DCS building HD overhaul

[vicx]

Pretty good idea for a template Z and nice execution on combining mods.

 

Combining mods is a lot of of work sometimes.

Edited February 1, 2015 by vicx

[zaelu]

OK... I stop before my eyes pop :D

 

his is the download link:

 

http://we.tl/yltIhyfMBj

 

 

 

And it looks like this:

 

 

I hope I didn't made mistakes :) . Now it should be easier for texture artists (I'm not one :( ) to build also the far LOD texture for their new textures and users can mix them. In the template are included besides the colored squares also textures for crazyeddie and some remixed Dimitrov textures.

 

From what I observed... 4k and above textures for buildings LOD 0 look very nice from ground level in Combined Arms... and very little hit in FPS for newer graphic cards.

 

I recommend using a modified High.lua file to see better the cities and ground in general. I use the attached one:

High.lua

[zaelu]

Since I like playing with full colors... I did few tests today with 4096x4096 textures for far LOD texture for buildings and also for main LOD texture for few big buildings.

 

I attached to this post an archive with two mods (JSGME). Install them alternatively not at once so you see the differences.

 

The idea is simple

 

A texture (copied and renamed inside mods) is a simple RED square with 4096x4096 resolution. However it is a dds texture and it contains also mips. So the 2048x2048 mip I painted it GREEN then the 1024x1024 mip I painted it BLUE. The rest of mips are YELLOW.

 

So if the big texture is used for far LOD the buildings should sometimes turn red... If the second mip (2048 ) mip is used they should turn green, for 1024 they should turn blue and for 512x512... and the rest... yellow.

 

My observations are as follows.

 

for distant LOD using a 4096 texture is pretty useless. The MIP for 4096 (main texture) does not show at all ever. The second MIP which is 2048... in my tests... also does not show. The only size that is used is 1024x1024

 

 

If I use the same texture for main texture of the LOD0 of the buildings... the big MIP is used only very very close to the building and even then incomplete. The 2048 is used at some distance when close... good for Combined Arms.

 

So IMHO.

 

For far LOD texture... 4096 is really wasteful. Even 2048 is useless

For close LOD (LOD0) 4096 is only for extra huge resolutions on multiple monitors maybe. 2048 for most high end PC.

 

The first picture (taken in 4x DSR, 3840x2160) is for far LOD.

 

You can see a little blue... the 1024 MIP

 

 

The second picture is for buildings... you can see how close is the camera to the building to partially use 4096 mip. There seems to be a little bug that the lower part of the buildings are full red meaning they use the maximum resolution mip no matter the distance so this can actually be a loss in performance without any quality gain.

 

 

 

 

 

last picture is just so you see here how the mips for test look

 

 

 

 

 

 

,

building texture tests.zip

Edited February 4, 2015 by zaelu

[dimitriov]

Quand même t'as du temps à tuer toi, si tu peux me tenir informé en Français (à moins que tu ne sois un british en terre Sudiste :p ) via mp, ça m'intéresse, je t'avoue que je parle pas assez bien anglais pour bien piger ce que t'as fait ;)

I currently can't spend time on the v2 of the mod, let's say that it's in pause (Student = studies = exams = graduate or get out ;) ). I let you have fun with the current version, the program I gave 2 or 3 pages before will probably be completed until May, with perhaps one or two pre-updates adding some few buildings between this date and now.

 

Just to do not make the "two more weeks" guy, i prefer to stay large for the delays ;)

 

++

 

Nicolas

[zaelu]

OK, I'll try to explain. Apropos, I am from Romania and I moved in France, I learn french little by little from almost nothing.

 

I don't know if you know that the game uses a system of "LODs" (Level of Detail) for its objects. An object that gets away from the camera it has less detail. To save resources, the game changes objects as they get further away. For example. If you have a building that has 50 polygons at maximum quality, when it gets away it is changed with one that has only 10.

 

The same happens with the textures. As the building is closer to the eye, a bigger texture is used. But the textures are all included in one dds file. The sub textures, are called "MIPs" and they are created as you know by Photoshop when it writes the file.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmap

 

Normally, you don't know when the game changes the "MIPs", but you can do a trick to see it. You reopen the dds file in Photoshop and when asked check the "load mipmaps" box. Then, you paint the texture with full colors like in my picture above.

 

Now after you save the file with photoshop, but don't forget to say to it to use the existing "MIPs", now you will see when the magic happens.

 

Now you will see when the game uses the big texture or if it really does that.

 

So now lets suppose what happens.

 

If a building is 1km away from camera, the game will use the main LOD (named LOD0) and one of the "MIPs" of the main texture. If the building gets away more than 1km, then the game uses the second LOD (the simpler one) and one part of the "block_texture.bmp.dds" file. Also... for the "block_texture.bmp.dds" it uses MIPs as the camera goes away.

 

So, in the first test (first picture above) we see how the MIPS are loaded for the less detailed LOD. And... On the second test (second picture above) we see how the MIPs are loaded for the detailed LOD (LOD0).

 

Because we painted the 4096 MIP with red we see now that it is not used for less detailed LOD at all, and for detailed LOD is used very little.

 

Thus we conclude it is not very necessary to have big texture of 4096 pixels.

 

It is true that we can tweak the loading of LODs and MIPs by altering the high.lua file. But not by much, I think.

 

In french (I translate it with google and I tried to check and re-phrase so it is translating into something that is intelligible for me as a romanian that speaks very little french :D . Actually romanian language is very similar with french being a latin language. Especially that grammar is the same obnoxious thing :) . I hope from both texts you can understand what I say :D .

 

OK, je vais essayer d'expliquer. A propos, je suis de la Roumanie et je ai déménagé en France, je apprends peu à peu français à partir de presque rien.

 

Je ne sais pas si vous savez que le jeu utilise un sistem de «LOD» (niveau de détail) pour ses objets. Un objet qui se éloigne de la caméra, il a moins de détails. Pour économiser les ressources, le jeu change les objets tels qu'ils se éloignent (meh, a bit bad translation here). Par exemple. Si vous avez un bâtiment qui a 50 polygones à la qualité maximale, quand il est loin, il est changé par un autre qui a seulement 10.

 

La même chose arrive avec les textures. Comme le bâtiment est plus proche de l'oeil, une plus grande texture est utilisée. Mais les textures sont tous inclus dans un seule fichier de DDS. Les sous textures, sont appelés "MIPs" et ils sont créés comme vous le savez par Photoshop quand il écrit le fichier.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmap

 

Normalement, vous ne savez pas quand le jeu change les "MIPs", mais vous pouvez faire un truc pour voir. Vous rouvrez le fichier DDS dans Photoshop et lorsqu'on lui a demandé de cocher la case "de mipmaps de charge". Ensuite, vous peignez la texture avec des couleurs pleines comme dans mon image ci-dessus.

 

Maintenant, après que vous enregistrez le fichier avec photoshop, mais ne oubliez pas de dire à lui d'utiliser les «MIPs» existants, maintenant vous allez voir quand la magie opère.

 

Maintenant, vous allez voir quand le jeu utilise la grande texture ou si ce ne est vraiment que.

 

Alors laisse supposer ce qui se passe maintenant.

 

Si un bâtiment est à 1km de la caméra, le jeu utilisera le LOD principal (nommé LOD0) et l'un des «MIPs» de la texture principale. Si le bâtiment se éloigne de plus de 1 km, le jeu utilise le second LOD (le plus simple) et une partie de la "block_texture.bmp.dds" fichier. Aussi ... pour les "block_texture.bmp.dds" il utilise MIP que la caméra se éloigne.

 

Ainsi, dans le premier essai (première photo ci-dessus), nous voyons comment les MIPS sont chargés pour le LOD moins détaillé. Et ... Sur le second test (deuxième photo ci-dessus), nous voyons comment les MIPs sont chargés pour la fiche détaillée de LOD (LOD0).

 

Parce que nous peint le MIP 4096 de rouge nous voyons maintenant qu'il ne est pas utilisé pour LOD moins détaillée à tous, et pour LOD détaillée est très peu.

 

Nous concluons donc qu'il ne est pas très necesary avoir grande texture de 4096 pixels.

 

Il est vrai que nous pouvons modifier le chargement de Lods et MIPs en modifiant le fichier de high.lua. Mais pas de beaucoup, je pense.

Edited February 5, 2015 by zaelu

[dimitriov]

Okay fine, I knew what was the mipmaping (I used it ;) ), but now I understand why you painted all those buildings in picasso paints ;)

 

Nicolas

[zaelu]

I thought you new... but just to be more clear I explained a bit more :) .

[skiboss]

Thanks mate, great job!

[Dumb_As_Toast]

Awesome looking textures Dimitriov! However, I have a suggestion: how about creating custom roofing textures to match your high-res building textures? At the mo it looks really odd to have high-res buildings with crappy low-res roofing applied, so I think in the interest of continuity it would be a good idea to supply roofs with matching texture quality.

 

Apologies! Just the first thing my 'designer eyes' picked up, lol! Great work otherwise! :thumbup:

[zaelu]

I mixed Dimitrov textures with CrazyEddie ones and I used also the roofs from CrazyEddie pack as much as possible... very good looking.

[shagrat]

You happen to have a link? :D

[Lizzard]

You happen to have a link? :D

 

Klick

[shagrat]

Thanks!

[dimitriov]

The modding is currently paused. I'll go back on it in April-May (stuuuuudiiiiiiies :p).

 

For the roofing... Erf, didn't do it because finding the roofs on the distant lod, don't even know if it's possible, and don't even know if there is a distant lod for it.

 

I'll give a look at it, it seems that Edge won't come so fast so...

 

I will too rework and replace some buildings, like the 16 stairs double tower, which doesn't really match with the Caucasian background...

 

Nicolas

[zaelu]

Roofing is possible in distant LOD also. I've mapped as much as I could when I did that PSD file I posted here:

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2308184&postcount=153

 

If you want me to repost it, I'll do it. What you see in that picture are individual layers coloured for better visualisation. You select the layer... create a copy of it and place your texture in it and... voila... :D

 

[dimitriov]

I'll keep it for later, thank you ;)

[dimitriov]

So the year is finished, I'll be back to it on the next weeks. First work will probably concern the roofs. It will be done for the triangular ones, and the large hangars ones.

Edited April 27, 2015 by dimitriov

[Chic]

Thank you !

[Rapidfire]

I meant to put 0 as I don't see any difference in my set up, loosing any FPS at all.

[Devrim]

Hello. :) Is this mod completed?

[zaelu]

I use it in combination with Crazy Eddie mod and with a correspondent block_texture_bmp far LOD texture. If the authors (Dimitrov and CraqzyEddie) are OK I can post this "re-mix".

[f4l0]

I use it in combination with Crazy Eddie mod and with a correspondent block_texture_bmp far LOD texture. If the authors (Dimitrov and CraqzyEddie) are OK I can post this "re-mix".

 

Sharing stuff with the community is usually always a good idea ;)

[vicx]

I wonder if the types of materials EDGE supports on NTTR and future maps will be available in the Caucasus map after DCS 2.0 and EDGE are released.

 

 

Will we be able to add normal, self-illumination, specular and alpha maps to buildings in the Caucasus map?

[zaelu]

Ok.

 

I made a remix mod (I usually have a bigger mod that is called "Mother of All Mods" and contains all the little things people had modified over the years and posted in separate mods, all in one single pack of original archives).

 

This partial mod contains only some of Dimitrov's textures and some of Crazy Eddie textures and also the "block_texture.bmp.dds" remade to contain both of them and also many roofs added by me from Crazy Eddie's files (resized and placed inside the file).

 

A note about the mix.

 

Some big... huge textures from Dimitrov were left behind. As I was saying on some pages ago... I made some tests (I explained them there) and on a usual 1920x1080 monitor I can see very very rare or at all the big resolution texture (4096)... that is the 2048 is mostly used when very close in rest the even lower ones. This makes useless to have (for now) such big resolution textures that slowly add to the FPS toll. Especially when you use a high visibility distance mod and some AA AF.

 

So

 

to download click here:

 

http://ridethelightning.ro/lucruri/Mod.Buildings.Textures__Extract.only.the.content.in._Mods.folder.zip

 

to install, as the archive name says... extract the containing folder in _Mods folder and install only with JSGME or manually if you know 100% what are you doing.

 

 

Here are two quick screens (I used only this mod for textures, the ground textures mods were disabled, also there is a mod for increase visibility)

 

 

Edited June 25, 2015 by zaelu

[the_soupdragon]

Thanks man.

 

SD