Inspired by the improved water shaders given to Neverwinter Nights for it's enhanced edition, I've went and worked to give new life to the water shaders within Star Wars Galaxies.
One of the most glaring issues with water in SWG is that it would seem the water is not affected by the light of its environment. It utilized the cube map of the area to give off some color and reflection, but no matter what time of day it was, the color of the water was roughly the same. The usage of one normal map overlayed twice on itself also made the water seem very flat and still.
This new shader adds a second normal map to the layers, and replaces the original shader with a higher resolution normal map. The shader now takes into account the light of the sun when calculating the specular highlights of the water, which allows the water to reflect the sunlight's color accurately throughout the day. A larger normal map creates a larger swelling of the water to better simulate moving water over a larger distance.
NOTES:
Every planet has different water shaders. I've tried to go through and cover every planet possible, with the one exception of Lok, as its sulfuric water demands special treatment. There may be certain areas I did miss, and this might not work with all custom planets available out there today.
Additionally, the larger wave shader might not look the most optimal in all circumstances, primarily because it cannot move to detect shores or river directions. This is only really noticeable if you were to look down from a great height, or in very small canals like the rivers in Theed and Keren.
REQUIREMENTS:
This mod will need you to run your client on the optimal shader setting, also known as 2.0. This can be changed by going into your SWGEmu folder and clicking on "SWGEmu_Setup.exe," going to the "Graphics" tab, and selecting "Optimal" or "2.0 (override)" on the dropdown labled Vertex/Pixel Shader Version.
INSTALLATION:
Drag and drop the folders inside "Borrie's New Water Shader" folder into your SWGEmu base folder. This is the folder that contains your SWGEmu.exe.
CREDITS:
Borrie BoBaka
Sytner, for his tool that allows shaders to be recompiled.
REDISTRIBUTION:
You are free to redistribute these files into your own TREs for your server, though I always caution against server owners from forcing their players to utilize mods. You don't need to credit me, but it is greatly appreciated if you do!
One of the most glaring issues with water in SWG is that it would seem the water is not affected by the light of its environment. It utilized the cube map of the area to give off some color and reflection, but no matter what time of day it was, the color of the water was roughly the same. The usage of one normal map overlayed twice on itself also made the water seem very flat and still.
This new shader adds a second normal map to the layers, and replaces the original shader with a higher resolution normal map. The shader now takes into account the light of the sun when calculating the specular highlights of the water, which allows the water to reflect the sunlight's color accurately throughout the day. A larger normal map creates a larger swelling of the water to better simulate moving water over a larger distance.
NOTES:
Every planet has different water shaders. I've tried to go through and cover every planet possible, with the one exception of Lok, as its sulfuric water demands special treatment. There may be certain areas I did miss, and this might not work with all custom planets available out there today.
Additionally, the larger wave shader might not look the most optimal in all circumstances, primarily because it cannot move to detect shores or river directions. This is only really noticeable if you were to look down from a great height, or in very small canals like the rivers in Theed and Keren.
REQUIREMENTS:
This mod will need you to run your client on the optimal shader setting, also known as 2.0. This can be changed by going into your SWGEmu folder and clicking on "SWGEmu_Setup.exe," going to the "Graphics" tab, and selecting "Optimal" or "2.0 (override)" on the dropdown labled Vertex/Pixel Shader Version.
INSTALLATION:
Drag and drop the folders inside "Borrie's New Water Shader" folder into your SWGEmu base folder. This is the folder that contains your SWGEmu.exe.
CREDITS:
Borrie BoBaka
Sytner, for his tool that allows shaders to be recompiled.
REDISTRIBUTION:
You are free to redistribute these files into your own TREs for your server, though I always caution against server owners from forcing their players to utilize mods. You don't need to credit me, but it is greatly appreciated if you do!
