Noloben Wavesets

[Whilyam]

I was looking at Noloben as a reference for the ocean in an age of mine, and I noticed that Noloben's water doesn't seem to reflect anything, it just distorts with waves. The waveset I currently have in place looks okay if you're at eye-level with the water and even then only for a few in-game yards. Noloben's is pretty much crystal clear and looks pretty good from almost every direction. I know that the skydome is repeated underneath the water to give a good reflection, but how do they make the water clear?

The code I have in place now:

Code: Select all

waveset:
    type: waveset
    visual:
        waveset:
            shores:
                - shoreline
            envradius: 100
            depthrange:
                opac:
                    start: 0
                    end: 0.5
            geostate:
                maxlen: 6.25
                minlen: 6.0
                ampoverlen: 0.001
                chop: 0.0
                angledev: 1

[andylegate]

From looking at the prp file with the PageEditor from libPlasma, I can give you these numbers here that are used:

Code: Select all

            geostate:
                maxlen: 25
                minlen: 5
                ampoverlen: 0.009999999776
                chop: 0.25
                angledev: 0.3490658402
            texstate:
                maxlen: 12
                minlen: 1
                ampoverlen: 0.04999999702
                chop: 0.25
                angldev: 0.8203047514
            ripplescale: 75
            specnoise: 0.5
            specstart: 250
            specend: 1000
            depthrange:
                opac:
                    start: 0
                    end: 0.5
                refl:
                    start: 0
                    end: 1
                wave:
                    start: 0
                    end: 1
            wispiness: 1
            edgeopac: 1
            edgeradius: 3
            period: 0.75
            fingerlength: 1.519999981
            envrefresh: 0.3000000119
            envradius: 2000

However, the numbers for "depthrange" as they are listed for ALCscript, are not listed the same way in the prp file. There, the wave set shows these values for X, Y and Z:

Code: Select all

      <DepthFalloff>
         <hsVector3 X="0.5" Y="1.5" Z="5" />
      </DepthFalloff>
      <WaterOffset>
         <hsVector3 X="3.5" Y="1" Z="-3" />
      </WaterOffset>
      <MaxAtten>
         <hsVector3 X="1" Y="1" Z="1" />
      </MaxAtten>
      <MinAtten>
         <hsVector3 X="0" Y="0" Z="0" />
      </MinAtten>


as for the water's color, the way it's listed in the page editor, you'd have to figure out in Blender, here's the values:

Code: Select all

      <MaxColor>
         <hsColorRGBA red="1" green="1" blue="1" alpha="1" />
      </MaxColor>
      <MinColor>
         <hsColorRGBA red="0.6470588446" green="0.6470588446" blue="0.6470588446" alpha="0.1499999911" />
      </MinColor>
      <WaterTint>
         <hsColorRGBA red="1" green="1" blue="1" alpha="1" />
      </WaterTint>
      <SpecularTint>
         <hsColorRGBA red="0.8509804606" green="0.8627451658" blue="1" alpha="1" />
      </SpecularTint>


They also are using a Dynamiv Env map for reflection.

I haven't played with these numbers in a waveset to see what they produce since I don't have an Age like Noloben. I could use Zephyr Cove, but I'd have to make it back into day to see if it looks like Noloben's.

[andylegate]

Just wanted to let you know, I tried these numbers with Zephyr Cove last night, and the waveset looked horrible. BUT: I didn't export from Blender with these numbers, I edited the prp file with the PageEditor from Libplasma, and for some reason, it didn't save the numbers like it should have as I went back and looked at the file again after seeing how bad the waveset looked. Specifically it reset the Env Radius back to 0, and a few others too.

Of course I'm using a much older version of LibPlasma and I highly suspect that may have been the problem. I'm going to try again a bit later after I get my errands run around this morning.

[Whilyam]

Okay, here's what I did (and it came out pretty good and clear on my Age) in case anyone else wants to try this..

I copied the alcscript you posted into my waveset and removed that parts it references. For water color, I put R 0.2 G 0.2 B 0.8 (no connection in the stuff you posted). For the specular color of the waveset material (something I haven't tried out, nor know if it works or not ) I put R 0.85 G 0.86 B 1.0.

Maybe the most important thing I did (at least I think it might be important) is I edited the vertex colors/alpha values. I colored everything on the outer bands of my waveset circle a sort of grey. I then added an alpha vertex color layer and made most of the waveset black, leaving only the inner-most portion white/grey.

This produced a very clear waveset with good waves. The alpha layer made the waveset faded as it got farther away, thus making any weird reflections much less noticeable. The only issue I saw was that my shoreline seemed to fight with the waveset (maybe because of higher waves). I probably need to move the shores up/down some more so they're clear of the waveset.

[andylegate]

Zrax just updated a fix to LibPlasma this morning in response to a bug with this, it was parsing the wavesets wrong.

I like using the PageEditor for this because you can go in and edit some of those numbers for the waveset, and directly save the prp file, then quickly load the game back up to check out the changes. Makes not having to export from Blender a blessing. Remember to update the sum file though.

Here's a pic of Zephyr with the Noloben numbers punched in. Since it's night time, the color isn't as noticeable, BUT! Take a look at the image below, one thing that it DID add that makes the water more real, is the broken highlights that you get on wave ripple from bright lights (in this case it's the texture of the really bright stars):

Show Spoiler