the outside camera, and definetively not use the event camera. Although that, if you're inside the uboat and the event camera pops up, there won't be any slowdown, I think. Anyway, thanks for mentioning! :up:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

New version avaliable!
Updated first page!
Fixed the night look, and water colour.

@ Wolfehunter, is this any better? :D

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/7540/76093370pg8.jpg

[SeaWolf U-57]

Just been using your 3.1 water mod every thing was ok until night time now have this problem………my watch officer says he is not going up on the conning tower until I get some of those nice teddy bear night lights fitted because its too scary up there. :-?

The night water is a great improvement I have already given you 10/10 so now it must be 20/10 :lol: :up:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

my watch officer says he is not going up on the conning tower until I get some of those nice teddy bear night lights fitted because its too scary up there. :-?



:rotfl: :lol: :up:

[Cezbor]

Good job P_T:up:.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Glad you like it! :up:

[MH]

:o Thnx for the great mod.:cool:

[Wolfehunter]

Finally got some bad weather. Well I lost 5 FPS on the average. It was a little stressful on my system at times.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-24.jpg

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-25.jpg

I have to say it looks very good. I can't wait to test this on my new rig.:yep:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Finally got some bad weather. Well I lost 5 FPS on the average. It was a little stressful on my system at times.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-24.jpg

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-25.jpg

I have to say it looks very good. I can't wait to test this on my new rig.:yep:

Funny... :hmm:

In my rig the water is looking much better then that...
Do you have enabled "digital vibrance" in your video card settings? I recommend you enable 50% of it.

[Task Force]

Task Force here, Thomson, you did it again. Great job on this.;)

[Wolfehunter]

Finally got some bad weather. Well I lost 5 FPS on the average. It was a little stressful on my system at times.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-24.jpg

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-25.jpg

I have to say it looks very good. I can't wait to test this on my new rig.:yep:

Funny... :hmm:

In my rig the water is looking much better then that...
Do you have enabled "digital vibrance" in your video card settings? I recommend you enable 50% of it.I did now. I never touched those settings before.. I never felt the need to.. But it seems to make a difference going to try it out thanks.

:up:

I've put 20% seems to be nicer.. 50% is too much and too strong. Anyhow Thanks.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Finally got some bad weather. Well I lost 5 FPS on the average. It was a little stressful on my system at times.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-24.jpg

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff110/WolfeXhunter/PTV2-25.jpg

I have to say it looks very good. I can't wait to test this on my new rig.:yep:

Funny... :hmm:

In my rig the water is looking much better then that...
Do you have enabled "digital vibrance" in your video card settings? I recommend you enable 50% of it.I did now. I never touched those settings before.. I never felt the need to.. But it seems to make a difference going to try it out thanks.

:up:

I've put 20% seems to be nicer.. 50% is too much and too strong. Anyhow Thanks.

No problem, glad to help! :up:

Those settings give some "warmth" to the screen. I love it!

[kylania]

Has anyone else experienced "broken waves" under water? I tried this mod out today, and was getting some really funky effects underwater. The surface waves didn't fully render while the camera was under water. It was constantly shifting depending on which direction I was facing. Sometimes filling the whole view, but often not even filling half of it, even around my sub.

You can see the effect in this picture. On the top image the surface waves only cover the stern half of the boat while just behind the conning tower and forward you can see the boat that's above the waves!

The bottom image is the same effect, only from this angle the surface waves didn't even reach the boat. I'm on the surface in that lower picture...

http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/183/brokenwavesfn9.jpg

Edit: Yup, using v3.1.

[Task Force]

Are you useing v3.1.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Did you enabled V3.1 on top of the latest version of OLCE2?

[CCIP]

Hi Philipp,

Just wondering - ran into this really odd wave effect in 15 m/s winds, and I'm wondering if it's just the setting of the mod itself, or perhaps simply Commander's "seasonal wave height" settings are messing it up...

Makes these really weird-looking blobby-peak waves, take a look at this:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y122/Otohiko/stuff/sb06.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y122/Otohiko/stuff/sb10.jpg

I'll just try and disable Commander's seasonal wave settings, but just to check - have you ever run into this?

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Hi Philipp,

Just wondering - ran into this really odd wave effect in 15 m/s winds, and I'm wondering if it's just the setting of the mod itself, or perhaps simply Commander's "seasonal wave height" settings are messing it up...

Makes these really weird-looking blobby-peak waves, take a look at this:


I'll just try and disable Commander's seasonal wave settings, but just to check - have you ever run into this?

Hello CCIP!

As I wrote in the first page of this thread, in big letters, highlighted, bold, underlined and in attractive colour, FOR SH3 COMMANDER USERS, PLEASE UNCHECK THE "SET WAVE HEIGHT" BOX IN SH3 COMMANDER OPTIONS".

:up:

[CCIP]

:oops:

Well, stupid of me.

Will do!

[Task Force]

How does the S boat handel these waves bofore I take her out.:hmm:

[CCIP]

How does the S boat handel these waves bofore I take her out.:hmm:

Well, a good answer would be... It doesn't :lol:

[Task Force]

Oooooh, Im takeing that you are saying not good.:rotfl:

[Konovalov]

Philipp,

Gave your version 3 a try over the last few days and love it. Haven't experienced any problems or strange happenings at all.

Noticed that you have a v3.1 out now which corrects the funny ocean colour at night time. Didn't overly bother me though it was a little trippy. :88) Now that I'm back at Kiel after my second patrol I will install this v3.1 which corrects this small problem. Great work. :up:

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Philipp,

Gave your version 3 a try over the last few days and love it. Haven't experienced any problems or strange happenings at all.

Noticed that you have a v3.1 out now which corrects the funny ocean colour at night time. Didn't overly bother me though it was a little trippy. :88) Now that I'm back at Kiel after my second patrol I will install this v3.1 which corrects this small problem. Great work. :up:

Trippy! :lol:

Thank you! :up:

[Task Force]

Have you found a way to fix the waves in a line like in ccip`s pic.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y122/Otohiko/stuff/sb10.jpg

[Philipp_Thomsen]

That's a stock bug and cannot be fixed, only can make it less visible. If you're looking from the cameras attached to the uboat, which is more realistic, then you can hardly see those pattern waves.

Don't worry, that don't happen in SH4. :up:

[Task Force]

Yea, I had a feeling.;)

[VikingGrandad]

Just finished reading through this whole thread. The shininess of the water in the screenshots on the first page kinda put me off, but after reading about all the improvements and seeing Wolfehunter's screenshots, I'm convinced I need to try this mod out on my next patrol!

PT, I totally agree with what you say in your first post: the waves in SH3 are too big compared to the ships - they look like scale models. Full credit to you for a great mod idea and also for your persistent hard work to keep improving it :up:

Can't wait to try it out. I'll try to post screenshots here in the next few days.


Do you have enabled "digital vibrance" in your video card settings? I recommend you enable 50% of it.
Is that an nVidia setting? I use ATI.

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Just finished reading through this whole thread. The shininess of the water in the screenshots on the first page kinda put me off, but after reading about all the improvements and seeing Wolfehunter's screenshots, I'm convinced I need to try this mod out on my next patrol!

PT, I totally agree with what you say in your first post: the waves in SH3 are too big compared to the ships - they look like scale models. Full credit to you for a great mod idea and also for your persistent hard work to keep improving it :up:

Can't wait to try it out. I'll try to post screenshots here in the next few days.


Do you have enabled "digital vibrance" in your video card settings? I recommend you enable 50% of it.
Is that an nVidia setting? I use ATI.

Yeah, it's NVidia settings. I don't know if ATI has that setting. It something that gives a little "wormth" to the screen, more vivid colours.

Thank you very much for your compliments! Yeah, those big waves makes the ships look small. Once we identify a large tanker for 11k tons, we get impressed by it's weight, cos while looking thru the scope it seems to be something like a row boat, around 100 tons... :lol: ... Com'on, seriouly, do you have any fear of being rammed by those ships with those big waves? Nah.. they look so tiny and vulnerable. I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm still not 100% satisfied with this mod. I wanned the waves to be even SMALLER, but if I do that, two bad things happen: 1) the patter waves will get even worse, and will make the water look ugly. 2) the video card and processor wont be able to render the amount of waves, and 99% of the community won't have a computer able to cope with it. So this is the best we can have, until GWX 4.0 is finished for sh4. Of course that the mod is not just about that. It fixed a lot of other stuff, important stuff. Like that sun reflection on the water that I always hated, now it looks more realistic. I have a new version to upload already, better colours at dusk/morning, the water was looking a little bit weird, futuristic. Gonna release it after some more tests. Also I'm planning to set the waves back to 320, and balance that with the other setting, so we can use the SH3 Commander "set wave height" and "sesonal waves" with this mod. I noticed a lot of people use that feature, so I want to make it compatible. Plus, I'm not sure, but maybe those wave settings might affect sensors. For me it's the same as gwx, but some people said they were being detected at longer distances then in gwx. It's not a big deal, it's pretty easy to make the water look just the same with gwx's wave height. There's two controls for the waves, one ballance the other, so I can play with them.

Well, enough chatter. :lol:

Tell me, which screenshots didn't you like? And which did you like? I'm thinking of replacing some of the screenshot on the first page for better ones. There's still 2 or 3 screenshots of the first version of the mod in the first page, and they don't look as good as the latest version.

Anyway, thanks for your words! Glad to hear you like it. Hope to get some words from you after you give it a test, to see what you think of it! :up:

[Wolfehunter]

Maybe PT you should make two versions one light and one heavy for the uber guys.

Anyhow the small waves look good but look linear. From the distance you can make out the patterns. Is it possible to mix them so they don't stand out so much? Or thats too much for any system to handle?

[Philipp_Thomsen]

Maybe PT you should make two versions one light and one heavy for the uber guys.

Anyhow the small waves look good but look linear. From the distance you can make out the patterns. Is it possible to mix them so they don't stand out so much? Or thats too much for any system to handle?

It's impossible. I'll try to explain:

Imagine a chess board. You can only build one little square, and make it look like what you want it to look. But then the game take this square and copy/paste one after another, to pave the whole chess board. So it will look the same.

And why isn't this so notable in gwx/olc?

Cos those mods uses BIG squares of water, so you can see around 3 or 4 in your screen, and thats not enough for the eye to perceive the patterns. In this mod, the squares are less then half the size, so you have much more squares filling the same chess board, and per consequence you have a much more notable pattern.
I've tried everything, even defining the square to be long/wide in prime numbers, but still no luck. You kill on pattern here, other two breed on the other side. It's a nightmare.

But don't worry, that doesn't happen in sh4. :lol:

[Phoenix3000]

Hi Thomsen, great mod :up:

I'm now using v3.1 with the S-Boot mod and the water looks so much better these days. You are right about the scale of the ships, originally they sometimes looked like toys in a bathtub but this mod has improved things considerably.

The sun reflection is also a neat feature, so I have a question; Is it possible to configure for moonlight too?

Sorry if this is already enabled, perhaps the moon has always been too high when out on patrol and I haven't seen it yet, but if it doesn't exist would it be possible to add moon reflections?

Keep up the great work :yep:

Px3000

[Wolfehunter]

Maybe PT you should make two versions one light and one heavy for the uber guys.

Anyhow the small waves look good but look linear. From the distance you can make out the patterns. Is it possible to mix them so they don't stand out so much? Or thats too much for any system to handle?

It's impossible. I'll try to explain:

Imagine a chess board. You can only build one little square, and make it look like what you want it to look. But then the game take this square and copy/paste one after another, to pave the whole chess board. So it will look the same.

And why isn't this so notable in gwx/olc?

Cos those mods uses BIG squares of water, so you can see around 3 or 4 in your screen, and thats not enough for the eye to perceive the patterns. In this mod, the squares are less then half the size, so you have much more squares filling the same chess board, and per consequence you have a much more notable pattern.
I've tried everything, even defining the square to be long/wide in prime numbers, but still no luck. You kill on pattern here, other two breed on the other side. It's a nightmare.

But don't worry, that doesn't happen in sh4. :lol:Thanks and I understand your explanation.

To bad you can't add another check board to it on an angle this way the waves would cross each other?

Still great dude.:up:

[VikingGrandad]

Do you have enabled "digital vibrance" in your video card settings? I recommend you enable 50% of it.
Is that an nVidia setting? I use ATI.
Yeah, it's NVidia settings. I don't know if ATI has that setting. It something that gives a little "wormth" to the screen, more vivid colours.

Thanks for the info. I can't find a similar setting in the ATI control panel, but I don't mind too much as OLCE2 does a great job of providing realistic ambient coloured light effects at different times of the day and night.

I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm still not 100% satisfied with this mod. I wanned the waves to be even SMALLER, but if I do that, two bad things happen: 1) the patter waves will get even worse, and will make the water look ugly. 2) the video card and processor wont be able to render the amount of waves, and 99% of the community won't have a computer able to cope with it. So this is the best we can have, until GWX 4.0 is finished for sh4. Of course that the mod is not just about that. It fixed a lot of other stuff, important stuff. Like that sun reflection on the water that I always hated, now it looks more realistic. I have a new version to upload already, better colours at dusk/morning, the water was looking a little bit weird, futuristic. Gonna release it after some more tests.

SH3 is giving you some very tight constraints with what you can and can't do with this project, but you're certainly pushing at those boundaries and the results are encouraging. I've just tried out the mod for myself, which I'll report on in a separate post...

Also I'm planning to set the waves back to 320, and balance that with the other setting, so we can use the SH3 Commander "set wave height" and "sesonal waves" with this mod. I noticed a lot of people use that feature, so I want to make it compatible.

That would be good if it's possible. I really like the seasonal waves feature in SH3 Commander.


Tell me, which screenshots didn't you like? And which did you like? I'm thinking of replacing some of the screenshot on the first page for better ones. There's still 2 or 3 screenshots of the first version of the mod in the first page, and they don't look as good as the latest version.
The last 5 screenshots in your first post - they just look too strange, and some of them look like the water is made of mercury/quicksilver! The first 3 shots look much more realistic :cool:


I'll now put together a post or two containing the screenshots I've just taken during a test patrol with your mod...

[VikingGrandad]

My specs:
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 2.40GHz
ATI Radeon HD 4870 PCS Extreme 512MB GDDR5
2GB PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Reaper HPC Edition Dual Channel DDR2[ all thumbnails link to larger pictures ]

First impressions leaving port in good weather, morning light - superb!! It's hard to appreciate in static screenshots, but the water really does look and move like it is WET! This is a big step forwards! :D

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_01.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=01.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_03.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=03.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_04.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=04.jpg)


Now, the sun reflection:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_02.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=02.jpg)

I do like this effect very much, but is there any way to shorten it a bit, so that it fades out as it comes into the foreground? I'm comparing it to these pictures:

http://www.free-wallpaper.co.uk/wallpapers/sunset-sunrise-photos/sunset-sea.jpg

http://www.free-wallpaper.co.uk/wallpapers/sunset-sunrise-photos/sunset-sunrise-18.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3230/2344599285_178fcfc50d_o.jpg

http://www.ebibleteacher.com/backgrnd/sunshore020.jpg


Now for some reflections from different ships. I notice that the realism of the reflections does vary a bit, according to the camera angle. For example, these two angles look very realistic to me:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_07.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=07.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_06.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=06.jpg)

...but at this angle, the reflection pattern perhaps looks a bit too fragmented?

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_05.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=05.jpg)


More ship reflections:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_08.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=08.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_09.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=09.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_10.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=10.jpg)


http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_11.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=11.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_12.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=12.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_13.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=13.jpg)

Overall though, the ship reflections are a big improvement!


For some reason, this destroyer has no reflection - maybe a problem with the ship model files?

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_14.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=14.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_15.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=15.jpg)


Underwater - all looks fine to me!

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_16.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=16.jpg)


Part#2 coming up...

[VikingGrandad]

OK, so now it is dusk, plus there's a little wind to change the sea texture.


http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_20.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=20.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_21.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=21.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_22.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=22.jpg)

The pink-purple reflection in the sea looks strange, because there is no similar colour in the sky at the same time.


http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_17.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=17.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_18.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=18.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_19.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=19.jpg)

These shot were taken at the same time in the game. As I panned the camera through 180 degrees, I noticed how much light is reflected when looking away from the direction of the remaining sunlight. Not sure about this, it looked odd to me!

Also, the sea texture in the above 6 shots doesn't look quite right: too soft, and there seems to be one or two 'creases' or sharp lines on the sea surface:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_38.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=38.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_39.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=39.jpg)


I also notice that the spray effect is a grey-brown colour, which doesn't fit with the colour of the sea:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_23.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=23.jpg)


Part #3 coming up...



(http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=20.jpg)

[VikingGrandad]

Now it is night:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_26.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=26.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_27.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=27.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_28.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=28.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_29.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=29.jpg)

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_30.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=30.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_31.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=31.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_32.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=32.jpg)


The problem with the grey-brown spray seems to have gone.

The band of blue light on the horizon looks good sometimes, but other times I think it looks too strong.


Part #4 next...

[VikingGrandad]

I was very keen to see how the mod looks in rougher seas...

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_33.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=33.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_34.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=34.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_35.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=35.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_36.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=36.jpg)

Perhaps some tweaking needed to the crests of the waves (a little too pointed?), and the U-boat reflections sometimes look weird (see shot #2 above).

The motion of the water is really good! And I also like how the boat moves through the waves - somehow the action of the bow spray against the waves seems more natural :up:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_37.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=37.jpg)

Part #5 next!

[VikingGrandad]

When I eventually found a merchant ship, I noticed something strange. You can't see it in the screenshot, but the movement of the reflection around the ship was vibrating/shaking.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_40.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=40.jpg)

I've seen a similar bug in SH4.


One more batch to go...

[VikingGrandad]

When I looked through the attack periscope at night - I was blown away by how real the sea looked! It's AWESOME! It's hard for anyone who has not tried this mod to appreciate, but all I can say is it reminded me of periscope scenes in Das Boot :D

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_41.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=41.jpg)

I also waited a few hours for the sunrise and checked through the scope again in the morning light:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_42.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=42.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_43.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=43.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_44.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=44.jpg)

I'm not sure if the wind had changed speed, but I noticed again that the wave crests look too pointed.

Er... another batch to go... :o

[VikingGrandad]

This was a good test - to attack a ship and see how explosions, smoke and fire reflect in the modified sea!

I should mention first that I saw that weird effect with vibrating/shaking reflection again when looking at the merchant with the target camera:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_45.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=45.jpg)


When the torpedo hit, the reflections in the water looked excellent!

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_46.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=46.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_47.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=47.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_48.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=48.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_49.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=49.jpg)

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_50.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=50.jpg) http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/th_51.jpg (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/VikingG/PT%20water%20mod/?action=view&current=51.jpg)


Actually, one FINAL post to go... sorry :-?

[VikingGrandad]

No more screenshots!

One other problem to report: I can't remember what the wind speed was (I think it was fairly windy but not stormy), but there was one instance when I was using the target camera to look at my U-boat, which was running at 2/3 ahead, but the speed of the boat looked more like 25-30kts, even though the reported speed was the usual 6 knots or so!

I wonder if somehow the sea texture was animating too fast which made the boat look like it was travelling much faster! (yes I checked that TC was set to x1 ;))


One other very small glitch I noticed is that when switching from, for example, the map screen to an external view, for a split second the sea texture appears to run backwards, then immediately looks normal. Perhaps that's related to the above issue?


I should have mentioned earlier what graphic card settings I'm using:
Anti-aliasing x8 (filter: 'box' - whatever that means?)
Adaptive Anti-aliasing: Enabled, Quality
Anisotropic filtering x16
Catalyst AI: Standard (whatever that means?)
Mitmap detail level: High QualityFrame rates never dropped below 25 fps and most of the time were 55-60fps.


PT - overall, this mod is really good, and I don't think there are too many problems left to fix. I hope you found my feedback useful, and that my criticisms don't seem too harsh!

I'll gladly test again when you release the next update. :up:

[Uber Gruber]

Does Mr Thomsens fab water mod work with the periscope and binnoc changes that OLC made in his OLC 2 Env + GUI pack ?