CoD vs some other sims that model Kent?

[klem]

As far as the Terrain itself is concerned I prefer the colouration, and content of the FSX Horizon photo terrain, see attached. The Just Flight photo terrain is not bad but seemed a bit washed out to me in their demo.

Of course photo terrain gives you a much better idea of the population of trees and hedgrows. In CoD its too "Walt Disney", there seem to be too few hedgerows, trees too large and turning trees fully up is not much like the English countryside. England is just not populated with single trees every two hundred yards and especially not so concentrated in the suburbs apart from parks. Most roadside trees are growing among hedgerows. The OPs CoD views show the problem, where the trees are strung out along the roads they are far too regular, no hedgerows and the trees seem a bit overscale, as do the buildings (well perhaps its the way they are drawn, too highly coloured or something). It would perhaps be better to model some whole woods and some hedgerows with trees as single objects and place them along roads and across the terrain.

I don't have WoP but - quality aside - the OPs s/shot shows general layout/field and hedgegrow concentration more like it.

Compare "CoD (aka "the real Deal"?)" with WoP and you'll se the difference in tree scaling, placement and population.

[RocketDog]

Originally Posted by klem

In CoD its too "Walt Disney", there seem to be too few hedgerows, trees too large and turning trees fully up is not much like the English countryside. England is just not populated with single trees every two hundred yards and especially not so concentrated in the suburbs apart from parks. Most roadside trees are growing among hedgerows. The OPs CoD views show the problem, where the trees are strung out along the roads they are far too regular, no hedgerows and the trees seem a bit overscale, as do the buildings (well perhaps its the way they are drawn, too highly coloured or something). It would perhaps be better to model some whole woods and some hedgerows with trees as single objects and place them along roads and across the terrain.

Agreed. I suspect the devs have painted themselves into a corner with the way they use trees in CloD. The speedtrees look great close up, and so allows the game engine to be easily adapted to ground-based tank sims or whatever. Unfortunately, the technology doesn't seem to lend itself to making the sort of blocks of dense woodland that we have in the UK. Perhaps so many trees would hammer the frame rate. RoF's trees are nothing like as good close up (in fact, they are quite ugly), but from the air they can make very convincing dark-green forests and blocks of woodland of the sort we actually get in the UK and Northern France. At this stage in the process it's probably too late for them to make major changes to CloD, but it would have been nice if they had done a bit more research into the English countryside before producing the terrain.

[ctec1]

And another FSX variant, somewhere near Manston for comparison:

[fruitbat]

Originally Posted by ctec1

And another FSX variant, somewhere near Manston for comparison:

Wow, that looks absolutely nothing like where i live, lol.

nothing is right in that, from the houses, fields, field sizes, colours....

by the way, i live 2 miles from the end of manston runway.

[ctec1]

In response, Its not photorealistic scenery. Its simply FSX and UTX combined trying recreate the area with the installed textures. I'm not even aware of an addon for that area of the UK.

Not sure exactly where that shot was taken from , I took off from Manston and was flying around for a bit. I'd guess I would be within a 50 mile radius. FSX wasnt made to depict Manston in particular. I just chose the airport and that is what was rendered. I dont think thats a bad job considering





SRY, I tried to adjustthe angle of the image to be more in line with my previous screenshot but it became slightly blurred

[ATAG_Dutch]

Originally Posted by fruitbat

Wow, that looks absolutely nothing like where i live, i live 2 miles from the end of manston runway.

Here are four views of Manston, two from 1940 and two from now-ish.

1) VFR 'Real Scenery'
2) GEX (Ground Environment Europe)
3) IL2
4) Cliffs of Dover

All taken at 12.30pm in mid-summer, with clear skies.

[fruitbat]

Originally Posted by Dutch_851

Here are four views of Manston, two from 1940 and two from now-ish.

1) VFR 'Real Scenery'
2) GEX (Ground Environment Europe)
3) IL2
4) Cliffs of Dover

All taken at 12.30pm in mid-summer.

well the second one is rubbish beyond belief.

il2 as much as i like it isn't particularly good, kinda springish if you try hard, but works fine in il2.

the first one although ugly, is pretty good colour wise for this time of year (april/may), but rubbish for summer, ie BoB, plus wrong crops for BoB.

Clodo, if the trees were the right mix of colours (there far to light green), is actually passable, but the tress are all wrong really, and there loads of trees here in SE Kent.... I'm not really sure what the fields are supposed to represent either, but hey ho. Its a kinda generic 'fit'

with some work on the trees, it would be by far the best imo....

heres some pics i took last summer (aug) when i was working, gives you some idea of the trees.







tress will always appear darker because of the fact they cast shadow on themselves.

[ATAG_Dutch]

Originally Posted by fruitbat

well the second one is rubbish beyond belief.

il2 as much as i like it isn't particularly good, kinda springish if you try hard, but works fine in il2.

the first one although ugly, is pretty good colour wise for this time of year (april/may), but rubbish for summer, ie BoB, plus wrong crops for BoB.

Clodo, if the trees were the right mix of colours (there far to light green), is actually passable, but the tress are all wrong really, and there loads of trees here in SE Kent.... I'm not really sure what the fields are supposed to represent either, but hey ho. Its a kinda generic 'fit'

with some work on the trees, it would be by far the best imo....

heres some pics i took last summer (aug) when i was working, gives you some idea of the trees.

I agree, the GEX stuff is very poor, and cost far more than it's worth.

The VFR scenery looks terrible in Kent, but looks much better in Wales , although there're no dynamic shadows, and no buildings, grass or trees on the ground. That 'add-on' cost the same as the CoD Collector's Edtition.

The IL2 map still has those 'layered' forests and 3D trees, but of course was free.

As for colour, here's a shot I just took out of the window with my phone (note dead palm tree from the frosts of December).

The colour mix there matches quite well with CoD methinks.