At the 53:05 Mark they address the view distance with really good news!
So excited to see this being addressed!
Love these guys! Thank you! This is a big deal!
In case you’re wondering what this is about here’s two pics showing what was and what is now.
1st Pic was from July 16 Alpha update (not under NDA as they shared this publicly):
Thanks you for at taking the time for a screen shot. If only others would provide at least some evidence, and maybe even publish to an existing topic it could make discussions a lot more meaningful.
I’ve seen some shots showing problems that are making things more realistic so I do wonder if that’s why many don’t. They disprove their own claims. I’m sure that’s not it but it feels like it sometimes.
Rant aside. I can’t jump in the sim and check myself right now, but what altitude is the aircraft at and what is the distance to the tip of the peninsular? Going by Google Earth in Japan the first image is showing way too much tree definition and the second one is about right. It is kind of hard to tell exactly because of the shadow. The first one may look better if the shadows between the trees wasn’t so dark. This is where it gets tough for the devs. They can’t draw every tree at the appropriate density so they have to get the correct effect other ways.
Many flight sim people seem to think that we can see clearly forever and at any decent height everything looks super well defined, sort of like they are on the moon or as seen from a specially prepared and processed photo. It isn’t like that in real life though.
But if the sim can cater for those that want unrealistic visibility (it is often prettier) while catering for people that want realistic then that makes everyone happy. (hah, like that can happen!)
All sounds very exiting to me.
Great to see some of the faces behind this fantastic, next gen simulator
Great to see a veritable history of sims there over Jorg Neumann’s shoulder. Haha.
Big thanks to you both and you’re respective teams.
I’m in.
Bring it on!
I agree with what you said overall but out here in the West we have dry and non dusty days where the visibility is 150 miles or more where you can easily see details on distant mountains. Most of the world isn’t like that. Perhaps the sim could look at relative humidity levels and adjust the details accordingly.
I loved that he said that some of the DEM sources were from the government because over a decade ago I created commercial custom scenery for the Phoenix area and got that highly detailed data from NASA, got amazing aerial photos from my county GIS site. There was back then a wealth of info out there in the public domain and I can’t imagine what level it is today. By the way you wouldn’t believe the level of DEM data for the planet Mars.
Please, no apologies necessary. It’s all part of this rich tapestry.
I ask because you put me in mind of a New York to San Francisco road trip that I made many years ago.
I remember that somewhere near the bonneville salt flats, the air was so clean and clear that the mountains appeared to be only about 5 or 6 miles away. Yet my companion pointed out that to get an idea of the true distance, one needed to multiply that by a factor of approx 5. Amazing!
You have a many varied and beautiful country.
