Weird Color Reflections

Please refrence this thread starting from page 5

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=100337&page=5

I and many others texture artists took notice in a new anomaly with respects to specular materials or reflections on objects. In 1.2.1 it was not present (or as intense if it was prresent), but after the 1.2.2 update it started to appear.

I made a short video showing the awkward blue tint on the bottom of the aircraft. When you're above 8530 ft it appears, but as soon as you go below that altitude, it goes away instantly.

I can understand it's purpose, but I haven't found a way around this.

• Flipping vertically or changing hue of the env.dds file did not work.
  
• Swapping 1.2.1 files in the Effects, Graphic, Shaders did not work.
  
• Even swappinng the 1.2.1 P-51D edm/lods did not work.
  
• I've tried different RGB channel settings in the SPEC file and that didn't work either.
  

Alifish took screenshots of shadow differences too. In 1.2.2, instead of a shadow, it is now a white reflection.

v1.2.2

v1.2.1

Just recently I ran both versions through a program called WinMerge to check file differences. 4 files popped out the most to me.

diffuse_sun.hlst, PSTranscluent.hlst, sky.fx, and graphics.cfg.

Do the above mentioned files relate to any of the changes I posted above?

If so, where in the code should I start looking? I see the changes between them.

If not, are the changes hard coded in the EXE, DLL files within the bin dir?

Can someone explain what is happening?

Cheers.

I must admit, I agree with Rudel and Ali Fish here. The 1.2.1 look was certainly better than the recent changes as Fish's screenshots show. Onwards and upwards!

Yeah, clearly something went awry in 1.2.2, hope this can be fixed in time for 1.2.3 :)

To judge from the screenshot, the version 1.2.2 more realistic lighting.

In 1.2.1 too black. More similar to stratospheric heights.

To judge from the screenshot, the version 1.2.2 more realistic lighting.

In 1.2.1 too black. More similar to stratospheric heights.

Yes, I understand it's purpose. :) However, I think it's over done a bit.

The dithering is not quite correct either. It's more apparent when you pan the view on the bottom of the wing.

Whilst I agree that 1.2.1 was possibly too black to be realistic, it does serve a purpose. Without having 3D games (And having to wear those ridiculous glasses), the darkness helps to add some depth to an other wise flatter shape.

Just my thoughts...

the white underside of my plane has no reflection what so ever. the white is either overpowering it where it should be darker, or its been removed for some reason. but its only part of the problem not all of it, and i believe its this that is affecting what rudel complains about too. that being the reflection when it is active !

well my work shows anomolies the developers will not even see obviously because they are not uttilisiing the power that thhe engine can produce in this area.. with my work i provide the maximum out of the shader tech. i realise that it is a contentious issue. and my work whilst accidental may not be intended by the developers. but the changes are NOT physically correct. what i mean is is you were on jupiter or somehwere else they might be, but not from our world and i believe i know this to be true because of what i do. It in essence is a fantasy effect imo. now there could be the possibility that light has been widened regards specular to these great proportions that the viewing angles of materials has been over emphasised to the extent that they are not physically correct. ill try some tweaks see what i can plunder around with.

dark is the NOT the opposite of light, its the absence of light and its not getting dark enough in the right areas for correct shadowing, and displaying white light in ANY FORM is physically incorrect. there is no such thing as white light in real life. The light we see COMES FROM THE OBJECT and should NOT BE APPLIED upon the object in such a format or manner without transparency associated in terms of 3d rendering.

take note of the sun position via the shadows and contemplate why there might be white light ? or a completely knocked out reflection.

rudel pm me when your on please i have a plan..

To add to this, why is it, that the reflections change drastically when clouds are on or off? Should they not be the same, unless I'm in/under the clouds?

Same DIF, SPEC, and NMp files used.

No clouds or fog

Clouds and fog....but I'm above the clouds!

i get a sudden change onto cloud cover or overcast modes. but its fine when above the clouds. i reckon any fog inclusion is definetly giving you the issue where its removed the reflection permanently. i never use fog..... and it seems to work intelligently enough bar that sudden change to overcast style. but with the blue reflection at height issue you have i dont get what you get with the sudden change. i think graphics card differences have alot to do with it too.

btw your rivett detail is incredible!

edit. i do get changes at roughly the ceiling height of the clouds,without cloud in path of the light. ie not below the clouds at least. the sudden changes comes from the how the clouds and sun graphics are done. kind of on / off siituation because it might not read the transparency aspect etc.

I'm so confused...lol I'll have to make more videos with different settings.

Edit In: You're right, it was the fog only that was causing a high contrast lighting. I disablled it and now it looks like my first screenshot with and without clouds.

I can't get a good spec if colors/reflections are going to change drastically, if an end-user decides to use my skins. And then decides to fly with fog one day, and no fog the next. It'll look totally different as you see above.

What would be a happy medium to create a skin for all types of weather and hours? It's hard.

btw your rivett detail is incredible!

And thank you :thumbup: Rivet counting in many areas....haha

Hopefully this gets fixed.

Glad I'm not the only one that ses this.

 

Hopefully this gets fixed.

yeah, thats what caused me to start flipping that cube.

well ive tried everything i can to understand these changes, i cant. issues must be in the model. if the devs could use all white textures to balance the changes it`d be worthwhile. work with maximum shader performance then you can actually see what occuring.

i think there is an attenuation problem possibly. HDR enhances all the problems too.

glad to confirm that 1.2.3 is better regards p51 shaders, but its still rather off, still garishly bright, pure white light destroying angled reflections and diffuse to quite an extent.

can i have confirmation that there is a graphical issue?

can there be some indication when we might see a fix ?

its been 3 updates i think without any attention to how our 51 looks in regards to these the most recent shader update. just wondering. if the anomolies are a placeholder for an effect that works with edge then it`d be nice to know too.

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still no response.

i cant duplicate their mirror polish, so it's something they are doing in 3ds.

Basically there are five methods to modify "things" to look more shiny:

1. Changing effects in fx. files - of course it will affect spectacle of the whole DCS world

2. Changing livery datas/values in description files

3. Changing specular textures of model

4. Changing material and property settings in the model file

5. Changing material and map settings in 3DS MAX

http://forum.lockon.ru/showthread.php?p=1601655#post1601655

The upshot:

It's on the bugtracker.

Sobek. thanks. and regards, tuneing the textures is the only thing ive ever done, untill this problem was introduced at 1.2.2. the .fx fixes were absolutely necessary for me to continue my graphical study of the p51.

over powered base shaders via .fx files is the problem. And thats why this post is here and not in the p51 problems section. its just that the only recent model tuned to accept modern powerfull shaders is the p51, and only on the 51 can we really identify that there is a problem. as ive said before tunning the overall shaders to enahnce the world and its existing artwork is the serious flaw here. thanks for the acknowledgement.

Back from early 2012, beta P-51. Looked so much better.

The coulds reflecting in unrealistic places is simply because the reflection is not rendered real time of your suroundings, it is a dummy refelction that moves according to your aircrafts position.

Aware, it's a cube map. Also, the point of the thread is the blue hue on the bottom of the aircraft, which seems that the reflection map is inverted.