Attention all skinners!

[gecko]

Yes, good idea. And on that note, is it possible to set the scale of the reticle independently from the size of the viewable area? Also on that note, other historical features of reflector sights were brightness control, sun screens, and some had adjustable angles to set the reticle aiming point lower for use with rockets or in dive bombing. Those would all be cool features, but certainly very secondary.

 

[AnKor]

Yes, I can add keys for adjustable size or brightness. Of course they won't be configurable through in-game key bindings, only by manual editing of the ini file. And keyboard only, not a joystick button.
Adjustable angle is more difficult and I have no idea how to make a good looking sun screen (3D model? another sprite? texture replacement?).

And yet another thing I forgot to mention - reticles on movable guns are not supported in this version. Obviously it is impossible to use a sprite for them and the only other approach I have requires m3d editing to make them work. This means more work on your and my side, so I decided to start with simpler ones.

By the way, do you have any new comments about normal maps or other "material" textures?

 

[MajorMagee]

Some of the sights have text which led me to discover that the dynamic reticle image is currently projected as if you're in front of the aircraft looking at the pilot. The original static ones are projected looking out from inside the cockpit. Can we change that so the same retical dds can be used either as a dynamic or static projection without needing to have two different versions? If not, I'll need to write all the text reversed for the dynamic ones.

 

[MajorMagee]

I'm really finding that having dynamic sights has improved my aim since they don't have the constant line of sight drift with my TrackIR that the static ones do.

I've now finished setting up 17 new high resolution sights based on the references I found here:
http://www.aircraft-gunsights.com/80-2/

 

[AnKor]

I will check why the reticle is mirrored. Maybe it is my bug, maybe it has something to do with the sprite orientation.
Should be solvable in any case.

 

[MajorMagee]

Okay, I see what you're doing with the color channels of the reticles now. My mistake for trying to make them work for either static or dynamic use. I'll have to work up an all new set for the dynamic application.

 

[gecko]

It could possibly be orientation as defined in the xdp. Try messing with the pitch, bank, and heading variables.

Gunsight Controls:
I have no idea about sun screens either, just wanted to throw the idea out there as many sights had them.
Adjusting angle - could this be done by modifying the pitch value set in the xdp by adding, say, 6 degrees to the value? Changing the pitch does change where the aiming point is, as I found when setting up a sight for the upward firing guns of a Bf 110. It was a bit harder to get right, but it works perfectly.

Materials:
I take back my previous comments on the specular strength, I think you've nailed it. Some of the specular maps are adjusted too high, and I need to darken them, but when comparing some period color photos to an aircraft using your shaders and having a properly adjusted specular map, the strength and appearance seemed right on. Another factor in my initial observations may have been the glossiness fresnel effect seeming to increase the specular.

I have yet to try bump mapping, but hope to soon.

It seems the fresnel effect and maybe others are only applied to aircraft exterior models. Is this correct?

 

[AnKor]

MajorMagee,

Quick fix for mirrored look
Generic.fx, line 107:
tanEyeVec.x = dot(normalize(T), -In.WorldPos.xyz);
Remove that minus sign before In.WorldPos.xyz and it will look right.



gecko,
Yes, changing sprite's pitch works, but I can't do it directly from my dll. I can do something similar though, so probably not a problem. But I will be looking into it a bit later anyway.

You are right that Fresnel effect increases sun specular as well. I think it is correct approach.

It seems the fresnel effect and maybe others are only applied to aircraft exterior models. Is this correct?

No. It should be applied to all m3d based objects, including the cockpit.
However if the initial specular or glossiness is too low the effect might not be noticeable.

I take back my previous comments on the specular strength, I think you've nailed it.

And I instead began to think that it is overdone

 

[MajorMagee]

Thanks, that corrected the text reversal. The additive colors are properly done now as well.

I did notice that they change slightly depending on the background with the sky shifting the reticle lighter, and the ground making them darker and more saturated. It's not specific to what background terrain you're seeing, just the direction, so it's probably reacting to the skybox cube projection (panoramic_cubic_test.dds).

 

[MajorMagee]

I was just working on positioning for the P_47d_25 and discovered that for this one besides adjusting the xyz positions I had to adjust the pitch to look down slightly so that the gun synchronization point would converge with the sight-line's center.

<Effect Type="Track" EffectName="US_AAF_L3_gunsight" PosX="0.00" PosZ="-0.90" PosY="0.965" Pitch="92.5" MinVel="-999999" MaxVel="999999"/>

 

[MajorMagee]

Here's the reticle collection so far. (Sorry, the image get's downsized so much it's hard to see any details.)

 

[MajorMagee]

AAF K14 (Showing Much Crisper Diamond Points)

Navy Mk1 and Mk8 (Showing Text)

Navy Mk21 (Showing Different Color Illuminator)

 

[MajorMagee]

Still working on a variety of sighting reticles.

I've discovered that the original static reticle does not have to be mapped onto a gunsight in the cockpit model for this work. Some have it mapped on the windshield so it looks like it's moving relative to the gunsight reflector glass (similar to what we're doing with the dynamic reticles). In any event, the shader code's replacement process still works just fine no matter where the static reticle was placed.

I've also started using the masking capability to make the reticle display space shape match up with rectangular reflector glass sights. I just place the z location in closer (more negative) so everything will be covered, and then mask off what falls outside the image of the reflector glass.

 

[MajorMagee]

Another small discovery. The mask layer in flipped vertically relative to the Alpha layer, so it needs to be drawn upside down relative to the reticle for theshape to match up with the reflector in game.

 

[MajorMagee]

In addition to the first batch of Air force, and Navy reticles, I've completed 1 Russian, 1 Italian, 4 British, and 3 German ones in the past few days. I've found that even with the high res (512 x 512) textures, if I make the lines too fine they tend to flicker in game.

 

[HouseHobbit]

WOW!!

 

[gecko]

I have been quite busy with life lately, but am still trying to work on this. A couple more observations:

1. My previously mentioned DXT5 texture issue is related to the reflector sights, and is not related to the code for hiding existing fixed reticles, as I have been using other means to get rid of the fixed reticles until that bug is fixed. When in cockpit view with a dynamic reticle, all the textures using DXT5 format (or similar) flicker from brighter to darker. The problem is more prevalent in brighter lighting conditions, and I have seen little to none of it at night.

2. This may have already been mentioned, but while it's possible to add new cockpit light effects, it is not possible to change their appearance in the texture magic file. They are always the same yellow light, no matter what parameters are specified.

3. On surfaces with a high specular value in the specular map, the fresnel effect will fade the color into an increasing dark shade of blue until it is completely black as the viewing angle becomes sharper.

 

[AnKor]

Hi!

MajorMagee, all these look nice. I will check the vertical flip issue. Maybe you can fix it in the same way as horizontal flip - by removing the "-" sign in this line:
tanEyeVec.y = dot(normalize(B), -In.WorldPos.xyz);



Good observations, gecko.
1. Yes, I noticed that flickering too. Will be investigating the cause.
2. Yep, settings aren't working now. My bad.
3. I think I've seen it and fixed it in my development build, but will check closer again.

Sorry that the work has slowed down - I was trying to fix some existing bugs reported by WOFF players before moving on to new features, but those bugs are too elusive. And I've also recently bought an apartment and currently busy with arranging its renovation. However I still intend to make a good working version for CFS3.

 

[MajorMagee]

I thought about that, but the Alpha layer (the reticle shape) is already being displayed correctly and it's only the RGB mask (the color and shading) that is flipped vertically. I would never have noticed it if I wasn't trying to make the mask asymmetric to match some of the reflector glass shapes. It was easy enough to adjust the DDS file to account for the behavior once I realized what it was doing.

 

[gecko]

Is there a way to change the size of the RGB mask? It is easy to change the reticle scale as displayed on the mask, but you can only make it so big before it becomes larger than the mask. Meanwhile the mask seems to always be the same size.