Fog bank

[mongoose]

I've sort of lost track as to what files I have now in my effects folder (skybox, etc.) and even whose my suneffect.xml is from.
So what files i need to change or adjust rto get rid of these fog banks?:banghead:

BTW should QC Autumn have snow in the UK?

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=58684&stc=1

[MajorMagee]

The xml files in the Weather folder set the fog color and the skybox.

Here are the technical notes from my unpublished Weather Mod...


You may either make copies of your original files, and then replace them with these, or install them as a temporary Mod using JSGME.


These files are intended to be used with AnKor's 2017 shaders for CFS3 that correct for the gray band at the horizon. I've included an update to every weather.xml file I have. The BackgroundWeather fogcolor in each weather.xml file has been tuned to match the horizon color of the included skybox files. The high resolution skybox files provided are a combination of new textures and modifications of existing ones to smooth out the banding, and eliminate the corner seams as best I could.


The default skyboxes and fog color tend to make the horizon too blue for anything but a zero humidity day. I've tried to mimic as closely as possible the atmospheric effects I see in the real world. The sky generaly goes from blue to bluish grey-white as you approach the horizon because of the water vapor in the air.


The method used for the tuning of the fog color was 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 were then put in a calculator with FF added at the beginning, and converted to the decimal equivalent. This is the value that went into the fogcolor. A quick check in the game was then used to refine the brightness value up or done slightly in PhotoShop, and a new hex and decimal value was tried until the match was optimized for most conditions (see table below).


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 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.


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 4288789972 which converts to FF A1 BD D4 which is a light blue grey R=161, G = 189, B = 212. The choice of this shade will have a significant impact on how well the fog will blend into the skybox background colors. AnKors latest shaders address the grey band that frequently was seen along the horizon, but they cannot completely make up for poorly matched fog/skybox colors.


For the skyboxes in this pack the optimal values are:
NoClouds = 4288789972
FewClouds = 4288789716
ScatteredClouds = 4287013048
BrokenClouds = 4290432475
ThickClouds = 4285757562


I've made a few other edits to some of weather xml files to eliminate the flickering line that forms when a cloud texture intersects the surface of the terrain. This was generally done only where it was quite noticable and was accomplished by raising the minimum altitude of individual cloud effect entries.


The cloud texture dds files have also been checked and edited to eliminate any stray non-transparent corners or edges that may have snuck in the aplha layer.

[mongoose]

So I take it you didn't release the skybox files or anything else?

[Daiwilletti]

I suspect you might have Daniel's environmental effects pack. It conflicts with Ankor's package so needs to be uninstalled.

[MajorMagee]

I sent you an e-mail to explain. What does the weather.xml that is giving that much fog say?

[gecko]

Those look like my skybox textures, yep, find some different ones!