X-Plane 12 announcement keynote

[akita 429]

1 hour ago, peroni said:

I agree, there should be a rule that prevents users from posting too much in any given thread.

Going back to XP12 here some more infos coming from Laminar with examples of the new assets
https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/topic/252973-x-plane-12-what-to-expect/

The new terrain texturing is looking stunning, even more when considering some weatherFX maps on them. Frankly I see no need for orthos. Procedural texturing for the win.

However, the lack of 3d-shader-driven content on terrain is somewhat disappointing and I hope LR will add that, it is with out a single doubt the missing peace for some truly stunning scenes. 

Edited September 29, 2021 by akita

[mSparks 2,094]

3 minutes ago, akita said:

frankly I see no need for orthos. 

I think that will come down to performance.

On top of looking better than the current 2D autogen, lvl16 orthos already perform significantly better than the default 2D autogen (because it doesn't have to calculate anything), adding more stuff to 2D autogen is only going to increase that gap.

otoh, around the airports (like the SS on the previous page) its almost certainly going to trump higher level ortho, so the whole "spend ages getting your setup perfect" game isn't going away any time soon.

[tonywob 4,770]

I really like these ground textures... What interests me the most is the statement that WED's features were able to autogenerate most of it... Sound like a great tool to play with :-)

[Paul Deluca 169]

Page 28 in hangar chat  Dec 7 2020 a young man [Choman] displayed his own atc.There is a video about it on Youtube. It shows ATR-72 engine fire, with copilot readback. I told him that his idea belongs in our sim.Watch the video, and you will see what i mean. I gave him Laminars' address, and never heard from him in the forum anymore.

 

[jarmstro 2,405]

37 minutes ago, mjrhealth said:

wonder why they bother,

At a guess. For money?

[mjrhealth 836]

29 minutes ago, jarmstro said:

At a guess. For money?

Well we all need to live, dont we, with out being hassled. Like I said I dont know why they put up with us, really. Its so sad.

[tonywob 4,770]

1 hour ago, mSparks said:

I'd be surprised and disappointed if that new grass doesn't have depth by the time they release, but already a massive upgrade to every airport across the world.

I'm probably the only one in the simming world who hates the 3D grass in all sims that have it. It's just too big and looks ridiculous. e.g. Your shot comparison of Barton with and without 3D grass.. I've been to that airport many many times and the grass has never looked that big or overgrown... if it was, they'd probably close the airport .  Plus, traditionally in X-Plane it's been a massive resource hog and I've manually deleted it in most payware airports I bought that has it

The fact that they have to exaggerate the grass size several times just so that it's actually visible is enough reason for me to realise I don't need it in the first place. However, I would like to see more foliage, shrubs, weeds etc in places that look natural.

[mSparks 2,094]

7 minutes ago, tonywob said:

It's just too big and looks ridiculous.

100% with you on that one. 

7 minutes ago, tonywob said:

However, I would like to see more foliage, shrubs, weeds etc in places that look natural.

Im thinking around fences (which are broken in xp11) and "off piste" on grass airports like

at a minimum.

Also has flight model implications, since hover performance in a helicopter changes drastically between paved surfaces and long grass. Hmmm that almost sounds like I should ping Austin and get him to put it on the todo list.

[Gulfstream 416]

3 hours ago, mSparks said:

Only when you cant dock it, for example

 

That's some good stuff!

[Murmur 3,958]

44 minutes ago, mSparks said:

Im thinking around fences (which are broken in xp11) and "off piste" on grass airports like

Maybe a "pseudo-3d" grass, something that's not actually 3d but appears like that using some shader technique, without the performance penalty of "true" 3D grass. Something analogous to bump-mapping, but more advanced. It could then also be used for crops (another thing sorely missing from all flight sims).

I think the first series of IL-2 (around 2005) used something like that for forests, and at the time it wasn't looking too bad from above.

[mSparks 2,094]

17 minutes ago, Murmur said:

Maybe a "pseudo-3d" grass, something that's not actually 3d but appears like that using some shader technique, without the performance penalty of "true" 3D grass. Something analogous to bump-mapping, but more advanced. It could then also be used for crops (another thing sorely missing from all flight sims).

I think the first series of IL-2 (around 2005) used something like that for forests, and at the time it wasn't looking too bad from above.

problem isn't so much the 3Dyness, that's very low impact, the problem is getting it lit, which is why games and sim like MSFS tend to exaggerate it. because its not lit and any smaller and you cant see it.

I've been wanting my hillside to support

as long as I've had X-Plane.

(From https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/topic/136225-xplane-1111r1-realism/)

[akita 429]

40 minutes ago, Murmur said:

Maybe a "pseudo-3d" grass, something that's not actually 3d but appears like that using some shader technique, without the performance penalty of "true" 3D grass. Something analogous to bump-mapping, but more advanced. It could then also be used for crops (another thing sorely missing from all flight sims).

I think the first series of IL-2 (around 2005) used something like that for forests, and at the time it wasn't looking too bad from above.

A grayscale bump map for displacements will do the trick IMO, it can also scale on the GPU on a per pixel manner preventing overdraws and un-needed 3D content.

They are still not commenting about stuff like tessellation, "smoother" vector data etc...a no comment somewhat makes me wonder if they are already doing that but can't yet talk about it.

Edited September 29, 2021 by akita

[mjrhealth 836]

I would just like grass that looks like grass, simple

[mSparks 2,094]

34 minutes ago, mjrhealth said:

I would just like grass that looks like grass, simple

has anyone actually managed that yet? 

I dont mean "grass that kinda looks like grass if you squint and look side ways"

I mean an actual field that believability looks like a field. Not sure Ive seen one yet, even in next gen console demos/releases. A few that look very pretty, but nothing that doesnt look like something from a fantasy adventure.

If not - what they have just shown with a bit of debris blowing over would probably look as good (and thats definitely coming 😗)

Edited September 29, 2021 by mSparks

[Janov 2,383]

57 minutes ago, mjrhealth said:

I would just like grass that looks like grass, simple

As long as you don´t want to smoke it - I guess thats fine 🤣