Alternative Midrange Detail Texture experiments

[NordKindchen 12]

Btw Gamma - would you be interested in my WIP Stratis midrange textures?

[gammadust 12]

quoting first line in the op:

This thread tries to make room for all the Midrange Detail textures experimentation and feedback anyone wants to contribute. It may be looked at also as a gallery and pre release chamber for the hopefully many alternatives that may appear. When contributing keep in mind forum rules regarding image/file size.

So feel free to mix, mash and share any of your creations. I have my hands a bit full right now (DataPlot, DynamicTexturing (mod), new surface textures,...), but i am surely interested in seeing what you guys can come up. I went the abstract way following Benson's steps, VanZant chose rocky (maybe it passes better over urban)... please show us your approach (we know what you can do with satellite :)). Feel free to use the script also to combine the different stuff, make the galleries and use camera presets for comparisons.

I asked him per pm: http://www.multiupload.nl/YEWJ8OU4KT

Many thanks, i'll take a look at them. Along with NordKindchen's in a comparison gallery...

Now if only COOP servers would let people play with these mods, we'd be set :)

Well, as far as DynamicTexturing(should be renamed) script mission creators can bypass the issue altogether by using the script version (the client will load it along with the mission). In regards to textures, these must be loaded as mods, but even then there are promising rumours running about. So i believe we'll be set not too far in the future.

I promise i won't take long with the mod version.

Edited November 14, 2013 by gammadust

[VanZant 48]

I forgot to answer! No problem if the textures are useful to someone, so feel free to use them for whatever.

---------- Post added at 22:51 ---------- Previous post was at 22:50 ----------

Some tweaks for Altis

Gallery

Download

Edited November 15, 2013 by VanZant

[jumpinghubert 49]

Gammadusts modified mapdata pbo combined with vanzants vz_a3_altisdetail pushes altis on a new level :bounce3:

Many thanks!

[gammadust 12]

which "mapdata pbo" do you mean? any of the gam_stratis_midrangedetail_a*.pbos will be concurrent with vanzant's detail. Placebo effect?

Depending on order of loading it will be either one or the other in use. In any case, vanzant's are indeed very good looking.

In other news, the possibility to mod the surface textures to properly accomoddate the effect of dynamic blending script, is not facing good prospects :(

Those interested can look the short discussion here, and also the technical study here related to blending (by IanBanks).

[jumpinghubert 49]

I mean your repacked mapdata.pbo from first page. Ok I will test it again if there is something overwritten :p

[GranolaBar 10]

Nice to see the modders work's instead BI. I wait with pleasure to test the alternative midrange detail texture.

Only two Questions, We lost framerate with this replacement ?

I must wait which version from ? Gammadust or Vanzant, or ...

Good luck

[VanZant 48]

Nice to see the modders work's instead BI. I wait with pleasure to test the alternative midrange detail texture.

Only two Questions, We lost framerate with this replacement ?

I must wait which version from ? Gammadust or Vanzant, or ...

Good luck

I'm not involved in this, I just shared the midrange texture I use.

[gammadust 12]

Only two Questions, We lost framerate with this replacement ?

I must wait which version from ? Gammadust or Vanzant, or ...

1) the detail (mid range) mods alone does not have any impact in fps (it just replaces the texture)

2) whichever you like most, and there is no waiting involved :) (they're both available, not counting eventual future improvements of either)

Re. DynamicBlending mod, i hate to delay it a few more days, but i really had to take a time off, i was pretty consumed with DataPlot up until sunday, and could not release it in the weekend. In the meantime for those new, let me call you to vote on the ticket:

0015758: Extend area where Detail Map+Surface Textures Blend together (at a specific level of best effect - 50%?)

[gammadust 12]

Greetings... as promised here's the link for the mod version:

GAM Dynamic Texture Blend

This will find it's way to the mod section, but for now any bugs or general feedback, you may drop them in this thread.

There are no significant changes from the script version. Just install and enjoy it.

[kremator 1065]

Awesome Gamma! Have been waiting for this mod version!

[bad benson 1733]

good job gamma! i wish ther was a similar command for clutter. would be great to have it show up in scope view.

[gammadust 12]

^^ that, or something to the effect, would be lovely indeed. I wonder how feasible it would be though, regarding making it has dynamic as the texture blending. We do have some indirect access to it's view distance (via setTerrainGrid), but we can only extend its view so far... with the performance side effect. It might be useful to test it though.

I am also counting on setShadowDistance to be adjusted along the same lines of blending pars. I'll have to wait until it is fixed though, ticket which i invite you vote on:

0008372: setShadowDistance command does nothing

We must keep pushing ;)

[fabio_chavez 103]

I forgot to answer! No problem if the textures are useful to someone, so feel free to use them for whatever.

---------- Post added at 22:51 ---------- Previous post was at 22:50 ----------

Some tweaks for Altis

Gallery

Download

unfortunately it also blends over dunes and beaches (and assumably destert also?), didnt read through all the pages and dunno if thats a known problem...

[gammadust 12]

^^ yes it's a known issue, though i had yet to come across as extreme an example (not urban). When using the mod we must keep in mind that we may easily land outside the visual compromises as set by the Island developers.

By default we'll be fully seeing surface textures up to 15m, a blend of these with mid range up to 65m, and then fully see mid range only (Stratis values). In the example the greenish tint of the mid range strikes us as out of place, vanilla mid range texture avoids that by barely using any color. Originally it is only meant to provide additional detail, once we give in to the temptation of making that texture more conforming to some types of surface, the remaining surfaces are likely to sufer.

I am still a bit intrigued by this example, care to share the exact position where that is?

Also extreme is the example GranolaBar sent me:

Here we can observe 2 separate issues:

1. Sometimes the visual features of a given surface texture is too prone to patterning (as a result of tiling in extension). At the distance they're supposed to show detail, and their resolution, most of those textures are near stochastic and can be adjusted to diminish the effect, which only shows at much higher distances. Still we're facing the limitation (mentioned in earlier pages) imposed by the engine, in regard to publishing these adjustments as a mod (size above 240Mb / config load default overwrite / mp deployment issues)

2. The transitions of surface texture to surface texture become very noticeable, the thing is they're always there, Dynamic Texture Blend just reveals the effect, since it otherwise, at the given distance, would be showing the upper part of the default blend ramp towards mid range texture which hides it. I did most of my testing in Stratis but i had noticed this in Altis, and introduced the parameter "GAM_kSlope" which helps reducing the effect. Where possible, just pull the debug console and execute:

// default value = 1
GAM_kSlope = 1.67; // 1.67 is an acceptable value in Altis, try values between 1 and 3 (too high values begin to make no difference)

This is just a workaround, which i may try to automate in the future, ideally the surface textures themselves would be less disparate or the map itself would place them in a more uniform way (less "difused"/"noisy"). Since surface textures need adjustments, i should be attempting to address this issue also in that phase.

Many thanks for input, both.

[GranolaBar 10]

I don't lost this topic.

Any news ?

Good luck for this project.

[sorophx 25]

I don't quite understand. does the mod version still require me to create textures, unpack Arma 3 files and overwrite existing textures with custom files?

[Vasily.B 529]

Hi there, in RC something went wrong, and using your mod leads to some bug;
If you move camera up-down, distance texures (100+ meters) start to change contrast, LOD, and itself as textures to old (vanilla).

[sqb-sma 66]

Hi there, in RC something went wrong, and using your mod leads to some bug;

If you move camera up-down, distance texures (100+ meters) start to change contrast, LOD, and itself as textures to old (vanilla).

 

 

The mods referenced in this thread haven't been updated for 2 or 3 years. Are you referring to bad benson's mod, Gamma's midrange textures, or the Stratis experimental terrain replacement by Nord?

 

Bad Benson's textures should still work. Both BB's and Gamma's mods *only affect the midrange texture* and always have, so above 300ish meters they will fade out and the old vanilla long range textures will start to fade in. In dev branch the midrange transition distance was decreased a little, not sure if it's staying that way.

[Vasily.B 529]

Damm it, i disabled all mods and issue is still very visible, very bad, very nasty :( So its game engine fault. Already reported on RC branch discussion

[sqb-sma 66]

Damm it, i disabled all mods and issue is still very visible, very bad, very nasty :( So its game engine fault. Already reported on RC branch discussion

 

Yeah, I just checked it for myself. Stable branch renders midrange textures out to 350ish meters, dev branch to 125m. This affects both vanilla midrange textures and midrange texture replacement mods.

Going to delve into modifying BB's midrange texture mod and see if I can increase the range. But I'm pretty shit at the whole mod thing so it's 50/50.

[bad benson 1733]

feel free to rerelease my stuff, if you end up fixing it. maybe combine it with what you had done into one big addon. just a suggestion.

[sqb-sma 66]

feel free to rerelease my stuff, if you end up fixing it. maybe combine it with what you had done into one big addon. just a suggestion.

 

Words cannot understate how shit I am at this.

I can't see a variable in the map info, I get that you've patched the middetailtexture, which is easy to search for. But I swear I've read all the damn entries here and it's not included. Perhaps the transition distance is global?

Seems I'm looking for setDetailMapBlendPars? For a fixed value (for now) in meters. Will test if the pure script still works in 1.60

[sqb-sma 66]

 

Words cannot understate how shit I am at this.

I can't see a variable in the map info, I get that you've patched the middetailtexture, which is easy to search for. But I swear I've read all the damn entries here and it's not included. Perhaps the transition distance is global?

Seems I'm looking for setDetailMapBlendPars? For a fixed value (for now) in meters. Will test if the pure script still works in 1.60

 

Uh, could anyone possibly test and screenshot their map with NO alteration to this setting? I've freshly installed my game and I now get midrange textures out to infinity (or at least 12km) WITHOUT changing this variable. 

 

Which is... interesting... but kinda stops me from being able to work on modifying it as it seems the second factor is a multiple (and no matter how low I set it, there is no change)