[WIP] Lighthouses mod

[gap]

Originally Posted by Kendras

Oh my bad, I forgot that the height map has a much lower resolution than the land/sea mask.

Exactly five times smaller

Originally Posted by Kendras

By the way, this is strange : look at the Helgoland island, and you will see that the height map is relatively precise :

Once we find an agreement on the land mask of Sein (hopefully ), we will see if we can improve its heightmap too

Originally Posted by Kendras

Yes, sure. On your satellite view, you took into account submerged parts to draw your island.

You are right, I probably took into account the very shallow waters around the island, but if I were to follow only the emerged profile, due to the low resolution of the terrain mask and to the impossibility of using smooth edges, the island in game would be smaller than it is in reality.

A visual example of that follows.

 

The aerial view I used as template:



The same picture, with two island layouts overlayed on top of it: the drawing that my previos proposals were based on (in white), and a new layout I have just drawn by strictly taking into account only the coastline (in yellow):



As above, but in SHIII (equirectangular) proportions. Note that after the resizing, the coordinate grid is square:



The new (yellow) layout in SHIII proportions and scaled exactly to the size of the SHIII land/sea mask (by matching coordinate grids):



For comparison, here's the improved layout I had proposed in my last post:



Which one looks better?

I am not even sure that on the new version the Sein lighthouses would find their place. Not because of inaccuracies made by me, but because of the extremely low resolution and of the lack of eges smoothing, which 'erodes' the borders of the island.

Originally Posted by Kendras

Mine can't be distord [...]

Not only it can... it is

You said you based the proportions of your island drawing drawing on the following picture below that you have (not enough) expanded horizontally, don't you?



Well, for the island to be in scale with the coordinate system used in game, the grid on the map you use as template should be square, not rectangular. If you follow the correct method (I invite you to give it a try!), the result wont be too dissimilar from what I already got

Originally Posted by Kendras

Moreover, I think my last proposition is more looking natural as your last proposition.

That's another proof of what I am saying: if it looks 'natural', it can't be right... Not in this crazy game

Changing of topic... when you finish drawing that island in a proper way, what do you think about tweaking a bit the light flash effect, so that it resambles more the light of a carbide lamp?

Here's a video:


Imo, the outer border of the light should be red-violet towards its outer border, not blue as it is now. What do you think?

EDIT: found a decent picture



The flame looks bluer near the center of combustion, and it becomes red-violet as it moves away from the center. After all, the current effect color might be compatible with the blue seen in the picture above

Originally Posted by gap

The same picture, with two island layouts overlayed on top of it: the drawing that my previos proposals were based on (in white), and a new layout I have just drawn by strictly taking into account only the coastline (in yellow):



As above, but in SHIII (equirectangular) proportions. Note that after the resizing, the coordinate grid is square:

Originally Posted by gap

Which one looks better?

This one (something between your two versions) :

Originally Posted by gap

You said you based the proportions of your island drawing drawing on the following picture below that you have (not enough) expanded horizontally, don't you?

Well, for the island to be in scale with the coordinate system used in game, the grid on the map you use as template should be square, not rectangular. If you follow the correct method (I invite you to give it a try!), the result wont be too dissimilar from what I already got.

OK.

Originally Posted by gap

Changing of topic... when you finish drawing that island in a proper way, what do you think about tweaking a bit the light flash effect, so that it resambles more the light of a carbide lamp?

Imo, the outer border of the light should be red-violet towards its outer border, not blue as it is now. What do you think?

Nice effect. But my halo is white, not blue. I guess this is the blue sky that you see, because the halo is a bit transparent.

[gap]

Originally Posted by Kendras

This one (something between your two versions) :

I like it, but I had to change a bit the port area, otherwise the local lighthouse would have been in the water... unless we want to create a simple port model for the island, of course



In the meanwhile I had been working on something similar, but smaller:



I like more your version, but I thought I would share that layout too, in case you want to take inspiration from it for some last minute changes (before I create the new mask/elevation files)

Originally Posted by Kendras

Nice effect. But my halo is white, not blue. I guess this is the blue sky that you see, because the halo is a bit transparent.

Could you give it reddish hue, but very faint, so to obtain some shades of violet where the flare colour melts with the sky colour? Just for trying how it looks

P.S: I have removed the RayTracedHalo controller from the light effect (seemingly without any loss of quality), and replaced it with the WaterReflection controller. Light reflections on the water look so cool

Originally Posted by gap

... unless we want to create a simple port model for the island, of course

Are you ready to create a simple 3D model of the Sein island, instead of adding squares to the terrain and having something which looks like nothing ?

[gap]

Originally Posted by Kendras

Are you ready to create a simple 3D model of the Sein island, instead of adding squares to the terrain and having something which looks like nothing ?

Come on Kendras... If people can enjoy sinking ships with this level of detail...

 

...why should you mind sailing around an island like this?

 

Originally Posted by gap

Come on Kendras... If people can enjoy sinking ships with this level of detail...

 

...why should you mind sailing around an island like this?

 

I guess that means 'no' ?



In this case, why building so nice lighthouses, with such an ugly island ?

[gap]

Originally Posted by Kendras

I guess that means 'no' ?



In this case, why building so nice lighthouses, with such an ugly island ?

Come on Kendras, I like well done stuff too, but let's be realistic: who will notice if the shape of a small and totally flat island which we will hardly spot through the binoculars, is not so exciting? Put some houses around it, a couple of jetties, a dock, two or three fishing trawlers anchored along the dock, two well modelled lighthouses and little more, and Sein will look as good or as bad as the rest of SHIII.

If on the contrary we decide to model it as a 3D mesh, what will come next? The Orkneys? What about the Norwegian Fjords? And why not Helgoland, the Azores, or the Canary Islands? And I don't want to imagine what will happen when it will be the time of the Greek Islands

I don't want to sound too categoric: if need be, I am okay to quickly model some rocks which are not even the size of a single pixel on the SHIII terrain map, but anything bigger than that should be made of the same matter as the rest of SHIII's land IMHO

Originally Posted by gap

Changing of topic... when you finish drawing that island in a proper way, what do you think about tweaking a bit the light flash effect, so that it resambles more the light of a carbide lamp?

Here's a video:


Imo, the outer border of the light should be red-violet towards its outer border, not blue as it is now. What do you think?

EDIT: found a decent picture



The flame looks bluer near the center of combustion, and it becomes red-violet as it moves away from the center. After all, the current effect color might be compatible with the blue seen in the picture above

What do you think about that ?

Originally Posted by gap

Unfortunately, after some tests, I must say that I was wrong: the problem is caused by the missing RaYTracedHalo controller.
I am sure I have seen other lighthouse flare effects in SH5m SHIV and SHIII, which don't use that controller. Could we modify those particle effects for use with our lighthouse? Can you please look into the issue while I give the last touch ups to our model? The light reflections on water are too a cool feature for simply give it up and you are the king of SHIII special effects, I know you will invent something

Yes, I think there is a way to avoid this problem. In S3D, you can see that the halo tga has a black background which is read into transparency (I don't know how). What if we change this black background with tranparent background ?

[gap]

Originally Posted by Kendras

What do you think about that ?

Very nice!

Originally Posted by Kendras

Yes, I think there is a way to avoid this problem. In S3D, you can see that the halo tga has a black background which is read into transparency (I don't know how). What if we change this black background with tranparent background ?

I will look into that

The halo during the night :





By the way, I don't have the problem you mentioned, although I deleted the RaYTracedHalo controller. What are the weather conditions under which you see a semi-transparent square ?

[gap]

Originally Posted by Kendras

The halo during the night :

So nice!

Originally Posted by Kendras

By the way, I don't have the problem you mentioned, although I deleted the RaYTracedHalo controller. What are the weather conditions under which you see a semi-transparent square ?

Ypu must move the camera a few hundred meters away from the effect for the light flare to become a luminous square.
I use the test mission you sent me. I have edited many parameters of it, but date, hour of the day and cloud cover are unchanged.
I suspect my gfx card being part of the problem: NVidia cards and SH lights even never got along nicely, The weird thing is that the glitch is only apparent when I delete that controller

[gap]

Good news, our specular mask finally works

Originally Posted by gap

Good news, our specular mask finally works

Excellent news ! How did you manage to solve this issue ? And is this modifying the aspect in game ?

BTW, here is the new halo effect, so you can try it directly in your game !

D/L link :

I have modified it a bit compared to the last picture :