Aircraft shadowing issue in AF2.

    I have detailed an issue in a video overview with regards to aircraft shadowing. I thought it was across the board where aircraft appear over exposed and the dark side of an aircraft was still too light looking and the shadows didn't look natural. I then saw a video clip on YouTube which looked a lot different from what I was seeing in game and the shadows in the clip looked much more realistic.
    After some investigation and assistance from other forum users, it seems this issue is hardware specific - more notably the iPod Touch 5G and the iPad mini 1st gen look natural but faster devices look washed out such as the iPad Air 2, iPad mini 2, iPhone 5s and the iPhone 6. The iPod and the mini 1G share the same A5 processor and associated graphics so I'm assuming it is related to that and a different way of rendering or light occlusion on the slower hardware.

    Examples below. FYI - these examples were taken at the exact same time of day and location i.e. UTC 2am on SFO Runway 10R which can be verified by the shadow angle and position.
    The Air 2 has the lighter looks/shadows, the Touch 5G the darker, more natural looking lighting.

    This is no hardware issue, its done by us on purpose depending on the device performance, e.g. if you have a fast iOS device, Aerofly 2 uses more sophisticated shaders to compute the lighting.
    We decided on making the shadows brighter than they really are, simply because its sometimes difficult to see everything if we make it too dark.

    Our PC version uses our most sophisticated light rendering technique, here you will see the shadows appear a lot darker.

    However its almost impossible to display real life lighting on today's monitor, due to the limited dynamic range.

    Quote from Trisnpod

    Wow looking at the background on the air 2 screenshots compared with the backgrounds on the touch 5g I didn't realise the graphics difference was so big!

    Well it is testimony to the skill of the devs at IPACS that are trying very hard to extract the best performance they can from the device you are using. And that may mean adjustments in rendering quality, shading, when objects first pop into view, etc. What a nightmare to have to program for so many different hardware configurations and different operating systems! It really is amazing they do what they do.

    Cheers,

    Adak47

    Quote from adak47

    Well it is testimony to the skill of the devs at IPACS that are trying very hard to extract the best performance they can from the device you are using. And that may mean adjustments in rendering quality, shading, when objects first pop into view, etc. What a nightmare to have to program for so many different hardware configurations and different operating systems! It really is amazing they do what they do.

    Cheers,

    Adak47

    I think the vast majority here would definitely agree with that. Best mobile sim available.

    I think the shadows are a bit dark on the lower end devices. The screenshots below were taken at about 12:40 (near the middle of the slider) and the ground seems unrealisticly dark, possibly as dark as it is in the night. Donka, do you get this as well on the air 2?

    Edited once, last by Trisnpod (February 28, 2015 at 11:30 AM).

    Quote from Trisnpod

    I think the shadows are a bit dark on the lower end devices. The screenshots below were taken at about 12:40 (near the middle of the slider) and the ground seems unrealisticly dark, possibly as dark as it is in the night. Donka, do you get this as well on the air 2?

    Not seeing any pics on your post. Did you upload any?

    Here are a couple of shots from my iPad mini with Retina. First is untouched. The second has the aircraft shadows darkened a little. The rest of the image is untouched. I think the second image looks more natural while still retaining detail and this looks better than the shots from these iPod touch in my opinion.