Glass reflections

Thinking that ED spends valuable resources on producing these useless and counterproductive effects almost makes me angry. ED, focus on the essentials!

Rolled back to stable version, only because of this "reflections". In VR they look stupid, when you move your head and they stay - looks so cheap. All knobs and switches look cool though.

The main texture that should be edited to remove the baked reflections should be:

ka50_cpt_glass_alb.dds

Located in the …\DCS World\Mods\aircraft\Ka-50\Cockpit\Textures\Cockpit-Ka-50_3_Textures.zip

- keep the alpha layer/transparency data

- select and fill the glass surfaces with a dark grey/black to remove the main baked reflections

- optionally use the alpha layer as a mask/selection to add a slightly lighter grey to maintain some fake opacity/dirt

- save it under …\DCS World\Mods\aircraft\Ka-50\Liveries\Cockpit-Ka-50_3\no_baked_ref

- if you're using the EN cockpit, you'll have to copy the files from …\DCS World\Mods\aircraft\Ka-50\Liveries\Cockpit-Ka-50_3\english in your no_baked_ref folder (alternate cockpit)

The labels for the reflections are in Russian ;)

And you should obtain an alternate cockpit available in the options without altering the default cockpit.

Baked reflections, gone.

GIMP and paint.net won't open it properly for me. Any chance you could do the alterations and upload a new file and i'll create a OVGME mod.

Thinking that ED spends valuable resources on producing these useless and counterproductive effects almost makes me angry. ED, focus on the essentials!

Well, they were trying to impress us. But it backfired. Please ED, do a hot fix to give us a choice of reflections or no.

GIMP and paint.net won't open it properly for me. Any chance you could do the alterations and upload a new file and i'll create a OVGME mod.

I've quickly edited an alternate texture but it's been a while since I modified DCS files, so I have no idea where to find the default description.lua entries.

Edited texture: https://file.io/BG4H2f

Preview:

I only have this:

livery = {
{"ka50_cpt_shkval"	,	SELF_ILLUMINATION	,	"ccSHKVAL_Bake_SRC" , true};
{"mir"				,	DIFFUSE				,	"mirrors"			, true};

{"ka50_cpt_glass",	DIFFUSE				,	"ka50_cpt_glass_alb_NREF", false};
}

The description.lua has to be included in the alternate cockpit folder.

(…DCS World\Mods\aircraft\Ka-50\Liveries\Cockpit-Ka-50_3\no_baked_ref)

The texture is not applied to the Shkval monitor, HUD and additional side armored glass panels.

I don't know where to find the description.lua entries for these.

If you know where to find the complete default description.lua, please let me know.

I don't have time to test the texture so it might require some tweaking to look best in different lighting conditions (I've just left some tint and surface texture/dirt - might be too subtle).

But the crisp baked reflections are gone.

----

FWIW I don't see anything wrong with those default baked reflections.

ED art team probably find it visually interesting in general. They might not have tested the rendering in VR and/or headtracking and they might consider it does not represent the majority of the player base.

Those reflections have existed for a long time in multiple aircraft (at least since FC3). I'm sure the goal was to add some immersion despite the fact that it doesn't work well with head movement tracking and stereoscopy.

That new cockpit has a fantastic level of details! I'm grateful we have the chance to enjoy such a neat rendition of the real Ka-50 ;)

Happy flying and tank pounding!

I've got the file opened but it looks completly different.

That's the alpha layer.

What software are you using to view the texture?

From my short test, it looks ok in DCS (except for the parts where it's not applied).

----

Here's how it looks with the cockpit light ON:

Again, it should leave some texture and surface effect on the glass but it needs more testing (and those missing description.lua entries).

I don't have the time to tweak the transparency/dirt atm.

Also, ED could probably use the SSLR on the glass surfaces but they probably didn't do it because it might not look great with the current implementation, there might be performance concerns, and it has to be defined in the material properties (.edm model, probably).

But it might be possible to get them in the future.

That's using Paint.net. Looks like it can't separate the layers and only shows the alpha layer. GIMP doesn't want to open dds files.

[EDITED: default description.lua IS available]

The description.lua can be generated from the ModelViewer2!

Thanks to soup, for that invaluable info!

Thanks to users Asta, Flt. Lt Nigel Farage and soup from the DCS Modding Hub Discord server, the baked reflections can be history.

Here's the description.lua you need:

livery = {
{"ka50_cpt_shkval"	,	SELF_ILLUMINATION	,	"ccSHKVAL_Bake_SRC" , true};
{"mir"				,	DIFFUSE				,	"mirrors"			, true};

{"ka50_cpt_glass",	DIFFUSE					,	"ka50_cpt_glass_alb_NREF", false};
{"ka50_cpt_glass_pribors",	DIFFUSE			,	"ka50_cpt_glass_alb_NREF", false};
}

Here's two variants, easy to install.

>>> Russian version, no baked reflections <<<

How to use:

• extract the folder into:
  …\DCS World\Mods\aircraft\Ka-50\Liveries\Cockpit-Ka-50_3
  
• use by selecting the No_ref_RU from the drop-down menu in Options\Special\Ka-50\Customized cockpit
  

>>> English version, no baked reflections <<<

How to use:

• extract the folder into:
  …\DCS World\Mods\aircraft\Ka-50\Liveries\Cockpit-Ka-50_3
  
• use by selecting the No_ref_EN from the drop-down menu in Options\Special\Ka-50\Customized cockpit
  

(thanks to ams999 for the updated description.lua)

Please keep in mind that's a quick modification. The glass texture replacement could be better and hopefully ED will provide a similar option in a future update.

За здоро́вье!

:thumbup:

Thanks! I'll try it out later.

Now if someone can just tape a FLIR camera to the front of the shkval...

Already downloading beta version again. Thank you guys! Ur da best!

Here's two variants, easy to install.

 

>>> Russian version, no baked reflections <<<

 

How to use:

• extract the folder into:
  …\DCS World\Mods\aircraft\Ka-50\Liveries\Cockpit-Ka-50_3
  
• use by selecting the No_ref_RU from the drop-down menu in Options\Special\Ka-50\Customized cockpit
  

 

 

>>> English version, no baked reflections <<<

 

How to use:

• extract the folder into:
  …\DCS World\Mods\aircraft\Ka-50\Liveries\Cockpit-Ka-50_3
  
• copy the textures (*.dds) from:
  …\DCS World\Mods\aircraft\Ka-50\Liveries\Cockpit-Ka-50_3\english
  into the \no_ref_EN folder
  
• use by selecting the No_ref_EN from the drop-down menu in Options\Special\Ka-50\Customized cockpit
  

 

Please keep in mind that's a quick modification. The glass texture replacement could be better and hopefully ED will provide a similar option in a future update.

 

За здоро́вье!

You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

Good work thanks. What editing software did you use?

With GIMP you'd have to install the dds plugin first.

I used Photoshop (also requires a dds plugin).

I'm glad that quick tweak can be useful.

What's important is enjoying the Ka-50 ;)

Thank you for this mod!

Hope you don't mind that I modified the description.lua a bit - this way it isn't necessary to copy the textures from the English cockpit and your English mod can be used the same way as your Russian mod.

Feel free to use it if you'd like.

Much better! Thanks!

I totally forgot we could use those paths ;)

File updated.

Great work on removing the reflections... however it is now pretty hard to see any contrast on the SHKVAL?

Since this thread is brought back from the dead...

Does it break IC?

not that i have seen

Great work on removing the reflections... however it is now pretty hard to see any contrast on the SHKVAL?

Yes, the loss of contrast on Shkval was too much. Below is how I fixed the contrast issue.

Line 2 of description.lua provided by Bourrinopathe

{"ka50_cpt_shkval" , SELF_ILLUMINATION , "ccSHKVAL_Bake_SRC" , true};

Change to the one from default description.lua:

{"ka50_cpt_shkval_Additive", DIFFUSE , "ccSHKVAL_Bake_SRC", true};

Seems to have fixed the contrast issue while keeping the reflection fix. Have not tested at night however.

Yes, the loss of contrast on Shkval was too much. Below is how I fixed the contrast issue.

 

Line 2 of description.lua provided by Bourrinopathe

 

 

 

Change to the one from default description.lua:

 

 

 

Seems to have fixed the contrast issue while keeping the reflection fix. Have not tested at night however.

Cheers, that fixed it on my end as well. Makes the Shkval actually useable again.