FXShine shader

[Bil Hardenberger]

Thanks Harry, you rock.

 

I was editing in notepad and it was all run on and hard to read.. this makes a lot more sense now.  

[CarlWAW]

How about this? (I aimed for a compromise of less strain on the eyes but improved contrast, colors and depth)

 

New ML:

 

 

Without ML:

 

 

Original ML:

Washed out, cold, no colors.

 

BarbaricCo ML:

As beautiful as it looks, for my taste the very high contrast removes too much of the feeling of the strong haze in this scenario.

 

New ML:

Sadly anti-aliasing is not working with ML enabled (see building on the left; this effect is even more disturbing on vehicles or fences).

ML off:

 

New ML:

 

ML off:

Edited September 14, 2015 by CarlWAW

[George MC]

I like the newer look which is a bit more toned down. You planning on making this one public so we can give the tyres a kick?

[BarbaricCo]

BarbaricCo, welcome to the forum and an excellent first post, I might add.

Thanks

 

That was a fist post? Excellent! I can not tell easily on my phone.

Great concept,

Thanks

[BarbaricCo]

All pics taken in-game on a Windows 7 based system with a Nividia GTX970 graphics card; all settings best.

 

Taken at around 0600Hrs - overcast and misty. Current in-game view (note game heavily modded)

Dramatic scenes!

Now just to somehow merge normal sky with new shader. Will definitly try to edit sky gradient and clouds to better fit this look.

[BarbaricCo]

And some sunny vs shady comparison shots.

...

Waiting for more! 

 

This is how it looks in ArmA Edit, a tool that can open and edit *.sqf files and such:

...

Gates are open . Btw on Mac If not TextEdit than best is to install Xcode

 

How about this? (I aimed for a compromise of less strain on the eyes but improved contrast, colors and depth)

...

For those subtle changes will definitely try to bring magenta down (green channel - "float AvgLumG") and " fxaa_color = BrightnessSaturationContrast" little bit up.

Maybe try to play with "sepia tones" - I did't like it but it can work in some combinations.

 

For CMFI funs I opened thread at:

http://community.battlefront.com/topic/120800-fxshine-shader-for-cmfi/

 

Please take a look!

[General Jack Ripper]

It feels like a whole new avenue of mods has been opened. I can forsee a time when there will be dozens of these movie mode mods, for every taste and preference. It gives me warm fuzzies when I see completely new things come out of the community.

[kevinkin]

Were does one place the frag file on the PC?

 

Kevin

[BarbaricCo]

Were does one place the frag file on the PC?

Check this:

http://community.battlefront.com/topic/113712-where-to-put-mod-files/

[hank24]

...I'm finding overall on my PC the shadows are very dark, overly so. Could be mods I use or the way my PC is calibrated via my graphics card. Still give me an hour and I'll post some screens.

Wow, looking great. I like the look- sometimes like a photo or even nicer than real life. But I agree to GeorgeMC, the shadows are too dark. It is something disturbing me since CMBN. On a sunny day, there is a lot of scattered light, also. This brightens surfaces in the shadow allowing details to be seen. I just happen to be in Abu Dhabi, bright sunlight and I can see each detail on such surfaces. At your first post here, 4th picture, the dark halftrack in front of the dark house is nearly invisible. I know that shadows are used tactically to avoid to be seen, but this is too much - just my opinion.

Keep on going...

[RockinHarry]

These are the params I tinkered with so far (ArmA Edit) and give some pleasent results on my particular machine:

/*const*/ float AvgLumR = 0.3;

/*const*/ float AvgLumG = 0.3;

/*const*/ float AvgLumB = 0.3;

fxaa_color = overlay(fxaa_color, vec3(0.33));

fxaa_color = BrightnessSaturationContrast(fxaa_color, 1.0, 1.1, 1.1);

gl_FragColor *= 1.05;

Had to desaturate a bit again, as well as overall brightness. Contrast is a bit sensible, as too much will counter proper anti aliasing and yield jaggy edges. All trial and error, as I still have too little understanding of all that shader programming stuff.

Overall the movie light shader slot is a good option for everyone to make his own prefered alternative shader, for which there are countless uses. Still needs lots of experimentation, particular with the not so obvious parameters.

Need to figure out if any the parameters are responsible for the overly bright lighting of steep slopes in dusk and dawn TOD.

Btw, there´s no difference between the CMBN and CMRT shader. Just few different comments and non used former options, that could be reused optionally.

Does anybody know where the parameters are that switch artificially bright night lighting? I´d rather reverse the effect to dark night instead.

Other files that offer modding opportunities could be any the bumpmapping, precip_shader and water_simple files.

[CarlWAW]

@BarbaricCo

Thanks for the suggestions.

I want to play hours without strain on the eyes and the overexposed greens/yellows never did fit my taste. I think the warmth works exceptionally well IN GAME (at least in Red Thunder). The eye adopts anyway and what remains are wonderful shades of green and a feeling of distance, I had no clue CM could show that.

 

 

@hank24

You are comparing the vastly superior optics of human eyes to the results of cameras? If you look into a shadow in bright sunglight, you mentally focus on the dark area amd the eye adopts to the darkness - therefore you can see details in the shadow, but with the result that the bright areas are totally overexposed, which you do not consciously recognize, because you are not focusing on them - in fact they are so much overexposed, that if you would look back into the brightness, it physically would hurt the eyes.

In contrast a computer monitor/camera cannot know on which area on the screen you are focusing. While in filming or photography spot exposure metering allows the creator to determine the area of importance, in the game this is not possible. The whole contrast/brigthness range must be represented with one setting on one single screen. Therefore only a compromise can be the result.

Edited September 14, 2015 by CarlWAW

[hank24]

Thanks, CarlWAW, did not know that, lot to learn here besides tactics.

[weapon2010]

thanks for the effort, I tried it, just seems a little bright for my taste, I think everything needs to be toned down though, but keep them coming

[weapon2010]

but I do love the way you brought at the depth of detail and shadows through contrast

[Offshoot]

Interesting topic. It's a pity the shader can't be applied selectively as I like the look on some of the terrain and foliage (providing increased depth) but not on the vehicles or troops.

[domfluff]

This is great. I started playing around with the values to try to make a "night vision" mode for CMBS, but haven't gotten terribly far at the moment. Did manage to turn everything pink, which is something.

[BarbaricCo]

Few updates

 

What brings to life terrain and flora is overlay setting in "War Movie" shader but it affects vehicles and uniforms to become too dark, or garish. So regarding all of the suggestions and obvious shortcomings of this edited "War Movie" shader I tried to take it further.

 

This involves editing of bump mapped shaders, but also in consequence means that normal CM look will also be affected and out of balance.

With editing only "War Movie" shader You affect only the "alt-M" special mode so you can easily switch back to defaults. Now it's impossible — unless You move shaders from "z" folder.

 

- Dark shadow/garish areas in vehicles and uniforms are more pleasing.

- edited haze/sky gradients and clouds textures so they are not "burned".

- messing with shadows has performance impact.

- still didn't managed to tweak the fog.

 

Important is that Combat Mission still manage to retain a distinctive look. All of this was already "under the hood". I just tweaked the settings.

- It would be great if community up vote this, to came on priority list for next update (if it's possible; engine v4.0?) so players can enable/disable, something like "advanced shaders" option.

- to leave Battlefront to finalize this job. They know best what's more in the pipeline and how to make this official without breaking anything (at least for PC/Mac's with decent graphic card).

- Of course we can continue to play with the settings (please upload those screenshoots!) so they can make better decisions and see what works, what doesn't in different conditions. 

- and finally I must resume social and work life back to normal

 

What I also achieved while messing with shaders is to hard crash iMac. Need to check everything carefully before uploading this mode so it not became

Combat Mission - A Shader Too Far

 

Cheers!

 

It's not bloody war, it's postcard (Who can now say that Combat Mission has outdated graphic!)

 

Garish is gone, sky is back - Let's smash! (daily scenarios can take even more "shine" — after all its metal on the shiny day)

 

Don't look at me, I'm ugly in the morning (@CarlWAW will be pleased I hope so)

 

peaceful trenches of Eastern Front (night and early morning scenarios probably needs "lighter" settings for playability reasons)

 

smoke is in the air, action is coming (fog still not there)

 

To the glory or… (grass is not affected by shadows — probably too much even for the fastest computers)

 

 

[Offshoot]

Wow, the apparent depth in the top pic is stunning and the others look great too. Some of the skys are a bit saturated, but I guess fiddling with the skybox texture might be able to ameliorate that.

[CarlWAW]

@BarbaricCo

 

Fantastic job!!! Does that mean you can even apply the changes without activating Alt-M and therefore without losing AA? (on your pics aliasing is not a problem)

[CarlWAW]

Although the editing of the ML-shader seems already outdated thanks to Barbaric's fantastic progress, I am nevertheless wondering which setting people prefer?0

 

 

1A

 

1B

 

1C

 

1D

[kevinkin]

"Did manage to turn everything pink, which is something."

 

St. Valentine's Day Massacre perhaps ....

 

Night vision sounds way cooler.

 

BarbaricCo ... Your shader technique is probably on BFC radar. Comments may take a while. If they are really impressed, advanced shader options might be supported in-game. But I suspect it will be up to the community to implement as a mod for the short term at least.

 

Kevin

Edited September 15, 2015 by kevinkin

[CarlWAW]

Again strong haze, same time, but this time camera is aimed against the light.

 

2A

 

2B

 

2C

 

2D

[CarlWAW]

Clear sky, 1400

 

3A

 

3B

 

3C

 

3D

[CarlWAW]

Clear sky, 1500 (rapeseed with vehicle in shadow with sky through the leaves and vehicle further away)

 

4A

 

4B

 

4C

 

4D