Sarcasm 2.0 Beta By Stary

[+Stary 2,426]

yeah I start to think this might be specific to given terrains, as in the version of Terrain Editor to generate the heightflied etc, as I worte earlier, some of the unmodded terrains like Nam or Israel/ME seem to have clouds at sane altitudes but when one adds modded content it moves them up

 

I wonder if Gerwin could crack the HFD data so we could move whole heightmap's "zero" value up or down to cheat the enigne

[+Viper63a 651]

Hmmm...I know this is way outside the box...but that would be a great sand storm if it was brown....or smoke camo for tanks and ships if it was smaller...just some things that come to my mind....

[+Stary 2,426]

those could be done easier with the use of dummy invisible "ground object" and custom effect, pretty easy to do in fact

 

as for smoke screens yeah but we have no way in game to "tell" the ships to activate it as no such game logic exists sadly

[+Viper63a 651]

LOL...just brain dumping the ideas that came to mind. Will download 2.0 and check it out....

[beachav8r 360]

Nice work... Just installed it a couple days ago, so haven't had a chance to fully explore it. But while I was flying a trip yesterday I was struck by how similar conditions at Raleigh (KRDU) were to Stary's stormy overcast.. Right on!

 

 

 

Yeah..unfortunately no Mavericks or LGBs on my little ride..but one can try to imagine it..<g>

 

BeachAV8R

Edited March 4, 2015 by beachav8r

[+Stary 2,426]

hello Beachav8r! good to see you around again, and glad you enjoy it. I bet you had fabulour ride there mate

[beachav8r 360]

Thanks Stary - I'm like a bad penny..I keep turning up.. <g>  I like to keep checking back with SF2 development because the sim appeals to me so much. I'm always impressed by the new mods and work that is being done. I'm struggling to figure out what airframe and campaign I should fly for the proposed Dead Is Dead thread.. I love the Harrier..but it kills me regularly.. <g>

 

Regarding my ride - yeah, flying around the east coast of the U.S. has been pretty interesting the past couple months. Snow, ice, rain, thunderstorms...the whole mixed bag. I picked up the worst clear ice of my career a few weeks ago. From the outer marker to touchdown (2 minutes of flying) we picked up a really healthy dose of clear ice that was pretty ugly. I'm ready for spring..no doubt..

 

Great to see you are still churning out great stuff for the series!

 

BeachAV8R

[+Coupi 4,279]

Yeah! The Stary stuff gives a dramatic setting!!!

[+Dave 2,318]

Thanks Stary - I'm like a bad penny..I keep turning up.. <g>  I like to keep checking back with SF2 development because the sim appeals to me so much. I'm always impressed by the new mods and work that is being done. I'm struggling to figure out what airframe and campaign I should fly for the proposed Dead Is Dead thread.. I love the Harrier..but it kills me regularly.. <g>

 

Regarding my ride - yeah, flying around the east coast of the U.S. has been pretty interesting the past couple months. Snow, ice, rain, thunderstorms...the whole mixed bag. I picked up the worst clear ice of my career a few weeks ago. From the outer marker to touchdown (2 minutes of flying) we picked up a really healthy dose of clear ice that was pretty ugly. I'm ready for spring..no doubt..

 

Great to see you are still churning out great stuff for the series!

 

BeachAV8R

 

 

Well as I said wait a bit. Have a few things up my sleeve for Dead is Dead. 

[beachav8r 360]

Sounds good... Activating *wait* mode.. Looking forward to it..

[+Viper63a 651]

Punching holes in the clouds with my Reaper! Beautiful!

Oops, too big, Scaled it down to 1920 and 1024...Still beautiful!!!

 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2020 by viper63a

[+Viper63a 651]

Do clouds cast shadows in SF2? Just noticed that....

[+Stary 2,426]

no they do not

 

that would require different shadows casting engine, not stencil as now

[blutigre 0]

I am glad I only paid 5 USD for this deal. I find I have to down load a win zip file and then pay for that. For what? What am I missing? I was hoping to pay my money give it a go and have some fun this afternoon. If anyone could help and tell me what it is I am doing wrong or not doing right I would appreciate it. 

[+russouk2004 6,951]

you paid for what?...winzip?.....get 7z its free and does zip files...

no files for sf1 or 2 here at CA cost a penny...get 7z and download starys sarcasm 2 at 1st page and ur fine...then just install as per readme

Edited July 31, 2015 by russouk2004

[+Stary 2,426]

doing some more experiments regarding fog density and colour and clouds fading distance (and colour at distance!). Both are dependent on each another. Plus skygeight and sky panels (these little textured panels near the horizont with far clouds graphics on them) which might lead to some nice eye candy. Will see:

 

one of my odd trials at replicating CFS1-style strong blue environment fog for broken skies

 

 

extended clouds distance etc

 

 

sky panels height and skypanel vertex position tweaks

 

apparently there IS layered fog in the engine but I can't make it more prominent like in say Il2 or Falcon, you can see the top of the hills is less foggy than bottom (World space z axis)

 

 

will post more if I produce anything of use or significance

re: the layered fog, I think it might be just  illusion given by the brighter background but there are statements pointing at it in the dlls

[+Stary 2,426]

tweaking the clouds graphics, will post new version when ready

[Stick 773]

Sweet!

[+Menrva 3,990]

Looking forward to it!  What about sky colours?  I've seen new ones in the screenshots above. TW stock ones are not bad but not all that great either.  Moreover, am I wrong or do I spy with my little eye something with t... tileset?

[+76.IAP-Blackbird 3,545]

The fog stuff is realy interesting!

[+russouk2004 6,951]

Really like the distance fog effect m8 really realistic..

[+Stary 2,426]

which one Russ? as for tileset yeah it's one of my tests I run here

 

as for sky colours, these are like in first beta in first post, stock TW, I changed that from my new ones in one of previous Sarcasm versions, I think 1.5 one as the transitions weren't that good

[+Menrva 3,990]

Thanks for the info, Stary.  Indeed the transition colours are better in 1.5.  My favourite sky colours are those of the WideSky mod, but it misses some variety and indeed SARCASM has nicer clouds graphics and fog effects.  My favourite is the CFS1-style fog shown in the first screenshot.

[+russouk2004 6,951]

last one m8....v good

[+Stary 2,426]

SARCASM 2 BETA 2 release

 

Try this, it's Sarcasm 2 BETA 2 release, has alot of new stuff and goodies and testwork in it, mostly revolving around new fog colour/shading, clouds fading distances and neat new horizon clouds using "pushed up" horizon band around the sky scene. Ohh you'll understand when you try it:

 

Sarcasm 2 beta 2 release.7z

 

I highly recommend you back up your current SARCASM 2 beta files listed below:

 

CLOUD1.tga
CLOUDS_BROKEN.tga
CLOUDS_CLEAR.tga
CLOUDS_OVERCAST.tga
CLOUDS_SCATTERED.tga
ENVIRONMENTSYSTEM.INI
Lensflare_blob.tga
LENSFLARE_DIAMOND.TGA
Lensflare_drops.tga
Lensflare_drops2.tga
Lensflare_scratches.tga
LENSFLARE_STAR.tga
STAR.tga
SUN.TGA
TWPOSTPROCESS.FX

 

this new installment is quite a ..specific... release in therms of general looks and feel to it if I may call it as such. The included TWPOSTPROCESS.FX is toned down (decreased) full-screen bloom, fainter than the beta 1 release. Looks better I think, not overdone bloomfiesta.

 

The new 512^ horizon clouds for all weather states (clear, scattered, broken, overcast, inclement) are a neat addition I think BUT there is slight issue with their colours transition vs the particle-based clouds lighting at certain sky conditions/time of day. Something I need to still adjust. Also as this was on-and-off project in the past few months I lost track of some of values adjustments but there is sudden spike of brightness between dawn/dusk twilight and early day/late evening sky colours, something I have had problems with in the past too IIRC. Ohh well, crap happens.

 

Some clouds graphics got well-deserved updates in highres so now scattered clouds look less "buildt up" than broken ones, while clear ones are fluffy little errr... floaters anyway I upload this as is as the eventual updates I forsee would be more ini-related which is simpler for me than re-uploading some 360 megabytes (slow upload for me here)

 

Overall this edition gives more of old classic CFS1 feel to the scenes and is worth experimenting with further, to which you are as allways encouraged.

 

All sky textures based on my own sky photography as usual. Shame we can't have much more clouds shapes variations (the 4-piece bottom rows) the TileFactor= value doesn't seem to work now and I can't say if it worked before (in theory this variablre could determine if you use texture atlas of say 4x4 or 8x8 etc tiles)

 

And again, this isn't new "widesky" or "better widesky", or any similar "full realism of looks" mod, it is and allways been Slightly Artistic Representation (of) Clouds And Sky Mod

 

have fun