The view distance is allready maxed out in the ingame-settings... :/

3.8.2 uses alpha-to-coverage to render distant land, while MGE XE uses alpha testing. Alpha-to-coverage dithers alpha into the multisample buffer, so there is some transparency without the hit of alpha blending. It doesn't look smooth until 8x MSAA, and the dithering pattern is pretty obvious at lower AA. Alpha test just clips at a certain alpha, also avoiding blending but clipping some of the more transparent parts away. There's a clipping threshold in the code somewhere. Blending is very slow because it involves twice the memory transfers on the GPU, and a distance sort for every visible alpha mesh on the CPU. I just find the dithering more objectionable at the moment, it can certainly be an option later.



The stock knx_SSAO_v09 is pretty exaggerated (2x darkening by default), while SSAO Fast is a downscaled version. SSAO HQ is the one most directly based on knx_SSAO_v09, try that one. Tell me if the AO in HQ and Fast are comparable, if not then I'll have to revise it.



I have a Git repo, I'll see about securing it properly before I open a port for it. Normal mapping is all but impossible to do properly, meshes need tangent frames included to resolve the normals. There's already pseudo bump mapping in the engine, and that's what people are making mods for.



MGE XE doesn't draw grass onto distant land like 3.8.2 does. Grass is slow to draw, and as long as you're on ground level it doesn't matter too much. It could do with better distance fading I suppose.

I've installed this and I must say the shadows are nice.

Performance wise, its better inside than Phal's 186 by 10fps on my system! Outside, sadly, its the same 12fps everywhere. I'm going to have to figure out why my Dual Core E6600 system struggles with the game with Distant Land so much. I suspect the 8600 GTS is the culprit, but I thought the card was holding up decently until I played the 9 year old Morrowind with all the bells and whistles (hah).

As for bugs, I've got a strange one. With MGE XE, the boat for Siege at Firemoth that is docked in Seyda is missing....but the shadows for it are on the water. I can swim/water walk through where the boat is supposed to be. I'll back it out to 176 to verify its nothing else, but I haven't done anything other than the XE swap in several days.

Thank you for the insight. I need compatible trees!


Ah, perhaps it is exaggerated, but I think it looks MUCH better TBH. Perhaps not realistic, but it helps shave off some age on the game's poor shadowing and models.
MGE: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/18343209/vlcsnap-2011-01-09-19h28m15s14.png
MGE XE: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/18343209/vlcsnap-2011-01-09-19h26m46s120.png

I suppose I can go and try reversing the changes making it too subtle.

This brings me to my last question: It doesn't appear that Mipmap LOD bias is working in that MGE XE screenshot (I have the video). It's set to -10 in both, and very noticeable in MGE. MGE XE looks like it's still using a -1 hardcode.


Alright thanks! GitHub would be pretty easy and effective.

These just give me a 302 Found redirect that doesn't go anywhere. Try setting the multiplier in SSAO Fast to 3.0.


Mip bias is capped at +- 2, same as in the UI.

Sorry about that. Links fixed.

Ah, missed that. It's not really capped at -2/+2 though, correct? It's just the values you chose to enforce? -12 has it's merits, I think, but it does get a little tough on the eyes Videos (machinima anyone?), in particular, look a lot better at -12 than -2 or -1.

as you are reworking the water atm, you think its possible to add caustics to interior water at least where some candles stand near by?
besides from that i collected some issues that i noticed and took some screens:

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/484/brightness.jpg - some heavy brightness that kicks in at some time when jumping very high
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/4592/lineq.jpg - a horizontal line on water surface which moves with the view
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/9792/sunreflect.jpg - something that even oblivion is doing wrong, might be impossible?
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/2199/swampflicker.jpg - the normal water is flickering through the swamp water at some angles

Caustics can't know about any light sources, the information isn't available. The game usually has 20+ light sources at a given scene anyway, that would be the slowest thing.


1. The game turns off lighting information once everything it could ever draw is out of view, so the brightness is off.
2. Far water doesn't have refraction to save it from rendering after everything else in distant land. Not sure what I can do with that.
3. It just needs to take the shadow map into account, though it would slow water rendering even more.
4. The distant land meshes have limited accuracy, that's why it's interfering. If you move the mesh up in NifSkope a few units it should look better.
Mostly these are because MGE XE isn't designed as a flight sim.

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