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POTC Sea Colour

It would be great if the weather could steadily improve after a storm. That would certainly reduce the abruptness of a storm's end.
I'll try to remember to remind you about it soon, then. :onya
 
Well, I found the fly in the soup for this mod. :facepalm The ship now does not respond smoothly to wave actions. Instead it jerks around in a very unnatural way. This not only looks ugly but it makes aiming the cannons very difficult.

This makes combat a point blank affair because one needs to get very close in order to hit the target because the targeting circle is jerking all over the place and flickering and disappearing constantly. :boom

POTC sailing is no longer smooth and natural, but jerky and mechanical like COAS.
 
I had noticed that but thought little of it, until you mentioned aiming the cannons. That could be a problem. :modding
The unfortunate thing is that the ships don't sail as smoothly as they would do in the same conditions in reality, as they're too 'sensitive' to the waves.

I guess the only way around it is to try to find a good combination of the harmonics that looks realistic and reduces jerky movement.
Right now, with all ten active, it's not surprising that there's probably too much going on at once.
 
Put // in front of the line and the line will no longer be executed. :doff
 
I don't know if I did it right or not. The ship is not as jerky, but maybe it is because I'm sailing a bigger ship now.

I got into a very foggy storm. I could not see the ships around me until it ended. Maybe the fog is working.
 

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Hylie Pistoff said:
I don't know if I did it right or not. The ship is not as jerky, but maybe it is because I'm sailing a bigger ship now.

I got into a very foggy storm. I could not see the ships around me until it ended. Maybe the fog is working.
Click to expand...
It's hard to tell what has changed when commenting out the harmonics. I think you need to encounter a storm for the changes to take effect.

That reminds me: Pieter, what would be the best way to make these harmonics work without first having to encounter a storm?

One other thing that bothers me is the fog colour during a daytime storm.
Early morning, evening and night are fine, but it possibly looks to bright during the day.
I tried to add an IF statement to WhrInitValues.c so that the daytime fog colour changes during a storm, but the game just crashes on startup.
The error log just says I supposedly missed out a bracket (this type), but I checked multiple times and can't see one missing.
Here's the code:
Code: 
if(bWhrStorm){
Weathers.Fog.Color = argb(0,162,152,155);
Weathers.SpecialSeaFog.Color = argb(0,60,50,57);
}
else{
Weathers.Fog.Color = argb(0,162,152,155);
//		Weathers.SpecialSeaFog.Color = argb(0,162,152,155);		// LDH this is way too light 20Feb09
Weathers.SpecialSeaFog.Color = argb(0,100,150,195);		//0,125,174,220 LDH sky color 21Feb09
}
Any ideas on how to fix this?
 
Well, I've been in several storms and it is still jerky, just not as bad as before with a smaller ship. I must have done those //'s wrong because it is not smooth.
 
Maybe try a new game, then? It isn't required, but it's the best way of telling whether a change has worked or not.

if you're using Notepad++, then once you put // in front of a line, it turns green. That indicates that it has been successfully commented out.
 
I looked in Notepad++ and those lines are indeed green. I then hit F11 in port and boarded my ship and sailed into a storm, then sailed into another port where I saved again. The ship still has the palsies. So I started a new game and that ship sails smoothly. So it looks like this old game is done. :(
 
Do you have any earlier saves from before you implemented the new storm code? You could revert to one of those if starting a new game is less desirable.
 
Nope, no saves that old. I was working on the Hannah back then. In fact it is not unusual for me to use all of the saves in a day.
 
Is bWhrStorm defined already in that function?

Harmonics? I never knew anything about those...
 
Pieter Boelen said:
Is bWhrStorm defined already in that function?
Click to expand...
The only conditions that precede my attempted IF statement are at the top of WhrInitValues.c:
Code: 
void Whr_InitGValues()
{
if ( curTime >= 10 && curTime < 18)
{

About the harmonics: it doesn't matter how they work, as such. What matters is when the code is executed.
What I'd like is to have the code execute by default, without having to encounter a storm, so I guess the question is where do I put it?
 
As Pieter mentioned, "bWhrStorm" is not defined in that file. Try changing "bWhrStorm" to "Whr_IsStorm()" so it is like this:
Code: 
if(Whr_IsStorm()){
Weathers.Fog.Color = argb(0,162,152,155);
Weathers.SpecialSeaFog.Color = argb(0,60,50,57);
}
else{
Weathers.Fog.Color = argb(0,162,152,155);
// Weathers.SpecialSeaFog.Color = argb(0,162,152,155);		// LDH this is way too light 20Feb09
Weathers.SpecialSeaFog.Color = argb(0,100,150,195);		//0,125,174,220 LDH sky color 21Feb09
}
See if that works. :)
 
That works like a charm; no crashes, good results! Thank you, Baste. :doff
Now the only issues remaining are:
  • Getting the right balance of harmonics, such that the waves look more realistic, but smaller ships don't jerk around too much
  • Activating the harmonics regardless of storm encounters
  • Making the transition from stormy weather to normal weather more smooth (even more so now that the daytime fog colour changes)
 
Regarding the harmonics combination, for now I think I've found a decent compromise.
In PROGRAM -> Weather -> WhrGeneration.c, I've commented out all harmonics except h1, h2, h3, h6 and h10 (see below).
Code: 
Weathers.Sea.Harmonics.h1 = "0.0,10.0,0.1202,80.87,-68.00";
Weathers.Sea.Harmonics.h2 = "1.57,10.0,2.1002,82.28,88.00";
Weathers.Sea.Harmonics.h3 = "0.47,7.0,2.2002,82.28,68.00";
//Weathers.Sea.Harmonics.h4 = "0.27,47.0,0.0502,82.28,288.00"; //
//Weathers.Sea.Harmonics.h5 = "1.27,57.0,0.0702,82.28,188.00";
Weathers.Sea.Harmonics.h6 = "2.27,57.0,0.0302,82.28,88.00";
//Weathers.Sea.Harmonics.h7 = "2.27,37.0,0.1402,82.28,188.00";
//Weathers.Sea.Harmonics.h8 = "2.77,17.0,0.0502,82.28,288.00";
//Weathers.Sea.Harmonics.h9 = "1.77,17.0,0.1002,82.28,188.00";
Weathers.Sea.Harmonics.h10 = "1.0,14.0,0.5002,82.28,28.00"; //
The result looks pretty good, and more importantly, there is no jerky movement (at least with the Neptunus model I'm using).
The movement is similar to what it was with all harmonics active, but the ship rocks side to side far more slowly, so cannon aiming is much easier.

On another note altogether, I recently found the code that defines which sky texture corresponds to which hour of the day, depending on the contitions.
So, I thought about bringing back the red sky for late sunset, which was present in the stock game, to replace the more greyish sky.
I found the relevant settings and assigned the sky texture to the 19:00 - 20:00 time frame, when the sun is at its lowest in the sky (see my sig).
When I went to test it in-game, I rather liked the results, as it seemed more appropriate for the time frame.

Here's a screenshot you can compare with my signature image to see the difference: https://public.bay.l...turn.jpg?psid=1
What do you think?
 
I tried those harmonics settings on my "broken" game and they made a difference. This is much better and seems to work better in rougher seas. In smooth seas the jerkiness can still be seen.

I like that red sunset!
 
Do you think the jerkiness in calm seas still affects aiming cannons too much? If it's at least bearable then it should be OK to keep these settings.

For the red sunset, I'll upload the code changes later. ;)
 
You're asking the wrong person that question. My opinion is that any jerkiness is too much. That is one of the biggest reasons I don't play COAS. The ships are jerky there too.
To be honest I may be hyper sensitive to it. Often I can't see it, but when I do.........Where it is most noticeable now is when the bow is going up and down a lot.
 
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