Edited Dec, 19th.
Appears even the new version has bad effects on night-time texturing. Don't use it if you fly night missions.

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Has anyone (in the long CFS3 history) tried modding shaders.xml?
Although the game uses DX8 the shading is actually done in the DX7 way - fixed function states. Which is VERY limitied. I think I can say that a single terrain drawing shader in Rise of Flight is many times more complex than all CFS3 shaders combined.

But however limited they are it is still possible to tweak them.
Here I tried to make shaded areas darker:


Basically I just inserted additional shading steps which multiply diffuse light color by itself producing a sharper curve.

Is it something new? Or has it been done before and I'm just reinventing the wheel?

Unfortunately the amount of tweaking is very limited. The last one looks ugly right now but could have been the best if I could multiply it by say x1.2 and not x2.

There is another problem and I haven't figured out the cause and solution (if there is any): if I use modified shaders then plane and object textures disappear completely (i.e. become gray) during night missions.

Here is a link for Diffuse^2 version:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2918136/cfs/Shaders.DiffusePow2.New.zip

Download and extract shaders.xml into "WOFF\OBDWW1 Over Flanders Fields" folder. Don't forget to make a backup of original shaders.xml because as I said this one ruins night missions.

Privet Ankor!

Glad to see you extending your modding talent to this great sim as well. Keep up the good work!

Best regards,
Rover

Thanks! Yeah, I'm enjoying the game but as always decided it needs a few tweaks here and there

I have updated the download link with a new version which solves night-time textures issue.

Here is also a small example of how new shading affects scenery:


I think I'll settle with this result for my own use

Nice, (I would pefer something intermediate too) but will try them, anyway...

This is above my head trying to understand the shaders.xml file. I like your modifications a lot especially when I increase the bloom.

The only thing I'd change is the lighting inside the cockpit. The instruments get very dark when the sun is infront of you and are very difficult to read. If you can make the instruments a bit brighter, this would be my perfect setting.

I agree it is a bit too dark in the cockpit, but I can't do anything about it.

Also I found that even the updated version has broken night-time lighting. Don't use it if you fly such missions

Interesting!

Any ideas on using enbseries to give a better look? Think it needs a custom pallete to get the most out of it.

I'd really like to see the fog pushed back to the horizon but not sure its possible