Higher Detail Ground Textures

[Aginor]

yep, me too!

 

EDIT: Or extended to the east or south to get some Armenia, or Azerbaijan, or Turkey, or Syria or Iran in.

Endless possibilities. It is such an interesting region.

[NineLine]

Maybe. One must consider the years we have had to populate the current map with mission content. That simply doesn't go away when new maps are released. Couple that with the Caucuses being available for all while other maps (conceivably) will be behind a paywall and you've got a recipe for its dominance for potentially years to come.

 

We will see I suppose. Its hard to tell right now as the first EDGE map isnt even fully out of the gates, but what I have seen in new maps, and what I know about where they are going I am thinking there will be more of a desire to release more content for those new maps and put the old one behind us... or get the older one to a level more equal to the new maps...

[NineLine]

Current standard textures is fine. Look at the long way DCS have come in 10 years! Impressive! Thanks ED!

 

I would pay for extended Caucasus map if Crimea and west coast of black sea is populated!

 

I dont think the elevation mesh is correct in those areas right now, I think the only way we would see something that is a rebuild of the old map or new map entirely...

[AH89]

Expand the map

 

I'm very glad someone said this! My vote goes to this. I feel its fine just expand the map, NTTR was a huge download if you try and turn the Black sea map into that your going to need a hard drive just to store the map. I would rather pay to expand the map, and include more interesting locations than to fly around a very polished tiny grid square. Btw the texture mods from the community are a great thing.

Edited April 12, 2016 by AH89

[Vivoune]

Texture painting is very subjective and everyone will have its own opinion on which modder is the "best" thus I don't see much point in debating it. I'm not sure I'm ready to pay for textures packs for such old maps in DCS. And it kinda opens the door to paid mods which is a whole other matter.

 

No matter how good the textures it's still a map created 10 years ago, it shows, I think the best approach about Georgia would simply be to redo the map (maybe even expand it if possible) to reach the new coming map standards and have it paid DLC like Nevada is right now if finances are an issue.

 

I know we can read a lot of people that are sick of the current map but a lot of us are still very much enjoying the dark grim temperate terrain that Georgia offers.

Edited April 12, 2016 by Vivoune

[Northstar98]

...No matter how good the textures it's still a map created 10 years ago, it shows, I think the best approach about Georgia would simply be to redo the map (maybe even expand it if possible) to reach the new coming map standards and have it paid DLC like Nevada is right now if finances are an issue.

 

I know we can read a lot of people that are sick of the current map but a lot of us are still very much enjoying the dark grim temperate terrain that Georgia offers.

 

Agreed

[RabidRider]

That requires that the graphical system and terrain system has been designed to offer that, it is not about hardware power (unless we talk that someone is flying still with PC from 2005 and wants full details).

 

 

And what does automatic random terrain generation mean?

 

 

 

We do not need an FPS gamers level of detail than at very close range, and that is what can be totally random (not-required to be synced with the clients), but then everything else requires to be synced, so it needs to be drawn from existing datapool that what is suppose to be where.

 

And that should be on the client-side, and it isn't really heavy in the end because you can't really be same time at high altitude seeing everything, and then be in the ground level seeing the rocks and grass, because only specific distance around you is getting drawn.

 

 

ED knows this, so should many others. And the real biggest resource hungry for that is simply the disk space.

 

I don't know about you guys, but I would be willing to drop 50GiB more for DCS if it would allow better terrain possibility as add-on.

 

And it wouldn't even be a such because I would say "Ditch the photorealism" and "Ditch the realism". I don't want that terrain is trying to do what Microsoft FSX or X-Plane does with the airports and cities etc, being ultra realistic where even handicapped parking lots are correctly placed.

 

Because I am not interested to operate on the airfields. My 99% of the time happens in elsewhere than admiring hangars and airfields operation, it happens on combat areas, it happens in the air and on the ground.

 

If you have textures, then you have basically already the mapping data for randomly generated terrain. You just spray that data there and done. No hand placing rocks, trees etc.

 

One more video showing of procedural generation in Elite Dangerous:

 

[ame=

]

[/ame]

 

 

How great would it be to have this technology in EDGE. Lighting, scale, number of objects, etc. are all great in EDGE, though fine geometry detail of the maps could be improved imo. Shadows would benefit from this as well. Perhaps it's time for a kickstarter? :) If succesfull, ED could hire the coders behind Frontier Development's Horizon update/Cobra engine and update EDGE with this technology, shouldn't be that hard. :D I wouldn't mind paying a hundred dollars or more to fund such an update/add-on.

 

The tech behind Horizons was done by just two people I believe.

 

[ame=

]

[/ame] Edited April 12, 2016 by RabidRider

[NineLine]

One more video showing of procedural generation in Elite Dangerous:

 

 

 

How great would it be to have this technology in EDGE. Lighting, scale, number of objects, etc. are all great in EDGE, though fine geometry detail of the maps could be improved imo. Shadows would benefit from this as well. Perhaps it's time for a kickstarter? :) If succesfull, ED could hire the coders behind Frontier Development's Horizon update/Cobra engine and update EDGE with this technology, shouldn't be that hard. :D I wouldn't mind paying a hundred dollars or more to fund such an update/add-on.

 

In recent updates you can see they said they are already starting to kick the tires on the procedural stuff. Things continue to evolve.

[RabidRider]

Ow, I didn't know that. That sounds exciting!

[wolle]

I think ED should focus on pushing the new technology for the new maps. Glad to hear from Sith that that's where ED's focus is nowadays:thumbup:

[Trubshaw]

This is an interesting debate but for me textures can be a matter of personal preference, take for example the Hawk cockpit texture!

 

However, the most important thing is to make the environment believable and that can be very subjective. Instead of more textures that some people will like others not I would like to see the very angular pyramid type mountains and hills changed like the ones if you fly into the mountains north of Gudauta. I guess this is terrain mesh.

 

And yes like many supporters of ED over the year from their Su 27 years I really would pay to see the Crimea back.

 

Having spent a great deal of my spare time over the past 20 odd years in a virtual environment created by the professionals at ED I have to say that, on balance, they have done a great job and long may it continue!

[RabidRider]

Two more recent examples of in-game procedurally generated landscapes:

 

Star Citizen planetary landing citizencon 2016:

Outerra of course:

Edited October 19, 2016 by RabidRider

[MikeMikeJuliet]

Seems this thread has been cold for some time now. But, to keep people informed, ED is recreating the current Caucasus map with a new mesh, new structure models and new textures. And no, the map is not going to be extended.

 

Regards,

MikeMikeJuliet

[Jarlerus]

Seems this thread has been cold for some time now. But, to keep people informed, ED is recreating the current Caucasus map with a new mesh, new structure models and new textures. And no, the map is not going to be extended.

 

Regards,

MikeMikeJuliet

I just want to add a side note that Starway has promised to update his textures for 2,5, when it comes as well.

 

//Jarl