The pictures look like we're finally getting back to how visually interesting planets were from orbit after Horizons first launched. It's funny what progress in game development looks like nowadays.
Planetary Graphics Comparison - Befor and After 3.0
- Thread starter Ambroza
- Start date
I think this is one item in the Q1 update that nobody will argue with (what am I saying it's the ED forum!!)...the planet rework looks great.
Nope. The planets are now going to look better then what they have ever done. These new shaders are far better then what we ever had before.
I was looking at some old images of planets and thought the same.
The difference this time, of course, is that the colors are anticipated to better reflect the minerals/metals/etc. to be discovered there. If those colors are in patches (as it looks like), then what we want to know is are we likely to find a better return for, say arsenic, where the appropriate color is found, than elsewhere on the same planet. In other words, does the shading match what we can expect when exploring the surface.
I'm not seeing that. Maybe that will be the case from the surface, but from orbit they just look on par with their original release.
Not to me. They look better afaik. The range of colours, the contrast that highlights the terrain etc. It's far better. Look up some old pictures, there are some around that compared the old and the current.
Frontier have directly said what this first pass for certain surfaces is doing is adding more distinctive colouring for different types of surface type, mostly focusing around Rocky, Metal and volcanism presence.
In other words, don't expect non-metallic ice worlds and similar to look any different, as that's beyond the scope of what is being changed in the surface type colouration adjustments happening in Chapter 1 of Beyond.
Source
What it does mean however is that it for the surfaces that are targeted it will be much clearer to tell from orbit and down on the surface what type of area you're looking at.
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[edited, misread]
Can you find me some screenshots of those earlier planets? I suspect they became better in memory than they really were...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiO8cvQPwtc 2:24
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They mean how rendered surfaces looked with the release of Horizons, kind of thought following the conversation that it was clear what was being compared is rendered surfaces quality on Horizon release to what they became after Frontier castrated them a few times over.
Edit: To clarify for those perhaps newer to the game, Horizons released in December 2015. Frontier over the next 2 years made various changes to the quality of the surfaces and how different types of surfaces were represented to give what is live at the moment. So to see what they looked like originally, you'd need shots from around December 2015 to around Feb 2016 if memory serves.
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Ugh, you're right, misread.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiO8cvQPwtc 2:24
There were no visual upgrades in beta after this version, so its a decent comparison I think.
Yep. Planets looked pretty good at 2.0, until 2.2 neutered everything.
I only hope that after the 3.0 fix Frontier never, EVER ruins the galaxy like that again. The bug causing the beige plague lasted for over a year, and I'm not sure I could handle that happening again.
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Sure thing. In the meantime just take a gander at the pictures in the OP and you'll get the gist
Sure thing. In the meantime just take a gander at the pictures in the OP and you'll get the gist
Well, not really. The difference between planetary fidelity in 2.0 and 3.0 is pretty stark (look at my most recent post in this thread for an example of a 2.0 HMC).
Considering the pic you shared in your post and those by the OP, I still feel like the improvements are very incremental. Note that I'm not complaining, I'm quite pleased to see any improvement after the fugly we've been subjected to for the last year+
It was fully explained by one of the devs in a forum post, updated lighting system interacting badly with the material system. Didn't stop people from moaning still or inventing their own theories. Which is why many devs probably find it a waste of time and energy posting on the forums.
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Considering the pic you shared in your post and those by the OP, I still feel like the improvements are very incremental. Note that I'm not complaining, I'm quite pleased to see any improvement after the fugly we've been subjected to for the last year+
I think the changes to surface colouration will benefit from some of the additional changes Frontier added to surface rendering after surface visuals got gutted.
The main benefit being that in 2.0 properly rendering surface detail never used to kick in until you were well into orbit range, especially noticeable on slower machines as you would be flying in orbit mode cruising around the planet and entire chunks of the surface would be loading in and sometimes getting delayed causing holes in the grid. Where as later on surface detail started getting generated further out in a more natural way as you approach the planet, so the detail is there from much further distances.
So introducing proper colouration back into the mix will return a better end result then what we had in the peak period of planet visuals.
I suspect it's also why some may find the return of proper surface colouration variation to be a big leap forward in Beyond Chapter 1 compared to what was in 2.0. As a lot of the examples are from further away but within the
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Hi Jasonbarron
Here is a link that shows 2.0 and 2.1 planets with the different space textures and the different ground textures. If you really believe that the new textures are just as good as the 2.0 texture, I think its time to look at some glasses.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-graphics-detail-Planetary-detail-loss-in-2-1
Very much this. While the surface texture have improved in horizons, I think the new colours will highlight those textures much better.
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I have plenty of footage of v2.0 planets. From orbit, they were certainly vastly better than what we have right now, but from what we have seen so far, the v3.0 planets are significantly superior in just about every way when compared to v2.0 planets.
Here's some v2.0 planets (the second one is Mercury):
(Current surface textures are also a lot better than what we have now. However geometry / geological formation and variation was far better in v2.0)
From orbit, they were certainly vastly better than what we have right now, but from what we have seen so far, the v3.0 planets are significantly superior in just about every way when compared to v2.0 planets.Here's some v2.0 planets (the second one is Mercury):
(Current surface textures are also a lot better than what we have now. However geometry / geological formation and variation was far better in v2.0)
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And the modifications of sufaces at the end of the year should bring even more immersion and dynamism