Earth needs an upgrade

[kalnon]

I love this game in every way except one, the earth just looks terrible in my opinion. In fact I think the default earth in Orbiter looks much more realistic to me.

The land looks bad, the water looks bad, I really dislike that silvery look to the water, it's very unrealistic. The clouds look bad, especially from space, from the launchpad they don't look quite as bad. This is just my honest opinion.

I realize there's limitations when it comes to Unity graphics and I'm no developer but I'm sure trying to render something as big as the entire earth in good detail is not easy but is there any way possible we can get a better looking earth?

[wilhelmsenstudios]

Hi,
Thanks for your honest feedback!

This is something I have been working very hard on, even with what you already have in the game (I assume you run the high resolution Earth textures set from Main Menu -> Settings?).

However, this is in-fact not trivial at all. The Unity engine has a limitation on 8k/16k textures. The high resolution Earth textures in game is 64k, meaning things are split up into smaller section.

A 64k Earth Texture requires 64k color maps, normal maps, night time maps and cloud layer maps, meaning that the Earth textures alone consists of hundreds of textures requires 12 gigabyte of memory and a minute of loading time (and is most of the games size on the SSD), while balancing on the borders of the engine capabilities.

I will always try to improve my game, and if there is anything else I can do to get better Earth graphics, I will implement it. However, what you see now is the absolute best I can do unfortunately :(

[MsidC123]

Honestly I think the Earth looks great. Just the atmosphere needs to be improved.

[mgertans]

Originally posted by MsidC123:

Honestly I think the Earth looks great. Just the atmosphere needs to be improved.

Yes, horizon could me more hazy (in low Earth orbit, far away it's ok).

[kalnon]

Originally posted by wilhelmsenstudios:

Hi,
Thanks for your honest feedback!

This is something I have been working very hard on, even with what you already have in the game (I assume you run the high resolution Earth textures set from Main Menu -> Settings?).

However, this is in-fact not trivial at all. The Unity engine has a limitation on 8k/16k textures. The high resolution Earth textures in game is 64k, meaning things are split up into smaller section.

A 64k Earth Texture requires 64k color maps, normal maps, night time maps and cloud layer maps, meaning that the Earth textures alone consists of hundreds of textures requires 12 gigabyte of memory and a minute of loading time (and is most of the games size on the SSD), while balancing on the borders of the engine capabilities.

I will always try to improve my game, and if there is anything else I can do to get better Earth graphics, I will implement it. However, what you see now is the absolute best I can do unfortunately :(

Thank you for your response and for explaining the engine's limits, I did not see your response and notification until now (I missed it somehow). Now I understand better the limitations.

I do have to admit, it does seem like your pushing the Unity engine to it's limit's, this is the only Unity game I ever played that pushes my GPU hard. The spacecraft do look lovely, especially the interiors (I remember once you said in a video the Apollo command module is a beast to render and that seems true).

I guess I will just have to get used to it. As I said I do love this game and will continue to play it regardless but I just was really hoping there was a way to improve on it.

Please keep up the good work, I can't wait to see how the game continues to evolve and improve in the future.

[kalnon]

Originally posted by MsidC123:

Honestly I think the Earth looks great. Just the atmosphere needs to be improved.

I would say for a Unity game it is ok but try out Orbiter, do a flight using just the defalut earth (no texture packs) and check out the earth than do a flight in Reentry. In my opinion the earth in Orbiter looks more realistic to my eyes and this is what I was comparing it to. I do realize though that Orbiter uses a different game engine.