Disappointed with Flight Simulator 2020

[excreationist]

In my posts about the possibility of being in a simulation I sometimes gave the example of Flight Simulator 2020.... I said it was "top down" so you can start above the clouds then see right down to blades of grass or leaves on trees...
https://lifesplayer.com/flightsim.php

This is what the grass actually looks like close up in ultra mode:


This is what trees look like close up: (some trees are higher res though)


It seems to involve "directional sprites" (like Wing Commander) where it shows different versions depending on its orientation to the viewer. When not in low detail mode it fades between the different orientations - even in "ultra" mode.

It has become very common to see the leaves on trees in games so I assumed Flight Simulator 2020 would be the same.

On the other hand it only cost me A$1 to obtain the game.... which is for the first month of XBox Game Pass membership then it is A$10.95 per month (for the PC membership).

On reddit the people said that it is a flight simulator so the trees don't need to show individual leaves - but there is a drone camera mode and in New York you begin right next to Central Park...

Here are the controls:
https://www.ytechb.com/microsoft-flight-simulator-2020-keyboard-controls

Though when I start the game it says my computer doesn't meet the requirements (it is an i3) but it runs at pretty good framerates even in ultra mode. (I've got 16 Gb RAM and 4 Gb GTX 1080).

 

[excreationist]

So I thought I'd start off at Brisbane airport.... I've mastered the drone camera but not so much the plane....

 

[bilby]

So I thought I'd start off at Brisbane airport.... I've mastered the drone camera but not so much the plane....

View attachment 35010

At YBBN the landing fees would probably cost more than that aircraft.

If you're flying a light aircraft in or out of Brisbane, you are far better off using YBAF.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

To actually put leaves on the trees would use an insane number of polygons. Nobody has a graphics card beefy enough to handle a true model of a tree with leaves.

 

[excreationist]

To actually put leaves on the trees would use an insane number of polygons. Nobody has a graphics card beefy enough to handle a true model of a tree with leaves.

Far Cry from 2004:

Lots of popular game companies use "SpeedTree"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedTree
Same with movies....

It involves "level of detail" where up close it would involve hundreds or thousands of polygons but in the distance it can use sprites/billboards which involve a single quad (2 polygons).

This shows available tree models for UE4 (though you can also use it in Unity or custom game engines)
https://store.speedtree.com/speedtr...ames-library/compatibility/speedtree-for-ue4/

 

[barbos]

To actually put leaves on the trees would use an insane number of polygons. Nobody has a graphics card beefy enough to handle a true model of a tree with leaves.

I understand modern graphics do that already.
Really, top of the line cards have 20 TerraFlops. That's about 5000 floating operation per pixel (100 FPS, FullHD screen)

 

[excreationist]

To actually put leaves on the trees would use an insane number of polygons. Nobody has a graphics card beefy enough to handle a true model of a tree with leaves.

In 2018 there was a real-time Unity game engine tech demo, "Book of the Dead".... it had many high detail trees and foliage....
[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAcnn1qIkPw[/YOUTUBE]

What if instead of a tree there was a detailed person with "bones" and animated pec muscles and pretty good AI.... UEBS2 can show a million animated characters or more at once. It would use "level of detail" when you get further away. It mostly uses the GPU because they can have more than a thousand cores....
[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMQtRei5r24[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Loren Pechtel]

To actually put leaves on the trees would use an insane number of polygons. Nobody has a graphics card beefy enough to handle a true model of a tree with leaves.

Far Cry from 2004:

Lots of popular game companies use "SpeedTree"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedTree
Same with movies....

It involves "level of detail" where up close it would involve hundreds or thousands of polygons but in the distance it can use sprites/billboards which involve a single quad (2 polygons).

This shows available tree models for UE4 (though you can also use it in Unity or custom game engines)
https://store.speedtree.com/speedtr...ames-library/compatibility/speedtree-for-ue4/

Yeah, but note there are only a few trees in that picture. Flight simulator will normally have lots of trees and you shouldn't be getting close-ups of trees anyway. There's no reason for that kind of detail.

 

[excreationist]

Yeah, but note there are only a few trees in that picture.

That picture was an example of the trees close up.... here's a pic from Far Cry in 2004 with the trees far away....

Flight simulator will normally have lots of trees and you shouldn't be getting close-ups of trees anyway. There's no reason for that kind of detail.

There is a drone camera though which is usually slow which implies it should be used for very close up things.... BTW the windows and doors of the buildings seem to always be very high resolution - though hardly any polygons are involved....

 

[ZiprHead]

So I thought I'd start off at Brisbane airport.... I've mastered the drone camera but not so much the plane....

View attachment 35010

You're in Australia. Isn't it supposed to be upside down?

I'll leave now.

 

[ZiprHead]

To actually put leaves on the trees would use an insane number of polygons. Nobody has a graphics card beefy enough to handle a true model of a tree with leaves.

Far Cry from 2004:

Lots of popular game companies use "SpeedTree"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedTree
Same with movies....

It involves "level of detail" where up close it would involve hundreds or thousands of polygons but in the distance it can use sprites/billboards which involve a single quad (2 polygons).

This shows available tree models for UE4 (though you can also use it in Unity or custom game engines)
https://store.speedtree.com/speedtr...ames-library/compatibility/speedtree-for-ue4/

Yeah, but note there are only a few trees in that picture. Flight simulator will normally have lots of trees and you shouldn't be getting close-ups of trees anyway. There's no reason for that kind of detail.

If you can view individual leaves from an airplane, you're probably doing something wrong.

Sorry, now I'm really leaving.

 

[skepticalbip]

Yeah, but note there are only a few trees in that picture. Flight simulator will normally have lots of trees and you shouldn't be getting close-ups of trees anyway. There's no reason for that kind of detail.

If you can view individual leaves from an airplane, you're probably doing something wrong.

Sorry, now I'm really leaving.

Or did something wrong a while ago like ignoring the collision alarm.

 

[excreationist]

If you can view individual leaves from an airplane, you're probably doing something wrong.

Also if you can see the fine details in the windows and doors of a house from an airplane you're probably doing something wrong.....

Unless you were using the game's "drone camera".....

 

[excreationist]

So I thought I'd start off at Brisbane airport.... I've mastered the drone camera but not so much the plane....

View attachment 35010

You're in Australia. Isn't it supposed to be upside down?

I'll leave now.

It was upside down when I was in the plane.... I tried to fly up but the ground was in the way....

 

[steve_bank]

Why not take flying lessons and experience the real thing?

 

[excreationist]

Why not take flying lessons and experience the real thing?

For a start I'm pretty broke.... $80 was too much and I was trying to get my friend to buy it while I'd pay $20.... then eventually I was talking to my nephew who said he had played it - thanks to XBox Game Pass which is $1 for the first month. Then I think I'll end the subscription. I've had trouble flying planes in Grand Theft Auto games let alone something realistic. I prefer drones to regular planes. Some drones can even do stunts. Drones can even be a form of passenger aircraft:

Also crashing in real life is more problematic than in a simulation.....

 

[steve_bank]

Paper airplanes? Some people are into it, there are competitions for time of flight. Something real world and tangible.

People design and make balsa wood and paper model RC gliders. Lots of creative stuff to get into.

The last video game I played was probably on an 80s arcade machine. Pong and Space Invaders.