What the clouds should look like in CoD. Video of clouds at altitude with Fighters

[Mysticpuma]

When it was announced 'many years ago' and I spoke with Oleg there was talk of most of the Graphics being place-holders. The Atmospheric effects were heavily mentioned, all of it being accurately generated, clouds would be huge, there was the possibility of flying through cloud layers.

Watch this video and imagine flying in that environment with your WW2 aircraft.

Watch especially as 22 seconds as the aircraft plunges through a cloud layer and comes out the other side......that is what I want! I want to believe I am in the air. I want an environment effect that says...you are in the clouds! Check out 50-seconds and look at that cloud layer as the aircraft skims over it! Another example of what the sky needs to be like. Not fluffy cotton balls!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYUUwlyAHf0

This is an amazing video showing what clouds look like.

We all know what clouds look like. They are an integral part of the sky we fly in. They were used to evade and surprise the enemy. They need to be effective and not fluffy balls of cotton.

Can we please see something that shows us environmental effects? Rain, Snow, Cumulus, Cumuli Nimbus......just something rather than 'place holder' again!

Weather was a constant problem in England....it rains....a lot! I live here. Today is Grey, yesterday was Grey.....but above the clouds....it is Sunny. Show us something that says....CoD has Weather!

I just want to believe that so many years in development has created the 'New' IL2 and not an expansion pack!

I am not asking anyone to be on my side, I just wish to share my Opinion and back it up with video that shows what clouds look like at altitude when they exist!

Cheers, MP

[BigPickle]

Just in case you didnt know MP, the video is from :

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421974/

[Mysticpuma]

Thanks. Currently tracking it down. Awesome footage

[sigur_ros]

These are more like real cloud, no flat billboards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnRyK_qwG40

But would make dx10 minimum requirement.

[sweln]

Well, Les Chevaliers du Ciel is a crap movie (Luc Besson production), but the visuals are pretty nice.

About the clouds, I haven't yet seen a game with good clouds yet. But the best skybox with nice volumetric lights are in Red Dead Redemption (best sky GodRays around).

[I/ZG52_Gaga]

Have you guys ever seen the "Real Enviroment Xtreme" for FSX?

I think it is wonderfull and the fact that it gets updated by real data
on fixed intervals makes me love it even more!

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii172/Soya4me/TV%20Setup/FSX/FSX%20Resized/REX%20Skies%20and%20Clouds/2009-7-28_22-54-18-269.jpg


more Screenshots here

http://www.flightsimworld.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=175883

[sigur_ros]

FSX clouds just flat billboards, no volume, no lighting, no shade.

[Skoshi Tiger]

Mystic,

Lovely video! I hope that someday I'll be able to fly in a sim that can look that good. Hopefully that sim will be IL2-COD.

If not at release then hopefully the sim will be successful enough to see it develop up to that stage. I'm willing to put up with the place holders until it has time to mature. (I honestly doubt my current PC could handle it at present)


Cheers and thanks for sharing!

[Blackdog_kt]

Have you guys ever seen the "Real Enviroment Xtreme" for FSX?

I think it is wonderfull and the fact that it gets updated by real data
on fixed intervals makes me love it even more!

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii172/Soya4me/TV%20Setup/FSX/FSX%20Resized/REX%20Skies%20and%20Clouds/2009-7-28_22-54-18-269.jpg


more Screenshots here

http://www.flightsimworld.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=175883

I like the way they look as well, but as others have said these are only 2D photos of real clouds without volume.

In short, they are perfect for a civilian sim but not good for a combat sim where we need 3D clouds, since they have a tactical use as well. For example, how can the game know when i'm inside the cloud if the cloud is 2D and how does it relay that information to the other guy flying against me online? With a 2D cloud i might think i'm inside the cloud and safe, but the other guy can see me just fine, etc. That's why 3D clouds are preferred in combat sims.



FSX clouds just flat billboards, no volume, no lighting, no shade.

Which kind of FSX clouds? ;)
The default FSX clouds ARE indeed volumetric ones. The clouds on Gaga's post are not default FSX clouds, they are from a 3rd party add-on and they aren't volumetric.

[sigur_ros]

FSX default clouds bundles of billboards, not true volumetric.

[The Kraken]

Considering that all cloud implementations in games or even dedicated tech demos are a far cry from that video, and that no other flight sim has a cloud rendering system that is really superior in all relevant areas to what has been shown so far for CoD, this looks like a severe case of unrealistic expectations to me. Sure Oleg raised those himself back when speaking about his plans, but if people seriously expected that this could lead to anything approaching the complexity of real-life clouds then that's a delusion. It's simply not possible, both for technical and financial reasons. You might as well post real footage of planes, landscapes, explosion/smoke effects or pilot animations, and complain that CoD doesn't look like that.

As with many other aspects of CoD you should consider that this is as good as it gets at the moment; not because the developers don't know any better or don't care, but because they can't do any better. And yes I have a list of stuff I'd have done different to what's been shown myself, but certainly in a different league than this complaint.

Oh and the FSX clouds sure would suck for a combat sim ;)

[JAMF]

I'm pretty sure that the 1c:Maddox guys can create a beautiful cloud. But what they're trying to make is dynamic weather. That has to be a difficult task.

Depressions and high pressure areas moving over a map, the arms of the fronts rotating around the depression, the fronts having big closed clouds and possibly rain below them, the wind going from high to low... How do you make that? How do you make a high that is off the map have influence on the clouds around the depression that's on the map? Do you create a reel of weather "film" that moves from west to east, on which the highs and lows move? Do you create a film that projects weather overlay images on the map, 1 frame every 10 minutes? How do you make the clouds move so they stay near the weather front? How do you make a weather programme stay within English/French weather parameters and not have a heatwave that lasts the whole period?

We've seen Japanese programmers simulate clouds and weather around a mountain, but that has to be done for a whole map. That's a big task. Potentialy bigger task than creating a dynamic campaign (war management AI), as such a programme doesn't need to calculate in 3D.

[Mysticpuma]

This makes me wonder if updated weather and objects (if I remember correctly) could be bought as an option like it was for FSX? Oleg was talking about the Simulation engine being licensed and then other developers could create add-ons (like an Aces Expansion Pack) once it had been authorised.

So if the software is going to be licensed, then their could be future Pay-ware add-ons for scenery and environments as-well as aircraft?

I may have been mistaken when I read previous posts by OM but I was reading them with that impression being given.

It almost makes you wonder if there could be a 'clouds' only map, where the ground is actually a Storm cloud or very low-lying fog (so darkish in colour letting the player know it is the ground layer), but then all that has to be modelled is the lighter and upper cloud layers, giving just a cloud environment to fight in.

If you go through the ground layer you explode, as you have hit the ground under the fog bank, so you have to fight above it?
Just thinking out loud?

Cheers, MP

Just a thought

[Tomahawko]

I may have been mistaken when I read previous posts by OM but I was reading them with that impression being given.
It almost makes you wonder if there could be a 'clouds' only map, where the ground is actually a Storm cloud or very low-lying fog (so darkish in colour letting the player know it is the ground layer), but then all that has to be modelled is the lighter and upper cloud layers, giving just a cloud environment to fight in.

If you go through the ground layer you explode, as you have hit the ground under the fog bank, so you have to fight above it?
Just thinking out loud?


I'd dig it.

[Swoop]

Me too :)

I just love using clouds in a fight and having to use instruments to ambush a following enemy.

It also makes flying in general more interesting and less of a fight sim and more of a flight sim.

Remember trying to land at the end a tense war mission in a thunder storm with a heavy cross wind, it just adds so much.

[T}{OR]

Well, Les Chevaliers du Ciel is a crap movie (Luc Besson production), but the visuals are pretty nice.

+1

The movie is crap, but the footage is awesome - and that is why it is worth watching. All recorded by HD cameras with real planes (cameras were hidden in fuel tanks).