Can we please fix the water?

[Chilli]

4 to 2 odds don't mean hill of beans when it's against The Few or LD.  These guys have a knack for tearing into defenders with surgical precision and one shot kills. 

Nat, the post was about the water contrast, and looking at Dobs film, one could make an argument for "lighting / shadow" adjustments.  Notice the dark areas (shaded) are missing the contrast that takes away from the pilot's orientation when wildly maneuvering in battle.

Prior arguments have been made for choppier wave textures.  Both are areas that I hope will be acceptable for adjustments in the future development of AH3.

[save]

For Dobs :




First I thought it was a Yak3 just after takeoff 

[Bizman]

Yesternight I managed to spot a PT boat and could sink it a couple of times with my G6. The first pass went fine, the second time I crashed to sea right after the kill message. It was very hard to determine how high I was compared to shooting tanks. I admit that I often crash in tank shooting, too, but usually into a tree instead of the ground.

This experiment raised an idea: Since we can have several types of clutter on the ground, flowers swaying in the wind etc., couldn't we have similar effects on the sea surface, too? I'm not talking about seaweed or or fish or mermaids, I'm thinking about foam from breaking waves and such. Water on water, so to say. Something similar to the waves on the shores rolling and fading, only in short fractions.

[Bruv119]

some fish and mermaids would be pretty cool though right?   

[Estes]

Can you not toggle the reflections I think it was on it anymore? Made it easier for me to gauge it that way

[Chilli]

Bizman,

I am pretty sure there are two separate portions of the terrain.  Water is done by a dedicated program if you recall the previews of the waves from surface views.  The grass and trees are done by another dedicated program.  Still, I agree that textures seem to be an area that is a problem at low altitudes in shadows.

[Bizman]

Chilli, I remember the "getting wetter" video which made many people seasick. However, the current sea surface doesn't seem to act like that. The only movement I can see is the waves breaking on the shores and that looks like a seamlessly looping gif animation - which works very well by the way. Viewed on the boat the sea looks just fine for a perfectly calm day. However, it didn't seem to change in Offline either no matter how I set the wind.

As for the sea and ground being two separate portions, you may be either right or wrong according to my logic. As you remember from the Alpha and Beta, if you managed to go below ground level you were in the sea. So the ground is just a layer of texture floating over water. Or rather skinned polygons for elevations.

[NatCigg]

It has to be in the lighting.  The strange source of light and how it reflects.  We have the direct source of light as the sun, the water reflects this light very intensely and allows the 6 inch wave height to be seen.  I see the problem (of a bland dark blue water with the only detail being circular shade differences that are seemingly related to the wind screen or are artifacts of a lighting scheme) starting at the edge of the sun glare, circling the player, until the sunglare resumes.  To fix the problem we need more light reflection from indirect light. something off the land and sky to the water that gives the 6 inch waves some definition.  When we can regain some sense of water movement from altitude, from the shape size increase of color changes related to water movement, I think dome sense of depth perception can be gathered.  Increasing the wave height and length could help create more color differences from reflective shading contrast.

[NatCigg]

here we have the sun at a high angel to the cameras left.  there is a refection from the ship on the water that is perpendicular to the suns angle, and the entire surface is reflecting light back at me making the waves visible from altitude.

[FLOOB]

Couldn't go full screen on the other one..don't know why...

Turn your engine sound way up, turn your gun sounds way down, get trackir and don't swear on vox.

[Bizman]

NatCigg, thanks for the photo! It reveals another issue that has somewhat bugged me: The wake. In your photo it clearly shows that the wake doesn't create an arrow of foam like it does in AH3. The wash on the bow doesn't exceed the width of the ship.

Another thing visible in the photo is the waves: The ripple on the actual waves is what we see in AH3. I must admit it looks nice especially from the PT boat but it must be very rare for any sea to be that calm on a bright sunny day.

[EskimoJoe]

I must admit it looks nice especially from the PT boat but it must be very rare for any sea to be that calm on a bright sunny day.

I dunno, I feel like it would have happened often enough considering the scale of operations during the war.

[Chilli]

Thanks to the films and pictures, it was evident to me (and at least one other poster here) that wave caps are not very obviously represented.  I am very interested in seeing "foam" somewhat like that near the shorelines, but on a much smaller visible scale.  At distance it would look almost like tiny specks seen in the black and white photo.  Only at distances ~250 ft or so would the "foam" animation take shape as a "rolling wave cap" (a much abbreviated form of what we see around shorelines).  In order for this to be consistent with the "surface", coad should probably take into consideration height of the wireframe at various positions and also the random effect caused by wind and sea conditions (basically some sort of modifier that would proportionally increase or decrease the number of wave caps per area)

I may start a new thread in wishlist if:

• what I am pondering has any basis in the way the water animation is generated
• the type of changes would not unnecessarily steal fps or memory
• the result clearly enhances the way the present water system looks both at distant altitude, but most importantly at close range and under shade
  

[rvflyer]

Depends on conditions I fly over water a lot. If it is relatively calm day and the water is fairly smooth it is difficult to judge the distance above the water. Seaplane pilot have to be extremely cautious when landing on smooth lake because of the depth perception problem. Having said that over rough waters such a seas with waves or over lakes where there is a strong breeze blowing it is fairly simple to judge distance from the water. Over seas with just rolling waves and no white caps it can still be difficult to accurately tell altitude by sight. Most of us that fly real airplanes keep a close watch on our altitude and altimeters over land or water, but that is a whole different story than being involved with combat.

I would like to hear from real life pilots that have flown low, over water quite a bit before I plus or minus this one.

I have not hit the water in AH3 since beta but it does make it much harder to engage a fighter low.  I have used the dark look to my advantage several times.  Recently on a lone flight, I was jumped by four reds over water.  I got two and sent two home smoking.  I am not that good but I do not fear hitting the water and that played to my advantage.  My point is that the water as it is, is not all bad.

[FLOOB]

Depends on conditions I fly over water a lot. If it is relatively calm day and the water is fairly smooth it is difficult to judge the distance above the water. Seaplane pilot have to be extremely cautious when landing on smooth lake because of the depth perception problem. Having said that over rough waters such a seas with waves or over lakes where there is a strong breeze blowing it is fairly simple to judge distance from the water. Over seas with just rolling waves and no white caps it can still be difficult to accurately tell altitude by sight. Most of us that fly real airplanes keep a close watch on our altitude and altimeters over land or water, but that is a whole different story than being involved with combat.

Exactly, but I doubt truth and facts are enough to stifle the dumb water whiners.