X-Plane 10: Experimenting with art controls (Raleigh scattering)

[Pascal_LSGC 298]

On my end I hope to have cloud shadows implemented with SM......

 

 

This other option seems to make high altitude more realistic......I have to ask what kind of hit on frame rates do you have? 

Some extreme values I tried didn't change framerate. But I can't say for sure without more tests, because I tweaked clouds in the same time, which can have a big effect on fps.

There is still some problems with very high altitude: the planet rendering doesn't like this tweak. Maybe it's the reason Laminar didn't pull it out of its hat yet. (most probably it's because they are usually very shy with graphic effects).

 

Pascal

[bsupnik 23]

Those pics look great, and it's nice to see the scattering shader in action -- it has a lot more potential than what we have in 10.25.

 

Pascal, email me if you are interested in working on the defaults for X-Plane itself...I can forward settings to some of our art guys for review, etc.

 

The deal with art controls is - they are meant for tinkering, but we don't provide a compatibility guarantee.  If your scenery looks wrong in 10.30, I'll fix X-Plane.  If your poking at art controls doesn't do the same thing, sorry.  We use the art controls internally to let our art guys tune the sim without having to recompile the code.

[Pascal_LSGC 298]

Congratulations, Pascal! After much indecisiveness, I have finally resolved to buy X-Plane because I can see what stunningly realistic visuals are achievable with your tweaks. What ground textures are you using, by the way?

 

Hey, great, welcome here !

I'm flying over some Switzerland hills with Simheaven's orthophotos.

Those pics look great, and it's nice to see the scattering shader in action -- it has a lot more potential than what we have in 10.25.

 

Pascal, email me if you are interested in working on the defaults for X-Plane itself...I can forward settings to some of our art guys for review, etc.

 

The deal with art controls is - they are meant for tinkering, but we don't provide a compatibility guarantee.  If your scenery looks wrong in 10.30, I'll fix X-Plane.  If your poking at art controls doesn't do the same thing, sorry.  We use the art controls internally to let our art guys tune the sim without having to recompile the code.

 

Hi Ben,

Thanks !

You're hiding some jewels inside the box labelled "X-Plane", you know !

I'm pretty much aware that you don't guarantee anything about "art controls". I would see a problem if someone published a plugin with these tweaks, and that would be another story.

 

I'll send you an email...

 

Pascal

[Murmur 3,941]

There is still some problems with very high altitude: the planet rendering doesn't like this tweak. Maybe it's the reason Laminar didn't pull it out of its hat yet. (most probably it's because they are usually very shy with graphic effects).

 

I suspect the reason is simply that the default values have been tuned to work together in harmony with each other and with the other components of the visual engine (shaders, etc.), so altering the default values can cause visual artifacts. But I don't see anything that would prevent, in principle, to harmonize these new values with the rest of the visual engine. For example, it could be necessary to modify also shaders, or artwork, etc.

 

IMHO these experiments show the capabilities of X-Plane engine. In the following pic, you can see a comparison between War Thunder (with its much touted, and rightly so, visual engine) and X-Plane (with modified DataRefs). The visual results are quite similar. Also, please note that the max visibility at altitude (25.000 ft in this case) is actually HIGHER in X-Plane than in War Thunder!

 

[scotchegg 4,186]

Ben thanks or dropping by; it's nice to know you keep an eye on what's said in the forums.

 

If you could implement or make it easier to implement some of the visual changes shown in Pascal's first post that would be amazing.

 

Frankly I nearly fell off the toilet looking at them. Incredibly realistic. Can't wait to get home and try them.

 

Come on John, get those shadows in!!

[JGregory 76]

This is too late to ask me not to use it, sorry if this is a big problem for you, JGregory.

Wow, talk about an overreaction.  I never suggested you shouldn't use it.  I simply pointed the readers of the thread to information on the subject from an authoritative source.

 

The links I provided show that while you can "play" with the art controls in DRE to your hearts content, all it does is show the potential of X-Plane and is NOT something that developers/users should consider a permanent or long term solution from their end.  This was confirtmed in Ben Supnik's response as follows…

 

The deal with art controls is - they are meant for tinkering, but we don't provide a compatibility guarantee.  If your scenery looks wrong in 10.30, I'll fix X-Plane.  If your poking at art controls doesn't do the same thing, sorry.  We use the art controls internally to let our art guys tune the sim without having to recompile the code.

So no, Pascal, it's not a problem for me at all.  I was just informing the community of the limitations of the art control Datarefs.

[jasonX 24]

Good to see your findings have come to Xplane's programmers notice. Especially for me because I have a tendency towards keeping Xplane mainly addon free, with the exception of planes of course

 

Looking forward to more information.

 

Thanks

[deetee 164]

Is it my eyes guys, or has the XP10 visibility blurriness that currently haunts our airliner flights actually *GONE* with these settings?

I am seeing a much more natural-looking horizon here; at what altitude was that last shot (Murmur's) taken from please?

 

Great to see this has Ben's attention and it may become the norm!

[Guest Mik75]

These pics look breathtaking! Together with cloud shadows, this leads to most realistic graphics I've ever seen in a flight sim!

May I ask which particular settings you changed to which values to get exactly the look of these screenshots?

And yes, this definitely has to find its way into 10.30 somehow, together with the cloud shadows!

Thanks in advance!

[alpilotx 505]

Sometimes it helps to give Ben a hint about interesting - and this one is definitely interesting - stuff on some forums :wink: ...

And indeed Pascal, your experiments look really impressive (and worthwhile for Ben to have a closer look)!

[wolke85 150]

WOW!

One second of "WOW" follows the other "WOW" moment right aways here currently at the XPlane forums! :lol:

I am really most positively surprised and amazed and ... well:

This looks awesome Pascal - what a great find - and indeed great that it was obviosuly noticed by Laminar as well.

Now combining this great stuff here with that one here:

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/433586-johns-at-it-again/

... and we have that "WOW" momentum again!

:lol:

Simply amazing!

[mtaxp 666]

WOW!

Could you please post the values that you are using in thoose pictures? Ya I know you said that you are still experiminting with it,after your screenshots I started too but this a really amaing starting point to experimint

[rojantrojan 17]

These screenshots are the most realisitc I have ever seen in a flight simulator! Just WOW! Brilliant work Pascal, you've discovered something huge here.

 

Great to see Ben and Andras from LR in this topic too.

 

Rhydian

[Murmur 3,941]

Is it my eyes guys, or has the XP10 visibility blurriness that currently haunts our airliner flights actually *GONE* with these settings?

I am seeing a much more natural-looking horizon here; at what altitude was that last shot (Murmur's) taken from please?

 

It was taken at 25.000 ft. I think with the right tweaks, the blurriness at altitude (>30.000 ft) could be made less evident. We need to experiment on that though.

[MikeT707 1,181]

 

 

Frankly, this, and cloud shadows totally changes the atmosphere of the sim. Like a new sim.

Pascal,

I would suggest posting some screenshots on the screenshots forum.  It would be a good thing to share this with a greater audience.  Great job on this.