martins
Orbiter Founder
Hi guys, just checking in after some extended downtime ...
Sorry I haven't been around lately. Life has conspired to keep me away from orbiter, and may continue to do so for some time. Still, rest assured that development of the next version is continuing, if at an excruciatingly slow pace.
I hope to upload a new beta, and a whole lot of updated texture packs soon. Various bugs and features relating to elevation support have been fixed (floating buildings, bumpy runways, etc.) but more needs to be done.
I've spent a lot of effort on reworking the Florida textures (all recreated from the original DOQQ sources, manual seam removal (tedious!) histogram-matched to the underlying low-level Landsat-based textures, and manual coastline editing (even more tedious!). Orbiter now supports surface patch resolutions up to level 19 (equivalent to level 20 in Orbiter 2010), which is about 1m for Earth. This is implemented for Cape Canaveral, while for the rest of Florida I am providing level 16-18. I'm using Florida as a proof of concept, to show what is possible now in Orbiter.
In addition, I've modified the way water surfaces are rendered. The result is quite spectacular. I've put a set of comparison images 2010 / 2015(?) on the Orbiter website. Have a look and tell me what you think.
Speaking of the website: It's been a bit flaky lately, but I hope this is now fixed. Let me know if problems persist.
The Moon textures have been completely re-done from new sources. One of the pictures shows a comparison of that as well.
Unfortunately, the release date for the new version has now slipped to 2015 at best. But I hope it will be worth the wait.
Sorry I haven't been around lately. Life has conspired to keep me away from orbiter, and may continue to do so for some time. Still, rest assured that development of the next version is continuing, if at an excruciatingly slow pace.
I hope to upload a new beta, and a whole lot of updated texture packs soon. Various bugs and features relating to elevation support have been fixed (floating buildings, bumpy runways, etc.) but more needs to be done.
I've spent a lot of effort on reworking the Florida textures (all recreated from the original DOQQ sources, manual seam removal (tedious!) histogram-matched to the underlying low-level Landsat-based textures, and manual coastline editing (even more tedious!). Orbiter now supports surface patch resolutions up to level 19 (equivalent to level 20 in Orbiter 2010), which is about 1m for Earth. This is implemented for Cape Canaveral, while for the rest of Florida I am providing level 16-18. I'm using Florida as a proof of concept, to show what is possible now in Orbiter.
In addition, I've modified the way water surfaces are rendered. The result is quite spectacular. I've put a set of comparison images 2010 / 2015(?) on the Orbiter website. Have a look and tell me what you think.
Speaking of the website: It's been a bit flaky lately, but I hope this is now fixed. Let me know if problems persist.
The Moon textures have been completely re-done from new sources. One of the pictures shows a comparison of that as well.
Unfortunately, the release date for the new version has now slipped to 2015 at best. But I hope it will be worth the wait.
. 
