View Single Post in: Sea, Sky and Light parameters- let's learn!

Field Researcher
#198 Old 17th Apr 2012 at 3:59 PM
I'll put information as to the function of the 21 colour bars here. If anyone has info to add, let me know. Here are some preliminary findings, I'll update periodically...


Colour Bar Functions:



Light Colors

1) Directional light and shadows...normal time cycle. This is based on the suns current position in the sky. Needs to be darkened before sunset or there is an abrupt shift in light/shadow direction when the source changes from sun to moon.


2) Ambient light...may be Bloom. Seems to be a 12 hr per color cycle & limited to 2 colors. Looks to be the main nighttime luminance in EA colour ramps. I used a blue/white flashbar in these pics...



3) Indirect/Reflected sunlight? Horizontal lighting..strong on trees, sides of building structures and steep
terrain..weak elsewhere. Not a normal time cycle. Usually pretty dark in the EA worlds.







Water Colors

4) Water color...uses a normal time cycle, so it's possible to have many color changes throughout a 24
hour period.


5) Sun & Moon Reflections on Water...normal time cycle. This pic is a yellow moon reflection...








Sun Colors

6) Sun color...normal time cycle.


7) Halo color...May not be activated. Found this in the 0x5E20253AF53E517F.ini: SunHaloRadius = 0 //this does not do anything
I have checked twice with differing parameters and found no color detection in photoshop.







Sky Colors

8) SkyLight > Sky mid region...normal time cycle. Exhibits nighttime color banding problems. Strongest influence near sun. All 4 of these components are most prominent at sunrise/sunset.


9) HorizonLight > normal time cycle...banding. Strongest influence near sun.


10) SkyDark > Sky mid & top regions...normal time cycle..banding. Although the pic doesn't show it well, the dome of the sky is red, too. I made a camera mod some time ago that increases pitch, so I can see it...no sense posting a pure red pic, however. Strongest influence away from sun.


11) HorizonDark > normal time cycle..banding. Strongest influence away from sun.


**************************************************************

*See note 1 below*
SkyDark, SkyLight, HorizonLight, HorizonDark was the component order in the basegame ini's. While the light/dark is hard to call due to interpolation and locational blending...the sky/horizon differentiators are easy to spot and clearly don't match up with the early ini orderings. Components 9 & 11 in this group are horizons as evidenced by the screenshots, which were posted after testing of each bar to avoid errors. Bar 9 would be named SkyLight if I used their order and bar 10 would be HorizonLight.


As to the light/dark nomenclature, here is a screenshot at the beginning of the sunset with bar 8 yellow. The top is the sunset, the bottom is the diametrically opposed region at the same time. Since the yellow is strongest by the sun, that would make bar 8 SkyLight following the rules layed out in note 1. It would then follow that bar 10 is SkyDark.


Finally, a screenshot of bar 11 with sunset top, and diametrically opposed region bottom. Again following the rules laid out in note 1, that would make this HorizonDark, and subsequently bar 9 would be HorizonLight.








Cloud Colors 1

12) ColorWRTSunDark This bar is the darkest of the 5 at night, even darker than the shadow bar on EA colour ramps...so it would have to be SunDark..and it follows that 14 is then HorizonDark

13) ColorWRTSunLight The sky dome has clouds showing green here, that's how I know its sky and bar 14 is horizon.



14) ColorWRTHorizonDark

15) ColorWRTHorizonLight


16) ColorWRTShadow You can tell by looking at the EA colour ramps that this is shadow


*See note 2 below*
There are 2 similar ini files in the basegame(Sky_Clear1 & Sky_Clear2), so components 12 - 16 & 17 - 21 should both be cloud colorings. WRT=WithRespectTo methinks...






Cloud Colors 2

17) ColorWRTSunDark

18) ColorWRTSunLight

19) ColorWRTHorizonDark

20) ColorWRTHorizonLight

21) ColorWRTShadow


*See note 2 below*
I haven't figured out why they have duplicated the cloud components or how to determine under what circumstance(s) each set will be used.









Notes:



[1] Taken from Sky_ClearSky.ini in basegame:

Sky Colors

These are the colors used for the sky. There
are 'dark' and 'light' components to the sky
color, which correspond to the sun's position
in the sky. These are interpolated across the
sky so that the position where the sun is
gets the 'light' color and the position
opposite the sun gets the 'dark' color. The
light and dark colors are in turn blended
from day, sunset and night colors.

**************************************************************

Horizon Colors

These colors are used for the sky at the
horizon. They work the same as the Sky color
with Day/Sunset/Night plus Light/Dark
variations. The results of sky and horizon
blends are in turn blended together based on
the pixel's altitude from the horizon line.






[2] Taken from the Sky_Clear1.ini file in basegame:

Cloud Colors

Clouds' color is obtained by interpolating between two values: color based on just the position of
of the sun (ColorWRTSun) and the color based on how close the cloud is to the horizon (ColorWRTHorizon).
The "ColorWRTHorizon" color component dominates when the cloud is near the horizon and the "ColorWRTSun" color
component dominates when the cloud is elsewhere (i.e., away from the horizon). The horizon component is
useful to give a different coloring for the cloud when it is near the horizon.

The "ColorWRTSun" and the "ColorWRTHorizon" components in turn are obtained by interpolation as discussed below.

Cloud's color considering only its position relative to the sun ("ColorWRTSun")

"ColorWRTSunLight" is used when the cloud is exactly at the position of the sun and "ColorWRTSunDark"
is used when the cloud is diametrically opposite to the sun. The actual values for "ColorWRTSunLight" and
"ColorWRTSunDark" vary over the course of the 24-hour day cycle and are obtained by blending the values specified for the
times of day.

**************************************************************

[This precedes the two horizon components and has no heading-PoisonFrog]

Cloud's color based on which half of the hemisphere it occupies relative to the sun.
This color term only has a strong effect on horizon clouds.

It is only strongly polarized to Light or Dark when the sun is also near the horizon.
During midday the horizon clouds will take an average of the Light and Dark values.

HorizonLight is used when the sun is shining from behind the clouds.
HorizonDark is used when the clouds are diametrically opposed from from the sun.

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