markturner1960 Posted June 9, 2020 Posted June 9, 2020 Hi, I was wondering if someone either from DCS or the community, who knows this stuff, could explain for a little about how this works from both a modding POV and developers view.... The current terrain rendering and stuff like water masking and close detail, leaves a lot to be desired - in particular, the "mesh" or terrain resolution within the sim - hills are very rounded, and compared to for example what can be achieved within even relatively old ( now ) sims such as FSX, with additional mesh detail and photoreal scenery, compares quite poorly. There seems to be a noticeable lack of mods or even 3rd party developer products that address this, compared to the plethora of mods for just about everything else and I wondered why this was ? Is the terrain and topography that difficult to alter within DCS? And what are the limitations of the way the sim renders these, that make it so and indeed why ED themselves have not really improved this much at all, almost since the days of Black Shark? This is not a moan along the lines of " I want XXX feature now..." but rather a wish to understand more fully what is happening or not and why ......I know a new weather engine is in the works, but also waaay down the list, this would also make a huge difference. I just think with competition such as MSFS 2020 coming soon and already better options in existing sims, that ED have perhaps taken their eye off a key part of the sim......after all, when you look out the window, its got to look real, hasn't it? Thanks System specs: PC1 :Scan 3XS Ryzen 5900X, 64GB Corsair veng DDR4 3600, EVGA GTX 3090 Win 10, Quest Pro, Samsung Odyssey G9 Neo monitor.
Flagrum Posted June 9, 2020 Posted June 9, 2020 From a modding and developers POV: the necessary tools to work with the terrain data are only available for registered 3rd party developers. There are texture mods available for different maps, but afaik we can't modify the 3d data at all. I have no clue about 3d modelling and such stuff, but DCS terrain seems to be quite a complicated beast. Allone due to the fact that there are several versions of the "terrain engine" that run the different maps (i.e. each map seems to have it's own special features and particularities which have to be known and properly taken into account)
markturner1960 Posted June 9, 2020 Author Posted June 9, 2020 Ok...thanks...that is a shame!! Wonder why they made it so difficult.....when everything else is easily modded.... System specs: PC1 :Scan 3XS Ryzen 5900X, 64GB Corsair veng DDR4 3600, EVGA GTX 3090 Win 10, Quest Pro, Samsung Odyssey G9 Neo monitor.
Rudel_chw Posted June 9, 2020 Posted June 9, 2020 ... I just think with competition such as MSFS 2020 coming soon and already better options in existing sims, that ED have perhaps taken their eye off a key part of the sim...... At least to me, FS2020 won’t really make me leave DCS .. I need the weaponry, system’s simulation and combat more than a pretty terrain :) For work: iMac mid-2010 of 27" - Core i7 870 - 6 GB DDR3 1333 MHz - ATI HD5670 - SSD 256 GB - HDD 2 TB - macOS High Sierra For Gaming: 34" Monitor - Ryzen 3600 - 32 GB DDR4 2400 - nVidia RTX2080 - SSD 1.25 TB - HDD 10 TB - Win10 Pro - TM HOTAS Cougar Mobile: iPad Pro 12.9" of 256 GB
Flagrum Posted June 9, 2020 Posted June 9, 2020 Ok...thanks...that is a shame!! Wonder why they made it so difficult.....when everything else is easily modded.... As I said, I am no expert in regards to 3d, but I assume that the terrain consists of a lot of binary data that has to match many other parts of what makes a map, like the buildings, streets, etc. You can't just modify one without having to adjust the other. All that makes it necessary to use specialized tools that take care of that to some degree. Those tools are probably quite complex in itself and if ED would release them to the general public, they would also have to be "fool proof". Probably ED don't want to support those, besides DCS World and their modules, as that would be a "Fass ohne Boden" (a barrel without bottom) as we say in german. For other parts of DCS World uses the LUA scripting language, which can be changes with any text editor. And texture files are usually also quite easily editable. I'd assume, that is the reason why terrain is unmoddable atm - to much binary data and complex interdependencies. I am sure, they did not make it that way to be difficult - it just IS difficult.
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