New Release D3D9Client Development

[Donamy]

That's not a bug. It has to do with the order of the meshes in the scenario.

 

[DaveS]

I think the environment mapping needs a bit of tweaking judging by this photo. Notice how the radiators, the MPLM, and Ku band antenna DEA appear with the natural grey color in the real photo? In Orbiter they reflect the environment in that attitude. Also when wings-level and heads-up, the radiators should look like the third image.

 

[jarmonik]

I think the environment mapping needs a bit of tweaking judging by this photo. Notice how the radiators, the MPLM, and Ku band antenna DEA appear with the natural grey color in the real photo?

Both images, the real one and the orbiter, are pretty well reflecting the color of the earth. I don't think there's anything wrong in the reflection, it's the Earth that needs adjusting.

 

[DaveS]

Both images, the real one and the orbiter, are pretty well reflecting the color of the earth. I don't think there's anything wrong in the reflection, it's the Earth that needs adjusting.

In what way?

 

[Dmitrtr]

That's not a bug. It has to do with the order of the meshes in the scenario.

There is the way to avoid it, when you look through several meshes with alpha channel?

 

[DaveS]

Both images, the real one and the orbiter, are pretty well reflecting the color of the earth. I don't think there's anything wrong in the reflection, it's the Earth that needs adjusting.

After some further discussion with Poscik in the O-F IRC, I have determined that you are correct. I think I originally made the reflections too strong and dialing it back, produces the desired effect.

One question though: What is the second setting for reflection?

 

[Dmitrtr]

I'm in shock about the reflections, there is so stunning! It's just hi end graphics! But whether is possible to apply MULTITEXTURING, normal mapping, reflections and other features, to the base meshes? And How? And LOD's for mesh?

 

[Felix24]

I think the environment mapping needs a bit of tweaking judging by this photo.

I think you should experiment with the reflection intensity- try about 25%. That way, the underlying color of the radiators (blueish) shows through the reflection, and they no longer perfectly reflect either the blackness of space or the ground below. Make sure there is a normal map defined for the texture containing the radiators, to give some texture and break up the polished surface.

---------- Post added at 02:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:27 AM ----------

I see the issue has already been solved.

---------- Post added at 02:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:28 AM ----------

But whether is possible to apply DETAIL TEXTURE, normal mapping, reflections and other features, to the base meshes? And How?

I played around a while back with normal maps, and found that surface tiles could take normal maps. I made normal maps for all the default KSC surftiles, and they ceased to look flat anymore.

 

[Dmitrtr]

I played around a while back with normal maps, and found that surface tiles could take normal maps. I made normal maps for all the default KSC surftiles, and they ceased to look flat anymore.

What the right way to do that? I have tried to add normals to base mesh, without success, i just place normal textures with name: _normal.dds, in Texture folder, and obviously this is not the right way!

 

[orb]

i just place normal textures with name: _normal.dds, in Texture folder, and obviously this is not the right way!

Use *_norm.dds instead.

 

[jarmonik]

One question though: What is the second setting for reflection?

It is supposed to control the reflectivity coefficient that is highly depended about the viewing angle. Currently it's not properly implemented, only effecting in non-textured surfaces like glass.
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_equations"]Fresnel equations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

[fred18]

Hi there,

I am experiencing an issue with the saturn rings and my telescope add-on:

Inline Client:

D3D9:

I tried to restore saturn.tex and saturn_ring.tex from a clean installation but can't get it right anyway. Any suggestion on how to fix it?

thanks a lot for the help

Fred

 

[SolarLiner]

It seems that even in the night side, I receive light from the Sun:

 

[jarmonik]

Beta 2

Here is a beta 2 release. If you have any files in a configuration folder /Config/GC/ it might be good idea to clear them. It is now possible to save a skin specific material setup, automatically, using the material editor from a debug controls. The problem with AMSO should be fixed now. Although, during staging material setup may disapear because a new mesh is attached into a vessel and material configurations must be applied in every mesh separately.

We now have two types of reflections:

1) Reflections coming from a mirror like metallic objects. These are controlled by "Reflect" material property that has rgb-value and an intensity in alpha. Reflection is independent from viewing direction and camera angle. Reflection color is modulated by the "Reflect" material rgb or a reflection texture.

2) Reflections from materials like glass and coated surfaces. Reflection intensity will depend about the camera angle. For an example if you look through a window you may see a faint reflection of your self only about 5% of the light is reflected back. If the sun is shining into a window from a shallow angle nearly about 90% of the light is reflected away. This behaviour is controled with material property "Fresnel". The first parameter will define the curve how the intensity will change as an function of camera angle. The second parameter is an offset that's added into the intensity. It is used to setup minimum reflection and boost the reflection if nessecary. The reflection color is modulated with a specular color from a material or a specular texture.

There are two optional control textures for the reflections:
_spec.dds
rgb = specular color
a = specular power

_refl.dds
rgb = reflection color
a = diffuse channel attennuation. (usually set to intensity of rgb)

Runs with a shader model 2.0 and 3.0 (Orbiter 2010-P1)

 

[jarmonik]

There are a lot of changes made after R9 release. Normal mapping is changed from tangent space to world space. Animation matrices has been reconfigured. So, pay attention to everything and report any problems you might find. Also, confirm if the problem is a new and is not present in R9 release.

BTW, the Earth "shine" or "glow" effect can be configured from a setup menu. What would be a proper value ?

 

[Arthur Dent]

May I ask what exactly the differences between tangent space and world space normal maps are? And what is the benefit of that change? Just curious. I just got the hang with the previous normal maps.

 

[jarmonik]

May I ask what exactly the differences between tangent space and world space normal maps are? And what is the benefit of that change? Just curious. I just got the hang with the previous normal maps.

Normal maps (textures) are still the same. Normals are just converted to world space in a pixel shader by matrix multiplication. Lighting and reflection calculations are now done in world space.

 

[DaveS]

Problem with Beta 2: I set up the materials and then save them. The cfg is written but when reloading the scenario, it seems like the cfg file is not loaded and no reflections appear. Also enabling "improved glass rendering" doesn't seem to take. It is always disabled when loading Orbiter.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

Do you think you'll be able to find a fix for antialiasing? With the window settings (fullscreen window and window with taskbar) that enable it, my framerate drops from the 600s down to about 50.

 

[jarmonik]

Problem with Beta 2: I set up the materials and then save them. The cfg is written but when reloading the scenario, it seems like the cfg file is not loaded and no reflections appear. Also enabling "improved glass rendering" doesn't seem to take. It is always disabled when loading Orbiter.

The "improved glass shading" is always on. Cannot disable at this time, will be implemented later. I have found no difficulties in loading a configuration. I assume you see the reflections before saving them. Are there any errors in the Log ? Could you post the content of the configuration file it created. If you click the "Display Env Mapping" from debug controls. Do you see a cross containing the environment, nothing or just a black background ?

---------- Post added at 01:20 ---------- Previous post was at 01:10 ----------

Do you think you'll be able to find a fix for antialiasing? With the window settings (fullscreen window and window with taskbar) that enable it, my framerate drops from the 600s down to about 50.

I can't find any significant different between different modes on my computer. True Fullscreen, Windowed with and without anti-aliasing are giving approximately the same framerates. What kind of graphics card you have ? Have you tried to disable the aa from the client and then override it from the driver control center.