FSWC's back in progress!

[NickN]

[quote]Hi guys,

thought I'd register here as I think we're on the right course for a massive improvement in look of the water.

Firstly, I modified a version for SP2 that was done by Jase over on AVSIM. He got Ingvaars original shader mod working in SP2. I don't know if he did anything differently to you Nick to get it working in SP2.

All I did was add muliplication factors against the texture colour and the specular lighting, and also remove the entry that created that annoying moon glow. The first two are scalable so hopefully Str1ker you can add them into FSWC. Although I removed the moon glow line, it is probably scalable too by adding a multiplication factor to it rather than delete it.

There seems to be seven components to the water - base texture colour; sun diffuse lighting; moon diffuse lighting; sun specular lighting; moon specular lighting; reflections (sky (low), clouds (mid), terrain (high), autogen (max)); bump mapping.

I think these are all controlled within the shaders so theoretically they are all modifiable.

I have a few more things that I have been trying to work on. Any help would be appreciated:

1. Someone on AVSIM asked if I could remove the moon glow from DX10. This file is quite different to the DX9 file and apparently just removing the line I removed in DX9 didn't work. I havn't tried to mulitply the line instead as I don't have a DX10 GPU to test it on. Can someone with DX10 try changing this line in the water40.fx (not fxh) and add the bit in red to see if it works?:

Color = float4(lerp(Color.xyz + (g_vSunDirectional * specularFactor.x) + (0.3 * (specularFactor.y + 0.1 * saturate(dot(g_vSunVectorWorld_Moon,vSurfaceNorm)))).xxx, baseColor.xyz, fAlpha.xxxx),fAlpha);

There's alot of guess work involved as I really don't have a clue what I'm doing

[Ashton Lawson]

[quote][quote]Hi guys,

thought I'd register here as I think we're on the right course for a massive improvement in look of the water.

Firstly, I modified a version for SP2 that was done by Jase over on AVSIM. He got Ingvaars original shader mod working in SP2. I don't know if he did anything differently to you Nick to get it working in SP2.

All I did was add muliplication factors against the texture colour and the specular lighting, and also remove the entry that created that annoying moon glow. The first two are scalable so hopefully Str1ker you can add them into FSWC. Although I removed the moon glow line, it is probably scalable too by adding a multiplication factor to it rather than delete it.

There seems to be seven components to the water - base texture colour; sun diffuse lighting; moon diffuse lighting; sun specular lighting; moon specular lighting; reflections (sky (low), clouds (mid), terrain (high), autogen (max)); bump mapping.

I think these are all controlled within the shaders so theoretically they are all modifiable.

I have a few more things that I have been trying to work on. Any help would be appreciated:

1. Someone on AVSIM asked if I could remove the moon glow from DX10. This file is quite different to the DX9 file and apparently just removing the line I removed in DX9 didn't work. I havn't tried to mulitply the line instead as I don't have a DX10 GPU to test it on. Can someone with DX10 try changing this line in the water40.fx (not fxh) and add the bit in red to see if it works?:

Color = float4(lerp(Color.xyz + (g_vSunDirectional * specularFactor.x) + (0.3 * (specularFactor.y + 0.1 * saturate(dot(g_vSunVectorWorld_Moon,vSurfaceNorm)))).xxx, baseColor.xyz, fAlpha.xxxx),fAlpha);

There's alot of guess work involved as I really don't have a clue what I'm doing

[pwheeler]

Hi guys,

thanks for the welcome.

I do think that we can achieve a great deal with these shader modifications and it should all be adjustable within a GUI front end like Str1ker's FSWC (which I think looks great, by the way).

As for the height of the waves affecting the specular lighting. If you use FEX and chose a choppy wave it does indeed change the amount of specular and also the reflections - as it does in the real world. However, the wave pattern does look really over the top and is not natural, especially for inland water. Its a shame the different water types do not use their own shader - imagine having different wave effects for inland and the ocean.

I know with the up and coming weather engine for FEX they have stated that the are able to change the wave effect in real time. Thus when a storm appears the sea wil get rougher. How effective this will be I don't know. Its supposed to be out in february though!

There should be a constant somewhere to define the reflectivity of the water. This might be something to do with fog. I'm not sure. There are lots of constants in the general shaders but I haven't found one that does this yet. This might effect the specular reflectivity too.

I guess its just a case of the special effects being too over the top. I am a musician and when you're in the studio there is a rule saying that when you are putting an effect on a sound, get it sounding good and then always back it off a bit. When your creating something sometimes your perspective of things goes a bit skew.

When I get a bit more time I'll dive back into the shaders and have another go.

Anyway, off to a new year dinner now. Hope you're all having a good one.


Paul

[Ashton Lawson]

[quote][quote]Hi guys,

thought I'd register here as I think we're on the right course for a massive improvement in look of the water.

Firstly, I modified a version for SP2 that was done by Jase over on AVSIM. He got Ingvaars original shader mod working in SP2. I don't know if he did anything differently to you Nick to get it working in SP2.

All I did was add muliplication factors against the texture colour and the specular lighting, and also remove the entry that created that annoying moon glow. The first two are scalable so hopefully Str1ker you can add them into FSWC. Although I removed the moon glow line, it is probably scalable too by adding a multiplication factor to it rather than delete it.

There seems to be seven components to the water - base texture colour; sun diffuse lighting; moon diffuse lighting; sun specular lighting; moon specular lighting; reflections (sky (low), clouds (mid), terrain (high), autogen (max)); bump mapping.

I think these are all controlled within the shaders so theoretically they are all modifiable.

I have a few more things that I have been trying to work on. Any help would be appreciated:

1. Someone on AVSIM asked if I could remove the moon glow from DX10. This file is quite different to the DX9 file and apparently just removing the line I removed in DX9 didn't work. I havn't tried to mulitply the line instead as I don't have a DX10 GPU to test it on. Can someone with DX10 try changing this line in the water40.fx (not fxh) and add the bit in red to see if it works?:

Color = float4(lerp(Color.xyz + (g_vSunDirectional * specularFactor.x) + (0.3 * (specularFactor.y + 0.1 * saturate(dot(g_vSunVectorWorld_Moon,vSurfaceNorm)))).xxx, baseColor.xyz, fAlpha.xxxx),fAlpha);

There's alot of guess work involved as I really don't have a clue what I'm doing

[Ashton Lawson]

K, since this thread is slipping to the second page and all, I'll just set this up:

When you have an update on the water effects, call the thread 'FS Water Update' or something of the sort, so we know when to look at it.  That way we can easily spot any updates any of us make.

[Ashton Lawson]

One other thing guys, I can have my program auto-detect FSX's directories for various things, but I've been looking through the registry, and I can't find any way of detecting what Version of FSX is running, e.g. Clean, Service Pack 1, Service Pack 2, Acceleration, so it'd best be a prompt on application start right?

Also, one other thing, would you guys like me to try and make it look like FSX (graphically, the interface and all) or should I just keep it as regular Windows controls?

EDIT:
Just thought of a shortcut to the version detection:  Check if Water40.fx (or any other SP2/Acceleration-specific files exist).  However, I'll keep the prompt up, for those who know what they're doing .

[NickN]

[quote]One other thing guys, I can have my program auto-detect FSX's directories for various things, but I've been looking through the registry, and I can't find any way of detecting what Version of FSX is running, e.g. Clean, Service Pack 1, Service Pack 2, Acceleration, so it'd best be a prompt on application start right?

Also, one other thing, would you guys like me to try and make it look like FSX (graphically, the interface and all) or should I just keep it as regular Windows controls?

EDIT:
Just thought of a shortcut to the version detection:

[Ashton Lawson]

Well, I've looked directly at the FSX.exe and I get exactly the same info.  The only issue is, it may sound easy to collect data on each version, but that's just it, each version includes multiple languages, whereas I need only know if the shaders are one, or the other, so I think the checking for SP2/Accel-only files will probably be good enough, and simple enough.

Then again, I could always check the actual Water20.fxh text...

[Ashton Lawson]

Hey again, just to update, this is what FSWC2 looks like so far:


As I've already explained in the screenie, the buttons and such are still to be worked on, but they will hopefully look exactly like in FSX .

[pwheeler]

Hi,

The interface looks very cool. Nice work  ;)

I had a little look at the shaders again yesterday but wasn't able to make any progress. I found a variable called fresnelramp which links to a texture - FresnelTest.bmp. I hoped that changing this might affect how the fresnel reflections change with viewing angle, but however I modified this texture it just made no difference.

Do you think I would have to clear the shader cache after I change this texture? I didn't think of that at the time...

Anyway, still trying. Hopefully I'll get a bit of time over the weekend.

Cheers

Paul

[Ashton Lawson]

[quote]Hi,

The interface looks very cool. Nice work

[Ashton Lawson]

I've just got some interesting news regarding my program's new look.

Before, I was going to 'cheat' and use regular buttons, and then draw my own button images on top of them, a very crude way of getting my own, or in this case, FSX's visual style.

However, I've discovered that every control has what's known as an image list, and I, the programmer, have the ability to change that list, to any one I want.

[Ashton Lawson]

Another preview of how it looks.  Yes, I know the controls still look regluar.  That will be changed.  In fact, I promise I won't post another preview pic until the controls have changed.

[Ashton Lawson]

Okay, I know there's been a lot of double, triple, quadruple, whatever posting, but it's the only way the page updates, so people can get news everytime I make a breakthrough.

Anyway, I have news about the interface's visual style:

Basic:
I've worked out how to changet he images used for the controls, I need only work out how they are structered.

Elaborate (programmers or relatively smart people only):
For every visual control, there is an attribute called ImageList, so, for example:

Code: Select all

closeButton.ImageList
closeButton.ImageList.Images.AddAt
closeButton.ImageList.Images.RemoveAt

Basically, it is what it is named.

[NickN]

I played around with the shader code which included the edits pwheer made. I am not a graphics code expert by any means. I really could not find a better way to deal with the reflections. The original edits made by pwheeler were by far the best althoug i did trim them somewhat.

Unless some guru in shader code comes up with more I really think the rest of the answer lies in the ENV textures which evenutally I intend to dive into.

Like I said, I am not a shader code guru so not finding more on my part may strictly be my lack of knowledge in the code.



The interface looks good. You may want to reduce its size a bit. Seems a bit large but thats just an artisitic call  :)