I vote for 16km

also...I don't think we need to put sounds into this mod...there are enough sound mods out there for people to get.......just my 2 cents though

16km <- :huh:

There is more to do, see this illustration
http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/al...6532366266.jpg

For a 16km or 18km mod, the diameter of the Clouds.obj in the
scene.dat
must be adjusted also the diameter of the Sky_color.obj in the
SkyColors_Arct.dat
SkyColors_Atl.dat
SkyColors_Med.dat
These OBJ files are the two domes in the SH3 3D world. If only the inner dome (Clouds.obj)
is adjusted to a 16km diameter, the clouds will be outside our visible 3D world :rotfl:

I don't know what changes are done in the 16km mod. But for my 18km mod I had to:
- Resize external sky hemisphere
- Resize cloud hemisphere
- Increase the dynamic ocean grid to a lot more nodes (if not, the ocean will finish suddenly at half way)
- Increase dynamic ocean texture tiling, in order to maintain same texture/wave sizes.
- Lower and make bigger the ocean/horizon disc. This is a large disc with a hole in the middle, directly under the dynamic ocean grid.
- Change the colors of the disc texture, just for showing less contrast between it and the ocean grid texture.
- Increase all the camera far clipping values. Increase the near clipping values, in order to avoid z-fighting.
- Change near/far fog values.
- Change the distance where sun / moon are. They must be located just between cloud and sky spheres.
- Change all values for AI spotting ships to 18km.
- Change all values for player spotting (if not, you can't have the enemy locked until game default max distance).
- A lot of value changes that I still don't understand what are for, but necessary, and the ones that don't remember.
- Testing, testing, testing. :88)

As you see, it's not only the sky/cloud spheres...
If I had to make it again, surely I don't know how to do it without studying again the whole game render engine, so don't ask me to do it again because I would die... All I can do is answer all the questions about all those mentioned things. I know that my mod works, and the values that it has are working; even I'm scared of touching the files because I could mess it again :P

Mmmmhhh............. :hmm: may be for that when i use some SkyColors files, diferent than the Mac Mollo (Ortega's) one i loss the clouds textures ? :hmm:

I am using the original Ortega's 18KM file, may be the Sky textures become inside of Clouds textures ? Because are files for a smaller dome or sfere ? :hmm:

I am most agree with 18km value, i remember when swiming in the west coast of Cozumel, with my eyes at 4 inches over sea surface.... i can clear spot the radio towers at the other side of the Cozumel Channel, it has 19.5 km wide, and towers may be not more than 30 meters, i was able to watch clear the red and white colours of them.

Using a Horizon Calculator, from a conning tower of 4 meters you can spot ( in a teoretical clear day, no humidity, no dustt in suspension) the top of the mast of a Warship of 65 meters as far as near to 40Km.

Humidity in suspension in a clear day (light fog) can reduce it down to 20/15km, i think so 18Km is good for me.

Best regards, Red.

Don't forget implement CCIP enhandced camera 2.0 (or newest). That camera is very cool, but isn't implemented at Manuel Ortega Visibility mod.

Pls, implement this camera too, I hope ;)

Thx

JXP the camera file you speak of is entirely separate and will be unaffected by the ATMOSPHERIC mod. The cameras .dat file is in the "Library" folder.

SeeAdler, Ortega, Redwine... from what I can tell based on reading 22 pages of playtesting reports on the visibility mod thread... is that the 16 Km visibility mod is more dependable/stable in effectiveness/results.

I'd love it if the 18km visibility mod could meet the same criteria.

Mr Ortega, I mean no offense and I can only imagine the amount of work you have already done.

There are too many visual distance increasing mods and the need for standardization is becoming apparent. Everyone is going in different directions and I am sure that the visibility modders are rather tired of fixing the problem.

...but we are so close... with only paper-thin walls separating concept from realization.

THIS MOD CAN BE DONE! :yep: It is only a matter of getting everyone talking at the same table. Don't panic at what may LOOK like a mountain in the way.

We need Jungman, Rulle34, and possibly Gammel to speak here as well... It is very important that we hear from them.[/i]

Hi guys,

Great idea, a lot of work!
I guess that ideally is important (if possible) to make the mod with options to the people make your own adjusts. Like the water 'visibility' in SH3Cmdr.

I want to know about the night visibility side effects too (excuse me If I miss something here... :D ). Are this issues already fix?

Rubini.

Salute! Admiral Rubini :sunny:

At the moment, the problem is putting the basics together to make this mod a reality.

To define the direction that needs to be taken, we need to blend SeeAdler's Cloudfix, the visibility mod, Marhkimov's corrected water-sun reflections, and cloud/moon tga files. (Which visibility mod we use must be agreed upon first, and a few key modders with hex-editing skills would have to work together.)

All other elements like water murkiness, sounds, camera mods, etc. can either be added later with ease, or are totally separate mods that would remain unaffected by the "Atmosperic" mod.

Not to sound smug here, but v 1.01 of Improved U-Boat includes nearly all these fixes:

Rulle34 - '16km visibilty' fix

Manuel Ortega - '16/18km visibility' fix

Jungman - various 'sensors & setting' fixes

oRGy/Ortega - fixed moon size


What needs to be integrated are the cloud dome uvwrapping fix and markhimov's new reflections. So you can start with the IuB version as a base if you want.

An essential bit of the problem that needs to be understood is that the mods in question share files that need to be cohesively hex edited.

Only the initial mod designers can do this since they are the ones who understand the changes made to the respective mods.

Without their help, the Atmospheric mod is doomed to be broken from the start.

Hopefully Jungman, Rulle34, and associates can hash this out here soon.

Why you say.... it is more dependable/stable in reffectiveness/results?

I cant understand.

I will give you lot of thanks if you can explain.
Thanks in advance.


Yes a lot of job blending diferent mods..... at moment i made my own blend, using the last Ortega's Vis. Mod 0.92 no fog, 18km containing Seadler Sky Fix, adding my own underwater visibility settings, and spoting range sttings, using old Jungman Sensors files with some personalized changes, and following the Marhkimov's instructions and tutorial ... i extract and insert his .tga's textures into the scene.dat i am using.

Finally i obtain, the Ortega's Vis. Mod, no fog, 18Km, with increased underwater visibility, increased spotting range, with Sky fixed and sensors file with 60 degrees and 200m, plus the improved night vision and reflex from Marhkimov.

Redwine, in this thread : http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopi...9588&start=525

It appears to me that the visibility mod team changed directions away from the 18 km version and switched to the 16 km version for a variety of reasons. Please forgive me for making a general statement... but it is very difficult to answer your question because of the mass of information on that thread.

However, if you have solved the problem and put together the files in such a way that you can still see clouds and the moon/stars...

By alllllll means! Please put them together and upload them to rapidshare or other source so we can use this mod sir.

If you have solved the problem... you are a HERO if you share the solution. :up:

Cheers! I say you did a good job. :up:


Now what we have to do is the same, only we will make subtle improvements and make sure that each piece of puzzle fits exactly right. Since I can't hex edit and do all of the really complicated modding, I don't know which files will unintentionally cause problems to the other files... So that's why we need all of the modders to really get together on this one.

The real problem with the last 'Visibility Thread' (you know, the one that reached 22 pages!) was that no one really worked together. And after 22 pages, look at what we got: some beta mods :-? ... It would be a shame if we didn't learn from that experience...


Our goal here, IN THIS THREAD, should be to actually release a mod... a real mod. :up:

Hopefully in the very near future/in a few days or less. I just don't want to see this drag on and on.

Absolutely! We will give that a whirl... :up:

...and if I have failed to see the simplicity of a fix... EVEN BETTER :rotfl:

Funny how you EXPECT complication where there may not be any.

Whow.... i cant believe, did i made some thing good :D

Kpt. Lehmann :

I follow the line of that topic from the first day, i attempt to pick up all i can from that topic.
I understand it is so long, but i can remember why 16Km is better than 18Km.
Any way even 18Km is poor value for a theoretical clear day. In a theoretical clear day with no humidity in the air, the top of the mast of a WarShp must to be visible beyond the horizon at about 35 or may be 40 KM.

For that i choice the original Ortega's value.

No problem to share the files.......... but what files i must to pack ?

The same into visibility Mod ? Any one more ?

I will make a pack.


marhkimov :

I think so, it works, because following your instarutions i extract your .tga's and insert them into my SkyColors files and now i can see the horizon at night in example in the Scapa Flow Mission.
I was unable to see anything at night before, any way you can check that to ensure your modifications are working fine.

Best regards, Red.

I am posting these files from memory, so they may not be correctly named... In any case, you should have no trouble locating which files I am speaking of.

data\Scene.dat
data\cfg\Sensors.cfg
data\cfg\AIsensors.cfg
data\library\Sensors.dat
data\env\SkyColors_Arct.dat
data\env\SkyColors_Atl.dat
data\env\SkyColors_Med.dat

Can anyone else confirm this? I am currently not at MY computer...