Hi folks. Been experimenting with Ankors newest shaders effects in BOB and they look amazing and clear up issues regarding distorted props ect however I have noticed one big problem. A band of distortion exists on the horizon and any aircraft will temporarily disappear or part there of, if flying through this "band". Is this happening only in BOB or is it a problem in any other theaters? Does anyone else experience this problem? This is the only theater I've tried in with. Is there a fix coming? Just thought I'd bring it too your attention.
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AnKor's Shaders
- Thread starter MajorMagee
- Start date
Hi folks. Been experimenting with Ankors newest shaders effects in BOB and they look amazing and clear up issues regarding distorted props ect however I have noticed one big problem. A band of distortion exists on the horizon and any aircraft will temporarily disappear or part there of, if flying through this "band". Is this happening only in BOB or is it a problem in any other theaters? Does anyone else experience this problem? This is the only theater I've tried in with. Is there a fix coming? Just thought I'd bring it too your attention.
That's odd. And that's the problem with supporting CFS3 - so many mods, tweaks, and different ways models are made. Even WOFF has some problems with aircraft model consistency which prevent me from better tuning of some effects.
As I said I need to finish a few things for WOFF 2.0 release which is getting closer and then I'll try to fix CFS3 issues. By the way, you can see some V2.0 screenshots here: http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4018110/
I cannot guarantee that those shadows will work flawlessly with CFS3 as they use some WOFF specific features (devs added some code to tell my dll which season and weather it is), but in general it works here too - I test with stock CFS3 a lot while writing code because it is simply quicker to launch than WOFF.
There's a bit more than terrain and cloud shadows by the way, one small but nice feature wasn't shown yet
And yes, "Dual Pass Render" must be turned off for my shaders to work properly, it causes that weird band at horizon.
As I said I need to finish a few things for WOFF 2.0 release which is getting closer and then I'll try to fix CFS3 issues. By the way, you can see some V2.0 screenshots here: http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4018110/
I cannot guarantee that those shadows will work flawlessly with CFS3 as they use some WOFF specific features (devs added some code to tell my dll which season and weather it is), but in general it works here too - I test with stock CFS3 a lot while writing code because it is simply quicker to launch than WOFF.
There's a bit more than terrain and cloud shadows by the way, one small but nice feature wasn't shown yet
And yes, "Dual Pass Render" must be turned off for my shaders to work properly, it causes that weird band at horizon.
Thanks Geko. Disabling the dual pass render seems to cure the problem I was experiencing.
MajorMagee
SOH-CM-2022
AnKor,
Now that you've gone pro with WOFF will that bring an end to your efforts here?
Now that you've gone pro with WOFF will that bring an end to your efforts here?
Hi!
No, I still have plans for CFS3 features and to make a separate release of my mod.
I just need some rest and I also want to wait a bit to make sure there is no unexpected bugs in the version released with WOFF 2.0.
MajorMagee
SOH-CM-2022
Thanks! Let us know what we can do to help.
Pat Pattle
SOH-CM-2025
That's good news Ankor and your work is very much appreciated! You definitely deserve a break after all you've done for us. :0)
Just a thought while I'm here.....can this mod be carried over to other older sims too? Thinking specifically of Shockwaves Battle of Britain II or is there just too much work involved?
Cheers
Clive
Hi! Thanks
As for other sims - no, shadow and other effects require a lot of code which is very specific to the game. In fact, we are very lucky that CFS3 graphics engine is so simple and straightforward that it is possible to add all these features.
Some people asked me about IL2 1946, I looked into it out of curiosity and while I managed to run it with DirectX 9 wrapper (although with limited settings) it seems to be impossible to add anything interesting there -- the engine is very different and thoroughly optimized so all those tricks I use for CFS3 just won't work.
HouseHobbit
Charter Member
Bump..
Hi!
I'm very busy with my RL work until the New Year, but then I'm planning to release a standalone version of the latest shaders.
Besides what is already available in WOFF 2.0 I plan to add two new features.
- Reflector sights.
You will be able to add it to any suitable aircraft by editing .xdp and placing a sprite effect with specifically named texture in front of the gunsight. "Original" static gunsight has to be hidden somehow though.
Then my shaders will take care of moving the reticle as needed.
- Normal maps and material maps.
CFS3 uses *_s.dds textures to allow fine grained control of aircraft shininess, and I plan to add support for supplying normals, self illumination and/or shininess in additional texture which will be picked up by my shaders.
Normal maps should allow to have proper bump mapping instead of current approximation (which causes roundels to be embossed ). And self illumination should obviously improve cockpit instruments.
Of course I will need to discuss details of these features with modders and WOFF devs. I'm just too busy currently.
I'm very busy with my RL work until the New Year, but then I'm planning to release a standalone version of the latest shaders.
Besides what is already available in WOFF 2.0 I plan to add two new features.
- Reflector sights.
You will be able to add it to any suitable aircraft by editing .xdp and placing a sprite effect with specifically named texture in front of the gunsight. "Original" static gunsight has to be hidden somehow though.
Then my shaders will take care of moving the reticle as needed.
- Normal maps and material maps.
CFS3 uses *_s.dds textures to allow fine grained control of aircraft shininess, and I plan to add support for supplying normals, self illumination and/or shininess in additional texture which will be picked up by my shaders.
Normal maps should allow to have proper bump mapping instead of current approximation (which causes roundels to be embossed
). And self illumination should obviously improve cockpit instruments.Of course I will need to discuss details of these features with modders and WOFF devs. I'm just too busy currently.
Last edited:
HouseHobbit
Charter Member
Bump
MajorMagee
SOH-CM-2022
I've modified all of my m3d files to eliminate some of what I see as the shader compatibility issues between Win 7 with SpecularEnabled in the Shaders.xml file, and AnKor's mod. This involves hex editing the specular factor to lower values, and turning off the reflective texture where needed.
The latest update of ETO to 1.5 undid a lot of my previous work, so I've been spending the Holidays going back and re-implementing these fixes. It only takes a minute to make the change, but for 650+ aircraft in each of my different installs it represents a lot of work. Here's and example of what it looks like:
The top two shows my modifications with AnKor's mod turned on, and then with it off.
The bottom two are the stock versions from ETO 1.5 with AnKor's Mod turned on and then with it off.
I'm shooting for a natural looking sheen on the skin with relatively narrow specular highlights, versus the broad areas of very light reflections.
This happens to some of the cockpit files as well.
How I've been making theses changes is pretty well documented here (entry #58): http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?40606-Projected-knowledge-base/page3 If you have questions, feel free to ask me for help.
The latest update of ETO to 1.5 undid a lot of my previous work, so I've been spending the Holidays going back and re-implementing these fixes. It only takes a minute to make the change, but for 650+ aircraft in each of my different installs it represents a lot of work. Here's and example of what it looks like:
The top two shows my modifications with AnKor's mod turned on, and then with it off.
The bottom two are the stock versions from ETO 1.5 with AnKor's Mod turned on and then with it off.
I'm shooting for a natural looking sheen on the skin with relatively narrow specular highlights, versus the broad areas of very light reflections.
This happens to some of the cockpit files as well.
How I've been making theses changes is pretty well documented here (entry #58): http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?40606-Projected-knowledge-base/page3 If you have questions, feel free to ask me for help.
Attachments
MajorMagee
SOH-CM-2022
Having trouble with this A/C :I_16_type12. When I switch on the Ankor mod I get
When I sould be getting
The issues is that it's using the reflective layer which in this case is mostly pure black. You can either modify the m3d file so it ignores that texture, or edit the _r.dds file to some lighter shades.
HouseHobbit
Charter Member
There seems to be some difference in all the various Shader/ shine packages.
In ETO 1.50 with the Ankor/Gecko that comes with the ETO download, I get one shine effect , and with other shader/ shine packages I get something completely different,
Didn't realize the wide range all this could take. from a beautiful metal effect to just being white?
Win 7
ETO 1.50 tests with various Shine/shader packages.
In ETO 1.50 with the Ankor/Gecko that comes with the ETO download, I get one shine effect , and with other shader/ shine packages I get something completely different,
Didn't realize the wide range all this could take. from a beautiful metal effect to just being white?
Win 7
ETO 1.50 tests with various Shine/shader packages.
Attachments
gecko
Charter Member
It also depends on the specular levels defined in the model as well as how any _r.dds or _s.dds textures are painted. Yes quite a bit of variety is possible. If I recall that particular skin, that is how it looked for me too. I changed the _r.dds a bit to something I liked better.
Major, not sure what the problem is there, it worked fine on my install. For some reason sometimes it doesn't like it when there is an _r.dds and an _s.dds defined in the model. Disable the r.dds in the m3d and you should be back in business.
Major, not sure what the problem is there, it worked fine on my install. For some reason sometimes it doesn't like it when there is an _r.dds and an _s.dds defined in the model. Disable the r.dds in the m3d and you should be back in business.
HouseHobbit
Charter Member
Daniel, with the files with ETO 1.50, I get the beautiful shiny Metal finish, which I want.
with other files from Ankor, and Weikiniera I get the white finish. which I don't want.
I like the metal aircraft to look like metal, shining brightly like they do in real life.
Love the polished Birds we used later in the war.
experimenting with several different sets in my various to tweak it all to my tastes is all.
Right now I have a mix of your ETO files and Ankor's (WOFF_DirectX9.20140830.Setup)with the ENB program
from Weikinera and getting a really nice scenery look.
My set ups don't seem to like some of the shaders/shader30/d3d8 files and crashes when starting the sim, so I have mixed and picked what seem to work best on the Win 7 machine.
My Nividia drivers seem to not be comparable with all the shaders/shader30/d3d8 files out there.
and some of the d3d8 files will not work, that is why I am using Ankor's ( WOFF_DirectX9.20140830.Setup) works fine with your shaders file and the other things I have installed.
and the shaders30 folder has to be the one from (Ankor) ETO 1.50 files for this to work.
Learning to mix and match the various files for my machine to work.
I have a Nvidia 8800 GTS video card, only 320 meg, but it does pull ram from the motherboard if needed.
When flying WOFF it pulls 1.5 gig of ram according to the the files info.
Learning as I go with all of this for my Win 7 machine.
with other files from Ankor, and Weikiniera I get the white finish. which I don't want.
I like the metal aircraft to look like metal, shining brightly like they do in real life.
Love the polished Birds we used later in the war.
experimenting with several different sets in my various to tweak it all to my tastes is all.
Right now I have a mix of your ETO files and Ankor's (WOFF_DirectX9.20140830.Setup)with the ENB program
from Weikinera and getting a really nice scenery look.
My set ups don't seem to like some of the shaders/shader30/d3d8 files and crashes when starting the sim, so I have mixed and picked what seem to work best on the Win 7 machine.
My Nividia drivers seem to not be comparable with all the shaders/shader30/d3d8 files out there.
and some of the d3d8 files will not work, that is why I am using Ankor's ( WOFF_DirectX9.20140830.Setup) works fine with your shaders file and the other things I have installed.
and the shaders30 folder has to be the one from (Ankor) ETO 1.50 files for this to work.
Learning to mix and match the various files for my machine to work.
I have a Nvidia 8800 GTS video card, only 320 meg, but it does pull ram from the motherboard if needed.
When flying WOFF it pulls 1.5 gig of ram according to the the files info.
Learning as I go with all of this for my Win 7 machine.