Friday 2010-09-17 Dev. update and Discussions

[AWL_Spinner]

Originally Posted by phillip.ed

I have known about this FSX addon for a while now, and apparently it's awesome ( I can't comment first hand though )
It's called Real-Environment-Xtreme (REX) and it looks quite amazing. Just look at those clouds

I mean, with SoW's particle physics, working in collaboration with a company like this could produce great results (although maybe not free results...)

REX is wonderful, but within the confines of the FS-X engine it's akin to putting lipstick on a pig.

FS-X is a wonderful tool for generating screenshots, but you have to bear in mind that these are largely 2D images which do a crazy dance if you try and get in among them - FS-X just isn't build for properly volumetric clouds and whilst you can generate some stunning flat images with burnt-in shadows on the ground and REX clouds behind you, they don't look nearly as good in close-up motion as they do in a still.

I'd take less detail in properly rendered 3D clouds any day!

(although, having said that, whilst the lighting looks great in the screenshots we've seen so far from SoW, the clouds are an area that worry me.... hoping for some more exciting atmospherics to be revealed in future updates)

Cheers, Spinner

[philip.ed]

Originally Posted by AWL_Spinner

REX is wonderful, but within the confines of the FS-X engine it's akin to putting lipstick on a pig.

FS-X is a wonderful tool for generating screenshots, but you have to bear in mind that these are largely 2D images which do a crazy dance if you try and get in among them - FS-X just isn't build for properly volumetric clouds and whilst you can generate some stunning flat images with burnt-in shadows on the ground and REX clouds behind you, they don't look nearly as good in close-up motion as they do in a still.

I'd take less detail in properly rendered 3D clouds any day!

(although, having said that, whilst the lighting looks great in the screenshots we've seen so far from SoW, the clouds are an area that worry me.... hoping for some more exciting atmospherics to be revealed in future updates)

Cheers, Spinner

Yep, I can see what you mean. Judging from the pictures and videos shown, the clouds in SoW do look volumetric so I am confident that clouds which look like REX can be achieved. It's all about shape really, as clouds in Britain generally always have flat bottoms apart from when you see parts of clouds 'break' off; in which case a kind of spiral can be seen in the sky. WoP has this type of cloud modelled, and it looks quite nice really. A google search for clouds will bring up good results.
A few updates back I posted a youtube video of a 2007 cloud application (called nimbus or something like that) which showed some awesome looking clouds, so I really do think that it's possible

[kedrednael]

Originally Posted by AWL_Spinner

REX is wonderful, but within the confines of the FS-X engine it's akin to putting lipstick on a pig.

FS-X is a wonderful tool for generating screenshots, but you have to bear in mind that these are largely 2D images which do a crazy dance if you try and get in among them - FS-X just isn't build for properly volumetric clouds and whilst you can generate some stunning flat images with burnt-in shadows on the ground and REX clouds behind you, they don't look nearly as good in close-up motion as they do in a still.

I'd take less detail in properly rendered 3D clouds any day!
Cheers, Spinner

indeed! + 1 or something, maybe 800.
Just look at ROF they have 3D clouds and they look better when you are moving, although you get a strange white out when you fly near them. This also happens in il2