LargeStyle Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Today I've decided to get the bottom of this problem that I've put up with for ages... Basically, when out in Tamriel exterior world space the edge of the map in the distance (where the land finishes and blank space continues) is drawn a certain colour dependant on weather type at the time. Here's a view near Whiterun but very high in the sky during what's supposed to be a foggy night... http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/291/1dmu.jpg Obviously this looks **** and it ruins everything - but I don't know what's causing it. This colouring is only present when weather is active and "Show colour in Render Window" is ticked. There's absolutely nothing in the weather settings themselves that causes this, and to clarify it seems that Imagespaces don't affect the issue. Although up until now I've manipulated whichever distance colour I've been given by changing sky multiplier and fogging colour, these don't help me in this situation (sky has no multiplier and fogging is set to almost black). I can therefore only assume that each weather type has an absolute base background colour that is behind each cell / world space, but again I'm clueless here. I'm hoping that anyone with experience in creating / editing world spaces / regions / climates / whatever will know of a setting somewhere which'll allow me to colour the background in manually. If not, things aren't looking good.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morrovvind Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Is this related to your new upcoming weather mod? If this is your goal to fix the ugly horizon, I can't wait! I'm sorry but I know nothing of modding myself to know how to change that. I'd say your assumptions and observations about the problem are pretty sound, though. I personally would try to find someone, like you mentioned, who creates world spaces. In the creation process they might come across something like this, whereas editors might pass over/not notice it (and I'm not sure I've seen any weather mods that get rid of the ugly horizon, but I could definitely be wrong, seeing as I don't really have a gaming PC yet and haven't tried out any mods). I wish the best of luck to you however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LargeStyle Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) Yes, this is still my mod in progress...!!! I've given myself 3 criteria for this mod - and I call it PPP, or triple-P: Professional, Polished, and Pretty. It was a hopeful goal to fix the ugly horizons so as to meet my criteria, but up until today it wasn't looking too promising as I was having to manipulate my way through it and unavoidably having to make compromises along the way - obviously not ideal. I was about to give up on the horizon thing as it was becoming more hassle and time that it was worth. I've just now fixed the hassle part, but it's going to have an affect on the time part... It seems I missed out ONE variable in CK that caused not only the white horizon on my foggy night picture above, but also (along with other settings) causes ALL of the ugly horizons in Skyrim. It's the Cloud Layer #28 colour and alpha settings along with Bethesdas (mis)use of the Sky Scale (multiplier) that was the problem. Now I've discovered this, I'm currently stumped as to why the heck Bethesda chose to mess this all up?!?!?! Anyways, proof of results... Sunny Day 12pm with properly fixed horizon: http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/4695/dbeh.jpg Exact same scene, foggy night (before horizon fix): http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/4696/dbdp.jpg Exact same scene again, with horizon fix: http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/3534/8h94.jpg Although I'm well chuffed I've resolved this issue now, it's definitely a case of fix one problem and make another - I'm now going to have to completely rebuild all the skies because the moment I turn off this sky scale setting it'll mess them up. I will finish this damn mod sometime....! Edited June 19, 2013 by LargeStyle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morrovvind Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Wow, looks much better! However, I have one question about the horizon in the daytime fixed image. Where the sky ends (in the middle of the image), is that supposed to be the ocean? There's some blank space there that looks like it might be ocean, but in game near that location in Whiterun, Whiterun has all sorts of terrain and other things surrounding it and is generally lower altitude than what is surrounding it (I think). I wouldn't expect to see that ocean, but rather instead I would expect to see a scene of distant mountains or whatever is in that direction. Correct me if I'm wrong, I just thought there were more hilly areas and mountains north of whiterun which would prevent that weird horizon line. Of course, that might not be related to your weather mod project at all and instead fall in the hands of a different project in and of itself (some sort of rendering farther distance terrain project). Or it could be related to the fact that your character is floating off the ground to achieve that particular screenshot. The only reason I was asking is that the screenshot, with that blank space or whatever it is there, tends to give me the illusion that Skyrim is smaller than it actually is, or an odd feeling of being on top of the world when I shouldn't be and seeing the horizon all around me. Not really a problem with what you're working on (which is quite good), just a nitpick I think I've had with vanilla Skyrim. At any rate, I'm glad you've fixed the issue you had a problem with, but sorry it's going to lead to more issues. Best of luck mate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LargeStyle Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 Thanks for your comments. The space you're referring to is like that in the game as well as within CK - I think it's something to do with that particular scene because when you go up the road immediately east of Whiterun (heading north) you start going downhill. It's definitely nothing to do with anything I've adjusted, in fact I run several distance / lod mods and .ini tweaks (including higher Ugrids) to make it look better. For clarification, here's an in game (work in progress) image and another (WIP) image almost 90 degrees to the left... http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/4782/rxa1.jpg http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/8185/hnmm.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morrovvind Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 Thanks for the explanation it helped. At any rate, I'm on my phone now but those WIP images look great! I think I can really see that distance effect where those mountains and trees in the back start to take on the Hue of the atmosphere which is a REAL nice effect indeed (looks like that in real life) I'm excited to see what effect the simulated Rayleigh scattering has on the sunrises and sunsets (I'm not sure if I got the terms right). If you included scenic shots of those you'd generate some killer interest, not just from the correctness of the lighting but the beauty of it (vanilla/after pics are great, so are Scenic timelapse videos) Thanks for your hard work, I hope it gets the love from the community. Haven't checked out any of your musical/audio talent yet if there's anything up, but I'm sure that will be great too when you get to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LargeStyle Posted June 20, 2013 Author Share Posted June 20, 2013 Thanks again Morrovvind. This fogging / rayleigh scattering effect combined with horizon fixes is damn difficult to pull off - days and nights are easy, sunrises and sunsets are very much not. Will obviously continue with it, and once I've sussed out the realistic approach more I may be able to elaborate a touch to make things more spectacular. I may have to give up on the horizon fix if it causes too much hassle and compromises - time will tell. My initial target is to probably release an open beta version which will include just one of each weather type being modded (one sunny 24 hours, one cloudy 24 hours etc) but again time will tell with this. If I get any worthwhile progress / success then I may post some pictures and / or timelapse vids soon. I haven't released any music work yet as I'm too damn preoccupied with this mod. My to-do list is as always heavily overscheduled :blink: Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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