Amazingly Realistic Immersion Mod

Slowfiddler · Apr 9, 2020

Psychomorph said:
Is there a chance to also remove the star dust from Super Cruise?

Yes, that option is just below the supercruise dust option.

Old Duck · Apr 9, 2020

I've been working on a performance mod to help with the framerate issues I have in VR when doing core mining. It's just some extra filters added to the .ini file, with a constant to turn all these performance-specific filters on and off in one place. I should finish it this weekend and will post an update in the thread.

Old Duck · Apr 9, 2020

nuttyboy said:
Some great modes there, tried most and kept most, however still do not seem to be able to remove the fog/milk in asteroid belts like Borann A2 etc, tried the hash you listed but its still there.

There are some issues with this, and I'm just going to remove it in the future. I personally like the fog in the rings (it nicely hides LOD issues), so I'll leave it to someone else to tinker with.

Psychomorph · Apr 9, 2020

Slowfiddler said:
Yes, that option is just below the supercruise dust option.

Are you sure about that? All I see is removing the comet trails and smoke option for super cruise, but not the space dust (or "snow" as it is called in the .ini for normal flight).

Also I said star dust in my post, but meant space dust.

Slowfiddler · Apr 9, 2020

Code:

; Remove the particles that move past the ship when in normal flight
[ShaderOverrideSnow]
Hash=06b5574cbb67cb5c
Handling=skip

; Turn off Supercruise "dust"
[ShaderOverrideWarp]
Hash=13c7cd6955a2b95e
Handling=skip

Monkey Pants · Apr 10, 2020

Thanks Old Duck for moving this mod forward - great addition

I have been hunting the pixel shaders and have some extra hashes to add - test at your own risk

1. 4835e73a2f5d3f63 - This turns off the lighting around crew stations in the cockpit (it also turns off many lights externally on the ship & at star ports).

If you use this with the cockpit light hash (8330ab10a104d1b1) not only is the whole cockpit virtually unit by internal lights, but you also lose (IMHO) most of the unnecessary lights at stations - extremely moody!

2. abcb5cfb5b1d8b7d - Removes the vertical pulsing height lines on the radar display.

3. af442f80671a4878 - Removes pulsing discs on your current plane of radar display (at the end of the vertical pulsing height lines).

4. ba58bc885c2dac25 - Removes the circular lines on radar display: definitely a less cluttered view.

Off to hunt some more

MP

Slowfiddler · Apr 10, 2020

Monkey Pants said:
Off to hunt some more

Nice one. Someone on this thread asked about getting rid of the clouds in the hyperspace loading screen to make it more Star Trekky.

Old Duck · Apr 10, 2020

Slowfiddler said:
Nice one. Someone on this thread asked about getting rid of the clouds in the hyperspace loading screen to make it more Star Trekky.

That's a tough one, because you have to cycle through close to 100 shaders, which requires a lot of jumps unless you get lucky and find the right one straight away.

aXeL · Apr 10, 2020

Old Duck said:
There are some issues with this, and I'm just going to remove it in the future. I personally like the fog in the rings (it nicely hides LOD issues), so I'll leave it to someone else to tinker with.

Don't you back away now. 'I have a special set of skhills and Oi whill foind yeou'

Staarlord · Apr 10, 2020

Old Duck said:
First off, I need to give credit to CMDR AD for his initial work in this field, as detailed in his original thread located here. He is the giant whose shoulders I stand upon. Continuing his work, I have further modded Elite Dangerous to provide the following changes:

BLACK Space - That's right, space is now BLACK. The clouds of interstellar dust have been removed. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how realistic you want space to mirror the night sky you see IRL, this also removes the galactic core and the few distant galaxies normally visible. All stars, however, are clearly visible. If you normally operate in the Bubble, you may appreciate the black and realistic night sky over the default. If you're an explorer, you may wish to disable this particular option. See the thread below for screenshots (in particular post #16).

BLACK Shadows (TOGGLE) - A perfect complement to the black sky is black shadows. This modification removes ambient light from space, making the dark side of objects (stations, outposts, ships, landable planets) black as night. This is more realistic to how shadows look in the empty void of space when there are no sources of reflected light like planetshine. Don't worry, it looks better than I make it sound. Think of is as HDR Mode. This feature is can be turned on and off with the F3 key.

No External HUD Elements (TOGGLE)- All circles and labels around planets and ships are disabled, making it feel like you're looking outside a simple glass window. I find this much more immersive, but it also adds a challenge as you'll need to use your cockpit HUD (radar, compass, etc) to navigate. It will also make combat much more challenging without the targeting reticles. Not for the faint of heart, but for those desiring an immersive world outside your spaceship along with the challenge of IFR flight, this mod is for you! Also disabled is the blue "TRON" glow around mapped planets along with the bright, crazy "comet trails" for ships in Supercruise. Toggle with F1 key.

Turn Off Cockpit Lights (TOGGLE) - If you want a dark cockpit, or you are annoyed by those flashing red lights, you can now turn these lights off. The side effect is that some station lights will also turn off, so I recommend this for miners and explorers. Toggle with F2 key.

Cleaner HUD - Normally our instrument HUD and side-panels have a "drop shadow" behind them, which this mod removes. The result is a cleaner look that doesn't block your view, but it may be harder to read the side panels in certain bright locations. I've also removed those lines that do nothing but clutter the view.

Space Snow Removed - The "snow" in space and the blizzards over planets have been removed. However I have retained the "flying warp stars" effect in Supercruise. Like all modifications, you can turn off this mod to keep the "space snow" in the game if you depend on it for your vectors.

Cockpit Smoke Removed - No more fires in the cockpit when your ship is only at 80% heat. This also removes smoke in certain places inside the stations, but not others. For example, humidity still can be seen coming from overhead vents, but the mailslot is no longer boiling with smoke.

The way this mod works is that it intercepts calls to Windows graphics subsystem, allowing certain pixel shaders to be turned off. It does not replace or change any of ED's files, rather it adds some new files which ED will use when present. AFAIK this is in accordance with Frontier's EULA, as it's not changing the game files in any way, nor does it allow or promote cheating in any way that I can imagine. If anything, it makes the game HARDER to play, but in a way us realism nuts will enjoy.

The program you need is called 3Dmigoto. Click the name to download the file (version 1.3.16). Extract the file and then copy the CONTENTS of the x64 directory to your elite-dangerous-64 directory (in my case this is found at D:\Steam\steamapps\common\Elite Dangerous\Products\elite-dangerous-64). Next you need to download the d3dx.txt I've attached to this post, rename it to d3dx.ini, and save it to the elite-dangerous-64 directory, replacing the one that comes with 3Dmigoto. That should do the trick! To disable any particular modification, just insert a semicolon ( ; ) in front of the 3 lines of code for that specific mod, thus commenting it out and turning it off.

I highly recommend setting PrototypeLightingBalancesEnabled to 0 and StarInstanceCount to 10000 in your GraphicsConfiguration.xml file (or add these entries to your override file) to compliment this mod.

DISCLAIMER - Whatever you do, you do of your own accord. If your computer catches fire and your Arx disappear and Stigbob knocks on your door demanding cookies, I am not responsible! Blame TJ, or better yet, don't blame anyone. AFAIK there is no risk, but a prudent person would research all of this before installing "alien" software on his/her computer.

NOTE - If you want things like haze in stations removed, see CMDR AD's original mod as linked above. You can copy-n-paste settings from his .ini file to mine to remove haze, "warp stars", etc. Speaking of removing haze, it looks a lot better IMO to remove haze using the game's built-in settings (effects) than this mod.

It's too bad they don't do one for sound. Muffle the external sounds to sort of add to the cockpit ambiance, get rid of the thunderous clash and crackling that is an atmospheric jet fighter sound and only keep the initial interior engine sound/ hum and the initial bass from boosting. There doesn't need to be a thunderous roar. It's space.

Monkey Pants · Apr 10, 2020

Slowfiddler said:
Nice one. Someone on this thread asked about getting rid of the clouds in the hyperspace loading screen to make it more Star Trekky.

Try this - takes all clouds from Hyperspace

Don't know if it changes something else

Code:

[ShaderOverrideHyperspaceCloudsA]
Hash=7e6f3dfd1d817968
Handling=skip

[ShaderOverrideHyperspaceCloudsB]
Hash=c8ae482fdce58501
Handling=skip

[ShaderOverrideHyperspaceCloudsC]
Hash=3353041a15157f6b
Handling=skip

Can't decide if I like it - like fast supercruise I suppose

MP

Old Duck · Apr 10, 2020

Monkey Pants said:
Off to hunt some more

If you can get rid of the SUPERCRUISE ASSIST ACTIVE message that sits right in my face all the time, that sure would be swell. I tried, but to no avail.

Monkey Pants · Apr 10, 2020

Old Duck said:
If you can get rid of the SUPERCRUISE ASSIST ACTIVE message that sits right in my face all the time, that sure would be swell. I tried, but to no avail.

Looked at those, but they share the same shaders as many other parts of the HUD:

Triangle symbol sits with other symbols, text with other text etc

Maybe turn the HUD off and guess the 6 second mark with the audio? i have been trying that but I'm not very good at it.

MP

Monkey Pants · Apr 10, 2020

Esper9 said:
This mod is gorgeous!

Is it possible to remove the colored clouds/nebulae from hyperspace? Jumping between systems? If it left the stars, it would look a lot more like Star Trek/Star Wars. I would pay dearly for this.

Apologies if this came up already in this super-long thread.

Please see Post #258

MP

Psychomorph · Apr 11, 2020

Slowfiddler said:
Code:

; Turn off Supercruise "dust" [ShaderOverrideWarp] Hash=13c7cd6955a2b95e Handling=skip

Thanks!

It is so much more immersive to drift through space without these artificial things.

Monkey Pants said:
Try this - takes all clouds from Hyperspace

Don't know if it changes something else

Code:

[ShaderOverrideHyperspaceCloudsA] Hash=7e6f3dfd1d817968 Handling=skip [ShaderOverrideHyperspaceCloudsB] Hash=c8ae482fdce58501 Handling=skip [ShaderOverrideHyperspaceCloudsC] Hash=3353041a15157f6b Handling=skip

Can't decide if I like it - like fast supercruise I suppose

MP

Good job. I prefer it much more without all the clouds.

Psychomorph · Apr 11, 2020

All the mods make Elite Dangerous so much more immersive to play. All these past years I wished I could do those tweaks and adjustments.

Regarding removing the HUD targets and markers. It is so much better to approach stations without the markers, legitimate space sim. However, it also removes the window smear effect. I guess this option basically removes the glass from the canopy. Is there no way around this?

I wonder, if there's a way to also make changes to the sound effects. I'd very much like to remove the "space sounds". Means ships flying by, the space background ambient sound, etc. I'd still like to hear the comm audio, of course, and space station sounds when docked (landing pad engine sounds, because sound transferred through the hull).

One can dream.

Psychomorph · Apr 11, 2020

Monkey Pants said:
Try this - takes all clouds from Hyperspace

Don't know if it changes something else

Code:

[ShaderOverrideHyperspaceCloudsA] Hash=7e6f3dfd1d817968 Handling=skip [ShaderOverrideHyperspaceCloudsB] Hash=c8ae482fdce58501 Handling=skip [ShaderOverrideHyperspaceCloudsC] Hash=3353041a15157f6b Handling=skip

Can't decide if I like it - like fast supercruise I suppose

MP

It does work, but upon launching ED I receive an error message with a loud bleep sound before it. Message says:
WARNING: Duplicate non-command list key found in d3dx.ini [ShaderOverrideHyperspaceCloudsC] hash

Message is displayed three times in red on a black screen. If I delete the C, same appears but with B and then A. After it game launches normal and as said, no clouds in Hyperspace.

Azorath · Apr 11, 2020

There was a message I was about to quote but it dissapeared lol

Is there a way to remove the glass effect without removing the whole HUD elements? I mean the one annoying dirty glass effects when you see espicially near a sun.

Psychomorph · Apr 11, 2020

It is funny how someone wants to remove the annoying dirty glass effects, keeping the HUD, while I just wish for the opposite.

I think Stations should offer a canopy cleaning service beside re-fuelling, repainting and rearming.

I have to repeat myself, but I enjoy the game so much more now. Approaching stations in Supercruise by using the navigation screen, or in normal space by observing the distance in the target panel, having a clean view on space and objects. It's what I always wanted and never thought to actually see in ED.

Having a clean view outside the canopy and no artificial effects such as space dust kind of aids to focus more on what you see and develop a better feel for actual speed relative to target, etc.
I play Assist Off and the game feels almost like Rogue System. What a great mod.

Psychomorph · Apr 11, 2020

Monkey Pants said:
2. abcb5cfb5b1d8b7d - Removes the vertical pulsing height lines on the radar display.

3. af442f80671a4878 - Removes pulsing discs on your current plane of radar display (at the end of the vertical pulsing height lines).

4. ba58bc885c2dac25 - Removes the circular lines on radar display: definitely a less cluttered view.

I like less dashboard "clutter". Can you write this fully? I inserted those in the same fashion as the other commands but there was no effect I think.

Also if it would be possible to remove the circles below the ship/target holo-icon. I think it looks much better and almost realistic when you have just the ship/target holo-model hovering above the physical dashboard panel. Or do you mean "4. ... Removes the circular lines on radar display" is meant to do just that?