The problem with add on ports

    For a while I've been thinking what was missing from the Just Flight Duchess. It somehow looked flat to me. As if I was flying in P3D. And suddenly I knew it. It lacks one (or more) graphic feature(s) that default planes do have: real time lighting. In default AFS2 planes you can see highlights on edges move in real time when you move your head. This makes things look pretty real. You don't see any of that in the JF Duchess. It has all 'lighting effects' (apart from shadows) baked in the textures. And why? Because it is a FSX/P3D port. In the Duchess things are just as dead as in P3D. It's based on and uses old tech. I do hope the upcoming Arrow doesn't have this problem otherwise I certainly won't buy it. It's such a shame to have old tech in a new sim...!

    Anyone else noticed this?

    BTW I uninstalled the plane, also because I can't get used to the terrible sound. It just doesn't feel right to me and I can't enjoy it.

    Edited 3 times, last by Flamingpie (July 7, 2019 at 7:16 PM).

    Sounds good but I was talking about highlights on edges. Like in this picture:

    When I look at screenshots of the upcoming Arrow those kind of highlights seem to be in the exact same spot always.

    Hi,

    Okay, now I got it.

    All the materials (so what you see as endproduct on the model) I have made the same way as the IPACS planes are done.

    There are quite a few texture maps working together

    - Diffuse / color map

    - Specular and specular alpha map (that's what makes the shine you mean)

    - Reflection map

    - Bump map

    - Ambient occusion

    The internal materials have additionally

    - Light map

    - Self illumination map

    All those, except the color maps I have created from scratch for the Arrow in order to meet the Aerofly standard. I think, it took some 200 hours of work...

    The reason, why you see the shine in all screenshots is just that they are all taken while the plane was standing on the ground and about the same time of the day. But it's most certainly dynamic.

    Cheers,

    Kai

    Quote from kai503

    Hi,

    Okay, now I got it.

    All the materials (so what you see as endproduct on the model) I have made the same way as the IPACS planes are done.

    <....>

    All those, except the color maps I have created from scratch for the Arrow in order to meet the Aerofly standard. I think, it took some 200 hours of work...

    Sounds great! :) Thanks for the info! I was about to uninstall AFS2 (for various reasons) but I'll keep it installed for now and I will probably buy your Arrow anyway. I just love Pipers so I think I just have to get this one, despite all the problems I have with AFS2. ;)