Friday 2010-06-17 Dev. update and Discussion Thread

[Oleg Maddox]

Originally Posted by Fansadox

Nice screens but why are all screenshots without AF and AA?

When we will have new video cards that are compatible with new technologies. At the moment we haven't them.

[philip.ed]

Oleg, can't hedges be made as whole, static objects, maybe for show? From an aerial view, they would look awesome, and then like the grass when you get down low they can change into more detailed objects....

[KOM.Nausicaa]

Originally Posted by philip.ed

Oleg, can't hedges be made as whole, static objects, maybe for show? From an aerial view, they would look awesome, and then like the grass when you get down low they can change into more detailed objects....

Hi, I know some of 3D. Oleg is right about the jumping arcs. And your idea "as a whole" can't be done, because you would need a lot of objects of the same detail "as a whole" too, otherwise your hedges will look like an awkward sharp "net" over the landscape until far into the distance, while all of the rest of the objects are blurred away in the atmosphere. (at least that is how it would look if I understood your idea correctly). You have to put all things really into the same "system of laws" that you have established (distance of rendering, detail of rendering)...giving one thing a free "rogue" permission will just result in horribly awkward pictures.

[philip.ed]

Originally Posted by KOM.Nausicaa

Hi, I know some of 3D. Oleg is right about the jumping arcs. And your idea "as a whole" can't be done, because you would need a lot of objects of the same detail "as a whole" too, otherwise your hedges will look like an awkward sharp "net" over the landscape until far into the distance, while all of the rest of the objects are blurred away in the atmosphere. (at least that is how it would look if I understood your idea correctly). You have to put all things really into the same "system of laws" that you have established (distance of rendering, detail of rendering)...giving one thing a free "rogue" permission will just result in horribly awkward pictures.

Ah OK. Still, looking at what other flight-sims have acomplished, I think that this could be possible. To any degree, I have been driving around Kent a lot recently, and there are a lot more hedges than trees around And the trees that are in a majority, ie in forests, have their foliage almost covering the trunks so the trunks are hardly noticeable, so from an aerial viewpoint the trunks would probably not be seen. I think this needs to be looked into, along with the colours of the landscape.

EDIT-but of course this is all WIP

Let's look at Il-2 gents. Compare how it is now, modded or unmodded, to the original demo and the difference is staggering IMO. If SoW follows in a similar way, then this will relly be interesting

[KOM.Nausicaa]

Originally Posted by philip.ed

have their foliage almost covering the trunks so the trunks are hardly noticeable,

Do you have any idea what that foliage will do to you frame rates Philip.ed?

[philip.ed]

Originally Posted by KOM.Nausicaa

Do you have any idea what that foliage will do to you frame rates Philip.ed?

LOL. I can imagine, although taking the example of WOP perhaps it could be avoided? e.g, in areas of forest, the trees could be static, i.e with no moving leaves etc apart from maybe the trees on the outside of the forest-area. So here, the effect would be visible from looking at the forest, without there being a massive impact of frame-rates

[KOM.Nausicaa]

if I understand correctly you talk about moving effects, like wind ?
But the problem really comes from the polygon count from the leaves and branches themselves, no matter if you have additional effects. That is why there are so many third party tree renderer, because creating custom trees from scratch is a massive resource eater for any studio. Tree renderer solve the "species" problem (you can buy from a library) and they are made to perform well and look reasonable -- which is very hard to achieve. That is why some companies have (rightfully) found a business model in selling trees and foliage to cinema and game studios.