SUBSIM Radio Room Forums



SUBSIM: The Web's #1 resource for all submarine & naval simulations since 1997

Go Back   SUBSIM Radio Room Forums > Silent Hunter 3 - 4 - 5 > SH5 Mods Workshop
Forget password? Reset here

 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
Old 02-25-13, 06:34 PM   #1
gap
Navy Seal
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: CJ8937
Posts: 8,214
Downloads: 793
Uploads: 10
[REL] Dynamic Environment SH5



Description:
Dynamic Environment SH5 v 2.9

Authors:
Subsim SH5 Modding Community

About this mod:
The weather randomly generated by Silent Hunter 5, as it is out of the box, tends to be quite static. This mod addresses the problem, aiming to enhance the game experience. Not only it offers better looking and immersive environments that push game’s graphical engine to its limits, it also affects the general playability, by adding in SH5’s world several new climatic zones, each with its characteristic colors, seasons, and dynamic weather conditions. For doing so, real data on ocean’s main temperatures and turbidity, season’s alternations, weather variability, wind speeds, etc, were collected and combined, resulting in an highly variable environment. From now on, planning carefully your patrols based on seasons and locations will be a key factor for succeeding in the campaign, making the difference between the newbie and the experienced U-boot Kaleun!

Main mod features:
  • added 9 new environment color zones, bringing the total to 12 (stock game features only 3 env_coloros configuration files), each with completely new colors, matching the real ones as close as possible according to footage and pictures available on internet and/or beta testers reports;
  • added 9 new climate zones for a total amount of 15 (stock game features only 6 climate zones), each representing realistic seasonal alternations for polar, sub polar, cold temperate, warm temperate, hot temperate, dry tropical and wet tropical climate (for both northern and southern hemisphere), plus equatorial climate (symmetrical);
  • added 84 new weather type configuration files for a total amount of 87 (stock game features only 3 climate zones), each with realistic weather variation intervals, and wind speed ranges changing based on climatic zones and seasons;
  • ClimateZones.tga completely reworked for representing as precisely as possible on the global map 183 different combinations of the featured color, climate and weather zones; no more “fixed” combinations are given, as it was in stock game.
  • replaced stock caustics with better HD ones;
  • many other graphical improvements, 3D textures and effects, etc.
Optional mods features:
  • Low Resolution Patch: replaces main mod’s textures with smaller/more compressed ones.
    NOTE: the enabling of this submod is highly recommended on average systems, as it might reduce the occurrence of random crashes caused by low available memory;
  • Enhanced Visibility: increases underwater transparence, decreases underwater impurity and fog density. Available in two versions (medium and high) for different degrees of visibility;
  • Camera Filters: affects colors dominance. It comes in two versions: Vivid Colors (increased saturation for blue component) and Realistic Colors (balanced saturation);
  • Ambient Settings: changes various environment color settings. Available in three versions: Darker Nights for reduced nocturnal ambient luminosity and darker night skies, No Murky Waters for setting back the grayish-greenish coastal waters featured in some areas by the Main Mod to a more classical blue color, Darker Nights-No Murky Waters for a merge of the previous versions;
  • Sleet for Winter Campaigns: changes rain into sleet-like precipitations;
  • Clear Water Surface: increases water surface transparency, making seafloor and underwater parts of SHIII/IV imported units visible from above water;
  • Wave Mechanics: improves waves at various wind speeds. It comes in three versions: Breeze, for improved low-height waves (recommended for low spec systems), Gale for increased wave height, and Hurricane for very high waves (only for high-end computers);
  • Seafloor: replaces stock seabed textures. Available in three versions: high resolution, medium resolution and low resolution.
  • Sea Plants: replaces stock sea plants and rock textures. It is available in 3 versions representing different undersea ecosystems (Atlantic Kelp Forests, Med Posidonia Meadows and Coral Reefs), each with 3 different resolutions (high, medium and low);
  • Sounds: it changes stock environment sounds (wind, wakes, thunders, etc.) with better ones;
  • Sobers Best Ever Tweaks: includes a selection of the best environmental mods by sober compatible with Dynamic Environment.
Change log:
  • Dynamic Environment SH5 v 2.9:
    - removed the distinction between realistic, normal and light main mod versions used until v 2.1. The realistic version is now the sole Main Mod, whereas normal and light versions were made into two optional sub-mods, called respectively Enhanced Visibility (medium) and Enhanced Visibility (high);
    - Brighter nights optional mod removed;
    - various optional mods featured in the previous versions of Dynamic Environment renamed with more intuitive names. The new names include numbers and letters corresponding with their suggested installation order;
    - added low resolution textures to the Main Mod and to several optional mods, for users playing on low detail settings (SH5 graphical settings menu); further reduced/compressed textures introduced as optional mods;
    - Sobers NO water drops v1 merged into Enhanced Visibility (high) optional mod.
    - Dynamic Environment SH5 Shallow Waters V2.1 Patch merged into Clear Water Surface (old Shallow Waters) optional mod;
    - Dynamic Environment SH5 v 2.1 - Winter Hotfix #1 merged into the main mod;
    - Dynamic Environment SH5 v 2.1 - SkyColor-MurkyWaters Hotfix # merged into the main mod;
    - Dynamic Environment SH5 v 2.1 - SkyColor-MurkyWaters-DarkerNights Hotfix #1 made into the Darker Nights optional mod;
    - Dynamic Environment SH5 v 2.1 - Skycolor Hotfix #1 and Dynamic Environment SH5 v 2.1 - SkyColor-DarkerNights Hotfix #1 made respectively into the new No Murky Waters and Darker Nights-No Murky Waters optional mods;
    - increased underwater diffraction FX for the main mod and, to a lesser extent, for Enhanced Visibility (medium) optional mod;
    - Sobers Best Ever Tweaks, including DOF v4, Base Sky Mechanics v1, Better Terrain v3, Lights Cfg v5 and Waves Mod v9, introduced as optional mod.

  • Dynamic Environment SH5 v 2.1:
    - fixed an error with incorrect wind speed ranges in some of the weather type zones .cfg files;
    - fixed a small error with a missing average wind speed area in ClimateZones.tga map;
    - decreased minimum wind speed value for calm wind areas from 1 to 0;
    - added a new version of the optional mod Dynamic Environment SH5 – Undersea, to be used into the Mediterranean Sea.

  • Dynamic Environment SH5 v 2.0 (beta):
    - increased the number of weather type zones .cfg files from 15 to 87, in order to reflect detailed information on real annual and seasonal wind speed averages measured in different areas of the planet;
    - reworked ClimateZones.tga map, in order to include the new wind information; increased number of different combination of color, climate and weather types represented on it, from 36 to 183;
    - included Dynamic Environment SH5 (realistic version) patch into realistic version of the main mod, in order to have more realistic visibility, fog distances and sky saturation;
    - new water pixel shaders by TheDarkWraith included as optional mod.

  • Dynamic Environment SH5 (first release):
    - main mod made in 3 versions with different underwater visibility, fog, filter, etc. settings;
    - changed vanilla settings to have new environment colors zones for a total amount of 12;
    - changed vanilla settings to have new climate zones for a total amount of 15;
    - changed vanilla settings to have new weather type zones for a total amount of 15;
    - replaced vanilla ClimateZones.tga with a new map featuring 36 different combinations of color, climate and weather types.
    - replaced vanilla caustics effect.
    - included other effects, textures, etc.
    - optional mods included: Nights (2 versions), Colors (2 versions), Sleet for Winter Campaigns, Sounds, Waves (3 versions), Floor, Undersea (2 versions).
Compatibility:
  • this mod is compatible with any version of Silent Hunter 5;
  • it is not compatible with any mod affecting the following files: ClimateZones.cfg, ClimateZones.tga, EnvColors_*.cfg, Weather_*.cfg (beware CTD’s).
Known bugs and limitations:
  • low precipitations occurrence, excessive medium fog occurrence, presence of fog even during wind storms, stars visible during foggy and/or cloudy nights, weather resetting to foggy after loading a save game (whatever was the weather before saving), and Navigation Officer reporting the wrong weather after a save game reload, are known SH5 limitations that cannot be addressed with the present mod;
  • feel free to report any other issue that might be related with this mod in its dedicated thread.
Installation:
  • install JoneSoft Generic Mod Enabler if you have not done it yet, and configure it to the SH5 installation path (detailed instructions on how to configure it found here);
  • open the Dynamic Environment SH5 v 2.9 package using WinRAR or 7-Zip;
  • drop DynEnv v2.9 - 1. Main Mod into the <MODS> folder (inside the main SH5 directory);
  • enable the mod using JSGME;
  • follow the same steps for the optional mods you may want to use, taking care to enable them in the same order suggested by their progressive number. Sub-mods with the same number are alternative version of the same mod (enable only one of them).
    NOTE: Sobers Best Ever Tweaks overwrites Enhanced Visibility, Camera Filters and Wave Mechanics optional mods.
Acknowledgements:
  • main contributors: Ailantd, Captain America, Entheberge, gap, Paris_England, Pintea, sober, stoianm, Stormfly, TheDarkWraith, volodya61, W_clear, yano1966;
  • main beta testers: bart, misha1967, pedrobas, Silent Steel, tonschk;
  • other contributors: the authors of this mod wish to thank all the subsim members who have supported its development with their suggestions and with their encouragement. Among them, a special mention goes to Trevally for his help in uploading the mod to subsim download section.
Disclaimer:
  • this package is not related to or supported by UBISOFT© nor it is intended for any commercial use;
  • the authors of this package take no responsibility for any damage occurred to the data in your computer due to its use;
  • feel free to redistribute this package for free as long as you do not alter it in any part, including this readme;
  • feel free to use this package -as a whole or in part- for your own freely distributed mod, as far as you get explicit consent by its authors (including the authors of mods that the present mod is based on) and you give them credits for their work. Any request can be addressed to stoianm and/or to gap via private message at subsim community forum.


======================================
Dynamic Environment SH5 v 2.9 patches, fixes & updates
======================================


Legend:
blue title = optional update
orange title = critical update


Medium Fog Bug Workaround by archer9 (date added: 12 Jan 2014)
This mod replaces medium fog settings with clear weather settings and light fog settings with medium fog, thus making medium fog to appear much more rarely in game. Undesired side effects: there is no light fog anymore, and transition from clear weather to heavy fog is very sudden.
Enable the DynEnv-compatible version of Medium Fog Bug Workaround on top DynEnv's main mod and, if used, after any version of DynEnv's Enhanced Visibility submod. No campaign restart required.


sobers waves mod V27 SH5 (date updated: 8 Jan 2014)
This is the latest version of sobers waves mod. Waves look more natural now, and big waves will block te view of other vessels. If you plan to use the DynEnv v2.9 - Sobers Best Ever Tweaks submod, you might want to keep it updated by enabling sobers waves mod V27 SH5 on top of it. Screenie available at this link.


sobers best ever fog V25 SH5 (date added: 8 Jan 2014)
This is the latest attempt by sober to rebalance SH5 fog levels. Medium fog visibility is much better now. Let this mod to overwrite DynEnv's main mod and Enhanced Visibility or Sobers Best Ever Tweaks submods if you are using them, and enjoy it!


Rubini's Moon light mod v1 (date added: 3 Dec 2013)
This mod adds a real moon light into the game. The main feature of this mod is that now the night "main light" is aligned with the moon, what is much more immersive. Screenies here and here.
Originally released for SHIII, but compatible with SH5. Better used together with any of the Dynamic Environment's Darker Nights submods and with Sobers Realistic contrast V8. A big thanks to sober for pointing us to this mod!


sobers realistic contrast V8 SH5 (date updated: 3 Dec 2013)
This is the latest version of the mod once known as 'sobers DOF', which enhances game contrast. If you plan using the DynEnv v2.9 - Sobers Best Ever Tweaks submod, you might want to keep it updated by enabling sobers Realistic contrast V7 SH5 on top of it.
Now updated for full compatibility with Rubini's Moon light mod.


sobers storm clouds v1 SH5 (date added: 5 Nov 2013)
Makes clouds to look darker and lower, thus increasing the dramaticity of the skies. Screenies of the mod available in its thread.


sobers better terrain v4 SH5 (date added: 30 Oct 2013)
This mod enhances the resolution of detail maps rendered on the terrain. Enable it anytime either in port or on patrol.


DynEnv v2.9 - Brighter Nights (date added: 19 Jul 2013)
This submod reduces the problem of nights being excessively dark for some users. Available in two alternative versions: Brighter Nights (normal version) and Brighter Nights-No Murky Waters (merge of the two submods).


DynEnv v2.9 - No Glaring Sunlight (date added: 19 Jul 2013)
This submod is an attempt to reduce the excessively bright sun reported by some users, and it is a combination of the lights.cfg settings suggested by Venus with stock hdr_exterior.cfg, as suggested by robbierob2005. There is still space for some finetuning probably, but you should notice a substantial improvement anyway.


DynEnv v2.9 - Wave Mechanics - Gale (Improved) (date added: 9 May 2013)
This is a big improvement over the Wave Mechanics - Gale optional mod featured in DynEnv v2.9, which now contains Fifi's tweaks (thank you again mate!). JSGME ready. Enable it any time in place of any other wave mechanics mod. Compatible with DynEnv v2.9 - Sobers Best Ever Tweaks (enabled DynEnv v2.9 - Wave Mechanics - Gale (Improved) and let JSGME to overwrite the conflicting file).

Screenies: wind speed 0 m/s, wind speed 14 m/s


DynEnv v2.9 - No U-Mark (date added: 20 Mar 2013)
Removes the orange marker denoting U-boat's position in external view.


DynEnv v2.9 - Sobers Best Ever Tweaks - Wakes Fix (date added: 6 Mar 2013)
With some gfx cards, the tweak contained in DynEnv v2.9 - Sobers Best Ever Tweaks corrupt U-boat's wake. This quick fix corrects the issue by restoring stock settings. Enable it after the aforementioned submod, if you are experiencing the described problem. Not required if the Sobers Best Ever Tweaks is not enabled.


DynEnv v2.9 - No Underwater Impurity Patch (date added: 5 Mar 2013)
Removes underwater impurity particles. Enable it after the Main Mod and either of the Enhanced Visibility optional mods, if used.
NOTE: required by the Enhanced Visibility submod high version, to fix a bug which makes impurity to be rendered as solid white squares.


DynEnv v2.9 - No Underwater FX Patch (date added: 3 Mar 2013)
Removes underwater diffraction effects. Enable it after the Main Mod and the Enhanced Visibility (medium) optional mod, if used.
You don't need it if you are using the Enhanced Visibility (high) submod.

Last edited by gap; 11-06-22 at 06:27 PM. Reason: removed Dynamic Environment v2.9 - Addon by U-190 from the list of recommended DynEnv addons.
gap is offline   Reply With Quote
 

Tags
climate, dynamic environment, environment, environmental mod, fog, weather

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:35 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © 1995- 2024 Subsim®
"Subsim" is a registered trademark, all rights reserved.