[REL] Dynamic Environment SH5

[gap]

Originally Posted by volodya61

Hi Gabriele

I think you fail to collect trustworthy information on the mod's usage because all testers constantly saved and reloaded the game, which certainly affect the 'cleanness' of the experiment..

yes, Volodya, good remark.

Another factor that I have just realized could hamper the exactness of the reports, is that Bothersome is giving me the coordinates as reported by the Navigation Officer. IIRC, the only way he could report them, is by estimating them through dead reckoning or, at best, through celestial fix.
The involved error, nullifies my effort to locate the exact pixel that the report is relative to.

For our purposes, the only way to determine lat/long would be by disabling real nav, and by calculating manually sub coordinates based on how far the circle denoting sub position is from the closest parellel and meridian

Originally Posted by gap

Thank you too for using it. Hope you are enjoying

I am!

Originally Posted by gap

Stoianm EnvWeather is already included in Dynamic Environment base mod, you don't need it; moreover, due to the changes I have made to the weather zones, that old mod is not compatible with DynEnv. I warmly recommend you to disable it.

If you think you are experiencing too many foggy days, I need for dates, locations, regular weather reports, etc similar to what I have asked for rain

After adding that old mod and getting a good reload, my weather has been dynamic again. I have disabled the mod as per your suggestion and am still getting dynamic weather changes, so things seem back to normal. If it happens again, I'll let you know.


Here are some rain (sleet) dates if you still need them:

Date Time Location Location Clouds Precipitations Fog Wind

6 18 1940 - 19 20 - 1E / 59N - Overcast - Heavy - Heavy - 15
6 27 1940 - 06 00 - 17W / 52.40N - Overcast- Medium - Medium -15
7 22 1940 - 10 00 - 9.30W / 47.50N - Overcast - Heavy - Light - 7

I'm getting the sleet effect even in the middle of summer.

I can't tell you how long these rains last because of TC travel.

I noticed something the other day. My daytime clouds seem washed out or lacking detail. I'm not sure how to describe it. It's like they're not puffy and look very white without texture. At night, clouds look better .

I also use sobers lights cfg, but am not sure if that has anything to do with it. I think I disabled that mod at one point during testing, but there wasn't any difference.

I was looking at some pics in other threads, like OHII first page, AIL's clouds, etc., and see how the clouds have some body to them, like I remembered having before.

I tested with AIL's clouds (these are the shots), and it's the same. In the day shots, you can see the small clouds that are higher up look to have more detail and have a somewhat puffy look to them.

Could it be something to do with lighting?

What do your clouds look like?

[gap]

Originally Posted by 7Infanterie19

I am!

Originally Posted by 7Infanterie19

After adding that old mod and getting a good reload, my weather has been dynamic again. I have disabled the mod as per your suggestion and am still getting dynamic weather changes, so things seem back to normal. If it happens again, I'll let you know.

how dynamic is the weather can depend on many factors, including your location, current season, but it can be also affected by random factors. I am absolutely sure that in your case that mod cannot be related with the improvements you had noticed

Originally Posted by 7Infanterie19

Here are some rain (sleet) dates if you still need them:

Date Time Location Location Clouds Precipitations Fog Wind

6 18 1940 - 19 20 - 1E / 59N - Overcast - Heavy - Heavy - 15
6 27 1940 - 06 00 - 17W / 52.40N - Overcast- Medium - Medium -15
7 22 1940 - 10 00 - 9.30W / 47.50N - Overcast - Heavy - Light - 7

Okay, I will process them as soon as possible, thanks!

By the way: how did you get the reported coordinates? It is always better reading them directly from map (if not using real navigation, indeed)

Originally Posted by 7Infanterie19

I'm getting the sleet effect even in the middle of summer.

yes, unfortunately, having different precipitation settings for different season is not possible. Once you enable the Sleet for Winter Campaigns submods, you give up rain for sleet, no matter if yu are playing a "summer campaign". Nonetheless, you can disable/reenable it at any moment

Originally Posted by 7Infanterie19

I noticed something the other day. My daytime clouds seem washed out or lacking detail. I'm not sure how to describe it. It's like they're not puffy and look very white without texture. At night, clouds look better .

...

Could it be something to do with lighting?

Yes, it seems a brightness/contrast issue. Which environmental mods/submods are you using, besides DynEnv base mod?

Originally Posted by gap

... I am absolutely sure that in your case that mod cannot be related with the improvements you had noticed

lol .. whatever it was .. getting out of it after all that in-game fog time was a blessing.

Originally Posted by gap

By the way: how did you get the reported coordinates? It is always better reading them directly from map (if not using real navigation, indeed)

I try to estimate coordinates using my location on the zoomed map. I'm certain it's not bang on to the pixel, but close enough (I hope .. hehehe). If you know a better way to figure out, please let me know.

Originally Posted by gap

Once you enable the Sleet for Winter Campaigns submods, you give up rain for sleet, no matter if yu are playing a "summer campaign". Nonetheless, you can disable/reenable it at any moment

Ok .. I have to confess, gap ... I like the look of that heavy sleet even during summer months, so I'll keep it enabled.

Originally Posted by gap

Yes, it seems a brightness/contrast issue. Which environmental mods/submods are you using, besides DynEnv base mod?

After the base mod, I'm using:

Camera Filters - Realistic Colors
Ambient Settings - Darker Nights-No Murky Waters
Sleet for Winter Campaigns
Seafloor (high resolution)
Sounds

Other mods (not sure if they are enviro, but will post anyways). All these except the first two are loaded after DynEnv:
Ail Real Size Moon
Shadow Improvement Mod
SteelVikings Sky Banding Mod
sobers base sky mechanics
sobers DOF
sobers Lights Cfg
sobers best ever fog (22)
sobers waves mod (11)
Stoianm Pitch&Roll

Please let me know if you need more information.

Cheers!

Here's a problem I experience mostly with night scenes and I think only when there's fog. This shot was taken during medium fog (which as we know doesn't overlay at night).

Unfortunately, the screenshot is nowhere as clear and obvious as in-game. I raised brightness and contrast in the edited pics or we'd see nothing at all. Sorry about that.

In the first one, you can see the effect heavily in the upper left and lower left of the screen. For the second one, it has a ring effect which I've seen in daylight as well.

I also get an effect sometimes when using the outside camera view, where depending on the relation to the sun, there's a kaleidoscope effect or different bright prism-like colors, which I never had before. If you need a shot of that, please let me know.

I hope that helps.

[gap]

Originally Posted by 7Infanterie19

lol .. whatever it was .. getting out of it after all that in-game fog time was a blessing.

I can imagine

Originally Posted by 7Infanterie19

I try to estimate coordinates using my location on the zoomed map. I'm certain it's not bang on to the pixel, but close enough (I hope .. hehehe). If you know a better way to figure out, please let me know.

You can report the parallel/meridian closest to your current position, and how many meters you are far from them (in a straight line, indeed); or you can make yourself the calculation, if you prefer: in SH5 world, meridian/parallels are 120 km far apart, no matter how close you are to equator, therefore 2,000 m equals 1'

Originally Posted by 7Infanterie19

Ok .. I have to confess, gap ... I like the look of that heavy sleet even during summer months, so I'll keep it enabled.

stoianm will be glad to know that you like that mutch the sleet submod: it actually was his invention

Originally Posted by 7Infanterie19

After the base mod, I'm using:

...

Try removing all of the non-DynEnv environmental mods, and see if it solves your problem. If yes, reenable them one by one in order to discover which one is causing the issue. My suspects are either on sobers DOF or sobers Lights Cfg, or possibly their association. Sober's tweaks require the maximum from our GFX cards, and in some systems might cause ndesired effects.
Another way to address your problem could be by adjusting a bit game's gamma (in game gfx settings) and/or reducing the contrast of your screen.

Originally Posted by 7Infanterie19

Here's a problem I experience mostly with night scenes and I think only when there's fog. This shot was taken during medium fog (which as we know doesn't overlay at night).

I can be wrong, but what you are seeing is the halo visible in the corner of the sky opposite to the sun. This also happens in real world, though perceiving this effect at night and close to artificial light sources can be difficult. I need to look at game sky color settings before confirming it, but I seem to remember the the game is simulating it

[Silent Steel]

Originally Posted by 7Infanterie19

lol .. whatever it was .. getting out of it after all that in-game fog time was a blessing.

After the base mod, I'm using:

Camera Filters - Realistic Colors
Ambient Settings - Darker Nights-No Murky Waters
Sleet for Winter Campaigns
Seafloor (high resolution)
Sounds

Other mods (not sure if they are enviro, but will post anyways). All these except the first two are loaded after DynEnv:
Ail Real Size Moon
Shadow Improvement Mod
SteelVikings Sky Banding Mod
sobers base sky mechanics
sobers DOF
sobers Lights Cfg
sobers best ever fog (22)
sobers waves mod (11)
Stoianm Pitch&Roll

Please let me know if you need more information.

Cheers!

I'd try to disable these ones;

SteelVikings Sky Banding Mod
sobers base sky mechanics

Originally Posted by gap

You can report the parallel/meridian closest to your current position, and how many meters you are far from them (in a straight line, indeed); or you can make yourself the calculation, if you prefer: in SH5 world, meridian/parallels are 120 km far apart, no matter how close you are to equator, therefore 2,000 m equals 1'

The math was right there under my nose .. lol .. thanks gap!

Originally Posted by gap

stoianm will be glad to know that you like that mutch the sleet submod: it actually was his invention

I'm glad! He deserves it!

Originally Posted by gap

Try removing all of the non-DynEnv environmental mods, and see if it solves your problem.

Originally Posted by Silent Steel

I'd try to disable these ones;

SteelVikings Sky Banding Mod
sobers base sky mechanics

I removed all of them and reactivated each one by one.

From what I'm guessing, this problem seems to happen depending on what the weather is, what the time of night it is, where I am, whether or not there is any moon, and whether there is fog, etc. As such, it was a bit of a task recreating the same conditions, and so, it's hard to tell which mods are at play in this problem. With no moon or fog, I don't seem to see the problem at all.

With and without the other mods activated, I had no problems at times, because of what I said above, so it was difficult to recreate. The first time I deactivated the other mods, I had this thing where on the upper left and upper right corners, it was curved black like looking through the binoculars. This would follow the scene as I moved the view. I never saw that before, and I haven't been able to recreate that again. I've attached a couple of pictures to show the "gradient" effect (which is similar to the map showing different depths) with and without those other mods. In these shots, I stood on deck and after a while, as the clouds moved on, changed size and shape, etc., they would become normal. I could see the clouds eventually change from this "gradient" effect to being rendered properly bit by bit (and back once in a while, IIRC). The upper picture is shot directly into the clouds, with all mods activated. Lower is with the other listed mods deactivated. Fog is light. No precipitations. In the lower one, the effect is in the darker portion of the clouds to the left of the lightning.

Originally Posted by gap

Another way to address your problem could be by adjusting a bit game's gamma (in game gfx settings) and/or reducing the contrast of your screen.

I could do this, but then it would only mask things, I think.


After I dock again, I'm going to reload the old version of DynEnv to test that out, just to make sure I didn't have that problem before, although I don't remember having seen it to be honest.

[Sartoris]

I experienced the weird shapes in the sky with the previous version of DynEnv. Very annoying stuff, just like the eternal fog. The fog basically makes the mod impossible to apply to the game, because the weather is always the same.

[gap]

Originally Posted by 7Infanterie19

I removed all of them and reactivated each one by one.

From what I'm guessing, this problem seems to happen depending on what the weather is, what the time of night it is, where I am, whether or not there is any moon, and whether there is fog, etc. As such, it was a bit of a task recreating the same conditions, and so, it's hard to tell which mods are at play in this problem. With no moon or fog, I don't seem to see the problem at all.

....

Originally Posted by Silent Steel

I'd try to disable these ones;

SteelVikings Sky Banding Mod
sobers base sky mechanics

What are you talking about guys? Poor clouds or vignetting effect at night? Let's face a problem at a time

@ 7Infanterie19

it is diffiucult to diagnose anything from your last screenshots... Can you post bigger one the next time? In addition, regarding the clouds issue, what are your gfx settings? Have you enabled 3d clouds?

Originally Posted by Sartoris

I experienced the weird shapes in the sky with the previous version of DynEnv. Very annoying stuff, just like the eternal fog. The fog basically makes the mod impossible to apply to the game, because the weather is always the same.

Judging from Bothersome's reports, he had all but static weather

[keysersoze]

gap,

Maybe the best way for you to get consistent weather data would be for us to use TDW's patrol log editor to record our position and weather reports. Because I'm crazy about immersion I always transfer the notepad files from the patrol log editor into a custom Kriegstagebuch that I made. It would be easy to send you the patrol report. That way, you would have daily coordinates and weather reports for an entire patrol. I could also add a note for each time I save and load, so that you could determine the effective of loading on weather patterns.

Would this be useful?

[gap]

Originally Posted by keysersoze

gap,

Maybe the best way for you to get consistent weather data would be for us to use TDW's patrol log editor to record our position and weather reports. Because I'm crazy about immersion I always transfer the notepad files from the patrol log editor into a custom Kriegstagebuch that I made. It would be easy to send you the patrol report. That way, you would have daily coordinates and weather reports for an entire patrol. I could also add a note for each time I save and load, so that you could determine the effective of loading on weather patterns.

Would this be useful?

yes indeed it would, as far as the weather reported is correct (often, just after reloading a saved game, NO's reports are wrong), and position reports are accurate to ±10' (±20 km), i.e. half the size of a pixel in the ClimateZones.tga map.

Unfortunately, the accuracy required excludes reports from players using Real Navigation

[keysersoze]

Originally Posted by gap

Unfortunately, the accuracy required excludes reports from players using Real Navigation

That's unfortunate, as I always play with Real Navigation. Are the Real Nav reports too inaccurate even when the navigator does a celestial fix?

[gap]

Originally Posted by keysersoze

That's unfortunate, as I always play with Real Navigation. Are the Real Nav reports too inaccurate even when the navigator does a celestial fix?

IIRC, the maximum error involved by dead reckoning and celestial fixes can be set through TDW's option editor. If they were set to lesser of the values I have posted before, for our purposes the error margin would be acceptable