Another FSX wish: Point Lights

[turner112 52]

I saw the Ultimate Terrain site's handling of lights as point lights, and frankly, that's something I've been wanting for YEARS.I hope FSX gets rid of silly bitmap lights in favor of point lights, or, at least, makes it a scalable option. Haven't seen any night shots from FSX yet - are there any?thxAndrew

[Guest jboweruk]

I think UT's lights are hard to beat. I hope MS will take a lot of the terrain/texture improvements made by third party people and do something with the ideas. We live in hope eh?

[MarkRey 16]

Reminds me of the old longing for real clouds/sky - fs9 finally came good. Perhaps fs10 will do for night lights what 9 did for clouds. The new ground certainly is a step in that general direction.regards,Markhttp://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a319/mar.../sup_banner.jpgXPHomeSP2/FS9.1/3.2HT/1024mb/X700pro256

[Guest Id Rather Be Flying]

>Reminds me of the old longing for real clouds/sky - fs9>finally came good. Perhaps fs10 will do for night lights what>9 did for clouds. The new ground certainly is a step in that>general direction.>>regards,>Mark>http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a319/mar.../sup_banner.jpg>XPHomeSP2/FS9.1/3.2HT/1024mb/X700pro256Mark, Hate to burst your bubble, but rotating billboards posing as clouds AREN'T exactly coming good. They are fine for distant clouds but should be followed up with something you can actually fly in and around accompanied by turbulence as you enter. This has been discussed MANY times and the clouds/sky, along side moving traffic/living earth, were at the top of my lists for better GA/VFR/IFR realism.Carmine http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7118/phoenixtp8mg.jpg

[Guest Bell206freak]

Point lighting can have its drawbacks, especially when it does not illuminate the ground. The night _LM bitmap is more realistic in this matter. But, I do think it could be done using hints provided by tdragger using gMax (to create an object simulating a light) and placing it accurately on a night bitmap using the Autogen SDK.-Steve

[Guest cwright]

I agree. The clouds look pretty good in the distance but they're hopeless when you try to fly through them. In this respect the clouds in the original Fly! were superior. I hoped FSX might have significant improvements in the clouds department, but there's no sign of that so far. But there is progress elsewhere. The forthcoming game Crysis (the successor to Far Cry) has genuine volumetric clouds. In the videos they look stunning. This video lets you fly through the volumetric clouds: http://www.scene.org/~riot/kamaa/CRYTEK_GDC_VIDEO_2006.wmv I would love to see clouds like this in FSX but that's probably unlikely....or is it? Best regards, Chris

[Guest Id Rather Be Flying]

>I agree. The clouds look pretty good in the distance but>they're hopeless when you try to fly through them. In this>respect the clouds in the original Fly! were superior.>> I hoped FSX might have significant improvements in the>clouds department, but there's no sign of that so far. But>there is progress elsewhere.>> The forthcoming game Crysis (the successor to Far Cry) has>genuine volumetric clouds. In the videos they look stunning.>This video lets you fly through the volumetric clouds:> >http://www.scene.org/~riot/kamaa/CRYTEK_GDC_VIDEO_2006.wmv>> I would love to see clouds like this in FSX but that's>probably unlikely....or is it?>> Best regards,> ChrisWOW those features in that video are INCREDIBLE! Guess I have to put that one on my list. What I can't understand is why they would need volumetric clouds for a FPS.Carmine http://forums.avsim.net/images/wave.gifhttp://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7118/phoenixtp8mg.jpg

[Guest]

to make us simmers bleed with envy of course :(

[Guest cwright]

That's easily answered! Crysis has a strong flight simulator element. You can fly helicopters. Part of the mission has you flying a futuristic jet fighter from a carrier and almost certainly there is aerial combat included. Crysis should be out about the same time as FSX (before Christmas). Of course, there's no way at present to tell how realistic the flight element will be in Crysis. But if the flyable vehicles are as good as the drivable vehicles in Far Cry, then it should be very good indeed. It should ship with an editor similar to the one in Far Cry. The editor is probably the most impressive software I've ever used. I'm hoping it will let me create my own flight simulator! Best regards, Chris

[Guest artmartin]

Let's please remember that although UT came up with an enticing and novel approach to road lights, there were serious drawbacks to their method. The main one is that it appears each light is actually an individual GMAX object and there's an default exclusion zone around each object in which no autogen appears. Obviously the ability to create those lights already exists within FS9 as UT has so expertly pointed out. The real need we have in FSX is for MS to get rid of object autogen exclusion zones or make them completely configurable by developers. I cannot stress this enough. In the newest version of my scenery I've placing actual GMAX objects that represent major freeways. The price I have to pay is that there's a large autogen exclusion zone wherever these freeways run and little I can do about it. Art Martin

[Guest DC-9]

U mean like this?

[turner112 52]

That is pretty sweet. A little regular - could use some randomization and probably about 50% the number of lights in the "grid" area...Is that UT?Any more shots? Maybe around Philadelphia??:)Andrew

[Guest jboweruk]

Have to admit some of the best clouds I ever saw were in FU2 and 3. Both from a distance and when you entered them.

[STUART_H 12]

I fully agree with many posts in this forum wishing that MS would take on board in FSX the many great things that add-on developers have achieved with FS2004, not least UT, but also the various freeware tweakers and scenery, aircraft & panel developers both freeware and payware.I think the dilema is that in someway the skills and abilities of all the third party developers is what keeps the product viable for MS to gradually improve and keeps our great hobby alive. If MS were to include many of the improvements in the base product, it could be the ultimate death-nell for FS. By keeping the sim open and allowing others to add to and improve the product the interest is sustained.Don't get me wrong, I too would love improved textures, clouds, weather / ground effects, night lighting, realistic panels for all the aircraft, optimised for performance etc. etc. etc., but I think we should all be happy that MS continue to evolve FlightSim and provide a platform for us all to further tweak, add to, and for that matter improve further.The future bodes well !Regards,Stuart Hyett