CONDOR

arneh,

Why do you make your scenery look darker compared to the real life pictures..?
The scenery looks like the weather is overcast, even if there are hardly any clouds in condor.
And if I see condor clouds, I can hardly see their shadows on the ground.

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PH-1999 (EDB) aka PH-1074 (M8)

I've already answered that earlier in the thread: viewtopic.php?p=133599#p133599

Also note that almost all the screenshots here are taken from the north, which is the shadowy side. It's brighter when you look from the south.

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If I see you RL photo's between the cloudshadows, then it looks really bright in RL.
You forget that the dark parts in your photo's are from clouds. And the few pictures that look dark do have overcast weather. Clouds only I mean.

You should let Condor take care of the shadows.
Condor isn't 3D, so the shadows that you see in Condor are really important to let you know how far a cloud is. Because a small cloud very close or a big cloud far away look the same. You only can tell his distance by the shadow condor projects on the ground. But your scenery is too dark for the condor shadows. Your scenery already has shadows as if it was overcast.

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PH-1999 (EDB) aka PH-1074 (M8)

Since the scenery is 80% complete now it would be too much work in any case to go back now and replace the textures, so the ones which are now are what will remain at least for version 1. The textures are not perfect, there is always room for improvement, but that will have to wait for another version.

But to clear up a little I'll make this last post on this subject.



Here are a few pictures from a cloudless day last week (and me flying the glider you see :


Condor at same location and angle (but not cloudless):

It was a bit more hazy in real life, so everything is more blueish, and the haze also brightens it slightly. But overall I would say the brightness is comparable.

Some more pictures from the same cloudless day, as you can see the ground is still quite dark (except where it's snow, of course). All pictures are taken from the south or south east, so favorable for getting sun light:




The biggest difference to other sceneries is that Norway has few fields, and a lot of forest. And forests are dark. Here is a comparison image of how forests looks from the north in my scenery and Cadfael's Czechoslovakia 2.0 (as that's probably the best scenery yet for Condor, and I've never heard anyone complain about that scenery being too dark):

Cadfael's scenery has more contrast and saturation (i.e. a clearer day, while my scenery is more of a hazy day), but brightness (or darkness I guess is a better description I would say is about the same.

And now a comparison of flat fields:

Once again, Cadfael's scenery has more contrast and saturation, and it may be a little brighter too. But the bigger difference to brightness is just that there are more yellow fields compared to green fields in Czechoslovakia, and the yellow fields are much brighter.

Overall I would say Southern Norway isn't massively darker than Czechoslovakia 2.0 when comparing similar terrain types and angles. But judge for yourself.



Condor doesn't do terrain shading (apart from cloud shadows), so those have to be added to the scenery to give a better impression to how the undulations go, plus it looks much more real.

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I think booth darker and lighter looks wonderful. RL scenery color also varies (weather conditions, humidity,...) . So it is nice to have sceneries with variation of saturation or brightness. Keep up with the good work!

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Like Slartibatfast once, you'll definitely get the prize for this beautiful scenery, and especially for them fjords

All of you guys from virtual Margrathea, keep up the good work

42

OK,
I like the detailed textures and I do prefer your approach for less contrast and saturation (and maybe less sharpening). The 'hazy' look is more realistic.
I hope you are right about the brightness. Can't wait to fly in your scenery.

Respect for all the work you scenerybuilders put into those works of art...

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PH-1999 (EDB) aka PH-1074 (M8)

Something new I'm experiencing with. As many know the trees in Condor are hugely oversized. You can shrink the texture, but then you just end up with crashing into the now invisible top part of the trees. Having the trees be a more natural size would give you a much better impression of height and speed.

So I'm experiencing with making the trees a more natural size, but putting some other object above it to mark how low you can fly. So I've added birds to the tree texture, and I think it works quite well when flying. When on the ground it looks a bit stupid, since there are birds hovering, but when flying you don't notice that the birds don't move, and it just looks like flock of birds flying above the trees.

What do you think, could it work? Or would you prefer to have the regular, oversized trees?

The tree textures are also new, and I think they're quite an improvement over the old textures I used

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textures look nice, but why can not be taller? Will texture be streched? Birds are not a good idea i think.

Great to see some new ideas in scenery development.

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Tree texture looks very nice on screenshots - and the birds crew over treetops? Turning every FinalGlide to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birds_(film)

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Erik EP | virtualsoaring.eu | Facebook | Gliding TV | 24/7 Servers

They can be bigger. But as mentioned then the trees will be massively oversized compared to real life (at least in Norway 50 m tall trees is not what the forrests are made up of). Having more natural sized trees give you a much better impression of speed, and makes it easier to judge height above ground. They are still a bit bigger than what is normal here, but at least they have a more believable size.

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Every one of us who actualy makes landscapes has a different style and that is a good thing. I think you should go for it. I like the idea just because it is different.

I think your textrures are outstanding.

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,,

Hi

This looks fantastic.
When can it be downloaded?

Bye,

David

Here is a video (made by 3P) showing the new trees and birds. Seeing it in movement gives a much better impression of how it is. I like the sense of speed at 1:51
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o850U2Ow3pY

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Landscape is about 90% complete now, so will probably be finished within a month

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