Im not sure what you mean here. Its true SH3 does not support moonlight. Ive used a trick. The Moonlight is actualy not real Moonlight. Its the reflection from the sun. Ive noticed that the sun is always rendered (also at night) but they have just elimineted its light effects. Ive reactivated just the reflection from the sun so you dont see the sunlight at night but you see a little bit of its reflection. Its not just ambient light like in the old moonlight mod. This light is now directional, you will see ships enlighted from only one side, the other remains dark.

It simulates real moonlight very good. ive noticed that the moon and the sun in sh3 are always in the same part of the sky. (you can see it if you make the sun visible at night). So even the direction of light is in most cases correct. However, sometimes you wont see the moon itself when it is under the horizon but you will still see the light. Unfortunaly there is no way around.

Id love to have the ai use the moonlight. So your crew can spot the ships sooner when they see it from the illuminated side. And on the other hand to have you take care about the moonlight direction when you meet the desision from which side you are going to attack the convoi. But this is unfrotunaly not implemented.

there are 3 screenshots inside the file.

I wrote about same.
But I do not understand what for you connect this light with the moon.
As the moon is more to the left of a sunlight.
Light does not depend on the moon presence, It's even in bad weather.
Here there are no any tricks. Light is not connected with yours mod. It exists and without yours mod. It's Dev's merit.

:rock:

uhm.

maybe you dont have installed this mod?

original sh3 everything is bright at night. The sea seems to glow and the sky is bright. Ships appear darker then the surface and the horizon which is unrealistic.

you have a little better effect with dark atmosphere or real uboat mod. which makes the ocian and the sky jet black at night but does not change anything to the light system. So the scene looks realistic now but the ships are also jet black so you barely see them with those mods because they dont change anything with enviroment light system.

with my mode ive used similar dark scene as the dark atmosphere mode but ive also added ambient and directional light sources. They make object on the surface and the waves "glow" upon horizon. Which is more realistic. At a clear night a ship will appear brighter then the background due to the moonlight. The light becomes less intensive when the sky is cloudy but its still there. And its out when the sky is overcast. So during overcast sky conditions and storms you wont see any moonlight with my mode and the night will be black, you wont even see the nose of your boat.

then you have just looked at the scene.dat. There is not much changed in scene.dat. As you said just the earth radius and underwater fog.

Moonlight is altered in envcolors_???.dat files

i try to explain how it works.

first of all, the game doesnt support moonlight. The moon is just a simple bitmap but its not rendered as a lightsource. The sun is however rendered as a lightsource all the time even at night. To make things easier they have just killed the light color and the surface reflection color coming from that light source (sun). They have just made the light colors black so you have no light at all during nighttime.

Creating real moonlight is impossible since the moon isnt rendered. So i used a trick as i said. Ive added a little bit bluish ambient light. Then changed the sun reflection color to dark blue (instead of black/none). And left the sun light color itself black.

That way you dont see the light from the sun, but you see bluish reflections on surfaces like ships and high waves. The direction of the light follows the sun (which you dont see at night). And since the sun is almost always near the moon you have correct light direction most of time.

you see the difference now?

look as i said there is no way to do anything with the moon. Moon does not exist in sh3 its just a bitmap. Sun however is a real lightsource. It renders light and you can even alter the colors of its light. While there is no light at all from the moon. Thats what i mean.

Now to get around this ive used the sun reflection and ambient light to "simulate" moon light. It is not moonlight but its only there when the night is clear (when you usualy have moon).

The changes are very thin. You only notice it when you compare a clear night with a stormy night.

Werner, was using your mod until on my patrol I noticed something very weird.

No Clouds!!!!

Before I installed your mod I had clouds, then after (Checked twice) the cloud cover has gone. So on a day with partial cloud cover without your mod I get the cloud TGA on screen.....Installing your mod with JSGME I then get No clouds at all :shifty: .

Dunno whats happening, but I did like the extra "moonlight" effects, pity I cannot use it cos of the cloud thing.....:hmm:

Anyone else have this problem or is just me an my set up......


Deep Six

hm strange. youve got a screenshot?

i know you rarely see it in sh3 but maybe youre just lucky and the sky is clear :-)

1. youre using any other mods that change something in the sky or the environment?
2. youre sure you have the latest version (1.3) ?

Werner my apologies, I committed the cardinal sin when installing your mod with JSGME of NOT rolling back first, that's why probably I got the no cloud thing....This time I remembered to "Roll back" with SHCMDR and now I have your mod working and beautiful clouds again.....:up: :up:

Wasn't your mod mate but my eagerness first time to get it installed..:damn:


Deep Six..:oops:

hey anvart if you dont like it dont use it or make it better.

Well, that's a great response to what really was constructive criticizm.:dead: