[WIP] OLC Environment for GWX 2.0 (BETA)

onelifecrisis · 03-04-08, 09:16 AM

I'm working on the horizon and thought I'd put up a preview. You can see the beginnings of this work (some changes to the horizon cloud color) in the alpha but a lot more has been done since then. I'll let the pics do the talking.

Left/Right = GWX 8km / OLC 8km

All four pictures are taken in the same place at the same time (just after sunset) in the same conditions (partial cloud, no fog) and looking in the same direction etc. etc. That's the same convoy you can see on the horizon (exactly 8km away).

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Now for a bit of a technical ramble.

The 16km horizon is something I've wanted to fix for a while, but... SH3 has an horrendous fudge for trying to simulate ships being over the horizon i.e. partially obscured at long range, so that you can see only the masts and smoke. This is how it does it:

The ships are always rendered on a perfectly flat plane. The sea itself is on an inverted sphere, so that it is rasied up near the horizon. Shrink the sphere enough, and you get this:

By setting the sphere to the same size as the earth (something which I've yet to see in stock or in any mod, btw) you will get exactly the right amount of ship occlusion for a camera at sea level i.e. for a scope, but you will also get the sea itself rendered part way up into the sky, so that the ship doesn't look at all like its vanishing over the horizon, it just looks like its sinking into the sea.

There are some things that can be done to mitigate this problem but not enough. The sea itself can be both fogged (to merge with the sky) and clipped (at a certain height) but these things just make ships look like they're floating in fog instead of sinking into the sea. This is how its been implemented in the 16km mod and that's part of the reason why the horizon looks so unconvincing there.

Speaking of floating ships, you can invert the sphere but like I said the ships are rendered on a flat plane regardless, so you end up with floating ships again (and a gap between the sky and the horizon to boot).

So anyway...
When your eye level is 5m above sea level (as it is when you're surfaced and standing on the bridge) the horizon is almost exactly 8km away. So in the 8km version, I've just made the sea flat. Problem solved. But in the 16km mod I'm :hmm:

:hmm:

:hmm: over what to do. The only nice solution I can think of is to again make the sea flat. This would look alright (certainly better than what we have now, especially when combined with my other horizon fixes) but it would also be rather unrealistic.

Cheers
OLC

03-04-08, 09:16 AM	#12
onelifecrisis Maverick Modder Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: England Posts: 3,895 Downloads: 65 Uploads: 3	Horizon I'm working on the horizon and thought I'd put up a preview. You can see the beginnings of this work (some changes to the horizon cloud color) in the alpha but a lot more has been done since then. I'll let the pics do the talking. Left/Right = GWX 8km / OLC 8km All four pictures are taken in the same place at the same time (just after sunset) in the same conditions (partial cloud, no fog) and looking in the same direction etc. etc. That's the same convoy you can see on the horizon (exactly 8km away). Click on the picture to enlarge it. Now for a bit of a technical ramble. The 16km horizon is something I've wanted to fix for a while, but... SH3 has an horrendous fudge for trying to simulate ships being over the horizon i.e. partially obscured at long range, so that you can see only the masts and smoke. This is how it does it: The ships are always rendered on a perfectly flat plane. The sea itself is on an inverted sphere, so that it is rasied up near the horizon. Shrink the sphere enough, and you get this: By setting the sphere to the same size as the earth (something which I've yet to see in stock or in any mod, btw) you will get exactly the right amount of ship occlusion for a camera at sea level i.e. for a scope, but you will also get the sea itself rendered part way up into the sky, so that the ship doesn't look at all like its vanishing over the horizon, it just looks like its sinking into the sea. There are some things that can be done to mitigate this problem but not enough. The sea itself can be both fogged (to merge with the sky) and clipped (at a certain height) but these things just make ships look like they're floating in fog instead of sinking into the sea. This is how its been implemented in the 16km mod and that's part of the reason why the horizon looks so unconvincing there. Speaking of floating ships, you can invert the sphere but like I said the ships are rendered on a flat plane regardless, so you end up with floating ships again (and a gap between the sky and the horizon to boot). So anyway... When your eye level is 5m above sea level (as it is when you're surfaced and standing on the bridge) the horizon is almost exactly 8km away. So in the 8km version, I've just made the sea flat. Problem solved. But in the 16km mod I'm :hmm: :hmm: :hmm: over what to do. The only nice solution I can think of is to again make the sea flat. This would look alright (certainly better than what we have now, especially when combined with my other horizon fixes) but it would also be rather unrealistic. Cheers OLC __________________ Freedom of speech - priceless. For everything else there's Mastercard. Last edited by onelifecrisis; 03-04-08 at 10:03 AM.