Opinion: Horizons terrain is much better than Odyssey terrain.

jammedhamed · May 20, 2021

I feel like this is the first time in history FDev and the rendering team have actually gone backwards from an already good planet generation model. The planets used to look varied. with deep canyons and tall mountains. They had all kinds of hues, canyons, and convincing general terrain.

Yet now.. almost every planet I visit is grey with a few different color spots. I have never seen anything close to this-

instead, almost every HMC planet is just some variant of this-

also.. can I mention that the LOD in that first image is great. However in release, everything is smoothed out and kind of looks like a soup.

Anyways, if someone can find a planet like the one shown in that first image I'll be happy to retract. But sorry, for now, the planets are looking miles worse than they used to.

LeoBartlet · May 20, 2021

I can't say I've been excited by the planets I've landed on so far. Does appear they've went full Watchdogs 1 on the LOD.

Old Duck · May 20, 2021

There's already a thread covering this where I agree with you wholeheartedly. Especially considering my Horizons terrain can be displayed in ultra quality at a vysnced 60 fps (and VR to boot).

Bdragon4 · May 20, 2021

They overpromised on a planets by alot. Most of the planets are the same without any real geographical features to make any of them feel unique.

jammedhamed · May 20, 2021

Old Duck said:
There's already a thread covering this where I agree with you wholeheartedly. Especially considering my Horizons terrain can be displayed in ultra quality at a vysnced 60 fps (and VR to boot).

Yeah I was so disappointed I didn't even bother looking for other threads, I just wanted to let it all out. Man I was dreaming about this expansion with the screenshots we were getting, but now I'm stuck near Beagle point with literally nothing to do but scan grey rocks. Sigh.

Kemo · May 20, 2021

jammedhamed said:
I feel like this is the first time in history FDev and the rendering team have actually gone backwards from an already good planet generation model.

sadly not the first time... FD's beige period is one that comes to mind, took them ages to confirm it was an issue and then longer to sort it out. So... yeah, lets see how they get on with this then.

Lobstris · May 20, 2021

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. If we have planets like the first screenshot, then the SRV (and on foot) become pretty useless as the surface is impossible to traverse. Looks like the noise generation had it's amplitude steamrollered flat?

jammedhamed · May 20, 2021

Kemo said:
sadly not the first time... FD's beige period is one that comes to mind, took them ages to confirm it was an issue and then longer to sort it out. So... yeah, lets see how they get on with this then.

true, but I guess they didn't blatantly lie about the beige ones

Bdragon4 · May 20, 2021

Lobstris said:
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. If we have planets like the first screenshot, then the SRV (and on foot) become pretty useless as the surface is impossible to traverse. Looks like the noise generation had it's amplitude steamrollered flat?

In the alpha I found that the terrain was either overly difficult or extremely boring with no in-between. I think my main issue with the new planet surfaces is that they're dull. There's no real mountains or interesting features. Its just a randomized displacement map lol.

jammedhamed · May 20, 2021

Lobstris said:
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. If we have planets like the first screenshot, then the SRV (and on foot) become pretty useless as the surface is impossible to traverse. Looks like the noise generation had it's amplitude steamrollered flat?

The first one looks easy to traverse. Those small hills are actually pretty far out from each other, even though it looks like they aren't from this distance.