Fantastic scenery but why these greenish glassshields ?

[masondom]

Hello Umberto & team.

Fantastic scenery. And i am happy that you  will be back soon with more airports.
Textures are great and sharp and i disagree with some comparisons with IS.
(except runway 18C, just noted texture flickering on take off)

Only one complain : why these green-ish glasshields ?

I see that you are using inside modeling but we don't see a damm thing from the cockpit.

Perhaps it's the way it is in reality but to me, it's... ugly.  

Dom Mason

[virtuali]

Only one complain : why these green-ish glasshields ?

Green ? They are more blue-ish...

I see that you are using inside modeling but we don't see a damm thing from the cockpit.

Perhaps it's the way it is in reality but to me, it's... ugly.

Not sure I understood you, do you think they are too opaque, or too transparent ?

[masondom]

Thanks you for your answer, Umberto

Yep, definitele green-ish (see the jpeg).
with pretty bad reflections.

Too opaque yes,

Thanks

Dom



NB : possibly something wrong with one of my graphic settings ?

[virtuali]

Yep, definitele green-ish (see the jpeg).
with pretty bad reflections.

Ok, got it. You have the dynamic reflections disabled in the P3D graphic settings so, the sim is reverting to the default reflection cubemap, which is a country scene with evergreens...

If you enable the dynamic reflections, you'll see the actual scenery reflected in the window. That's how P3D works...

[masondom]

But i am in FSX here 

Is your remark still valid ?
Dom

[virtuali]

But i am in FSX here

Ok, sorry, I haven't realized that...so, in this case the explanation is similar, because the default reflection map in FSX is exactly the same "pinewood" scenery that has been around for years.

Now, in some of our earlier sceneries, like KIAH, we provided with a different reflection map but the issue is, if you do that, you'll LOSE the dynamic reflections in Prepar3D, because your own custom bitmap would take precedence.

Since the scenery has been made primarily with P3D in mind (we are even considering to do the next one for P3D V4 only, go figure...), we haven't used any custom reflection maps in the models, in order not to lose the dynamic reflections in P3D, so we are back to the usual pinewood scene in FSX...

[masondom]

I am still happy with the scenery and i understand your logic.

But keep in mind that other developers have offset this limitation and can offer very effective glasshields effects in FSX.

During our last discussion (for Memphis), you advised me to switch to FSX Acceleration and i did it.

Now i should go directly to P3D V4. I understand that as well but it's taking a lot of money to do so.
(remember that PMDG requires 2 separate licences for its aircrafts).

So in clear, if you do release Louisville only for P3D, i will not follow. And it will be sad cause i enjoy your products.

Dom Mason

[virtuali]

But keep in mind that other developers have offset this limitation and can offer very effective glasshields effects in FSX.

Other developers...I believe you might know we could even easily switch dynamically between two different versions of the object, depending on the sim used, and as I've said, WE did custom reflection maps years ago, because there wasn't such thing as dynamic reflections back then, they were added with P3D 3.

So yes, we *could*, in theory, offer a better solution for FSX. But why would we ? FSX is already crushing under its own weight so, why should we spend time=effort=money, just to keep it alive for a short while more ?

The same time=effort=money would be much better spent doing more and more P3D-only stuff, gradually, the more and more the platform gets more widespread use.

See, with P3D V3, there's wasn't much incentive to work natively on it, to support all the *amazing* thing it can do in with its own SDK (not backward compatible with FSX), because they might not have fit in memory just the same.

But V4 changes everything, because we know it could handle so much more, that we won't risk killing the system trying new things.

Now i should go directly to P3D V4. I understand that as well but it's taking a lot of money to do so. (remember that PMDG requires 2 separate licences for its aircrafts).

I can only say we are doing our part.

Take something like KLAS. Released in 2009, when FS9 was still around. Former FS9 users that bought KLAS for FS9, were able to bring it over FSX, FSX:SE, P3D 1, 2 and 3, and now even P3D4, and we never charge A PENNY for those 8 years of upgrades...

So in clear, if you do release Louisville only for P3D, i will not follow. And it will be sad cause i enjoy your products.

No, KSDF is almost done, and it will be released for FSX.

But we are seriously considering making the new O'Hare (total remake) P3D4-only, because there are new things that has been added in the V4 SDK, that are doing all the difference in the world in relationship with balancing visual quality and performances, and would require an entirely different approach to modeling, that if we wanted to do an FSX version, it will be like doing an entirely new product.

[Rick816]

I am also getting texture flickering masondom. I am using FSX!