SH5 water for GWX3 + MEPv3 = Nice!

[comet61]

Well...I've racked my brain now for 2 weeks on this little project of mine. I am trying to morph the SH5 water mod for GWX3 (the 16km version .8 by Rik007) and the MEPv3 mod.

MEPv3 is a great environmental mod, especially with the flat sun fix. And Rik007 SH5 water mod is also a great mod. The problem is that each or both of these mods are not 100% compatible together. Certain things will cancel each other depending on how you have the mods loaded (via JGSME).

The SH5 water mod alone makes the ocean in all seasonal conditions come alive, but with a visual/distance fog problem. WO will spot a target at 15km, but I can't see it until it gets close to 10km and that's just a little dot in the horizon...in good weather conditions.

MEPv3 /w flat sun fix...looks great in-game which includes great visual/distance with no fog 16km-20km range. WO spots object at 15km and I can actually see the dot on the horizon.


Loaded in order via JGSME:

MEPv3
MEPv3-patch
MEPv3 Visual sensors for GWX3
SH 5 Water for GWX3.0 V0.8 Atlantic Campaign (default)
FlatsunFix for MEPv3
3d Waves

This order above is as close as I can get it. I can have my distance, sun and the slow water. The sky and sun color coordination in all types of weather is basically MEP whereas the SH5 water is the same. Happy mediumI guess.It would be great to get these 2 mods molded together some way. I have tried to edit the dat files, but it is very complex. I have a hard time fathoming on how anyone could remember doing the editing on these files together to get them to work together in unison. Kudos to the modders of these great mods. I tried and failed...miserably.

Oh well....I will stick with my "happy medium"....both mods look great and I do appreciate the hard work that went into them....after seeing their "insides" I can see why it can be hard work.

[Woof1701]

Thanks for the input. I'll try that asap

[frau kaleun]

I'll probably give this a try as well. I have gone back and forth between the two and haven't been able to make up my mind which one I prefer, a combo of the best features of both would be awesome.

[comet61]

I am slowly doing little bits at a time. I just succeeded in going into the MEP scene.dat file and change the sea speed to what the SH5 water mod has. Looking into color/reflections on all sun angles. very tedious stuff....Not looking forward to the horizon changes.

I am trying (again) to meld MEPv3 and SH5 water mods together. I truly believe that if the SH5 water mod and MEPv3 were morphed together it would be the ultimate environment mod for SHIII.

[R3D]

indeed very nice, however some weather states (very clear day with small cloud.. usually) have massive corruption like two versions of the same state are showing at once?

[comet61]

I reverted back to my original setup with MEPv3 and the water mod loaded on top of it (via JGSME). This is without the Flat Sun fix. The trade off is the distance (8km-10km) of the horizon. Using the water mod alone works well, however, the fog/distance is not very good. That's using the 16km or 20km versions. If I load the flat sun fix on top of all of it...then I get my 20km distance (no fog) and I can see ships in the distant horizon which is much, much better. The sad part is, in doing that (using the flat sun fix last) then it reverts to the MEPv3 ENV colors.

Here's the difference I see:

Using MEPv3 including it's patch and Flat Sun Fix gives you a very good environment i.e. weather, horizon differences. However, the colors (water/sky) do not, in my opinion coincide with actual real life environment as does the SH5 water mod. The water seems to stay too blue even in darker overcast skies.

Using Rik007 SH5 water mod alone gives you fantastic water/sky colors and very realistic ocean movements, but...not so good horizon/fog distance. The sky/sun reflections on the water DO coincide in basically all weather environments and then add the wave/ocean movements...and you have (IMO) a pretty good ocean environment.


The water mod changes the ENV files such as the ENV Colors and Sky Colors including adding new cloud TGA files and a edited scene.dat

If you have the Silent 3ditor and open the EnvColors_Atl.dat in the water mod, all of the parameters are there. This is where I wish I had 2 monitors to do comparisons between the Mep's and the water mods' EnvColor_Atl.dat files.

Believe me...It is not my intention to critique Makman's and Rik007's work. Both mods are very impressive and I do appreciate their hard work and contribution to the SHIII community. This is a clear case of when 2 great works collide and could become a very good mod in itself if they were combined together to make a great Environment package. Meanwhile, I will continue to dabble. Who knows, maybe I'll find the magic bullet. I am not as near as good with these edits as the modders here have shown, but I can at least try. Kudos to these mod designers, their work is indeed "hard" and sometimes under appreciated.

[MH]

Here is the Riki"s SH5 water scene.dat file with OLC style horizon fix:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2jmwwffgyy0

[comet61]

Here is the Riki"s SH5 water scene.dat file with OLC style horizon fix:

Thanks, but I already have that scene.dat. This is more or less concerning the ENV files such as the EnvColors_Atl.dat, EnvColors_Arct.dat and the EnvColors_Med.dat files. I did a side-by-side comparison of the scene dat files from OLC/MEP and SH5 water mod...they're darn near identical. Some of the node lines are different, but slightly so to the point they would have barely an impact on change.

I was able to narrow it down to those files (ENV) when I loaded the Flat Sun fix over the top of the ones from Rik007's water mod files. By doing so I have the horizon fix, but not the water mod colors. The SKY files in the SH5 water mod appear to be unchanged if I have the FSF installed; they do not get over-written if the Flat Sun Fix (FSF) is installed on top of the water mod.

Comparing the ENV files with the FSF ENV files there is a huge difference in the node parameters...especially where the colors/reflections and sun positions in the sky are concerned. I have tried different variations with these files along with 2 versions of the scene.dat files. The result is either this or that but never both. I am probably doing something very wrong here and forgetting something which is very likely.

Some of the fixes I have tried came close. It's that the water/reflections of the sky and sun position play a big part on the water mod. I'm still learning these dat file entries bit by bit. On another note: I am not making a big deal about this, I am content as of now on how my setting are like in-game and I am still enjoying both mods as they are. I am just tinkering around to see if I can actually get things to work on my own.....that's all.

[KL-alfman]

Originally Posted by comet61

when I loaded the Flat Sun fix over the top of the ones from Rik007's water mod files. By doing so I have the horizon fix, but not the water mod colors. The SKY files in the SH5 water mod appear to be unchanged if I have the FSF installed; they do not get over-written if the Flat Sun Fix (FSF) is installed on top of the water mod.

same here!
when loading FSF atop of SH5-water, the wave-colour changes back to "original". but at least I have the sun-halo back again.
not a big issue, but if someone knows what changes could be done, pls tell me.

[rik007]

Oh... now I see what the problem is. Actually this is not a real flat sun problem but more some weak halo effect. The 'real flat sun problem' is with Nvidia and shows just a solid disc instead of a sun with halo and rays. My 8800 GTS recently died so I know from experience. With Ati cards the rays look indead weak. Try this one and if you like it I will upload the others as well:

http://www.filefront.com/16045207/SH...default%29.zip

With Nvidia cards you will see a bigger halo and I expect it may even be uggly.

Rik

[R3D]

nice one rik007, that sorted the halo issues out.

thanks!

[rik007]

Very well! Will upload all versions.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by rik007

Oh... now I see what the problem is. Actually this is not a real flat sun problem but more some weak halo effect. The 'real flat sun problem' is with Nvidia and shows just a solid disc instead of a sun with halo and rays. My 8800 GTS recently died so I know from experience. With Ati cards the rays look indead weak. Try this one and if you like it I will upload the others as well:

http://www.filefront.com/16045207/SH...default%29.zip

With Nvidia cards you will see a bigger halo and I expect it may even be uggly.

Rik

I have an ATI card and kind of wondered what the "flat sun" problem was all about since references to it always seemed to refer to nVidia as the culprit... and yet with some mods I would get exactly what you are describing with ATI and scratch my head and think, oh well, I guess that's how it's supposed to look.

Tried the FSF for MEPv3 and saw a major positive difference there, looking forward to trying out this new version of SH5 Water as well!

[KL-alfman]

thx for trying to find a solution for the prob, rik!!
will try it out as soon as possible.

[comet61]

I'll check it later when I get home. Of course there are other issues, but I guess one thing at a time is best. Thanks...can't wait to try it out tonight.