[WIP] Reflections on the water
 

http://static1.filefront.com/images/...x.thumb250.jpg

What started off as a simple project has turned into a Community effert of Modder's and testers with differn't tallents and learning more about the inner workings of the game to make the over all environment for the game much better so people willl enjoy staying on the bridge much more and less inclined to fast forward through their patrols.

I wanted to do something that would work well with LBO and compliment that work and have just the same ammount of impact that LBO did on the community at large. Thanks to some great guy's helping me this dream is becoming a reality.

Here is 3 screen shots for now to show a small hint of what is going on in work and will post more in the near future.

http://static1.filefront.com/images/...u.thumb250.jpg http://static1.filefront.com/images/...y.thumb250.jpg http://static1.filefront.com/images/...a.thumb250.jpg

This mod is going to change all reflection's in the game and how they work from the sun to the moon to all Sub's, Ship's and every single object in the game you can and will see. All search light's on ship's and for lighthouses are enhanced and also star shells the DD's use to search at night for you. new fire effect's and explosion effect's and now oil sliks for the game as well. Also ship sinking effect's and how it look's on the ocean is enhanced. All smoke effect's and so forth in the game now have a reflection and you will have lightning effect's as well. Basicly this is a full visual enhancment mod that will make you want to spend more time in the outside view's of the sub rather than speeding through the game. All shadow effect's, above and below water lighting effect's now match the possition of where the light is comming from and is 100 times more realistic. All sky textures and blending as well as a new Pacific Blue Ocean has been created.

Project workers now include: Kriller2 / l3th4l / JakeToox / LeoVampire
and a lot of serious testers that don't hold the punches back in what they feel looks
and act's right and what dosn't. And the comunity at large for choices on textures.

ALPHA RELEASE DATE: Friday Spetember 21st 2007

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...94&postcount=1

Oh man, I can't wait. Where's that darn drool towel when I need it?

Looks very nice, is it only by editing the scene.dat you get that effect? or are you allso editing the textures? - I had some problems when I tried to get the ocean more shiny, it was like there was some pixel-faults on the ocean when I put to much reflection / white colour on the reflection maps...

I will be working with the scene file and materials file
 

I started to do reasearch into reflections like I did for the ocean and now working with in game control's to eliminate all the strainge reflection effect's we see in long distance shots and yet adjust the environment to show much more realistic reflections and shadow effect's according to where the light is actualy comming from. This will effect both above water lighting and below water lighting effect's and reflections.

I have no natural tallent's working with dds or tga files so I manipulate the game's environments using what is available for controls in all available files. I find where everything is for what I want to work with then get cracking on it.

As you can see in this new picture with working on the lighting effect's of the sun and moon now they will have more of an impact on everything in the game. Notice how the moon light at certain angles will now amplify smoke effect's. And also the reflections on the water like the fires on a ship now show up in the proper place according to how you look at the ship with the camera. And in the last picture the moon is behind the sub and still at a low angle so the lighting and shadows now only amplify where the actual light hits that area of the sub according to camera view. I did have to enhance the picture a bit so you could see the effect better.

http://static1.filefront.com/images/...j.thumb250.jpg http://static1.filefront.com/images/...m.thumb250.jpg http://static1.filefront.com/images/...i.thumb250.jpg

Some of these effects will be amplified more this is just the begining work then the amplification of the effect's without getting the other strainge effect's reflection's can cause.

Birth of a new day for SHIV soon
 

http://static1.filefront.com/images/...l.thumb250.jpg

still a lot of work but starting to look much better don't you think?

This is a sun rise just after the sun changes from an orange glow to it's more natural look with a halo starting

Looks good LV :up:


RDP

thanks reallydedpoet
 

as you will see in these 2 pictures the sun's light rays will now angle through the water according to the sun's possitional angle in the sky instead of being a constant angle like it was before.

http://static1.filefront.com/images/...e.thumb250.jpg http://static1.filefront.com/images/...j.thumb250.jpg

here is an example of the new lighting vs shadows effect
 

http://static1.filefront.com/images/...s.thumb250.jpg

As you can see the shadow's of the wake on the starboard side of the ship is greatly enhanced because the sun is hitting the port side of the DD. so those port side wakes are hard to see.

Simply incredible! :cool:

...and an inspiration to those (like myself) who are just getting into the SH4 modding scene... :up:

and as the sun's angle changes so does the reflections
 

now as you can see they are more of a downward angle reflection rather than spread out all the time.

As time passes in the game the ocean appears to change colors from a dark blue to a light blue then deep dark blue and it will reverse as the sun starts it's downward angle again. No texture changes just lighting changes create the effect.

http://static1.filefront.com/images/...m.thumb250.jpg http://static1.filefront.com/images/...d.thumb250.jpg http://static1.filefront.com/images/...e.thumb250.jpg

glad you think so DeepIron and a hell of a compliment as well. Didn't intend it to be an inspirational mod but did want to make the SHIV environment much better for everyone once outside of the sub camera's are used.

BTW it is killing me keeping my mouth shut
 

I am testing out Kriller2's new horizon's for his up comming release and I have to say he did a really damm good job blending it all in to remove almost if not all the line coloring effect's you could make out before! Looks a lot smoother in blending so I know he worked really hard on it!

new sunset shots for you Inspired by Bill Nichols photo
 

That he showed me when I was first trying to figure out the sun's inner workings for the game. I hope this comes much closer to what he showed me.

http://static1.filefront.com/images/...a.thumb250.jpg http://static1.filefront.com/images/...o.thumb250.jpg http://static1.filefront.com/images/...m.thumb250.jpg http://static1.filefront.com/images/...l.thumb250.jpg http://static1.filefront.com/images/...g.thumb250.jpg

This just keeps getting better and better. :up:

Just one word.. awesome !

:up:

Thanks Ducimus and FooFighters
 

Working on it hard trying to make it perfect for everyone including me LOL!!

So I will keep everyone properly updated daily on the work and progress. Hope to have it ready by the weekend at the latest. This is much easier to do seeing there is a sun set and sunrise everyday to adjust and work with! Not like waiting for bad weather to happen in the game!!!

And BTW this is the picture that Bill Nichols gave me for insperation and example of what I might want to try and acheave.

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...ise_at_Sea.jpg