ACCEPTED Sky Reflection Fix (by doodlez)

[DoubleYou]

Discussion topic:
Sky Reflection Fix by doodlez
Wiki Link

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Fixes reflections in 3rd person play mode.

See the analysis

[z929669]

Good find

[framx2l]

I like it! How does it work with ENB? Can ENB and Community Shaders work together?

[z929669]

  On 4/2/2024 at 6:52 PM, framx2l said:

I like it! How does it work with ENB? Can ENB and Community Shaders work together?

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First, read Nexus mod Descriptions for relevant info.

Post processing is irrelevant to this fix. It applies to the game engine itself:

Sky Reflection Fix

COMPATIBILITY
 

• Compatible with all game versions.
• Compatible with everything, including ENB and Community Shaders.

ENB and CS are not compatible together:

Community Shaders

COMPATIBILITY

Compatible with 1.5.97, 1.6.1130 and VR only. (Other versions may work but are unsupported)
Not compatible with ENB. This mod disables all features if ENB is present, otherwise the game will crash. It can be used as a replacement for ENB for mods that require ENB/Particle Lights.
Not compatible with Shader Tools (Parallax Fix, ShaderTools Updated). Delete SSEShaderTools.dll and ShaderTools.dll. This mod includes Shader Tools functionality.
 

[ButchDiavolo]

  On 4/2/2024 at 6:57 PM, z929669 said:

COMPATIBILITY

• Compatible with everything, including ENB and Community Shaders.

COMPATIBILITY

Not compatible with ENB. This mod disables all features if ENB is present, otherwise the game will crash.

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I just love how delightfully unclear he always is with his descriptions... I just tend to steer clear of his "enb" stuff.

 

[z929669]

  On 4/7/2024 at 9:20 AM, ButchDiavolo said:

I just love how delightfully unclear he always is with his descriptions... I just tend to steer clear of his "enb" stuff.

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To be clear, I posted compatibility of the Sky Reflection Fix followed by compatibility of Community Shaders, so it looks contradictory the way I did that

I will edit it to be more explicit.

[z929669]

This mod works, and given my findings that bReflectSky=1 is a visual improvement with ENB (NOT without ENB, leave this at zero), this mod corrects water reflections in third person perspectives. See the Nexus mod page for that proof. I have verified myself, so I'm not going to beat a dead horse. It may not strictly apply to the Step build, but since many people use 3rd person all or some of the time, it makes sense to use this mod.

I mainly want to advocate that we accept this mod for 2.4, since we'll be enabling bReflectSky for use with ENB only (see screens following). This mod works regardless of ENB though.

The Step Heavy ENB is enabled in all the following shots. First shot is with bReflectSky=0, and the second is with bReflectSky=1 (this mod active in both, but the fix is not apparent, since I'm not using 3rd person perspective):

 

Enabling sky reflections just looks more realistic/believable and 'better', IMO.

[TechAngel85]

  On 9/22/2024 at 4:26 PM, z929669 said:

This mod works, and given my findings that bReflectSky=1 is a visual improvement with ENB (NOT without ENB, leave this at zero), this mod corrects water reflections in third person perspectives. See the Nexus mod page for that proof. I have verified myself, so I'm not going to beat a dead horse. It may not strictly apply to the Step build, but since many people use 3rd person all or some of the time, it makes sense to use this mod.

I mainly want to advocate that we accept this mod for 2.4, since we'll be enabling bReflectSky for use with ENB only (see screens following). This mod works regardless of ENB though.

The Step Heavy ENB is enabled in all the following shots. First shot is with bReflectSky=0, and the second is with bReflectSky=1 (this mod active in both, but the fix is not apparent, since I'm not using 3rd person perspective):

 

Enabling sky reflections just looks more realistic/believable and 'better', IMO.

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I think my only complaint is that you lose the land reflections (at least in this shot) with it enabled. The first shot you can see the trees and mountains. The second it just fades into white even though the sky is mostly blue? Idk. It's probably going to come down to personal preference on this one.

[Greg]

In addition to TechAngel85's comments, the water seam in that second screenshot is easy to see. To be somewhat fair, the water seam is visible in the first screenshot but I had to look for to see it.

[z929669]

  On 9/22/2024 at 5:45 PM, TechAngel85 said:

I think my only complaint is that you lose the land reflections (at least in this shot) with it enabled. The first shot you can see the trees and mountains. The second it just fades into white even though the sky is mostly blue? Idk. It's probably going to come down to personal preference on this one.

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Good point.

I went ahead and tested things again and found that the LOD water mesh is a bit bright and related to this fixed issue. See the entire topic for details. I used the test LODGenx64Win.exe LODGen64.exe file to regen the meshes.

To recap:

1. bReflectSky off (same as in my previous post) - water LOD had the issue linked above, but it's not apparent with bReflectSky=0
2. bReflectSky on (same as in my previous post) - water LOD had the issue linked above
3. bReflectSky on (meshes from test LODGenx64Win.exe) - now we can see all reflections, including sky
4. bReflectSky off (different scene, but same as previous post otherwise) - water LOD had the issue linked above, but it's not apparent with bReflectSky=0
5. bReflectSky on (different scene, but same as previous post otherwise) - water LOD had the issue linked above
6. bReflectSky on (different scene, meshes from test LODGenx64Win.exe) - now we can see all reflections, including sky

 

Just to wrap up, Sky Reflection Fix only applies to 3rd person and only when bReflectSky=1

1. bReflectSky off-with SRF
2. bReflectSky off-no SRF
3. bReflectSky on-with SRF
4. bReflectSky on-fixed LODGenx64Win.exe mesh output-with SRF
5. bReflectSky on-NOT with fixed LODGenx64Win.exe mesh output-no SRF (this is just to show the issue SRF resolves)

 

To summarize:

• Reflect Sky enabled looks best, IMO
• The fixed LOD meshes don't have the sky-reflection-washout effect
• The fixed LOD meshes show object reflections in addition to sky
• SRF only applies to 3rd person and when bReflectSky=1

Lastly, the fixed LOD meshes make the LOD seam more apparent again, and this applies to bReflectSky=1 or 0

[z929669]

  On 9/23/2024 at 12:14 AM, Greg said:

In addition to TechAngel85's comments, the water seam in that second screenshot is easy to see. To be somewhat fair, the water seam is visible in the first screenshot but I had to look for to see it.

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I don't think its easy to see in the second shot, but maybe it's slightly more apparent. All a moot point though, because the fixed LOD meshes seem to make the seam more apparent again, Same is true regardless of bReflectSky=1 or 0 or SRF being enabled.

[D1Z4STR]

I have that same seam like the rest of us do. I thought seams can be corrected by RWT.

[DoubleYou]

I would agree with accepting this mod for fixing the known bug. I'm not convinced enabling the INI setting looks better, but this may come down to personal preference. I don't believe there is any real performance impact either way.

[z929669]

  On 9/23/2024 at 12:47 AM, D1Z4STR said:

I have that same seam like the rest of us do. I thought seams can be corrected by RWT.

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Not LOD seams so much. RWT and their recommendations help though.

[z929669]

  On 9/23/2024 at 12:47 AM, DoubleYou said:

I would agree with accepting this mod for fixing the known bug. I'm not convinced enabling the INI setting looks better, but this may come down to personal preference. I don't believe there is any real performance impact either way.

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I see what you mean, because you get reflections on the glossy water surface either way. The primary reason I think bReflectSky=1 is better is because the blue reflected off the water actually matches the blue of the sky. bReflectSky=0 gives a very dark blue reflection that doesn't even closely match the blue of the sky.

I just think it being on looks more believable, even if the LOD seam is more apparent. The reflections apply to all water all of the time, whereas the LOD seam is only apparent from a distant view from above and only when the water spans the transition point. Relatively rare.