WIP - JTD SkyFog

[mr.g-c 6]

Its absolutely Fantastic!

[mattxr 9]

It looks amazing! great work!

[abs 2]

Fantastic job, mate!

[[aps]gnat 28]

I need to work out how I can apply this effect without losing the sky texture permanently :)

hmmmm .... yeh, tricky.

Its a real shame you can't have custom addons inside missions, because then at least it would be easier to add something like your "tweak" to a "foggy" mission.

Nice creative idea mate.

MAYBE BIS COULD DO BETTER WITH HARDCODE .... HINT HINT

[mrcash2009 0]

Also I assume this effect works at long distance with the fog introduced when your draw distance is lowered?

I would use fog more not only for ambiance (nice on Lamansk) but also some nice FPS increase, but again its a pop-in fest currently :)

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Looks super, brosef. I'd say a release, even if beta, is more than warranted.

[dmarkwick 261]

Okaydokes, I will provide a tentative WIP alpha release.

PLEASE BE ADVISED THIS IS ALPHA RELEASE. AS SUCH IT'S WIP AND NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF A FINAL OR EVEN BETA RELEASE.

Download.

OK, first off be aware that it's named JTD_ClearHorizons. This is because currently it does EXACTLY the same thing as the "proper" JTD_ClearHorizons, in that it replaces the sky textures. So use ONE OR THE OTHER, NOT BOTH.

It might be a little confusing, but that's the current state of it :D so just move the old JTD_ClearHorizons (if you're even using it, I know not everyone dislikes the painted mountains ;)) and replace with this.

Let's be clear on this: you will lose all your sky texture with this addon. So it's for testing fogbound missions only. As such it's very effective, but remember to switch the addons back when you've had enough.

There is a *minor* issue when looking east at dawn and west at sunset, in that the game engine will brighten the sky in those directions at those times and the addon will be less effective at those directions at those particular times. I know it sounds like a small problem :) but I mention it here for completeness. I expect that if it ever becomes possible for the addon to dynamically replace sky textures, then it will also be possible to temporarily lose whatever sky object causes that effect. I recommend using middle-of-the-day scenarios :)

Anyway - enjoy it for what it is :) and let me know of any problems. Problems I'm anticipating are:

Different weather settings might need *slightly* different blank sky texture colours. Let me know if you get popping during specific weather. This might happen because fog can be applied over ANY weather setting, it's not linked.

Edited January 30, 2010 by DMarkwick

[beton 2]

Really a great tweak...

had a short test...no more popping in of objects from out of the fog. Hopefully it will be allowed by the servers since it adds a great atmosphere to the game.

Thank you

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Crap that was creepy! Loved it! I'd never "allow" max fog myself though in a mission (I think it makes them unplayable), but it has nice uses.

Questions:

1) How does it react to illumination flares?

2) How does white stripe on road look/blend?

3) How does gradually going from severe clear to massive soup look like?

@Cole:

"JTD SkyFog adds fog above your head.

With BIS fog, you're able to see the sky even at the max fog setting. SkyFog fixes that"

Actually it's fairly rare that the thickest fog blocks out visibility of the sky, since it is thicker when you view horizontally than when you view vertically. Fog is usually just a cloud at ground level (thin stratus cloud), although if you're near mountain peaks you can be inside a thick cumulus cloud (which to you will appear as fog). So, normally, but not unheard of.

[dmarkwick 261]

1) How does it react to illumination flares?

No idea :)

2) How does white stripe on road look/blend?

You mean the dreaded alpha shine? Still there, it's a BIS engine bug I guess.

3) How does gradually going from severe clear to massive soup look like?

Looks pretty much as you would imagine it :D to be clear - the addon removes all sky textures & replaces them with blank ones, so even in no-fog situations you'll get a gray sky.

[Binkowski 26]

Looks very good! Downloading now

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Yeah, alpha shine. Too bad, it makes heavy fog not an option really.

Yep, as I imagined :) Was kinda hoping you could control it. I.e. mission starts without fog, then I could turn off the texture replacement or something. Everything grey all the time makes it an addon you want to activate for some missions only.

[dmarkwick 261]

Yeah, alpha shine. Too bad, it makes heavy fog not an option really.

It's not too bad if you're in a mainly vegetation area. But in any case, it's essentially unrelated to the purpose of this addon, which is to solve another problem :D

Yep, as I imagined :) Was kinda hoping you could control it. I.e. mission starts without fog, then I could turn off the texture replacement or something. Everything grey all the time makes it an addon you want to activate for some missions only.

This is what I'm trying to achieve. The release is just because people asked to see it for themselves. A such, you should treat it as a per-ArmA2 session addon, rebooting the game and disabling the addon when you no longer require it.

[AnimalMother92 10]

This is really cool. I had always avoided using fog as it looked so awful in vanilla Arma 2. This is much better, especially the sky replacement. Could it be implemented as a place-able Module so that it would only become active in missions that had that Module?

[dmarkwick 261]

This is really cool. I had always avoided using fog as it looked so awful in vanilla Arma 2. This is much better, especially the sky replacement. Could it be implemented as a place-able Module so that it would only become active in missions that had that Module?

The problem is a fundamental config problem, if I knew how to do it via a module then I would have already released this as a standard addon that kicked in as soon as fog > 0.8 :)

It's dynamically replacing sky textures that's the big issue.

[nicolasroger 11]

I just tested your addon with the undead mod

I hope you can make it happend dinamicly in the future

[caprera 0]

Amazing improvement Markwick ! just downloaded

[Pteradon 0]

Just watched the video on page 1.

The fog you've made DMarkwick, looks a lot better than the default one,

even it's still WIP.

[dmarkwick 261]

OK, I think I got it :) I've basically sequestered Weather 1 (clear sky) and given it a gray sky texture. I chose that one because of 2 things mainly:

1. Foggy days are generally mild days, not stormy, so it made sense to use that "end" of the weather spectrum.

2. The Overcast value ranges from 0 to 1, and the next weather "up" (very clear sky) comes into effect at Overcast value 0.07, so it seems to me that "clear sky" is actually quite a rare occurrence :)

Anyway, I got a test mission with various triggers that invoke different overcast values, and different fog value. And, I can *apparently* dynamically make the sky gray for very foggy situations :)

Almost there ;)

[AnimalMother92 10]

Great news! Will definitely be using this :)

[dmarkwick 261]

It's working REALLY well :)

Getting some nice subtle blends going:

[Bavator 8]

Looking great, Marwick! Another welcome addition to my JTD folder :)

[nicolasroger 11]

I don't understand what I see on that last pic (I like that pic btw). I see clouds on top but you said the tree need to pop up in a grey background. Have you changed the sky texture with some grey in the bottom?

edit:

Is it possible to simply add a new weather effect in the game or you really need to use an existing weather and tweak it?

[TRexian 0]

hehe

I suspect he changed the sky texture so that near the horizon it is the appropriate shade of gray, then transitions to the normal texture. :D

Looking great.

Almost like something you'd see on an island where zombies start springing up.... ;)

Oh, and I meant to mention this elsewhere, but I think you should bundle this with the rain mod instead of the horizons mod. :D

[VirusLIVED 10]

You guys got it all WRONG! This is totally SILENT HILL! :D

Amazing work. If there is a way to get this in script form, I will donate my soul.