fsx-ms Why do developers neglect rain/snow on windshield effects?

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

It HAS been "done right". The RealAir Turbine Duke has it and the performance of the aircraft is not discernably impacted when flying in the rain. Most developers don't want to spend the time adding the code to every aircraft and I can see their point. If you go back earlier in this thread you will see a post where I clearly stated that I agree with Bill that windshield rain simulation is just peripheral eye candy like pretty clouds and detailed AI aircraft. But if users don't ask for a feature, developers won't respond.

 

BTW, the post that you quoted was more of a warning for people to forget about starting another "sim war". The Mods don't like it and it adds nothing to any discussion.

[CFIJose 5,485]

Add my name to the list of customers who buy a lot of addons and prefer vc rain effects over the plain glass.

 

The excuse from devs is it affects performance, takes long to add the feature, or customers are not going to pay more for the extra work.

 

That's fair, but if customer demand it, then why not consider doing it? Maybe devs should consider adding the feature for an extra charge.

 

Some of favorite airplanes that have vc rain effects are:

 

Lotus L39

Realair Duke

PMDG JS4100

Ant's Sierra

[RobdeVries 28]

Ant's Winjeel

 

 

 

[N400QW 205]

I've invested nearly twenty years as a 'professional flightsim developer' and believe me, it is not a trivial task. When the supporting code is removed from the core simulation engine, it makes the task much more difficult and time consuming (aka: expensive), since a complete engine must be coded and made efficient.

I remember well the transition from FS9 to FSX as Bill and our team were beta testers for MS at time of FSX RTM. The discussion involved amazement that MS "broke" vc rain. Something that was available is FS9 was no longer included in the core sim for FSX hence the posting of threads like this..

Congrats to Real Air and others but as Bill mentions, "it involves a lot of work to get it right."

[Bjoern 1,157]

Does anyone have a gif or video featuring the environment effects in the Duke? I'm quite curious now what all the fuss is exactly about.

[akmatov 4]

Simulated rain is a big immersion plus for me, a real pity it isn't more commonly offered.  RA is ofc excellent.  Another aircraft where the developer has bothered to code it in is the Lionheart Robin 400 which I tend to fly around English where the rain feature gets a workout.

[ryanbatc 12,836]

Does anyone have a gif or video featuring the environment effects in the Duke? I'm quite curious now what all the fuss is exactly about.

 

Yeah, post 7, "Mr I takeoff while on my iphone 6" (LOL) has a video that shows the effects nicely... especially noticeable against a darker sky, or easily noticeable against the dark engine nacelles of the royal turbine in the first few minutes.

http://www.avsim.com/topic/494120-why-do-developers-neglect-rainsnow-on-windshield-effects/?p=3474197

 

I'm actually ok with static rain display too (prefer dynamic like RA), but Baytower RV7 had a REALLY lovely static rain visual on the large canopy.  I have mine running in P3D but it's not running very well.

[Pugilist2 878]

The bottom line is that rain is a reality and not having the simulated VC rain effects is not!  I hate flying in stormy and rainy conditions and not seeing the VC rain effects.  I disagree with some people here who call it peripheral eye candy.  It is a feature that should be included with any payware aircraft in my opinion.

[Slayer 190]

Half the time I can't even tell if it's raining in the sim.

 

I also find it annoying that on this platform it is ignored. The reason MS removed the effect is because they expected developers to actually develop something instead of using a canned effect that caused FPS loss or took away from the max number of animations they could use. 

 

X-Plane devs don't seem to have a problem making rain effects... I think it's just laziness and resistance to change on this platform that they fail to implement it.

 

After the first steps are taken creating the effects with shaders a developer easily could reuse it on their other projects as well.

 

FSFSX packages has made a business of making shaders and effects so don't tell me there isn't a demand or want of this..

[N400QW 205]

The reason MS removed the effect is because they expected developers to actually develop something instead of using a canned effect that caused FPS loss or took away from the max number of animations they could use.

Source for that statement please.

As a dev who's team produced one of the first FSX models at MS's request for a Beta Test at their shop in Seattle, I would like you to source such statements.

In all the communications with Aces at the time, we never heard such communications...

[G7USL 117]

Man, 4 of your last 5 posts have been telling people to switch to X-Plane. In case you havent noticed, people here on Avsim are more than aware of X-Plane and some just choose not to use it. We know these "my sim is better than yours" discussions can go south, so just give it a rest. If your enjoy X-Plane, enjoy it, but don't trawl through the forums looking for reasons to tell others to. 

Don't preach to me as to what I can comment on and what I can't.

 

We are all flight simmers enjoying our hobby and I can write whatever I want to. You don't have to read it sonny.

[N400QW 205]

Dave, the thread appears to be about missing VC rain effects. Is that true of XPlane? If not, why post in a missing VC Rain thread?

[Bjoern 1,157]

Yeah, post 7, "Mr I takeoff while on my iphone 6" (LOL) has a video that shows the effects nicely... especially noticeable against a darker sky, or easily noticeable against the dark engine nacelles of the royal turbine in the first few minutes.

http://www.avsim.com/topic/494120-why-do-developers-neglect-rainsnow-on-windshield-effects/?p=3474197

 

They seem to use cycling bitmaps, with one variation for the front windows and another for the sides. The drops on the sides, however, only seem to be visible when the plane is moving or am I just blind?

 

 

 

 

I also find it annoying that on this platform it is ignored. The reason MS removed the effect is because they expected developers to actually develop something instead of using a canned effect that caused FPS loss or took away from the max number of animations they could use.

 

How about "They were under pressure to push out a release and therefor had other priorities than putting rain into FSX' updated, shader-based rendering engine."?

 

Rain very probably would have come back with SP3 or SP4, if only in DX10. But that's mere speculation from the "What if Aces had not been axed?" repository.

[ryanbatc 12,836]

I'm not sure how the rain is made on the Turbine Duke.  If I recall it doesn't really move on the side windows until you're moving forward.

[G7USL 117]

Dave, the thread appears to be about missing VC rain effects. Is that true of XPlane? If not, why post in a missing VC Rain thread?

Yes My IXEG 737 has it built in and the best I've seen. The wipers work in the VC (The only way I fly) and shows the water actually being wiped away by the blade!