Nash wrote:I thought generally the way it goes with GZDoom feature enhancements is always "make sure old stuff always look the same way it did, newer stuff has to be opt in by modders themselves".
This, however, is a weird one. If the map was made pre-SSAO then it might have a skybox that doesn't look good with SSAO. So, that would normally dictate that the default should be SSAO = off in skyboxes. However, SSAO has been around long enough that people have made skyboxes expecting it.
So either option is going to "break" something that already exists.
Honestly, even though I personally would prefer SSAO to be on in skyboxes by default, I actually think that it would be better to default to off. Why? Two reasons:
1) The older maps that were not designed with SSAO in mind are probably more numerous.
2) Ultimately, SSAO being off is less "harmful" than being on. A player
might notice something and think "hang on, those buildings/rocks/cliffs in the background look a bit different to the ones that I can walk up to" if the player has SSAO enabled but it isn't present in the skybox. However, everyone is going to notice the huge black lines across the sky that happen when a skybox is set up like the ones in BoA. (Although, it's worth pointing out that the first issue in this reason will potentially occur in BoA if the skyboxes do not have SSAO because the rest of the architecture in the box will also not have SSAO.)
Now, if there was also a way to disable SSAO on a texture by texture/surface by surface basis, I really would be happy. That would mean that little light alcoves etc don't become dimmed to almost looking like they are not bright at all despite having LITE5 on each surface and being set to 255 brightness. But I realise that's a whole different problem.

[quote="Nash"]I thought generally the way it goes with GZDoom feature enhancements is always "make sure old stuff always look the same way it did, newer stuff has to be opt in by modders themselves".[/quote]
This, however, is a weird one. If the map was made pre-SSAO then it might have a skybox that doesn't look good with SSAO. So, that would normally dictate that the default should be SSAO = off in skyboxes. However, SSAO has been around long enough that people have made skyboxes expecting it.
So either option is going to "break" something that already exists. ;)
Honestly, even though I personally would prefer SSAO to be on in skyboxes by default, I actually think that it would be better to default to off. Why? Two reasons:
1) The older maps that were not designed with SSAO in mind are probably more numerous.
2) Ultimately, SSAO being off is less "harmful" than being on. A player [i]might[/i] notice something and think "hang on, those buildings/rocks/cliffs in the background look a bit different to the ones that I can walk up to" if the player has SSAO enabled but it isn't present in the skybox. However, everyone is going to notice the huge black lines across the sky that happen when a skybox is set up like the ones in BoA. (Although, it's worth pointing out that the first issue in this reason will potentially occur in BoA if the skyboxes do not have SSAO because the rest of the architecture in the box will also not have SSAO.)
Now, if there was also a way to disable SSAO on a texture by texture/surface by surface basis, I really would be happy. That would mean that little light alcoves etc don't become dimmed to almost looking like they are not bright at all despite having LITE5 on each surface and being set to 255 brightness. But I realise that's a whole different problem. :P