[REL] Kosh 9km Visibility Mod

[Probex]

9km Visibility Mod

NEW Version: Apr 28,07

Get it HERE: http://files.filefront.com/Kosh_9km_.../fileinfo.html
or here if direct link doesn't work: http://hosted.filefront.com/OACKosh/

Install with JSGME:
http://www.users.on.net/%7Ejscones/s...sgme_setup.exe





Salute Captains!


This is a somewhat experimental mod trying to achieve longer range of visibility in Silent Hunter 4.

This is NOT a 16km Vis mod like in SH3, but an improvement over the current foggy 8km one.

I have investigated the Scene.dat file and so far have been unable to extend the engine rendering distance much beyond 9km. So, I altered rather dramatically the fog rendering limits for CLEAR weather, and thus achieved an additional over 1km of visibility and also managed to make everything look a LOT sharper and clearer.

The ships are physically rendered at about 10000 yards. I have created a thin fog layer of about 50-100 yards to cover the unsightly "creation" of a given vessel. Shortly after the "rendering" process the ship will emerge out of the thick fog quickly but smoothly and be fully visible to the eye.
With this mod you will be able to see the vessels at 9km distance in CLEAR weather. The lessening of the fog gradation gives us more than 1km extra visibility over the stock game!


Side effects:

Land seems to be rendered at a different distance than ships, and I focused on getting the ships right, so sometimes when closer to land, you may see some furthest land edges shimmering (especially in free camera mod). I don't think that it is a big issue considering the dramatic visibility improvement this mod offers at sea.


Change Log:

Apr 28,07
Fixed my error in scene.dat that caused the land textures not to render properly.

Apr27,07
I made changes in the Sensors.cfg to match the new visual fog parameters.
As soon as the ship silhouette begins to emerge from the fog you can detect it visually and lock on to it. I also boosted SLIGHLTY visual detection acuteness of your watchmen.



Filename: Scene.dat
In the Fog settings for Clear Weather (no fog)
ObjectsRelativeZmin=0.81 (NOT more, or land textures won't render)
ObjectsRelativeZmax=0.9


Filename: Sensors.cfg

;Visual.
Visual range factor=0.3
Visual fog factor=0.95
Visual light factor=0.6
Visual waves factor=0.6







I hope that this mod will improve you SH4 experience.


Enjoy!


Kosh Naranek
aka Probex



PS. Feedback and help with extending the rendering range would be greatly appreciated.

[Chrall]

Good work Probex, I'll definitely try this out.

[Redwine]

Many thanks for job and effort Probex !

Plase, make a manual editing guide...
Some of us, have the scene.dat file edited yet...

[CaptainCox]

Cheers man, will try it out directly after work

[peewee]

It seems that this mod clashes with the 'smaller sun & moon mod' has anyone tried running both mods at the same time?

[U-Bones]

Originally Posted by peewee

It seems that this mod clashes with the 'smaller sun & moon mod' has anyone tried running both mods at the same time?

They both modify the scene.dat file, so no. You can load both, but both will not be in effect, and depending on load order can mess with other settings as well.