FS9 Xtreme Evolution: beta testers wanted!

My surprise is ...

... something that I've been working on for a long time but have got right only now!

I would have liked to say that it is a first for flight simming ... but FTXG overtook me on the last lap, well they are many and I am me only.

So here is the surprise: FS9 lights integrated into the textures. At least that is a first to my knowledge. No more disappearing autogen buildings, no more turning off the lights in day time! These lights are controlled through the autogen slider. You'll see lots of lights in the right places with lots of autogen left!

For best results you need to disable residential roads in your UT setup. If you are using default roads you should be fine.

I used the "minimal roads" patch available here: http://www.scenerysolutions.com/ut_downloads_FS9.html
It removes everything but highways, motorways and intercconnecting roads.

Hopefully I will release it in a couple of hours. Just need to compile the modified agn files. I will not upload the full set but just the major city tiles so you can give me feedback.

Enough words, here are some screenshots:

KSFO at night, EVO lights + UT major road lights
View attachment 91800


Same spot with deactivated UT, so even without addon kights you get plenty from EVO
View attachment 91801

Same spot in daytime (no UT road lights), still plenty of autogen
View attachment 91802

Lights are visible from far away ...
View attachment 91803

... and mesh with autogen up close!
View attachment 91804

Different color lights too. Very natural looking!
View attachment 91805

:ernae:Cheers,
Sascha
 
Well they are uploaded into this folder:
!!!_EVO_extreme_autogen_w_lights


There will probably be a loss of framerates at extreme settings, you can control everything with the normal autogen slider.

It will work with any terrain.cfg. You will also need the library here if you don't already have it:
into_FS9_Scenery_Generic_scenery


Drop all the files into the directories indicated in folder or file names and you are good to go!

I need to go to bed, it's been a long day I have a busy week ahead of me, so I probably won't be able to adress any problems that you guys might get with this setup. If you have a problem, I have put the normal set of autogen files in the same folder, drop them into the scenery\world\texture folder and it should be ok again.

Good night and out for today!
Sascha

P.S.: Note that there are only a couple of new autogen files (large and medium cities) and only Europe and US. I want to check out how that level of autogen (pretty extreme) will work out framerate wise. If too much I will edit files to carry fewer lights.
 
A quick ENB guide for those not yet using it

ENB series (or sweetfx which I don't use) will allow you almost perfect control graphics wise. I have even managed to get all textures looking much sharper, although that was more a windfall from my experimentation with settings.

You can change these settings to tweak color and brightness very quickly (you can also have negative settings):

[BLOOM]
BloomPowerDay=15 <-- Bloom power will make bright things brighter (the halo effect) and dark things darker dynamically.
BloomFadeTime=300 <-- transition time when changing view point
BloomConstantDay=1 <-- increase this and it will get brighter
BloomQuality=0
BloomScreenLevelDay=100
BloomCurveDay=5
BloomPowerNight=18
BloomConstantNight=0
BloomCurveNight=0
BloomScreenLevelNight=20
BloomAdaptationScreenLevel=24
BloomAdaptationMultiplier=100
BloomAllowOversaturation=1 <-- When you set this to 0 you will lose color
BloomMaxLimit=100

[SSAO]
UseFilter=1
OcclusionQuality=2
FilterQuality=1
DarkeningLevel=15
BrighteningLevel=20
IlluminationLevel=20
AdditiveIlluminationLevel=18
UseAmbientOcclusion=1
UseIndirectLighting=1
FadeDistance=50
UseForAlphaTest=0
UseForAlphaBlend=0

[COLORCORRECTION]
DarkeningAmountDay=32 <-- Makes dark areas darker, giving a more "defined" look. When you have muddy looking textures, this will improve it.
ScreenLevelDay=2
ScreenLevelNight=1
DarkeningAmountNight=-20
GammaCurveDay=-2
GammaCurveNight=-2
ColorSaturationDay=0 <-- Controls amount of colour. Even a change of 1 will have a noticeable effect!
ColorSaturationNight=0
UsePaletteTexture=1 <-- the palette injects color through a single file called enbpallette.bmp (in my case a slightly greenish tinge). Set to 0 to see how it looks without.

Hope this helps! You can get almost any base colouring using these settings.

Regards,
Sascha
 
Well it is time for some other regions ...

... here is a screenshot of scenery close to Macau.

View attachment 91820

I was inspired for this shot by a thread over at avsim discussing the relative merits of GE and FTX. The debate is still going strong it seems ... I probably shouldn't have tossed in my two cents but all the fuss around FTXG is getting to me.

Avsim allows high resolution screenshots which turn out rather neat, the format pleases my sense of aesthetics.

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/414457-some-gex-ftx-global-comparisons/page-10#entry2745860 <--- Full res image, a bit sharpened to reduce mushy effect from screenshot. Much better than what I can achieve here. I won't make a habit of posting over there though!

I'll be taking some shots of other parts of the world.

Cheers,
Sascha

Edit: After editing the post my screenshot is suddenly much larger inline! How did that happen? I would like to do this all the time but can't manage it. Only smaller previews.
 
A few pics from here and there. Several around Seattle area including night and city. Lots of buildings!!! And love those lights.












 
Jon_aus said:
A few pics from here and there. Several around Seattle area including night and city. Lots of buildings!!! And love those lights.












Click to expand...

Looking good!

The colours are too bright for my taste, though - that's why I use bloom to correct it. Otherwise my sim shows them like that on my new monitor. On my old monitor the colors looked much more natural without having to use bloom. Strangely in Photoshop the colours are always just right.

Don't know why FS2004 does that ...

Cheers,
Sascha
 
Here's the results of my first flight with default FS9 bloom.

View attachment 91831View attachment 91832
I love the new sea textures. This is exactly how the North Sea really looks from 500 feet. You can see why nobody ever wants to swim in it.

View attachment 91833View attachment 91834
The land textures looked a little too 'bottle-green' at first look, but it grows on you.

View attachment 91835
I'm not certain of this grass texture at all. England doesn't have this problem.

Caveat: I'm running Windows 8.1 Preview, and all graphics displayed are currently suspect while MS are 'playing'.

Dave
 
I give a try with the extreme autogen .. but it's too much extreme for my gear .. lol ... FPS divided by 2 in big cities .. like Paris ..

Some more captures with different ENB settings ....

No ENB
MCtkxpW.jpg


With ENB (green)
ZfYhMSi.jpg


No ENB
RrpFQQV.jpg


With ENB (green)
flSuT4r.jpg


With another ENB (dark)
3u7vVoF.jpg


mmGkZ2T.jpg
 
Navtech said:
I give a try with the extreme autogen .. but it's too much extreme for my gear .. lol ... FPS divided by 2 in big cities .. like Paris ..

Some more captures with different ENB settings ....

No ENB
MCtkxpW.jpg


With ENB (green)
ZfYhMSi.jpg


No ENB
RrpFQQV.jpg


With ENB (green)
flSuT4r.jpg


With another ENB (dark)
3u7vVoF.jpg


mmGkZ2T.jpg
Click to expand...

Hi Navtech,

I like the dark one best! Where is that? You seem to have an older autogen building texture that I thought I'd rejected, I seem to have gotten something mixed up.

Best,
Sascha
 
Hi guys,

I have placed some new tweaked files into the !!!_tweaked_files diretory:

- browner inland water
- alternate autogen buildings
- enbserie setup which gives overall browner look

Also already some more detailed trees in there.

I will now tweak all files for some desaturation, starting with US deserts.

Thank you for your efforts so far!

Good night!
Sascha
 
Sascha66 said:
Looking good!

The colours are too bright for my taste, though - that's why I use bloom to correct it. Otherwise my sim shows them like that on my new monitor. On my old monitor the colors looked much more natural without having to use bloom. Strangely in Photoshop the colours are always just right.

Don't know why FS2004 does that ...

Cheers,
Sascha
Click to expand...


Yeah I like to feel like there is a fair bit of glare from cockpit view which can look different from external shots. Easy press of the hot key for sweetfx though and its off if the weather is OC. So get a gloomy darker look from inside cockpit. My sweetfx settings were for the original textures I had in but messing around some more I came up with this. Kinda feels bright with some glare but keeping the textures a little dry looking.

Must say I'm loving them!!! This from San Francisco area and north heading toward Napa Valley I guess. Along with some turbulence, 40m Vis, this was one of the most real 'flight's I've had since I actually did some real flying many moons ago. Very enjoyable. So nice work, Sascha!!







Sweetfx off for darker gloomier look :




 
Jon_aus said:
Yeah I like to feel like there is a fair bit of glare from cockpit view which can look different from external shots. Easy press of the hot key for sweetfx though and its off if the weather is OC. So get a gloomy darker look from inside cockpit. My sweetfx settings were for the original textures I had in but messing around some more I came up with this. Kinda feels bright with some glare but keeping the textures a little dry looking.

Must say I'm loving them!!! This from San Francisco area and north heading toward Napa Valley I guess. Along with some turbulence, 40m Vis, this was one of the most real 'flight's I've had since I actually did some real flying many moons ago. Very enjoyable. So nice work, Sascha!!







Sweetfx off for darker gloomier look :




Click to expand...

I like the bright look! I am working on some desaturated tetures now so there will be a choice.

Cheers,
Sascha
 
ARRG you guys are killing me. I won't get install 1 until Saturday because of work but so far looks awesome. Is there any particular install preferred? Has anyone put it into a clean stock install?
 
aeromed202 said:
ARRG you guys are killing me. I won't get install 1 until Saturday because of work but so far looks awesome. Is there any particular install preferred? Has anyone put it into a clean stock install?
Click to expand...

I've got it in a clean stock install now. IMHO, that is the best way to see these textures - Sashas night textures really shine when you divorce them from the competition of Ultimate Terrain.
 
EMatheson said:
I've got it in a clean stock install now. IMHO, that is the best way to see these textures - Sashas night textures really shine when you divorce them from the competition of Ultimate Terrain.
Click to expand...

I agree beta-testing wise - if you were prepared to make a clean install and start adding your favorite third-party addons it would be the best way to find out if there are problems with any.

Personally I use UT because the road data is so much better - I have included replacement textures for the UT rroads in the basic install. What I do to get around the problem with UT-EVO competition is to use a patch which removes all small roads and leaves just the highways and interstates http://www.scenerysolutions.com/ut_downloads_FS9.html but that is a one-way street - to get rid of it you need to reinstall UT.

Then - just for dusk and night time flights - I activate UT lights except for the residential lights. You can see the effects of EVO lights with or without UT in post #61 screens. For me it is the ideal balance.

Beta test request:
The lights are just limited to large and medium cities because I wanted to know how they affect framerates. Could you tell me your autogen settings and framerates? Before I finished the rest (suburbs and also rural areas, also for other regions) I would like to know if I need to adjust density.

Cheers and thanks for all the effort you have put in so far! My apologies if I missed answering PMs!

Sascha
 
Beta proceeding well ...

... I am very happy with the feedback so far, thank you guys! Lots of helpful information coming in.

Color bias is important and so there was a range of color issues across the board.

To address this I have reworked all textures to have less contrast, also recolouring a few. This should resolve some of the problems people were having!

Of course you can still use the vibrant set if you prefer.

The difference is subtle in any case.

While I was at it I cleaned up some tiling and added extra detail here and there.

Here is a screenshot from the green island with the new textures:

View attachment 92035

I hope to release them for testing on Saturday.

Regards,
Sascha
 
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