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  1. #1
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    New Meshbuilderbudgets

    Get it while its hot, under CFS3 Other. http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...id=13&id=29514

    I'm really liking it but it does require reasonable computer.

    Compare with your current version by flying over your favourite terrain. I'm really enjoying Chambery and Nice at the moment.

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    Member sixstrings5859's Avatar
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    Does it work with a modded CFS3 ETO install with WOTR terrain files and Assets folder ? Regards,Scott

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    Kurier auf Stube...pauke! NachtPiloten's Avatar
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    Question

    What does it do?

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    New Meshbuilder Budget


    A new entry has been added to Add-Ons Library, category CFS 3 Other Add-Ons

    Description: This is an update of my previous offerings for a meshbuilderbudgets.xml file to be added to the Assets folder. This one requires a reasonably high end computer setup.
    Its origins in conception come from Charles Simpson's Meshbuilderbudgets_OUCH file.

    To test, fly from Chambery in France and compare your current budgets file with this new one.

    To check it out, rate it or add comments, visit New Meshbuilder Budget
    The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.

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    Quote Originally Posted by sixstrings5859 View Post
    Does it work with a modded CFS3 ETO install with WOTR terrain files and Assets folder ? Regards,Scott
    It will sit happily in any Assets folder of any install. The only exception is perhaps MAW, where the name may need to be changed to MAW_meshbuilderbudgets.xml

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    Quote Originally Posted by NachtPiloten View Post
    What does it do?
    It makes your terrain look as good as it can. There is potential in the old terrain mesh of CFS3, this helps maximise the potential. It does not exaggerate any elevation or anything like that. There is also new terrain mesh available by Xavier Jouve, I haven't fully tested the budgets file with that mesh.

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    Member sixstrings5859's Avatar
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    Noticed no drop in FPS . Looks great . How can i get the trees to show up farther with WOTR terrain and assets ? Not related to this but Rene sent me some assets files that helped when i had the stock ETO scenery and now the trees pop up closer now.

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    Member sixstrings5859's Avatar
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    Problem solved with the trees popping up too close. Love the work you've done. Now i'm cooking with gas ! Regards,Scott

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    Quote Originally Posted by sixstrings5859 View Post
    Problem solved with the trees popping up too close. Love the work you've done. Now i'm cooking with gas ! Regards,Scott
    I think that would be related to the scenerybudgets.xml. Something to do with the number of rings and the scenery density settings. IIRC MajorMagee has posted his preferrred setup in an old thread - maybe in the knowledgebase sticky? I keep a variety of approaches to the scenery budgets.xml, and tinker with them occasionally. One thing that is annoying with the stock tree scenery models (.sm) is that there is a low res texture and a high res texture called for each tee. This causes a "popping" effect when one crosses the threshold from one texture to the other. Newer tree scenery models like ETO and Johno_UK v3, use only one texture within the model, thereby avoiding that slightly jarring transition between textures.

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    Member greycap.raf's Avatar
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    Scott indeed had been using an older file by me with the ETO scenery but probably threw it out when adding the WOTR files. I've since given him a new one but have no idea what he did with it yet.

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    Member sixstrings5859's Avatar
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    Problem solved ! Used the supplied files Rene sent ,and so much better now.Should of asked my good friend if i had questions about installing things i know little about. He has helped me tremendously for a while now. Many thanks to all who help us have a great experience with CFS3. Kind Regards ,Scott

  12. #12
    One thing I'm noticing in PTO is that the patch size seems to be altitude dependent in a way that makes little sense. This shows up as visible tile edges at moderate distance when at low altitude that snap to smooth edge transitions when I go higher (above 8250), and then go back to patches again when I drop again (below 6850). Yes, the change is different depending on if I'm climbing or diving! Changing the AboveGroundLevel has no effect on this, so it's either controlled by some other file (I've look without coming up with a good candidate), or it's hard coded.The tiles near my aircraft smoothly transition without visible edges at all altitudes.
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  13. #13
    I just checked, and I get the same behavior at the same altitudes in ETO. You don't notice it at extreme distances, or in close, but there is a medium distance band where it happens. More investigation required. p.s. I see the same altitude behavior in the stock game, but the patches are larger.
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    Quote Originally Posted by MajorMagee View Post
    I just checked, and I get the same behavior at the same altitudes in ETO. You don't notice it at extreme distances, or in close, but there is a medium distance band where it happens. More investigation required. p.s. I see the same altitude behavior in the stock game, but the patches are larger.
    I must cast a critical eye over it, too many irons in the fire at the moment. I tend to do my flying at lower altitudes, where the simplified budgets file seems to give a steady result.

  15. #15
    Found out two things by flying in the high mountains. There is an element of AGL to the height band where this happens. For very high surfaces the altitudes are shifted up proportionally. Coming from the valley up over the peaks it will trigger twice. Once for the valley walls, then again for the peaks (once you get well above them). The second thing I noticed was that AnKor's shadows were showing the same tiling effect. A quick toggle off and, viola! no more altitude driven display switching. Now I have a place to go look to see if I can make the low altitude surfaces display smoothly like it does when I'm higher.
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    Aha! Sounds like you are getting somewhere. So you think something is going on with Ankors shaders?

  17. #17
    Yes, but I haven't had any more time to look into it this weekend. Perhaps something in the Terrain Lighting and Bump Mapping, but I don't know why that would involve a display method change triggered by altitude.
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    I've done a bit more testing and a couple of things occur to me. One is I am using the 2018 version of Ankors shaders (never been able to get later ones to work), and the other thing is the meshbuilderbudgets file is set up to run the terrain detail slider at 5. I should have made that clear at the outset. You can make the adjustment using the top right drop down menu in CFS3, but if you have your configoverrides file set to read only (to stop the defaulting of dual pass render to Y), then the configoverrides.xml file in your Appdata pathway needs to be tweaked. The setting is right down the bottom of the file.

    And having just done some test flying around West Prawle, I could see the middle distance artifacts that Majormagee mentions quite clearly. For some reason that "blockiness" is not so obvious in my favourite test areas of Chambery and Nice, although on closer examination the artifact is there if you look hard enough.

    So I guess the settings are not perfect. There is potential to improve even more. However IMHO I am overall finding the new meshbuilderbudgets file a great improvement over stock.

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    SOH-CM-2023 mongoose's Avatar
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    "meshbuilderbudgets file is set up to run the terrain detail slider at 5. I"

    So not at maximum?

    Cato said "Carthaginem esse delendam"
    I say "Carthago iam diu deleta,sed enim Bellum Alium adhuc aedificandum est"

  20. #20
    Yes, 5 is maximum, and what I have all my installs running at. I've tried a bunch of variations of the values within the meshbuilderbudgets file, and it had no apparent influence on the anomaly. It really must be related to something about how AnKor's shaders render ground shading.
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    SOH-CM-2023 mongoose's Avatar
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    Thanks. I must have misunderstood as slider 5 at 1, ie minimum.

    Cato said "Carthaginem esse delendam"
    I say "Carthago iam diu deleta,sed enim Bellum Alium adhuc aedificandum est"

  22. #22
    A few more hours trying different shader parameter settings, and the only thing that changes it is completely disabling the shaders. It's interesting that only some areas (e.g. steep slopes) show the effect, so the underlying surface data may have something to do with it, and the shader's shadows just make it more visible. There is definitely some overall smoothing function that kicks in when you get above the altitude it's looking for.
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    Quote Originally Posted by mongoose View Post
    Thanks. I must have misunderstood as slider 5 at 1, ie minimum.
    James, put your glasses on ! The text is 5 fullstop followed by the letter "I"

    LOL

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    SOH-CM-2023 mongoose's Avatar
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    Must have had the reading ones on rather than the PC ones focusing at 1-2m!

    Cato said "Carthaginem esse delendam"
    I say "Carthago iam diu deleta,sed enim Bellum Alium adhuc aedificandum est"

  25. #25
    MajorMagee, can you show a screenshot of what is wrong? Of course I can try myself, but don't have much time

    If I understand you correctly the terrain doesn't appears smooth unless you fly at higher altitudes?
    I don't remember all details but this may be related to the way my shaders create normal map for terrain. Since there is no way to know terrain mesh resolution in the code I tuned normal map it manually for the default settings. Maybe now it just doesn't play well with higher resolution.
    And normal map is resized depending on AGL but has some hysteresis which may explain why it is different depending on whether you climb or dive.

    On the other hand I'm not sure how any of this may cause issues with terrain shadows, but maybe I just forgot some details.

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