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Inaeo said:
Night vision helps, as does Aqua Affinity on your helmet, I think. The upside is anyone without that completely passes over without knowing you're there (which I always thought was the point of hidden bases).
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Aqua Affinity doesn't help all that much with visibility - helps plenty with moving the Jackolanterns and Magma blocks, though, which I use for temporary and semi-permanent markers. I think that both Water Breathing and Night Vision help with visibility, but I am woefully short of Blaze drops at the moment, so no brewing for me.
 
I tried the SkyFactory3 speedrun map but I don't know what I'm supposed to do first. Just tell me the very first thing I should do and maybe that will get me started? The best time so far is 34 minutes to complete the map. I'd probably guess that I won't be able to compete it in 34 HOURS, but I guess I'll try it. I like the concept of a speed run, but I'm just not very speedy, I'm more of a tortoise than a hare. LOL
 
xBlizzDevious said:
Looking good. Much bigger a wall than I was expecting; depth-wise, at least. Did it turn out like you were after?

You could actually build a base in that wall. It's big enough!
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That is actually just a test. The real one will be much bigger. It's supposed to be the ice wall from Game of Thrones, so imagine it taller and a lot longer. It's ok to be a bit jagged because it's meant to be viewed from a distance.

As for how it turned out, it turned out better than my wildest imagination.
 
asb3pe said:
I tried the SkyFactory3 speedrun map but I don't know what I'm supposed to do first. Just tell me the very first thing I should do and maybe that will get me started? The best time so far is 34 minutes to complete the map. I'd probably guess that I won't be able to compete it in 34 HOURS, but I guess I'll try it. I like the concept of a speed run, but I'm just not very speedy, I'm more of a tortoise than a hare. LOL
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In my experience with SkyFactory, the first thing you do is cut down the tree, then make wood to make a platform. Then nothing happens and you get confused, so you jump and die a couple of times and quit. I must be really good at it, too, because that only took me 15 minutes. World record!
 
Drbretto said:
That is actually just a test. The real one will be much bigger. It's supposed to be the ice wall from Game of Thrones, so imagine it taller and a lot longer. It's ok to be a bit jagged because it's meant to be viewed from a distance.

As for how it turned out, it turned out better than my wildest imagination.
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Cool. Which shaders are you using in that video and do they run at a playable frame rate?
 
Those are SEUS on the crazy maxest settings. I used to also use some 512 realistic textures but honestly nothing appears to beat chroma hills in practice, even though they're 128x, especially when viewed from a distance.

I CAN configure it to run from 30-45 FPS in real time when I dumb down some of the settings and it can look great, but there are so many things in modded minecraft that can make a PC chug that I ultimately tend to stick with internal shaders when playing, which runs at 32 chunk distance with 128x textures (as many mods as I can find supported as well) at (mostly) solid 90-150 FPS.

Now that I use replaymod for the replays, it makes the decision even easier. I'll play on internal shaders and I'll get to the the completely uncompromised best possible version with the shaders at 60 FPS when I render the videos. There's a few more on my showcase thread if you're interested. Including one that made me laugh because I turned the slaughtering of a couple of sheep into a 300/matrix action shot :p
 
Drbretto said:
In my experience with SkyFactory, the first thing you do is cut down the tree, then make wood to make a platform. Then nothing happens and you get confused, so you jump and die a couple of times and quit. I must be really good at it, too, because that only took me 15 minutes. World record!
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Actually the speedrun map already has a lot of stuff set up and ready to go. I saw a complete BigReactor (or whatever the mod is called now) with diamond blocks for a coolant, except it was missing the Controller block. So obviously the idea is that one of the quests provides you with the controller block, which then provides power for all the other stuff around the large base area.

But yeah, one of the few items you begin with is saplings... so your tree idea is probably right on target... there's even an area with Steve's Cart tracks laid out atop dirt- obviously that must be the tree farm area, so I'll begin there. Thanks. And I'm starting to recall "the drill" - which is to use crooks to get silkworms to turn the leaf blocks to string, so then I can make mesh for the sifter.... Yep, I think you helped me, off to try it out!
 
I was joking :P I tried sky factory 3 once for like 15 minutes and it went exactly as I described, only I didn't start with any saplings and the tree didn't drop any, so I was like, ok, this is not for me, lol.
 
Edit: I just realized there are a whole bunch of videos from people who have completed the challenge that I can go watch to find my answers instead of posting here. LOL So nevermind.

Well thanks to your tip, I was indeed able to make a Mesh, and thus, make the Mesh Sieve, but I don't know how to "turn it in" so I get credit for the first Achievement. Doesn't this Skyfactory Challenge thing come with any instructions? LOL I guess it's a map for "experts only".

And I hear ya about Skyblock modpacks, they're not really my cup of tea either. I prefer to have a nice landscape to view while going about my business. Just my own personal preference, most of my friends LOVE the skyblock stuff. To each their own. :)

But I like the concept of speedrun, because it's a way to practice getting out of my worst habit, which is to be a packrat. LOL Speedrun means you have to learn how to be optimal with your time, and learn how to not hoard items - only get exactly what you need, and no more than that. That's good practice for any modpack, at least for me, because I tend to get bogged down when I play, my progress slows to a crawl, and I lose interest at that point (because I never seem to get anywhere LOL).
 
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Drbretto said:
Those are SEUS on the crazy maxest settings. I used to also use some 512 realistic textures but honestly nothing appears to beat chroma hills in practice, even though they're 128x, specially when viewed from a distance.

I CAN configure it to run from 30-45 FPS in real time when I dumb down some of the settings and it can look great, but there are so many things in modded minecraft that can make a PC chug that I ultimately tend to stick with internal shaders when playing, which runs at 32 chunk distance with 128x textures (as many mods as I can find supported as well) at (mostly) solid 90-150 FPS.

Now that I use replaymod for the replays, it makes the decision even easier. I'll play on internal shaders and I'll get to the the completely uncompromised best possible version with the shaders at 60 FPS when I render the videos. There's a few more on my showcase thread if you're interested. Including one that made me laugh because I turned the slaughtering of a couple of sheep into a 300/matrix action shot :p
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A LOOOOOONG time ago, I used to run 512 textures. Then I started playing modded and mish-mashed my own texture pack together from all of my favourites. Then I started playing FTB packs and got terrible frame rates and gave up with 256 and 512 textures. I settled on Soartex Fanver (at the time was up-to-date in the launcher) and still use that to this day - love it!

Anyways, I tested out a bunch of shaders a few days ago and I think SEUS was my favourite but can't remember for sure since all ran horrible and I deleted them. There are some things I don't like, however, but haven't seen any shaders without them or with an option to disable. Wavy leaves, in particular.

The other reason I discarded shaders was because of odd glitches on modded blocks. OpenComputers screens are mostly unreadable, EnderIO machines have rather odd artefacts all over them and many more things. But you mentioned "as many mods as I can find supported as well". Is this just texture packs you're talking about or are there shader fixes?

I've since moved my world to my server to take some load off of my main PC and I now get better frame rates on 32 chunk render distance than I did on 12 before. If possible, ALWAYS host worlds on a separate machine! I'm nerdy enough to have built my own server that sits on the other end of my desk (mostly desktop components + RAID card and NAS drives). Because of this improved performance, I'd be keen to try out shaders again.
 
A couple things:

When I do the rendering, I could do 1024x textures if the game would let me, it doesn't matter. It renders them at like 1 frame per second over night and automatically makes a 60FPS movie out of them that I upload in the morning. If there was a 512x Chroma Hills, I'd totally use it. Even when playing live I barely notice a difference between any pack 128x and up, except for loading. I stopped using the 512x only because they're so detailed they end up looking like tv static when you're more than 20 blocks or so away. Chroma Hills totally nails it up close and at a distance. It, and SEUS, is the de facto best combination possible at this time, IMO.

But, it doesn't cover mods and that is indeed what I meant. I use soartex fanver and everything sphax has coverage for in the background so I have some HD textures for mods as well. Chroma Hills is only vanilla. It's not to fix the errors with shaders. Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about some of it. It's just how some shaders work. Results can be unpredictable.

I've tested the everloving stuffing out of every shader I could find. SEUS is the winner by such a wide margin that I don't see myself bothering to try any others again. I've doubted that a dozen times and it's won out every single time. The good news is, it's fully configurable now, directly in the shaders screen built into the latest version of optifine. These options can drastically increase performance by disabling a few unnecessary things, and can even help fix SOME of the artifacts that you get when you're using shaders with something that doesn't like them. I doubt it would fix the computer screens, and it doesn't fix a few other things that I've noticed, but I did used to get some blank textures on my storage drawers icons once and I fixed that by disabling global illumination.

So, they're worth poking into at this point. You'll still need a decent rig, but it can be playable if you configure it right and cut down on the draw distance. But, you'll always have to deal with something not looking right. It's just a fact of life.
 
Drbretto said:
-snip-
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The computer is capable. It's actually 6 years old now but a 3930K OCed to 4.4GHz, 32GB of RAM and a slightly newer 980Ti is quite capable. I do run 3k+ (3240x1920) though so that can hinder performance.

I've just scoured the interwebs for all of the shaders I could find, ignored anything older than 6 months and downloaded the rest. Testing now!
 
Yeah, that's a tick better than mine all around, so you can easily run em. I will bet dimes to dollars you will reach the same conclusion on which one is best, but I would absolutely have to test them for myself as well, lol. Happy testings!

Edit: look for stained glass, and their shadows, and water. All the shaders can do the basics, but only one of them nails these.
 
Drbretto said:
Yeah, that's a tick better than mine all around, so you can easily run em. I will bet dimes to dollars you will reach the same conclusion on which one is best, but I would absolutely have to test them for myself as well, lol. Happy testings!
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Surprisingly, I disagree, actually.

To be fair, only one stands out in ANY way for me, and that's CaptTatsu's BSL Shaders (V6.0 is what I tested). Reasons: it provides helpful options that make sense, including wavy leaves on/off, etc. It has the nicest colouring (to me) and doesn't have over-the-top blur, bloom, vibrancy, fog, or whatever else.

Most importantly to me, it includes colouring options for different sources of light, water tint, etc. So my ModularPowersuits' "Flux Lamps" don't give off a very candle-esque light and instead can give off a nice white light which makes my base look normal.

Other things to note is that EnderIO machines seem to look OK. OpenComputers screens kinda work if viewed at the very periphery of the vision, but basically don't work even still.

Unfortunately, in my main base area, my frame rate is ~10-20 FPS which is completely unacceptable. In a flat world with basically nothing in it, I get around 45 FPS, but there's a huge glitch with the sky - probably something to do with the RFTools dimlets it uses (random).

I've even tried turning the graphics down to basically all options disabled (so just shadows and a little lighting, essentially) and it's still completely unplayable.

Perhaps one day shaders will be possible, but for now, no shaders it is for me.


EDIT: The torch-light colour options do also change the texture colour of light-emitting blocks. Glowstone (normally yellow/gold-ish) is now white, as are magma blocks... Does look a little odd, especially in the Nether.
 
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asb3pe said:
Edit: I just realized there are a whole bunch of videos from people who have completed the challenge that I can go watch to find my answers instead of posting here. LOL So nevermind.

Well thanks to your tip, I was indeed able to make a Mesh, and thus, make the Mesh Sieve, but I don't know how to "turn it in" so I get credit for the first Achievement. Doesn't this Skyfactory Challenge thing come with any instructions? LOL I guess it's a map for "experts only".

And I hear ya about Skyblock modpacks, they're not really my cup of tea either. I prefer to have a nice landscape to view while going about my business. Just my own personal preference, most of my friends LOVE the skyblock stuff. To each their own. :)

But I like the concept of speedrun, because it's a way to practice getting out of my worst habit, which is to be a packrat. LOL Speedrun means you have to learn how to be optimal with your time, and learn how to not hoard items - only get exactly what you need, and no more than that. That's good practice for any modpack, at least for me, because I tend to get bogged down when I play, my progress slows to a crawl, and I lose interest at that point (because I never seem to get anywhere LOL).
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I could be wrong on this, as I've only watched one Sky Factory run, but I think that the Achievements Book mod is more of an 'honor system' than a 'detection' type of thing. You could theoretically check off every single task in there while sitting on top of your initial tree - of course, you'd know you hadn't done it.
 
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