I think there's potentially two variables that could increase with Marksman ability. First, the width of the focus. Second, the maximum distance that can be focused on. If you're going to have an .ini file controlling the Marksman DoF, here's some variables that would be interesting to have access to:

1. FocusWidth - the width that remains unblured when at "peak" Marksman levels.
2. FW_LevelThreshhold - The Marksman ability at which point the full focus width is attained.

If, for example, the FocusWidth was set at 30 units and the associated LevelThreshhold was set at 75, then a PC with 50 marksman skill would see 20 units around the point of focus clearly. And at levels of 75 or greater a full 30 units would be clear.

3. FocusMaximum - the maximum distance that can be seen clearly without "peak" Marksman levels.
4. FM_LevelThreshhold- The Marksman ability at which point there is no longer any maximum focus distance.
5. FM_ZoomAmplification - The percentage additional distance that can be focused on when zooming.

Say, the FocusMaximum is set to 5000 units, the LevelThreshhold to 100, and the ZoomAmplification to 25%. Then, when aiming a bow only characters who reached level 100 (or higher with an uncapper) would have no constraints on how far the could focus. If a character was at marksman ability 40, then he would be able to focus a distance of 2000 when unzoomed, or 2500 when zoomed. If the bow crosshair were over a point of focus beyond that the focus would be constrained at either 2000 or 2500 depending if zoomed.

Finally, it might be interesting to make it even more difficult to keep focused on enemies beyond the wandering reticule. You could have two variables.
6. FocusNoise - the depth distance over which the focus will fluctuate at 0 Marksman level.
7. FN_LevelThreshhold - The marksman ability at which the focus depth ceases to fluctuate on it's own.

So, even if a PC was focused on a large stationary target, the target would come in and out of focus by the amounts dictated by the above two variables.

Anyways, just some thoughts on things that MIGHT be interesting to see in game. Feel free to ignore.

I've uploaded a video of Dynamic DoF (tentative title) to Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTSyOKcm1UE

The video looks like garbage at anything below 720p. Watch it in 1080p if you can. Here are screenshots as well:

http://i1022.photobucket.com/albums/af346/jonwd7/Oblivion/ScreenShot20.jpg
http://i1022.photobucket.com/albums/af346/jonwd7/Oblivion/ScreenShot21.jpg
http://i1022.photobucket.com/albums/af346/jonwd7/Oblivion/ScreenShot22.jpg

These show a progression from in-conversation to the ending animation. You can see it zooming out and the dialog menu fading. I haven't decided on if I need to fade the DoF effect.

Here's another shot with a different NPC: http://i1022.photobucket.com/albums/af346/jonwd7/Oblivion/ScreenShot23.jpg

What I've found, and this is inherent to the shader, is that the closer you start to the NPC before activating the conversation, the more blurry it gets. You can see this in the video, I try different times at different distances.

Also, note that there is a "jolt" at the end of each end-conversation animation and this is due to my custom fDLGFocus and an FOV of 90 set in Streamline. One of these changes makes the animation pull back too far or not enough, so there is a jolt. If you haven't changed either of these settings, your conversations will end a bit more smoothly.

Yeah, the 3rd person node is culled in first person. This can be fixed but it won't be of much use as the skeleton won't be animated at all. You'll basically have a static body with moving arms.

Holy crap! That looks amazing. Kudos to you folks :thumbsup:

edit: sorry, Internet glitched.

I never realized just how big of a difference the now bokeh dofs have on conversations till now (although I realized it was pretty big). Plus, it definitely looks better than I expected without DoF fading. :thumbsup: Although, I still think it would look better with a (very short) fade when entering/exiting conversations.
I've also noticed that blurring level before entering conversations affects blurring level after entering conversations. I think this has to do with how oblivion handles the depth buffer when zooming. To fix this you could try increasing base_blur_radius in the shader, without altering R (max blur radius). Although, in some situations where you start off really close to the npc that might make the npc itself start to get blurred, not just the background, so you'd have to try it out.

That looks very good. Could you possibly make a video without the fDLGFocus and FOV changes so that people who don't change them (like me) can see the resulting jolt and blur changes?

There is a full boddy mod with new animation for 1st person view, and shadows can be drawn from that.
I think it was Loup Sombre, that created it.

EDIT:
LOL, I found it.

Immersive First Person View
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20891

First person shadows for all that want them !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvovdSnj1Rw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVLehXKSSjw.

I personally can't stand either the default FOV or the zoom level in convos. I know why they do it, for performance reasons, but it's just insane. I get sort of sea sick with such confined FOV/zoom. I don't like being that close to people in real life. The zoom animation also makes be a bit queasy, esp. when you start far away from the NPC...


Edit:

I'm going to see if I can't find an FOV/fDLGFocus that tricks the game into zooming out correctly. My first guess is a number exactly double the original setting (2.1 > 4.2) ... That way I can suggest these settings.

It also really doesn't do the Bokeh shader justice to zoom in so close, you get to see more of the background with a higher fDLGFocus.

... It seems that it's ONLY the FOV setting that makes the camera jump. Probably nothing to be done about that. Oh well. The zoom out animation works fine without any FOV changes.

Bow drawing DoF would be good, period. Wrinklyninja said he'd add it to his list of mods to make.

Let me make a request: Wrinklyninja, if you could write the shader, I'll write the ESP. How's that sound?

Read the past few pages. I've already done it. I wasn't around when Wrinklyninja said this, but he apparently let me do the work. =p

What Depth of Field mod is used in that video, jonwd7? Is that a WIP? I'd like to get my hands on that. That is good stuff.

Oh okay. I went back and read the posts. That is great news. Can't wait until that is released, and the Dynamic Depth of Field.

EDIT:

Sorry about the double post.

DDoF is all I'm doing, the shader in the conversations is Tomerk's work.

Oh okay. Either way, this is good stuff. How is the Dynamic DoF coming? I watched the videos; looks great.

That looks good - the FOV thing is probably something that would need to be taken account of in the shader, like how vtastek does in his Godrays shader. I don't know specifics though. Looks like I'll have to try a different fDLGFocus setting, to see how it feels.


Well, I'm not going to stand in the way of anyone who wants to do stuff that I was planning to do at some point. It's a lot faster that way too.

I have implemented a short fade, but it must require more than what you've suggested. I have even expanded it to change "R" (max blur radius) which helped, but there is still an immediate blur, and then the hexagons enlarge and become more visible.

Unless it's not a variable, I don't know which of the remaining variables to attempt changing. Do you think you know which one(s) so that I don't go crazy trying each and every one? I assume I don't want to change "fr", and I don't know what "fp" and "fpa" mean by their comments.

...

Otherwise, I have another issue entirely. Since the plugin currently doesn't know to fade away the DoF until the end-convo anim is complete, and by some manner in which Oblivion changes the focus, focal length, etc in the process, there is still a visible hitch during the transition. As the camera pulls away, the hexagons stay more or less the same size, meaning they appear to get larger in comparison to the NPC. But then once the animation is finished, the hexagons halve, approximately, and then the DoF fades out. (Edit: I think it was you who said maybe the game does some change to the depth buffer or something between GameMode and MenuMode)

I was thinking I could preempt this by starting the fade when the player clicks the X button in the dialog menu. Does anybody know if this click is detectable? I've been looking through function documentation and can't find anything.

The only two variables that should matter for this are base_blur_radius and R. I still suggest what I suggested before, except:
Rather than a linear function to increase base_blur_radius, try a nonlinear one, such as a quadratic. That way it would blur less immediately at first, but then it would smoothly and quickly increase in blur from there.

edit: actually, it might be a better idea to not change base_blur_radius and then non-linearly increase R from 0 to 16, as that has more consistent results in different situations.

Yeah, that must be it, even though it's starting out a measly 0.05 base_blur_radius and an R of 0.5333. But the immediate blur is VERY blurry already... What I was alluding to about there maybe not being a variable for it is that in the non-focused regions maybe the shader applies a constant blur or something, and then what you modify is just the size of the hexagons... But I assume you already know this to not be the issue.

I'll see if something non-linear helps.

When I set my R to 0.5333, no matter what base_blur_radius is, I have to look extremely carefully to be able to notice any blur. It could be that you're noticing the jump from there to whatever your next blurring variable is.

No, just me being stupid. I thought for a few minutes, and then checked what my "Do once" variables were for the two. I had accidentally filled in the max, and not the min of each.

It works fine now, and seamlessly.

New video?

Yeah, once I think it's at the right speed. I think maybe it's a bit too slow, well, I like the slowness at the start of the convo, but not at the end. Maybe two different fades is best.

Also, I've noticed working in the "ultra zoom" default of 2.1 for fDlgFocus, the SSAO on their hair is very apparent... causing black outlines where their hair alpha has already made their hair transparent. And besides that the transparent part of their hair doesn't get blurred to match the background, but nothing to do about that I suppose. I remember DoF being particularly bad in Dragon Age Origins, with grass/plant alpha...

Yeah, transparent objects cause issues with any shaders that use depth buffers. Nothing can be done in this case except recommending people change fDlgFocus to make it less noticable.

Anything to be done about the SSAO problem though, I wonder? I could technically incorporate a fix into this if one of the values could be lowered to make the dark outline on their hair disappear... It really compounds the issue with DoF, too, like it's drawing a dark line around the problem area.

I would only support two or three of the SSAO shaders at most though... Having to do all the checking if they're enabled and the different values would be hell.

Now that I just brought up changing SSAO values, now my mind is wandering... Foggy weather/ underwater fixes coming from me next?

I'd have to look into if it's possible... I assume weather detection is simple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QwhG5zDuyE ... It's short (1080p files are huuuge) but I did several takes and picked the best one. Thoughts?