Shoreline water : V

» Wed May 16, 2012 9:38 pm

I was just wondering if, first, other people noticed this, and second, if they thought it could eventually be fixed with the CK or something.

Water is rather jarring when it reaches the coast/side of river/etc. It just cuts off and has a very strange, polygonal, sharp nature to it. I was wondering if it would be possible to soften this and make it less obvious that HEY LOOK VIDEOGAME WATER

» Wed May 16, 2012 10:17 pm

It is a result of the water plane clipping into the land geometry. No, thing can be done about it.

» Thu May 17, 2012 6:53 am

That is extremely depressing.

» Thu May 17, 2012 3:09 am

That is extremely depressing.

Why? It happens in every game with water. Its not limited to Skyrim. Some games just cover it up with some animated waves that, IMO look meh.

» Thu May 17, 2012 12:04 am

It might be fixable, by making the water far more transparent when the water depth is very shallow. That way it smoothly becomes more transparent as it goes towards the land. It won't look perfect, but it's probably better than currently.

» Thu May 17, 2012 2:14 am

IIRC Morrowind has some decent shorelines using MGE.

» Thu May 17, 2012 1:57 am

For certain areas, particularly where water ends while still deep, adding splashes can make it look much better. Take a look at the stone bridge at the north end of Riverwood for a good example of this.

Of course, this is about as manual as a fix could possibly be, but it could make some areas, at least, look much better.

Cipscis

» Thu May 17, 2012 9:50 am

It is a result of the water plane clipping into the land geometry. No, thing can be done about it.

Actually, it can, just not on Directx9. Directx10 featured soft transitions to blend the water edges with the land geometry. And DirectX 11 allow for detailed ocean waves using tesselated meshes. Sadly, the water won't get any better due to console hardware, so we must all be pleased Skyrim's waters look impressive enough without taking advantadge of any of that.

» Thu May 17, 2012 2:53 am

Actually, it can, just not on Directx9. Directx10 featured soft transitions to blend the water edges with the land geometry. And DirectX 11 allow for detailed ocean waves using tesselated meshes. Sadly, the water won't get any better due to console hardware, so we must all be pleased Skyrim's waters look impressive enough without taking advantadge of any of that.

What's stopping SKGE from adding in DX10 or 11 features?

» Thu May 17, 2012 11:48 am

IIRC Morrowind has some decent shorelines using MGE.

And it was achieved in Oblivion with Liquid Water.

» Wed May 16, 2012 9:53 pm

What's stopping SKGE from adding in DX10 or 11 features?

2 years of developing the SKGE?

» Wed May 16, 2012 11:56 pm

2 years of developing the SKGE?

Nothing, then. Good to know.

» Thu May 17, 2012 1:55 am

What's stopping SKGE from adding in DX10 or 11 features?

The non-existent DX9-to-DX10 bridge.

» Thu May 17, 2012 7:39 am

Yay for bethesda selling the game out to 7 year old hardware.

» Thu May 17, 2012 9:22 am

For certain areas, particularly where water ends while still deep, adding splashes can make it look much better. Take a look at the stone bridge at the north end of Riverwood for a good example of this.

Of course, this is about as manual as a fix could possibly be, but it could make some areas, at least, look much better.

Cipscis

I feel like this would probably be our best bet then? If the whole DX9-10 thing isn't implemented properly, or if other programs required to do more advanced things won't be out for years, I'd prefer to just have a solution that's available in the wake of the CK (weeks, months, however long this would take) than to wait longer with this awkward water.

» Thu May 17, 2012 6:28 am

This could be solved using a different water shader. Probably requires a programme like MGE, as has already been suggested.

MGE is not a directX 10/11 app, by the way - softer, more fluid shorelines can be achieved in DirectX 9.

» Wed May 16, 2012 10:29 pm

Why? It happens in every game with water. Its not limited to Skyrim. Some games just cover it up with some animated waves that, IMO look meh.

No, not every game. Some games have beautiful shoring effects.

» Thu May 17, 2012 7:25 am

Actually, it can, just not on Directx9. Directx10 featured soft transitions to blend the water edges with the land geometry. And DirectX 11 allow for detailed ocean waves using tesselated meshes. Sadly, the water won't get any better due to console hardware, so we must all be pleased Skyrim's waters look impressive enough without taking advantadge of any of that.

Actually DX10 can do water rather well if you look at Two Worlds 2.

But that doesn't apply to this game.

» Thu May 17, 2012 1:36 am

Actually, it can, just not on Directx9. Directx10 featured soft transitions to blend the water edges with the land geometry. And DirectX 11 allow for detailed ocean waves using tesselated meshes. Sadly, the water won't get any better due to console hardware, so we must all be pleased Skyrim's waters look impressive enough without taking advantadge of any of that.

You can blend a non opaque material to avoid colliding with the world in DX9. It's achieved by interpolating the pixel opacity with a function of the the depth of the rendered scene in its current state behind the pixel currently being drawn.

» Thu May 17, 2012 3:45 am

Yup I think that's how fog is done too in dx9

» Thu May 17, 2012 7:17 am

It should be possible if re-writing the game's shaders isn't too difficult.

Shore foam, fading in a foamy looking texture the closer land or something gets to the water line, should be doable (though it's hard to make it look good).

» Thu May 17, 2012 6:09 am

It should be possible if re-writing the game's shaders isn't too difficult.

Shore foam, fading in a foamy looking texture the closer land or something gets to the water line, should be doable (though it's hard to make it look good).

I've that in the past on a DX9 game, it's doable:
[img]http://pix.wefrag.com/i/b/d/e/c/e/41609eea88428e50f2f7fa96ee127f81.jpg[/img]

Doesn't add that much complexity to the shader, eventhough I don't know how it might render on skyrim (high distance, lots of particles).

We'd need to unload these fxp archives to see what's inside the beast

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