How to reduce the haze on all maps

[Kurdes]

Hello!

If you, like me, hate the terrible haze/foggyness that lies over all the dcs terrains, here is how to reduce it:

This has been discovered by Taz1004 long ago, but i think this has gone under the radar, for what (in my opinion) great graphical improvement it gives!

You have to edit the "atmosphere.hsl" file in "bazar\shaders\deffered", if i remember the path correctly...

In this file search this part:

float3 atmApplyLinear(float3 v, float distance, float3 color)
{
    float3 transmittance;
    float3 cameraPos = gEarthCenter + float3(0, heightHack, 0);
    float3 inscatterColor = GetSkyRadianceToPoint(cameraPos, cameraPos + v*distance, 0.0/*shadow*/, gSunDir, transmittance);
    return color*transmittance + inscatterColor * gAtmIntensity;

Now just add this " * 0.5" to the last line. It should look like this:

float3 atmApplyLinear(float3 v, float distance, float3 color)
{
    float3 transmittance;
    float3 cameraPos = gEarthCenter + float3(0, heightHack, 0);
    float3 inscatterColor = GetSkyRadianceToPoint(cameraPos, cameraPos + v*distance, 0.0/*shadow*/, gSunDir, transmittance);
    return color*transmittance + inscatterColor * gAtmIntensity * 0.5;

You can further reduce the multiplicator to lessen the haze. I have mine set at 0.2.

Happy flying!

 

Edit: This breaks IC! So only for Single Player.

Edited November 29, 2023 by Kurdes

[ROCKET 1-1]

Hello,

in MT i got a crash when i launch a mission it keep stuck on loading the mission

[titi69]

it doesn't pass IC and recompile shader for very long time

 

[YSIAD_RIP]

34 minutes ago, ROCKET 1-1 said:

Hello,

in MT i got a crash when i launch a mission it keep stuck on loading the mission

Maybe you have a typo or invalid character in your local edit?..

Here is a link to a thread that has the file with a version of Taz1004 from Kegetys edits described in another thread.

 

[Hiob]

You can as easily (and without breaking IC) remove the haze with some sharpness, contrast and saturation. Reshade does wonders here. If you don’t want to use reshade, start using the new sharpness slider. It‘ll help a lot.

[Kurdes]

1 hour ago, ROCKET 1-1 said:

Hello,

in MT i got a crash when i launch a mission it keep stuck on loading the mission

Check your edit, i'm also running in MT without a Problem! Also it can take several minutes at mission loading when its compiling shaders, just wait after the edit.

Edited November 29, 2023 by Kurdes

[Kurdes]

43 minutes ago, Hiob said:

You can as easily (and without breaking IC) remove the haze with some sharpness, contrast and saturation. Reshade does wonders here. If you don’t want to use reshade, start using the new sharpness slider. It‘ll help a lot.

Sure, but editing the atmosphere.hsl looks miles better and doesn't cost a single frame!

[Hiob]

10 minutes ago, Kurdes said:

Sure, but editing the atmosphere.hsl looks miles better and doesn't cost a single frame!

Yes, I understand and it’s good to know, but it doesn’t work with MP or does it?

[Kurdes]

13 hours ago, Hiob said:

Yes, I understand and it’s good to know, but it doesn’t work with MP or does it?

Sadly, it doesn't.

[Hotdognz]

On 11/30/2023 at 6:11 PM, Kurdes said:

Sadly, it doesn't.

Well it does if you dont play on IC locked servers

[Hiob]

On 11/29/2023 at 7:36 PM, Kurdes said:

Sure, but editing the atmosphere.hsl looks miles better and doesn't cost a single frame!

I played around with it a bit and beg to differ. Sure, depending on how much you adjust the factor it looks crisp clear all the way to the horizon. Looks better than the default grey haze, for sure, but a bit unrealistic to me. 

Using Sharpness and contrast (preferable via reshade) gives almost the same effect with the added benefit of far away scenery still being affected by atmosphere.

I‘m still playing around with it and haven’t yet decided which I like better ultimately.

I added the modified atmosphere.hsl to my mod manager (same with reshade), so I can switch back and forth. But I may and up using neither and just take advantage of the sharpness slider in the game settings.

The one major argument for reshade is, that I can easily adjust the color to my liking, because, frankly, default-DCS is waaaaay over-saturated, which gives it a gamey and artificial look for my taste.

[Grodin]

On 11/29/2023 at 5:34 PM, Kurdes said:

Hello!

If you, like me, hate the terrible haze/foggyness that lies over all the dcs terrains, here is how to reduce it:

This has been discovered by Taz1004 long ago, but i think this has gone under the radar, for what (in my opinion) great graphical improvement it gives!

You have to edit the "atmosphere.hsl" file in "bazar\shaders\deffered", if i remember the path correctly...

In this file search this part:

float3 atmApplyLinear(float3 v, float distance, float3 color)
{
    float3 transmittance;
    float3 cameraPos = gEarthCenter + float3(0, heightHack, 0);
    float3 inscatterColor = GetSkyRadianceToPoint(cameraPos, cameraPos + v*distance, 0.0/*shadow*/, gSunDir, transmittance);
    return color*transmittance + inscatterColor * gAtmIntensity;

Now just add this " * 0.5" to the last line. It should look like this:

float3 atmApplyLinear(float3 v, float distance, float3 color)
{
    float3 transmittance;
    float3 cameraPos = gEarthCenter + float3(0, heightHack, 0);
    float3 inscatterColor = GetSkyRadianceToPoint(cameraPos, cameraPos + v*distance, 0.0/*shadow*/, gSunDir, transmittance);
    return color*transmittance + inscatterColor * gAtmIntensity * 0.5;

You can further reduce the multiplicator to lessen the haze. I have mine set at 0.2.

Happy flying!

 

Edit: This breaks IC! So only for Single Player.

 

Thank you so much, you totally made me enjoy VR again! By default i felt like flying in a snow storm on my Quest 3, everything was blinding white from the ridiculous amount of haze. Now it is perfect, i think i'm going with 0.3 or 0.4. This should absolutely be a slider in the options!

[Kurdes]

10 hours ago, Grodin said:

Thank you so much, you totally made me enjoy VR again! By default i felt like flying in a snow storm on my Quest 3, everything was blinding white from the ridiculous amount of haze. Now it is perfect, i think i'm going with 0.3 or 0.4. This should absolutely be a slider in the options!

Great, have fun!

Btw: Im also at 0.35. In combination with reshades clarity shader its perfect!

[Mistermann]

@Kurdes - thanks for posting this!  I am a big fan of Taz' work, but somehow missed this one.  I can't believe how much better Syria, PG and Sinai look now.  

[KCOOL]

On 12/22/2023 at 5:06 AM, Kurdes said:

Great, have fun!

Btw: Im also at 0.35. In combination with reshades clarity shader its perfect!

Reshades clarity shader?

What is that?

Thanks!

[Kurdes]

On 1/7/2024 at 1:08 AM, KCOOL said:

Reshades clarity shader?

What is that?

Thanks!

Its a shader provided with reshade. Once you installed reshade, you can choose it in the list.

[Hiob]

I'm a big fan of Reshade (especially in combination with DCS), but honestly - you can now achieve a lot with the sharpening slider in game. At this point I use Reshade mainly for colour correction. (oh, and more recently - for debanding.)

For my personal taste, DCS by default is way to colorful/oversaturated. Looks like candy sometimes. Luckily this can very easily be improved with Reshade.

Edited January 8, 2024 by Hiob

[Kurdes]

On 1/8/2024 at 9:29 AM, Hiob said:

I'm a big fan of Reshade (especially in combination with DCS), but honestly - you can now achieve a lot with the sharpening slider in game. At this point I use Reshade mainly for colour correction. (oh, and more recently - for debanding.)

For my personal taste, DCS by default is way to colorful/oversaturated. Looks like candy sometimes. Luckily this can very easily be improved with Reshade.

 

Then i would check your monitor for its colour settings! On my calibrated oled with a neutral colour profile, stock DCS is very desaturated...

[Hiob]

3 minutes ago, Kurdes said:

Then i would check your monitor for its colour settings! On my calibrated oled with a neutral colour profile, stock DCS is very desaturated...

If it was the monitor (tv in my case), windows, youtube, other games would also be over-saturated. Which isn't the case.

Probably just a matter of taste.

[Kurdes]

Ok, then i cant explain it to me.

Even on the monitor i had before, it was very desaturated.

Are you possibly running the technicolour2.lut in dcs settings? That would explain much!

Also normandy 2.0 is very saturated stock.

Edited January 10, 2024 by Kurdes

[Dunska]

Here's a complimentary mod from Taz1004 that can also help with perceived haze/visibility.  I leave the shadows on, but set the opacity to 0.2 (line 101).

 

[swartbyron]

I've found tweaking the haze in the atmosphere.hsl works but never looks quite right as DCS uses the haze for blending purposes, so the textures or blending in the distance can look a little odd. I strongly recommend using ReShade for reducing the haze and enhancing the overall look of the sim and it won't intefear with the IC.

Along with the Sweet.fx shaders I recommend installing Astray.fx shaders when installing ReShade.

I have the following enabled:

Blooming_HDR.fx  

(This is were the magic happens and it adjusts the lighting and bloom in real time according to where you look.)

ColourMatrix.fx

(Makes the terrain look more photo real to me but removes a lot of red)

Vibrance.fx

(I use this to bring back colour a little after enabling ColourMatrix)

Clarity.fx

(This makes things really pop out but can look too noisy if you already have a lot of in game sharpening already applied.)

Note however the Blooming_HDR.fx can look a little odd in some night time conditions and outstanding in others. I mostly just turn ReShade off at night but one can experiment with making a separate preset for when its dark.

There is a nice review of the Blooming_HDR.fx Here

Screenshots just don't do it justice but here are some comparison screens below with my in game with sharpening set at 0.2 and Gamma at 2.2.

Ive also attached my current ReShade preset below.

Hope this helps some of you

Default:

ReShade:

Default:

ReShade:

Default:

ReShade:

Default:

ReShade:

 

Day Mixed.ini

Edited January 20, 2024 by swartbyron

[Dunska]

Thanks @swartbyron.  I gave this a try in VR with ReShade 6.0 (now supports OpenXR - yay!).  Looks great, but I did lose about 5-8 FPS in initial testing. More testing required.

[Hiob]

On 1/20/2024 at 12:41 PM, swartbyron said:

I've found tweaking the haze in the atmosphere.hsl works but never looks quite right as DCS uses the haze for blending purposes, so the textures or blending in the distance can look a little odd. I strongly recommend using ReShade for reducing the haze and enhancing the overall look of the sim and it won't intefear with the IC.

Along with the Sweet.fx shaders I recommend installing Astray.fx shaders when installing ReShade.

I have the following enabled:

Blooming_HDR.fx  

(This is were the magic happens and it adjusts the lighting and bloom in real time according to where you look.)

ColourMatrix.fx

(Makes the terrain look more photo real to me but removes a lot of red)

Vibrance.fx

(I use this to bring back colour a little after enabling ColourMatrix)

Clarity.fx

(This makes things really pop out but can look too noisy if you already have a lot of in game sharpening already applied.)

Note however the Blooming_HDR.fx can look a little odd in some night time conditions and outstanding in others. I mostly just turn ReShade off at night but one can experiment with making a separate preset for when its dark.

There is a nice review of the Blooming_HDR.fx Here

Screenshots just don't do it justice but here are some comparison screens below with my in game with sharpening set at 0.2 and Gamma at 2.2.

Ive also attached my current ReShade preset below.

Hope this helps some of you

Default:

ReShade:

Default:

ReShade:

Default:

ReShade:

Default:

ReShade:

 

Day Mixed.ini 1.06 kB · 3 downloads

 

That looks indeed awesome. I will give it a try as well! Thanks for sharing!

Reshade is really a great addition to DCS!

[Hotdognz]

How do you use Reshade with VR, I installed 6.0 but dont get any of the Reshade options

Ignore sorted it out

Edited January 30, 2024 by Hotdognz