[MOD] Distant Terrain

[Nystul]

it is clearer when the location is nearer but it starts too look weird when upping the brightness.

[DigitalMonk]

Weird at a distance, or weird up close? If it's just a concern about "weird up close", maybe the brightness boost could fade towards nothing as the location gets within one load-cell-radius (which is not the same as asking how many cells away it is, because that would be a very stair-stepped function). Then the distant brightness boost could be higher to grab your attention, while fading to normal as you get close enough to find it on your own. This does start getting complicated, I realize, because you'd also want a maximum brightness at some distance, and then does it fade linearly with distance or quadratically? I understand not wanting to get to hung up on this, though I do really like the idea of seeing locations at a distance. (When I'm feeling brave, I travel at night to get a similar effect from seeing street lights in the distance, but that doesn't help with non-town locations)

I think that I saw the highlighted location in that image, but phew... very, very subtle

[Nystul]

unnatural/unrealistic i guess is the best description. It stands out way too much and the intention was that one needs to be vigilant to make the locations out.

[mikeprichard]

Oh, I assumed it was an option because it was understood it wasn't truly realistic in any case, but it's your mod and your decision!

[Nystul]

Oh, I assumed it was an option because it was understood it wasn't truly realistic in any case, but it's your mod and your decision!

yeah, you are right. Even as an option I wanted it to look subtle so it does not break immersion more than necessary.
I decided against customization options because of performance reasons - I wanted to prevent more shader variables since the shader is already heavy

[brofin]

This is probably been asked a million times, but what's really the difference between Distant Terrain and the Mountains and Hills mod?

Or perhaps a better thing to ask is, which do you prefer and why?

[haloterm]

Or perhaps a better thing to ask is, which do you prefer and why?

I prefer Distant Terrain, because it is the only way to have the Iliac Bay with the correct heights and shapes. It gives Daggerfall's otherwise generic landscape meaning. It creates "places" in the vast "spaces".

Mountains and Hills makes the terrain just hilly, but it still looks the same everywhere.

To see the difference, wander a bit around. In my "Black Horse Courier" quest mod, I have -- I think -- two or three route descriptions which you can follow.

[mikeprichard]

Distant Terrain is the only mod I'll ever use for this purpose myself, for the reasons given just above. (Not to disrespect any other mod - choice is what's so great about the modding community DFU has opened up for us!)

[brofin]

Thanks, that's exactly what I needed to hear!

[brofin]

Or perhaps a better thing to ask is, which do you prefer and why?

I prefer Distant Terrain, because it is the only way to have the Iliac Bay with the correct heights and shapes. It gives Daggerfall's otherwise generic landscape meaning. It creates "places" in the vast "spaces".

Mountains and Hills makes the terrain just hilly, but it still looks the same everywhere.

To see the difference, wander a bit around. In my "Black Horse Courier" quest mod, I have -- I think -- two or three route descriptions which you can follow.

Thanks.
Is the Eye of Argonia program still relevant?