February 20th, 2020 – Development/Insider Update

[aleex 551]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SlKao_Pox5A

 

[Chock 17,769]

6 hours ago, domkle said:

 What is wrong is that you are wrong 😋 . As I said above  Sirena pics generally show a mowed lawn where the aircraft park but tall wild grass along the runway. Tropical oceanic weather makes tall grass. Heat and humidity.

Yes it makes it tall, but it doesn't scale it up to massive proportions so that a blade of grass is six inches wide.

[Amon1973 1,421]

1 hour ago, MatthewS said:

So you're saying Asobo have implemented undulation of runways/taxiways/aprons based on the underlying mesh?

 

I heard the bit about "slope", but slope is not undulation.  So you're saying here that runway slope is implemented (based on chart data) but not undulation of the entire airport surface based on the underlying mesh.  I know about slope. I'm talking about undulation.

So is undulation implemented?  You can confirm this? Otherwise your post only adds confusion not clarity.

So my assertion still stands and there is no evidence of undulation of the airport surface based on the underlying mesh. This is not controversial.

I don't even want a undulating runway if that means it's going to be like Xplane's version, I'd much rather have a smoothed out sloped runway anyway.

[Amon1973 1,421]

58 minutes ago, MatthewS said:

Show me some screenshots or a video and I'll believe it.

For a start I'm not yet in the Alpha, and if I was, you know fine well that I could not break the NDA.

[Drumcode 1,893]

I'll never look at the word undulation the same ever again, ever! Matthew, you must be real fun at the parties...

[SilentChill 43]

I think 99.9% of the people who will buy or rent it or whatever and play this game , yes PLAY,  will love it and they will not even notice that there are no undulateringerlinger runways and taxiways

It looks absolutely amazing and the possibilities will be endless once released.  Look what people do without an SDK with games like GTA5.

Heres to the future and MFS2020 🙂

 

 

[rick celik 1,243]

Everyone needs to calm down, look what developers did with other titles over the years. 

 

On a more positive note, how amazing does this sim look. I didn't think we would get a next gen sim for many more years but here it is.. grateful! 

[Mengy 814]

1 hour ago, MatthewS said:

Franky I don't think they actually understand the question... I'll state it again:-

Has Asobo implemented undulation of the airport surface (including runways/taxiways/aprons) based on the underlying mesh for the 36000+ generic airports?

I'm really beginning to believe that MatthewS and MSparks are one and the same person.  They certainly behave similarly.

I suggest you calm down, wait for release, and make your own decision after that point.  Life is just too short to get so overly dramatic over alpha footage of a sim very much still in development.

[MatthewS 761]

Oh snap!  I think this final scene of the video shows an airport with undulating surface, fantastic!  Well done Asobo!  I'll eat my hat now.. yum!

 

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by MatthewS

[Jeff Nielsen 1,385]

4 hours ago, MatthewS said:

I would have hoped they took that approach, implementing undulation based on the underlying mesh instead of apparently just flattening the entire airport surface (like in FSX/P3D).

Of course, Xplane's implementation is a little extreme, Asobo could be "smarter" and smooth the underlying mesh a little.

However Asobo seems to be taking the easy way out and just flattening the entire airport.

Why did they not bother to show us undulating runways/taxiways/aprons in the video? Such a feature would be worthy of 30 seconds at least. But no, we see nothing because they have nothing. That's the only reasonable conclusion to draw.

Asobo apparently read this forum.  How about Asobo post a screenshot of undulation and address it in their next blog post? Put any conjecture to rest.

Of course they won't, because they can't, they have not implemented undulation of airport surface based on the underlying mesh.

Yeah, they question is if they'll do it for "all" the airports, or just the certain ones we've seen like Lukla.  If they can't...the other question is; will we (3Pds or whoever) have the ability to do it.  Not sure how much of a undertaking it is.

and to your below post...yeah the grass needs some work.  Not just the size/scale, but it looks plasticy IMO.  Kind of like artificial turf to some degree....lol

In any case though, it's good we're talking about this stuff and not the really basic stuff like years past.  At least we can work with this pretty easily, I think.

Edit:  Like others have said, RWY surfaces/slopes should be based off the official data, NOT following the underlying mesh or ground.  We build stuff on top of the ground, not 'around-up-down' the ground.  While surfaces will settle, etc., the airports are still required to maintain certain certifications for airport surfaces.

Edited February 22, 2020 by Jeff Nielsen

[MatthewS 761]

48 minutes ago, MatthewS said:

Oh snap!  I think this final scene of the video shows an airport with undulating surface, fantastic!  Well done Asobo!  I'll eat my hat now.. yum!

Of course, it might be based on other data (chart data?) for an "iconic" airport (is it KLAX?) and not the underlying mesh, and if so then probably most of the 36000+ generic airports are still flat (no data).  Anyway, still a good effort.

[Scottoest 1,561]

Came here, and saw that the number of pages on this thread had doubled - got excited that maybe there wass more interesting conversation around the video.  Skipped to the last page, the first word I saw was "undulation", and became sad.

How many words are we going to waste arguing about whether the runways are flat or not? Holy hell.

[MatthewS 761]

26 minutes ago, Jeff Nielsen said:

RWY surfaces/slopes should be based off the official data, NOT following the underlying mesh or ground

Why can't Asobo use both, with official data (ie runway elevation "spot heights") having a higher priority than the underlying mesh, with some degree of smoothing.... isn't that the best of both worlds? Accurate runway elevations and airports that are not otherwise flat.

[FishermanIvan 110]

4 hours ago, MatthewS said:

However Asobo seems to be taking the easy way out and just flattening the entire airport

Of course they won't, because they can't, they have not implemented undulation of airport surface based on the underlying mesh.

They literally said they implemented runway slopes according to charts.  

[Jeff Nielsen 1,385]

1 minute ago, MatthewS said:

Why can't Asobo use both, with official data (ie runway elevation "spot heights") having a higher priority than the underlying mesh, with some degree of smoothing.... isn't that the best of both worlds? Accurate runway elevations and airports that are not otherwise flat.

You'd have to ask them.  I suppose it's possible.  I'd have to go back and watch the older dev interviews again to see what they said previously.  I thought they mentioned something about that as far as the new terrain model goes.  Not sure how feasible it is time-wise though.