If you read thru the various threads, you see that many users (especially ex alpha testers) have noticed a steady decline in the graphic quality of the water since the final alpha and first release…
This is an appeal to Asobo to please return the visual quality of the water, to at least what we had at release.
edit: An example on youtube illustrates the issue. Many thanks go to the producer of this video.
Under certain circumstances, these ripples can give the water a very oily unnatural look as illustrated below.
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Here is an example from an earlier version which is closer to how I remember the release to be. I remember being impressed by the natural surface variation which is all but missing now. Thanks to @ Anarchae1 for his post.
I was going to upvote this. Then I came into this thread and there are no examples of pictures of before and after the patch.
Pictures are needed of before and after the patch, in the same location, and with the same settings.
This is just an abstract description at the moment and IMO, it’s not very helpful to Asobo.
Since the OP didn’t post any picture, if somebody else could do it, that would be helpful to Asobo. Until picures are posted of before and after the patch, in the same location, and with the same settings, this thread is not very useful to Asobo.
Edit: Finally, the OP posted some examples and other people are posting examples for Asobo to look at and compare. The examples will help Asobo a lot.
I vote. The water quality in calm waters is tragic now. It was fantastic in the release version.
Please, make the appropriate improvements in the visuals. Don’t disappoint us. I don’t care for xbox consoles.
I just upgraded my PC to the max for a max visual experience with your product!!!
There are many screenshot examples in other threads on this subject already, but I agree, if someone has some “Release” vs “Current” examples that can be posted here, that would be beneficial.
This thread simply asks Asobo to please restore the water code to at least what we had at release.
Oily water, strange repetitive ripples at a distance did not exist in the release version.
More than that. Pictures are needed of the “alpha / release” vs the current patch.
Unfortunately, the NDA prevents me from posting some amazing pre-release images to prove the point.
Whether we have supporting pictures or not, if someone agrees that the water quality is less appealing than at release, I ask them to please add their vote so that Asobo can look into it with some degree of importance.
Thanks TranquilitySea, I did ask to return the water to “at least” as good as it was at release. If some effects are better, then of course they should remain. However, in my opinion, and of those that are upvoting this post, certain situations of wind, lighting and texture have resulted in degraded quality.
The purpose of this thread is to ask Asobo to please look into revisiting the water effects with some level of importance.
Calm waters look terrible now. When I fly between the Channel Islands, I now feel like I am in an arcade game, rather than a sim. I have to boost the wind to make if feel more realistic. It used to look great on calm days.
Agreed, I avoid flying close to water, as I hate how it looks now at wind speeds below 10knots, whereas I loved it before. Those crisp surface textures and reflections we had before, are tragically gone. In my view, this is by far the biggest step backwards since release and I cannot fathom why on earth would they implement such a drastic visual degradation.
Here is an extreme example at launch, nice waves, glassy, good effects, ignore my shoddy flying:
And since 1.9.3.0 it looks more like this, breaking waves with construction grids visible, matte water effect with no depth to it between wave crests etc. (this is from 1.9.5.0):
I think you’ll find that 1.8.3 was the beginning of the problems.
Perhaps Asobo could roll right back to the release and start again, and focus only on those things that are definite visual improvements in all wind conditions.
