Black Marble Base for P3Dv4 released

[ErichB 3,638]

Good developers need supporting.  Dropped my penny in.

[captain420 3,099]

Could someone with BM Base+Vector please post screenshots around VHHH, VTBS, VVTS, RCTP, RKSI, RJAA, WSSS, RPLL, VVDN, RJTT, RKPC if possible. I would like to get a more accurate depiction of the night lighting in these areas particularly before I jump in.

[kurtb 121]

even better a video

 

[ErichB 3,638]

How long does it take to get the serial number issued? It's not included in the email confirmation.

 

Edit:  Found it.

[fta2017 160]

15 hours ago, klamal said:

So will FTX Global w/ Vector, won't it?  Lights are placed on roads with either FTX or Black Marble.  So whatever vector data you have, you will see lights "attached" to roads.  We don't see lights just randomly placed in the middle of nowhere.  They follow vector data.

Black Marble just uses a different color pallet and different(?) vector data than FTX Vector or even default FSX/P3D.  That's all the difference that I can tell, at the moment.  Maybe I'm wrong?

So it's just another artist's rendition of night and possibly uses different(more accurate?) vector data.

BM is no different to FTX Vector - they both attach lights to real-world vector data. Also it's not true that Vector/Global don't allow customisation - there is an FTX Lights Configurator that gives you a lot of control over the colour and size of the various lights. There are also many different coloured lights imbedded into the Orbx landclass textures themselves.

Frankly I am not sure why anyone would invest in BM when Orbx has provided this for years already with Global/Vector/openLC. Also remember they upgraded all their FTX regions and openLC to include greatly ehanced city lighting including all motorways.

Not an Orbx ######, but surprised people are not doing their homework before jumping in and buying what they already have.

[Iceman2 110]

Anyone got the BM traffic working, I've downloaded and installed the base, vector and traffic. I've ticked the traffic boxes on all the road options but only get normal traffic on the highways which was what I had with FTX sceneries.

 

ICE

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

1 hour ago, fta2017 said:

BM is no different to FTX Vector - they both attach lights to real-world vector data. Also it's not true that Vector/Global don't allow customisation - there is an FTX Lights Configurator that gives you a lot of control over the colour and size of the various lights. There are also many different coloured lights imbedded into the Orbx landclass textures themselves.

Frankly I am not sure why anyone would invest in BM when Orbx has provided this for years already with Global/Vector/openLC. Also remember they upgraded all their FTX regions and openLC to include greatly ehanced city lighting including all motorways.

Not an Orbx ######, but surprised people are not doing their homework before jumping in and buying what they already have.

To me, the Orbx solution, while an improvement, hasn't worked well.  The lights, for me, look wrong even after adjusting them in their configurator.  Perhaps, Black Marble does that job better.

[zmak 331]

1 hour ago, fta2017 said:

BM is no different to FTX Vector - they both attach lights to real-world vector data. Also it's not true that Vector/Global don't allow customisation - there is an FTX Lights Configurator that gives you a lot of control over the colour and size of the various lights. There are also many different coloured lights imbedded into the Orbx landclass textures themselves.

Frankly I am not sure why anyone would invest in BM when Orbx has provided this for years already with Global/Vector/openLC. Also remember they upgraded all their FTX regions and openLC to include greatly ehanced city lighting including all motorways.

Not an Orbx ######, but surprised people are not doing their homework before jumping in and buying what they already have.

ORBX doesn't address night light issues. Anyone who has flown at night will tell you its more often than not pitch black and looking down on the lights is a surreal experience. BM vids I have seen come very close , ORBX not even in the ball park as they only address lights but not the night sky

would love to see a side by side vid though.

[swiesma 625]

Yep, I am also a long time ORBX / Vector user, but the night lighting is not good at all.

That's why I hope BM will change this.

Edit: Download and start XP11 at night and you will see what we are missing in P3D. Maybe you will understand why we search for new night lighting :)

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

26 minutes ago, zmak said:

ORBX doesn't address night light issues. Anyone who has flown at night will tell you its more often than not pitch black and looking down on the lights is a surreal experience. BM vids I have seen come very close , ORBX not even in the ball park as they only address lights but not the night sky

would love to see a side by side vid though.

Yeah, I had the pitch black experience flying off the coast of Florida one night.  In the real world I would have seen the coast lights flickering and beautiful.  *Sigh*...must have been a LOD radius thing.  Not sure if Black Marble would do any better but P3D4 should handle it better due to its larger LOD.  Also, I agree with you that the lights in OLC, while better than they were, look almost randomly placed between the roads and don't even come close to what you see in the real world.

One other big factor in night lighting is distant blurriness caused by the atmosphere which we simply do NOT have in P3D.  The real world "fuzzes things out with distance" and movement of air which deflects the lights and causes them to flicker.  The effect is just as strong during the day and, one reason I think it's not built into graphics engines is that it may be expensive for the GPU and, perhaps, there aren't that many games that look far into the distance.  Gosh, wouldn't it be nice to see that.

Another thing that might make BM nicer is a feature request:  road advertisement signs and highway signs.

[MartinH 5]

If anything, I'm starting to feel this product would've done better had the developers actually approached ORBX with the idea rather than trying to develop and market it all themselves - the confusing pricing and support packages, unclear products, saying it's compatible with vector when it isn't, saying that's been fixed when it seems not to have been. Honestly, the Night Environment products he released were really good so I'm really hoping something comes of this, but... I just don't even know anymore.

[ieydis 51]

Again, to those complaining about lights in ORBX vector...have you tried the PTA night lightening fix?  Its just one checkbox.  I'm not against supporting BM - it looks like a great product but for those who already own Orbx V give the PTA fix a try at 16 EU before spending your (I assume) hard earned money.

 

 

[zmak 331]

1 minute ago, ieydis said:

Again, to those complaining about lights in ORBX vector...have you tried the PTA night lightening fix?  Its just one checkbox.  I'm not against supporting BM - it looks like a great product but for those who already own Orbx V give the PTA fix a try at 16 EU before spending your (I assume) hard earned money.

 

 

I never heard of this. You have a link?

[ieydis 51]

Of course - great tool!

https://simtweaks.com/

 

[B777ER 2,484]

23 minutes ago, ieydis said:

Again, to those complaining about lights in ORBX vector...have you tried the PTA night lightening fix?  Its just one checkbox.  I'm not against supporting BM - it looks like a great product but for those who already own Orbx V give the PTA fix a try at 16 EU before spending your (I assume) hard earned money.

 

 

What check box? I have it and I have adjusted the night lighting value to 15.0 to see the night textures.