New Planet Tech is KILLER of Exploration (all terrain is tiling/repeating/not procedural/random)

[Valorin]

Cool (although that pinkish colour doesn't seem to be present in the area lit by the lights on your SRV where it looks kind of... grey).
Out of interest, does it also look pink in the system map and what colour are the other planets in that system (which is being illuminated by a magenta star)?

I do like the whiteness at the pole. That much is an improvement over Horizons.

Ice worlds are stunning given they are not in total darkness and so are the poles.
I didn't visit many planets in this systems, but they are kinda dark.
Here's an ice world orbiting no star. Only light coming from the far away stars in the system:

Lovely ring though.
The colour is from the star. The planet is white when switching on the light.
I'm on my way looking at a hell world very close to a bright turquoise A class.

EDIT:
Closing in on the hell planet and there's green stuff on it... Volcanism I guess. Oo
This one's completely random.

 

[Sakashiro]

Does this look like totally black sky to you (from planet orbiting dim brown dwarf, under galactic plane):View attachment 234587

Here's a screenshot taken in a system with nothing but a single brown dwarf, about 2,000 Ls away, with gamma = default:

Here's the same shot after setting gamma = max:

And here is the difference between the two images:

As you can see, the gamma slider does almost nothing. It's completely broken.

Please tell me where you took your shot. I'd like to take a look at that system myself.

 

[TiberiusDuval]

I think that's wrong.
We need people claiming everything is fine showing their screenshots and see what's different, and then tell Frontier their system specs.
Also, you're mixing up the topic with global lighting issues when it's about the skybox at the moment.

So here's my sky in a system with a not too bright main star and two brown dwarfs. I'm far, far away from the main star sitting on a planet orbiting a brown dwarf.
View attachment 234599
While it actually is a bit brighter than usually, it won't change even with brightness all the way up. What you see will go brighter, but the details, dust and all, will not.
Brightness on the picture is in the middle.


HDMI full range? That's what my monitor is set to. Also Ultra settings.

In fact my screen coupled through DVI port, so no HDMI specific settings are in use. But yeah, I would be unhappy too with that looking graphics. They seem like fully different game. So, some people see things about just fine, and others see really garbage graphics.

 

[Valorin]

I gotta admit, this comes right on cue, but there. It's green.
And volcanism like I suspected:

I've landed on so many planets by now and purple I've seen and volcanic features like this as well. But green is new.
Maybe sulfuric plus turquoise starlight?

EDIT: It's Wasabi. Must be!

 

[TiberiusDuval]

Here's a screenshot taken in a system with nothing but a single brown dwarf, about 2,000 Ls away, with gamma = default:

Here's the same shot after setting gamma = max:

And here is the difference between the two images:

As you can see, the gamma slider does almost nothing. It's completely broken.

Please tell me where you took your shot. I'd like to take a look at that system myself.

I don't have system name anymore, probably would find it from journal, but roughly Galactic Region "Odin's Hold", about 2000 years under Galactic plane, near Colonia region.

 

[Valorin]

In fact my screen coupled through DVI port, so no HDMI specific settings are in use. But yeah, I would be unhappy too with that looking graphics. They seem like fully different game. So, some people see things about just fine, and others see really garbage graphics.

To be honest, I like the dark version on my screen a lot more than what I see on yours.
It's not working as intended though I fear. We'll see if they do something with it.

 

[Sunyavadin]

On the topic of the lighting, since the thread seems to have wildly veered from discussing the planet tech's repetitive textures, I will say that part of me suspects they turned a lot of lighting effects off for Odyssey because they were working on a new lighting model altogether to resolve a bunch of the issues in the Horizons lighting, many of which were exacerbated with 3.3, but which give us such issues as standing on a completely dark planet with a nearby star filling half the sky, but because the light source the planet is using is on the other side, there's no light to see by and you need to use night vision.

Potentially, indeed, likely, given how many developers are already moving to this with the capabilities built in to the new consoles and most recent graphics cards, such a solution would be a raytracing-based one.

This would also explain the flatness of the Odyssey planetary textures - as I have observed elsewhere, Halo Infinite had a similar problem in its gameplay preview last year with completely flat looking textures and a distinct lack of shadowing, which made sense in the context of knowing for a fact that they had not finished the game's raytraced lighting yet, and originally planned to launch last November and add the lighting in with a patch later, a move they wisely decided would be a major mistake, you only get one launch after all.
If the Odyssey textures were designed for it as well, with no prebaked shadows, then they'd all look flat under the existing ED lighting model too.

 

[FX2K]

Was just doing some random flying around planets and noticed this "Asset" basically plastered around

Depending on the angle you view it from, it doesn't always look the same (shadows etc) and the base where it melds with the terrain can slightly differ, but after seeing the 6th one within a few km of each other, its really sad :/ and yeah, that is one behind it too.

Mind you, not sure what I was expecting.. it is after all, a tiled planet.

 

[MASA]

I gotta admit, this comes right on cue, but there. It's green.
And volcanism like I suspected:
View attachment 234631

View attachment 234633

I've landed on so many planets by now and purple I've seen and volcanic features like this as well. But green is new.
Maybe sulfuric plus turquoise starlight?

EDIT: It's Wasabi. Must be!

That's more like what I want to see. I'm glad there's still some colour in the galaxy. Apart from the darkness (although seems not to be an issue in these nice shots) I do like the lighting system. The reflection of light back up from the planet onto the back of the rocks is excellent.

All I'm finding is stuff like this:

Guess I gotta keep looking to find more interesting planets.

 

[MASA]

Was just doing some random flying around planets and noticed this "Asset" basically plastered around

Depending on the angle you view it from, it doesn't always look the same (shadows etc) and the base where it melds with the terrain can slightly differ, but after seeing the 6th one within a few km of each other, its really sad :/ and yeah, that is one behind it too.

Mind you, not sure what I was expecting.. it is after all, a tiled planet.

The tiling may be annoying to some people but I otherwise really like the look of that planet.

 

[FX2K]

The tiling may be annoying to some people but I otherwise really like the look of that planet.

Yeah, there's some pretty sweet terrain out there, for sure.. its not all dull and flat. I haven't even strayed far from home yet, either.

 

[Deleted member 121570]

Yeah, there's some pretty sweet terrain out there, for sure.. its not all dull and flat. I haven't even strayed far from home yet, either.

That is though. Dull & flat, I mean. It's not exactly very high, is it?
Not quite paper flat ofc. But still....pretty flat.

 

[FX2K]

That is though. Dull & flat, I mean. It's not exactly very high, is it?
Not quite paper flat ofc. But still....pretty flat.

Not quite the canyons of horizons, for sure but at least you can see the surface, unlike say...

Bottom half of the screen being the surface, in case it wasn't obvious. I think game bugged out there.

 

[[VR] Merkir]

The tiling may be annoying to some people but I otherwise really like the look of that planet.

The tiling is likely to be annoying to those who appreciate good procedural generation. And explorers who used to experience all terrain being unique.

Also, my hit rate is still 100%. EVERY Rocky and HMC planet has had repeating terrain tiles, since I've been looking for them. In fact, I don't look for them now. They're too obvious now that I know they exist.

And FWIW, I agree with many others who say the new terrain is very flat now. I haven't found deep canyons or tall mountains (YMMV).

 

[Iron Golem]

Btw, has anyone found a planet with rings in Odyssey?

I did last night.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Aong AB 2D looks like it has some pretty terrain.

 

[Iron Golem]

My specific gripes with Odyssey terrain arnt that it can't look beautiful and varied because it can.

What it does good so far:

The rock scatter is great and I am impressed with its "biome" variety. When the textures load correctly some very beautiful stuff. I also want to point out it has really bad lod for me, sometimes I have to be right on top of areas for things to load, at a distance they will look terrible. Sometimes and especially from higher up, texture doesn't load at all and I get a generic clay looking base terrain for everything. Often landing and disembarking on foot or srv forces texture load and when I go back up in ship I can see it.

What worries me about Odyssey isn't the early days bugs but it doesn't seem to have extreme terrain variance. The mountains start to look similar terrain tool placed and the ability for dramatic terrain like super mountains or very deep canyons etc I just haven't seen.

I am about twenty hours into Odyssey exploration and I keep switching back and forth between it and Horizons for perspective.

Odyssey can do better window dressing and textures when it works but honestly after you see a few planets you've seen them all. As far as the actual terrain structure Horizons provides more unique interesting features.

However I continue to explore in Odyssey to try and prove my impressions wrong. I keep waiting to find super unique mountains or canyons more than a couple ships deep.

The planetary cut and paste problem people notice from orbit is only one part of the problem. Down on the ground after a few dozen planets you get the feeling you've seen the exact same thing.

I especially notice the planetary terrain gen itself because most of the time it doesn't load any textures at all just a generic clay for everything and its all I have to look at.

Would also like to mention Odysseys diminishing terrain features. Sometimes I see dramatic looking canyons and mountains from sc or gilde and as I approach the planet surface they shrink and round out.

 

[Milkman76]

Here we go again.

Now Im seeing blurry white textures where planet surfaces should be when I use my flashlight, which was a bug I saw people talking about weeks ago. Thought it was fixed. Saw this last night. I had not seen this in ED:O previously, and I've put some.... hours into it by now. Still cant use Frontline/CZs. Not sure what else is broken because my attention span is short and I am losing interest.

 

[Viajero]

Irrespective of the tiling, which I hope is some kind of bug, or at the least an issue that can be minimized by FDEV somehow, I think it is difficult to deny that the new planetary tech, synergized with the new atmospheres and bio forms as a whole, has indeed its moments:

Source: https://youtu.be/wEgpnUpXPtI


Note: Is it just my imagination or the shells of the bio forms at 03:13 show that "rainbowy" light reflection typical from the interior of pearl shells? I would imagine that the ingame "explanation" for the shell function is to collect and reflect the star light at the plant.

 

[Valorin]

Here we go again.

Now Im seeing blurry white textures where planet surfaces should be when I use my flashlight, which was a bug I saw people talking about weeks ago. Thought it was fixed. Saw this last night. I had not seen this in ED:O previously, and I've put some.... hours into it by now. Still cant use Frontline/CZs. Not sure what else is broken because my attention span is short and I am losing interest.

That bug seems to be still around for some people. Not for me though.