A way to change some of the colours in Cliffs Of Dover.
 

Finally got around to checking out the colour-correcting capabilities of this neat little program (injectFxaa_by_some_dude).

For those not familiar with it, it's just a set of files you drop into your IL2:COD game folder, mainly in order to enable a kind of anti-aliasing that hadn't been available before.

Thing is, the earlier version of it that I've attached here also included some files that enable you to apply some other effects to Cliffs Of Dover besides anti-aliasing.

One effect is called 'Tone Mapping', which allows you to adjust the brightness and contrast and red/blue/yellow colour values that you see in the game. Changing these parameters alone can have a huge or subtle but significant impact on how your game looks. Combine them with the 'Vignette' and 'Sepia' effects and you can get something that looks like an over-the-top 'Warbirds Of Prey' cinematic type of effect if you want. Or just darken the shadows and get rid of that yellow cast the game has nowadays, which is what motivated me to check it out.

Just drop the files in where your Cliffs Of Dover .exe file is installed, start the game up, alt tab out of it, open up the 'injFX_Settings' notepad file, make some changes, click straight back to the game and see what effect they've had.

I'll include some more comparison screenshots and the settings I used if anyone's interested.

I guess I should say too, that there are still some visual aspects of the game that can't be reached or adjusted using a simple utility like this. It's pretty cool what you can adjust with it, but it's not going to bring back some things that have been changed or removed from the game. Also, the complex interconnected nature of the sim means fixing one thing can break another thing even at this basic level. For example you can make one time of day look great, only to find it ruins others. But still, it might be worth checking out for those that are into this sort of thing.

I have no idea whether it's compatible with Steam's online anti-cheat measures. These third party anti-aliasing 'hacks' have been around for several months now and I haven't heard of anyone getting banned because of them (pretty sure I even had them installed when online a couple of times a while back), but who knows, use at your own risk.

Edit 25-10-12 - Added latest settings. Neutral colours, with increased contrast.

Edit 30-10-12 - Added revised attachment. It uses my 'Neutral5' settings as default, but also includes a couple of others. It's been re-packaged so you can just copy and paste its contents straight into your Cliffs Of Dover install.

And here are all the settings others have contributed so far - http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpos...&postcount=106
Along with all of mine - http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpos...&postcount=107

Edit 31-10-12 - Added 'Neutral6' settings for both the 'injectFxaa_by_some_dude' utility and the newer 'SweetFX' utility by Ceejay.dk. here - http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpos...&postcount=128 ***Note- If you're using the 'SweetFX' utility, zip up the original 'd3d9.dll' file in your 'Cliffs Of Dover' install to back it up, as the one in the 'SweetFX' utility will need to replace it in order to work.***

Edit 12-11-12 - Updated readme and re-attached 'FXAA PPI Rev 37...' to this post.

Edit 26-3-14 - Added some updated settings, adjusted for the Team Fusion 4.3 Patch version of the game, to post #236 of this thread, here - http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpos...&postcount=236.

Some more shots using the same four different settings - the default IL2:COD colours and levels, default IL2:COD colours but with increased contrast, default injectFxaa settings but with only anti-aliasing and Tone Mapping activated, and my own preferred look.

Also attached are the injectFxaa settings that keep the default IL-2:COD colours the same, while darkening the shadows.

nice idea and thx for posting it, but does using this "modification" create problems with the steam integrity check for playing on online servers ?

Same thing, with the default injectFxaa settings (but with only AA and Tone Mapping activated) attached.

To my eyes, the default IL2:COD look is way too yellow, with shadows too light for my tastes, while my own preferred look is probably too cold and blue and contrasty for most people. I think the default injectFxaa settings are probably most realistic, but I just don't like the warmer look it has.

I really don't think it does, but I can't say for sure. A lot of people have been using these kinds of FXAA anti-aliasing installs for a while now in different games, so I think it would have caught up with people by now if it was ever going to. I'm not a big online player at the moment anyway, so I personally can't be bothered researching where it's currently all at. If in doubt leave it out I guess.

Apart from the AA thing you probably just need to tweak your screen settings so no need for additional files :)

Just on a sidenote: using full screen filters is generally a subjective but also very broken way of fixing colors: It changes the colors for everything, including sunsets, fields, bark of trees, flowers etc.

I have a few screens here and one has a cathode backlight and PVA panel. It tends to, even though it's a higher end display, not calibrate to the whitepoint perfectly and has a bit of yellow tint. On that screen CloD indeed looks a bit too yellow indeed. I imagine that on low end screens that effect can be even worse.

On the IPS ones it looks perfectly though. Your screenshot has a very cold color tone, as if it's not the sunlight but a mix with moonlight.


Contrasts on most games always seem odd though. The problem is that gamers usually have a very tiny viewpoint and the image contrast is affected by the lighting of the surroundings.
Another issue is the quality of the screen itself. I'd bet 99.9% of all gamers don't have a screen that cannot display true black.



So I'd say it's better if people use a tool like that to fix the colors as I don't have any problem with them. I'm not sure about the general issue of using 3rd party tools though when it comes to steam games and playing multiplayer...

Is there any way to make the aa works as the pics above
it looks gorgeous:-p

The FXAA is post processing, so VAC wouldn't pick it up, it does not alter the game files in any way, just processes the images after CoD makes them, before transferring to your video card.

Thanks Les,

Very good of you to take the time to share! :cool:

Thanks for the feedback.

These injectFxaa post-processing effects can be switched on and off using the pause button on a keyboard, much easier for me than changing the colour settings on my monitor when switching between IL2 and general viewing. Also, some of the more extreme effects that people might like to use, and that I haven't shown in the pictures I posted, just aren't possible via monitor adjustments alone.

I adjusted the colours on an S-PVA monitor that's been calibrated using a Datacolor Spyder3. The colours I'm seeing are pretty accurate, and even disregarding my general preference for colder, clearer imagery, I think the colour settings the game's using at the moment are just a bit off. I'm basing that opinion not just on what I'm seeing in-game now but on how it used to look in previous versions as well. In the past it's been too brown and then too blue, and now it seems too yellow.

It is true that this kind of post-processing effect changes the colour of everything from the flowers to the clouds, and so it's still up to the developers to set those internal colour relationships. The point is though, this injectFxaa utility is an easy way for anyone, with any monitor type or colour preference, to adjust the overall colour temperature and shadow strength to whatever suits them.

i want only the aa
what i have to download and put to my game folder:confused:

Sorry Skouras, I thought you were just joking before about how bad the AA is in the game.

The pictures I've posted here have been reduced in resolution by 50%, which makes the game look smoother than it does when actually playing it. So even with the FXAA applied it won't look as good as these pictures.

If you still want to try it, the first folder I've attached to this post - FXAA PPI Rev 37. contains the main files you need. The second folder contains some settings that switch off all the injectFxx effects except the FX anti-aliasing.

Open up the first 'FXAA PPI Rev 37' folder, copy the contents from the folder of whatever version of DirectX you're using, and paste them into the folder where you have your Cliiffs Of Dover exe. installed (eg. Local Disk C:/Steam/steamapps/common/il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover).

Then copy the contents of the second folder I've attached here and put that settings file in the same place (eg. Local Disk C:/Steam/steamapps/common/il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover), overwriting and replacing the default injectFxaa settings.

To see what effect the FXAA has in-game, press the Pause/Break/ScrLk button on your keyboard on and off when looking at something like the edge of a cockpit window (if your keyboard has one, you may have to press the 'F Lock' button first or your Pause/Break/ScrLk button won't be switching the effect on and off).

I' not seeing any AA effect from this.. i'll have to have a mess about with it.

thank you very much
you were very helpful:grin::grin:
salute buddy..

It can be hard to see the effect sometimes as it only smooths out some edges. I posted some example pictures here - http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthr...=25281&page=10

If you install the files I included in my first post and aren't seeing any change to the look of the game at all then it mustn't be working, as the default injectFxx settings change all the colours of the game too and the difference should be obvious.

If that's the case, make sure you're opening up the correct DirectX folder in the injectFxx package (the DirectX10 one if you're using the latest beta patch) and dropping the four or five files within it directly into your Steam/Cliffs Of Dover game folder (not your Cliffs Of Dover user documents folder), not just putting the whole DirectX folder in there.

Also make sure your 'Pause/Break/ScrLk' button isn't being Switched to 'F' mode by your keyboards 'F Lock' button and making it's injectFxx on/off function inoperable.

On another note, here are some more shots comparing the default colour/contrast settings to my preferred ones.

I had some more comparison pictures to show, but there's a limit to five attachments per post and I can't be bothered uploading the pictures to an image-hosting site, then linking to them here to enable the pictures (and more of them per post) to show up without clicking on them, so...

Not saying the adjustments I've made are perfect, or even more realistic, am just pleased to have found a way to make the game look more like how I want it to.

And finally...

Cheers, its working, I notice a big difference in colours and such but very little in AA. I'm happy with that as i hated the colours in CloD and have a calibrated monitor for print work, so changing monitor setting just for the game would give me issues for my work. So being able to tweak the colours it excellent. I've had a play about with different AA setting and none seem to make much difference. Maybe there is a very subtle effect, but not enough to be noticed by me. Maybe the effect is different for different graphic cards. I'm on a Nvidia GTX 480..

Glad you got it working. The FX anti-aliasing is pretty subtle. It's more noticeable on some kinds of closer edge details than as an overall smoothing effect.

Ho.ly.crap. Your set up is brilliant Les, this is fantastic! I just hopped in after not seeing too much difference from your screenshots and.. the colour is just perfect! The blue bloom reminds me of DCS HDR (on the cold setting) which I've always hated, but with this it goes perfectly with the ground colour. Sunset and sunrise are also much less pink.

Thanks so much for this, I'll do some more tweaking too as I have some rather controversial opinions on what makes a game look good.

Look at trees against the horizon, you can check that it's working by looking at menu text, the text becomes aliased and so becomes thinner and slightly blurred.

No worries, am interested to see what colour variations people prefer.

Adjusting the actual values by Alt-Tab-ing and changing the numerical values while fine tuning and setting things up is a bit awkward, but you soon find the proper direction and range to move the numbers in. A slider type GUI utility would be handy for that, but I think this whole colour/effect aspect of the program has been dropped by the guy who was working on it as it's no longer included in later versions of the injectFxaa utility.

I like the fact any adjustments I've made can be toggled on and off, so if for example I want the more spectacular sunset back I can just press the Pause/Break/ScrLk button and there it is. Keeping different effects settings files zipped up near the game's exe. and swapping the files around could also allow the fairly convenient use of a variety of totally different looks.

i just try your colour settings and i was amazed
please make this as a mod:grin:

Here are some of my comparison shots...

1st image is default, 2nd my version.
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/9...5222222543.jpghttp://img59.imageshack.us/img59/756...5222222530.jpg

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7...5222220065.jpghttp://img232.imageshack.us/img232/9...5222220037.jpg

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/8...5222219579.jpghttp://img269.imageshack.us/img269/9...5222219565.jpg

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/6...5222219086.jpghttp://img28.imageshack.us/img28/310...5222219064.jpg

I think it looks a lot better, obviously it is subjective and the look will depend on your monitor and its settings.

There are my injFX_Settings.h tonemap settings.

I like the darker, less saturated look.

hey TOMMY the default is from original COD or from LES original zip

1st image is with the mod turned off, i.e original CLOD, 2nd my version. Using the setting shown.

thanks buddy
it has not much difference from the original zip that post LES
At least on my screen

What do i turn off to just have the colours Tommy and not the FXAA?

Nice variation Tommy, quite a bit more red than mine.

Furbs, here's what you should see in the 'FILTER SELECTION' part of your 'injFX_Settings' file in order to have only the colour changes (the TONEMAP effect) activated -

/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FILTER SELECTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
// Comment to deactivate an effect.
// Example: To disable the tonemap effect, use // in front of #define USE_TONEMAP
//#define USE_ANTI_ALIASING
//#define USE_PRE_SHARPEN
//#define USE_BLOOM *NOT WORKING
//#define USE_TECHNICOLOR
#define USE_TONEMAP
//#define USE_SEPIA
//#define USE_VIGNETTE
//#define USE_POST_SHARPEN
//#define USE_FINAL_LIMITER

The things on that list are turned on and off by putting the // in front of them or taking them away.

Assuming all Tommy did was change the TONEMAP settings, all you have to do is leave only the USE_TONEMAP activated as above and then overwrite the TONEMAP settings with the adjustments in the text Tommy provided in his last post.

Hmmm, I've got a question, how can I add some contrast? It seems like that is one setting this has either a different name or just isn't there.

I would also love to add bloom but... that section doesn't work :(

Does ENB work with this game?

I've been adjusting contrast with a combination of Gamma and Exposure.

The screenshots I've posted with increased contrast have used -

#define Gamma 1.15
#define Exposure 0.08

What's ENB?

Yes I like this version much better.

:thumbup:

ENB is DX9 only, so is useless here.

ENB is a DX9 injector which you can tweak DX9 games, its very popular since GTAIV, it really improves the DX9 games.

It not only let you adjust games effects but also add new ones, for example, it let you tweak TES Skyrim HDR and it add SSAO too, very useful with old games too.

http://enbdev.com/index_en.html



I really like those screenshots, you did a good job stimulating the lighting adding yellow, looks really good. :grin:

Shame that this dont work with SMAA :(

One bit of advice.. if you tweak colours make sure you try it with different times of day, what looks good at noon can look crap at dusk and vice versa.

Thanks for the info Buchon.

Yeah, good advice Tommy. I've found when trying to make one selection of colour settings fit everything there's really only a small range of adjustments that can be made without compromising the look of one time of day or another. Even adjusting things for one time of day, I've been bouncing around checking the cockpit, the exterior of the plane, the ground, the horizon, the clouds, the sky, trying to keep them all balanced and not compromising the look of any one element too much.

I remember Oleg saying the same thing way back when, that when the devs make visual adjustments to one thing they have to consider it's effect on all sorts of other elements as well. At least in our case as end-users we can, if we want to, create and load up different settings/looks in order to keep things looking consistent regardless of what time of day we're flying in-game, not being limited to a one size must fit all approach like the devs are. There's even potential there for mission-builders to provide custom colours or effects settings for their missions if they want...

Someone can help me?

Iv'e got a crash on desktop and the log.log is:

redirecting CreateDXGIFactory
redirecting IDXGIFactory->CreateSwapChain
D3DX10CompileFromFile failed
c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover\shader.hlsl(75,37): error X3004: undeclared identifier 'lumaSampler'

Win764bit, DX10mode (i think...)

Thanks!

Topo, I really don't know, but 'shader.hlsl' is one of the files injectFxaa replaces, so I'm guessing (and only guessing) it's probably the wrong one for your system.

The latest beta patch for IL2:COD only runs in DX10 mode, so if you have that installed (and the game is running fine otherwise), make sure you copy and paste the contents of the DirectX10 folder that's found in the 'FXAA_PPI_Rev_37.zip' folder I linked to in the first post of this thread.

If you're not using the last beta patch for IL2:COD, maybe you're running in DirectX9 instead and need to use the contents of the DirectX9 folder?

Very unlikely to be running dx9 on win7 64bit unless he's on a very old graphics card.

I would try downloading the files again, in case the file got damaged. Good luck

I installed the mod and precision tools in game says it DX9 also, so what happened?

I placed the DX10 version in.

I'm just another end-user here, I don't know enough about how 'injectFxaa' or Cliffs Of Dover works to offer tech-support.

The only times the injectFxx files have caused my particular game setup to crash has been when I accidentally saved the 'injFX_Settings' .H File as a .txt file and when I used one of the Sepia effect colours that wasn't recognised.

I was under the impression though that all previous versions of the game prior to the latest beta patch ran in DirectX9, regardless of whether a persons graphic card was capable of running in DirectX10. I'm sure that's the reason that was given for why we're still not seeing better water/beach/river effects for example (as the devs were waiting to switch fully to DirectX10 before implementing them).

Edit (26/5/12) - Just for the record, and to keep from spreading misinformation, the developers spokesperson, BlackSix, just mentioned in another thread that WindowsXP, and therefore DirectX9 (which is the highest version of DirectX WindowsXP can run) will continue to be supported. So my recollections above, that the game will eventually be DirectX10 (or higher) only, aren't accurate.

Before this thread fades out altogether, thought I'd mention what I found to be an interesting coincidence.

Some random Youtubing Cliffs Of Dover player made a comment yesterday on one of my video's, so while I was replying I had a look at the video myself for the first time in ages.

It must have been recorded with beta patch 14413 or the official patch that followed it, whichever one introduced the 'new' propellor effects.

Check out the lighting and colours in it -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkH7I4QZB_A

That's how the default game used to look almost exactly one year ago, and is the sort of look I was trying to get with my adjustments to the current version. I think I've got it fairly close to that, but check out those reflections on the underside of the plane. Wouldn't mind seeing those brought back in at some point.

Just thought I'd update this thread with some more settings (attached below).

These ones are designed mainly to make the sunrises and sunsets more spectacular (until it actually gets dark, when it's better to turn them off and let the default cold moonlight light things up). They're basically the opposite of my preferred settings (and even the default ones), which are very dark and blue in comparison.

Here are some comparisons between the default colours and these more colourful ones.

4am
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/3497/0014am.png

http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/2053/0024am2.png

9am
http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/1815/0039am.png

6pm
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/6937/0046pm.png

7pm
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/4526/0057pm.png

http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/6185/0067pm2.png

8pm
http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/8420/0078pm.png

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/7897/0088pm2.png

8:30pm
http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/9282/009830pm.png

Some more shots as the sun sets, using the same settings as above, attached again below.

http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/5548/000b.png

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/6307/001yvh.png

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/8185/002cvx.png

http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/1695/004bm.png

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/844/007lj.png

http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/4812/009b.png

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/8269/010il.png

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/3980/013m.png

http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/6750/014eh.png

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/3585/015jf.png

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/9499/016hk.png

http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/7781/017br.png

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/1646/018gv.png

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/8281/020j.png

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/148/021tp.png

The last two shots show the point at which the default moonlight should be allowed take over from the sunlight effect, for a more natural look.

Then again, who needs colour anyway? :-)

Hey Les, thanks a lot for all these great color schemes, however I'm running into a problem and I'm hoping you or someone on the forum can help me out.

Personally I do not like FXAA and I really just want the tonemap function from the injector. I originally just commented out the AA option in the settings.h file and it was working last night. However, all of a sudden if I don't have the AA active, CloD won't boot and just crashes. Removing and putting back the injector doesn't fix it, but I do at least get an error in the log file.

redirecting CreateDXGIFactory
redirecting IDXGIFactory->CreateSwapChain
D3DX10CompileFromFile failed
injFX_Shaders\Tonemap.h(21,8): warning X3206: implicit truncation of vector type
d:\games\steam\steamapps\common\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover\shader.hlsl(75,37): error X3004: undeclared identifier 'lumaSampler'

Does anyone have a better understanding of the injector and possibly know what needs to be changed? I have no idea why it was working before and now refuses to work, but I'd really love to get these much more pleasing tonemaps into CloD.

Thanks!

Hey Al. I just tested it on my system and got the same result, game won't start with the anti-aliasing disabled, gives a similar crash log to yours (and Topo's on the previous page). I have no idea why, didn't know it was a problem. Did some searching around and couldn't find any fix that would apply to my system. Could just be a bug with the application itself. It doesn't bother me as I prefer to have the FXAA enabled anyway, but sorry it's not working out for you. I don't know of a similar post-processing utility that can be used for colour correction only.

Thanks for looking Les, I appreciate it. I've been using SMAA injector and I've looked around inside some of the .h files but I didn't have any luck finding a similar color correction module. Do you or anyone else know if injectSMAA supports this post process function?

I read somewhere in passing that there isn't a SMAA injector that includes other filters too, like the 'injFXAA' package by 'some_dude' does, and like other FXAA/colour/effect utilities do for other games (eg. 'Skyrim', 'Rift', 'GTAIV'). From what I understand, the colour correction and other effects filters are made and exist entirely separate from the anti-aliasing ones, and have just been tweaked and put together in one convenient package, usually for specific games. So there's no reason such effects couldn't be included with an SMAA injector, but as far as I know no-one's bothered to do it.

I can confirm, the sim crash with AA disabled.

Absolutely Awesome
 

Thanks!

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/...re-MoDCloD.jpg
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/...st-MoDCloD.jpg

With the new official patch, some recent tweaks, this very simple tool, the Tonemap information from this post, + this result, and I am ecstatic!

Windows 7
2GB Nv 550ti
650w PS
8 GB DDR3
AMD Quadcore 3.2 Ghz

Glad you could make use of it Jupp.

Would you mind zipping up and attaching your 'injFX_Settings.h' file to your post in case others want to try it?

Hi there. I've been working a little on colour correction. My current tweak has higher contrast than the default game, which gets rid of some of that desaturation and overall mistyness of the image, and makes spotting those dots waaaay easier. Along with this comes some changes to saturation (it's a little more saturated), some red/yellow lens effects to give more red to sunrise/sunset and an optional WOP/BOS style vignette (which is also done through gamma, and therefore gives a nice boost of saturation and contrast to the screen eges).

I'll post the files when I've got it working fine. For now, some screenshots with anti-aliasing set low will have to do, I'll jump in and take some screenies!

What "recent tweaks" are you refering to?

Ok, I've taken screenshots and I'm happy with the settings. I live in Australia, so my upload is slow. I'll post the files for now, feel free to try them out. Screenshots will be uploaded and linked ASAP.

EDIT: Oh fiddlesticks, .h is not a valid file type to upload. Can someone teach me in the ways of zip?

The albums unfortunately got mixed up, and I can't edit them anymore. I'll make an account and upload them properly in a second. But keep in mind some of them are defaults and the rest are with my modification.

http://imgur.com/a/3utch#2

Some tasters:

http://i.imgur.com/LqjoU.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/2o687.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/2D3j0.jpg

Right click on the 'injFX_Settings.h' file, select 'Send to', then 'Compressed (zipped) folder'. The zipped folder will appear directly below the original file.

Done and done

Superb tool Les,thanks very much for sharing,this is a bloody Godsend mate;)

N1 tweak, jupp! Bit I personally do not like the candy look of sqb. Simply a matter of taste but I never saw such a colourful landscape ;) Looks like a candy bf109 to me, but tweaking clours in clod is great. In general the houses and landscape are too green and coloured/too saturated. I like the look of jupps colour tweak.

Difficult to see what you see because of the different monitors. Someone with a calibrated screen on adobe rgb standards? :) They are not comparable. There could be huge differences. My standard clod looks nearly similar to jupps approach, btw..

I'm going to make a range of approaches now that I've got the base down. The current version is oversaturated so that I can get the colours *correct*, once that is achieved I will tone it down to realistic levels (as I have started to do already, if you look at the files I have uploaded).

I will also make other stereotypical approaches, the default game covers the ever-so-popular "desaturated blue" take, so I'll skip that. But I'll try to focus on WOP style tint + oversaturation, "Real life!!111!!one" style desaturated grey/green and a couple of others as they come to me.

Looking good, the landscape is a little to colorful as you said.
The aircraft look great though!

Hi,

Does the AA functionality in this override the game AA? That is, if I have AA turned "off" in the game, does this app still provide some AA anyway?

and what is the relationship to my GPU drivers for the same thing (AA)?

I've uploaded some albums to imgur, in order this time. Showing a warm, but normal saturation, version as well as the Wings Of Prey green.

Both albums contain default comparisons.

http://imgur.com/a/oXqaN

http://imgur.com/a/ZcF5o

FXAA functionality in this is minimal, and I'm unsure of the priorities. Forcing it on/off through your GPU drivers should be the divining factor, so if all else fails fall back to that! My role in this is more to provide colour tweaks.


So here's a variety (and I mean a variety) of settings I've found of equal merit. There are some crazy/fun ones in there too, with crazy/fun names. Enjoy!

Hallo
You can publish your settings? Looks amazing !!!
Thanks !

I would approximate that as a tonal change, 0.4(red and yellow) and 0.3(white) with about -0.4 saturation. Here's a file with those values is attached for comparison (except saturation at -0.2, my mistake).

For example: http://imgur.com/a/mpWNe#1

http://imgur.com/a/mpWNe#1

http://i.imgur.com/RZQR2.jpg

Thanks Meaker.

pstyle, yes, this will still give you some anti-aliasing even with the AA turned off in game. FXAA is a post-pocessing effect added to the entire image after the actual game has been rendered by your video card. This FXAA anti-aliasing can't be controlled by your usual video card settings unless the game is coded to use it (and hardly any are). These FXAA 'injector' tools were made because nVidia developed the technology (for nVidia video cards, ATI/AMD have something similar) but people didn't want to have to wait for nVidia and the various game developers to make them available.

SQB, nice work. If you have time, maybe you can figure out how to divide the in-game 24hr time period into sections and make a set of settings that can be moved in and out to maintain a consistent look at all times of day or night. Not sure how many there would have to be. Assuming you could just use the default look for night, there might only be dusk/dawn, late morning/early afternoon, midday. The settings could all be left zipped up in the main game folder (with the zip folders appropriately named), so all you'd have to do is Alt-Tab to desktop and copy and paste their contents as need be. Most missions would be short enough to enable doing that at the start and end anyway so it shouldn't be too disruptive to the actual game-play.

To answer Continuo's question, of "what tweaks", the usual computer stuff, turn off bells and whistles, ProcessAffinity=15 in conf, run Game Booster3 to turn off processes, etc.

And for Les, and anyone curious about my settings :

I used MadTommy's, leaving everything else alone, except for the Tonemap section he posted. Copied it, pasted into the default injFX_Settings.h file appropriately overwriting that section, and viola!

#define Gamma 1.20
#define Exposure 0.00
#define Saturation -0.40 // use negative values for less saturation.
#define BlueShift 0.05 // Higher = more blue in image.
#define Bleach 0.10 // Bleach bypass, higher = stronger effect
#define Defog 0.055 // Strength of Lens Colors.
#define FogColor float4(0.00, 0.90, 0.00, 0.90) //Lens-style color filters for Blue, Red, Yellow, White.

I'd love to, but I'd only want to do this if I could figure out a way for it to change automatically. And that would require a *lot* of programming, for the time being I could run the game in DX9 and use the ENB profiles I've made, but that does detract from the look of the game a little. I'll give it a go anyway.

I'm curious to see if I can get depth of field working, that would be a laugh.

Tried your settings Jupp. Certainly looks much better than stock, maybe a slight too purplish hue imo.

Also I notice you get some border affect to server messages etc, and the in game player list looks a little fuzzy.

Here a some shots of the settings I use, aiming for a more 'natural' look. The colour change seems much more noticeable ingame though.

8 AM:

(1st pic is default colours)

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...um/clod8am.jpg

12 AM:

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...m/clod12am.jpg

6 PM:

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...um/clod6pm.jpg

Go put a blank white skin on a plane and take few scheenshots of it at different times of day. If you then open them in Photoshop and sample the "white" on the plane, you'll realize how much pink/purple you put allover everything.

This tool is only good for stylized screenshots, when you don't change the time of day or lighting too much. It's not really working in a dynamic scenario. You can do almost the same thing by adjusting your monitor.

What are your settings ParaB ?

Tweaked my settings some more:

8 AM:

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../clod8amV2.jpg

12 AM:

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...clod12amV2.jpg

6 PM:

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../clod6pmV2.jpg

Of course brightness especially depends on your screen and its settings.

My FXAA settings:

/*================================================= =====================================
"USER" ADJUSTABLE SETTINGS
================================================== ====================================*/

// TODO: Normalize values to be on a human range scale, whole numbers prefered, decimals usable for micro adjustments
// These values should have min/max limit checks included in their functions, so that the end user doesn't get crazy results

/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FILTER SELECTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
// Comment to deactivate an effect.
// Example: To disable the tonemap effect, use // in front of #define USE_TONEMAP
#define USE_ANTI_ALIASING
// #define USE_PRE_SHARPEN
// #define USE_BLOOM *NOT WORKING
#define USE_TECHNICOLOR
#define USE_TONEMAP
// #define USE_SEPIA
// #define USE_VIGNETTE
// #define USE_POST_SHARPEN
// #define USE_FINAL_LIMITER


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FXAA SHADER
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
// Set values to calculate the amount of Anti Aliasing applied
float fxaaQualitySubpix = 0.62; // Default: 0.75 Raise to increase amount of blur
float fxaaQualityEdgeThreshold = 0.113; // Lower the value for more smoothing
float fxaaQualityEdgeThresholdMin = 0.0312; // Lower the value for more smoothing


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRE_SHARPEN
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
//For higher precision in the calculation of contour, requires slightly more processing power
bool highQualitySharpen = 0; //0 = Disable | 1 = Enable

// Set values to calculate the amount of AA produced blur to consider for the sharpening pass
#define Average 0.8
#define CoefBlur 2

// Set values of the sharpening amount
#define SharpenEdge 0.2
#define Sharpen_val0 1.2


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BLOOM
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
// Number of samples per pixel taken for the Bloom effect. Don't set it to high! 4 = 25spp, 8 = 81spp, 16 = 289spp
#define NUM_SAMPLES2 4 // Must be set with a value dividable by 2
float BloomPreset = 0; // Disabled = 0 (Valid Preset Values = 1 to 9) Preset value 1 to 9 takes control over the next 3 settings.
float BloomThreshold = 0; // The min. level at which the effect starts (Valid Values = 1 to 9, use decimals for finetuning)
float BloomWidth = 0; // Sets the width of the effect (Valid Values = 1 to 9, use decimals for finetuning)
float BloomPower = 0; // The power of the effect (Valid Values = 1 to 9, use decimals for finetuning)


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TECHNICOLOR
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
#define TechniAmount 0.3 // 1.00 = Max
#define TechniPower 5.0 // lower values = whitening

// lower values = stronger channel
#define redNegativeAmount 0.65 // 1.00 = Max
#define greenNegativeAmount 0.75 // 1.00 = Max
#define blueNegativeAmount 0.8 // 1.00 = Max


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TONEMAP
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
#define Gamma 1.5
#define Exposure 0.00
#define Saturation -0.05 // use negative values for less saturation.
#define BlueShift 0.1 // Higher = more blue in image.
#define Bleach 0.05 // Bleach bypass, higher = stronger effect
#define Defog 0.0 // Strength of Lens Colors.
#define FogColor float4(0.08, 0.28, 0.10, 3.0) //Lens-style color filters for Blue, Red, Yellow, White.


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SEPIA
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
#define Earthyellow // Color Tone, available tones can be seen in ColorTones.PNG (Do not use spaces in the name!)
#define GreyPower 1 //(Valid Values = 1 to 9, use decimals for finetuning), defines how much of the grey color you wish to blend in
#define SepiaPower 0 //(Valid Values = 1 to 9, use decimals for finetuning), defines how much of the color tone you wish to blend in


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VIGNETTE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
// Vignette effect, process by which there is loss in clarity towards the corners and sides of the image, like a picture frame
#define VignetteCenter float2(0.500, 0.500) // Center of screen for effect.
#define VignetteRadius 1.00 // lower values = stronger radial effect from center
#define VignetteAmount -0.70 // Strength of black. -2.00 = Max Black, 1.00 = Max White.


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POST_SHARPEN
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
// Controls additional sharpening applied after previous processing. Strength should be max 0.25!
float Sharpen = 0.01;


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL_LIMITER
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
// Controls the strenght of the limiter. 1.000 for default setting
int LimiterStrenght = 1.000;

@ParaB:

Hi,
könnten wir uns mal bei euch im DCS TS treffen? Würde gerne mal etwas mit dir besprechen`?!

Nicely done ParaB looks great :D

I think that's way too dark. This was suposed to be a summer map. The sun should set at least two hours after that 6PM shot.
Take one shot exactly at sunset, see if you can see anything. :)

Here my TONEMAP settings and some shots... (only reduced from 1080)

http://1.1.1.3/bmi/www.simmods.org/CoD/121023_CoD_1.jpg

http://1.1.1.3/bmi/www.simmods.org/CoD/121023_CoD_2.jpg

http://1.1.1.3/bmi/www.simmods.org/CoD/121023_CoD_3.jpg

http://1.1.1.3/bmi/www.simmods.org/CoD/121023_CoD_4.jpg

Send photos over :)

ParaB, I strongly suggest you do some modification to these lines:

#define Gamma 1.5
#define Exposure 0.00


By increasing the gamme you've darkened the screen and added contrast (awesome! This game really needs that), but to compensate I reccomend increasing exposure, as this gives a dynamic highlight to the contrast, meaning the whole screen doesn't appear so dark!

My go to is 1.3/0.3 (respectively), as this really fleshes out the shading on aircraft, without darkening the game to the point where an aircraft's dot blends in to the sea before 7pm.


Also, seeing as the only lines you're changing are in one section, could you only post those lines? e.g.

/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TONEMAP
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
#define Gamma 1.5
#define Exposure 0.00
#define Saturation -0.05 // use negative values for less saturation.
#define BlueShift 0.1 // Higher = more blue in image.
#define Bleach 0.05 // Bleach bypass, higher = stronger effect
#define Defog 0.0 // Strength of Lens Colors.
#define FogColor float4(0.08, 0.28, 0.10, 3.0) //Lens-style color filters for Blue, Red, Yellow, White.

Though I see you're using technicolour as well! What modifications are you doing through that?

Really interesting stuff. Very much looking forward to trying this out. Thanks!

Ok, here's the results. A comparison of pictures:

http://imgur.com/a/8IQgb#0


Feathered, are you Australian? You're always posting at Aussie hours... I'm on to you.

EDIT: Realistically gamma should be constant but exposure should change (imagine a camera's shutter speed). At night the exposure should be .7 or .9 whereas at day time the exposure should be 0.05 or so.

Wow..those colors are awesome!!!!

The problem can only really be solved by more aggressive HDR in game! I give up on the various times, it's too hard. I'll optimise for just post morning (probably ~8am). 12am will look bleached, 4:15am will look dark. I can't fix that, sorry.

@ SQB: That is really the main problem. And you hace another estimation than other. Your screens all look worse than the standard in my opinion. It has much to do with the monitor and its settings. So it is hard to understand your efforts, because they are all tinted drastically. The approach of jupp is quite fine to me.

I think, the problem with monitors is important here. On my oled display or retina, it looks too much colour and the sunset is too overwhelming to me (looks like the sunsets in gta4, which is horribly overdone). What pabel do you have? TN or an ips or another? Did you tweak your monitor before tweaking the game? It looks like you have another view than me, e.g. ;)

A little weird. Overall we already claimed the colours of clod some time ago and even olegs initial settings were too colourful. And changing settings this way could effect new scenarios like BoM badly. So I think I will try an easy implementation like jupps and will go back standard, if not suitable for bom later on.

So. Is it safe for online? thx

Ah, sorry boss. Busted! :(

Para, something in your settings is reducing the spastic tree shadows by about 50% :cool:

For some reason i am not able to get the Injector activated anymore.
I got it running last may to test the FXaa. Clodo got reinstalled in the meantime and i wanted to test the colour tones now, but it doiesnt seem to get activated.
I extracted the folders "Dx09-OGL" into the installtion folder of Clodo (means the root with the lauchner inside).
Aswell I treid to extract the contetn of the DX09 folder into the root, as the other folders are empty.

Anyway, where did u extract what files to?
Am using the HD6970 btw.

Yes.

Mainly for Al Capwn, here's my current settings.

The one issue i have with all this is.. i can't find a setting that works for both noon and dawn/dusk.

What looks good at noon is too dark at dawn/dusk.

Of course. This is post processing. It is not collor or light dynamically created by the game graphics engine. It's like creating a "style" by adjusting your monitor, the only difference is that it doesn't affect other programs. This doesn't really works in a game with dynamic lighting.
This is something that is useful for "styling" screenshots, images, not dynamic games.

Here are some settings that will work at any time of the day.

They're an attempt at getting about as neutral (realistic?) a colour scheme as I could get. All they do is increase the contrast (without blowing out any highlights) and get rid of the yellow-green haze the default game currently has.

I couldn't push the colours any further into the red (or blue) without adding a noticeable tint to everything. The increased contrast cuts down the sun glare and makes the twilight darker, but I don't think it's too bad.

If some of the ground colours still look bad, I think at this point it's not because of the way they're lit but is more due to the colour of the textures themselves, but that's just my opinion.

No pics at the moment.

Make sure you're using the 'injectFxaa' version attached to my first post in this thread. Try copying and pasting the files from the 'DirectX 10' folder to wherever your 'Cliffs Of Dover' .exe is installed. Then make sure your Pause/Break key is working and see if the effects are switching on and off when you press it. Other than that I don't know.

Excellent work Les!! It took some time to get the colours to please my eyes, but the result is great. It's a new game world, thanks to you!!

Never saw pictures of england that colourful , even at a sunny day ;) Must be the auszralian sun above Fover!
Really nice approaches with room to tweak for everyone with your descriptions. Appreciate that! ;)

My settings
http://www.sukhoi.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=76225

Les could you please post those settings. Very subtle yet nice
Thanx

No worries Yvetette, glad you could adjust them to your liking.

From the screenshots I posted in that other thread?

Those pics were taken using the settings I've attached to this post (and elsewhere earlier in this thread), which look a bit blue during the day and which tend to go a little bit green as the light fades.