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'Up above the streets and houses' Flight Simulator 2020.

Started by mobias, August 02, 2020, 08:11:29 PM

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Mister Six

What I meant was how well the algorithms work, and what standard features they use for a "Dubai building" (since each city seems to have its own assets package).

Zetetic

I imagine it's not city-specific asset sets, but that it's based on a mix of multiple-angle satellite or aerial photography and some fairly strong assumptions about what all buildings look like and where they're found (using street data etc.).

Probably doesn't cope well with buildings that aren't basically cuboids[nb]but not necessarily rectangular cubioids[/nb], and doesn't understand things like HMS Belfast at all.

(Google Earth does this sort of stuff. Maybe the Google Maps 3D-view as well? Maybe Bing Maps? I might have a look.)

Zetetic

A randomly-chosen example from Google Maps 3D view, for example:


(I wonder if you can sharpen this sort of stuff up more with stronger assumptions about what buildings look like - seems like an ideal problem to throw "AI" at.)

Mister Six

Quote from: Zetetic on August 05, 2020, 05:18:53 PM
I imagine it's not city-specific asset sets, but that it's based on a mix of multiple-angle satellite or aerial photography and some fairly strong assumptions about what all buildings look like and where they're found (using street data etc.).

Probably doesn't cope well with buildings that aren't basically cuboids[nb]but not necessarily rectangular cubioids[/nb], and doesn't understand things like HMS Belfast at all.

(Google Earth does this sort of stuff. Maybe the Google Maps 3D-view as well? Maybe Bing Maps? I might have a look.)

From what I've seen, the major cities each have appropriately coloured and shaped buildings (lots of lovely red-pink buildings in Rome, for example) even if they're not fully accurate. Buckingham Palace had the approximate shape of the palace while apparently being composed of generic Georgian buildings. Interested to see how that works with Dubai, which is a mess of oddly shaped buildings with no consistent architectural style.

FS2020 probably ironically hamstrung by its greatest asset, since Bing is shite compared to Google.

Zetetic

I take the point, it does look more like assets applied to an area. More assumptions-based than I would have guessed. I retract my ignorance.

(Wonder if it'd be any good applied to a city builder.)

Mister Six

I mean, they probably used the photography you mentioned to compile those assets. Perhaps it's an algorithm working out what the "average" building within a defined metropolitan area[nb]Defined, I guess, by whatever city or other boundaries are in Bing's databases.[/nb] looks like.

El Unicornio, mang

Quote from: Mister Six on August 05, 2020, 05:27:23 PM


FS2020 probably ironically hamstrung by its greatest asset, since Bing is shite compared to Google.

I heard Bing maps are higher resolution/better quality than Google. Seems to vary though

https://www.pcworld.com/article/258328/google_maps_vs_bing_maps_a_showdown_of_satellite_images.html


PlanktonSideburns



mobias

My understanding of it is that the cities which are based off Bing's satellite imagery which have 3D telemetry data are near 100% accurate, like New York here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDh_KqBTMwk&t=87s. Most big US cities and a few non US cities have this level of detailing in the game. The cities such as London which don't have the 3D data are then approximated by the game engine to look like how the game thinks they should look. As we've seen it quite often gets it wrong. The developers are apparently working on rectifying this though.

By the sounds of things most cities do have a few well known landmarks had crafted, like the Millennium Dome and Tower Bridge in London. I'm guessing somewhere like Edinburgh will have the castle and the Forth Rail Bridge hand made to look accurately like the real thing.

It doesn't quite get mountains right either. Apparently high mountains like the Himalayas and the Alps are quite often a bit too rounded. The developers have said that quite obviously its all a work in progress and will be refined as time goes on.

Someone asked earlier about helicopters being in the game. Its been confirmed that apparently they will be in the future. There will be a shit ton of paid for DLC for this game made by both first and third party developers.   


El Unicornio, mang

Tempted by the Deluxe and Premium editions with the extra detailed airports (flew into O'Hare and Heathrow many times) but not sure I can justify the extra 20/50 quid on top of the initial 60

Deluxe Additional Handcrafted Airports
• Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (Netherlands)
• Cairo International Airport (Egypt)
• Cape Town International Airport (South Africa)
• O'Hare International Airport (USA)
• Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (Spain)

Premium Deluxe Additional Airports
• Denver International Airport (USA)
• Dubai International Airport (United Arab Emirates)
• Frankfurt Airport (Germany)
• Heathrow Airport (United Kingdom)
• San Francisco International Airport (USA)

mobias

I've just gone of the cheapest option. From what I've heard the non handcrafted airports are still pretty decent and I'd rather put the money saved towards buying some flying hardware for my PC like a decent joystick and throttle control. I think this sim is crying out for having proper controls

Quite fancy this. Pretty expensive though https://business.currys.co.uk/buy-rent/N260395W?cidp=Froogle&gclid=CjwKCAjwsan5BRAOEiwALzomX0GJPs6ekxMsDMgntxsWeNAzT0GimG4S1wapmHDTlkC0WX3CqOg06BoC2xgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

This is useful. There's some cheaper options https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek-_Hl-mDcY

El Unicornio, mang

Oh man, that motion rig at the end. I feel like my knock-off Xbox 360 controller isn't going to get me the most out of this game...

mobias

Concorde has been confirmed as a paid for DLC quite soon after release. I don't have a huge amount of experience with flight sims but I know third party paid for content is a big thing with them. Apparently over ten third party studios have signed up for making map content alone so you can be assured the world will become ever more detailed as time goes on, at a price of course.

PlanktonSideburns

Do the planes properly burst into flames if you crash them? Aluminium skin peeling off, metal exoskeleton buckling in fire and smoke, rows of semi alive families screaming past the camera, their hopes and dreams dashed in the most horrible way possible?

Chedney Honks

You can fly to 60k feet and cut the oxygen so the passengers start fainting and then cut the engines and nose bomb straight towards the ocean and you can hear them all screaming in DOLBY ATMOS. Fucking love it 😂😂😂

El Unicornio, mang

Just a heads up that you can play this free for a month for one quid

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/08/06/props-to-microsoft-for-letting-you-play-flight-simulator-for-1/

Maybe worth doing for those not sure if their computer can handle it.

Neomod

Quote from: PlanktonSideburns on August 06, 2020, 06:01:22 PM
Do the planes properly burst into flames if you crash them? Aluminium skin peeling off, metal exoskeleton buckling in fire and smoke, rows of semi alive families screaming past the camera, their hopes and dreams dashed in the most horrible way possible?

Sadly no. Screen just goes black with a message saying your aircraft has crashed.

Apparently there's a screams of the doomed soundpack dlc in the offing.

mobias

Southhampton is the only UK city to be rendered with 100% accuracy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHlCCmWkV7Y

Yay! Southhampton!

PlanktonSideburns

Quote from: Chedney Honks on August 06, 2020, 07:02:10 PM
You can fly to 60k feet and cut the oxygen so the passengers start fainting and then cut the engines and nose bomb straight towards the ocean and you can hear them all screaming in DOLBY ATMOS. Fucking love it 😂😂😂

Keep going

Wilbur

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on August 07, 2020, 01:08:52 PM
Just a heads up that you can play this free for a month for one quid

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/08/06/props-to-microsoft-for-letting-you-play-flight-simulator-for-1/

Maybe worth doing for those not sure if their computer can handle it.

Ta. Will give that a go and add to the list of stuff I never get round to :)

mobias


Neomod

Quote from: mobias on August 08, 2020, 05:11:59 PM
The AI traffic doesn't react to the AI elephants. Pre-order cancelled. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6MnYX6OJvM

I can't help but picture Greg Dyke. That bloke sounds just like him.

mobias

Quote from: Neomod on August 08, 2020, 05:16:38 PM
I can't help but picture Greg Dyke. That bloke sounds just like him.

I really like the sound of that guys voice. I find it amusing. I like how with youtube for any given game or genre of game there's individuals that clearly get a lot of traffic for their channel and they become quite well known within whatever youtube community they're in. He's got exactly the sort of voice I'd expect a 'big player' within the flight sim community to have.

PS. Maybe it is Greg Dyke? To be fair its exactly the sort of thing I could imagine him doing in his retirement from being director general of the BBC.

kilgore

Quote from: mobias on August 08, 2020, 05:11:59 PM
The AI traffic doesn't react to the AI elephants. Pre-order cancelled. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6MnYX6OJvM

He sounds exactly like Sexton Ming, I love it.

Will probably buy an XBOX just for this game. It looks like the best way to spend a life.

El Unicornio, mang

You can actually exit your plane and walk around the entire world in this game. I'm just never leaving the house again after the 18th

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahNcj4i5l5I

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Fucking brilliant. You can really see where all this technology is headed in terms of future game content and melding of different capabilities.

Personally, can't wait for Death Stranding 2 based at Hull Allders 1998

mobias

I'm conscious of derailing the thread here slightly but the upcoming game Everywhere is trying to use similar tech to FS2020 to make a GTA Online type game that will feature the entire world taken from Google maps. Its being made by Les Benzies, ex head of Rockstar North who left them a few years ago in an acrimonious fall out taking various key staff members with him. Details of it are fairly sketchy but I know friends of friends who are working on it. The last time I heard anything it sounded like their ambition was way ahead of the tech but there's apparently now over 500 people working on it now across four studios and its being funded with an almost unlimited supply of cash by Amazon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everywhere_(video_game)

Anyway back on topic. I was just thinking more about a controller set up for FS2020. Looks like it does actually work quite well with a gamepad so I think I'll stick with that to begin with and invest in proper PC flight controls if I get really into it.

One of the most annoying Youtube gamers I've ever come across has some info. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45se83PIlQ4&t=8s

Mister Six