Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Sunburn

ORIGINAL: Fleming
So if you want the map to resemble the AAR screenshots + video's, you have to download the extra 'layers' and install them?
If not you have the graphics like in post 4-5-6?
Correct?

Which AAR screenshots and which videos? Links please.

tm.asp?m=3392507

tm.asp?m=3404912

I hope you're not suggesting those resemble the pictures in this thread [;)]

(and I'm not the only one noticing the difference, as I'm not the OP. So don't tell it's my 20/20 vision [:D])

You saying you didn't try to give the impression the game was going to look like google earth, Sunburn? Why should people spend time linking you to the material (I've just paid you 60 quid) - you can just answer the question for starters - are the posts above what it is meant to look like? Is THAT it? I'm not asking for a refund. Just some honesty. Are the images I've posted what is NORMAL in this game - complete with tiling errors (or whatever that hard line is) and extremely blurry coastlines, no detail at all in the landmass (except height levels if you use the relief layer)- no urban details, no gorgeous airbases that look like satellite images. It looks great from about the height of the moon - I'll give you that. Seriously - is the pic above what the Falklands/Malvinas is meant to look like in this game, or am I doing something wrong? That's why I posted - for an answer to that question.

And if you like I can post those images with relief layer enabled. So you see the relief - and still get that awful blurred coastline.

Relief layer enabled



Looks beautiful right? But you can't do much from up there. Check out the next pic

relief layer enabled.



not so pretty. the relief layer makes no diff. this is what the Malvinas coastline looks like in this game from a reasonably high 'camera' angle - certainly no where near the closest zoom, and certainly a level I would use to click around, get to know things and give orders.

So I ask again - is this intentional, or am I doing something wrong?

ORIGINAL: Fleming

ORIGINAL: Sunburn

ORIGINAL: Fleming
So if you want the map to resemble the AAR screenshots + video's, you have to download the extra 'layers' and install them?
If not you have the graphics like in post 4-5-6?
Correct?

Which AAR screenshots and which videos? Links please.

tm.asp?m=3392507

tm.asp?m=3404912

I hope you're not suggesting those resemble the pictures in this thread [;)]

(and I'm not the only one noticing the difference, as I'm not the OP. So don't tell it's my 20/20 vision [:D])

The screenshots from the AAR thread you are linking to have all been taken using the stock relief layer available with the game.

ORIGINAL: Sunburn



The screenshots from the AAR thread you are linking to have all been taken using the stock relief layer available with the game.

Ok, cheers.

Please help Phoenix then as he's not getting the quality you seem to be getting.

By the way, Fleming - the links you've posted show things accurately - that's how that part of the world looks like in my game too - because the camera in those photos is higher, mainly, but also because you only really notice the blurriness at the coastlines.

But - what I would have expected from the hype and pre-release material (over many years, I mean)- is to be able to zoom down on the target complexes or the airbase in the links you've posted and see satellite type detail. That doesn't exist. Instead, what you get is this:



Once again, this is far from the closest zoom level (I've posted that in the next pic) - but it is a level that you need to use once the planes get airborne in the tutorial in order to be able to distinguish them from each other and from missiles. So there it is. You judge.

For what it's worth - NAS Fallon in all its detail, plus the surrounding desert form the closest zoom level

ORIGINAL: phoenix

By the way, Fleming - the links you've posted show things accurately - that's how that part of the world looks like in my game too - because the camera in those photos is higher, mainly, but also because you only really notice the blurriness at the coastlines.

But - what I would have expected from the hype and pre-release material (over many years, I mean)- is to be able to zoom down on the target complexes or the airbase in the links you've posted and see satellite type detail. That doesn't exist. Instead, what you get is this:


Once again, this is far from the closest zoom level (I've posted that in the next pic) - but it is a level that you need to use once the planes get airborne in the tutorial in order to be able to distinguish them from each other and from missiles. So there it is. You judge.

I agree; I had the impression the screenshots were fully zoomed in as well and I really liked the look of this game.
Hence our confusion
Sorry to hear that

The devs are saying you don't need this zoom level that much.
True?

Good luck with this [:(]

You don't need the closest zoom level (as in the last pic above - though the pre-release material all seemed to suggest, shall we say, that an airbase wouldn't look like that....), but the others I've used I would use all the time to distinguish groups of planes, boats etc and give orders to them.

They have money to make. I understand.

ORIGINAL: phoenix

You don't need the closest zoom level (as in the last pic above - though the pre-release material all seemed to suggest, shall we say, that an airbase wouldn't look like that....), but the others I've used I would use all the time to distinguish groups of planes, boats etc and give orders to them.

They have money to make. I understand.

I was in the same boat as you.
Cheers for the heads up.

Everything you saw in the screenshots and videos was made with the same game you have now. The way computers work, you would need either something that's procedurally/fractally generated or a bitmap of such immense size that we'd have to deliver the game on a hard drive for you to have the entire world at extreme zoom with super high resolution. I have to say I never noticed this as an issue because I don't need to zoom that far in when playing and when I do I accept that the bitmaps are a certain resolution balanced for playability and aesthetics at the most common view scale, so when you zoom in further than their resolution, they get more blurry.

Regards,

- Erik

As I showed here: fb.asp?m=3419798

...we demonstrated "ugly" as well as "pretty" terrain & coastlines well before release. There was no attempt to mislead customers as to what they are getting.

The undersea contour shading seems off. In the submarine tutorial, transiting the A patrol zone from the NW corner towards the SE corner, the data block indicates that the sea floor goes from approx. -2400 feet to -141 feet. All of this is shaded the same light (shallow?) color.

If possible, a far more granular set of shading is needed for the operational depths of submarines, which can then transition to less granular shading for depths from crush to sea floor.

Also, in the cursor hovering data block, can you put a space between the depth/elevation figure and ft? It is hard to read (especially when the last digit is a 1). -2431 ft rather than -2431ft.

khecker: did you switch on the relief layer?

double post

this is standard for any game that uses bitmaps to render terrains.
the seams are always noticeable in any games that uses such bitmaps.

myself, i like procedurally generated terrains better.

but procedurally generated graphics looks computer generated while bitmaps based terrains looks more realistic.
as long as you don't study the image in details using a microscope or don't zoom in too close. [8D]

one downside of bitmaps based terrains is the huge amount of disk space needed.
the Terrain folder for Command is already 3.5 GB, which is huge.

there's pros and cons to both methods, as you have noticed.

ORIGINAL: phoenix

And here's the ocean floor thing. (Notice also the big tiling line, as in the other pics). Is the ocean floor meant to be this blurred? Maybe it's ok as a representation of features 3,000m down, but I just thought I would ask?

All these images turned into gifs (low quality) to upload them, but you can still get the idea).