True volumetric clouds release 4 (Patreon)

Download

Check out the included readme/changelog and have fun:
[Download link]

Performance-heavy config for 3090/4080 class GPUs (requires ModuleManager, drop in your GameData: [Performance heavy config link]

Go to the bottom of the post for other downloads like RSS configs and recommended mods

Update contents

This new version focuses on lighting and shading improvements. I originally planned it to be a performance update but most of the optimizations I tested didn't pan out. For the next update I plan to work on better cloud shapes and variety to take full advantage of the new lighting implemented in this update.

Update 21/06/2024: Fixes for compatibility with deferred rendering, and other small fixes.

Update 09/03/2024: Restored DetailTex functionality on volumetric clouds to be used by modders.

Update 28/02/2024(2): Fixed black cockpit glass becoming black instead of showing droplets when rain is active. Redownload the newest version if you have the issue.

Update 28/02/2024: Fixed issues with disappearing ocean when changing in-game settings, black sky on some machines and some other issues, see the included changelog or the wiki changelog for a full list of changes.

Update 30/01/2024: Fixed Mac issues, added some AA improvements and various bugfixes, see the included changelog or the wiki changelog for a full list of changes.

New lighting model

I've been working on a new lighting model. Clouds now look fluffier and the interplay between ambient and direct lighting is highly improved.

Long-distance cloud shadows are now handled via a custom shadow solution which runs in the background and can resolve shadows over multiple frames, with minimal performance impact.

This solution is also used to generate better ambient lighting, by actually raymarching in multiple directions towards they sky. This brings out the shapes of the clouds more and makes shadowed regions look more interesting, unlike in previous versions where the ambient was totally flat.

This image shows the exact effects, on the left everything is disabled (the shading is as it appeared in previous versions), middle is with long-distance shadows only, notice the flat ambient, right is with long-distance shadows+ambient

Now clouds at sunset/sunrise and various other situations will look more realistic and have a very nice look to them.

Eve looks especially nice with the new lighting, I've added some gaps to let the occasional light ray filter down to the surface and through the thinner areas.

Physically accurate godrays

The new long-distance shadows are also raymarched separately to create godrays. Previous versions had some godrays on fog and rain, but those were generated from the 2d cloud shadows and couldn't capture the 3d shape of clouds in the same way. Additionally they couldn't cast shadows on the atmosphere itself.

This method also differs from the previous godrays implementation in scatterer because it accurately simulates the amount of single scattering in the exact shadowed areas, while the previous method just approximated it as a continuous shadowed segment at the camera or at terrain intersections.

In practice this means this method now always looks and feels "right".

By default this method is only used for clouds for performance, but it can also be enabled for terrain and objects, in which case it fixes the issues of the previous method, such as super dark godrays casting from craft, because of said physical accuracy.

Due to the new godrays and lighting model, this version has by far the prettiest sunsets and sunrises, which brings me to the next section.

Screenshot mode

Temporal upscaling and temporal anti-aliasing produce some artifacts in motion that can appear in screenshots and lower their quality, especially at lower framerates. This version disables temporal effects and renders high-quality clouds and godrays when in-game screenshots are taken (F1 button).

This comparison shows a screenshot taken through steam in flight and the same screenshot taken through in-game functionality, note the lack of motion blur and the crisp-ness of the 2nd screenshot.

Additionally, screenshots are now compatible with supersampling and will resize all the internal buffers for both Scatterer and EVE when a supersampled screenshot is taken.

Here are some massive screenshots I took while testing (right-click -> open in new tab and zoom in to check the detail)

To supersize screenshots go to the game's folder and edit the settings.cfg file, set the value you want in SCREENSHOT_SUPERSIZE, this value will multiply your screen width and height

Note that screenshots with F2 key are now longer/heavier to take because they render high-quality clouds. 2x supersize is generally safe and should still be fast to take in gameplay, 3x and 4x can be slow enough sometimes that KSP will hang, that also might depend on your machine and what's on screen, I recommend sticking to 2x overall.

To use this you still have to disable TUFX's TAA as it will suffer from the same issue, if you use scatterer's TAA it will work. To disable TAA in TUFX go to the TUFX profile you use and delete the AntiAliasing mode line, then check in-game, change to edit mode and it should say AntiAliasingMode None

To be able to use the Scatterer TAA also need to go inside the TUFX config in GameData\TUFX\TexturesUnlimitedFX.cfg and delete this part disabling it

Native cubemap support

Previously EVE would always load and treat cubemaps as 6 separate textures, including in the shader when they are sampled. This lead to lower performance due to sampling 6 textures at once or branching to sample a different texture (which GPUs don't like).

This new version loads cubemaps as a native hardware cubemap, as long as all textures have the same dimensions and format, increasing performance in mods/configs that use cubemaps, notably RSS

This also means in-game painting is now supported for cubemaps.

Temporal upscaling improvements

There are now more temporal upscaling settings to better tweak your quality/performance, new settings include 3x, 6x, 9x and 12x. 9x is now the default setting because it produces patterns in 3x3 blocks which are less noticeable than the 4x2 blocks produced by 8x (old default setting).

Bug fixes

These distracting artifacts on the clouds that would appear around the horizon or in movement are now fixed

As well as these scattering artifacts (the exaggerated blue edges) which appear when a cloud layer is seen through an other, typically when looking at clouds through fog or rain

This visible "barrier" between fog/rain and the background is also fixed and is now a smooth fade

Other

Enabling terrain godrays

Terrain godrays are disabled by default because of the performance hit and the general lack of interesting terrain where they would be visible. If you want to enable them just go to the Scatterer menu in the KSC screen (blue orb button) and pick and apply the "high" or  "very high" quality preset as seen here, they also use the new godray method outlined above.

TUFX profile

My (very subtle) TUFX profile is included in the StockVolumetricClouds folder, just enable it from the TUFX menu in-game.

TU/TURD patch

Check the previous post (release 3) for a TU/TURD patch that makes all parts look a bit more like plane parts by default.

Recommended mods

Parallax (Better terrain, trees, foliage and rocks/scatter) is highly recommended with volumetric clouds for views like this (this screenshot was taken with just clouds, parallax and my tufx profile)

RSS and KSRSS configs

BallisticFox's RSS config

Go to BallisticFox's Patreon and open the latest post, you'll find instructions inside on how to install it.

I'll update this post when other RSS and KSRSS configs are updated for this version.

AtmosphericBeats' KSRSS config

(above pics are of Titan)

Go to AtmosphericBeats' Github releases page and follow instructions on the latest post


Outer Planets Mod configs by onesaltypringle

You can get it from spacedock

JNSQ configs by rbeap

You can get it from spacedock, github or the forum thread