Consider this post a placeholder. Even as we discuss possible successors to FSX and the advancements in simulation graphics, Outerra is still  out there; slowly, patiently and in my eyes brilliantly plugging away. Lest we forget!

 

The Greeble City on Cliffs of Outerra

This is the authors second version of Greeble buildings. He made these structures to show off the potential scale of models in Outerra. In his words: "These have baked in ambient occlusion. The engine does a nice job of lighting the rest of the models. The total polygon count on the models (combined) is about ~400,000 (triangles). He runs this at  about 60 fps at 1920x1080 on a GTX 660 ti 3GB.

 

Outerra importer test

Each Mercedes has about 400 000 tris, the plane has 90 000 tris, 12 2048x2048 textures and 9 1024x1024. No visible fps impact.

 

 

Enhanced Outerra Grass, Dirt, and Rock Textures

http://youtu.be/BYjjoX3lqNI

WOW! Thanks for sharing. Outerra definitely has potential, and I've been watching it grow since that first alpha. 

How is this not a game engine yet? Give us the whole world with most of the airports, a dcs caliber flight model, and third party developers will do the rest. Whoever is doing this (one guy?) needs to get to work and provide the world with the last flight simulator it will ever need!

Outerra looks good, but it has been in development since 2008 and will likely take a few more years before they put anything out that someone could use as an engine for a flight simulator.

 

 

use as an engine for a flight simulator.

 

That's my understanding...  OT wont be doing a flight sim, but the OT gfx engine can be used in one.  AKA, licensed product. I guess it all depends on

what OT wants for that.

I have a faith in Outerra, as long as its programmer(s) don't give up. As for a flight sim....... that remains to be seen. For myself, I believe the potential is there.

 

Looks great, yes hopefully it can be licensed out for use as a Flight Sim amongst other things

Thanks for the update Devon, the latest specific tests look impressive. Looks like they are learning, the terrain textures are boring so improving their variety will make a fantastic base for a sim.

Thanks for the update Devon, the latest specific tests look impressive. Looks like they are learning, the terrain textures are boring so improving their variety will make a fantastic base for a sim.

 

Which reminds me. I can actually post the video of the new grass, dirt and rock textures rather than just a link now.

 

http://youtu.be/BYjjoX3lqNI

Yes, I just visited their forum, plenty of good new content, love the 3d procedural trees! I'll definitely get the payware version once the base looks to my high standards. I see a well known xplane developer is fairly active in there!

Yes, I just visited their forum, plenty of good new content, love the 3d procedural trees! I'll definitely get the payware version once the base looks to my high standards. I see a well known xplane developer is fairly active in there!

 

I love the guy importing the trains in. I can just imagine Train Simulator via Outerra.  :lol:

That's my understanding...  OT wont be doing a flight sim, but the OT gfx engine can be used in one.  AKA, licensed product. I guess it all depends on

what OT wants for that.

Yeah, I should have clarified. Outerra is an engine and a flight sim could be build utilizing the engine. I just would like to see them finally release the engine. Been following their progress since 2010 and if I remember correctly they are still saying that it will be a very loooooooooooong time before the engine is released. It does look pretty though.

The Outerra programmers admit freely to being "Code Jockeys" and not artists or 3D graphics designers. I suspect that with some real interest and help things could possibly move faster.

 

Certainly this community contains years of gathered knowledge on the subject of flight simulation.......

Full sized City-Destroyer from Independence Day in Outerra, done to scale.

 

 

And as seen from Outerra Orbit! 

Outerra Update.

 

Version 0.7.15.3666

• added MIG 29 (model and FDM made by ddenn!)
• added package exporter (package.nickname.otx)¹
• added package importer, can accept multiple cmdline arguments
• thumbnails for models read from gif files in package directory²
• environment settings are persisted
• added sound configuration to the menu
• API for image generator control (to be documented ...)
• custom parameters from objdef forwarded to vehicle's init_chassis (see T817 flatbed objdef file and the script)
• re-added flatbet T817
• added engine stop sound to T817
• added lateral slip coefficient to wheel setup, defaults to 0.5 (50% of the longitudinal slip coef)³
• added wheel rpm value to the runtime wheel_data³
• fixed reconstruction of camera position from JPG
• added extra vehicle keys (not used yet)³
• fixed vehicle error handling and recovery
• fixed "initializing world" hanging
• fixed object modifications not being saved
• fixed script editor layout
• leveling pad initially hidden in builder
• fixed imported obj preview not disappearing

1 You can now export your imported models as a single archive file with otx extension, that can be then easily installed by others by just clicking on it. The export can be performed from the object window, the file name written is in the format package.author.otx and it's already packed (actually it can be read as a normal zip archive).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some new experimental smoke effects are now active as well