Summer Texture Update - A job well done, people

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

The thumbnail tells it all.

Apologise in advance the little "message" at the start of the video.

[MAXsenna]

The thumbnail tells it all.
Apologise in advance the little "message" at the start of the video.

Still processing.

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

Apologies, it is a huge file...and my internet is slow...almost there....(insert your trench run quotes here)

[Gierasimov]

OK so this still shows the map from the altitude. 

One of the newsletters from ED said:

DCS: Kola map has received a massive revamp to its summer time textures. All ground textures have been replaced with high quality custom textures that combine satellite and real imagery to deliver a much more realistic environment at low altitude.
 

Is this true? Does the map now look better at ground level?

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

Skip near to the end of the video and it may give you some hints.

Or I make another video.

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

 

[Gunfreak]

1 hour ago, Gierasimov said:

OK so this still shows the map from the altitude. 

One of the newsletters from ED said:

DCS: Kola map has received a massive revamp to its summer time textures. All ground textures have been replaced with high quality custom textures that combine satellite and real imagery to deliver a much more realistic environment at low altitude.
 

Is this true? Does the map now look better at ground level?

It looks better lower down yes.

At ground level, no not really.

Instead of flying 15 000 feet over the mountains. It's noe good enough to fly 3-4000 feet over the mountains.

The main changes is much better colours. The mountains are a much better, darker gray, With lighter gray speckeling, you have permanent snow on some mountain tops. The green is much much better. Generally darker.

All this makes it look much more realistic. And perfect fine flying at 3-4000 feet over the nearest terrain. But still not helicopter play land. The ground textures not covered with rock or trees are particularly bad. It looks like it's trying to representanter fields of some kind? But don't look good at all. Not a place you want to land a helicopter or have a ground fight.

[Gierasimov]

Thank you. I think I will still keep my aircraft flying over Syria and its neighbors. 

[Gunfreak]

32 minutes ago, Gierasimov said:

Thank you. I think I will still keep my aircraft flying over Syria and its neighbors. 

I did some replay recording. And once the camera is all the way down. It's mostly covered in grass and looks OK. The absolute worst place to be in regards to ground textures in in-between 200 feet and 2000 feet. When you don't see the grass but the low quality textures of odd colours and patterns. But once you put the camera at head hight it looks quite a bit better then I thought it would 

[Gierasimov]

10 minutes ago, Gunfreak said:

I did some replay recording. And once the camera is all the way down. It's mostly covered in grass and looks OK. The absolute worst place to be in regards to ground textures in in-between 200 feet and 2000 feet. When you don't see the grass but the low quality textures of odd colours and patterns. But once you put the camera at head hight it looks quite a bit better then I thought it would 

Good to know for the future, maybe one day. Syria terrain, with recent events is still my go to for now.

[Flia]

Im flying alot from Bodo today in my Kiowa. And im pretty disapointed with quality of textures there. Maybe texures around Bodo was not imprpoved ? I fly at August month.

Edited October 2, 2024 by Flia

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

And as per the airport clip above, it is also not as good as it could be.

Edited October 2, 2024 by VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants

[flanker1]

JUST ONE WORD. AWFUL. but anyways, thanks for sharing!! 

[archer86]

I am disappointed!

I bought the kola map 2 weeks ago when the new summer textures preview shots released, I expected more than this, but now, I have to continue with my new expectations from future updates.

I like the colour transitions between greens and grey tone, from horizontal distance and high altitude it looks beautiful and realistic but when it comes to lower altitudes, noooo!  it looks like ... civilian sims low resolution photoscenery times, even worse at some points.  

I also noticed light yellow areas which spreaded all over the map, those yellow textures on the screenshots below, looks bad and shiny even under cloud shadows. I dont have any idea about what they are.

still try to keep my self optimistic about future of this potential mystic and epic map
but for now, maybe this map would be good for airliners if we had. 

Edited October 3, 2024 by archer86

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

 

[theropod]

22 hours ago, archer86 said:

I am disappointed!

I bought the kola map 2 weeks ago when the new summer textures preview shots released, I expected more than this, but now, I have to continue with my new expectations from future updates.

I like the colour transitions between greens and grey tone, from horizontal distance and high altitude it looks beautiful and realistic but when it comes to lower altitudes, noooo!  it looks like ... civilian sims low resolution photoscenery times, even worse at some points.  

I also noticed light yellow areas which spreaded all over the map, those yellow textures on the screenshots below, looks bad and shiny even under cloud shadows. I dont have any idea about what they are.

still try to keep my self optimistic about future of this potential mystic and epic map
but for now, maybe this map would be good for airliners if we had. 

 

I even bought the kola map and a new ssd for it.

 

[MadKreator]

I bought the map on first release and I think it has come a long way. I run on a 4k OLED screen so that could possibly make a difference in perceived quality, over 1440 or 1080 screens and VR. Of course in Heli land ( sub 2k/1500 agl)  it’s not photo-quality, as per all (most)dcs maps, but I think they a very much on the right track. There’s probably a lot of areas still technically defined as “low detail” too. All in all when I first bought the map it was underwhelming to say the least. But it’s in a much better spot now and very much on the right path if they continue fine tuning it. Just my opinion. I will say as I’ve been flying helis a LOT more lately, terrain issues are starting to really stand out across all DCS maps. Not nearly as annoying as the horribly close range of grass and  bush “pop-in” and  full level scenery LOD’s  ( DCS engine’s fault though, not ORBX). I have full faith that out of all map devs, that ORBX has the tech and ability, but DCS terrain engine/ tdk etc being the limiting factor in what they can/ could achieve. The have stated themselves that the EDGE engine is very limited in file size it can handle and they have to work within those constraints. ( I know nothing about terrain development and what’s possible, just relaying things I’ve read along the way) 

Edited October 4, 2024 by MadKreator

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

First of all, as a reminder, this is still in EA, so it is not yet completed, unlike many other maps out there, I do not expected it is close to anything like the free maps and Syria (cough, to be fair, Marinaras is still some what a performance hog)

I have to say that I am a fanboy of the area, thanks to my experience with Harpoon 1 and I know what I am getting into. And this new update is very much giving it a new light.

As you have watch my videos, we can all agree it is not perfect -- yet.

I, may be a bit naive, have faith in ORBX.

Anyway, quoting the latest newsletter on the future:

Quote

The next release will see the inclusion of Andoya (ENAN) airfield in Norway and Alakurtti (RU-0059) airfield in Russia with some additional infrastructure in the surrounding areas. Orbx has also reviewed a series of bugs and errors aiming for small performance improvements. 

Future releases will see the addition of more airfields and surrounding infrastructure including: Evenes (ENEV), Bardufoss (ENDU), Kittilä Airport (EFKT), Enontekiö Airport (EFET), Pudasjärvi Airfield (EFPU), and Sodankylä Airfield (EFSO). Beyond these, Cold War-era installations, military airfields, and other key points of interest are also planned. 

The upcoming Arctic Thunder campaign by Reflected Simulations & Baltic Dragon for the Kola map will consist of two scenarios: one for a Finnish Air Force F/A-18C and another for an USAF F-16C Viper. Both will share the same storyline and missions making it possible to play from different perspectives. 

 

[YoYo]

This map is better with every update, fantastic job!

[CommandT]

I don't understand anyone who is praising this map and the new summer textures. They are easily as bad as they were. The whole map as it stands, with the exception of some NATO airbases and whatever towns are currently modelled, is beyond poor. The textures are appalling. It's literally unflyable at low level because it's so bad. It's not even 10% as good as the old default Caucuses map.

To say this has been a huge disappointment is a colossal understatement. I was expecting a lot more given the reputation Orbx has in MSFS. I'm beginning to loose hope it will ever actually be enjoyable. Hopefully someone in the community can come in with a texture mod to fix it somewhat. 

[Keith Briscoe]

Performance at low altitude is pretty disappointing and I'm concerned that additional work on textures across this expansive map is just going to keep bogging down.  I'll keep checking back because I certainly hope it gets better .

[Gierasimov]

Could someone post screenshots of low level, summer, urban areas from the high detail area of the map please? Murmansk for example please?

I am looking at Orbx website and I want to believe

 

Edited October 7, 2024 by Gierasimov

[Boosterdog]

33 minutes ago, Gierasimov said:

Could someone post screenshots of low level, summer, urban areas from the high detail area of the map please? Murmansk for example please?

I am looking at Orbx website and I want to believe

 

 

I went in the ME and placed some units randomly around Murmansk. I've done nothing in terms of Gamma or filters and its at 1080P. Judge for yourself. Takeaway for me is that the word "lie" sits slap in the centre of the word "believe". 

 

[Gierasimov]

So looking at this one...

 

 

... it almost feels like genuine scam compared to what you posted @Boosterdog, and thank you for your effort. 

Edited October 7, 2024 by Gierasimov

[CommandT]

2 hours ago, Gierasimov said:

So looking at this one...

 

 

... it almost feels like genuine scam compared to what you posted @Boosterdog, and thank you for your effort. 

 

Those "high res" fields are still there I think in the final product (in the sim) but the problem is that 95% of the remaining area is genuinely horrible and totally unacceptable. Not to mention those beautiful "Norwegian-looking" fields have no place in Russia. If you check goggle maps it's not even remotely like that. So both a combination of wrong high res textures and totally appalling low res textures in other areas. The bright green colours are also so nothing like real life. 

Orbx, please redo the whole map. This is very poor for a company of your caliber.