Visuals question

[aeromed202]

I have always wondered what it was about FS that looked a bit toy-plane like. I finally realized that at least to me places that should be dark are too light. For instance, under surfaces of wings and fuselages of real aircraft are fairly hard into shadow. These places on FS aircraft are always too well illumuminated. Same goes for tree and structure shadows. I just think this detracts some depth and realism.
I have fiddled with my monitor settings without helping and wanted to know if there was another way to adjust I don't know, is it contrast I'm talking about? There was that EMD add on that I also tried briefly but had a real hard time making sense of it. Looked like it required a huge amount of trial and error time. Just tossing this out there.

 

[Sascha66]

By EMD I assume you are refering to the russian bloom add-on ENB-series. This solves the light-dark contrast problems nicely, cranking up realism by a great deal.

I don't think there is another addon which has the same effect available.

Get the ENB files at avsim:

Filename: lightbloom.zip
License: Freeware
Added: 8th April 2010
Downloads: 442
Author: Boris Vorontsov
Size: 345kb

For me, an older version works better. Just google for russian bloom or bloom + fs2004 or author's name and you will get any number of links.

There are any number of threads in various forums on tweaks so you should be able to find some settings which suit yourself, here are some in SOH:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=14917&highlight=russian+bloom

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=31559&highlight=russian+bloom

FSX but the settings work for FS9 too.

Search for FengZ in the forums here, I think there are more threads where he posted his settings.

Regards,
Sascha

 

[aardvark62]

One solution is to fly aircraft that have been repainted by some of the masters, where shadowing is incorporated in the paint.

This of course is not so effective if your name is Obio and you have a tendancy to fly upside down. Alot.

A.

 

[Matt Wynn]

obio inverted is not usually an issue.... i recall one flight off the top of my head Moscow > Faro inverted for the duration (Except take off and landings) but i digress...

The ENB Series Bloom 'mod' works wonders for me, i enjoy it, just adds a bit more depth in my opinion... shadowing on paints is good also but if you're flying something which you enjoy turning and burning it detracts from the depth, as with most things FS related it's user preference at the end of the day... just my 2 cents there, :salute:

 

[aeromed202]

I kind of thought that EMB had some promise. I'll just have to schedule some time to play with it.

 

[OBIO]

This of course is not so effective if your name is Obio and you have a tendancy to fly upside down. Alot.

A.

You guys know me too well LOL!

I tried the bloomers thing...didn't like it. Maybe I just needed to learn how it works and how to tweak it to work with my system the best.

OBIO

 

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Incorporating some shadowing sometimes leads to quite fine results.
For instance, I've added an overall shadow layer to the PAD Twin Otter's fuselage, making the lower parts appear darker with a smooth transition:

I also allowed the wings and the horizontal stabilizer to cast some shadows too.
Depending on the model and the texture mapping, adjusting different parts to the same shade could turn out to a nightmare or even is impossible. In this example, the gear fairing's shadows had to be left out, because it was impossible for me to make their lower portion darker than the upper half...

Attached you'll find my 'universal shadow' to be added as a seperate layer. Try on your own!

Cheers,
Markus.