Went for a quick fly out of Liverpool this evening and I suddenly noticed the water was completely different. It was quite windy and I noticed there were white caps, waves rolling into shore and the sun was sparking off the wave tops. I haven't been on the pop honest. I have taken pics but don't have time to post them right now but I will do. Has anyone else noticed or is this old news? They are certainly not perfect but it shows a lot of promise.

 

cheers

Peter

Went for a quick fly out of Liverpool this evening and I suddenly noticed the water was completely different. It was quite windy and I noticed there were white caps, waves rolling into shore and the sun was sparking off the wave tops. I haven't been on the pop honest. I have taken pics but don't have time to post them right now but I will do. Has anyone else noticed or is this old news? They are certainly not perfect but it shows a lot of promise.

 

cheers

Peter

You know, if it isn't brought to our attention from the get go, it's easy to overlook.  I took a flight on the left coast of the US yesterday, admiring the view from the air of the coastline, but never once bothered to check something like that out.  Now that you brought it up, I'll have to look for it!

 

So did the wave animation look similar to the FSX/P3D or did it have a unique quality to it?

Sort of similar but more to it I thought. Problem was it was a bit to uniform - looked a bit like a matrix - hence needs some work.

 

Edit: Link to screenshots and short video    https://1drv.ms/i/s!AkmGUkjXtWpskxZfX5DGjlJZAS6G

 

cheers

Peter

Well when you consider what it would take to randomize wave action, it's about as complicated as trying to produce realistic weather, too many parameters and algorithms which would lead to bogged down systems.  I saw your screenshots and I would agree that there is too much of a pattern, though I don't typically look at the water much...too busy staying in control of the aircraft.

There are definitely plans to bring 3D water to XP 11, so what you see might just be the first signs of the new water system.

http://developer.x-plane.com/2016/10/developer-blooper-reel-water-world/

 

I'll update my beta install on the weekend or some time next week and see for myself. I think I'm still on beta 5 or 6...

There is a short video in the link now which gives a better idea of the effect.

 

Cheers

Peter

I wish they would make it like the water in Combat Air Patrol 2

 

Hi Peter, yep it's been in there since beta 1. The waves appear based on the weather settings, but I honestly turn it off because it looks really horrible, like a huge repeating texture. I hope they find a way round it in a future release because the effect is even worse than the sky banding.

I agree, missing the XP10 water if this is gonna stay this way for long. How can you turn it off Tony?

You just go into the weather settings and turn down the wave size to 0, and it becomes a bit better again.

Hi Peter, yep it's been in there since beta 1. The waves appear based on the weather settings, but I honestly turn it off because it looks really horrible, like a huge repeating texture. I hope they find a way round it in a future release because the effect is even worse than the sky banding.

Hi Tony - okay didn't realise. Knew Ben S was experimenting but hadn't realised he had included anything in the beta. Preferred XP10 water as the matrix effect is there with or without waves. But hopefully we will eventually get something reasonable. Andreas (Alpilotx) siad he is working on something but made no promises (e.g. Tropical water effects). Had Xenviro in control hence it must have bumped up the waves due to the wind. Agree it's nowhere near ready for release. Xenviro does help with the sky banding but not fully and also depends on time of day and which direction one is pointing in. Ben has it on his fix list.

 

Cheers

Peter

From the guys at Sundog Software...Skymaxx. I could see them adding this in a future project.

Would be great to have that water in X-Plane.

Would be great to have that water in X-Plane.

 

I agree, but it's not as easy as just showing cool wave action.

 

Remember we have float planes and amphibian planes in the sim. That means we either need a way to artificially flatten the water (i.e. split it off from any wind-generated wave height), or else we need realistic modeling of geographic barriers, so protected bays have smoother water than offshore waters for takeoffs and landings. That would be ideal, but maybe asking a lot of the terrain + water modeling.

 

Back in XP10 it was possible to force-flatten the wave height with a plugin. The payware Goose models came with that. But I think that stopped working some time during the XP10 updates. As it stands now, there's a bug in the XP11 betas that's causing a crash with water landings. I don't think that's been fixed yet.

 

So, yeah.... let's hope for better water effects. But they have to be done in a way that still allows seaplane/amphibian ops under real-world conditions.

Would be great to have that water in X-Plane.

 

LR is already working on a model, however, it will be a while before we see it in the sim.

 

http://developer.x-plane.com/2016/10/developer-blooper-reel-water-world/