Extending the drawing distance for fading objects

[Heck 496]

Wow I feel dumb....Still no effect for me.

Set objects to fade in Flightdata.ini in flight folder

Set DetailMeshsize to 12 on unlimited

placed shader inis in actual terrain folder i.e. Panama, GermanyCEV3 etc....

used Hecks setting of 18000/3000

 

?

Open the Options.ini file in your GermanyCEV3 mods folder. Copy and paste the following into it:

ObjectsFade=FALSE

//ObjectsFade=TRUE

Set DetailMeshsize to 12 in the FlightEngine.ini in your mods folder.

With those two changes and the files in your GermanyCEV3 terrain folder it should work.  Hope this helps.

Edited May 3, 2015 by Heck

[+mue 715]

As I wrote in the first post: In options.ini (in your mod root folder) set ObjectsFade=FALSE. For this mod to work the stock fading function must be DISABLED.

[Streakfalcon 57]

Thanks, I mistyped, I meant the options ini in the main SF2NA  mods folder is where I set ObjectsFade=FALSE, not the flight folder. 

 

So frustrating but no joy....its not that hard of a procedure

[FastCargo 412]

wonder if that part could be applied to clouds shader so we won't have clouds disappearing near the corners of the screen, though I DO realize these are calculated bit differently as these are billboards and when close t othe camera or at very large scale can mess thigns up a bit

 

I was wondering about that myself...it would be nice if clouds reached to the horizon too.

 

FC

[jeanba 1,920]

Tested it with fastcargo's tuning on SeaVietnam of SF2V : everything is fine

[+Stary 2,427]

fastcargo's tuning on SeaVietnam of SF2V : everything is fine

what is that mod? I'm curious

[jeanba 1,920]

what is that mod? I'm curious

Sorry, it is not clear, I meant eburger's

sf2v-air-ground-war-expansion (last version)

I think I added greenhell last version, but this remains to be checked

 

Fastcargo's tuning is :

 

 

Okay, now I'm impressed...set as 32000/3000 with DetailMeshSize=18 and it reaches darn near all the way to the horizon.

Edited May 4, 2015 by jeanba

[+Coupi 4,388]

Hello guys,

 

I would like use this method by mue but... where are the variables fadeStartDistance and fadeLength?

 

Best regards

 

Coupi

[Heck 496]

Hello guys,

 

I would like use this method by mue but... where are the variables fadeStartDistance and fadeLength?

 

Best regards

 

Coupi

They are in the TERALPHAOBJECT.FX AND TERSOLIDOBJECT.FX files themselves. Open the files in notepad and scroll down. You'll see them.

[+Coupi 4,388]

Many thanks Heck!

[Streakfalcon 57]

Guys this is so humiliating..lol   Ive been modding this game since 2004 and i just can't get this to work. Just to make sure...can I simply drop the  posted FX files into the individual terrain folder without editing them ? (plus all the other ini steps I know..)

[Streakfalcon 57]

Ok...Maybe its working now.....For anyone as dense as me and couldn't get it working..lol...put the FX files in the terrain folder itself..dont "assume" the individual terrains folder. so it impacts all maps. I say I think its working because my draw distance is greatly increased..so much so I can't tell if things are fading or popping lol. 

 

please forgive the brainfart...

[+mue 715]

Ok...Maybe its working now.....For anyone as dense as me and couldn't get it working..lol...put the FX files in the terrain folder itself..dont "assume" the individual terrains folder. so it impacts all maps. I say I think its working because my draw distance is greatly increased..so much so I can't tell if things are fading or popping lol. 

 

please forgive the brainfart...

 

No, the shader (*.fx) files must be put into the individual Terrains\<terrain> folder.

By setting ObjectsFade=false (in options.ini) and increasing DetailMeshSize (in flightengine.ini) you increase the drawing distance of tod objects. But the tods will still popping up.

Only if you put the shader files into the individual terrain folder, the fading is enabled for this greater drawing distance.

[Streakfalcon 57]

Ok working. This is such an epic mod to the game and I know there must be others like me. Just certain terrains that are super detailed crash on loading. Its probably because my computer is weak and can load all the goodies too far out. i will experiment with lower settings. Thanks Mue.

[+mue 715]

I noticed another positive effect of this mod (in particular the ObjectsFade=false and the increasing DetailMeshSize settings):

The 6.7 nm aircraft drawing distance limit (http://combatace.com/topic/82507-some-tests-regarding-aircraft-drawing-distances/) is gone. Now I can see a B-52 fully zoomed in at distances of 15nm (with DetailMeshSize=10) or 19nm (with DetailMeshSize=12).

[1040stf 0]

Mue, thanks for your fantastic finding.

 

Do you think it is possible to make the same improvement for planes and objects on the ground ? It would be good to be able to see, many miles away, a Tupolev taxing on the ground, near its shelter.

[+streakeagle 871]

Ok, I am late to the game. This is a huge step forward. But, the one place I always fly still has popping in/out issues: air bases. barracks, etc. disappear/reappear at relatively short distances. A separate shader determines this? Tell me there is a shader for aircraft so that their visibility distance can be restored to the 1 pixel limit instead of having B-52's pop up out of nowhere.

[+streakeagle 871]

Belay my last regarding aircraft draw distance, at least on my first test mission. I intercepted Badgers with the F-101B and I am pretty sure I could get them to go down to 1 pixel even fully zoomed in... which is a much longer view range than before. I want to try an F-4 vs a Bear so I can judge the range accurately from the radar display...

 

I am confused though. I have not put the shaders in any other terrain, yet in SF2E and SF2NA, I can see aircraft at their 1 pixel limits. If I recall correctly, disabling the fade in function did not restore max spotting distance, then it is the detail mesh setting in the flightengine.ini that has changed the max spotting distance?

 

Just did two tests: MiG-21bis intercepting B-52s over Germany with stock flightengine.ini, and the same mission with the DetailMeshSize=18. That is the difference. All these years of having aircraft, especially large ones, pop into view and all that needed to be changed was this one parameter? and maybe disabling fade?

 

Now how to fix the base objects popping out of view at relatively short distances?

 

Further experimentation: merely turning off  fade and increasing DetailMeshSize gets the job done. I don't see any difference with the shader files removed.

Edited March 19, 2016 by streakeagle

[+mue 715]

Further experimentation: merely turning off  fade and increasing DetailMeshSize gets the job done. I don't see any difference with the shader files removed.

Correct. That's what I tried to say here:http://combatace.com/topic/85980-extending-the-drawing-distance-for-fading-objects/page-2?do=findComment&comment=694431  

Turning off the stock fading and increasing DetailMeshSize increases the draw distance.

The modified shaders then (re)enable the fading for tod objects.

 

Now how to fix the base objects popping out of view at relatively short distances?

 

For this you have to change/increase "MaxVisibleDist" in <terrain>_types.ini and (LOD) "Distance" in <targetobject>.ini for each object. See: http://combatace.com/topic/81464-increasing-the-view-distance-of-target-objects/

Edited March 21, 2016 by mue

[Wrench 9,848]

targets ini is just a listing of "where" something is. Could you elaborate on the distance in the targets ini??

 

totally agree with adjusting the view distance in the _types ini. I know many as set rather close (or not far enough)

[+streakeagle 871]

I will have to try these adjustments. 

As for the shaders re-enabling fading... maybe the distance was so far that it didn't matter? I could see cities properly populated as far as I could see.

These small changes really improve the looks of the game, especially when combined with the latest mods such as Green Hell 3.5.

 

However, I have been comparing Hanoi/Thud Ridge to both FSX (upgraded with high resolution meshes) and Google Earth. FSX and Google Earth are nearly 100% identical other than textures. The SF2 Green Hell 3.5 textures look better than both the stock FSX textures and the free SEA upgrade, but the terrain elevations and runway placement, etc. are far from the accuracy achieved in FSX.

 

What I really want is a single sim with the best features of SF2, FSX, and DCS all wrapped into one!

[+streakeagle 871]

OK, I modified every single <target>.ini I could find in the VietnamSEA terrain folder.

Everything looks great... except the pits (where aircraft park--open revetments) and hangars which give me some issues with flickering at any useful distance.

[KJakker 901]

streakeagle, do you have the replacment pit that fixes the shadow issue? If not try dropping everything in the attachment into your SEA terrain folder.

 

PIT1.7z

[+mue 715]

targets ini is just a listing of "where" something is. Could you elaborate on the distance in the targets ini??

 

I don't mean the <terrain>_targets.ini but the <targetobject>.ini (e.g warehouse.ini)

[Wrench 9,848]

ok, I see now. The INDIVIDUAL object's ini

 

that would be an awful lot of work, extracting all 100 and something ini, and tweeking them. But it wold definately do the trick, as the individial ini, irrc, can take precedence over the _types entry

 

[LOD001]

Filename=ASR.lod

Distance=200

 

[LOD002]

Filename=ASR_lod002.lod

Distance=800

 

[LOD003]

Filename=ASR_lod003.lod

Distance=8000

 

[shadow]

CastShadow=TRUE

ShadowCastDist=500

MaxVisibleDistance=2000