Still quite on time for the mid-of-month update, here comes a new vonBiomes version with a completely reworked lighting and fog system as its major upgrade, and for enabling the first volumetric dust clouds in Mechwarrior 5 on Red & Icy Moon!
Downloads:
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Volume Fog v2 (beta)
The implementation of Volume Fog in the older vonBiomes versions was … more or less a prototype. After discovering that making volumetric dust clouds and local fog in Unreal 4, volume fog must be enabled, I took the opportunity to completely overhaul the lighting and world fog system to make the effect work.
This resulted in an extensive overhaul of the vonBiomes lighting and weather system, with now better implementing volume fog across all atmospheric conditions. I took this opportunity and extended the vonBiomes lighting system further with more elaborate settings, more dynamic variables like including sun distance on moon and night biomes, and much more.
To enable Volume Fog, make sure you have Mod Options Mod installed and check the checkbox.
Link to Mod Options Mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/537
If you are already in a mission and make a change, you need to restart the mission, since the lighting and weather is generated at the beginning.
The new atmospherics also balance fog levels better and have complete overhauled settings for various conditions. Furthermore, in the light and fog calculations, more variables are factored in, like if the sky is clouded, the sky body (planet/moon) and space nebulas add less light. Sky bodies can also vary more in size, so there is not always a massive planet hanging in the sky. Lighting conditions and skies at nights now also change with the orbital distance to the sun.
This all adds up to even more mission variety and visual quality.
Since this is a new system implemented, please let me know if you encounter any issues, troubles or strange things! You can always reach me on Discord here: https://discord.gg/sjfPEj6ndF or via comment or at
What else is new:
Red Moon Update!
The Red Moon biome was just a first preview last time — now it is finished (in beta) with unique crafted rock formations and special glowing minerals in the materials, giving it a unique touch.
Moreover, Red Moon features the first local fog/dust clouds when Volumetric Fog is enabled in Mod Options.
Icy Moon
Besides minor adjustment, I have also added volumetric dust on the Icy Moon biome, using a texture diffusion for more effects. Furthermore, the ice textures are more fine-tuned and extended with better translucent effects.
Max Fog Scaler via Mod Options
Some people love the dense atmospheric conditions in heavy and extreme weather situations — some don't. For the latter, I have implemented a slider in the vonBiomes Mod Options (via the Mod Option Mod) to scale a multiplier for the Maximum Fog Density setting. My recommendation is 1.0 — especially because the fogs in-game are more fine-tuned and polished now — but if you don't like fog so much in general, you can now scale it down! :)
Update Summary:
- Red Moon finishing overhaul
- Icy Moon texture upgrade & extension
- Instant action: default to Orbit 4
- Vanilla fix: if Orbital = 0 (at some story missions) it is set to 4
- vonBiomes Water Material Upgrade
- Major Lighting Upgrades:
- — Sky body scale minimum lowered (small planets in sky)
- — Sky body Backlight scaled by sky body size
- — Overhaul Planetary Orbit lighting
- — Update to Atmospheres & Cloud values
- — Complete Overhaul of Fog System densities
- — Revamp of lighting parameters and dynamic calculations
- — Included planet distance in night lighting calculations and sky body variables
- — Tons of additional minor adjustments and variables tweaking
- Volumetric localized dust/smoke (Red Moon & Icy Moon, needs Volumetric Fog enabled)
- Max Fog Opacity Modifier (via Mod Options)
- New special tile: Waste dump version 2 (diversifying the first waste dump tile frequency)
- New space station for moon biomes
- New Planets in the sky body library
Next steps:
vonBiomes: Magnum from MercTech sent me the first information to better integrate his changes, so vonBiomes can overwrite MercTech and you can use the mission screen and visual interface improvements together with it. I have to implement some blueprint extensions and test it firmly, but I hope full compatibility can be achieved for upcoming MercTech versions.
Another step will be fine-tuning the new volume fog system after more play testing and watching the streamers out there. Furthermore, I want to have a quick look at if I can improve the look of the planets viewed from the Leopard cockpit — sometimes they look very 2000-ish;)
vonMissions: big news there! I am working together with Oraeon from TT Rulez AI to integrate a Solaris 7 AI, make the enemy gladiators less vanilla and solve the problem with many enemies targeting the mech, that puts out the most damage per second. I am super happy about this collaboration, and making the AI on Solaris 7 better!
vonHUD: more work on the vonCommander interface is necessary to improve and extend it further for a quick command option for your battles.
Thank you very much for your ongoing support!
It is such an enjoyable journey and your contributions do not only enable me to put much time into modding, but also to keep up the motivation in the long run. ;) Big cheers!
- Jonathan
PS: And some screenshots :)
