Caucasus Still Beautiful

Having the seasons added moves it ahead but honestly it needs a generational update

Man, guys. Not sure if it's just placebo effect or what... but after updating to 2.7.2 today in the OB, Caucasus looks stunning! Did the terrain textures or trees (or something?) get an update? Looks REALLY nice.

**EDIT** Just saw this in the change log. The new textures really do look EXCELLENT! Well done, Team...

Yeah, I noticed it looked different

Can someone post some pictures?

5 hours ago, alexbap said:

Can someone post some pictures?

Below are some "WIP - preview" (and unedited) in-game screenshots of the new Caucasus textures, taken during their production.
 

It presents Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, in that order, followed by a few other screens in mountains and closer to ground.

Should give you a good idea of it, as it's really close to the final product you get in default DCS content (since yesterday's Open Beta). 

40 minutes ago, LucShep said:

 

These are "WIP - preview" screenshots of the new Caucasus textures, see HERE.
 

It presents Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, in that order, followed by a few other screens in mountains and closer to ground.

 

Should give you a good idea of it, as it's pretty close to the final product in default content (since yesterday's Open Beta). 

I noticed this yesterday, but didn't read it in the patch notes

Well... Nice!

You should get in contact with Ugra Media for the Normandy Map

Fox

I really like the new Caucasus, with less saturated colors and a bit more contrast. Nice job.

Wow. Looks amazing! 

Such amazing work, it really has transformed the map. Hope ya'll got paid

Yeah, it does look better (though it some cases it does look pretty gloomy compared to IRL images).

The issue I have is that before, there would be small dirt tracks and dirt areas that wouldn't have any grass on them, the new map adds a few more dirt tracks that are more noticeable, but the grass covers them.

On 6/21/2021 at 10:49 AM, Northstar98 said:

Yeah, it does look better (though it some cases it does look pretty gloomy compared to IRL images).

 

My impression is that shader colors seem somewhat different in 2.7 (compared to 2.5.6, when textures were built) and somehow affecting tones and gamma.

Indeed, there seems to be less color now, also like as if some grey-ish greens and sepia tones creeped in.

Different hours in time of day giving odd colors and gamma - especially at mid noon - has always been a problem (in my opinion) ever since version 2.5 gone out, and as that issue is still present (again, in my opinion) it's not helping either.

Mustang is a genious with shader editing and mods, so maybe he's in the best position to fix the issue for good.

Reshade maybe be usefull as an alternative, allowing adjustment of contrast/brightness in-game (and many other effects to play with) per individual taste. 

I'm sticking with previous versions of DCS, as 2.7 delivers utterly shocking (bad) performance in my PC, so unfortunately I can't help.

As a side note, and my opinion only, the fact that buildings and house textures are monotone white/grey is one of biggest culprits for making things look dull.

Along with much higher-resolution city and village ground textures (currently have to be like they are, otherwise video-ram goes overboard), I think new textures for buildings and houses would go a very long way. For example, using far more coloured roofs with tones of red (as seen in the region, IRL), something that other maps now have.

This is not an easy task because, IIRC, also distant textures would have to be changed accordingly as well.

The new default textures are actually not to bad as long as I use my own mix and mash of a few mods.

-    Mustangs latest 2.7 shader mod.

-    Better trees V5 – Dark for Summer and Autumn.

-    Better trees V5 -Medium Summer trees renamed and used for Spring as even the dark spring trees looked to light.

-    Barthek's hi-res hanger texture I’ve modified to try match the current default terrain for each season.

I haven’t played much on the Caucasus map recently because the Syria map is so good. However I went back to it this weekend and it looks so much better than I remember. The combination of the new clouds and lighting effects plus the new textures really bring this map to life and make it a pleasure to fly on in VR.

While Syria still sets the standards in DCS the Caucasus map no longer needs hang it’s head in shame.

Many thanks to those involved in the recent updates.

Caucasus looks great now, well done ED!

I'm enjoying the new looks, and there seems to be more polish to a lot of stuff. First thing I noticed was the taxiways at my "home" field Kobuleti. Great job!