CFS3Config error

**HornetAircraft** · December 21st, 2018, 11:20

hello. So I tried to get the Ankors Shaders for CFS3. all was going well until I went to disable the dual pass rendering. so I edited the XML file, and saved it. however, I went to run the sim and the CFS3Config.exe keeps failing. it will NOT run! I tried it by itself, and no luck. I uninstalled the sim completely and tried to reinstall it, but after reinstall I get the exact same error. Does anybody know what happened to my sim?

**mongoose** · December 21st, 2018, 11:39

Are you looking at the cfg file in your appdata folder of the cfs3 folder?

**HornetAircraft** · December 21st, 2018, 14:32

I was in the C/user/appdata/roaming/microsoft/CFS3

**mongoose** · December 21st, 2018, 15:02

So when you say the "CFS3Config.exe keeps failing" you mean that after deleting the cfg file in the appdata, and go back to CFS3, the Config.exe app won't run?
Did you delete the dualpass rendering in the xml file or through Config.exe?
When you re installed was it with or without Ankor's shaders?
Which CFs3 install are you talking about?

**HornetAircraft** · December 21st, 2018, 18:13

ok. so I delete the ConfigOverrides.xml in the appdata, which supposedly had the Dual Pass Rendering option in it. I had tried to turn off DPR by editing the xml file using notepad. I simply changed the Y to an N. this prompted the CFS3 to stop working. I then reinstalled the sim WITHOUT ankor's shaders. I could not figure out how to delete DPR through the CFS3Config.exe. every time I run it, it freezes and gives me the (fill in the blank) has stopped responding.

**mongoose** · December 21st, 2018, 19:50

Are you saying the problem is only when you change DPR in the xml or even just when you re install and just run the basic cfg.exe without either Ankors or changing the DPR setting?

Again I need to know what install you are using and if you have other ones that work?

***italflyer*** · December 22nd, 2018, 09:30

Originally Posted by HornetAircraft

hello. So I tried to get the Ankors Shaders for CFS3. all was going well until I went to disable the dual pass rendering. so I edited the XML file, and saved it. however, I went to run the sim and the CFS3Config.exe keeps failing. it will NOT run! I tried it by itself, and no luck. I uninstalled the sim completely and tried to reinstall it, but after reinstall I get the exact same error. Does anybody know what happened to my sim?

Just a guess: in Win 7 / 8 / 10: be sure to run cfs3.exe as admin!

***MajorMagee*** · December 22nd, 2018, 10:48

If you have AnKor's shaders installed you can get a diagnostic by setting WriteLog=1 at the bottom of ded8.ini.

**HornetAircraft** · December 23rd, 2018, 14:55

I am running CFS3.1 default and BoB edition. The problem is with both Sims and neither work now. Both stopped working after I edited the xml file.

**HornetAircraft** · December 23rd, 2018, 14:57

And the cfs3.exe is running in compatibility for Windows XP service pack two. Admin privelages have been checked and I always run as admin

**mongoose** · December 23rd, 2018, 15:58

Would you like to try Andy MajorMagee's cfg file? It's in the Shaders's thread AFAIK but I have it as well. Maybe good to post yours here anyway.

Try running as XP SP3 i/o SP2.

I take it you tried deleting the whole relevant CFS3 Appdata folder and re running cfg.exe?

BTW if both stopped working was it when you edited one of the 2 or both?

**BorekS** · December 24th, 2018, 00:10

What is your editor to edit and save the xml file?
Looks like your file save butchers the xml content. Or there is just a content edit typo.

**HornetAircraft** · December 25th, 2018, 15:17

so to answer your questions.
1. I have already tried to delete everything and start over. did not work
2. I used notepad to edit the xml file. maybe it butchered the internals. not sure. even when I delete the old xml file and replace it with the backup that worked, it currupts it too.

**grover1** · December 25th, 2018, 15:28

One suggestion I have would be to do a complete reinstall of your CFS3 install.

That means delete the entire CFS3 install game folder AND the CFS3 folder in your appdata/roaming folder.

But, back up any custom missions/files you have before you delete it. It's time consuming to do, but it might be the solution to your problem

Hope that helps!

Chris

***MajorMagee*** · December 25th, 2018, 16:21

Don't forget to run Multicfs3.exe again as well.

**HornetAircraft** · December 28th, 2018, 15:46

ok. so that has helped. now, can you help guide me through the proper installation of the ankors mod? I don't want to screw this whole thing up

**mongoose** · December 28th, 2018, 16:35

Ankor Shaders for Dummies

This software addition to CFS3; which can be applied to all varieties of CFS3 installs, was first developed by Andrey Korchinskiy in December of 2013 and was originally intended to become part of WOFF Since that first version it has developed much further and revealed many exciting new features which work with CFS3. MajorMagee has been instrumental in extrapolating many features from dynamic gun sight reticles to viewing cockpit gauges at night. If you want to know all the features available, check the original ‘Readmes’ from majorMagee at the end of these “for Dummies” instructions.

PART I . BASIC INSTALL

1. Go to the SOH ‘Warbirds Library’ and ‘CFS3 Other Add-Ons’ . At the bottom of the list of other add-ons are various entries. About the 5^th (at the moment) entry down is AnKors_Shaders_17_Jan_2018.zip . The link for that page of the downloads is http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...s.php?catid=13

Download the zip file

2. On you desktop or somewhere convenient, make a new folder and place AnKors_Shaders_17_Jan_2018.zip file in it.

3. Extract the contents there.

4. There are only 3 folders or files you need to worry about initially

shaders30 folder
d3d8.dll file
d3d8.ini file
5. Place all 3 of these items in your CFS3 install main directory.

That’s it! Now there is a lot more to it; some of which is in Part II

PART II TAKING FULL ADVANTAGE

1. Now you have the basic Ankor’s Shaders in and working, the first additional things you could try is adding the Effects folder and suneffect.xml provided in the download. BACK UP THE EXISITING ONES FIRST!!! By now you should have a folder somewhere outside of CFS3 where you can keep back ups properly labeled; such as “Effects BU Oct 18 2018”, and sp on. If you like the appearance, move on; if not, go back to the original youj backed up.

2. The ‘TextureMagic.ini’ file in the shaders30 folder is one of the more important files which can be modified by editing with notepad. This is the file where references to dynamic reticle dds files are placed to make them work. In fact there are 2 sections in the extureMagic.ini file relating to reticles;
[ReticleStatic] and [ReticleDynamic]

MajorMagee's readme.

AnKor's Shaders are a powerful addition to the CFS3 experience, and contain a great deal of capability to tune each of the effects to produce just the look you want. For the average user this package provides presets that will work for the typical install of cfs3 without the need for tweaking. For the more demanding user the adjustments that can be made are relatively straight forward text edits. For the most advanced changes a hex editor and dds image editor are required.

Contents:
1. Cfs3config.exe (ConfigOverrides.xml)
2. d3d8.ini Parameters
3. TextureMagic.ini
4. fx Files Parameters
5. Water Mods
6. Weather Mods
7. Reflector Sight Mods
8. Aircraft Texture and Model Mods
9. Shader.xml Parameters
10. Special Effects
11. SweetFX

*** 1. Cfs3config.exe (ConfigOverrides.xml) ***

The 2017 shaders package allows you to update graphics drivers without running cfs3config.exe each time. You do need to run it once after installing the shaders to turn on this functionality.

You must turn on the High Resolution Z Buffer, and Disable Shadows. The conflict with Dual Pass Rendering has been resolved.

Z Bias Resolution should be typically be limited to 15. Higher values can lead to some rendering problems on some systems.

Z Bias Flat effects should be set to 25 to reduce flickering of the bomb crater decals.

The CFS3 Default Water Detail Texture Size is 5 and the SeaWater.fx settings in this package are preset to match. Using a different texture size will change the appearance of the wave dimensions unless you adjust the values in SeaWater.fx to match.

*** 2. d3d8.ini Parameters ***

The defaults and typical value ranges to be used are included in the comment lines (delineated by a ";" at the start of the line).

NoMultisampling - Turns off in game antialiasing for compatibility with SweetFX.

ShadowQuality - Adjusts the resolution of the aircraft self shadowing.

TerrainShadows - Adjusts the resolution of the terrain shadowing.

TerrainBumpMapping - Enables bump mapping of the terrain surface.

CloudShadowScale - Adjust the size of the cloud shadows on the terrain surface.

CloudShadowDensity - Adjusts the darkness of the cloud shadows.

VSyncMode - Forces VSync behavior.

ExternalFOV - Adjusts the external field of view angle. Narrower angles increase the effective magnification and reduce the lateral distortion on wide screen monitors. The value in ViewUI.xml (located in \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\) can be adjusted to have the default cockpit magnification match the similar external view. This is dependent on each aircraft's cockpit file set-up but in general a FovScale value of 0.4 should match with the magnification of an ExternalFOV set at 30 degrees. For an external FOV of 60 degrees the ViewUI.xml FovScale should be at 0.8.

SunGlare - Controls the sun glare and lens flare effects in conjunction with suneffect.xml. Disabling this will also disable the fix for the grey band at the horizon.

CloudShadowOvercast - Adjusts amount of sunlight reduction in this weather condition.

CloudShadowHeavy - Adjusts amount of sunlight reduction in this weather condition.

EnvReflection - Adjusts the amount of the enviromental image that is reflected off the aircraft texture. This appears as anything from subtle tinting of the surfaces, to a full mirror image depending on the glossiness

Glossiness - Adjusts how broadly or narrowly the specular effects are spread across the surface of the aircraft texture.

SceneryDynamicLighting - Enables dynamic lighting effects to be displayed on scenery objects.

SpriteLighting - Enables sprite brightness to be time of day dependent (prevents bright dust clouds at night).

NightLightThreshold - Adjusts the threshold when night effects adjustment comes into effect.

AlphaToCoverage - Turns on experimental transparency rendering for trees. (may lead to shimmering)

UseRenderThreads - Enables cpu thread management to improve FPS performance.

FakeDriverVersion - Eliminates the need to run cfs3config.exe after driver updates.

HeadShake - Turns on or off the head movement effects.

OffsetScale - Controls the magnitude of head movement. Rotation is unaffected by this setting. Values can be bigger or smaller than the default 100%.

OffsetSpring - Adjusts the inertia response to movement. Very low values produces an interesting effect -- the view lags its response and tries to stay focused on the same point for some time regardless of aircraft movement.

OffsetResponse - Controls the damping of head shake. Note that higher values means LESS damping, i.e. this parameter defines how quick the view responds to acceleration. It has no effect on rotation.

RotationSpring - Adjusts the inertia response to rotation. Very low values produces an interesting effect -- the view lags its response and tries to stay focused on the same point for some time regardless of aircraft rotation.

MouseLookSpeed - Enables and adjusts the speed of the view movement in response to moving the mouse. Mouse look can be switched on/off in-game by clicking RIGHT mouse button and it starts OFF by default. So to use mouse look you will need to right-click the mouse once. This can also be temproarily disabled in game by going to an external view or holding down the "Alt" key in the cockpit.

MouseLookReset - Controls the time in seconds before the Mouse Look function returns the view back to the default.

ZoomInStep - Adjusts the amount that the view magnification changes as the scroll wheel is turned.

ZoomOutStep - Adjusts the amount that the view magnification changes as the scroll wheel is turned.

ZoomSpeed - Adjusts the smoothing effect of going between different view magnification levels.

InvertMouseZoom - Sets direction of mouse wheel to zoom in versus out.

GunsightIncreaseSize - Sets the keybinding to change the range scale value set in the TextureMagic.ini file to the next larger.

GunsightDecreaseSize - Sets the keybinding to change the range scale value set in the TextureMagic.ini file to the next smaller.

GunsightIncreaseBrightness - Sets the keybinding to changto the next brighter value set in the TextureMagic.ini file.

GunsightDecreaseBrightness - Sets the keybinding to change the next dimmer value set in the TextureMagic.ini file.

Enabled - Turns on following troubleshooting tools.

ForceHardwareVertexProcessing - Forces gpu operation.

ForceRenderTargetTextures - Forces gpu operation.

EnumAllDisplayModes - Reveals all display modes to the shader.

AutoGenMipMaps - Creates MipMaps for textures without them.

WriteLog - Creates a log file of time-stamped shader operations at the exit of the game.

Numpad0Switch - Allows the shaders to be turned off in game using the "0" key on the number pad.

*** 3. TextureMagic.ini ***

The defaults and typical value ranges to be used are included in the comment lines (delineated by a ";" at the start of the line).

PropDisk - Defines textures to use for prop transparencey effects

Terrain - Defines textures to use for special terrain effects

Scenery - Defines textures to use for special scenery effects

Foliage - Defines textures to use for special foliage effects

Searchlight - Defines textures to use for special searchlight effects

HighAltSprite - Defines textures to use for special altitude dependent effects (see setting up Contrails in Special Effects, section 10 below)

ShipWake - Defines textures to use for special ship wake effects. If you see transparency issues with effects like the g trails when viewed from inside the cockpit it is related to the use of the same texture name for the ship wakes and the smoke effects. You can either remove these entires, or create new textures and seperate the name references in the effects.xml file to avoid the conflict.

ReticleStatic - Defines static reticle textures to be replaced with a dynamic reticle refrenced in the effects section of the aircraft's xdp file.

ReticleDynamic - Defines textures to be used for dynamic reticles. Up to 10 range scale presets may be defined for each texture. These presets are accessed in game using the "Shift" + "{" or "}" keys. Multiple dynamic reticle effects may be applied within one aircraft xpd file to create a mix of fixed and scaling reticle elements. There is also a "Default" Dimmer function controlled in 8 steps from Bright to Off using the "Ctrl" + "[" or "]" keys. The Dimmer function can also be set to "OnOff" for single step response, and "None" to have it fixed at max brightness.

CockpitSprite - Defines interior sprites for effects like blood spatter and bullet holes.

CockpitLight - Defines the cockpit light accessed with the "l" key.

FullbrightSprite - Defines sprite textures that are always drawn full bright. Others will adjust brightness with the ambient light levels.

NightSprite - Defines sprite textures that are drawn full bright only when the environment is below the night threshold.

*** 4. fx Files Parameters ***

This package includes a couple of .fx files in the Shader30 folder that have been modified from AnKor's original set. These adjusted .fx files include several new variables near their tops (these lines begin with "#define") that will let you fine tune the look of some of the effects. The suggested values are listed in the comments for the variable.

Generic.fx
InCloudBrightnessBias - Defines the ambient darkening effect when in a cloud.

Light.fx
KDiffuse - Defines terrain diffuse lighting level.
KSpecular - Defines terrain specular lighting level.
KGlossiness - Defines terrain glossiness level.
KBump - Defines terrain bump maping level.
KDetailBump - Defines terrain bump mapping smoothness.
KDetailColor - Defines terrain color level.
FR0 - Defines Frenel effect. (low angle glancing view reflectivity)
SunStrength - Defines base sun intensity.

Models.fx
BumpEnabled - Enables bump mapping. Turning off by adding // before #define will improve performance.
BumpSmoothness - Defines bump mapping level.
ReflectiveGlassBias - Defines glass reflection level.
AlphaCutOff - Sets cut off level for foiliage alpha effects.

Scenery.fx
ScenerSheetGridSize - Defines how to read the scenery sheet blocks.
ScenerySheetTextureSize - Sets the scenery sheet buffer size.
AlphacutOff - Sets cut off level for scenery alpha effects.

SeaWater.fx
BaseOpacity - Defines the water transparency. Lower numbers let the underlying surface texture show through more.
WaveBump - Defines the height of the waves.
WaveScale - Defines the spacing frequency of the waves.
FoamAmount - Defines the brightness level of the sea water animation textures that will be intrepreted as sea foam.
AddFoam - Enables the sea foam effect.
ReflectLevel - Allows for reduced enviromental reflections on the water surface in reduced ambient light conditions.
SpecularPower - Narrows the specular effects on the water surface.
SpecilarNormDivisor - Reduces the intensity of the speclar highlights.

Skybox.fx
GroundShadow - Sets cloud shadow buffer size.
CloudShadow - Enables cloud shadows.
SMAP_SIZE - Sets the SMAP size.

Terrain.fx
terrainBump - Enables terrain bump mapping.
GroundShadow - Sets ground shadow buffer size.
CloudShadow - Enables cloud shadows.

*** 5. Water Mods ***

CFS3 default water animation files are located in the effects\fxtextures folder and are named h2od_01.dds through h2od_16.dds

With AnKors shaders the color for these files is rendered using the cfs3h2o.dds file for the local water color information. The cfs3h2o.dds file is a vertically inverted rendering of the entire theater so each pixel's tint covers a fairly large area of sea surface shading. Edits to cfs3h2o.dds can create local effects like muddy river water exiting a delta into the sea, sandy shoals and coral reefs.

The BaseOpacity parameter controls how easily you can see through the water animation to the texture underneath. This can easily go wrong if the underlying textures don't look like a sea bed.

The reflectiveness of the clouds and sky on the surface is controlled by the ReflectLevel parameter. The sun sparkle on the surface is controlled by the SpecularPower and SpecilarNormDivisor parameters.

The AddFoam parameter in SeaWater.fx is used to determine the grey scale level that will be interpreted as foam. The animations files need to have their brightness level distribution adjusted to provide discrete areas for foam patches to appear and dissapear as the wave crest passes by. The boundry of the textures need to wrap the opposide edges to avoid having seams appear. A somewhat randomized pattern of foam patches helps hide repeating patterns as the sea surface is tiled with these textures. Using low numbers creates an interesting effet that will make the sea surface appear to be covered in sea ice, high numbers will remove all of the foam patterns.

An optional set of water animation files set up to display the sea foam are provided with this package, but you may use the game's originals if you prefer without any conflict other than the difference in wave pattern and foam appearance.

It turns out that the alpha channel in the effects\fxtextures\h20d_##.dds files has to be pretty finely textured, and the color variations have to be subtle (no harsh shade transitions) for it to bump map realistically.

The CFS3 Default Water Detail Texture Size is 5 and the SeaWater.fx settings in this package are preset to match. Using a different texture size will change the appearance of the wave dimensions unless you adjust the WaveBump and WaveScale values in SeaWater.fx to match.

*** 6. Weather Mods ***

AnKor's shaders fix the gray band that was frequently seen at the horizon issue where the haze did not blend evenly between the surface and the sky pretty effectively with the default files, but they cannot completely make up for poorly matched fog/skybox colors.

New sets of files can be created to even better correct for the gray band at the horizon. You may either make copies of your original files, and then replace them, or install them as a temporary Mod using JSGME. The BackgroundWeather fogcolor in each weather.xml file has to be tuned to match the horizon color of the skybox files.

Within the weather xml files there is a parameter called fogcolor that uses a 10 number sequence to define it's color. This is a decimal that converts to hexidecimal as FF followed by the Red, Green and Blue color values as numbers from 00 (darkest) to FF (lightest). A pure gray would have R = G = B. For example scatteredclouds4low.xml has the BackgroundWeather fogcolor as 4288529397 which converts to FF 9D C3 F5 which is a light blue R=157, G = 195, B = 245. The choice of this shade will have a significant impact on how well the fog will blend into the skybox background colors.

The method used for the tuning is to check the color at about the middle of the texture using PhotoShop, and then to turn down the brightness by 12% in the color checker. The Hexadecimal RGB values are then put in a calculator with FF added at the beginning, and converted to the decimal equivalent. This is the value that goes into the fogcolor. A quick check in the game is then used to refine the brightness value up or done slightly in PhotoShop, and a new hex and decimal value is tried until the match is optimized for most conditions.

If you are drawing new images each patch is drawn as Front, Left, Back, Right, Front to make the joins seamless.
Front is displayed looking South
Left is displayed looking West
Back is displayed looking North
Right is displayed looking East

In the panoramic_cubic_test.dds file these should be placed in Back, Front, Top, Bottom, Left, Right sequence. (The default that came with cfs3 was not done correctly.) Some of AnKor's earlier shaders use this file to create cloud reflections on the water, and I think it may be used for the UI background scene as well. You will notice mismatched seams at the edges of the sections if the sequence is not correct.

There is a setting in the weather xml files called skyboxcloudType that can have a few different predefined descriptions:
NoClouds (and ThinClouds) will display the clear_bk, _fr, _up, _dn, _lf, and _rt textures from the effects\skybox folder
FewClouds will display the cirrusonly_bk _fr, _up, _dn, _lf, and _rt textures from the effects\skybox folder
ScatteredClouds will display the scatteredclouds_bk, _fr, _up, _dn, _lf, and _rt textures from the effects\skybox folder
BrokenClouds will display the lowcumulusonhorizon_bk, _fr, _up, _dn, _lf, and _rt textures from the effects\skybox folder
ThickClouds will display the grayhorizon_bk _fr, _up, _dn, _lf, and _rt textures from the effects\skybox folder
If you don't have it explicitly defined in the weather xml file it seems to default to the NoClouds version.

Examples of these modifications are contained in my unpublished packages (available upon request):
Full_Weather_Effects_For_2016_Shaders.zip
Weather_Effects_For_2016_Shaders - No Cloud Files.zip

You may also modify the suneffect.xml to achieve a partilular look for the environment in response to AnKor's shaders. Parameters control the size, position, intensity, and color of the sun and the associated flare / glare effects.

*** 7. Reflector Sight Mods ***

A package of dynamic reticles and installation instructions are available at http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...3&linkid=19730

These are intended to be used as high resolution dynamic replacements for the current static reticles found in the various Aircraft folders of CFS3 when using AnKor's latest Shader Mod (May 2015 beta copy was included, but you should use this version instead). Hopefully they are as close as possible (within CFS3's display limitations) to the historic reticle shapes used in the period's reflector sights. They are able to move across the sight glass as you change your head position with TrackIR, and by using the Shift + "{" and "}" keys you can cycle through different reticle sizes for any that have that capability. With the 2017 shaders these also respond to aircraft movement g-forces even if you are not using TrackIR.

These were developed using an installation of ETO, but should work with any version that you may choose to set up to use them.

To install:

***. PLEASE MAKE A BACK-UP OF ANYTHING YOU'RE GOING TO REPLACE! ***
1. Install AnKor's Shader Mod (2017 version recommended)
2. Copy the Reticle files into your effects/fxtextures folder
3. Edit or Replace AnKor's original TextureMagic.ini file in the shaders30 folder with the one provided (not needed if using 2017 version)
4. Edit your effects.xml file to add the appropriate entries from the Gunsight List.txt file (be careful to only paste in the lines from the Effects.xml section or CFS3 will stop working!) You may want to place them at the top right after <Effects> so you can find them easier if something goes wrong.
5. Edit the individual xdp file for each aircraft you want to have dynamic reticles. Examples are provided in the Gunsight List.txt file. These entries are placed in the effects section of the xdp at the bottom anywhere between <Effects> and </Effects>. This is how you choose which Reticle Effect will be applied to that particular aircraft so you can customize to your heart's content.
6. If you want to apply these to an aircraft where there is no example already defined you should start with a similar one that already exists, and then adjust the X, Z, Y and occasionally Pitch positions until it displays centered over the gunsight and lines up with the tracer convergence point. The reticle_test.dds file is provided to help you see where the reticle is positioned while setting up a new aircraft type. The black in the Alpha layer has been grayed slightly to make it semi-transparent in game because they can be hard to find if you don't know where to look for them when the positioning is too far off initially.

If you want to change the calibration on the reticle size to match any particular target aircraft type, or to set it to match a different convergence distance that the 400m I used then you will need to edit the TextureMagic.ini file entry in the [ReticleDynamic] section. e.g. reticle_aaf_k14-.dds=1.0|0.6|0.3 with the numeric entries at the end separated by "|" being the different magnifications that will be available in game. You can add as many presets as you'd like, such as reticle_aaf_k14-.dds=1.2|1.0|0.8|0.6|0.4

If you choose to publish your own dynamic reticle files I would suggest that you follow the naming pattern I've already established.

Reticle Textures - e.g. reticle_aaf_k14-.dds is the word "reticle" then "country/service designation" then "gunsight type" and an optional modifier "-" if they use a mask to match a specific glass shape for the gunsight.

Effect Names - e.g. US_AAF_K14-_gunsight is "Country" then "Service" then "Gunsight Type (with a Modifier as needed)" then the word "gunsight"

The texture is 512 x 512 with an alpha layer (DXT3 or DXT5). The alpha layer white will be the opaque/colored part of the reticle, with shades of grey being semi-transparent (used to create softer edges and smooth lines), and black being clear. The RGB layer provides the color of the reticle with Black providing transparency in order to create a mask to match the shape of the reflector glass. The actual color that displays in game is lighter that what you see in the dds file since the shader uses additive blending for the reticles. If the reticle shape touches the edges of the dds file it will repeat infinitely (e.g. reticle_aaf_n2ai.dds) which works best when the reticle shape ends as a line so it can extend seamlessly.

The RGB masking capability is used to make the reticle display space shape match up with rectangular, round and oval reflector glass sights. Place the z location in closer (more negative) so everything will be covered, and then mask off what falls outside the image of the reflector glass.

The moving reticle is activated only if it closer than 2 meters to the camera. I think it should be enough for any cockpit, but it is important to know. This restriction is needed to avoid "detecting" reticles in another airplanes because xdp effects are shared by all crafts of the same model.

*** 8. Aircraft Texture and Model Mods ***

While AnKor's shaders make an increadible improvement to the rendering of the aircraft in the game there can be some issues with the models developed prior to these shaders being available. Understanding the source of the conflicts and how to address them will let you make the most of the the power contained within these shaders.

For example, if the aircraft appears black or grey in the game it is often associated with a *_r.dds or *_s.dds file that was saved with an alpha layer that will need to be resaved without the alpha. Default aircraft that are far too reflective will need their *_r.dds or *_s.dds files darkened to reduce the intensity of the effect.

The default settings for this package are EnvReflection=5 and Glossiness=1 to provide a moderate amount of enviromental color to be displayed on a surface with diffused specular effects. This is done for compatibility with most of the stock painted or weathered aluminum aircraft finishes.

Example image files are included in this package to demonstrate the changes that can be effected by changing the EnvReflection and Glossiness parameters in the d3d8.ini file. The naming convention is:
Aluminum or Painted finish - Modified, Default, or Original model files - Environmental Reflection intensity level - Glossiness value

If adjusting these two parameters does not achieve the desired look it may be that the model fies themselves will need to be modified.

The first thing to check is the *_r.dds or *_s.dds file brightness levels. For problematic aircraft these are often found to be too light, and will need to be edited to reduce their brightness. Additionally these may not have incorporated the appropriate local shading to correspond to the expected reflectivity on those surfaces. For matt painted surfaces brightness values in the 0-5% range should be used. For polished aluminum surfaces 10-16% brightness can be used. Values in between these ranges can be applied to provide localized variety to the aircraft finish to represent uneven weathering.

To create a specular-glossiness file for a model that does not already have one I typically start with the *_t.dds, make a copy, rename it using *_t.+sr.dds, and then repaint it.

The repainting is typically done in shades of grey, but leave it in the rgb file format (not greyscale). Black areas will have no environmental reflectance, and white areas would look like a perfect mirror. You’ll need to experiment a bit based on how a particular m3d might be set up, but generally you want most surfaces to be fairly dark, as too much reflectance looks unnatural on military aircraft. You don’t have to be too fussy about the fine details of the original texture as small errors will not be noticed, but areas like anti-glare panels, and insignia on polished metal backgrounds should have pretty sharply defined black / grey edges.

The pattern of light and dark reflectance information is applied to the same areas that the *_t.dds textures is mapped to like the *_s or *_r would be. These should be in the DXT1, no alpha layer format.

It was discovered that the m3d file still needs to contain the right drawing mode hex information or the *_t.+sr.dds file will be ignored. This is still a useful capability since a relatively simple edit of an m3d file that does not have any *_r.dds or *_s.dds reference listed can still be made to read the reflectance data. Be careful to make a copy of your original files because if you turn AnKor's shaders off after you make this edit the plane will turn into an all over perfect mirror like the silver surfer.

The next level of adjustment involves hex editing the m3d file to control how the textures are being applied to the model. (I use http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delph...vi32/xvi32.htm)

In order to correct the M3D files that get disturbed (planes with relectance layers typically have sections that turn white, become transparent, etc.) by the new d3d8.dll please start with reading this Tutorial again. http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...dge-base/page3
Always start by making a back-up copy of your original M3D files.

Each material is represented by a stream of 36 bytes of code (each one ranging from 0 to ff, that is 255 decimal); (I set my Hex editor to 36 columns wide so the patterns repeat making it easier to see where to edit.)

00 00 00 00 type of drawing (solid, line, etc...), usually set to zeros (The 3rd set will be FF for problem aircraft and needs to be changed to 00 Be careful to only do this for rows that actually have a reflective texture file in it as this also can be FF associated with something else.)

ff ff ff ff diffuse color (RGB components plus intensity)
lower intensity for transparency effects

00 00 00 ff ambient color (RGB components plus intensity), not used

ff ff ff ff specular factor (RGB components plus intensity) (For Win 7 I have these all at 30 30 30 FF to avoid over bright reflections)

00 00 00 43 glossiness, usually goes from 00 00 00 40 to 00 00 00 44 (For Win 7 I have this at 42)

00 00 number (see above) of diffuse texture, ff ff if none

01 00 number of specular texture, ff ff if none

ff ff number of reflective texture, none in this plane (If these have a dds file number here it needs to be changed to FFFF)

ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff unknown and possibly not used

As mentioned above I ran into a model (F6 Mustang from Korea) that the *_t.+sr.dds didn't seem to work with. In trying different things with editing the m3d to get it to work I found that the drawing type needed to be 00 00 FF 00 versus the more typical 00 00 00 00. Normally the m3d only has this factor set to 00 00 FF 00 if it already references a _r or _s file. This limits the utility of using *_t.+sr.dds to add reflective textures because you may still need to edit the m3d file. Working values would look like:

00 00 FF 00 For Drawing Style
FF FF FF FF For Diffuse Color
00 00 00 FF For Ambient Color
33 33 33 FF For Specular
00 00 7E 43 For Glossiness
01 00 FF FF FF FF for the Texture References (assumes that the *_t.dds is listed as the second entry in the texture list since the list numbering starts with the first entry as 00 00)

One feature that hasn't been used much yet is normal mapping. That embossing feature you notice can be controlled explicitly to add detail to your skins by making a normal map for the aircraft and giving it the same name as your main texture with ".+nm.dds" added to the end. (for a p_51d_t.dds main texture, the normal map would be named p_51d_t.+nm.dds). Normal map textures (as well as self illumination ones) are loaded by AnKor's shaders automatically if their name matches the main texture (with a suffix like +nm) - no changes in M3D are needed. These textures use special format - first you create a grayscale map with bumps in brighter color and dents in darker and then convert it to normal map and save in one of suitable dds formats.

Some of the cockpits may show transparent patches through the instrument panel. I've discovered that these are related to a glass layer in some models that is placed between the eye point and the instruments. It's a little tricky to identify the line where this glass layer resides, but if the glossiness entries are something like FF FF FF 3F and there is no texture file called out for that line they probably need to be changed to 00 00 00 3F.

For the AvH 1% files there are some aircraft that reference panel lights in the effects section of the xpd file. The way the AvH effects are set up there is some sort of conflict with the new d3d8.dll that causes these to show up as a circle of colored light on the cockpit dash, or front windshield. All you have to do is edit out the panel light effect lines from the xpd and they're gone.

Meteor
Hellcat
Lancaster
Spitfire
TBF
XP55
P51D
P38J
L5B
B25C
B17G
I15
Bf109G
Ju88
Ju52
Fw190D
Hawk 51
F6F
Ki84
A6M2
A6M5
N1K2
D3A1
F4F3

* Mini-Tutorial *
When I got to the B29S Sky Queen by Christophe Rosenmann I found that there was quite a bit more work required. In this case most of the 2D textures had been painted with gradients to make them look more 3D as they wrapped around the fuselage. While this was more needed in the past, it has always led to incongruous lighting situations as the plane maneuvered to anything other than straight and level. The large difference between the light and the dark parts of the original textures now causes the shaders to be confused about the relative glossiness of the different surface areas. This completely bleaches out portions of the skin when the sun hits it.

With the self-shadowing and environmental reflections of the new shaders I could redraw the textures as more uniform aluminum skins and let the program render the 3D characteristics dynamically.

Basically I had to redraw the *_t.dds files again, but I was able to take a few shortcuts.

In Photoshop I first deselected the areas I wanted to preserve like the markings, and nose art.

Then I used the levels function to clip the low and high end of the brightness range. This had the effect of reducing the contrast to a fairly narrow range. I then used brightness adjustments to get the shade right, and colorizing to set the tint. In this case a 5% saturated blue grey.

Next I redrew the panel lines with a slightly darker grey, and then applied an overall 2% monochromatic noise filter. Now the textures looked like panels of uniformly tarnished aluminum with the original markings intact.

Then I addressed the *_r.dds files. These were a bit easier to deal with because they were generally just an overall 17% brightness grey. A quick adjustment with the brightness tool to lower this to 10% made the environmental reflections much more subtle and natural looking for weathered aluminum.

For reflective areas of the skin the *_r.dds or *_s.dds should typically be in the 10-16% brightness range depending on the *_t.dds luminosity and your personal tastes. (Try something >50% some time just for fun.) For matte painted areas the brightness should fall into the 0 - 5% brightness range.

The tweaks to the M3D involved setting the glossiness to 00 00 7E 43 so that the highlight reflections were fairly tight / narrow rather than diffused over a large area.
* Mini-Tutorial End *

* Developer Comments From AnKor *
Specular – strength of environment reflections (I suspect in GMAX it is set as Specular Color * Specular Level).
Glossiness – sharpness of sun and environment reflections.
To make existing models look better if Specular > Glossiness then glossiness is increased to match specular to avoid having very strong but blurred reflections (real material don’t usually work this way).
However, it still works vice versa - to get materials with sharp sun highlights, but not reflecting the environment you should set high glossiness, but low specular.

If you are doing HEX editing of existing m3d files, I have a correction for the info “Projected Knowledge Base” thread on SOH.
Here what it says now:
- ff ff ff ff specular factor (RGB components plus intensity)
- 00 00 00 43 glossiness, usually goes from 00 00 00 40 to 00 00 00 44

I doubt the last FF in specular has any use, but more importantly my shaders actually ignore the tint of specular and just average its RGB components to get single specular value.
So FF FF FF FF is the highest specular value (= 255) and thus the strongest environment reflection.
While 00 00 00 FF is the lowest specular value and minimum env reflection (my code will add a bit of reflectivity anyway).
Note that our eyes will always see sharp detailed reflection as stronger than a blurred one.

Glossiness is more complex.
That 00 00 00 43 is actually floating point number 128.0 which is high glossiness (my code also multiplies it x1.5 by default).
Note that in this example a special rule I mentioned above will kick in and the glossiness will become = 255 to match specular.
Now, to convert between floating point number and hex bytes you can use this simple site: http://gregstoll.dyndns.org/~gregstoll/floattohex/
The only inconvenience is that you need to reverse the order of bytes, while keeping the order inside pairs.
Simply speaking 00 00 00 43 becomes 43000000, and 12 34 56 78 becomes 78563412 – you also have to remove whitespace.

Some simple values that mentioned in the thread are:
00 00 00 40 = 2.0 – very low, basically absolutely dull surface – my shaders will almost certainly override it to make shinier.
00 00 00 41 = 8.0 – rough surface
00 00 00 42 = 32.0 – normal shine
00 00 00 43 = 128.0 – highly shiny
00 00 00 44 = 512.0 – very shiny, this will be reduced by my shaders which don’t allow glossiness above 250 (it doesn’t make much sense for normal materials)
For convenience 64.0 will look like 00 00 80 42 in hex, and 16 will be 00 00 80 41.

Finally, my shaders use _s textures (standard or DX9 specific +sr) to adjust glossiness instead of specular. This is more correct approach used in most modern rendering engines.

If object uses “_r” texture my code uses special rendering settings to simulate metallic surface:

•Base glossiness is increased by +200. In stock renderer the reflection was always sharp, but in this new one it will look blurred for low glossiness material.
•First of all, the texture works exactly as “_s” in a sense that it adjusts glossiness - 200% for white, 0% for black pixels.
•Additionally the texture affects initial reflectivity – white pixels mean that reflectivity is at maximum at any viewing angle (like a mirror), for black pixels the reflectivity relies on Fresnel effect with 0 reflectivity when looking at 90 degrees.
•There is also some tint applied to specular reflections (both env and sun) – that’s generally how metals behave: gold has yellow tinted reflections, etc. It is implemented in a simplistic way by tinting reflections with main texture color. The amount of tint also depends on “_r” texture (none for black pixels, and the most for white).

The trick here is that besides the normal map which is always a standalone texture, all other "material" maps has to be merged into one texture by using different channels (RGBA).
The name should tell my code which channels are used for which purpose.
Available codes area:
+lrgb => colored light map, rgb channels.
+lr, +lg, +lb, +la => grayscale light map (i.e. just the brightness) in one of the channels, i.e. "+lr" is light map in red channel.
+sr, +sg, +sb, +sa => specular map in one of the channels.
+gr, +gg, +gb, +ga => glossiness map in one of the channels (black - "rough" surface, white - extremely sharp highlights)
So, if you want to have both specular and glossiness maps you need to name your texture like this: main_texture_name.+sr+gg.dds
This will tell my shaders to look for specular map in red channel and for glossiness map in green channel.

To reduce texture size for such maps you can save one or two channel textures using ATI1N (single channel) or ATI2N (two channel) compression using AMD Compressonator tool I mentioned before. This should provide better quality and smaller file size than standard DXT compression.
Note that if you use DXT compression color channels will interfere with each other because this compression works on the resulting color as a whole and not on separate channels.
Also note that normal and material maps doesn't have to be exactly the same size as the main texture. You can make them smaller if fine details are not needed.

Another feature of texture naming is # as wildcard character. You can name normal map spitfire_ix#_t.+nm.dds and it will match both "c" and "e" models.
* End AnKor's Developer Comments *

*** 9. Shaders.xml ***

There are some edits to the shaders.xml settings that are required for Win7 that are not needed in XP to have specular effects work on the aircraft and glass. With AnKor's shaders these are no longer needed to activate the effects, but they will not lead to a conflict if you already have them modifed.

<ModelEnvironmentMap Desc="Vertex Lighting + Vertex Environment Map blended by TFactor"
Lighting="True" SpecularEnable="False"
SrcBlend="SrcAlpha" DestBlend="InvSrcAlpha"
ZEnable="True" ZFunc="[ZFunc]" ZWriteEnable="True" ZBias="0" FogEnable="True"
AlphaBlendEnable="[AlphaFlag]" AlphaTestEnable="[AlphaFlag]" AlphaRef="8" MultiSample="True"
ColorArg10="Texture" ColorOp0="Modulate" ColorArg20="Diffuse"
AlphaArg10="Texture" AlphaOp0="Modulate" AlphaArg20="Diffuse"
Texture0="0"
ColorArg11="Texture" ColorOp1="BlendFactorAlpha" ColorArg21="Current"
AlphaArg11="Current" AlphaOp1="SelectArg1" AlphaArg21="Current"
Texture1="1" TexTransformFlags1="[EnvMap]"
/>
<ModelSpecularGloss Desc="Vertex lighting w/ Specular modulated by Gloss map"
Lighting="True" SpecularEnable="True"
SrcBlend="One" DestBlend="Zero"
ZEnable="True" ZFunc="[ZFunc]" ZWriteEnable="True" ZBias="0" FogEnable="True"
AlphaBlendEnable="true" AlphaTestEnable="true" AlphaRef="8" MultiSample="True"
ColorArg10="Texture" ColorOp0="Modulate" ColorArg20="Diffuse"
AlphaArg10="Texture" AlphaOp0="SelectArg1" AlphaArg20="Current"
Texture0="0"
ColorArg01="Current" ColorArg11="Specular" ColorOp1="MultiplyAdd" ColorArg21="Texture"
AlphaArg11="Current" AlphaOp1="Modulate" AlphaArg21="TFactor"
Texture1="3" TexCoordIndex="0"
/>

*** 10. Special Effects ***

To make the new contrails work you need to edit the effects.xml file, and the effects section of each aircraft's xdp file. You will also need the dds files referenced in the [HighAltSprite] section of the TextureMagic.ini file stored in the Shaders30 folder.

Add these lines to you effects.xml file:

<fx_high_contrail ClassName="GroupEffect" Effect0="high_contrail_1" Effect1="high_contrail_2" Effect2=""/>
<high_contrail_1 ClassName="TrackEffect" FlatTrack="0" Lifetime="0" InitialDelay="0" ParticleLifetime="30" FadeInTime="5" FadeOutTime="25" PosX="0" PosY="-0.5" PosZ="0" CountSegments="2000" SegmentLength="12" Width="3.6" WidthGrow="1" InitialAlpha="0.0" InitialColor="255 255 255" Alpha="0.33" Color="255 255 255" FinalAlpha="0.0" FinalColor="222 222 255" BlendMode="QuadSprite" Texture="tr_condenstrail_basis1.dds" ZBias=".03"/>
<high_contrail_2 ClassName="TrackEffect" FlatTrack="0" Lifetime="0" InitialDelay="0" ParticleLifetime="30" FadeInTime="5" FadeOutTime="25" PosX="0" PosY="0.5" PosZ="0" CountSegments="2743" SegmentLength="8.75" Width="3.6" WidthGrow="1" InitialAlpha="0.0" InitialColor="255 255 255" Alpha="0.33" Color="255 255 255" FinalAlpha="0.0" FinalColor="222 222 255" BlendMode="QuadSprite" Texture="tr_condenstrail_basis2.dds" ZBias=".03"/>

Add lines like these to the effects section of you aircraft xdp:

<Effect Type="Track" EffectName="fx_high_contrail" Location="emitter_eng0_exh_l"/>
<Effect Type="Track" EffectName="fx_high_contrail" Location="emitter_eng1_exh_r"/>
or
<Effect Type="Track" EffectName="fx_high_contrail" PosX="0.52" PosZ="2.2" PosY="0.0"/>
<Effect Type="Track" EffectName="fx_high_contrail" PosX="-0.52" PosZ="2.2" PosY="0.0"/>

The specifics of the Location or PosX, PosY, PosZ values need to be matched to the individual aircraft.

Self-illumination improvements:

* Developer Comments From AnKor *

For some odd reason my current implementation of self-illumination textures (+lrgb) worked as if the original texture was lit by external light source instead of actually emitting the light.

This means that if you have absolutely black original texture, then no matter how bright the lightmap is you will still get the black color as a result.

To fix it I have introduced a new suffix for textures: +light

These will actually add the lightmap on top of original texture, so even black surfaces will appear "emitting" the light.

In addition to these there are two new suffixes for such emitting textures:

+nlight -- these are only active at night

+clight -- these are for cockpit use and only active when cockpit light is switched on

Keep in mind that only ONE additional texture of this kind can be used, i.e. you can't specify +light and +nlight for the same original texture. If you try to use these and they dont' seem to work check for a file with the same name but with the +lrgb.dds ending.

see http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...3&linkid=22572 for an example of how to use these.

You can use self-illumination for scenery (autogen) buildings.

So you can do either to add some light to windows ignoring the black-out:

ScenerySheet01.+light.DDS -- always-on

ScenerySheet01.+nlight.DDS -- night-only

Again, it is either first or second, can't use both.

ScenerySheet01 is default name for scenery sheet texture, but if your install uses different name the lightmap has to match it (i.e. WOFF uses WW1ScenerySheet.dds).

The lightmap doesn’t have to match the resolution of the original texture, it can be smaller.

You can even use specular map for scenery sheet: +sr for standalone (without lightmap) or +sa for alpha channel, but it is an overkill.

Besides normal map, there can be only one additional texture (unfortunately standard "_s" texture also counts).

However, you can combine specular and light map in a single texture, using this naming scheme: xxx.+lrgb+sa.dds

This would mean that RGB channels are used for lighting and ALPHA channel is used for specular (note that it is "sa" not "sr").

It should work in theory but I (Andrey) didn't thoroughly test it.

* End AnKor's Developer Comments *

*** 11. SweetFX ***

SweetFX is not required, but AnKor's shaders make it possible to use it with CFS3 to produce an interesting set of special effects like Bloom, Lumasharpen, ToneMap, Curves, and Vibrance.

SweetFX install:

1. Install AnKor's shader package.

2. Edit the ini file to NoMultisampling=1 (you do not need this if you're going to be using the DX9 ENB injector found here http://www.enbdev.com/download.htm)

3. Run CFS3Config.exe and make sure you choose the proper display options selection again (it will probably show 800 x 600 x 32).

4. Download FlightFX from here https://riseofflight.com/forum/topic...-flightfx-rof/ and install it on your computer.

5. Since version 1.0 of Flight FX does not have latest version (1.5.1) of Sweet FX included you need to download that from here http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=381912 and extract all of it to the FX folder where you have Flight FX installed. Let it overwrite any of the files that may have the same names as what FlightFX already had.

6. Now you can run Flight FX and click on Register New Game at the bottom left. It will open a dialog box where you'll navigate it to your cfs3.exe file. That will populate the paths at the top right of Flight FX for you.

7. Click on Enable Sweet FX and it will copy most of the needed files into your CFS3 install. It misses SweetFX_compatibility_settings.txt which is in the Flight FX / FX / SweetFX folder and needs to be manually copied into the matching one Flight FX created in your CFS3 directory.

8. Select the FX Preset you want to use from the pull down list. The files behind this list are located in the Flight FX / FX / SweetFX / Presets folder. They are just text files so you can create new presets manually by cut and past if you like. Make a back-up copy of any of your favorites because it is all too easy to overwrite them by mistake in Flight FX.

That is really all there is to it. At this point you can edit any of the settings under the FX Settings tab and the effect will be immediate.

By default the Scroll Lock key will toggle the special shader effects on and off.

The Print Screen Key will place a screenshot in your CFS3 root directory (This overrules CFS3 that normally wants to save screenshots in the CFS3 folder under My Documents).

If you uncheck the Enable SweetFX box in Flight FX it will uninstall SweetFX (but not the D3D8 and SweetFX_compatibility_settings files you did manually) and you're back to normal.

**sixstrings5859** · December 28th, 2018, 18:40

Wow!! A ton of information ! Needs to be in a sticky. Best explanation i've seen. Thanks and will use when i get my new rig. Regards,Scott

***MajorMagee*** · December 29th, 2018, 04:29

Rather than looking for this information in the 11 and 31 page stickies we already have, I've been including two readme files in the download package. One covers the simple install and your ready to go. The other has all of the technical details listed above.

**sixstrings5859** · December 29th, 2018, 04:40

Amen ! Great ! Thanks for the work guys ! Something we really need.

**HornetAircraft** · December 29th, 2018, 06:42

ok! that is a lot of information to digest! I'm an FS2004 man myself and used to a .cfg file rather than a .xml file. I will try this out and see how it goes. right now I just want to get the ankors installed, and maybe go into the editing process in the future.

**HornetAircraft** · December 29th, 2018, 07:10

so I get this when I do the first step. however, when I take the files out of the CFS3 install, it works fine.

**mongoose** · December 29th, 2018, 07:26

Are you being asked to re run cfg exe afterv installing the 3 shaders folder/files?

Are you using the config.exe file to set up your cfg or are you going straight into the xml (if so, doing what)?

Try something like MajorMagees in the appdata folder below is my version of his (AFAIK!) You should open your configOverrides.xml in appdata AFTER you have set up your config by running the cfg.exe. Then copy mine from

<TextureLimits>
<aircr............................................ ..........

and below to the end. Above that I believe is more related to your own setup. Andy, feel free to correct me!

***MajorMagee*** · December 29th, 2018, 07:34

If you check the properties of your cfs3.exe file what file version does it show? Mine is 3.1.0.30203. I know that the shaders have trouble recognizing some of the older revisions of cfs3.exe and this has been a problem for a few people.

The part of the config file content that is the most machine specific and will need to match your GPU is
<VendorId val="4318"/> (Nvidia)
<DeviceId val="5056"/> (GTX 980)

The part that AnKor's Shaders look at to make it so you don't have to rerun cfs3config.exe every time you update your video drivers is
<VersionNumberLowPart val="0"/>
<VersionNumberHighPart val="589824"/>

If you have a copy of CFS3 working without the shaders installed, then make a copy of the ConfigOverrides.xml in the \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\CFS3 folder. This will insure you have settings that work with your system. Change the version number lines in your copied ConfigOverrides.xml to match the ones needed for AnKor's Shaders, and use that copy after you installed the shader related files.

By default, I have xml files set to edit as text with notepad on my system (Win 10)

**HornetAircraft** · December 29th, 2018, 14:23

it is 3.1.0.30203 the same as yours. I believe I am getting in over my head. I don't really understand much of what you are explaining, as I'm not a techy person. could you possibly try to explain how to even correctly use the CFS3Config.exe? that might be a start, as I cannot seem to figure out how to edit things with it. It simply runs, says it is configured, and then closes.

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