HDR support and a bit more progress (Patreon)

Recently I got myself a new monitor so now I can tell between both shades of dark and bright! And, luckily, it also came with HDR support (I forgot such thing existed when picking a monitor, was focusing mainly on color). So now I tried to add HDR support to AC, although I’m not sure if it works correctly or not. Also, because of YEBIS, it does require a bit of trickery to setup. I couldn’t stop YEBIS from clamping output by 1, but it works just fine with floating point data as output, so I went a different route: now original image gets much darker before YEBIS, then it does its post-processing thing and after that, Custom Shaders Patch boosts brightness back up and more, optionally applying its own subtle tonemapping too (since HDR would still need it). All parameters can be tweaked in DXGI settings section but, unfortunately, existing PP filters often rely on their tonemapping settings to tweak brightness, so you often would need to tweak settings for certain PP-filters.

However, there is a better way: I added an option for PP filters directly to override those settings and provide their own parameters for HDR, overriding the ones in DXGI section. And you can access those with built-in PP filter editor (https://gfycat.com/merrygrandguineafowl).

Also, option for new DXGI flip model is moved to DXGI section as well. As you can tell, it’s required for HDR mode to work, so I decided to move them together.

Another problem with HDR right now is that it sort of breaks screenshots. I’m not sure yet how to make LDR screenshots match whatever is seen on HDR screen (or if it’s possible at all), so right now, they just use non-HDR PP filter parameters. In theory, with nicely set PP filter, they can look similar.

And another potential issue, UI. Of course, HDR mode boosts UI intensity to keep it white, but I might miss some things. Plus, it requires to render UI in different target and then combine. From what I can tell, it works, but, again, some apps might look glitchy. On a plus side though, if you are using apps which draw some shapes and those looks aliased, now there is an option to enable MSAA for AC’s UI.

As for rain, after all those fixes with latest updates, now I’m back working on it. Recently finished reworking puddle mapping, now it’s based on two separate variables, track wetness which would quickly grow to 100% as rain starts, and track waterness which would almost always be lower 100% and would be used for puddles:

https://gfycat.com/kindheartedflowerycob 

(That is, of course, not how rain would work, just a quick example to show the relation of three rain-defining variables.)

It allows to have puddles without wetness, giving that neat after-rain look with sun out. Relief now is taken into account as well, increasing wetness in lower regions:

CPU puddles sampling was reworked as well, to achieve both perfect match with GPU data and to provide values accurate to real world data. So now Jackson Papageorge is able to continue working on proper physics, and after that, all that’s left is to figure out wet tyres, find a way to secure tracks and cars rain-related configs to prevent cheating and add a few more effects like splashes. 

Speaking of which, I’m adding a few more now while waiting, first is those rain drops for roofs. They don’t look that good from up close, unfortunately, but at least they’re fast to generate and draw! Maybe later I’ll figure a good way to improve them:

https://gfycat.com/enchantinganxiousgoldenmantledgroundsquirrel

https://gfycat.com/finishedspanishbedlingtonterrier 

(They require all edges and points to be defined in config, but with Object Inspector app, it’s a pretty easy thing to do. I tried to use a shot of all the roofs as source, but resolution would need to be in area of 4K to get decent distance and accuracy, and I don’t think it’s worth it for a pretty small effect.)

Also, an extension for SSLR, adding iconic elongated speculars for certain light sources. Even first Driver game had them, and yet, unfortunately, lighting model CSP uses doesn’t allow for them, limiting speculars by light range quite heavily. But, considering that speculars are pretty much just reflections of light sources, SSLR allows to draw a few of them fairly quickly:

And third one is something I’m finishing now, trails from wet tyres, for both quickly fading extra wet areas right after the wheel and dampening of wet wheel driving over dry surface:

https://gfycat.com/highlevelklutzyhalicore

https://gfycat.com/adoredspiritedarcticseal

And Tyres FX now uses a wheel map to keep track of wetness of tyre surface, which is taken into account here as well:

Thank you for all the support! Preview build attached is just for HDR, MSAA for AC UI and fixed chunks optimization (turned out I messed up its loading from config, so that option had no effect before), but hopefully rain should be ready soon now.

Also, I’m very sorry for the delay, recently got myself a new GPU too and couldn’t resist playing other games for a few days, just to see what’s what there. At least got a few neat ideas for AC from there. :)