Bloom Effects

Azureus

I’ve seen a couple of mods out there using the bloom effect, although there seems to be pros and cons to it and each mod applies such an effect in a different manner seemingly, there is currently as far as I could search no information about it on this site.

Does anyone have any information? If for example it can be configured to be subtle enough to not look over the top etc. I’m thinking about including it in my first mod project so I would like to know from those who have perfected it how it works so that myself and others can benefit from your experiences, thanks!

Xarian_Prime

Yes… its fully reversable… you can done it all down or turn it all off to your liking.

I personaly use it for the dark side of ENB… not a fan of washed out bloom… but ive seen many differing uses for it… It does however add a fair whack of “overhead” going your GFX cards way… that don’t bother me… as my mods not for everyone… but that will bother anyone seeking a middle ground for there players/server…

It does however run fine on a P4 1.6g 256mb ram with a Radeon 9550 reference card (about 5 year old and not a huge card at all)

As far as i’ve seen… its all about what your after… I wanted deeper shadows… more contrast and big bright suns… worked a charm for me

There are a few “editions” around too… some do more than others (due to the game they were originaly coded for)… there is no Legit FL one… I’d go for the GTA:VC 1st… then try some others out…

ENB SITE

That’s the main site… PM me if any Q’s on its FL intergration… Fox knows a bit too on this subject… OP probaly would too… (as we all use it).

Cheers.

Azureus

This is also the reason why I asked, as you say, there is a few editions of it out there however I’m thinking my needs will be roughly the same as yours, bright suns, darker shadows, better contrast, then maybe it can be tweaked from there.

I would appreciate the help, but I’m not there yet, I will however keep you in mind if I do need the help!

But don’t let that stop any of you from adding your own knowledge, as anyone who is also searching for information on bloom can benefit by using the search box to find this thread

FriendlyFire

I’ve always said that good textures, proper lighting and customized effects can easily replace bloom, sometimes making for an even more impressive end result due to how flexible it is.

Contrast in space? Lower the ambient light, vanilla’s is insanely high.

Brighter suns? Edit the star textures (the glows particularly) and overexpose the texture itself.

Bigger shines on ships? Try tweaking envmapbasic.mat, there are incredible possibilities with that underlooked file.

Azureus

I’m sure that is correct, but for now bloom might be simpler ha, don’t want to get too over my head while I’m just learning to walk, much less run

? Offline

FriendlyFire wrote:
I’ve always said that good textures, proper lighting and customized effects can easily replace bloom, sometimes making for an even more impressive end result due to how flexible it is.

Contrast in space? Lower the ambient light, vanilla’s is insanely high.

Brighter suns? Edit the star textures (the glows particularly) and overexpose the texture itself.

Bigger shines on ships? Try tweaking envmapbasic.mat, there are incredible possibilities with that underlooked file.

Couldn’t agree more, that little file can work wonders, you get metal objects to be really metallic with that. Same goes for the envmapglass file that makes all cockpit glass nice and reflective instead of the mud covered cockpit glass u get in normal FL. All choices tho

Azureus

I’m coming to you guys for my visual tweaks and stuff, you realise this … right? lol

Xarian_Prime

@ FF… yes we’ve had this discussion b4 hehe… 8-)

But consider this… Using “both” methods… ENB & coding the FX, lights & ales… overkill yes… :lol: but hell fun to play with none the less.

I’ve seen what ENB does when it “breaks”… and it aint pretty…
Try a fully overblown “planetstorm” effect that wont go away… artifacting galore… and that cant be good for a GFX card…

But this is due to AA & nvidia and once thats kicked in the rear… I’ve seen no other reason not to use it and its just a 0-1 to turn it all off anyways…

If one has the time to code everything manualy then sweet… but alot of us don’t (or some just don’t know how as the’ve never tryed b4)
this is were ENB really rocks… But i will say this… FF has a great point… it is better to code the FX/lights “as well” … do most of the heavy stuff in the games own files… just use ENB for a touch of depth and don’t rely on it too much… as some ppl will switch it off anyways.

Probably the best solution all round

w0dk4

well, the bloom effect is just that: bloom. nicer would be true hdr rendering.

btw. are there any tutorials about envmapbasic and that glass envmap materials?
reflective glass? never seen that. Can you implement specular maps with those envmaps?

FriendlyFire

Those envmap materials are basically cubemaps. I haven’t experimented with glass much, but I did see some extremely reflective materials in a few spots. Gibbon could answer better with that.

envmapbasic is really nice in that it’s a cubemap that defines pseudo specular mapping. It does so by projecting a particular face of the cube depending on whether you’re looking at the model from

the left angle
the right angle
the top angle
the bottom angle
the front
an extreme angle from any side

The thing is that by default it uses a grey color. That means you can alter overall ambient lighting just by toning that grey down. You can also fake shadows to a certain extent with that by darkening the side.

There are plenty of nice things to do