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| Manual mixing of video levels for a good balance |
Alas I couldn't do this in the way I wanted but the results are not bad. It was a royal pain to have to clip geometry, the material to 'see through' needed a flag adding to it, the fragment shader needs a uniform to know if the PNVS is active or not, heat-maps have to be added to materials. The good side is that the diffuse colour is still there but the heat map is rendered into the 'glow' buffer so they kind of radiate if you have your glow video setting enabled.
Contrast and brightness are enhanced in the final PNVS image via a post-processing shader. I could in addition add the old light amplification function to this too but I don't think it's necessary. During full daylight it burns out your retinas if you have the video level turned up to max.
All in all I'm sort of OK with it but not satisfied. I simply wanted to blend heat-maps as a post-process and not a form of multi-texturing which is inelegant.
AD had a little play and looked at some of the interesting glitches that occur when you're clipping geometry so you can see through it. This is down to the move from a virtual camera to a 'mouse look' view point, you can move your view beyond the constrains of the PNVS. So AD suggested a rather neat solution of fading the PNVS image at the constraints which works brilliantly. Nice smooth fade out when nearing the edges although I chose not to apply this in external views where bad clipping isn't a problem.
Still need to sort out the scale and mask size/shape which won't take long. AD has everything needed to build heat-maps for the remaining assets. Soon everything will be a blaze of black and green. Did I mention that tracer fire looks pretty cool?
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| Transparency, lighting, particles, heat glow maps |
Looks great! I like that brightness. Looks real.
ReplyDeleteLike the heat glow. Good effort. I have a trackIr on the left side of my headphones, shouldn't be too hard to speedtape a 4 inch monitor to the right side :)
ReplyDeleteJust a question on heat maps, does this mean that each vehicle will have a tailored heat map that shows certain areas of the vehicle as hotter than others? e.g. Engine exhaust, muzzle (after firing)
Each vehicle TYPE will have its own heat map, component intensity will be static, going that extra mile requires a wee bit of work to decouple vertex colour from the shader. It's certainly possible to do though.
ReplyDeleteIf you're lucky, it will be added after the full release in an update.
Programmer Not Very Satisfied LOL
ReplyDeleteDon`t know how it should look like in RL, but I like it how you did it in Sim.
Next picture or better a movie: Tracer fire! :-)
"Next picture or better a movie: Tracer fire! :-)"
ReplyDeleteor better release that damn demo! or better full game!! ;) grrrr
Cheers
Really nice work! You guys are doing an amazing job. And most off all you are bringing back that old feeling we got with the Jane's simulators. Can't describe the feeling but I think everyone here feels it. It was a complete joy to old a Jane's box and manual! I've been waiting for something like this since Longbow 2. Thank you and take your time to finish this piece of art!
ReplyDeleteRegards.
Can you move the view to the right a little to allow a left right kind of view? I think that would look a little better and allow the abillity to watch the FMD's and look around.
ReplyDeleteHey CAT, long time.
ReplyDeleteNot clear what you mean. Could you clarify?
Hi CAT, if he does that he have to push the whole IHADSS/PNVS view to the right... That means you would not have the gun cross centred on screen... But I know what you mean. And if you look closely you can view both MFDs.
ReplyDeleteFlex, those right corners are the way you will make the PNVS limit right?
I'm not clear what you mean by corners in the way, you mean the circular masking? Nothing is hard to see once you've dialled in brightness levels you're comfortable with. MFDs, UFD, IHADSS, PNVS, all have individual brightness levels you can adjust in the cockpit. See screenshot I added above.
ReplyDeleteLimits on the PNVS are handled by making it fade completely out between 90 and 91 degrees left/right.
Yes Flex, I was talking about the masking. There are two cut outs on the right and upper side of the IHADSS. I think that is to simulate the eye piece, right?
ReplyDeleteThe last image you add above it's really great. Did you tested already in full black night?
Keep up the great work.
I see, ignore the mask edges. Will likely change that. The only photo reference I have that was taken down the lens of the eyepiece with the PNVS active shows the rectangular image slightly offset but that's probably to do with the photo not being taken square on. Otherwise it's pretty close.
ReplyDeleteI realy like what I see just wish I had the fealing of left eye and right eye, insted of it fealing like i am looking thrue the PNVS with both eyes. But hay that is just me, I want my eyes to swarl around in my head and freak people out after I video my face. ;)
ReplyDeleteCarlos yes the cross hair would need to be fixed to work properly with the gun.
well you can just shift it all to the left/right for that effect.
ReplyDeleteI like it in the middle just fine and I think your mind kind of shifts the display to the middle of your vision anyways doesnt it?
The new pic looks really great flex. the HUD readouts are very clear and have a "real" feel to them.
the NV looks pretty dang good now too.
I like the top pic much better as well. If it is setup to extract the PVNS to a sepret screan, I just may make a eye pice to whear.
ReplyDeleteIf the IHADSS/PNVS was shifted to the right side of the screen you'd have to turn your head 30 degrees to the left just to see where you're going. At best you'd end up flying around in circles, at worst you'd crash before clearing the stagefield.
ReplyDeleteAligning the PNVS sight with the PNVS pie would have been great, if it worked. IMO functionality is more important than strict 'realism', especially realism that gives you realistic headaches.
The PNVS as implemented is pure awesomeness. 0 fps hit, you can see through the aircraft, it's adjustable for brightness/opacity and we have custom heat maps for vehicles, aircraft and other important targets.
I'd still like a full-screen PNVS option with or without x-ray view.
Cheers
I won't rule out separating off the IHADSS display to another dedicated client post release. Someone is wanting to build a desktop simulator and Komodo have some replica controls in the workshop.
ReplyDeleteI'm not yet convinced it's practical to use things like pocket projectors to build a replica HMD but I'm willing to go the extra mile to find out.
I tried the hard solution first and spent time trying to make it work. This is the best all-round PC (and people) friendly solution that above all else re-creates the function of the real system.
It would be really easy to include a "bag" mode by adding blinds to the pilot compartment (or just blacking the canopy glass), then you'd see just how useful it is. Everything you need to fly the aircraft well at night is there.
The only change between the top screenshot and the ones below are combinations of time night and the crews video level settings adjustable in the cockpit.
For non-trackIR users I need to add a seat adjust option and snap views.
Very very nice, however it seems odd to me that you can see through the aircraft with your flir-eyepiece. Is that really the case in a real apache? If so I would assume you would also see through the objects you look at (tanks, cars, helicopters).
ReplyDeleteOr is it to make it flyable?
ReplyDeleteNo no no, think about it.
ReplyDeleteThe video in the eyepeice comes from a camera outside the aircraft. The pilot will see his cockpit through both eyes, but he will also see the outside world from the camera in one eye. After many weeks of headaches and getting used to mixing these images in your brain, you train yourself to blend all this information. It is possible for pilots to see through the floor of their aircraft although it's from a slightly different perspective (about 2 meters in front).
You can't see through other objects.
O yeah...it's the cam on the nose you're looking through :) In real life you probably have some perspective issues with close objects. Thanks for clearing
ReplyDelete