DNK's Skymod

[DNK]

http://www.mediafire.com/?p9blbeu6665d23p

http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/r...odexamples.jpg (280 kB)

SUMMARY

This is a fairly simple edit of the stock BIS sky system. I removed the hideous "low clouds" (which will allow you to use skiptime without that glaring skipping issue in the clouds), and found that the cloudy skies they constantly block from view are actually quite beautiful. So, I kept those and edited them a bit to smooth out some bits and make them look more like rain clouds (imo). I also edited the horizons to be much darker. I felt that you couldn't get a really "dark/overcast" feel with the stock skies because the horizons were always SO bright, so now they aren't. I added a pure gray sky for the rainiest of weather conditions, although in hindsight it's not the best addition.

There are issues with this, but I made it for myself and I don't mind the issues, and I can't find a way around them anyway, so I hope you can deal with them also

This is a beta release due to the issues (the gray sky isn't quite right; the horizons get messed up if you're using a horizonless map; the sun still casts strong shadows even when occluded). But I don't intend to release a final, so this is as final as it gets unless there's a strong desire to fix it (if possible).

[Lao Fei Mao]

Thanks mate, looks great.

[Foxhound]

Release frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

DNK's Skymod

[metalcraze]

You need to replace the most overcast sky (the most rainy setting) with something better. Because those texture compression artifacts on a totally grey texture man.... ughhh.... Yeah it isn't "quite right" :>
I think even using the texture you have before that state is a nice solution.

[Laqueesha]

I like it, much better than the stock BI skies.

[student]

Good mod,need a key for dedicated server

[MadMike[Brig2010]]

Any solution to make the clouds moving like BIS clouds (with the wind)?

[Katipo66]

(which will allow you to use skiptime without that glaring skipping issue in the clouds)

Awesome, thanks for this

[IceBreakr]

1. Are cloud movements synced in MP games?
2. Does the use of this mod have a big effect on fps?

[DNK]

1. The key-making program (DSC) isn't working on my computer so I can't make keys, but anyone is welcomed to try and post it here.

2. The clouds don't move. That was an effect created by the lowclouds, the removal of which was part of the mod. If you watch during an unmodded game, you'll see that the underlying cloud textures don't move, just some low-res dark 2D transparent texture that gets drawn over them. It's psychology or something.

3. Since the clouds don't move in this mod, I doubt synching will be an issue. I believe the weather in general is not 1:1 synched, just the basic parameters (fog, rain, wind), so the game seems to be a bit random as to when specifically it rains and lightning strikes. I may be wrong, but I believe the actual raining state is client-side and slightly random (so, unsynched), much like the random animal life. Regardless, it won't be an issue.

4. It shouldn't affect the FPS. Maybe if the files are that much larger than the originals - they might be. I didn't bother to check. Still, I doubt it would make a big difference since the files aren't that large. By comparison, I know from modding Stalker's skies that significantly larger textures can definitely have a negative impact, but Stalker uses WAY more files overall for its skies, so we're talking the difference between 40MB total or 150MB total, and here the files are 6MB total, so I doubt it will be any issue. Maybe 1-2FPS. I didn't check this either.