Jump to content

First look ..Shade


alan2

Recommended Posts

Looks like another "must have". SHADE by Gizmo (thank you ) .First impressions thus far , no tweaking yet and looks good.

What a week for the sim , that injection thing and now this . "Flight" could be on thin ice the way things are going !

Snaps taken around the back blocks somewhere near Caloundra . Might try how things look a Katoomba NSW .

Posted Image

Posted Image

Posted Image

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anything for you Hugh ! sure, just give me some time to do it.

Griphos, Ive been messing about with that Injection contraption and I have uninstalled it for the moment , however I seem to have retained some of the sharpness and possible fps improvement . Right now I am flying probably the best smoothness I have ever done . I dont deal in fps , usually in the teens, just go on smoothness . Very smooth currently.

Using Heiko's enb. Thanks mate !

This is untweaked at the moment , it may appear subtle on a screen shot but when you are flying and moving it really highlights the contours of that valley or hills . Very 3D ish . Its a keeper.

I may not even tweak on top of what I already have.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

....NOoo , sound like the misses, the bloody SHADE tweaks ::) .......................... ;):D .......Ive done it now !

These shots make it easy to see the difference. I like what it does to the clouds.It improves the look of the Havard , which I dont mind flying, but just wish for tweaked graphics

Hugh , does this do what you need, happy to do pure scenery if needed.

There is three shortcuts on desktop, Shader GUI ( tweak colour pallette, 3D object lighting and Shade NL ( Load it up )

Posted Image

Posted Image

Posted Image

Posted Image

Posted Image

Posted Image

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just went for the first flight with Shade installed... using the default settings that come with the package. Very impressed.

I don't have any ENB or other enhancejments to FSX, not even REX. Just plain old vanilla FSX.

Started a flight at Moruya heading west for Canberra. The runway looked much the same as I took off, and the view north up the coast looked much the same, then I turned west towards the mountains and wowee! It is like a new layer of depth has been added to the mountains, instead of flattish looking dull distant mountains, all of a sudden there were serried ranks of ridges and valleys as far as the eye could see. So much more immersive.

I started out with a 30 mile visibility setting, and then changed to 50 miles, and both gave a very nice feeling of distant relief in the landscape.

Approaching Canberra over the flatter terrain there wasn't much difference, but the three local mountains in Canberra were a little more visible at 20-30 miles, and once inside the 10 miles or so, they also became much more lifelike.

Is this a keeper? Just you try and take it off me!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How easy is this to install and use, guys? Jack

Let me see now... degree of difficulty... here's what I did.

Downloaded and unzipped. Had a quick read of the manual... hmmm all sorts of complicated stuff designed for the tweakers, nah, too hard. Closed the manual, spotted two new shortcuts on the desktop. Clicked on the exe one, not the GUI one. A couple of seconds while the shader mods were loaded into FSX and then FSX was started without any more input required.

So, degree of difficulty? 1.0 max. Ease of installation and default usage? 10.0.

Haven't tried the tweaks via the GUI yet and probably won't, the scenery looks great already.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did exactly what you did, John; and echo your thoughts. The default settings are fine.

The only extra thing I did was use the developer's ENB settings that he included in the "goodies" folder. I didn't really care for my original ENB settings, anyway, and his were an improvement.

-Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks John, sounds good.

I use the FPS external limiter (not the antilag one, the other one) and launch FSX from this - wondering if the two play nicely together. But at the price, you're probably right - the best thing for me to do is buy it and have a play around with it and see what happens :mellow:

Thanks

Jack

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have yet to get my hands dirty with the little prog. I must do some work today ::) I downloaded it last night and will have a play later. I'm assuming there is the facility to alter the dynamic range within the software. It's all very well having different colours and densities, but I don't want to end up with a screen where all the detail has been lost in the shadows and, more importantly, the clouds. I will twiddle later on...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How is having the program on my pc going to make screenies any brighter? All the detail is being lost and the reason for posting screenies is deminished.

This program might look fantastic in flight but the screen shots are certainly not the better for it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi rockliffe,

mine worked well out of the box with no tweaking. Having worked through about eight of the provided sets of settings, I have found none that diminish any of the detail, in fact they have enhanced the detail by subtle shading which does not dominate, but improves the picture considerably. Could I just add that thus far the program is simplicity itself to operate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use the FPS external limiter (not the antilag one, the other one) and launch FSX from this - wondering if the two play nicely together.

Yes they do. You'll use the Shade_NL shortcut first to load the textures and then within 30 seconds (after textures load) start FSX through the Limiter batch file. Did it a bunch last night. Easy peasy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How is having the program on my pc going to make screenies any brighter? All the detail is being lost and the reason for posting screenies is deminished.

This program might look fantastic in flight but the screen shots are certainly not the better for it.

If people are posting dark screenies it's not because of this Shader program, unless they for some reason have tweaked it wrongly. Sreenshots showing dark ground are likely to be difficult lighting or people using ENB tweaking. If anything the Shader program makes my mountains appear lighter.overall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, it really does depend how you set it up, and what enb settings you use, if you use it in conjunction... the shot above is a perfect example of the added definition it provides, with out being overwhelmingly dark. Personally I love the deep shadows at dusk and dawn, whether in flight or in screenies.

If people are posting dark screenies it's not because of this Shader program, unless they for some reason have tweaked it wrongly. Sreenshots showing dark ground are likely to be difficult lighting or people using ENB tweaking. If anything the Shader program makes my mountains appear lighter.overall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Treetops... :-)

Really?! People should change their settings so you'll be happier with their screenshots?! Any particular locations you don't like as much so we can avoid those as well?!

Seeing detail isn't the only reason for posting pics. These, for instance, are to show the mood and shadowy goodness realism of this new addon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes they do. You'll use the Shade_NL shortcut first to load the textures and then within 30 seconds (after textures load) start FSX through the Limiter batch file. Did it a bunch last night. Easy peasy.

Thanks Griphos, went ahead and bought it. installed it at lunchtime but haven't had time to play with it yet, hope to get a chance over the weekend.

Jack

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let me see now... degree of difficulty... here's what I did.

Downloaded and unzipped. Had a quick read of the manual... hmmm all sorts of complicated stuff designed for the tweakers, nah, too hard. Closed the manual, spotted two new shortcuts on the desktop. Clicked on the exe one, not the GUI one. A couple of seconds while the shader mods were loaded into FSX and then FSX was started without any more input required.

So, degree of difficulty? 1.0 max. Ease of installation and default usage? 10.0.

Haven't tried the tweaks via the GUI yet and probably won't, the scenery looks great already.

There are lighter and darker presets included with Shade and some with various color tints. Almost like themes I guess that all come included with Shade. I found it wierd to use for about a minute and then it suddenly made sense.

Shade_GUI is where you can hand pick from a bunch of presets or build and save your own. So far the quick and dirty use of the program is that you will likely mostly use Shade GUI and Shade.exe. GUI lets you hand pick from a collection of preset themes and shade.exe loads the theme into FSX and autoruns FSX for you.

Initially, Shade_GUI freaked me out at first with all the color tiles and color pallets. Till I realised the two of the three buttons I wanted were LOAD DAY1 FROM A PRESET and CLONE DAY ONE. Artistic type tweakers can mess with colors and settings and then thier newly created theme with SAVE DAY 1 TO A PRESET button. I'll just stick with selecting from the collection included with Shade.

So you dont have to tweak is my point. If you want to try the other themes, they are in the Shade_GUI under LOAD DAY 1 FROM A PRESET. Just don't forget to follow up with CLONE DAY ONE so it is copied to days 2 through 10 of FSX's built in 10 day cycle (for whatever reason that exists). The steps seem to be...

- Run Shade_GUI

- To shop for a different theme, click Load Preset to Day 1 and select one that sounds interresting.

- Clone the new day one to Day 2 through 10.

- Exit Shade_GUI

- Start SHADE.exe and let it load the theme and start FSX for you.

Or if you have another FSX Autolauncher, run Shade_NL.exe and it does the same thing as SHADE.EXE but lets you start FSX yourself. If you don't start FSX in 30 seconds it will unload and quit Shade.

C.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No offence guys. Just paying devils advocate here. Perfect example is Alan2's very nice shot posted above. The mountains are captured beautifully. Even slightly too bright. Yet check out the cockpit. Dont tell me thats true to life. Detail is lost.

My stance is not that you should not use this program. I might actually get it myself. My point is the quality of screenshots has gone down suddenly. Hopefully like Alan2 says above, its early days and the blackness is tweaked out. Check out some screenshots from last week and compare.

@Griphos - Some people make screenshots an art form (ala Iain and others). The art has gone black.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ever heard of Rembrandt? Talk about dark art!

As a RL pilot, I can tell you that the panels can get pretty dark when it's bright outside with a slanting light (especially late in the day) and the panel is thrown into shade.

It still seems to me that you're asking people to change things to suit your sense of what is good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...