water has no texture low/mid altitude

[memoric]

Hello

 

So as the title says, while flying today on a multiplayer server, i noticed that the water just is a unicolor surface with no texture. Just bloom very high.

Someone else noticed?

 

Btw. I was flying about 6000 feet above the sea. And I am using VR.

 

regards

Edited April 15, 2021 by memoric

[Ala12Rv-watermanpc]

It has "texture" just not as huge as before. It looks MUCH better AND realistic than before. Many improvements needed yet though.

 

take a look here:

 

 

[memoric]

I doubt that this is "more realistic". Realisticly it looks like on this picture, and not just a unicolor surface with no texture.

 

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by memoric

[Nightfall Zero]

I am a bad pilot I know, but I ended up crashing into the sea because I did not realise I was that low, lol. Earlier you could clearly see ripples / reflections, now not really.

[lcabc888]

It is a UNLIKELY event that a airport or city is without wind.

you can try adding some wind and you'll see the waves lol

 

[bigalsunit]

I’m glad to finally see this post! I thought it was just me.

 

The water is now devoid of any depth or texture, especially at altitude. In 2.5 at least we had subtle color gradients and distant “rollers.” Regardless of wind speed, the water texture can now only be seen within a very small radius from the sun’s reflection. Once outside of that, the sea is extremely flat and lifeless. 
 

Case in point, there seems to be no discernible difference anymore between the medium and high water quality settings. In 2.5 there was a significant difference between the two. I hope this is acknowledged by the devs.

[fagulha]

6 minutes ago, bigalsunit said:

I’m glad to finally see this post! I thought it was just me.

 

The water is now devoid of any depth or texture, especially at altitude. In 2.5 at least we had subtle color gradients and distant “rollers.” Regardless of wind speed, the water texture can now only be seen within a very small radius from the sun’s reflection. Once outside of that, the sea is extremely flat and lifeless. 
 

Case in point, there seems to be no discernible difference anymore between the medium and high water quality settings. In 2.5 there was a significant difference between the two. I hope this is acknowledged by the devs.

Now i use Medium where i used always on High.... 

And same issue, no depth or texture at medium or high altitude.

VR pilot here.

Edited April 15, 2021 by fagulha

[Ala12Rv-watermanpc]

6 hours ago, memoric said:

I doubt that this is "more realistic". Realisticly it looks like on this picture, and not just a unicolor surface with no texture.

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, NOW it looks quite close to that picture:

 

 

Believe me, it looks much better than before. Just increase surface wind to have some more waves, it is miles ahead to what we had before.

[Texac]

5 hours ago, Nightfall Zero said:

I am a bad pilot I know, but I ended up crashing into the sea because I did not realise I was that low, lol. Earlier you could clearly see ripples / reflections, now not really.

I'm not a pilot either, but from what I heard this is even an effect in reality. It is more difficult to estimate your height above water in certain lightning conditions. 

[Ala12Rv-watermanpc]

2 hours ago, Texac said:

I'm not a pilot either, but from what I heard this is even an effect in reality. It is more difficult to estimate your height above water in certain lightning conditions. 

Thats true!. Even Mover talked about that iirc.

[bigalsunit]

Water quality Low, Medium, and High respectively. They are identical. Regardless of what one individual finds realistic or not, it would appear that we have lost the ability to control our water effects within the options menu. Is this by design or is it an error?

[bigalsunit]

First picture, OpenBeta 2.5, water quality High. Note the white caps and “rolling sea” effect.
 

Second screenshot, OpenBeta 2.7, water quality High. No textures whatsoever. Just flat blue. 
 

Edit: Wind speed is 10kts in both screenshots.

Edited April 15, 2021 by bigalsunit

[bacon8er]

Photos aren't the right way to tell if this is "right" or not.  The water in a photo will depend more on the aperture and focal length.  IF there's enough bokeh, then the photos posted are going to lack detail.  Would have to get feedback from someone who's actually been in an F-18 over the ocean to know for sure.

[bigalsunit]

I agree. Do you see any graphical changes in game when switching between low, medium, and high water settings in the option menu?

Edited April 16, 2021 by bigalsunit

[Art-J]

10 hours ago, bigalsunit said:

First picture, OpenBeta 2.5, water quality High. Note the white caps and “rolling sea” effect.
 

Second screenshot, OpenBeta 2.7, water quality High. No textures whatsoever. Just flat blue. 
 

Edit: Wind speed is 10kts in both screenshots.

 

 

 

 

The point is, the 2.5.6 pic shows exactly what was very wrong about sea surface in all versions of 2.5.xx - the waves didn't scale properly with distance at all. Their size at the distant shore was almost the same as the ones below player's aircraft, not to mention that they looked pretty much the same whether you flew 500 ft or 5000 ft or 15 000 ft over the surface.

 

Now in 2.7 they scale properly at last, resembling something closer to reality.

 

 I do agree with you about lack of whitecaps, though. 

[Lurker]

Water looks much better to me, much more realistic. At 30 miles away I used to be able to see rollers and waves. That is completely unrealistic. 2.7 Water effects are pretty great (still need a bit more work though)

[bigalsunit]

18 minutes ago, Art-J said:

 

The point is, the 2.5.6 pic shows exactly what was very wrong about sea surface in all versions of 2.5.xx - the waves didn't scale properly with distance at all. Their size at the distant shore was almost the same as the ones below player's aircraft, not to mention that they looked pretty much the same whether you flew 500 ft or 5000 ft or 15 000 ft over the surface.

 

Now in 2.7 they scale properly at last, resembling something closer to reality.

 

 I do agree with you about lack of whitecaps, though. 

I’ll agree with you. They didn’t scale properly in 2.5.6. They needed to be reduced as altitude increased. But at least it showed some kind of depth and life. I realize that this is a very subjective topic and I am not trying to discount anyone’s opinion on the matter. My main concern is that in VR the water quality settings do not seem to have any effect on the visuals in-game and I am not sure if this is intentional or not.

[Lurker]

Just now, bigalsunit said:

I’ll agree with you. They didn’t scale properly in 2.5.6. They needed to be reduced as altitude increased. But at least it showed some kind of depth and life. I realize that this is a very subjective topic and I am not trying to discount anyone’s opinion on the matter. My main concern is that in VR the water quality settings do not seem to have any effect on the visuals in-game and I am not sure if this is intentional or not.

 

Are you sure about this last part? If that is so, then maybe you should consider opening up a topic on that in the Bug section. Also make sure to be checking the detail at low altitude, as at high altitude the differences might be negligible.

[Ala12Rv-watermanpc]

11 hours ago, bigalsunit said:

First picture, OpenBeta 2.5, water quality High. Note the white caps and “rolling sea” effect.
 

Second screenshot, OpenBeta 2.7, water quality High. No textures whatsoever. Just flat blue. 
 

Edit: Wind speed is 10kts in both screenshots.

 

 

First screen looks awful in regards to the water and very unrealistic. 10knt is not much wind to see white caps.

 

 

First 2 screens about 20knt. the rest about 30knt. MUCH more realistic in visuals and wind impact on water. Anyway, white caps need a lot of work. They have a weird "pulsating" effect that make them almost dissapear at once instead of randomly each individual white cap. Also, they should be whiter and more visible overall but definitely water looks MUCH better than before. Also, a lot of work yet to be done, specially with the way the sun reflects into water, again, please, take a look here:

 

 

[Ala12Rv-watermanpc]

Some real life examples:

 

 

 

 

[Lurker]

It has texture, fly low and slow and add some wind and you will see it. IMO it looks much better than before, it's not photorealistic that's for sure but baby steps, baby steps. 

I would rather have it this way than have the 2.5 waves which were completely unrealistic and could be seen from miles away. 

Edited April 16, 2021 by Lurker

[Ala12Rv-watermanpc]

yes, it looks way more realistic!!

 

Before:

 

 

Now:

 

 

Now they need to fix the sun reflection to make it behave as the real thing and it will make a massive improvement.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Ala12Rv-watermanpc

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

Water looks so much better now than before: the scaling at different altitudes finally seems resolved. I was very happy to see this

[peachmonkey]

I think what makes it weird in VR are the cloud reflections. In the sunny non-cloudy day the water looks great with 2.7. But as soon as there are clouds and it's overcast the water looks like a polished table top that somehow reflects everything there is in the sky.

[Cobra09]

On 4/15/2021 at 4:29 PM, Nightfall Zero said:

I am a bad pilot I know, but I ended up crashing into the sea because I did not realise I was that low, lol. Earlier you could clearly see ripples / reflections, now not really.

Exactly the same. Have lost all in deep perception of altitude, even with a flat sea day no wind, the see changes with altitude. This has become a 2D flat picture. Very dangerous, lol