Just for a heck of it. This photo was taken with Nikon D5000 with Sigma 400mm. Heavily edited with Adobe LightRoom.

It's is real photo but enhanced to the point to make color more vibrant and vivid

 

These colors are the typical washed colors I see flying in CA.

 

When saw a shot from XP10 before I thought it was real. Someone pointed to me that it was a screenshot . It took me a while to process that lol

We live in interesting times

 

This is the truth ha!  We definitely aren't there most of the time, but every so often I see a screenshot that I would assume was one of my own real life pictures while flying.  The most exciting part, despite all the fussing we as a general sim community always does, it is still constantly getting even better.  It might just be by the time I am too old to fly my actual plane I won't even know the difference.... :wink: 

And, because pics are fun in this thread to compare, here's a couple of what real life looks like both down low and up high on random days in North Carolina for example :smile: 

 

 

This is the truth ha!  We definitely aren't there most of the time, but every so often I see a screenshot that I would assume was one of my own real life pictures while flying.  The most exciting part, despite all the fussing we as a general sim community always does, it is still constantly getting even better.  It might just be by the time I am too old to fly my actual plane I won't even know the difference.... :wink:

And, because pics are fun in this thread to compare, here's a couple of what real life looks like both down low and up high on random days in North Carolina for example :smile:

 

 

 

 

This gotta be Beechcraft?

I was thinking about this topic today, and something about it has been itching at me. I'm not a pilot, but I've been lucky enough to have been in numerous situations so as to take pics from the air, as well as more than plenty from rather high mountain elevations. (Besides literally many, many, tens of thousands of photographs at ground level during a career as a photographer, but not a lot of that is completely relevant.)

 

There's a ton of variables when it comes to haze and light scattering and how it affects the recording of light by a camera, but indeed many of the real world pics shown in the last few posts match a lot (but not all) of my experience as well. Proper filtration can cut through a lot too and help with certain types of visibility issues, but it can be quite surprising when images I've taken show a lack of visibility that my eyes don't remember.

 

Which is kind of what I was thinking about.

 

I think there's two different scenarios at work when we view the simulator on a monitor and try to compare the amount of haze and color to real life. When we see a screenshot of X-Plane, with the haze present, the atmosphere and the colors may match many of the photographic images we've seen, or taken, or remember seeing. But when we're actually flying X-Plane, we might possibly equate what we see on the monitor with what we're used to seeing with our eyes... and our eyes (or rather, our brains) in the real world play a good many tricks on us. Our minds both 'fill in the blanks' as well as ignore certain changes or deficiencies more than one realizes. Which for some users, could make for a jarring contrast if you're expecting everything to be vibrant and colorful, and/or sharp as a tack. 

 

I'm not about to say who's right, because everyone has a differing perception of what they feel 'real life' looks like. In a sense, everyone is right. :smile:

 

However, I do feel that the current visuals in XP11 strongly match a common photographic representation of certain atmospheric conditions, the one evidenced by the real life images posted in the few posts previous. (Of course, it does this at the expense of ignoring other higher visibility conditions.)

 

This is bound to (sorry, couldn't resist) polarize user opinions. :smile:

 

I've found my own opinion to this to be mixed. For the most part, I'm okay with the haze and the muted colors. For the most part, my eyes view the computer screen as they would a photograph (sadly the result of countless hours editing digital photos), so the heavy haze seems okay to me, as do the muted colors. Personally, I have more of a problem with XP's dawn and dusk 'orange' colors for the same reason - they immediately stand out to me, and I want to adjust or 'fix' them, even though I know that they are an attempt at mimicking the color of light at those hours.

So I thought I would give XP11 a shot to see if it is worth transitioning from P3D. I downloaded a bunch of the free airport sceneries, mesh etc. Now I am quite impressed with the way the default aircraft handle. However I am a little disappointed with the visuals. The colors look really pale and washed out. Is there a setting or something which I am missing to add some richness to the world around me?

Coming from p3d and fsx I thought the same thing till one day I was looking around the real world and thought XP has it right it's p3d and fsx that are over colored. After a few months with XP p3dv3 looks very cartoonish to me where XP is closer to what I see. Before you ask I have perfect color vision lol.

If this had been a screenshot from XP (or any other sim) I am sure people would have said 'What a horrible looking fluffy popcorn clouds! That weather addon a sucks!' I often look outside and think 'Those clouds look fake... o wait, it's real...'

Must be my monitor then, because neither sim looks anything like the colours I see in real-life (In a plane or on the ground). I agree FSX/P3D is cartoony, just as is XP10. But XP11 is gloomy and depressing even on a bright sunny day with clear weather. 

I didn't pick my photo to make my point. I have a lot more of course. I just picked few available at the time . They were shot mostly from my phone. This is just my opinion. I have flown in different countries

and seen a bit. Feel free to disagree, I'm perfectly fine with that

 

Airliners.net doesn't just take any photo. Thy refused many of my submissions because they were not professionally edited. What you see there are enhanced artistic representation. Consider it an art where everything exaggerated to the point. It's not quite a real life.

 

When saw a shot from XP10 before I thought it was real. Someone pointed to me that it was a screenshot . It took me a while to process that lol

We live in interesting times

Contrary to popular belief, not everyone sees color the same way.  I do a lot of work with photography, and my primary goal when taking a photo is to capture the scene as is.  Sure, it's nice to bump up saturation, reduce some shadows and enhance highlights to make the photo "pop", but when comparing a real life scene, shot as is, with a simulated one, I doubt we could ever match it exact.  Unfortunately, these days, photos can lie, via post-processing, which many photographers do to make their photo look better than it already is.  Getting back to people's perception of color, one person may think they see everything correctly, while others would not and that's where the argument begins.  I believe the best solution is to allow the user full control over the art controls at any time, adjusting all of the parameters to fit the desired look.

 

When I suggested before about manipulating the values of the art controls in XP11, I found out that access to these controls would be a temporary feature (as well as a stern warning from someone at LR that messing with said controls is a cautionary action), but in short, making these adjustments may not carry over to the RTM of XP11.  It is my hope though that someone out there can produce a utility, even better if LR does it, to allow for these fine adjustments to control what we see in a different light (excuse the pun).

It is my hope though that someone out there can produce a utility, even better if LR does it, to allow for these fine adjustments to control what we see in a different light (excuse the pun).

 

I think in my case it's just my monitor and the fact that I am used to stronger than life colours in games and simulators. Whenever I've produced orthos for somebody else using my colour settings, people have mentioned it is oversaturated (but it doesn't look like this when used in X-Plane for me).

 

Here are some real-life untouched pictures taken during the summer if I remember. The haziness and general dullness of the sky compared to say FSX or P3D is very apparent, 

 

 

 

However, it would certainty seem XP11 has it pretty close and I guess the bright/vivid colours of my other sims and games have somewhat changed my expectations on a screen. 

 

 

Still too hazy in beta but it's more realistic than default fsx or p3d

+1  XP10 already looks more realistic than P3D, and XP11 is even more so.  Still on the demo right now, waiting for the performance decrease in pb3 to sort out before committing.  For my count, XP11 with the second monitor support and the coming of reasonable weather tool like xEnviro is two steps in the right direction.  All I need now is seasons LOL.  Let's hope it;s there before we all drop dead 

When saw a shot from XP10 before I thought it was real. Someone pointed to me that it was a screenshot . It took me a while to process that lol

We live in interesting times

 

Indeed.  The fact that it's not always easy to tell at a glance whether one is looking at a screenshot or a real photograph is rather stunning, and things are only going to get better as technology improves.  Think of where we were a decade ago compared to now.  Now to try to imagine what things will be like in another decade!

We also get the "hazy" look in FL. :smile:

Love all the real-life pics :smile: , it just goes to show that we still have some way to go in our simulators,

Love all the real-life pics :smile: , it just goes to show that we still have some way to go in our simulators,

Yeah, and that is why I do NOT love all the real-life pics LOL