Near-the-ground speed sense

[Aussie]

I mentioned this once before in an early  post and Ive not seen anyone mention it anywhere else since (that i can find anyway). So is it me or an issue others simply havent commented on?

When flying close to the ground, there is very little sense of speed. ie. the terrain doesnt seem to move past much faster as the ground gets closer. This is most noticeable when flying through canyons. The canyon walls seem to float by as if they were thousands of feet away instead of the tens of feet they actually are.

I find it very disconcerting to dive into a canyon and get no sense of the ground rushing by as I follow the canyon floor. It makes it very hard to judge just how close you are to the terrain. It makes you feel like you're floating unrealisticly just above the ground.

I noticed the same effect on the old F22 flight sim when it was first released and it was one of the reasons I never flew it again. And its driving me mad in this sim too.

Any comments for others about this???




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aussie
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Any ship can be a minesweeper... once.

[eazydweeb]

Aussie,

best groud reference so far are them really cool sheep   Thei're not even  afraid of a roaring B17.

I hope there will be aircraft shadow added in one of the next versions though...

eazydweeb

[phaetn]

Aussie: are you using the hi-res textures?

While the ground doesn't exactly rush past, there is a lot more sense of speed at low alt then there was with the default terrain of v.0.33.

Cheers,

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phaetnAT
Aces High Alpha Tester

[wizzer]

Agreed, the speed sensation (or lack of) has been keeping me away from flying AH as much as I probably would have otherwise. The only way to tell if your > or < of speed is look at the IAS, which is sometimes too late. (compressed}  

Accurate or not, it would appear to me that there needs to be sound changes coming from the prop with regards the the amount of airflow through the prop. ie..in a vert. dive the sound of the prop is identical to that of a climb. Also no wind sounds, of which HT is said is being addressed at this time.

Good, bad, or indifferent I fly by feel and not so much instruments. Right now its tough for me to judge closure and other important SA needed to survive in the beta.

Still think its a wonderful production, and well worth the time spent to learn the sim. Will be looking foward to futher releases.

Forever struggling

wizzer

[Aussie]

Phaetn:

Im using the latest Hires textures and Im running in 1024 x 768 with about 25 fps. The problem was the same with the previous textures and it isnt a texture problem. Its the flight/graphics engine I would think.

Eazydweeb:

Thanks for the tip on the sheep , but referencing the ground as far as impacts is not the main problem. Its the fact that you can fly close to the sides of the ravines and the terrain still slowly moves past like your 2000ft above it. Its not real. It was the first thing I noticed on the first day and I dont know why there havent beenany other comments on it (if there have been, I can find any reference to it).

I'd be interested to hear HiTechs comments.
If its just part of the beta then fine, but if its an integrated part of the flight Sim engine then its just not real (to me anyway) and its the main thing that will stop me from enjoying AH.




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aussie
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Any ship can be a minesweeper... once.

[hitech]

aussie:
It not a flight/graphics engine problem. The perseption of speed in any enviroment real or simulation is a very strange thing. It all relies on your perception of how big things are. Or conversly object size is a perception of how fast you belive you are going and how far away you think the objects are.

Right now there are very few visual clues in the terrian to give you a sense of scale. To give you an example most canyons you are flying in are biger then the Grand canyon.

Anyway the hirer res textures have helped some simply because they give us more deatail on the ground and thus make each color change smaller and thus move by quicker. There will be other things that will help the perception of speed close to the ground but they will primaryly be different ground clutter types like rocks and houses and such. Things that you know the size of in the real world.

Shadows will also help because they will give you a better sense of how far away from the ground you are and give you a visual que how big the blotches on the terrain are.

Work on sound that changes with speed will also help the speed sensation.

HiTech

[Tigger]

I'm not a graphics or game guru, how did Lucas Arts give the sensation of movement with their "Pod Racer" game?

Just curious.

[Aussie]

Thanks hitech.

Im going to have another play in the canyons tonight and Im going to get real close to those sheep and note the speed sensation again. Still, even flying over the runways doesnt seem right to me.

I guess the idea is to stay high and concentrate on the enemy hehe.




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aussie
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Any ship can be a minesweeper... once.