[WIP] Terrain "X-Cam-Taunus"

[SAMstudios-3Dartist 45]

Wasn´t the new texture visals to make it more like "real life" to get "rid" of the game feeling?

[sqb-sma 66]

This seems to be an issue with assets rather than the new engine (or a change in the engine revealing flaws in old assets).

The assets have their lighting set up incorrectly, trees should be shaded almost the same within the new engine (same for terrain at close, mid, long). The game is more sensitive to crazy values in the lighting config, and a lot of old assets just fudged it and used shit values because the old lighting system didn't care anyway.

[B.Miller 13]

Sorry, but we have stopped the work @Taunus.

[...]

The whole Taunus team hopes for a simple solution.

Some of the worst news so far this year as I really looked forward to the map :(

Have you guys updated the map towards the new graphical system yet? Those screenshots look way too bad to be caused by the otherwise great graphical overhaul. Hopefully BI will contact you guys soon and work on a solution on this problem ...

[spain 1]

Sorry, but we have stopped the work @Taunus.

Since the last (visual) update ... Taunus looks terrible.

The whole color harmony is gone.

Also, all the nice looking shadow areas are not available anymore.

So many hours of work destroyed within a minute :(

Below some pics in order to see the difference atm...

 

-snip-

 

The whole Taunus team hopes for a simple solution.

 

Of course there are some realy nice parts within the (visual) update ... so for example the water and cloud rendering now looks amazing,

but we are a bit disapointed about the terrain and object visualisation.

 

X-Cam-Team

 

I went ahead and asked BIS and they said they'd be willing to help you out.

 

https://twitter.com/Arma3official/status/737676879189016576

[somesangheili 111]

This is a terrible decision in my opinion. Basically what you've done is gone "we hate the new lighting, now we're going to boycott making this map." What about all the massive fans of this terrain, which there are plenty of? What if BI never 'fixes' the new lighting? Also, not everyone hates the new lighting, so disliking the lighting is kind of your own opinion. It's not like the game is now 'unplayable', all you have to do is get used to the new lighting. And I'm pretty sure map makers are even able to change the lighting for their maps, or can they not?

 

I know you're doing all of this for free, but this seems like kind of a weak excuse to stop such a large and well-done project. I hope you guys somehow reconsider this decision

[Tonto- 43]

I say the community can easily live without Taunus if devs decide to stop working it permanently. After all hype and teasing, such act will follow them for the rest of their lives, but its their decision.

 

But I also feel their pain. Ive always wondered why the BI has not released a tool for modders to tweak lightning.

 

 

And I'm pretty sure map makers are even able to change the lighting for their maps, or can they not?

 

in theory it should be possible but without right tools its practically impossible.

[Bitesrad 481]

This seems to be an issue with assets rather than the new engine (or a change in the engine revealing flaws in old assets).

The assets have their lighting set up incorrectly, trees should be shaded almost the same within the new engine (same for terrain at close, mid, long). The game is more sensitive to crazy values in the lighting config, and a lot of old assets just fudged it and used shit values because the old lighting system didn't care anyway.

 

Yeah this really. Most of the Arma II assets look less than spectacular with the new lighting. Which is fine, as the visual update was made with Arma 3 assets in mind. It's a shitty situation for modders perhaps, but I'd rather the devs focus on going forward. Besides, it's not a gamebreaking issue. The problems with legacy content are mostly graphical in nature.

[silola 1086]

Hi,

 

as I said ... we stopped the work, we don't canceled the whole project.

 

Most of the team members (maybe all) don't like to go on with the work, because it makes no fun anymore.

Before the update, we "feel" the map and it was so much fun to walk or fly around and, of course, to work on this beauty,

but now ... this feeling is gone....sorry :(

 

Today I've installed the CUP complete version ( hoping to notice a difference compared to AiA), but the result is overall the same.

The good news beside, Taunus works also perfect with this addon (not checked in detail), so that's the positive thing today ;)

 

Silola

[sqb-sma 66]

Hi,

 

as I said ... we stopped the work, we don't canceled the whole project.

 

Most of the team members (maybe all) don't like to go on with the work, because it makes no fun anymore.

Before the update, we "feel" the map and it was so much fun to walk or fly around and, of course, to work on this beauty,

but now ... this feeling is gone....sorry :(

 

Today I've installed the CUP complete version ( hoping to notice a difference compared to AiA), but the result is overall the same.

The good news beside, Taunus works also perfect with this addon (not checked in detail), so that's the positive thing today ;)

 

Silola

 

 

Well, thanks for that at least. I've actually figured out which lines to change to get the lighting parameters change/do what. But gotta sleep (work in 3 hours now, yikes) before I test it all out. Got one of the tree models to look "right" (shadows fit terrain shadow)

 

Take a look at the diffuse colour for each object, turn it waaay down for trees/shrubs from A1/A2 assets.

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

How can you not feel the new lighting? The Shadows are too thin, yes, i agree the shadowing could probably be better, but everything is currently starting to look Photo Realistic (in most cases, depending on the map, scene, etc.)

 

Was really looking forward to this map. Hope you guys can pick it back up on a later date.

[DJankovic 401]

How can you not feel the new lighting? The Shadows are too thin, yes, i agree the shadowing could probably be better, but everything is currently starting to look Photo Realistic (in most cases, depending on the map, scene, etc.)

 

Was really looking forward to this map. Hope you guys can pick it back up on a later date.

^^

What he said.

[FirstPanic 39]

Hi Taunus team,

 

I fully understand what you feel and for me the new lightning looks very ugly, too.

So, I've tried to find a video setting which is acceptable and would like to share this with you.

Perhap this settings create a look and feel which is ok for you.

 

Tab "Display":

Brightness = 0.8

Gamma = 0.9

 

Tab "AA & PP"

Bloom = 20

Sharpen Filter = 100

A= HBAO+ High

 

Postprocessor Color Correction:

Brightness=95

Contrast=86

Saturation=100

 

All other settings are not important for the new look & feel.

BTW: If anyone else has better experience.... feel free to share and post it ;-)

 

Best regards,

FirstPanic

[metalcraze 290]

If you don't like the new lighting you can start by adding

 

class HDRNewPars

{

tonemapMethod = 2;

};

 

to class Taunus: CAWorld

(if that's the correct name)

 

it's the old tonemapping used pre 1.60 that should bring back "old" colours and then you can tweak from there

 

However the issues with "incorrect" colours are used by making brownish textures more saturated. Otherwise lighting is quite realistic.

[tpw 2315]

If you don't like the new lighting you can start by adding

 

class HDRNewPars

{

tonemapMethod = 2;

};

 

to class Taunus: CAWorld

(if that's the correct name)

 

it's the old tonemapping used pre 1.60 that should bring back "old" colours and then you can tweak from there

 

However the issues with "incorrect" colours are used by making brownish textures more saturated. Otherwise lighting is quite realistic.

Hi MetalCraze, thanks as usual for your helpful inputs.

 

I tried adding your suggestion to a custom config which I've been using successfully to get A3 lighting on unsupported maps.

 

class CfgPatches
{
class TPW_LIGHTING_FIX
{
units[]={};
weapons[]={};
requiredVersion=0.1;
requiredAddons[]=
{
"CUP_Worlds"
};
};
};


class CfgWorlds
{
class DefaultLighting;
class DefaultWorld;
class CAWorld;
class DYA: CAWorld
{
class HDRNewPars
{
tonemapMethod = 2;
};
delete Weather;
delete Lighting;
};
};

 

In game it throws an error:

 

no entry bin\config.bin/CfgWorlds/DYA/HDRNewPArs.minAperture

 

EDIT: Sorted, just need to get more familiar with how inheritance works

[AveryTheKitty 2626]

Looks better with the new lighting honestly.

[onetwo 30]

It does not matter wich lighting you like more. Because this is the reality now. #Thanks_BI

but

 

If somebody hands you a lemon, make lemonade of it.

 

So I belive you guys will find a way to fix the assets or go to another lighting system, just think of it as figuring out a way to make it look even better(or in the eyes of BI "more" realistic) than before.

 

Glück auf!

[sqb-sma 66]

How can you not feel the new lighting? The Shadows are too thin, yes, i agree the shadowing could probably be better, but everything is currently starting to look Photo Realistic (in most cases, depending on the map, scene, etc.)

 

Was really looking forward to this map. Hope you guys can pick it back up on a later date.

 

The same problem mentioned can be seen here, look at the trees and shrubs, they look 2D (almost no shadows)

[DarthRogue 25]

If you don't like the new lighting you can start by adding

 

class HDRNewPars

{

tonemapMethod = 2;

};

 

to class Taunus: CAWorld

(if that's the correct name)

 

it's the old tonemapping used pre 1.60 that should bring back "old" colours and then you can tweak from there

 

However the issues with "incorrect" colours are used by making brownish textures more saturated. Otherwise lighting is quite realistic.

 

 

That worked beautifully!  Colors look WAY better now.  Much thanks!

 

For the future, it would be beneficial to everyone (including BI) to make details like this public when major engine changes are made.  It would save the modding community tons of headaches.  

[sqb-sma 66]

I'd much rather we move on to the new lighting parameters, once the objects are fixed. But perhaps development on this map should continue in pre1.60 lighting until that happens?

To give you hope, the Esseker team has reworked a bunch of A1/A2 assets to properly use the new lighting, video can be seen here

 

The lighting on foliage is completely different to any A1/A2 asset lighting in dev branch used in the current build of CUP or AiA, in their changelog it states they reworked the SAT texture and some object textures in order to adapt to 1.60 lighting.

 

Seems like they did it fairly quickly, hopefully the change is reflected in CUP at a later date.

[Yottahertz_ 51]

That's a pity that the new graphics engine has caused you guys to put the map on hold, I hope you figure something out soon.

[FirstPanic 39]

Looks better with the new lighting honestly.

Sorry,,, but strongly disagree... frankly.

 

Bright ground is now kind of "glooming" and looks very unrealistic (e.g. sandy ground)

When you look on tanks or cars/trucks, the tyres and chains are completely black in black... even when sun is shining on them

Sky is much to bright

You see more objects popping up because the distance for midrange texture has been halved.

Therefore loss of details at 10-15m distance => looks VERY ugly

 

Overall I must say that this was a big step into the wrong direction. I definitely have no fun to work on my missions when I start 3den editor and see how ugly and unrealistic it looks.

 

I hope that BIS will add a function to switch of the new lighting!!

Otherwise I'm afraid that this will split the community again... and frankly there were too many developers/modders/mission builder who gave up due to BIS product and update strategy.

 

Just my 2 cents

FirstPanic

[Bitesrad 481]

I hope that BIS will add a function to switch of the new lighting!!

Otherwise I'm afraid that this will split the community again... and frankly there were too many developers/modders/mission builder who gave up due to BIS product and update strategy.

 

 

No it wont, most people love the new lighting (and rightfully so). There are some issues with lightsources (at night), but other than that it's a straight up upgrade. It seems most of the criticism is based on arma legacy content looking 'off', which is not a fair way to judge the lighting overhaul at all. It was created for existing arma 3 assets and the upcoming Tanoa release. Of course it will take some time to get all the old stuff up to date again, but lets not forget the new lighting has been available for quite some time on the dev branch and RC. So I find it a bit disingenuous to state BIS has ruined the graphics and gave no time for modders and mission makers to adapt. Though thats not aimed at anyone specifically in here.

[Greenberet40 136]

Hi xcam team.

 

 

We stop the process of the map too  :mellow:

 

Hi guys

 

Lythium map.

 

We are working for one/two years for this map we have create a lot of addons like a pack of houses,rocks,environment ect ect.

Now with the new visual update  all this work its gone.....Lythium map its not a arab map style its another thing  :(.

We comunicate that we stop the process of the map .All the shadows its gone and the beautiful Arma3 system never see again.

to reference see this pics.

We hope that in a future  have a system that plays in old version or new version of visual system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FirstPanic 39]

No it wont, most people love the new lighting (and rightfully so). There are some issues with lightsources (at night), but other than that it's a straight up upgrade. It seems most of the criticism is based on arma legacy content looking 'off', which is not a fair way to judge the lighting overhaul at all. It was created for existing arma 3 assets and the upcoming Tanoa release. Of course it will take some time to get all the old stuff up to date again, but lets not forget the new lighting has been available for quite some time on the dev branch and RC. So I find it a bit disingenuous to state BIS has ruined the graphics and gave no time for modders and mission makers to adapt. Though thats not aimed at anyone specifically in here.

 

Hmmm... I really ask myself how someone can say that it looks better and more realistic, when I see the post from greenberret40 with the facts.

Very hard to understand.

 

FirstPanic

[nikiforos 450]

It's all about personal preferences , I strongly dislike the new look of Taunus with the new visuals.. All magic is gone!