We are talking fullbright (mapbright anyway) trees and grass when you aren't looking at them.

what's the map fog effect?
why is the engine version better looking (i.e why is the gadget version limited), and how much faster is it?

without knowing the details, I'd rather have the LOS effect in the engine as it fits the description of being "something that a majority of RTS games have and is complex enough that they shouldn't have to implement it"

would it be possible to somehow mix the two, i.e by providing engine rendering, thus gaining speed and a larger variety of effects, but still having some sort of control and customization - expose a lua interface content devs can use

1. Through the terrain shader (previous attempt)
Pros:
- Faster
- Better looking effects (like desaturation, hue shifts, etc)

Cons:
- Static and hard to modify (because its engine shader, hard to plug new things into it)
- only effects terrain

2. Through a depth shader gadget as shown here
Pros:
- Each mod can easily customize the way it looks
- No significant engine code needed
- Effects everything (map, grass, water surface, features)
- Allows map border fog

Cons:
- Slower
- limited set of effects (basically a transparent image overlay)
- will interact badly with map fog effect

The depth buffer does not get depth values for the water surface, but for the groud below, whch nakes this ugly for deep water.

No significant progress was made, sorry I only have a limited amount of energy and BAR is taking all of it, this thing got bumped down too low on the priority list. Ill try to make a best effort to get it included in .89

Behe, just treat sonar like los wrt the fuzz. Because, that's what spring does. You cannot have los without sonar, and underwater, los does nothing and sonar does everything. It's actually very strangely laid out.