SkyX 0.4 [0.4 version released - Over-cloud rendering!]

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Lansbury
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Re: SkyX 0.2

Post by Lansbury »

It would be great if you could "bend" the volumetric layer system to have a more spherical sky instead a plane based one.
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Re: SkyX 0.2

Post by Zonder »

Lansbury wrote:It would be great if you could "bend" the volumetric layer system to have a more spherical sky instead a plane based one.
being able to do a sphere would be good as well there are quite a few planet renders being made and this short or cloud system would look great with them
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Xavyiy »

@Mind Calamity
No problem at all!
Also, another way of supporting Hydrax/SkyX is just by using it and helping other users with them =)
By the way, I think there's a new that will make you happy: just read the end of this post or the new topic subject :P

@Lansbury @Zonder
Since a long time I've been thinking in some cool experiments to make regarding that topic, so I'll be testing it in the following weeks and if it's ok I'll include it in the v0.2 version!

-----------------------------------

Also, there're excelent news: SkyX 0.2 has been already funded and now it's under development. I'll try to have it ready as soon as possible and bring you a very robust SkyX version. It'll be released in about 3-5 weeks!

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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by boyamer »

Thats very nice :) I think you should create a repository and commit your changes there, you can try out bitbucker which gives you free account, in this way developers can see your development status, open issues and send patches to you.

What do you think?

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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Mind Calamity »

Xavyiy wrote:@Mind Calamity
No problem at all!
Also, another way of supporting Hydrax/SkyX is just by using it and helping other users with them =)
Yes, well I will try to do that, since I like helping people, and you're sure to get credited at the time I release my game (it's going to take a while at the pace I'm going).
Xavyiy wrote: By the way, I think there's a new that will make you happy: just read the end of this post or the new topic subject :P
No kidding, my reaction to that was something like this: :shock:, I was expecting it would take a while, but then when I saw 3-5 weeks it turned to this: :lol: :D .

In other words - I'm glad you got funded, and can't wait to see SkyX released.

I think SkyX really plays a major role (as well as Hydrax) in games that use it, since the regular Sky Boxes/Domes/Planes are mostly static images with no life in them, with SkyX however, it all comes to life, and the developers have full control over it.
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Xavyiy »

@boyamer
Hi! I think it's a good idea, but not at this moment.
Let me explain why: at the moment, SkyX is still under big structural changes, and for a little project like SkyX it makes no sense to commit these changes to a repository every week(for example) since users are going to have to change a big part of the their SkyX-related code. (That's not like the Ogre dev branche which is almost stable and only relative small parts are under testing)
Also, the potential bugs that very new features introduce and the lack of sample projects will make a very big number of users starting to post about SkyX bugs, or making questions that simply with some goods samples must be replied. (Or what is worst, starting to receive more than 3/4 emails/pm per day of people making questions...)

In a middle future, one time SkyX 0.2 will be out, I'll seriously consider to use a repository for its development. Also, before that, I'll have to find a way of synchronize my own local server with git/hg for SkyX, since I'm using a centralised home-made system to develop the whole Paradise Framework)

@Mind Calamity
Hehe, yes! I think in 5 weeks at max SkyX 0.2 is going to be released, it could be in 3/4 weeks but since I've some important exams in two weeks I'll probably have to spend one extra week!
Btw, I think SkyX 0.2 is going to be a very robust version, and more cool features(like thunderstorm support in v0.2.1) will come anytime soon, so all projects using SkyX will benefit!

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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Nodrev »

Hum, bad timing for me, I started to rewrite most of skyx code a couple of weeks ago, cause some things in it were not satisfying me (lots of tweeking to integrate it smoothly in OpenSpace3D)...
So, I allready added to skyx the following stuff:
- CMake build system
- All files are prefixed with "Skyx"
- OpenGL shaders (cg were planned, but now, i'm not sure :? ...)
- Handle camera with far clip distance setted to infinite
- Abstracted sun & moon light direction calculator class (to provide the directions with external lib for example, or change the "0-24 float" hour behavior that i do not found usefull in my case)
- Moon phase effect
- It's now possible to change layered clouds parameters without delete/recreate the layer.
- The skyx scene node tree was a mess... changing it
- Lot of refacto, code cleaning (removing create/remove functions when usefullness for example), trying to avoid signature breaks.
- Allow multiple viewport and camera change.

I was just working on the volumetric cloud implementation for the last point (camera change/viewports, which is the only thing that is partially broken in my version) when I saw that you start your developments...
In case some of the new functionnality interest you, have a look to https://arkeon.dyndns.org/svn-scol/trun ... ncies/skyx (I'll have to rename the 0.1.2 directory with something else :roll:)
Anyway, it's cool you're back on the development of SkyX :)
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by boyamer »

Thats very nice, i think this fix should be integrated in official SkyX version.
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Xavyiy »

@Nodrev
Hi! Well, I think you'll benefit from the incoming 0.2 version, even if you want to use your revised version, I really think there are huge improvements in the volumetric cloud system and you'll only have to replace the VClouds classes and to update the VCloudsManager class.

About your changes, I really like some of them so I'll add the following features in the 0.2 version(I'll write them from the scratch since I love coding that kind of things, but thanks a lot for giving me these ideas!)

Code: Select all

- Support cameras with infinite far clip distance
- Abstracted sun & moon direction and phase calculator class
- Moon phase effect
About the missing things: or them are already done in my dev version(cmake, layered clouds, multi-camera/viewport, glsl shaders, code cleaning) or it's just a matter of taste(like prefixed source files).

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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Nodrev »

About your changes, I really like some of them so I'll add the following features in the 0.2 version(I'll write them from the scratch since I love coding that kind of things, but thanks a lot for giving me these ideas!)
That was the goal of my post ;)
About the missing things: or them are already done in my dev version(cmake, layered clouds, multi-camera/viewport, glsl shaders, code cleaning) or it's just a matter of taste(like prefixed source files).
All good! Just a remark: in my opinion, prefixed files is not just a cosmetic change, it avoid include file conflict in some case, and caan simplify integration in third party app.
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Xavyiy »

Nodrev wrote:All good! Just a remark: in my opinion, prefixed files is not just a cosmetic change, it avoid include file conflict in some case, and caan simplify integration in third party app.
Well, it really depends on the project include structure. For example, I always create a common "Dependencies" directory that is where the compiler looks for headers. Then, I include the main dependency header like: "SkyX/Include/SkyX.h", that way you'll avoid any kind of header-naming conflict between dependencies.

Yes, it's true you can still get some conflicts if you have very generic names(like "math.h") in your project itself, I solve this by just naming this header with "MathUtils.h" or "Math_.h", for example.

Personally, for me is a lot cleaner having non-prefixed source files and just include the needed dependencies headers carefully, but that really depends on each person! =)
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Xavyiy »

Update report:
These last days I've been finishing the multi-camera system, implementing the controller-based astronomical model and working on the feature that @Lansbury suggested me some days ago: "It would be great if you could "bend" the volumetric layer system to have a more spherical sky instead a plane based one."
Regarding the third point, after some hours of testing, best results are given by a constant falling of the geometry with the distance (and relative to the camera height). This way the cloud field seems to be a lot of more dense and the whole scene looks better!
The new feature parameter is SkyX::VClouds::(get/set)DistanceFallingFactor =)

Btw, I've an important exam next week(thursday 27) so I will not be able to code before the exam. After that, I'll add some features to the controller-based astronomical model and work on the lunar phase feature.
Finally, the only remaining thing is some (complex) work on the volumetric cloud system and all is going to be ready for making the sample projects and release the 0.2 version =) I think it'll take me about ~20 days.

Also, I've changed the future versions numbers. Now SkyX versions are going to be 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 instead of 0.2, 0.2.1 and 0.2.2.

Xavier
Last edited by Xavyiy on Sun Oct 23, 2011 11:53 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by amigoface »

hi Xavyiy,

does your new version work with the new terrain system ?


- i mean terrain lighting affected by date/time of the sky ?
- using the fog with skyx

anyway good job !
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Mind Calamity »

amigoface wrote:hi Xavyiy,

does your new version work with the new terrain system ?


- i mean terrain lighting affected by date/time of the sky ?
- using the fog with skyx

anyway good job !
I can't talk about SkyX 0.2, but in SkyX 0.1, you just "attach" a light to the sun, and as the sun moves, so does your light, which means it does not in any way affect how the terrain system works, so the answer for your first question would be: yes, for the second one too, although I'm not sure.

BTW - Xavyiy, 20 days would be about the time Skyrim releases, which is really awesome timing. :lol: I'd love to compare SkyX with the Skyrim skies. :D
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by amigoface »

Mind Calamity wrote:
I can't talk about SkyX 0.2, but in SkyX 0.1, you just "attach" a light to the sun, and as the sun moves, so does your light, which means it does not in any way affect how the terrain system works, so the answer for your first question would be: yes, for the second one too, although I'm not sure.

BTW - Xavyiy, 20 days would be about the time Skyrim releases, which is really awesome timing. :lol: I'd love to compare SkyX with the Skyrim skies. :D
Nice tip :), i have to test

for the fog there was a trick with the materialmanager but i did'nt get chance/time to make it
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by noorus »

Donated some, although personally I'm not looking for thunderstorms :) now aurorae, that would be sweet..

Thanks for all your hard work Xavi, glad to see SkyX back in business!
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Thoran »

Just out of curiosity, did you "do/plan to" add CMake support to SkyX in v0.2?

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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Mind Calamity »

Thoran wrote:Just out of curiosity, did you "do/plan to" add CMake support to SkyX in v0.2?

Thoran
He already stated that he has implemented CMake support for his development environment.
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Thoran »

Obviously missed that one. Thanks for the info.

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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Xavyiy »

@amigoface
As Mind Calamity has said, SkyX is not related to the new/old/any Ogre Terrain system in any way.
But, YES, SkyX is compatible with the new Ogre terrain system(and with any other terrain system) since you have just to update your terrain main light with current SkyX sun/moon data.
About fog, due to the complexity of the SkyX atmospheric scattering system, it's not possible to use the Ogre built-in fog system(since, for example, the fog color is different depending of the direction you're looking to). But SkyX provides a smart system to deal with that: SkyX::GPUManager::addGroundPass(...). See the function documentation or the SkyX 0.1 demo1 for more info. (You can add the ground pass to any object, not only to the terrain)

@Mind Calamity
Mind Calamity wrote:I'd love to compare SkyX with the Skyrim skies
Well, hope that this comparation is not going to be too bad for SkyX! :P

@noorus
Thanks a lot! =)
About auroraes, at the moment I haven't any plan to include them in SkyX, but since our first showcase demo at Paradise Studios using the Paradise Engine will be in a "magic" environment, maybe I'll add it to SkyX in a long future =)

Btw, SkyX 0.3 is already half-funded! Seems that I'll be busy for some weeks working on SkyX... :D

@Thoran
One more note about CMake: at really I'm not using CMake for the development, but I'll include SkyX CMake files in the next release!

Xavier
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Mind Calamity »

Xavyiy wrote: Btw, SkyX 0.3 is already half-funded! Seems that I'll be busy for some weeks working on SkyX... :D
Lucky for us it's all going along smoothly, and lucky for you there are people who appreciate your work, and are kind enough/able to donate to keep your motivation (among other things) up.
Xavyiy wrote: @Mind Calamity
Mind Calamity wrote:I'd love to compare SkyX with the Skyrim skies
Well, hope that this comparation is not going to be too bad for SkyX! :P
Of course it won't. ;)
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Sniper Binaire »

I've recorded another thing that still be in the preview video : Volumetric clouds are in a disc centered on the camera.
Image

So you cannot get a clan cloudy weather.

Wondering, is that easily solvable in the 0.2 ?
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Xavyiy »

Sniper Binaire
Hi,
obviously you've to set the SkyX volumetric cloud field at an altitude much lower. (SkyX::VCloudsManager::setHeight(...))

Also in SkyX 0.2 version I've added the geometry falling with the distance feature, which minimizes a lot that "disc" effect, as I've pointed some posts ago.

-----------------
Update report:

Well, finally I've done my hard exam and now I'm back to code :)

Yesterday I've finished the Controller-based astromonical model and also I've finished/fixed some volumetric clouds geometry things related to the new feature geometry falling.
Today I've started with the Moon phase feature, which at the moment am very proud of :P (specially how the halo looks!) Here are 3 pics:
http://modclub.rigsofrods.com/xavi/MoonPhase0.png
http://modclub.rigsofrods.com/xavi/MoonPhase1.png
http://modclub.rigsofrods.com/xavi/MoonPhase2.png

Note: Yes, I know it's not physically correct to see stars behind the covered part of the Moon, but due to SkyX geometry rendering order I can't do it better for the moment. In a future(maybe for the version 0.5), I'll change the whole goemetry rendering order, improve the atmosphere scattering shaders and also work on an advanced star field system, so I'll be able to fix that but it will have to wait some time!

I'll try to finish it tomorrow, and also finishing all the remaining work in less than two weeks =)

Xavier
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by amigoface »

Great Xavyiy ,

you're an artist !
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Re: SkyX 0.2 [v0.2 Funded!]

Post by Xavyiy »

amigoface wrote:Great Xavyiy ,

you're an artist !
Hehe, thanks! =)

---------------------------------
Update report!
Hi all!
I think you'll love this update report! :P

Finally, after three hours of coding a crazy shader for the SkyX Moon... it's done! =)
Here is a nice pic that I want to share with you: (Click to enlarge!)
Image

I'm really happy with the result, and really proud of how the Moon halo looks depending of the phase! :)
The whole Moon+Halo is rendered in a single billboard with that new shader =)

Hope you'll like it!

Edit: I'll upload a video tomorrow, it's really beautiful in real-time :P!

Xavier
Last edited by Xavyiy on Sun Oct 30, 2011 5:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
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