FANTASTIC shader enhancement for water

[Guest The Wizard of Oz]

OK I thought I

[David Roch 1,982]

:-)The day hardware industry and Microsoft will be synchronized and allow realistic graphics for FS, there will not be any more plane in the sky, only UFO and missiles!!

[maxter 0]

>>>Crysis is Crysis and FSX is FSX.>When I'll be able to fly a 767-300 in Crysis I will probably>switch :--))<< >>>Hi David, have you ever considered SimCity? :-) >>I'm still wondering which sim will bring pedestrians and>flyable aircraft together first? :-) >>Many thanks for the pionter. >>Kind regards >>Jaap Well, have a look at this one...http://www.cuplanet.com/Cheers,Chris Porter:-outtaPerthWestern AustraliaCheck out my 5th Around the World flight with MS FSX at http://members.iinet.com.au/~portercbp/fly...W_05/index.html

[Guest The Wizard of Oz]

Thanks Dave. Pity someone had to spoil it. Re WOZ

[Guest cwright]

>When I'll be able to fly a 767-300 in Crysis I will probably>switch :--))David, it may be sooner than you think! Sadly, I have to say I've almost lost interest in Flight Simulator. That's because in many respects it is so limited. The graphics and physics are far behind other games (admittedly there are differences, but remember that these games can do things FS can't). Without realistic human beings it seems a bit sterile. So I have started to build my own flight simulator, using the Far Cry game engine. Crysis is Far Cry's successor and it is light years ahead of Far Cry. The Crysis playable demo is out this Friday, I believe, and it includes the editor. Again, the Far Cry/Crysis editors are far, far more advanced than anything in Flight Simulator. It's worth getting the demo for the editor alone. I am not a C++ programmer, but just weeks ago I discovered that a huge amount can be done in LUA, which is the game's script language (probably similar to Python). For example, I can define a set of sub-objects (e.g. ailerons, flaps, undercarriage) which can then be moved and rotated, all under script control. I have built a small collection of aircraft as test-beds (a Spitfire, Constellation, 747 and Harrier). I have written a flight model that calculates the aerodynamic forces. Already, provided you don't try looping the loop, the flight model is virtually as convincing as many FS aircraft. I have easily added turbulence and a set of view modes (spot, flyby, tower and lock), plus a very basic auto pilot. I can take off in the Connie, leave it flying in auto pilot, instantly jump into the Spitfire, start her up (with recently-added smoke effects), take off, use the lock view to locate the Connie and then fly in formation. The max 9 aircraft models are medium quality, but a good modeller could produce superb models with virtual cockpits. I thought I would call it CFS (Chris' Flight Simulator) but I decided that would probably be a crime against humanity. But I will continue to develop it and transfer it to Crysis. And, of course, you can have humans in the simulator. In Far Cry they are quite realistic (though generally they want to blow your brains out!) I can drive to the airfield, get out and walk to the Connie, climb the ladder, open the passenger door, walk into the passenger cabin and look around, and then go into the cockpit and start her up. This kind of experience is virtually impossible in FS. Far Cry immediately gives enormous advantages in the graphics department (e.g. aircraft shadows placed perfectly on steep terrain, buildings - even other aircraft). But there are limitations. Far Cry maps are pretty small, only a few miles across. But Crysis can dynamically load assets as you move along, just as you would expect in FS. I don't know if there is a real limit to the size of Crysis maps. We should know this week, as the demo includes the editor. In the editor you can press CTRL-G and you are immediately playing the game. Imagine being able to do that in FS! After just a few weeks I have created a small flight simulator that can already do things impossible in FS. Unfortunately my 30 day max 9 trial is finished, so now I have to decide whether I can justify paying a small fortune to buy max 9. But if I do then a 767 will be first on the list! Oh, yes, and did I mention that Crysis has real volumetric clouds?Best regards, Chris

[Guest The Wizard of Oz]

Here

[David Roch 1,982]

yep.I've changed it to #define fresnMax 0.8 myself and I like it :--)

[slashed2 53]

This is an interesting discussion. The one question I have for anyone is how does FS create the world and how would Crysis if it's engine were used for a flight simulator.My current assumption is the FS world isn't pre-drawn but is based on data tables and is rendered on the fly and Crysis is pre-drawn. Of course, I could be utterly incorrect in that thinking, but one would have to wonder if Crysis is created statically, pre made if you will, how much disk space would one require to take a flight across the United States at that level of detail?I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with anyone, but there seems to be a black and white argument between FPS and FS without much technical discussion, just rhetoric going back and forth so it's hard to garner an educated opinion on the matter. I'll tell you though, if FS could get away with the detail of Crysis and still run on today or even tomorrows machines, I'd pay a handsome some of money for it.

[Guest cwright]

>My current assumption is the FS world isn't pre-drawn but is>based on data tables and is rendered on the fly and Crysis is>pre-drawn. This is an important question. If you read my post you'll see I'm very interested in Far Cry/Crysis for flight simulation. Far Cry is severely limited as it does indeed load everything in one go and cannot dynamically load new scenery (though of course more distant scenery will not be rendered to conserve frame rates). It is claimed that Crysis maps are much larger. The Crysis technical description says that "assets can be dynamically loaded" or some similar phrase. Hopefully this does indeed mean that the engine can load scenery as you move along, just as FS does. This would definitely make larger maps possible, but there may still be some limit on the map size. The editor will be released together with the demo on Friday. Hopefully this will make it possible to test for maximum map size. I'm looking forward to using the editor more than the game itself!Best regards, Chris

[Guest]

The editor looks really amazing.

[StormChaser 3]

Hi,Just a friendly advisory.. blindly deleting files without knowing if it could have bad concequences sounds like a bad idea to me. It's far better and safer to actually MOVE (back-up) files to a safe destination directory. Any add-ons MIGHT bring their own shaders too(when I look at the time date stamps in my own directory, I suspect some do), and I'm not sure if they get rebuild correctly when they are deleted. Better to be safe than sorry, it's always possible to delete the back-up later when you're sure nothing went wrong..I haven't tried those new shaders myself yet but, I agree that the pics look very interesting! I wonder though if they are "Acceleration/SP2" compatible, since SP2 seems to come with it's own set of new/modified shaders too..?Apart from some derailment, very interesting thread and modifing!Regards,Gert

[FlyingsCool 3]

Did you perhaps delete the Terrain directory itself and not just the files within it? My system (XP) did regenerate the files after deletion. Do you still have a directory named Terrain in the local settingsapplication dataMi...Shaders directory, but it is empty?Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

[WarpD 824]

>Did you perhaps delete the Terrain directory itself and not>just the files within it? My system (XP) did regenerate the>files after deletion. Do you still have a directory named>Terrain in the local settingsapplication dataMi...Shaders>directory, but it is empty?>>Thomas>>[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com]>http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]>>I like using VC's :-)>N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180I did it correctly and it never regenerated the files.

[WarpD 824]

>Hi,>>Just a friendly advisory.. blindly deleting files without>knowing if it could have bad concequences sounds like a bad>idea to me. It's far better and safer to actually MOVE>(back-up) files to a safe destination directory. Any add-ons>MIGHT bring their own shaders too(when I look at the time date>stamps in my own directory, I suspect some do), and I'm not>sure if they get rebuild correctly when they are deleted.>Better to be safe than sorry, it's always possible to delete>the back-up later when you're sure nothing went wrong..>>I haven't tried those new shaders myself yet but, I agree that>the pics look very interesting! I wonder though if they are>"Acceleration/SP2" compatible, since SP2 seems to come with>it's own set of new/modified shaders too..?>>>Apart from some derailment, very interesting thread and>modifing!>>Regards,>>GertThanks, but I'm not so foolish as to completely delete the files, they were indeed moved to a separate folder.As for whether or not they're acceleration/sp2 compatible... only ACES can respond on that one.

[Geofa 108]

Yeah-I think there might be a problem there-mine regenerated-but only about 3-5 each time.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/