[REL] Azs_Retextures_Plus_Mods_V1

[az]

Greetings,

This is a collection of a few mods I've made since my last one. Nothing too special since most of what I've done here is probably already available by another modder.

However there's nothing wrong with more choices for players right? So in that spirit here are my contribution.

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1. Az's Sky Mod:
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-Reworked all textures used by the 3D Cloud system. Also modified cloud systems to work best with my texture.
-Retextured parallax cloud layer, both top and bottom. Scarier looking storms.

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/6389/skymod04.jpg

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/555/skymod05.jpg


http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/8530/cloudmod01.jpg

SORRY COULDN"T FIND A STORM INGAME WHILE TAKING SHOTS. SO CANT SHOW THE PARALLAX CLOUDS TEXTURES FOR NOW.

2: Az's Underwater Mod:
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-Reduced Underwater Visibility considerably across all weather types.
-In deep water you won't see the bottom, and if you dive deep enough visiblity will be zero like the earlier games. How bad the visiblility gets depends on how bad the weather is topside.

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/3883/underwatermod.jpg

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/9375/underwatermod02.jpg

Az's Caustics Mod:
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-Reworked caustics textures making them larger and doubling detail for every effect that uses it. Also made the animated caustic effect have more detail, more pronounced but still subtle compared to the effect seen on previous games.

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/7298/causticmod.jpg

Az's Lighting\Sun Shafts Mod:
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-A few tweaks I made for my self but decided might as well as include them, might not be to everyones preferences:
-Some lighting, HDR/Bloom tweaks on bridge and inside the subs.
-Increase the strength of the sun shaft effect.

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/1788/skymod03.jpg

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/1331/skymod01.jpg


Instructions:
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Each small mod is in it's own folder so you can choose which ones you want. As ever simply extract to JSGME mod folder and use that app to install. After downloading the main mod please download the patches and apply with JSGME.

Conflicts:
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Will ofcourse conflict with any mods that edits the following files:

Lights.cfg
Clouds.cfg
FogDistances.cfg
hdr_underwater.cfg
Caustics Assets
3D Cloud Assets
Parallax Sky Assets
I disabled the daft halo on interactive object function also, so conflict with mods that does disable it as well will not be an issue.

DOWNLOAD:
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MAIN DOWNLOAD:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?tnejzcyumzd

:ping:UNDERWATER MOD PATCH:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wdzmhiwxmll

[/URL]
:ping:SKY MOD PARALLAX FIX:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?m2nq4tynjmt (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zzfuago2nzd)

:ping:UNDERWATER CLOUD FIX:
[URL]http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?h5lmj1wkzym

:ping:RECOLOR DEMO PATCH:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zzfuago2nzd


UNDERWATER PATCH:

-File folder error where "filters" I named "filter". JSGME would have a fit.
-Added new tweaks to the underwater filter.
-Fixed purple screen issue of earlier patch.

SKY MOD PARALLAX FIX:

-Fixed alpha artefact on prallax sky layer. It created some weird double/triple images on the edges of clouds. This patch fixes it. Download and overide with JSGME.

UNDERWATE CLOUD FIX:

-Mitigates the cloud underwater issue by increasing underwater draw distance. It still happens but at a greater depth, therefore less noticable. For a complete fix, revert to vanilla files.

RECOLOR DEMO:

-Added a "demo" patch to show my recolor mod progress. For screenshot and further info find one of my post below of read the Leetme File. THIS IS JUST A DEMO, DONE IN A "CHEAP" WAY.


OUTSTANDING ISSUES:

-Sometimes on game load my underwater fog setting would just revert back to vanilla. Certain geographic locationr and/or weather seems to trigger this on load. Could well be a game bug (we would never notice before since the unmodded underwater draw distance is so HUGE).

-Sometimes rocks and grasses seems to float in mid space on game load. To fix it simply go to nav mode and X time. This I think is due to me using such large images for the caustic effects. It messes up the game's streaming in those rocks and grass.


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Enjoy,
Az. :)

[ReallyDedPoet]

Nice work :up:

[oscar19681]

Ill try it. But in the Az's Underwater Mod. Can you also give the ocean a greenish colour a la das boot?

[SteelViking]

Caustic mod + Underwater mod = awesome. Really great job on this

[az]

Ill try it. But in the Az's Underwater Mod. Can you also give the ocean a greenish colour a la das boot?

sure can. I'll get one out when I get home tonight.

[Kromus]

Nice mod thank you :)

[az]

:ping: Added a patch of sorts to fix file folder error and added some new tweaks to underwater filters. Download on main post.
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Oscar,

Well my friend I know I promised a greenish seas tonight but it seems this is going to turn into another main mod instead of just a quick and dirty insert.
I'm working on it and it will be my next mod. The thing is to do this properly I will have to define alot of color code manually.

The sea and undersea coloring system is defined by 10 seperate variables. That 10 is in turn defined by another 25 weather/time of day states. And finally that 25 in turn is defined by 3 geographic reigon.

So I have to manually generate 10x25x3 individual color codes if I'm going to do it right and have things look awesome. I could cheat and just repeat the color values of the first 10 for everything else but that would mean an enviroment that is totally static.

Plus SH5's weather bug doesn't don't help things at all when you're modding something that is using weather states :stare: . So I'm gonna take my time and do it right. Not just gonna only do a greener version but gonna attempt to make each reigon unique.


Az.

[sergei]

Good work Az :up:

[Regio Sommergibile]

This is great! Thanks mate ;)

[Flinch]

Thanks for the mod Az! I look forward to using it.

Question: Do we need to download the main file pack AND the patch? Or is the patch just for those that have already downloaded the main file pack?

Thanks again!

[az]

Okay the patch is crap. It'll make everything purple. I'll sort it out after this post. So I understand your confusion. My fault actually. Or you could just delete the file in the patch and run the mod without the HDR filters.

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But first an update. I've been having real problems figuring out what sort of system the devs use for colors. It weird but it dosent seem to corespond to standard Hex color codes. You always get the right color if you input their color codes into a generator/picker but if you put your own into the game it always comes out different. But I think I'm close to figuring it out. It'll just gonna take alot of testing to get right.

I'll edit with the "truly" fixed patch in a sec. Sorry about that.

[az]

Okey I've uploaded the "real patch". Sorry about that. I uploaded the first filter patch file while busy studying the devs coloring system and uploaded one of my test files by mistake this is the real one and will give my modification without any recoloring experiments. Just the brightness/gamma/saturation modifications.

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Also uploaded is a recolor of the sea done by using a filter. This isn't the way I'm taking for the proper recolor mod. That's gonna take a lot of work and alot of testing to get the color right plus theres 10 different "channels" I need to get looking and working together right. Also you might not agree with the particular shade of green I use in the demo filter. I did this one with little testing:

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/2134/recolorfilter.jpg

Also doing it via filter isn't the best thing. First one the surface the water is still blue. Second everything underwater will have a green hue, bubbles, the seafloor everything. So for the main mod I'm gonna do it the way the devs do it. Just gonna take some time.

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As for your question Flinch. First download the main mod, install it. Then download which Patch you want and install that. Can do both via JSGME or manually. For the patch, overwite the original file. In JSGME just click yes after the warning.

Az.

[Flinch]

Thanks Az. Keep up the good work!

[rsvette12]

Awesome going to try this asap, thanks for the hard work sir. :)

Rich

[rsvette12]

Great work just got it loaded, luv it, thank you. :)

Rich

[az]

Here's a preview of the new greener seas from the surface. This is the base time of day/weather state version.

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6992/greenersurface.jpg

Here's a preview of it underwater. It might not look too different than the filter version but keep in mind that the filter one is static. Env_Colors one will preety much be dynamic. Changing with the time and weather:

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/4274/underwatergreener.jpg
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Also I've just notice my parallax skies from my Sky mod, displays some alpha artifacts on them. I've made a fix but can't release it until I confirm it in game. It's so hard to do weather based mods when it keeps changing after every load.

So please report to me any weird things I might have missed in my mods so I can fix em asap.

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Glad you enjoy it Rich.

Az.

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EDIT: Added the prallax layer fix for those of you that uses my Sky Mod.

[SteelViking]

One weird thing that I am experiencing with your mods (underwater, caustic, and sun shaft installed) is that at about 60m down or lower, if I look out either of the scopes, I can see clouds where they should be on the horizon through the water (impossible). At first I did not know what I was seeing but I went to external camera and what I was seeing matched up with the clouds in the sky.

I like your mods too much for this to really bother me, I just thought I would bring it to your attention.

Edit: Also, when I install the underwater patch, it gives an unlimited underwater view range......maybe an isolated problem?

[rsvette12]

Thanks Pal, great stuff. :)

Regards, Rich

[az]

Thanks SteelViking, I think I know what's causing this. I'll release a fix asap. Might not be too asap :O:. Being sidetracked by something non SH5 atm.

[7thSeal]

Here's a preview of the new greener seas from the surface. This is the base time of day/weather state version.

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6992/greenersurface.jpg



Maybe a little lighter green with more transparency? A little to dark of green IMO on surface but I don't know how weather affects it?

[SteelViking]

Thanks SteelViking, I think I know what's causing this. I'll release a fix asap. Might not be too asap :O:. Being sidetracked by something non SH5 atm.

Don't ya hate that non SH5 stuff.....unless it is SH4 or 3 stuff:haha:

[az]

Underwater cloud issue:

Found the problem but the solution kinda sucks atm. The reason this is happening is because the only way the reduce visibility underwater is to reduce the actual draw distance. I'm not increasing the underwater fog value to do it because there is no underwater fog value.

By reducing the draw distance you get the unfortunate result of being able to see a little bit of the cloud that is being rendered beyond the now reduced clipping plane underwater. The only sure fix atm is to increase underwater draw distance close to vanilla levels. For example on a clear day vanilla is 35000, my mod is 11000. The treshold for this issue is around 18000 (mid depth) around 23000-25000 (very deep).

I'll do the fix but it will no longer be as murky as the default mod. Or you could just turn off 3D clouds when deep underwater (as it only happens beyond a certain depth) ;).

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Yeah those colors aren't anyhere near final. I'll be tweaking like crazy and release some more previews later.

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EDIT:

Added the fix. Uderwater is now no longer as murky as default mod. But still nowhere near as clear as vanilla. The problem isn't completely fix but most wont notice as it'll happen at a far greater depth.

Personally I'm willing to live with turning 3D clouds off and on as long as I can have very murky water. But that's me. If you want a fix it's up on the main post.

Az.