Screenshots requested

[philstyle]

Hi all.

 

 

Can I please get folks to upload screenshots of what the normandy water looks like on their PC?

Ideally I'd like to see them from an altitude between 1000 and 5000ft.

 

I want to compare with mine which I intend to upload later in the week.

 

But basically, the water for me is just like a completely flat and very dark blue texture that only starts to show any kind of surface from about 500ft altitude.

Flying over water is very difficult indeed and contacts almost disappear completely.

 

I'm keen to know if this is just my system, or if it is universal.

Edited September 4, 2017 by philstyle

[PorcoRosso86]

Hi all.

 

 

Can I please get folks to upload screenshots of what the normandy water looks like on their PC?

Ideally I'd like to see them from an altitude between 1000 and 5000ft.

 

I want to compare with mine which I intend to upload later in the week.

 

But basically, the water for me is just like a completely flat and very dark blue texture that only starts to show any kind of surface from about 500ft altitude.

Flying over water is very difficult indeed and contacts almost disappear completely.

 

I'm keen to know if this is just my system, or if it is universal.

 

Same here, big flat blue field. No sense of deep. I will do some screen how requered

[Nirvi]

Just make sure you all use the same weather settings. Wind/time of day can change the look of the sea significantly.

[Reflected]

Same here! A few weeks ago I flew over a big lake at 2-3000 feet, and I was surprised how little sense of depth I got. It was a big flat blue mass with no waves visible. Then again, there was no wind that day.

[philstyle]

Same here! A few weeks ago I flew over a big lake at 2-3000 feet, and I was surprised how little sense of depth I got. It was a big flat blue mass with no waves visible. Then again, there was no wind that day.

 

No wind should make the water MORE reflective of light, especially as angles reduce.

In DCS a flat lake/ sea is less reflective... this is counter-realistic.

[Magic Zach]

Might depend on your visual range setting, or whatever it was called. You may be able to see waves when down low, but the farther you get, it turns flat. Possibility? Checker your water quality. Mine is on LOW and I can see waves.

Opening DCS now to be the actual first guy to GET screenshots...

[Magic Zach]

These are with low settings. Water is at low, preload radius at low (see if it affects anything), and visible range at low.

[ATTACH]168645[/ATTACH] 4000ft

[ATTACH]168646[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]168647[/ATTACH] And you can see what altitude in this one

 

These next three are with water at high settings, preload radius is almost halfway up (can't remember the number), and visible range is at high.

[ATTACH]168648[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]168649[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]168650[/ATTACH]

I honestly can't tell that much of a difference, other than a unplayable FPS drop.

I used the Instant Action Freeflight mission.

 

These are with the same settings as above, only at 7:50PM. No wind.

[ATTACH]168661[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]168662[/ATTACH]

 

These next ones are with the same graphic settings as the ones just above, but with deferred shading enabled:

[ATTACH]168663[/ATTACH] Instant action freeflight

[ATTACH]168664[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]168665[/ATTACH] Sunset again

 

Something I noticed, with deferred shading enabled and with the sun real low on the horizon, you can see a streak of light along the water. But with deferred shading DISABLED, you get have the oval reflection travel up, until it's right at the horizon just before the sun goes down.

Edited September 4, 2017 by Magic Zach
Added def shading and sunset screenshots

[philstyle]

Thanks MZ, the ones I am most interested in are the ones without the sun glare.

It seems you have similar problem to me; when there isn't one of those balls/stripes of sunglare, the water has no texture depth whatsoever and it is just a deep blue flat carpet.

 

 

This is both ugly and difficult to fly over.

 

 

I would show an example of how the sea could/should be done, with reference to another newly released combat flight sim product, but that might get me moderated . . so I won't do that...

[OnlyforDCS]

I agree that the water looks kind of flat from high(ish) altitudes, especially during midday, sunny & clear conditions, which everyone seems to be running on their servers. However I don't think this is necessarily very wrong:

 

 

The sea does lose quite a bit of it's definition from on high at those kinds of conditions.

[philstyle]

I agree that the water looks kind of flat from high(ish) altitudes, especially during midday, sunny & clear conditions, which everyone seems to be running on their servers. However I don't think this is necessarily very wrong:

The sea does lose quite a bit of it's definition from on high at those kinds of conditions.

 

 

 

Nice shot OnlyforDCS - OK; I have to agree with you here from that angle and in those conditions that real-life shot looks pretty similar to what we see in DCS. . . I think there is a compromise position.

 

 

It seems that the area of sea that is reflecting sunlight in DCS might be just too small, hence we get this very shap, but limited section of high reflection and the rest of the water becomes a light trap.

 

 

The first 30 seconds of this video show how big and diffuse the sun's reflection could/ should be:

 

 

It might just be that increasing the size of the reflection area would resolve the problems.

[aileron]

Guys, cameras don't reflect what your eyeballs see. You have high dynamic range mark 1 eyeballs that pick up way more light than a camera does.

 

I don't ever recall seeing the ocean/lakes on any day in my life like what I'm seeing in DCS right now; flying or just high up in the hills. It seems to eat the reflected light. Err.. I mean it seems to not reflect the light.

Edited September 5, 2017 by aileron

[SkateZilla]

please attach your settings screen.

[philstyle]

please attach your settings screen.

 

Mine here:

http://i.imgur.com/m0zON35.jpg

[Ala12Rv-watermanpc]

Nice shot OnlyforDCS - OK; I have to agree with you here from that angle and in those conditions that real-life shot looks pretty similar to what we see in DCS. . . I think there is a compromise position.

 

 

It seems that the area of sea that is reflecting sunlight in DCS might be just too small, hence we get this very shap, but limited section of high reflection and the rest of the water becomes a light trap.

 

 

The first 30 seconds of this video show how big and diffuse the sun's reflection could/ should be:

 

 

It might just be that increasing the size of the reflection area would resolve the problems.

 

Guys, cameras don't reflect what your eyeballs see. You have high dynamic range mark 1 eyeballs that pick up way more light than a camera does.

 

I don't ever recall seeing the ocean/lakes on any day in my life like what I'm seeing in DCS right now; flying or just high up in the hills. It seems to eat the reflected light. Err.. I mean it seems to not reflect the light.

 

you might be interested in a couple of post I mede some time ago:

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=190227

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=188419

 

Agree with both, definetely, the sun and sky reflections in the water need to be bigger as well as the general light in the water. In the first link I talk about this, posting some real life examples but the video philstyle posted is great to demostrate this thing. Sun reflection should be much bigger and the water at hours where the sun is high in the sky uses to have a clear milky and silky look as you go higher and higher in the side you are between the sun and the sea:

 

 

In the second link, I posted an issue that seems to be yet in the latest version. The problem is that the first time you load a mission, the reflection of the sun is different (the reflection doesnt reach the horizon line at hours where it should and its bigger although not as big as it should) than in successive flights, so you need to restart DCS in order to have again a more correct sun reflection.

 

Both of this things are affecting right now to this matter.

[DSSRapidfire]

this dudes videos show different areas I guess..

 

[Ala12Rv-watermanpc]

this dudes videos show different areas I guess..

 

 

sorry mate, what do you mean?

[DSSRapidfire]

sorry mate, what do you mean?

 

the different problems I see is the shadows and and LOD issues in there, like the skins will disappear and reappear at different distances, the contrails will appear and disappear at different FOVs, the sun will shade the contrails to look like dark smoked clouds. those are examples that I see in his videos. also I see the P51's fuel wing tanks appear and disappear at different FOV zoom in and out. All so I see HDR issues or PBR, and some sort of effect they put in for making it look like the sun causing your eyes to dim? I think that's hurting the gamma or contrast issues too.

Edited September 18, 2017 by DSSRapidfire