What ever happened to Kumay?

Nick Sticks · May 22, 2021

Way back in 2019 we had a great planetary expedtion around the fantastic looking planet Kumay.
It was chosen for its looks and features and provided some brilliant challanges and backgrounds for this adventure.
Unfortunately Kumay looks very different in Odyssey and wouldn't have been used for this expedition.

The First Great Planetary Expedition

(image designed by AkenBosch and refined by Florenus) ETD: 20:00 UTC - 27.03.3305 First we scoured the galaxy looking for a planet/moon to land on: A-group-planetary-circumnavigation-expedition-(scouting-phase) Eventually we settled on Kumay in the Chi Herculis system. Then we scoured that...

forums.frontier.co.uk

Here's a few comparison pictures from the same position of Kumay in Horizons and Odyssey.
Which do you prefer?

Kris · May 22, 2021

I think it was (sadly) expected. New planetary tech means all are reset, including great looking ones like this. We have to find a new ones where all the variables of the new tech are in the right spot to produce cool looking planets and moons. Biggest fear is does Odyssey plantary tech support high mountains like this (from screenshots have not seen much deep canyons either)? Maybe it's just more rare than it was with Horizons.

Northpin · May 22, 2021

New planetary tech seems to generate a much flatter and less dramatic terrain.

Nick Sticks · May 22, 2021

Northpin said:
New planetary tech seems to generate a much flatter and less dramatic terrain.

Indeed it does.
Pomech 2C even had a mention in the release notes to give it more canyons, although they don't look anywhere near as good.

The Pomeche Ridge Challenge: a standing SRV time trial in association with the Buckyball Racing Club

What really concerns me is that according to the patch notes they've made an extra special case of Pomeche 2C .. Override Pomeche 2 C to have more canyons .. so does that mean that this is the best we're likely to find in Odyssey? Maybe, but I'll reserve judgement until it's light on this...

forums.frontier.co.uk

Northpin · May 23, 2021

Nick Sticks said:
Indeed it does.
Pomech 2C even had a mention in the release notes to give it more canyons, although they don't look anywhere near as good.

The Pomeche Ridge Challenge: a standing SRV time trial in association with the Buckyball Racing Club

What really concerns me is that according to the patch notes they've made an extra special case of Pomeche 2C .. Override Pomeche 2 C to have more canyons .. so does that mean that this is the best we're likely to find in Odyssey? Maybe, but I'll reserve judgement until it's light on this...

forums.frontier.co.uk

New planetary tech might be generating a much more realistic terrain tho.
You cant have mountain ranges without tectonic plate movements. And no riverbeds without rivers
So planets with dramatic terrain might be more rare (pomeche 2c type of planets are quite some oddities imo,, nice but odd)

Aesthetech · May 23, 2021

Smoothing intensifies.

Easier/cheaper than making a new SRV that handles rough terrain better. Those graphics designers aren't cheap, you know.

hunvagy · May 23, 2021

Hey look, it's just like that time in Horizons, when every planet went bland and beige, and it took 2 years to fix it.

Mugur · May 23, 2021

Northpin said:
New planetary tech might be generating a much more realistic terrain tho.
You cant have mountain ranges without tectonic plate movements. And no riverbeds without rivers
So planets with dramatic terrain might be more rare (pomeche 2c type of planets are quite some oddities imo,, nice but odd)

Olympus Mons? Yes, I know it's a volcano, but it's on Mars (no tectonic plates) and it has 21 km height.

IMHO, the new planetary tech is worse than the Horizon one. And they even dumbed it more, in order to attain a bit better performance. In fact, judging by the early designs floating around in the past years, I would call the new planetary tech a complete failure - they are nowhere near to what they themselves proposed.

Vardaugas · May 23, 2021

You can see the colours it's supposed to have but it gets all blurred into a grey mush with the in my eyes obviously defect lighting system.

Ydiss · May 23, 2021

Northpin said:
New planetary tech might be generating a much more realistic terrain tho.
You cant have mountain ranges without tectonic plate movements. And no riverbeds without rivers
So planets with dramatic terrain might be more rare (pomeche 2c type of planets are quite some oddities imo,, nice but odd)

Got to say I've thought this for a while but rarely bother to say it because I don't think anyone wants realistic terrain, they just want canyons back.

I kind of get it. I also kind of think that the closer to realism we get with stuff like planets... the better. But still a happy medium might be worth it.

Northpin · May 23, 2021

Mugur said:
Olympus Mons? Yes, I know it's a volcano, but it's on Mars (no tectonic plates) and it has 21 km height.

IMHO, the new planetary tech is worse than the Horizon one. And they even dumbed it more, in order to attain a bit better performance. In fact, judging by the early designs floating around in the past years, I would call the new planetary tech a complete failure - they are nowhere near to what they themselves proposed.

It's a volcano.. and it's a really bland and boring feature
Now if you'd be talking about Valles Marineris

Mugur · May 23, 2021

Northpin said:
It's a volcano.. and it's a really bland and boring feature
Now if you'd be talking about Valles Marineris

I was just giving an example... but, IMHO, EDO needs no excuse: its "planetary tech" is simply lackluster, broken and poor. A total failure if we're comparing to even their own designs shown for at least the past 2-3 years. Also the "tenuous atmospheres" are just a poor excuse for the lack of any atmos phenomena.

Northpin · May 23, 2021

Mugur said:
I was just giving an example... but, IMHO, EDO needs no excuse: its "planetary tech" is simply lackluster, broken and poor. A total failure if we're comparing to even their own designs shown for at least the past 2-3 years. Also the "tenuous atmospheres" are just a poor excuse for the lack of any atmos phenomena.

I just hope it gets better.
lighting is really bad and the planet forge seems to be limping... I've seen some really ugly and odd pointy things... like failed mountains

there could be a chance that this fix mentioned in the patch notes could be responsible for the generally flatter surfaces

Large update to planetary tech, including reworked systems, terrain types, blending, craters and colouration - this also includes the reworking of some terrain materials to be flatter, for better SRV navigation

fourrunes · May 23, 2021

New planet tech...

I posted similar on Reddit and I get white knight saying - yes, because the planets are regenerated...

Show me one planet in EDO that looks half like the one in Horizon... you can't

SushiCW · May 26, 2021

fourrunes said:
Show me one planet in EDO that looks half like the one in Horizon... you can't

This thread has some pretty decent looking terrain. Dramatic and beautiful terrain still exists, although it does seem like on the whole it's less dramatic than before which feels like a let down.

But when it looks good, it looks really good.

[VR] Bac Ho · May 26, 2021

Wow, I have seen that the planet tech is bad, but this is just (quote James Bond in Goldfinger) "shocking positively shocking"

Flimley · May 26, 2021

Supremely soul destroying stuff.

Flimley

Gabby Neutron · Dec 10, 2022

Northpin said:
New planetary tech might be generating a much more realistic terrain tho.
You cant have mountain ranges without tectonic plate movements. And no riverbeds without rivers
So planets with dramatic terrain might be more rare (pomeche 2c type of planets are quite some oddities imo,, nice but odd)

Gravitational tidal forces can create pretty amazing, extreme terrain.
Take Jupiter's moons Io and Europa, for example.
Of course it's not just anywhere, you need the right arrangement of celestial bodies.

Kotoku · Dec 10, 2022

I just finished a spot of Selenium fishing, and there was some pretty dramatic looking terrain there, a nice mix of flats, deep craters, and sudden mountainy bits.
Great fun playing space dirt rally (though the controller needs tactile vibration feedback urgently) and high powered geysers blasting all over the place.
And all the Se you want.

The SRV is an awesome dirt beast, and the brake skids on this terrain are just A1. Only missing some good controller vibrations, everything else is superb.
Vehicle, sounds, handling, environment, just a stellar job by all the teams involved with this aspect of EDO (there's others obviously, but just giving a special shout out to the space dirt rally team here).

Pity there is so much wasted potential with this game though.
EDO could be a racing sim on par with the best terrestrial ones, if only FDev understood what they've built and what needs to be added.

Pro tip: Planet 4 b is even better.