Anyone managed to set a sky like this?

[Ala12Rv-watermanpc]

First of all, I'm delighted with the new clouds, I think ED made a great job and to me, they are probably the best clouds out there in many aspects. Since they started showing content about them, I was particulary impressed with a few screens that looked excellent and personally, I love that particular time of day and how the clouds look so dark in contrast with the sky, I'm talking about this:

 

 

 

 

Note how the clouds have great density, the internal scatter of the light through them looks amazing given the impression of having thickness and volume and the sun light is filtering very accurately through the different layers impacting over the bottom of some of them...AMAZING!. 

 

However, I have been trying to recreate these images and have failed. Tried multiple presets and times of day from 20h to 22h with no success. This is what I'm getting at maxed out settings (gamma 1,7):

 

 

 

 

 

And this is with gamma 1 (lower setting):

 

 

As you can see, the difference is huge!

 

I would like to know if it is me, or this is how it is supposed to look right now. Maybe these ED screens are form a WIP future version but I would like to know, if possible. Other than that, I'm loving the clouds at day, dusk/dawn and night, however, the transition between sun and moon, when the sun has disappeared (or is very low over the horizon) but there is still light doesn't look very good at all, with extremely flat and weird colored clouds and evironement. 

 

 

Anyone?

 

 

EDIT: I missed this sentence in the ED's patch notes:

 

• “The lighting effects on the clouds, especially when the sun is low on the horizon is still very much a WIP, and will be improved.”

 

So basically they are working to improve this, my bad!, guess, I was too excited with 2.7 to carefully read the notes so hoping to see this improvements asap!

Edited April 23, 2021 by Ala12Rv-watermanpc

[Glow]

Images won't load.

 

Try different gama settings. Mostly dark pics with gama around 1 are more better for screenshots but not for flying.

 

[ low gama and a little bit of RerShade was used ]

 

I think that would be cool to have more weather profiles, with different time of a day or a season. More like setups for an effect, not profiles. I made some setups like that for my own use, now those need some update and proper description but... honestly, I prefer spend my time flying now. The 2.7 just blow my mind.

[Ala12Rv-watermanpc]

Thanks for the reply, as I said, I tried with gamma as low as 1, which is the bare minimum, yet the own clouds, light and rendering doesn't look anywhere near as good as these screens at that particular time of day.

[Ironhand]

It would be helpful, if you simply attached the images to your post. It looks like you loaded them thru your Google acct and, so, they are inaccessible. Have no idea what you see nor what you expect to see.

[Ironhand]

Without seeing what you are referring to in either the ED screens or your own, I’m guessing that colors in yours aren’t very saturated.

 

Here’s what I can get:

 

 

To get this degree of color saturation, I had to dial gamma back to 1.0. But even at 1.8, they look damn good.

[Ala12Rv-watermanpc]

Sorry, had no idea the images couldn't be loaded...the first post is alredy edited, they should work now.

23 hours ago, Ironhand said:

Without seeing what you are referring to in either the ED screens or your own, I’m guessing that colors in yours aren’t very saturated.

 

Here’s what I can get:

 

 

To get this degree of color saturation, I had to dial gamma back to 1.0. But even at 1.8, they look damn good.

 

 

Even with gamma 1, which is really low and dark, these clouds don't look as detailed as the images from ED, but definitely look better than at higher gammas. The problem is then, the cockpit will be way too dark.

Edited April 21, 2021 by Ala12Rv-watermanpc

[Ironhand]

You’ll notice that the pit in the ED photo showing a portion of the cockpit is dark as well.

 

The two images you lead your initial post with are exterior shots after sunset. Again very low gamma.

 

FWIW, I typically use gamma 1.8 on a monitor that I’ve recently calibrated and my colors seem more saturated than those in your screens. But it’s hard to be sure without viewing the same scene with the same settings.

 

 

[swartbyron]

I hope they increase the colour saturation of dawn and sunset.

 

It looked just fabulous in 2.5 

 

2.5

2.5

Edited April 21, 2021 by swartbyron

[Miro]

gamma 1.8

[sirrah]

2 hours ago, Miro said:

gamma 1.8

 

 

Wow! It's screenshots like these where I almost get jealous with monitor users.

[Ironhand]

 

18 hours ago, Ironhand said:

...

 

FWIW, I typically use gamma 1.8 on a monitor that I’ve recently calibrated and my colors seem more saturated than those in your screens. But it’s hard to be sure without viewing the same scene with the same settings.

 

 

 

For comparison, here are two screens from the same flight as my previous screens. This time gamma set to 1.7:

 

 

 

[Ala12Rv-watermanpc]

20 hours ago, Ironhand said:

 

 

For comparison, here are two screens from the same flight as my previous screens. This time gamma set to 1.7:

 

 

 

 

I also use gamma 1.8, however, and after watching your screens, I see the sim doesn't look as good as the PR screens from ED. The detail beneath the clouds and the light scatter on the clouds seems much better there:

 

 

 

In the last F-16 PR picture, it looks like the environement is darker and the clouds too, which looks much better, but the cockpit is still visible...If I try to recreate that now (gamma from 1 to 1.8), either the cockpit gets too dark or the clouds/environement are too bright. I think definitely these must be from a superior visual fidelity version of dcs.

[Ironhand]

2 hours ago, Ala12Rv-watermanpc said:

...and after watching your screens, I see the sim doesn't look as good as the PR screens from ED...

 

I should hope so. Those screens were generated using a high end system with an ultra-4k monitor. Mine were generated using a 6-yr old home-built system attached to a 12-yr old 1360x768 resolution monitor. I expect there to be a difference.

 

 

 

 

Quote

...I think definitely these must be from a superior visual fidelity version of dcs.

 

I'm thinking "not" but you can never know for certain, I suppose.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Ironhand

[Jafergon]

I think lighting at that time of the day is still WIP. In the patch notes they mentioned they are working on lighting with the sun at very low angles.

[Glow]

Yes, all those 1920x1080 pixs was probably resized from 4K or 8K.

 

You can try a thing called Custom Resolutions.

In short: If you have 1920x1080 monitor you still CAN probably set your GPU to generate 2550x1440pix images, maybe even bigger. Set your DCS to higher resolution or even Windows desktop too.  If you own good brand screen you should be in a save. Some other can get hot, maybe even burn - you will have this warning window, once your start setting up custom resolutions in  Win10. Read everything, google for some guides about Custom Resolution screenshots in games. Yes, you can damage your hardware that way. Small sacrifice in the name of art 

 

DCS will run like 10fps but you will get amazing, high-res screenshots.

If you are Nvidia GPU happy owner you can try Nvidia Ansel software to do the same but in a different way.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Glow

[SERGIOABRAZ]

was the closest I got

[Ala12Rv-watermanpc]

To those talking about screens resolution, well, I'm not refering about the actual small details, but the general LIGHTING and SHADING over and under the clouds and sky in general. I don't think that would change with resolution but who knows.

 

3 hours ago, Jafergon said:

I think lighting at that time of the day is still WIP. In the patch notes they mentioned they are working on lighting with the sun at very low angles.

 

 

Really?, didn't read anything about that, would you mind pointing to that, please?. Thanks!

27 minutes ago, SERGIOABRAZ said:

was the closest I got

 

4 hours ago, Ironhand said:

 

I should hope so. Those screens were generated using a high end system with an ultra-4k monitor. Mine were generated using a 6-yr old home-built system attached to a 12-yr old 1360x768 resolution monitor. I expect there to be a difference.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm thinking "not" but you can never know for certain, I suppose.

 

 

 

these screens look quite nice and close to the sky and time of day of the ED screens, however, graphics are nowhere near as polished as the ones in their PR images. Thanks!

 

 

[Ironhand]

1 hour ago, Ala12Rv-watermanpc said:

...To those talking about screens resolution, well, I'm not refering about the actual small details, but the general LIGHTING and SHADING over and under the clouds and sky in general. I don't think that would change with resolution...

 

Sure it would make a difference. Pixel count is about much more than sharpness. Which do you think would provide richer, more subtle, shading of light to dark and gradation of color—an inch of monitor screen displaying 100x100 pixels or one using 1000x1000 pixels to display the same 1” section of the scene?

 

Of course, that’s not to say that there isn’t more to it on their end. It might be that these are from a more advanced version of the software. I just don’t think that it’s necessarily so. Those images appear to be using a winter sky and are taken from ground level looking up through the clouds—I used November in my last image—a very different scenario from a summer sky looking down from above.

 

 

Edited April 23, 2021 by Ironhand

[Ironhand]

4 hours ago, Ala12Rv-watermanpc said:

 

...

 

8 hours ago, Jafergon said:

I think lighting at that time of the day is still WIP. In the patch notes they mentioned they are working on lighting with the sun at very low angles.

Expand  

 

 

Really?, didn't read anything about that, would you mind pointing to that, please?. Thanks!

 

 

 

Patch notes for the 7/14 2.7 update : 

• “The lighting effects on the clouds, especially when the sun is low on the horizon is still very much a WIP, and will be improved.”

Edited April 23, 2021 by Ironhand

[Ala12Rv-watermanpc]

12 hours ago, Ironhand said:

 

 

Patch notes for the 7/14 2.7 update : 

• “The lighting effects on the clouds, especially when the sun is low on the horizon is still very much a WIP, and will be improved.”

 

 

Wow, completely missed that!, thanks a lot for sharing!. About the resolution, well, it could make a difference, but I don't think that much to make such a big change. Anyway, if ed is saying they are working particularly on this, then, I think we can conclude that's the reason for the difference with those PR screens...can't wait to enjoy these very low sun skies!

Edited April 24, 2021 by Ala12Rv-watermanpc

[3WA]

You should ask @Glowing_Amraam  He would know.  He does all the PR videos.

Edited April 23, 2021 by 3WA

[Pocket Kings]

I've notice the same. Clouds ten minutes prior to the screenshot looked too bright and milky. Then, THIS (I suppose this screenshot qualifies for "cinematic"):

 

 

Gamma ~ 1.5 at the time of the shot. Been testing a lot of values. I also noticed that gamma is key to good screenshots. The rendering engine seems capable enough though to produce the desired results with the right settings.

[Glow]

[Mizzy]

On 4/21/2021 at 8:17 PM, Ala12Rv-watermanpc said:

 

 

 

Even with gamma 1, which is really low and dark, these clouds don't look as detailed as the images from ED, but definitely look better than at higher gammas. The problem is then, the cockpit will be way too dark.

 

The DCS screenshots are/were WIP, remember your computer has to run the programme because when the FPS goes down the forum gets threads like 'MASSIVE' drop in frame rates. One must admit, it's a universe away from what he had before, just my opinion.

Edited April 30, 2021 by Mizzy