DROPPED Real Ice (by Yuril)

[DoYouEvenModBro]

So is the half ice half dull the only option with the special parallax that may be bad with enb?

[Aiyen]

They will most likely all be bad with ENB since ENB amplifies the saturation levels most of the time!

Tried every single one last night, and found that the best basis for improvement was the dark ice one.

But I also took the glaciersubsurface.dds from Real Ice and Snow and used that instead of whatever else I was using, since it was actually quite superior, and helps quite a bit with definition inside the ice.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

They will most likely all be bad with ENB since ENB amplifies the saturation levels most of the time!

Tried every single one last night, and found that the best basis for improvement was the dark ice one.

But I also took the glaciersubsurface.dds from Real Ice and Snow and used that instead of whatever else I was using, since it was actually quite superior, and helps quite a bit with definition inside the ice.

Are you talking about the Dark Ice Classic Parallax? (v1) or the Azur Glacier Dark Ice Parallax (v2)? 

 

The install options for this mod are absolutely atrocious. Someone should really take over this mod.

 

 

Also, you ONLY used Glaciersubsurface from RIS? It comes with a ton of files. If so, which version? There's three.

[Aiyen]

The mod is the best around for vanilla lighting.... which is all STEP cares about.

And I also think it looks great with that lighting. Not the mods fault that ENB´s mess it up.

 

And the options are great... quite a few different ones to pick from which is great!

 

But I used the v2 one as my foundation. And yes just that one file... from the dark option of RIS.

 

But it is not going to solve the issue with the ice looking awkward on its own, for that you would have to make your own edits to make it fit.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

The mod is the best around for vanilla lighting.... which is all STEP cares about.

And I also think it looks great with that lighting. Not the mods fault that ENB´s mess it up.

 

And the options are great... quite a few different ones to pick from which is great!

 

But I used the v2 one as my foundation. And yes just that one file... from the dark option of RIS.

 

But it is not going to solve the issue with the ice looking awkward on its own, for that you would have to make your own edits to make it fit.

Sorry. I didn't mean to say that the mod is bad. I just meant the options are confusing. They all sound the same and could be organized better by the mod author. That's all. Ok. I will try the combination of Dark Ice with Parallax V2 and that file from RIW and see what happens. 

 

Let me know if you find an option that looks better!

[Aiyen]

Why are they confusing ?

You decide between parallax or non parallax.

Then you have a selection of various types and resolutions.

Finally if you want a bright or not so bright version.

There even is a picture illustration on each showing you what you get! :)

 

Gonna stick with my own custom one for now...moving on to other issues that annoy me more! :)

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Why are they confusing ?

You decide between parallax or non parallax.

Then you have a selection of various types and resolutions.

Finally if you want a bright or not so bright version.

There even is a picture illustration on each showing you what you get! :)

 

Gonna stick with my own custom one for now...moving on to other issues that annoy me more! :)

Ok. I see. I forgot that there was a new Wizard made for it. I was looking at the folder structure manually. My fault on that one. You're using Dark Ice v2 PARALLAX, right? Are you using any of the optional less/more dark/bright options for that? I like your screenshot so I'm going to try your recommendations to see if it improves. 

[Aiyen]

My screenshots are what I have manually edited the textures to look like! :P

Got so tired of bright shiny blue colors that just did not fit in anywhere in my game.

 

But yeah I prefer the dark ice v2 parallax version as the base for my edits. I also use the less bright option.

 

And yeah the wizard kinda makes it very easy!

[Xzender]

could someone help me out with this BCF? i recently downloaded the BCF available and used it on the Real Ice ALL-IN-ONE Installer by morpheas768 but i don't have a wizard.txt for the auto install? could this be something wrong on my part, or was there a new BCF put up that doesn't have a the wizard.txt?

 

--Edit--

Sorry, looking into the file history, I have come to the conclusion that the newest BCF doesn't have a wizard.txt in it and the previous BCF that had the wizard.txt won't work with the newer BCF due to the different file structure. Is there going to be a wizard.txt eventually made for the newer BCF? Unless there is something wrong with the previous one, maybe it should be used for now as the available one up (until the newer BCF has one made) to avoid confusion in the notes towards future STEP users and make installation easier.

[LxRxN]

This mod can be easily installed using the manual method. The difficulty is in correlating the look you want with the look textures have when you look at them outside of the game.

 

This mod installs only three textures total:

glacierslab.dds - ice texture

glacierslab_n.dds - ice normal map

glacierparallax.dds - ice parallax map

 

Each of these files is provided in different versions (different content), and some of them have different resolutions too.

 

The parallax effect (where ice surface looks transparent, with dense, opaque mass deep inside) requires 2 things:

1) Transparent ice texture. Some glacierslab.dds files are very opaque (bright alpha channel) and they completely kill the parallax. These are the files used in "dull" and all "non-parallax" presets ("parallax" preset is just a combo of a nearly-completely-transparent glacierslab.dds and an ice parallax map of some kind). Vanilla texture is parallax-compatible (highly transparent)

2) Smooth ice normal map. The map must have (if you look at it in an image viewer) less green (that includes white - and any color with a green channel) and more red/blue/magenta. Brightness defines how shiny it will look. Transparency is just another dimension in which brightness can vary (i.e. from darkest to brightest (roughly): transparent, transparent dim magenta, opaque dim magenta, opaque bright magenta). And it must be smooth. I.e. it should have less contrast changes (or they should go smoother). Some textures are like this:

* the one Terrain Bump installs - more uniformly-colored areas, but sharp edges - in the game ice looks like it has straps of transparency (where uniform areas are)

* vanilla (lowres and transparent, but otherwise mostly smooth)

* half-ice half-dull normal map has patches of constant color (in the game these look like 'holes' through which you can see deep into the ice)

If you want that kind of effect, but your normal map is highly-detailed (such as the one from Skyrim Realistic Overhaul), you'll have to scale it down (lowres textures are naturally blurred) or apply some kind of effect (blur or maybe "oilify" filter in GIMP) that creates more constant-color areas or reduces sharpness of color changes. Otherwise contrast changes of the normal map will create bumps, which will reflect light, and these specular effects will obscure the parallax effect underneath

 

What about glacierparallax.dds? Well, it controls the texture you see deep inside in transparent (ice texture) smooth (constant/smooth normal map color) parts of the ice. Generally, brighter parallax texture makes the whole iceberg look brighter, when viewed from a distance (the only way to see any details of the parallax texture is to come closer, since it's highly distorted). Even vanilla ice parallax map will do the job (although i like the one from Real Ice much more).

 

So:

If you get a HQ, noisy normal map, your ice will be all sparks and no depth.

If you get an opaque ice texture, you will have no parallax effect at all (just the specular from normal map, if you have it).

 

Hope it helps.

 

P.S. AFAIU, in real life the ice in icebergs is mostly made from the snow, so they are "dull white" and the neat transparent effect is never seen. Transparent ice happens when layers of running fresh, clear water are frozen or somesuch.

 

P.P.S. I probably shouldn't call it "parallax map", since it is not.

[z929669]

could someone help me out with this BCF? i recently downloaded the BCF available and used it on the Real Ice ALL-IN-ONE Installer by morpheas768 but i don't have a wizard.txt for the auto install? could this be something wrong on my part, or was there a new BCF put up that doesn't have a the wizard.txt?

 

--Edit--

Sorry, looking into the file history, I have come to the conclusion that the newest BCF doesn't have a wizard.txt in it and the previous BCF that had the wizard.txt won't work with the newer BCF due to the different file structure. Is there going to be a wizard.txt eventually made for the newer BCF? Unless there is something wrong with the previous one, maybe it should be used for now as the available one up (until the newer BCF has one made) to avoid confusion in the notes towards future STEP users and make installation easier.

It sounds like you are not using the BCF correctly. Put the BCF into Bash Installers/Bain Converters, run WB, right-click the RI Nexus mod and select Converters > Apply. Then you right-click the resulting new package and run the wizard.

[Xzender]

nope, i was using the BCF correctly, not trying to argue, just the current 01:03, September 6, 2013 BCF that is downloadable from the STEP guide doesn't have the Wizard.txt in it. that's what i was trying to say about that post. the 00:20, September 6, 2013 BCF in the file history does though. so if anyone that currently uses the BCF listed in the STEP guide, they won't be able to run the wizards cause there is not .txt file

[Kelmych]

I downloaded the BCF on the wiki to check and it is indeed not the correct BCF; it is a previous version from early 2013. I tried to revert to the version that z uploaded an hour earlier which does have an updated bcf.dat as well as a wizard and fomod but apparently I don't have permission to do this (probably because I'm not the uploader).

[varrgas]

same probleme there, can we have a solution ?

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Yea, this BCF has all the options I think, but does not have the Wizard anymore.