Graphical Enhancement 2.5, version 3 is in Pioneer's Guild.

[italiano]

I'm redoing armours for my other mod which I may release as a stand alone pack, but it would mean that it's only compatible with that mod or native, not other mods.

the other sections of it to get finished up

They're more of a replacement. The current ones are pretty half-arsed as I didn't have time to do them properly. I want the next release to be perfect, but it never will be.

And suggesting you should spend time creating a non-HDR set of textures

No, I suggested that. I simply asked if anyone is not going to run HDR, and if they weren't then I would think about making a separate texture set.

It just boggles me that someone who has to already turn stuff down

I don't see where he had complained about not being able to run the game properly.

This is why I was curious on how much work is involved in creating a non-HDR set.

Easier than making one for HDR, since it doesn't require adjustment for hdr. It just requires adjusting the colour, brightness and contrast of the textures.

I know many people strongly dislike bloom effects in many game

I usually turn it off, like I do in M&B, but the problem is that without bloom it becomes too dark. The hdr settings are too fiddly for me as the darkness and saturation settings often don't work.

And they cost three times as much.  Regardless, a tiny keyboard + trackpad or **** + sword choppy game

You can't assume they're going to stick with their laptop hardware. I used a mouse and external keyboard myself.

if it lets members of the community with older rigs have a shiny new look comparable to that of those of us who will use the HDR

While true, I'm going to be a really poor judge as I've been using HDR for a while now, and without it I think the game looks poor. I've simply gotten used to having it, the main difference being the much greater contrast it provides ( it makes non-hdr appear quite flat and dull).

the Taleworlds crew are already on giving the equipment an update for 1.0

There will be some new equipment and the helmets have much more metallic-looking textures, but I'm still going to go ahead with my own changes.



You guys want the good news or bad news?

The good news is that I took another look at the hdr settings and this time they adjusted very easily, and are now quite neutral. Bloom is minimal, and the level of brightness is perfect. The bad news is that the textures now look quite different and will have to be redone . This might allow me to use the same textures for hdr and non-hdr.

 

[italiano]

Okay, I think I've come up with a look that does ok for both hdr and non-hdr. It also shows how neutral the hdr settings are as well, as both of these shots were at gamma 2.2 and you can see how similar they are. My question is does the non-hdr version look good to those that won't use hdr? I think that's about as good as I can get the bare textures to look without resorting to high contrast and extreme fading, but they wouldn't give a 'natural' feel to them.

With hdr on the left, without on the right:

This second shot is to show that the brightness can easily be adjusting using the 'gamma' setting in the M&B graphics options. On the left is hdr at gamma 1.9 and on the right is at 2.2 (like the above picture):

 

[Zima]

Zaro you continue to impress I really like the gamma setting comparison shot. I'm still floored by the less hilly borders, great skyboxes. The hdr side of the first picture looks nicer than the non-hdr, but maybe if you post a shot with your textures without hdr next to one in native, it'll help people decide. As always though, go with the look that you are looking for, it seems to be working out! *thumbs up*

 

[Llew2]

Looking good, Zaro.

And suggesting you should spend time creating a non-HDR set of textures so people with ancient computers can 'enhance' the graphics for a game they can already barely run.

Pardon my lack of self-restraint, but: Shut your face, noob. My computer is plenty high-end and can play just about anything on high. I personally, however, dislike what I've seen of HDR, and would therefor very much appreciate Zaro's efforts to make a non-HDR dependent version.

which comes back to how much of the M&B playerbase are using ancient crapboxes.

Again, is has very little to do with 'crapboxes' as you put it. I will bet that approximately 99% of all people who play M&B don't use HDR.

 

[Alixyang]

not only gamma,  each option of graphical setting will affect the HDR impression, such as 16 or 32 bits, environment shadow, flora shadow and texture details....

Zaro,  there will be some special HDR settings for special display cards ?

--------------
the skybox of Reply #591was right in the  Reply #506 

 

[Cloud Breaker]

One question, though, where is this gamma adjustment? I don't recall having seen it.

Don't you see it in the video settings?

 

[Shack]

One question, though, where is this gamma adjustment? I don't recall having seen it.

Third option from the top, Monitor Gamma.

 

[italiano]

I personally, however, dislike what I've seen of HDR

The last couple of shots are pretty conservative, and the only real difference is the the contrast is greater, i.e. lighter lights and darker darks.

there will be some special HDR settings for special display cards ?

What do you mean?

but maybe if you post a shot with your textures without hdr next to one in native

I'll see what I can do.



Almost everything still needs to be adjusted (example, the yellowish foregrounds will be greener), but it should give an idea. It's darker, a bit more colourful and the textures of course are twice the resolution (4x the detail) of the native ones.

Native vs mine without hdr:

A couple of additional shots of mine without hdr:

 

[Buxton]

It all looks excellent Zaro, but is there anyway you can make the distant mountains a bit less blue?

 

[italiano]

Forget those, just a test skybox I made a week or so ago. A proper version won't feature forest and mountains acorss the entire horizon (some will be fields/hills, and the mountains would be more of a blue-green, darker and much wider.

Problem with creating a backdrop on the skybox is that now there are trees on the ocean's horizon.



Latest textures without hdr:

Just some shots to show the mod without hdr, since it's important to me for the textures to look good by themselves. This is especially important since I'll be recommending minimal hdr settings, like those seen in post #611. Hope you guys like them because I actually am happy with these textures, rather than being unsatisfied like usual.

 

[Zilberfrid]

Yes, I am glad with them...

 

[Æon]

I think the clarity is great but it looks a little too colorful and green. Makes it look almost happy sort of.

 

[italiano]

That set of textures is meant to be green, as they're the current alternative to my cold, dark set. Different styles for different tastes, and I'll have 3 to 4 different styles (standard, dark and probably a more arid set). Anyway, some shots of the standard set with minimal hdr:

 

[Æon]

Honestly Zaro, your work is outstanding!
How do you get it to work? I have WinRAR and when I open your file up it's a bunch of textures. Where/how do I put them?

 

[Servitor]

Where is this HRD for Mount&Blade? Is it a mod on it's own, or is it hiden in M&B itself? It's somewhere I can't find it anyhow. Any before I forget, Those screenies are awesome!

Servitor

 

[RayvenQ]

Zaro, what are the (minimal) HDR settings that you use? I've tried a few but didn't really like them but your settings appeal to me

 

[italiano]

Where/how do I put them?

Go to your M&B directory and copy&paste the textures folder (i.e. make a backup). Once you've done that, cut and paste my textures into the textures folder.

Where is this HRD for Mount&Blade?

It's a mod for general use in games. There's a thread about it in the general discussion area, with people experimenting on how to tweak it for M&B. There's a post informing you how to install it within the first 5-7 pages.

what are the (minimal) HDR settings that you use?

What textures do you use? It's only going to look decent on textures that don't need colour adjustment.

Anyway, quick adjustments for a colder looking set, anyone interested?

 

[ragni]

I cant seem to get my graphics looking half as good as those screenshots... I cant figure out the problem to be honest even after I downloaded the enhancements... I am on a new machine and everything. 

 

[RayvenQ]

what are the (minimal) HDR settings that you use?

What textures do you use? It's only going to look decent on textures that don't need colour adjustment.

GE2 Base and GE2 Dark, I'd like to give your config a go and see how it turns out.

I like the cold set too.

A couple of the configs I tried with dark looked fairly nice but for me personally, were too intense, so I think a minimal HDR config would look nice.



That looks nice but at the same time, the bloom is a bit too intense. Would like to see how your minimal HDR settings would turn out with the dark pack.

 

[italiano]

I'd like to give your config a go and see how it turns out

[BLOOM]
BloomPowerDay=5
BloomFadeTime=5000
BloomConstantDay=1
BloomQuality=2
BloomScreenLevelDay=100
BloomCurveDay=0
BloomPowerNight=5
BloomConstantNight=2
BloomCurveNight=0
BloomScreenLevelNight=100
BloomAdaptationScreenLevel=5
BloomAdaptationMultiplier=0
BloomAllowOversaturation=0

DarkeningAmountDay=10
ScreenLevelDay=60
ScreenLevelNight=5
DarkeningAmountNight=0
GammaCurveDay=1
GammaCurveNight=1
ColorSaturationDay=-1
ColorSaturationNight=-1
UsePaletteTexture=0

Think that's it.

2. Make the colder set a little de-saturated, yes?

Cold set isn't the desaturated set so it will keep its colour. The grass mesh will be released as well.



Something a little drier:

Desaturated next.