New, and Much Improved, CFS3 Visuals

[Guest Paul_W]

MS has cleared out the sub-par visuals posted on their new CFS3 Web site about a week ago and replaced them with some far more impressive views:http://www.microsoft.com/games/combatfs3/screens.aspThe low-level storm clouds as seen in the shot taken from the bomber's cockpit look very persuasive to me; on the other hand the clouds in the parachute screenshot don't have the same impact. And the truck close-up shows what has to be the most believable vehicle I've seen in a sim, with the exception of its tires.

[Chris Willis 8]

Hi, I am not wondering about the clouds visual this can be easly changed, but the terrain still B.....The only thing that we don't know, maybe the terrain will ALWAYS be updated at the time before the aircraft is passed, this will be great. Other than the sky and the T&l make an HUGE difference in the clouds visual look, you can see now in shots some new realistic clouds colors at differents time. Strange thats we can't see the clouds color at dusk, night and dawn in fs2k2 like cfs3. The rain or snow is improved, even the lightning bold is improved the picture with the truck. My major concern is only the terrain.ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFshttp://fsw.simflight.com/fsw.jpg

[Guest JonP01]

Those test pilots taking the screenshots need to learn how to coordinate their turns :-lol Seriously though, I like what I see in these screenshots, especially knowing how much quality you lose in a jpg conversion. I like the colour of the terrain. Very European. I'm very much looking forward to this release and adding it to my MS FS collection.

[Guest cwright]

Paul, these do look a lot better - but I'm still far from overwhelmed! They still show a serious blurred texture problem - but somewhat different to the earlier shots. Some of the earlier shots showed the classic dynamic blurred texture problem (texture squares immediately below the aircraft that have low mip map resolution). I could see no sign of this in the new shots - but the screenshooter may have waited a minute or so in pause mode before taking the shot. In the new shots the mip map resolution seems to switch from full resolution to very low resolution in the near to middle distance. It's almost as if it is not using the intermediate mip map resolutions. The result of this is that the middle distance terrain looks hopelessly blurred. Are Microsoft never going to fix their blurred texture problems? But hopefully this will be fixed before release. I think the aircraft look pretty poor, probably inferior to CFS2 and certainly FS2002. Also the shading also looks poor, so they look two dimensional, as if they had been pasted onto the screen. Although possibly spectacular, the flames look totally unrealistic. There's no attempt to model tongues of flame as occur in real life, and they look like something out of an arcade game, not a serious simulator. On the plus side: The clouds look good, but there are still serious questions as to how they look from close up. Some reports are not encouraging. There appear to be two human figures standing near a tank in one shot. However, despite the fact they are in the middle of an air raid, they are noticeably not running as per their IL-2 equivalents. Perhaps the troops in CFS3 are made of sterner stuff! The auto gen scenery shows great improvement.In earlier shots the trees appeared to be distributed randomly, but now they concentrate in realistic ways, for example along roads. The progress shown by these screenshots is encouraging, but there will need to be large improvements if CFS3 is to compete with IL-2 in terms of quality. It's getting late, but I have my fingers crossed! I certainly want CFS3 to be a great flight simulator. And without doubt many new features in CFS3 will also appear in FS2004. Best regards, Chris Wright

[Guest]

WOW,,,,,,, those clouds are quite amazing.Check out the cloud base in these pics : ss13.jpgss19.jpgI wonder if they have mastered simulating a heavy shower underneath a CB with the other clouds not raining at all.I also hope that the moisture in the clouds is like smoke as you fly through them, not the old "FLAT" clouds that bend as you fly through them which would freak out any pilot lol.Yep the blurring ground textures is still a major problem with FS and it seems this new upcoming product.I for one would "might" buy this program "IF" they manage to sort out the old blury issues, but they are going in the right direction with the clouds which is promising.Will

[Guest Paul_W]

Besides the MS site, there's a series of 15 additional screenshots starting here:http://www.gamespot.co.uk/stories/screens/...19437-1,00.html

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi all.It is getting late in the development, and there are a few problems:Annoying exaggerated perspective.No shading.No water.

[Guest]

Doesn't look any better to me, still very blury at only a small radias.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

We may find this is done intentionally..the blurries may default at an even smaller radius than what we're used to in 2k2 in order to maintain smoothness in combat. I know I haven't seen any screenshot which has shown scenery drawn into the distance as sharp as it is in 2k2... But to tell the truth, in a combat sim I care more about identifying friend from enemy... I care more about filling the sky with 40 bombers, without causing the sim to slow to a crawl. Give me better wingmen than CFS2 had, and I'll be happy. Can't recall caring as much about the ground textures--never had time to look (or I should say, when I did, I was usually missing half a wing) :)-John

[Guest GabrielR]

Even though I think that after just one year of the release of MSFS2002 no major improvements or deep structural changes have to be spected, I'm sure there will be some awesome things to see in CFS3, we will be amazed for a couple of weeks, and then tons of lists for wishes on the "next" version will be seen in the CFS3 forum.That's what this is about, dream and reallity.

[Guest Delta_747]

The best thing about the visuals in CFS3 from what I have seen so far is the explosions and fire effects. I just recived the latest issue of PC Gamer complete with a preview of CFS3 and the effects shown are amazing. This looks to be a real winner.