sightseer Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 This is a question. I have been trying to determine ALL inputs for cloud colors. They are not all in the sky texture. I know that cloud choice and sky texture and weather (and time,season,location on the Earth,etc) will all have an input on the colors that FSX/P3D will render but there is also the shader files. Swarmcloud.fx clearly has some input but I don't know anything about shaders and Im afraid to mess with it. I think 'Shade' is all about messing with shaders. (I know FSWC is). Does anyone know of a guide to rewriting shaders to control ALL aspects of cloud colors? There just seem to be some colors that are out of my reach and its annoying. Its like certain levels of Alpha in some cloud textures make the rendering engine produce reddish grey colors and if I could change that reddish grey to a more blue grey color then Id be really happy. Id like to learn if I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sightseer Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share Posted April 3, 2013 It appears to me that the cloud colors I find annoying are a result of the definitions of black and grey. They both use equal amounts of red, green and blue but it seems to me that red is the dominant color in graphics. I don't have any formal training in computer graphics (or any graphics for that matter) so I cant make definitive statements about what is and what isn't. But with red being a dominant color, grey has a reddish tint unless grey is redefined. The bright reddish grey isn't that much of a problem. Its when a cloud shadow appears as a dark yellow (aka brown) that I don't like. I need to redefine black and grey I think. Id like to stop the natural bend towards dark reddish shadows. I don't think shader code is anything I should mess with even if I can find black and grey defined somewhere. But if the ENB mod comes with its own palette then where is the palette that gets used without the mod? I cant find one anywhere. It must be hard coded? I've been resistant to the ENB mod...I have my reasons. I just want flight sim to look good all the time. It certainly can look great some of the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfko Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Hi Dave, I think "Shade" might be the way for you to go. It's no "messing" with shaders at all. It is really save to use. Cheers, Wolfgang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Routley Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Sightseer, from your description I wondered about the colour calibration on your monitor. One of mine (the tablet) has a strong red-bias. Interestingly, I went to the trouble of calibrating the monitors with a Datacolor Spyder sensor, mainly to aid colour matching. The result: this monitor cannot be calibrated, due primarily to its gamma performance (out of range) So colour rendition is only accurate now on the other 3 monitors. Something I found out the hard way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sightseer Posted April 4, 2013 Author Share Posted April 4, 2013 I think you're right. Shade certainly doesn't cost very much. The guy who wrote that program (I think it was him) wrote a few things online on how to adjust shaders for brighter clouds and then a bit later 'Shade' was released. That's what got me thinking in this direction. Hi Dave, I think "Shade" might be the way for you to go. It's no "messing" with shaders at all. It is really save to use. Cheers, Wolfgang I've had this issue using several different graphics cards and three different monitors and multiple drivers. While its entirely possible that Im the only one seeing it, I don't think that's the case. I hope that's not the case. I did see a guy (I think it was on this website) a long time ago complaining about a weird redgrey colored shadow that appeared around his aircraft when it rained. He had NVidia. I had the same issue and also had/have NVidia. I really have no way of knowing what others see and I think doing monitor calibration to any degree more than Ive already tried (using Windows built in calibration as a guide) would be kind of a waste for me. I don't care enough to spend money on the situation. What Ive done is to set my monitor temp on neutral and I kept it at its default 'Standard' setting and then I used the Windows calibration to adjust the NVidia control panel brightness, contrast and gamma. I then chose a point that was between the drivers default settings and the settings that monitor calibration told me to use. I never messed with color calibration. I am reliant on the manufacturers. In all honesty, I have an eyesight disorder called Palinopsia and its hard for me to determine color sometimes. When i do sky design, I just look for the things that look good again and again and again. but then if my driver brightness, contrast and gamma settings are wrong, I can easily produce a sky that looks flat or wrong in some way to others. Its too bad really. I think my latest skies are good (daytimes anyway - Im currently working on things that work in winter better). I've tried everything I can think of to make the clouds always look good and I decided it just wasn't in the sky textures to do it. The master controller was elsewhere and I think its shaders. I hope the programmers at LM will make P3Dv2 have nice clouds but if others don't see or know about this "brown shadow" issue that I have then I am just SOL I guess. Sightseer, from your description I wondered about the colour calibration on your monitor. One of mine (the tablet) has a strong red-bias. Interestingly, I went to the trouble of calibrating the monitors with a Datacolor Spyder sensor, mainly to aid colour matching. The result: this monitor cannot be calibrated, due primarily to its gamma performance (out of range) So colour rendition is only accurate now on the other 3 monitors. Something I found out the hard way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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