reported Canopy rain droplets in VR - Droplets look much more realistic during time acceleration

[sirrah]

So, I've always been a bit disappointed about the canopy rain droplets effect in VR.

 

In VR you do see droplets, but they just kinda stay in the same spot, until they slowly vanish. While in reality, these droplets would build up and eventually roll down the canopy due to gravity. Like I professionally indicated here:

 

 

Today I discovered that this effect actually is (somewhat) present in VR!!!

 

Try this:

 

Set time acceleration to for instance 8x and wait a few seconds

You'll see great droplet distortion like this:

(See how the droplet buildup and light distortion is much more excessive)

 

 

Then set time back to normal speed and again wait a few seconds.. The nice distortion fades and you'll go back to single droplets  :

 

Looks to me like some sort of bug. As if the droplets fade away (dry up) too early, before they can properly form up.

 

The rain droplet effect in my first screenshot looks much better (more realistic) than the one at normal speed imho.

Edited May 24, 2021 by sirrah

[sirrah]

Already 90 views, yet nobody's as impressed as I was when I discovered this??? How am I the only one being amazed by this? 

 

The canopy rain effect looks really great in VR when you speed up time (CTRL-Z). You should try.

 

 

(oh, fwiw, only tested in the Hornet so far, but I assume it'll work on all modules)

[Dave317]

I'm away at the minute but will have a check when I get back.  Hopefully you've made a breakthrough and it can be fixed for vr. 

[sirrah]

16 minutes ago, Dave317 said:

I'm away at the minute but will have a check when I get back.  Hopefully you've made a breakthrough and it can be fixed for vr. 

 

Yes please, check out if you see what I mean.

 

Don't expect a "dynamic raindrops rolling down the canopy" kind of breakthrough, but the rain distortion effect seems much MUCH better with time acceleration on.

[Fri13]

So every droplet has fixed real clock vanish time, but game time generates more droplets separately.

 

This leads that at faster speed more droplets gets generated but as each vanish with a real clock timer, they start to vanish much later....

 

So the droplets were likely timed by the real clock timer instead game realtime. This so it doesn't stress the game own realtime simulation calculations because checking droplets lifetime in simulations realtime would cause severe CPU use to make sure that droplet is gone at correct time.

Edited May 28, 2021 by Fri13

[sirrah]

2 hours ago, Fri13 said:

So the droplets were likely timed by the real clock timer instead game realtime. 

 

Yes indeed, this appears to be the case.

 

Although I understand the current droplet "timer setting" might have to do with performance optimization, I'd still very much like to try and alter that "timer".

I've been looking through various lua files with hopes to find anything in there, but no luck so far. Would you have any idea if this could be altered somewhere @Fri13? (I'm kind of a layman when it comes to lua editing)

 

[Fri13]

19 minutes ago, sirrah said:

Although I understand the current droplet "timer setting" might have to do with performance optimization, I'd still very much like to try and alter that "timer".

I've been looking through various lua files with hopes to find anything in there, but no luck so far. Would you have any idea if this could be altered somewhere @Fri13? (I'm kind of a layman when it comes to lua editing)

 

I have no idea. Someone in the modding forum might know firsthand where to look. But it shouldn't be task for ED to make proper adjustments to increase the droplets lifetime. 

[sirrah]

36 minutes ago, Fri13 said:

But it shouldn't be task for ED to make proper adjustments to increase the droplets lifetime. 

 

You mean it should be, right?

 

I'll try the mod forum, good idea

[Mustang]

Guys please give the attached droplets.fx a try (insert at DCS World OpenBeta\Bazar\shaders\enlight folder)

 

 

droplets.fx

[sirrah]

2 hours ago, Mustang said:

Guys please give the attached droplets.fx a try (insert at DCS World OpenBeta\Bazar\shaders\enlight folder)

 

Great! Thanks Mustang!

 

I actually cranked up those numbers even further and the effect is amazing!

droplets.fx

 

Much more intense then with ED's default values. And although some may judge that I overdid it a little bit, well, maybe here in Holland we just have fatter rain  

 

It seems though, that somehow the droplets effect is very dependent on aircraft type.

 

I quickly tested the above droplets.fx settings on latest OB, in several airframes, with preset weather to overcast with rain 2:

• F/A-18C - Fantastic visuals! (rain looks best on the front windshield, maybe slightly exaggerated on the canopy, but still much better than default imho)
• A-10C II - Droplets probably slightly to big
• F-16C - Droplets still rather small in this one
• AV-8B - Droplets probably slightly to big
• F-14B - Droplet effect looks great (especially when sitting in the back seat!), although there's a slightly strange "wind" effect.. as if the rain hits the canopy sideways instead of from above (only seeing this in the F-14)
• UH-1H - Droplet effect looks great
• Mi-8 - Droplet effect looks great

 

• I only tested this in VR
• I didn't notice any performance hit whatsoever
• I wasn't able to find a MP server with rain, so not sure about IC

 

 

 

I wonder why ED doesn't optimize the droplet effect a bit further. Apparently it's just a matter of fiddling a bit with the numbers in this droplets.fx file, to find the best balance. The default droplets.fx settings from ED, are barely visible in VR. Bit of a missed opportunity if you ask me...

Edited May 28, 2021 by sirrah
Grammar

[Dave317]

Nicely done gents.  Much better than the stock rain.

[pimp]

On 5/28/2021 at 6:50 AM, Mustang said:

Guys please give the attached droplets.fx a try (insert at DCS World OpenBeta\Bazar\shaders\enlight folder)

 

 

droplets.fx 14.84 kB · 14 downloads

Im away from my rig right now, but does this fix the dynamic rain drops in VR or just improve the default rain?

Edited June 2, 2021 by pimp

[pimp]

On 5/28/2021 at 6:50 AM, Mustang said:

Guys please give the attached droplets.fx a try (insert at DCS World OpenBeta\Bazar\shaders\enlight folder)

 

 

droplets.fx 14.84 kB · 15 downloads

What is the difference between using this file versus the original? I'm not seeing a difference visually. I still do not see any dynamic rain drops.

[zildac]

Curious how this differs from this MOD?

 

 

 

[sirrah]

7 hours ago, pimp said:

What is the difference between using this file versus the original? I'm not seeing a difference visually. I still do not see any dynamic rain drops.

 

Come again? You don't see a difference between default and my droplets.fx? (or did you try the one from Mustang? With mine the difference is slightly more visible)

Oh and you are using VR, right?

 

You should try again. In my droplets.fx the droplets are much larger than originally, which makes the distortion effect also much more extreme.

 

 

6 hours ago, zildac said:

Curious how this differs from this MOD?

 

 

 

 

Well... I don't know as I don't use any mods  

This droplets.fx file will probably be overwritten every patch, so it's not really a good solution..

 

I posted this thread here in the bug section, because imho this is something ED should improve for us. And apparently it's an easy fix for ED too... (if even I can do it ) 

 

The adjusted droplets.fx that I shared is merely meant for me to indicate/proof to ED that this file needs tweaking for VR users. 

Unfortunately @BIGNEWY or @NineLine didn't read/respond to this thread yet.

[zildac]

1 minute ago, sirrah said:

 

Come again? You don't see a difference between default and my droplets.fx? (or did you try the one from Mustang? With mine the difference is slightly more visible)

Oh and you are using VR, right?

 

You should try again. In my droplets.fx the droplets are much larger than originally, which makes the distortion effect also much more extreme.

 

 

 

Well... I don't know as I don't use any mods  

This droplets.fx file will probably be overwritten every patch, so it's not really a good solution..

 

I posted this thread here in the bug section, because imho this is something ED should improve for us. And apparently it's an easy fix for ED too... (if even I can do it ) 

 

The adjusted droplets.fx that I shared is merely meant for me to indicate/proof to ED that this file needs tweaking for VR users. 

Unfortunately @BIGNEWY or @NineLine didn't read/respond to this thread yet.

Understood. Well , you could give it a try. It seems to make a huge difference over default and also seems slightly different to yours in terms of look.

[BIGNEWY]

I have mentioned it again to the team and bumped the report. I have no ETA sorry.

[sirrah]

Just now, BIGNEWY said:

I have mentioned it again to the team and bumped the report. I have no ETA sorry.

 

I understand it has low priority and that's completely fine with me

 

Thank you for bumping it to the devs though  

[fagulha]

On 6/4/2021 at 1:17 PM, sirrah said:

 

Come again? You don't see a difference between default and my droplets.fx? (or did you try the one from Mustang? With mine the difference is slightly more visible)

Oh and you are using VR, right?

 

You should try again. In my droplets.fx the droplets are much larger than originally, which makes the distortion effect also much more extreme.

 

 

 

Well... I don't know as I don't use any mods  

This droplets.fx file will probably be overwritten every patch, so it's not really a good solution..

 

I posted this thread here in the bug section, because imho this is something ED should improve for us. And apparently it's an easy fix for ED too... (if even I can do it ) 

 

The adjusted droplets.fx that I shared is merely meant for me to indicate/proof to ED that this file needs tweaking for VR users. 

Unfortunately @BIGNEWY or @NineLine didn't read/respond to this thread yet.

I created a Ovgme folder for the droplets.fx so i can enable/disable with a click. So, it won´t be overwritten every update.