Steelport supposedly runs off of a nuclear power plant, yet its smog seem to rival the country of Hong Kong:
(Actually, it's even worse, lol, lmao even)
(sauce: https://pixabay.com/photos/hong-kong-city-panorama-buildings-1198105/ (antha26) )
But what if we could succ it out? What if we can actually see the rest of the city?
*Some images are from a previous version of development, so not all is accurate. Also these were on Low Volumetric Fog settings.
The goal is generally improve player's visible view distance to be in line with good old SR3, but also have the graphical style and optimizations that the Remaster brings to the table. I am still in shock how I got 50% more FPS than the original SR3 tbh. Here's my graphical details incase it helps.
I am still unsatisfied over the sky's presentation, there is an indepth cloud system Voliton has made just for the weather. Horizon clouds strength? Zenith_Intensity? What!?
I also really love the volumetric ray effects, but have yet to find how it's placed/rotated in the game world along with the light system - imo sunsets should be closer to the horizon, and the light shouldn't overpower so much.
So the future aim is to bring more attention to the game's dynamic sky system overall and make it as vivid as the rest of the game. Did you know vanilla SRTTR never let you see clouds on anything other than Clear Skies? You're welcome.
Remember to keep archive so you can troubleshoot incompatibilities down the road when you have 500 xtbl in game folder. It will happen
As mentioned, I'd love for insight on what the xtbl stuff does. Feedback is great too.
Enjoy!
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(Actually, it's even worse, lol, lmao even)
(sauce: https://pixabay.com/photos/hong-kong-city-panorama-buildings-1198105/ (antha26) )
But what if we could succ it out? What if we can actually see the rest of the city?
What does this mod do exactly?
It adjusts various weather settings, most notably the density of volumetric fog (I have to keep saying this because the game still has the old fog code), how powerful the "sun beam" (volumetric ray) is, adjust the max height of volumetric fog so you can see clouds in certain cases. On the technical side, this also adds an entirely new section for Clear_Skies, which previously did not exist within the weathers_time_of_day.xtbl.The goal is generally improve player's visible view distance to be in line with good old SR3, but also have the graphical style and optimizations that the Remaster brings to the table. I am still in shock how I got 50% more FPS than the original SR3 tbh. Here's my graphical details incase it helps.
Future Plans
I am still unsatisfied over the sky's presentation, there is an indepth cloud system Voliton has made just for the weather. Horizon clouds strength? Zenith_Intensity? What!?
I also really love the volumetric ray effects, but have yet to find how it's placed/rotated in the game world along with the light system - imo sunsets should be closer to the horizon, and the light shouldn't overpower so much.
So the future aim is to bring more attention to the game's dynamic sky system overall and make it as vivid as the rest of the game. Did you know vanilla SRTTR never let you see clouds on anything other than Clear Skies? You're welcome.
weather_time_of_day.xtbl was extracted from misc_tables archive with sr-tools by LucasRitter.
Open with notepad++
These are a tiny fraction of the settings available in the xtbl, light still too strong, but I'll figure that out later.
<vl_dir_light_scale> controls how big the volumetric ray/"god rays" of the sun are. Values need to be quite small.
<vl_amb_height_start> tells where the gradient of decreasing the fog should start.
<vl_amb_height_end> tells how high the volumetric fog should stretch. This is what allows you to see/not see the clouds in a specific weather stage. Note the sky gets teensy tiny bit clearer as you fly higher.
<vl_amb_sun_strength> should be 1 or higher to prevent ugly cutoff near the limit of amb_height_end - I have no idea why the game sets it to 0.25 by default.
As the file is huge and I'm too stubborn to use the Table File editor for this (the UI isn't great for this), I do a "find all" within the document.
Ctrl + C the tag you'd like to edit, paste in "Find what:" then press the find all button.
Then, double click where you want to go within this list.
By default, the order is Morning Overcast > Light Rain > Heavy Rain > Post-Storm --> Noon --> Evening --> Night. Some tags have added to Clear Sky which is before Overcast in my file.
The vl_ stuff is near the bottom of a stage, so you can infer where you are by scrolling down.
In this example the next one is Light Rain, so we are at Overcast.
Once you are done editing a part, press Find Next to go to the next one. Etcetc.
Close the game, change a value, open it back up, load, etc etc repeat. Oh my god... I know Sperasoft is part of Autodesk.... please stop telling me that... I just want to test a variable...
Open with notepad++
Adding entry for Clear Skies
Each type is defined under <Weather_Stages>. As example here is the settings I put for morning (line 8 in the file):
Code:
<Stage>
<Stage_Name>Clear Skies</Stage_Name>
<render_settings>
<vl_amb_density>0.000550</vl_amb_density>
<vl_amb_sun_strength>0.040000</vl_amb_sun_strength>
<vl_dir_light_scale>0.0150000</vl_dir_light_scale>
<Fog_Color_Intensity>0.500000</Fog_Color_Intensity>
</render_settings>
</Stage>
... overcast below hereThese are a tiny fraction of the settings available in the xtbl, light still too strong, but I'll figure that out later.
Editing parameters and what (some of them) mean
<vl_amb_density> controls how thick the fog is, growing based on distance. Higher value means more objects are completely in fog.<vl_dir_light_scale> controls how big the volumetric ray/"god rays" of the sun are. Values need to be quite small.
<vl_amb_height_start> tells where the gradient of decreasing the fog should start.
<vl_amb_height_end> tells how high the volumetric fog should stretch. This is what allows you to see/not see the clouds in a specific weather stage. Note the sky gets teensy tiny bit clearer as you fly higher.
<vl_amb_sun_strength> should be 1 or higher to prevent ugly cutoff near the limit of amb_height_end - I have no idea why the game sets it to 0.25 by default.
As the file is huge and I'm too stubborn to use the Table File editor for this (the UI isn't great for this), I do a "find all" within the document.
Ctrl + C the tag you'd like to edit, paste in "Find what:" then press the find all button.
Then, double click where you want to go within this list.
By default, the order is Morning Overcast > Light Rain > Heavy Rain > Post-Storm --> Noon --> Evening --> Night. Some tags have added to Clear Sky which is before Overcast in my file.
The vl_ stuff is near the bottom of a stage, so you can infer where you are by scrolling down.
In this example the next one is Light Rain, so we are at Overcast.
Once you are done editing a part, press Find Next to go to the next one. Etcetc.
Testing
Obviously place in root folder with game exe and run it. If I didn't write about a tag above, I've already forgotten about it. Have fun figuring it out. Maybe shoot a few people or something in the process, idk. Remember that using planes to go to the sky will look different than from ground.Close the game, change a value, open it back up, load, etc etc repeat. Oh my god... I know Sperasoft is part of Autodesk.... please stop telling me that... I just want to test a variable...
[I N S T A L L A T I O N]
Download archive and use 7zip to extract the xtbl to folder with game .exe. Steam can right click > Browse local files.Remember to keep archive so you can troubleshoot incompatibilities down the road when you have 500 xtbl in game folder. It will happen
As mentioned, I'd love for insight on what the xtbl stuff does. Feedback is great too.
Enjoy!
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