View Full Version : Night skies. Really, I've had Enough.
http://www.delraydepot.com/tt/moonmod.jpg
What is wrong with this picture?
Apart from the glowing sea, which is fixed in RuB.
Well if you can't tell, I suggest you wander out into the countryside, or even better, near the coast, tonight and note a couple of things.
First, stars are a source of light. Not a lot, mind. Land, unless a big city or something is on it, is not a source of light. If there's no moon out, you will probably notice that the sea looks black. Yes, black!
So, you can compare: the night sky should be brighter, not black as space. Not very bright, but some sort of dark blue. If we could get it that it's lighter when the moon is out, that'd be great.
Then you could have more realistic night visibility, in that shippies (as Charlie says) would be silhoutted against the horizon.
But I don't know how to change this sort of thing.
SkyColors.dat's in /data/Env? How can one change them? And does anyone know where the star locations are kept? Because they're not a texture map - I'd say they're coordinates, referenced by some sort of astrosphere mini-program.
Agreed man, the same discussion is going on in this topic btw:
http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=42116
Yep, I know, I'm more interested in modding changes.
would certainly be nice if there were more stars- back then in the middle of the ocean the night sky on a clear night would have been particularly impressive to look at absolutely awe inspiring in fact..i was a bit disapointed see-ing the lack lustre night sky as it is in SH3...not critical of course and the did include the "celestial rotation" and major constellations which is a plus for detail fans--it's a shame tho that the night sky doesn't really make you sit back and go that's NICE!! the way other visual aspects of the game do..maybe there is a setting in one of the DAT files that limits the number of stars that could be altered...one or two other games have files that control the number of stars displayed and what size etc ...be stunning to look out from the bridge and get the full in your face Milky Way spectacular...he he!! Northern lights in an artic patrol perhaps allso that would have been a nice touch too...
I wonder, is the night sky just a texture? If so, can we add more (smaller) stars and the milky way band? This would greatly improve the sense of hight.
Hartmann
08-28-05, 05:14 PM
I know another simulator that have a very detailed sky and a option for modify the number of stars.
The realistic space sim orbiter use a hiparcos database with more than 100000 bright stars. also , the contrast and brightness could be modified by the user.
its very impressive see the sky at night or in the space with the setings at maximum.
the question is where have sh3 the database about the stars and if is possible modify this.
Hi!
In my experience, the stars shown by SH3 (literally) pale in comparison with the stars actually visible at night when there is no moon, and no city lights around you.
It would be interesting to detect ships by watching as they eclipse the stars behind them as real U-boats did, but I wonder what would happen to system performance if all the stars that really are visible at night were being shown.
Pablo
Stymnus
08-28-05, 06:56 PM
Hi!
In my experience, the stars shown by SH3 (literally) pale in comparison with the stars actually visible at night when there is no moon, and no city lights around you.
It would be interesting to detect ships by watching as they eclipse the stars behind them as real U-boats did, but I wonder what would happen to system performance if all the stars that really are visible at night were being shown.
Pablo
I imagine that must be what the switch on the side of the real UZO must be fore -- it supposedly reverses dark for light. I could see it making a lot of sense to allow this to help find and identify ships at night.
Flakwalker
08-28-05, 07:02 PM
Yes I had noticed that the moon isnt a source of light too.
Hartmann
08-28-05, 08:51 PM
Yes I had noticed that the moon isnt a source of light too.
the moon in the sim not is a source of light ?? :o
i remember that in sh2 the moon light could be see reflected in the water.
it is very important, like in the real life, where a ships silhouttes could be spoted by the submarine.
The stars are not a texture, they're coordinates. If you zoom in on them with the UZO for example they don't get any bigger.
KptnLt Eric Karle
08-29-05, 06:48 AM
Yes I had noticed that the moon isnt a source of light too.
the moon in the sim not is a source of light ?? :o
i remember that in sh2 the moon light could be see reflected in the water.
it is very important, like in the real life, where a ships silhouttes could be spoted by the submarine.
The moon does reflect on the water under certain conditions. I can't be sure but I thing it depends on its proximity to the horizon
Yeah - unfortunately the reflection is feeble compared to reality, so much so that some players hardly notice it.
An option would be to make the moon a lot bigger.
For that, you need to edit the coordinates in the scene.dat file - I think manuel ortega knows how. Hm - one could do redo the texture so it has a 'glow effect' around it, though make the moon in the texture itself smaller, and up the 3d size of the moon in scene.dat ... and you have a proper moon that has a glow, like in Virtual Sailor... hmm...
:hmm:
Ideally, I'd like the sky and water to look somewhat like this:
http://home.wanadoo.nl/ronvisser/suzanne24.jpg
Kpt. Lehmann
08-29-05, 11:21 AM
Ail's website has a wonderful moon mod that increases it's size. I'm sorry I don't have the link for you at the moment. However, his new moon mod is VERRRRY detailed and even includes crater shadows in its twilight zone.
The mod version to find is 2.5
Flakwalker
08-29-05, 12:12 PM
Yes I had noticed that the moon isnt a source of light too.
the moon in the sim not is a source of light ?? :o
i remember that in sh2 the moon light could be see reflected in the water.
it is very important, like in the real life, where a ships silhouttes could be spoted by the submarine.
In my case the moon dont cast light and shadows (I dont mean dynamic ones, just dark areas) on the U-boat or the crew on the deck, not as it should be (there is a default source of light, maybe linked to sun).
So on nights with full moon everything remain as when there is no moon. Moonlight is normally displayed as a blue light source on most games. Even Venus can became a source of light in some conditions.
About moon reflection on water, its only posible to notice when uzing UZO or zooming.
Yeah. Considering that night surface attacks were historically the most important situations for u-boat attacks, the poor quality of the simulated night in SH3 is unfortunate.
Hartmann
08-29-05, 03:21 PM
i don´t know if is possible,but increase the moon brightness ,
could be a good solution
i look inside a Envsim.act and found some lines about the sun and moon size..
Celestial objects radius (distance) relative to camera position SunRadius Sun radius (in meters) MoonRadius Moon radius (in meters) StarsRadius Stars radius (in meters) StartWindSpeed StartWindHeading EndWindSpeed.
ParticleGenerator SunReflection SunLight SkyColor Sun a 6;
:hmm:
I've figured it out. Here's a screenshot of full night with a very bright sky (the blotchyness is due to converting to JPG format):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Beery/Night.jpg
I'll do some tweaking, and release the result as a mini-mod until RUb 1.44 comes out.
caspofungin
08-29-05, 06:04 PM
look's good -- how's it done?
gorilliamos
08-29-05, 06:11 PM
I've been waiting so long for realistic night sky.... can't wait for this one!
Here's the one I think I'm going to go with:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Beery/Night1.jpg
It's a simple graphical alteration in the SkyAtl1.tga file (which is kept in the SkyColors_Atl.dat file). I had tried it before, but it never seemed to work (because I only tried dark colours). Out of frustration, and thanks to this thread bringing the subject up again, I tried a very light blue and found that it needs a very much lighter colour in order to make enough of a difference.
I could do a deeper blue colour - that might work well. I'm worried that this looks a bit smoggy.
Here's a deeper blue - more like the skies I've seen away from the cities:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Beery/Night2.jpg
It tends to look a little darker in the game (at least on my screen). Hey, there's Orion right above the U-boat foredeck. :)
I have to see how it works with various cloud types, but I think that will just about do the trick.
That last one looks just right, Beery. I spent a year in Iraq, :roll: where the nights are VERY dark, and the sky looked much like it does in that last screenshot. Good job!
That last one looks just right, Beery. I spent a year in Iraq, :roll: where the nights are VERY dark, and the sky looked much like it does in that last screenshot. Good job!
i was there too...i believe for the same reason... :cool: and i can subscribe your impression! For me too a good job .... as ever!
Right then, that's the one I'll use. I've tested with the three cloud types (none, partial, and full) and they all work fine with it. Full cloud is the same as in the previous version (the sky doesn't show through at all). I also tested to see if a Milky Way was possible, but it isn't. Sadly the sky dome itself doesn't rotate with the stars.
It's now available (as BeeryWater 1.44) at http://www.beerymod.com/BeeryWater1.44.zip
About one an a half hours from getting the idea of how to do it, to getting it published. How's that for a quick fix? :up:
Excellent!
I noticed you included a new Zones file... which reminds me that I made some adjustments/fixes to Zones based on Teddy Bar's testing - any chance you'd want to include them in there, since zones is also out there?
Oh, and I also just realized you have my water mod on your website - in which case I should probably also get you an updated version of that...
****
The sky looks great though! This has been on my wishlist for a while.
Excellent!
I noticed you included a new Zones file... which reminds me that I made some adjustments/fixes to Zones based on Teddy Bar's testing - any chance you'd want to include them in there, since zones is also out there?
What other changes got made to the Zones file? I thought it was just underwater fog that was being worked on in that file?
Ooops! Hang on folks. That file is supposed to be Scene.dat, not Zones.cfg. LOL, I'm too fast for my own good.
All done now. Sorry about that.
What other changes got made to the Zones file? I thought it was just underwater fog that was being worked on in that file?
Ooops! Hang on folks. That file is supposed to be Scene.dat, not Zones.cfg. LOL, I'm too fast for my own good.
Hehehe.
I thought that was odd, yeah. Didn't think damage modeling had anything to do with fog :)
The changes I made were mostly to ease up a little on flooding-related buoyancy loss, and also stop the control room from exploding, but that has nothing to do with this mod :hmm:
The changes I made were mostly to ease up a little on flooding-related buoyancy loss, and also stop the control room from exploding, but that has nothing to do with this mod :hmm:
Could you send me that file (beery1@comcast.net). Non-exploding control rooms sound like a good thing. :D
Speaking of the night sky, does anyone know where I can find the list of star co-ordinates? I want to make the stars a bit smaller. Currently some of the brighter ones look like Jupiter - way too many pixels in use. So if the star list includes size values I might be able to mess about with them.
compressioncut
08-29-05, 08:20 PM
I have to see how it works with various cloud types, but I think that will just about do the trick.
As someone who has spent a fair amount of time out on a bridge wing during the deep of night in the middle of the ocean, those last two are very good indeed. Looking forward to it.
Hartmann
08-29-05, 09:08 PM
I´m looking for the list of stars but not success, i never do a mod and don´t know how and where look... :oops:
perhaps in some dat file.
Another way to simulate the milk way is increase the number of stars in some areas of the sky, like a belt.
Here's one I took tonight. It shows off the sky nicely I think:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Beery/explosion.jpg
Great job with the sky Beery.
Just ran a patrol to check it out and it looks superb.
The sky changes nicely in the twilight times, is it possable to change the night sky (as beeries mod) depending on the phase of the moon? :up: Just a thought!
Would certainly make hunting at night in full moon awsome! :o
Schultzy
08-30-05, 03:45 AM
Awesome job Beery!
Thank you. :cool:
Nice one Beery, exactly what I was looking for.
:up:
Now to fix that moon...
-edit- I suspect the star coordinates would be in either scene.dat, or maybe even one of the .act files in the main director. You have to remember the stars aren't textures but coordinates in a mini-astrosphere program. Manuel Ortega might be able to help out, but he doesn't seem to be about at the moment.
Another pic:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Beery/Harbour.jpg
KptnLt Eric Karle
08-30-05, 02:56 PM
Just tried it and it's wonderful Beery. Combined with CCIP's ultra lo FOV Camera Mod, it's brillently atmospheric being in the conning tower at night. Thanks so much for this latest marvelous addition to SHIII
NICE, so the dark sky is moddable :up: , and what about the number of stars and the milky way band?
NICE, so the dark sky is moddable :up: , and what about the number of stars and the milky way band?
Not yet.
I tried the new sky version last night and quite like it. A night time surface attack is feasible now.
FLB sale U-999
08-31-05, 01:42 PM
Hi all!
I do not understand what is exactly the difference in this mod?
what does it do or change if i use it?
Sry for this stupid question!
Thanks for all answers.
Sale
KptnLt Eric Karle
08-31-05, 02:15 PM
Hi all!
I do not understand what is exactly the difference in this mod?
what does it do or change if i use it?
Sry for this stupid question!
Thanks for all answers.
Sale
The night sky is now a very dark blue as it should be and not black as it was. It is slightly brighter then the sea which again is much more more realistic. Sale try this one out with CCIP's Low FOV Camera Mod it's superb
I finally got to try it in the game...
Absolutely outstanding. Really a huge relief for me, mainly because the glowy water turned me off in the default game, and the darkness and lack of horizon disoriented me in RUb.
Now it's just right :up:
WolfyBrandon
08-31-05, 10:46 PM
I was just playing a few min ago and I sort of glitched the sky by being half underwater and half above and it made the sky a lot brighter. If someone made a sky mod it would be nice to have it look somewhat like it did when it glitched. I took 2 screenshots so you can compare.
Origonal
http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/3525/clipboard024bl.th.jpg (http://img366.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard024bl.jpg)
http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/2892/clipboard013go.th.jpg (http://img366.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard013go.jpg)
Wolfy
I find it hard to distinguish between the two, Savages_Wolf. :rotfl:
Sorry, couldn't help myself. :88)
That's just a glitch with the water... thing..
Has nothing to do with the sky mods :hmm:
caspofungin
08-31-05, 11:16 PM
i think that's his point -- he wants the sky still lighter.
FLB sale U-999
09-02-05, 01:34 PM
Hi all!
:cry:
I tried BeeryWater 1.44 out.
I like the waves and bowspray which are much more darker how it should be in the night. And the waterglow at night is much darker....
good so,
BUT: I have to adjust Monitor brightness to 65 % and my gamma is running on 1.16 %.
Only on that way i can see that Deepblue effect in nightsky....
Is that normal?
What is changed in the ENVcolours.dats? Why included a Scene.dat?
What changes has been done in those files?
Hey, i like this Skymod very much, looks great and realistic now! Wonderful.
But the changes i had to make with brightness are they normal????
Greetings Sale
FAdmiral
09-02-05, 02:49 PM
Check out Beery's new sky mod, it has the stars looking very
real and blinking... Nice improvement !!!
JIM
I have to adjust Monitor brightness to 65 % and my gamma is running on 1.16 %.
Only on that way i can see that Deepblue effect in nightsky....
Is that normal?
I'm not sure about monitor brightness, but the 1.16for a gamma setting sounds right, especially if you have an Nvidia card. I hear their gamma value may be set too low.
What is changed in the ENVcolours.dats? Why included a Scene.dat?
EnvColors.dat is all the water colours. Scene.dat adjusts the underwater fog value, making the image fade out either closer or further away.
Jungman
09-02-05, 03:56 PM
:up: That is a good find! Now I can see what my crew is pointing at out about 6 or 8 km. Before I had to turn up my gamma.
The sky really is lighter as you all say out in the country, since I live in the middle of a giant corn field called Iowa.
You would be suprised how far one can see even without the moonlight, just starlight. With the moon, you can see quite far.
Looking forward to this new mod, thanks Berry.
With the lighter night sky, I can now get rid of my shiny water crutch, to help see ships.
If one can add more little stars, then see the silloheuts of ships masking the stars behind them.
Hartmann
09-02-05, 04:24 PM
This mod change the underwater transparency ??
i like the deffault clear waters of the stock game.
thanks
FLB sale U-999
09-02-05, 04:46 PM
In my game the night looks so:
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/3584/sh3img292005204910930jk.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/4830/sh3img2920052049533435yu.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Is that right?
I can`t see anything! It is very dark..... but i think it can be realistic so.....
Could u please post some Screenshots of your ingame Nightgrafics, so that i can see if i did everything right with the mod....
Thank`s a lot!
Jungman
09-02-05, 05:14 PM
This mod change the underwater transparency ??
i like the deffault clear waters of the stock game.
thanks
You can hex edit easy the two values in scene.dat back to the original values for water transparency. Search the forum to find out how to do it, and the 'beyond 8 km visibility' thread.
Hartmann
09-02-05, 07:21 PM
ah ok
thanks for the advice :up:
Jungman
09-03-05, 01:54 AM
If you do not know how to do it, I can whip one out quick for yeah, if it is OK with Berry. Berrywater144_Clear
If you do not know how to do it, I can whip one out quick for yeah, if it is OK with Berry. Berrywater144_Clear
It's fine by me, but if players want clear water all they have to do is remove the scene.dat file from the mod.
Jungman
09-03-05, 05:59 AM
I did not know that was all that was changed to the scene.dat in Rub 1.43.
That would be the most easiest, just plainly not install it then. :doh:
I guess I was thinking of the scene.dat from the Visibility Mod.
I believe he must want to watch the torpedo event camera or something. Then that would not be 100% realism, but more cinematic than in reality.
Duke of Earl
09-04-05, 03:52 PM
I might be having a problem with the BeeryWater 1.44 night sky mod...
The night sky is very good.. twinkle-twinkle little star...
But, I'm not seeing very any clouds during the night or day... and I have a very good cloud mod installed...
Right now, I'm in a 10 m/s wind, crystal clear skies... with lightning and thunder... :doh: ... NAV says it's overcast with light fog, no percipitation...
I don't remember it being like this before the BeeryWater night sky... very strange weather...
Ok, probably figured it out... I'm using the Increased Visibility mod.. it has it's own SkyColor files.. apparently, Beery's Skycolor files aren't compatible with the Visibility mod Skycolor files...
Going to revert back and see what happens to the strange weather...
Cordialement, Duke of Earl
Hi Duke,
try that one,
i did merge the new textures from beery´s water mod 1.44 with the .dat file from visibility mod.
http://rapidshare.de/files/4635080/Vis_mod_RUB_compatible.rar.html
I might be having a problem with the BeeryWater 1.44 night sky mod...
The night sky is very good.. twinkle-twinkle little star...
But, I'm not seeing very any clouds during the night or day... and I have a very good cloud mod installed...
The new BeeryWater is exactly the same as the old Beerywater except it has a different sky graphic. Nothing that has to do with the clouds has been altered.
FLB sale U-999
09-07-05, 05:16 AM
Hi Beery!
Thanks for that great new night skies in the game!
Adjusted my Brightness and now it works fantastic!
Only one question!
In ur Mod there is a Scene.dat File, but i can`t use anymore the Bigwaves Mod because i use the Scene.dat file from ur WaterMod.
Any chances to get both work? Or could u make a version with included BigWaves 1,5?
What does ur Scene.dat file do? Have i to use it for ur WaterMod 1.44?
Thank`s a lot for support!
Sale
FLB sale U-999
09-07-05, 05:18 AM
Oh, here a Screen of my new great Nightsky in the game:
http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/4079/sh3img492005013374372fe.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Great Work on that Beery, now i can make surface attacks and i can see on what i am firing my Torps... ;)
Jungman
09-07-05, 07:39 AM
You simply edit the four values for wave states in the scene.dat.
Look at the Big Wave mod and see the difference between that and stock.
Using an editor, you can see the text for it. It was for certain wind speeds of 0, 3, 7, 10. Do not remember but you can see it easy in the dat file.
I'll be including the 1.5 big wave mod in Improved U-Boat along with the visibility mod and some other tweak I can't remember. Oh yeah - resized moon.
If it helps..
FLB sale U-999
09-07-05, 12:45 PM
I'll be including the 1.5 big wave mod in Improved U-Boat along with the visibility mod and some other tweak I can't remember. Oh yeah - resized moon.
If it helps..
:(
Simply is good, have no idea of Hexedits.... tried once but it was not working....
Shame on me, no ideas of editing hexvalues :cry:
So, will have to wait until somebody makes a version of this Mod both included....
Das ist kein Weltuntergang :)
Greetings Sale
Hex editing is surprisingly easy once you realise what you're looking for and have a good hex editor (like 010 Editor).
Duke of Earl
09-08-05, 08:01 AM
Hi Duke,
try that one,
i did merge the new textures from beery´s water mod 1.44 with the .dat file from visibility mod.
http://rapidshare.de/files/4635080/Vis_mod_RUB_compatible.rar.html
Thanks Gammel for fusing Ortega's and Beery's great mods together... :up:
Cordialement, Duke of Earl
Is there allready a version with the wavemod included? (the 2x size)
Bill Nichols
09-09-05, 07:51 PM
You simply edit the four values for wave states in the scene.dat.
Look at the Big Wave mod and see the difference between that and stock.
Using an editor, you can see the text for it. It was for certain wind speeds of 0, 3, 7, 10. Do not remember but you can see it easy in the dat file.
Maybe I'm missing something, here. I'm comparing Bigwavesmod125x with Bigwavemod2x. The only difference I can find is at address 2B5. Where are the values corresponding to the four wind speeds?
Jungman
09-09-05, 09:22 PM
Timetraveller made a big waves mod once. I have one here for example someone made. I never used them but I can show example what is different.
There are four places with this format:
Windspeed _ (Value)_Scale.....
Value is the windspeed. Virgin game is 0, 4, 8, 15. The waves are determined by the windspeed.
This one Bigwave mod has it as 0, 2, 4, 6. This means the bigger waves will occur at lower windspeed.
Also one other change is the overall SIZE factor, as you were mention at that adress.
MaxWaveHeight: for stock game it is 256, for this other mod it is set for 606.
The data is a four hex 'backwords'. It is in IEEE single precision backward format.
Example: Decimal 606 is (00 80 17 44 ); 256 = (00 00 80 43).
So you change the MaxWaveHeight value in scene.dat.
Plus change the four values for wave change states at
Windspeed...(X X X X)...Scale.....
Maybe I'm missing something, here. I'm comparing Bigwavesmod125x with Bigwavemod2x. The only difference I can find is at address 2B5
That would be the MaxWaveHeight maybe. There is more than one wave mod out there. Send me the one you want changed, I can give you detail or just upload it to www.rapidshare.de for a quicky.
Bill Nichols
09-10-05, 07:32 AM
Thanks for the info, I understand. Now, I can modify Beery's great 'Beerywater 1.44' to get my big waves back.
FLB sale U-999
09-11-05, 12:44 PM
Could please anybody post his combined Scene.dat?
Combined with Wavesmod 1.5 and the other one for Nightskymod.
Thnak`s a lot!
Sale
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