How photo realistic is CSF3 now ?

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BOBC

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Hi,
I momentarily flew CFS3 many years ago, at same time as Rowans BoB was about, the latter was far superior cockpit and 3D models wise, CFS3 scenery was more refined.
Now flying Cliffs of Dover which is often photo realistic, I am considering also CFS3 for Bomber Command simming, where are we at with CFS3, can someone show me whats possible now with a powerful video card. Something to Match Shockwave Wings of Victory or Cliffs of Dover maybe.

I dont want to waste my time on all the ETOs and overcoming win7 issues if any if the end result dissapoints...so some one please impress me with RAF and Luft aircraft and realistic scenery, better still pics from the Bomber Command Cologne mission set.

Cheers

BOBC
 
BOBC cfs3 graphics are not in the same league as cliffs of dover. COD blows cfs2 and cfs3 out of the water as far as looks go.
 
Things have changed GREATLY this past year or so, Lots of improvments to say the least.
With ETO 1.50 coming soon, this will take things to a new level also.
:applause: :applause: :applause:
 
HouseHobbit said:
Things have changed GREATLY this past year or so, Lots of improvments to say the least.
With ETO 1.50 coming soon, this will take things to a new level also.
:applause: :applause: :applause:
Click to expand...
Hi,
clearly not CoD standard, an example of the best of which is http://mikmak08.free.fr/forum_OBT/big_wing_alpha.jpg
generally less than Rowan ll -Shockwave Wings of Victory, from memory, though I cant find the forum and pics.

but interested to know what ETO 1.5 will be doing, any sneak previews ?

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11734&d=1408977947 is an aircraft of interest, however the nearest wing to camera is massive, is there a choice of camera views, WoV did this and had a correct proportioned option which lost itself back to fisheye so easily, which was very annoying. CoD has three settings, 1 is ok.

waves are too big/overscale http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11366&d=1408152436 but no doubt a coding tweak will solve that and would look far more realistic.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11481&d=1408393116 again the waves, or tsunamis need scaling down a lot. but buildings which I spy in this pic are not very good are they ! WoVll had a setting to not show buildings in 3D, was this 'on' in this shot ?

Stirling is my interest...http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12380&d=1411059580 looks fair. (not sure of the white chunk from leading edge wing)

I am noticing that all the screen captures I have looked at in http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?63049-Screenshots!/page34 are images that only fill a quarter of my monitor, are they reduced by 50% in size before being posted ?
I am running 1920 x 1200 resolution. If that is actual size for the sim and they look low res regards detail as such, stretched out to 2x as big will make things worse ?

BOBC
 
BOBC said:
Hi,
clearly not CoD standard, an example of the best of which is http://mikmak08.free.fr/forum_OBT/big_wing_alpha.jpg
generally less than Rowan ll -Shockwave Wings of Victory, from memory, though I cant find the forum and pics.

but interested to know what ETO 1.5 will be doing, any sneak previews ?

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11734&d=1408977947 is an aircraft of interest, however the nearest wing to camera is massive, is there a choice of camera views, WoV did this and had a correct proportioned option which lost itself back to fisheye so easily, which was very annoying. CoD has three settings, 1 is ok.

waves are too big/overscale http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11366&d=1408152436 but no doubt a coding tweak will solve that and would look far more realistic.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11481&d=1408393116 again the waves, or tsunamis need scaling down a lot. but buildings which I spy in this pic are not very good are they ! WoVll had a setting to not show buildings in 3D, was this 'on' in this shot ?

Stirling is my interest...http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12380&d=1411059580 looks fair. (not sure of the white chunk from leading edge wing)

I am noticing that all the screen captures I have looked at in http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?63049-Screenshots!/page34 are images that only fill a quarter of my monitor, are they reduced by 50% in size before being posted ?
I am running 1920 x 1200 resolution. If that is actual size for the sim and they look low res regards detail as such, stretched out to 2x as big will make things worse ?

BOBC
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Hi BOBC,

just about everything in CFS3 is moddable. You can add photo realistic textures eg from Google, to apporpriate Lat/Lon if you so desire. Its just a lot of work!

is there a choice of camera views? yes, you can modify the ViewUI to your heart's content - there is an SDK type document from MS about how to do this.

Wave sizes can be adjusted in the config.exe, along with heaps of other stuff.

Buildings? There are heaps of good addon buildings however the default autogen ones are bodgy - this can be changed of course.

You are not looking at the screen captures per se (these are around 5Mb) but rather the uploaded much scaled down version.

I find my version of CFS3 looks heaps better than the screen shots that I post to SOH, simply because I haven't spent the time to learn how to get round the upload restrictions!

HTH,
 
To put it simply BOBC, CoD will still look better than CFS3, including the latest ETO. You've got to remember, we're doing this with a game engine that was released in 2003. The new shaders work by Ankor is changing this though. We're enjoying some of it now, but a much better version is still in progress (including fixing the fisheye). Give us a year and I think graphically CFS3 may well have visuals competing with CoD in many areas. If you want to see what the CFS3 engine is capable of check out the screenshots for WOFF 2.0, a payware WWI simulator that uses CFS3 as its base (note, it upgrades way more than just the graphics). http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/372/1/Wings:_Over_Flanders_Fields. We aren't there yet, as we're all freeware and none of us has time to work on CFS3 full-time like they can as we earn our bread elsewhere.

In terms of aircraft models, there are some quite good ones available for CFS3, though some are better than others.

Future graphical improvements aside, CFS3 has a few things going for it that you won't find elsewhere. You have a huge variety of aircraft available including a very well represented bomber command and night fighters. And more are being added all the time. Also, you have a huge map to make use of, stretching from Ireland to Berlin and beyond, north to Denmark and south to Rome. CoD and Wings of Victory are extremely limited in this area, and completely preclude any realistic treatment of the heavy bombers. So if you want Bomber Command, you've found the right sim, be patient and the graphics will improve to the level you're used to. Or better yet, join in and help it get there faster.
 
gecko said:
You've got to remember, we're doing this with a game engine that was released in 2003.
Click to expand...

No we aren't... 2001 is more like it. :wink: It's ancient by just about any criteria.

Still I keep getting blown away by the accuracy of the physics engine - as long as the flight model has parameters set correctly (AvH 4.0 series, check) changing power, weight, boost pressure, you name it, produces a change that is closer to real values than individual aircraft probably were to each other.
 
I'm running 3840 x 1024 without CFS3 needing to do any stretching to fill the screen.

I typically crop and compress my screen captures to make the upload to the website easier, so it's hard to convey what it really looks like.

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Thanks guys,
Sound promising,

gecko, thanks for the link, now thats uplifting.. looks promising, they are of CoD calibre....hey hey.

Shockwave BoB ll WoV was able to get aircraft up to recent standards more so than terrain, is this going to be the same with CFS3 ?
Good to know the true screenshots are different, pity the forum denies what Simhq and atag are able to give.

As its all about how things look and perform, seeing the sim actual size would be useful !

I thought I was at max at 1920 px wide, guess not :)

I f I can get time to help I will, I am also hoping to assist CoD as well as needing to work to survive financially and the evenings soon go.

BOBC
 
BOBC said:
Thanks guys,
Sound promising, ......

I f I can get time to help I will, I am also hoping to assist CoD as well as needing to work to survive financially and the evenings soon go.

BOBC
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hey BOBC, all help gratefully received! It is always good to enlist new talent. Our talented guys are flat out with ETO 1.5 at the moment, and sadly my abilities in the 3D world are strictly limited to tweaking a few xml/xdp files.

Dai
 
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