[WIP] Ground texture mod

[philip.ed]

Brilliant work! I still think that, for midday, it might be slightly too dark...see RD's post above
But even so, it certainly is a great step towards something great.

[Plt Off JRB Meaker]

Great work,much better,well done friend

[SYN_Jed]

~If this isnt implemented into the game I will be soooooo dissapointed!. This is fantastic work!!!!

Originally Posted by pupaxx

nice improvement 4me Ali! Great!
Please, where did u find the maps files to modify? Are these normal bitmap files or encoded one?
Thanks

they are 12 mip map stage DDS files of DXT variations 3 and 5 for the trees. located in the parts folder and the $core folder within SFS files.

[pupaxx]

thx!

[philip.ed]

Maybe something more similar to this in colour...(although, IMHO, as photos show, the terrain in England would probably be slightly lighter in summer)

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.ph...ml#Post3220047

[ChrisDNT]

Great work, thanks.

Btw, this kind of visual options should simply be standard in any game, so that every player could play the game he likes.

[FZG_Immel]

A bit too dark, but I like it MUCH better. Relly looking forward to it !

Thanks for all your superb feedback its really encouraging. anyway for this next image im hoping you can see past my exagerated effects and understand the concept of where iam going with this. also i think by the end of this it will appear like a totally new scenery. i have far to many enhancement ideas.

a few folks have posted some aerial shots over england in various posts, what i take from this is that there is an atmospheric involvment between the camera lens and the ground textures so to speak.. i can recreate this an a rudimentary form. many summer shots see the horizon blending in with the atmosphere and blending in with the sky all at same time. and this is what iam attempting with the following screen shot. this 1st sage test is a deliberate exageration , i did this just so i could prove it works. please dont dismiss the image as nonsense as i fear most will. also i have only changed 4 files here for the test. many textures have not been changed, thats about 23 in total., forrest texture is dark coz its not changed,

i think between this method and the present i can give the scenery a presence of atmopheric involvment, a feeling of summer haze. and when its tuned it should provide a good go between the non saturation we see down low and the saturation we see from height.

VERY EXAGERATED: hope you can understand where iam going with it. obviously the image is vloody crap in terms of visual appeall. just a forced demo. i do like the way the horizon meets with the land with the haze. my approach to the shading is linear as we go up the mip map stages. when i envolve a curve non linear concept it should make more sense.

regards the dark trees texture, that would blend out with the rest of the scenery no prob. ill be testing with various colours of atmospheric sheen, this blue may not work too well at dusk to night time.



sadly i think the balancing for daytime might not allow this to occur in the evening but thats a test ill do now. will the blue sheen work ??? . its like ww2 smog though. but we will "only" have the effect out at the horizon areas +/- 2-5km providing the blending involved is without fault.

oops thought id edited last post, ahh well.

last test just there has been a total eye opener. what i might do is not re colour the landscape, i may just apply my technique to the mip maps. which should keep everyone happy and adding atmosphere to our lovely game. it might be a bit dreamy, but thats character.

quickly tested evening time with the mip map shading, and well

SUMMER HAZE y'all! The blue does work ! \o/\o/\o/. Notice when lower down (2nd image) more saturation and detail is present through the blue haze which has been made grey -ish at dusk =perfect. didnt think that would work.





ive thought of a problem too where integration with the rest of the sim is concerned. the haze concept might not work too well in with aircraft without the mip map shading applied too. if they were applied it would then make sense. the effect would be fracken brilliant too. never in my life have i witnessed a professional developer play with mip maps at all. and this is the perfect playground for it. Effectivly like an additional dirextx shader.