Does FS4 has 3D water?

  • Allways this small team excuses. Also with a small team one can reach a lot, except there is a hidden agenda and one cannot put the whole force into the project.

    Regards,

    Thomas

    i7-14700KF @ 5.6 GHz, Geforce RTX 4090, 32MB RAM, 1TB SSD M.2, 1TB SSD M.2, 2TB SSD M.2, 32" Monitor 4K, Pimax Crystal

  • Just out of curiosity, why is this so important for you?

    Not important? Are you serious? Then what’s important to you? System and visual realism are two key factors of flight simulator. Cloulds, rains, water, those are as important as what IPACS has been working on to improve the scenery. I believe it’s even more important than publishing new scenery and aircrafts. And I reckon many people would have the same opinion.

  • Not important? Are you serious? Then what’s important to you? System and visual realism are two key factors of flight simulator. Cloulds, rains, water, those are as important as what IPACS has been working on to improve the scenery. I believe it’s even more important than publishing new scenery and aircrafts. And I reckon many people would have the same opinion.

    And how many flight simulators do you know with real water that have the performance of FS2? Or FS4 ( probably )? I do not know anyone.

  • And how many flight simulators do you know with real water that have the performance of FS2? Or FS4 ( probably )? I do not know anyone.

    Then why would IPACS add these autogens in AFS4? I’m sure it impacts the performance a lot. If performance is the reason that you think prevent more important features like water. Then perhaps this sim can stop being developed.

  • Do we mean reflective water, that is water bodies showing some form of light scattering if they lie between the aeroplane and the bearing of the sun? It is present in original P.C. Aerofly FS, it would be amazing if it was absent in FS4 having never made it into FS2.

    It is a fundamental visual feature of the view from a plane.

  • For those that do not know, the very first version of Aerofly (Aerofly FS1) had a very acceptable “moving” water system. I have asked the question as to why this could not be incorporated in to AFS2 a number of times on this forum and have never received an answer. For me it was the one major negative aspect of AFS2 when it was released as a replacement for the first version. Assuming that the old system could be incorporated in to the later products then the only extra work required would be to digitise the water masks for all the additional scenery. I would be happy to volunteer to do this.

  • Maybe water in FS1 was a third party product as the clouds and they wanted to get rid of it but never replaced it by a proprietary solution. Who knows?

    Regards,

    Thomas

    i7-14700KF @ 5.6 GHz, Geforce RTX 4090, 32MB RAM, 1TB SSD M.2, 1TB SSD M.2, 2TB SSD M.2, 32" Monitor 4K, Pimax Crystal

  • The flight simulator FS2 is certainly based on the program code of IPACS' RC simulator aeroflyRC, which still supports 3D water. aeroflyRC uses only small sceneries with limited range.

    I think the main difference with aerofly FS2 is that FS2 simulates the whole earth and it is round. Therefore, the ocean is also round, so you need "curved" water. The old program code of 3D water will not fit for the FS2 world. Since IPACS has so many other tasks, the implementation of 3D water will have to wait.

    I am not an X-Plane pilot, but X-Plane 11 does not support 3D water either, does it?

    It is unfair to expect the same output from the IPACS team as from the Microsoft team. You cannot do everything if you do not have enough manpower. I think IPCAS has done a well job for its small team. The quality is also very good.

    I thank IPACS for bringing a new flight simulator to the market when Microsoft stopped developing FSX. Today Microsoft is back, but it is good to have a third simulator besides MSFS and X-Plane.

  • Not important? Are you serious? Then what’s important to you? System and visual realism are two key factors of flight simulator. Cloulds, rains, water, those are as important as what IPACS has been working on to improve the scenery. I believe it’s even more important than publishing new scenery and aircrafts. And I reckon many people would have the same opinion.

    I see the water from the air. I don't need to be perfect, just look like water.

    Of course, it would be better if it's 3D, has reflection and all the fancy stuff, but if that impacts the performance heavily, I'd rather leave the water as it is.

  • When you have a family or other things that can interrupt your flying session, you really appreciate the fast loading times and the possibility to skip to the landing phase.

    I do not recall AFS2 being particularly quick to load but maybe that was because of my many add on sceneries that made it possible to fly in my country. In the other sim you can also select to arrive or depart once you pick a place to fly so you can just about be in landing phase. The graphics in the other sim are the best in the world (I really can pick out my house) and you do have the whole world to fly in. You can also switch from Bing to Google as a source if you want to. Maybe frame rates do not compare to AFS, VR not as good, updates are a total pain and loading times are not great either. My plan was to check out the other sim whilst waiting for FS4, and I have done that and it is not all bad.

  • I had no clue about 3d water existing in previous versions. That is def interesting and it should be addressed on why it went away. I'm not bothered much by not having it, but the street lights are a huge factor. I mean, if I can sit at my pc for a few days and tap in the lighting say for NY/NJ region using some tool and make it available as freeware addon, you'd think we can get it out the box? It is 2022. Are we asking that much?

  • Quote

    I am not an X-Plane pilot, but X-Plane 11 does not support 3D water either, does it?

    I don't know if it is called 3D water but in X-Plane you can fly seaplanes.

    That is what I expected to see in FS4 because in FS2 there is a tiny bit of water.

    Quote

    Its not all that good either. Load times are abhorrent, photogrammetry is crap, stutters and freezing,no mouse sometimes, CTD's.


    You must have bad luck with your sim. I don't recognize the things you mention.

    But in the end we have a choice in sims and that is fine for everyone.

    Edited once, last by jetflyer (June 17, 2022 at 2:12 PM).