[ESSA Stockholm-Arlanda V2. A brief update on the progress.]

On 12/16/2022 at 1:25 AM, Maelmoor said:

also mentioned in the post as well in a comment. Mostly for my own sake really, it's key to understand the community if I will be able to create things the community wants to buy. And I feel I barely understand the market anymore. There is a massive focus on interiors and PBR, texture work is sharp but generic and in preview screenshots there are rarely shots from showing close up airside. Basically every aspect of what I try to be good at in my sceneries doesn't seem that requested anymore, so I felt I can't drop a high-definition interior without announcing that or people would get upset. I often drop in texture resolution in favour for variation, I don't do full PBR, I texture with real world photos instead of materials, I even bake shadows even when MSFS2020 has an automatic shadow system in place. I'm simply old school and I realized it's better I focus on what I can do good & would enjoy myself as a customer instead of trying to create something I don't really get myself.

 

And just to be clear, there are interiors added! It's not like you will watch a flat window, and I've honestly spent a massive amount of hours on that as well, but I have cut corners on how it's made to save on performance and time making them. I found it more important the correct restaurant or store could be viewed from the cockpit than it would look great if you went with the drone camera. That's really it. Everything I have previewed so far is included and all terminals will have interiors, but as you will probably notice is that we don't really feature many screenshots from the inside, of the simple reason it doesn't look as good from that angle.

 

I understand and actually agree with what you said @Flyer2022 (also thanks for a very constructive post) that it's better to focus on what is included instead of proudly pointing out what is not, and I apologize about that. I will try to have a better attitude moving forward.

 

On 12/13/2022 at 12:19 PM, Marcus Nyberg said:

 

 

 

Hey guys,

 

Interesting to read your comments. I'll just add my thoughts quickly.

So the reason I mentioned it will not be high-res interiors is the fact that I mentioned earlier that it was my intention to have those included in a state "where you could have a virtual beer doing planespotting"

 

I'm trying to be transparent with the project so people following the progress will not be dissapointed when it's released. Just balancing the expectations really.

For this project I've had the idea to be include you all on the project, both for my own sake of course, but also so if there are inputs they can be shared early in the process and everyone can be at least a little bit included in what we are building. Then there might be situations like now when I have to back-step on something I've said would be included earlier. Personally I think honesty and transparency could be a nice thing in this community so you all know what you are getting for the money and hopefully understand why some things are included and others not. And to me trying to step down a few steps on the ambition for the interiors meant more time for other objects, which I found to be a great thing. I'm sorry if that was received another way.

 

The reason why I'm back-stepping on the interiors a bit is not a technical reason.To me it's mainly about time management and where to put the focus. I have to take in what the community wants (otherwise it's hard making a living doing this obviously!), but somewhere along the road I need to think about what kind of scenery I would enjoy myself. What I really enjoy is clutter, dense messy airside with tons of things and photorealistic textures. I'm not a PBR guy (even if we are including it where we find neccesary), I rarely explore interiors and I still bake shadows into textures. My style and workflow is suddenly old school!  

And what I discovered was that it takes so much time making interiors if you want it to be correct. Kudos to all the devs that are able to put that time in! I spent way more time on the interior of the terminal piers than the exteriors. It didn't seem like a great way of use of my time. I came to the conclusion that custom objects specific to the airport, or better building textures, or better looking ground markings was something I found more important. All developers need to balance where they put their efforts of course

 

I am honestly a bit troubled about many products released these days, as I also mentioned in the post as well in a comment. Mostly for my own sake really, it's key to understand the community if I will be able to create things the community wants to buy. And I feel I barely understand the market anymore. There is a massive focus on interiors and PBR, texture work is sharp but generic and in preview screenshots there are rarely shots from showing close up airside. Basically every aspect of what I try to be good at in my sceneries doesn't seem that requested anymore, so I felt I can't drop a high-definition interior without announcing that or people would get upset. I often drop in texture resolution in favour for variation, I don't do full PBR, I texture with real world photos instead of materials, I even bake shadows even when MSFS2020 has an automatic shadow system in place. I'm simply old school and I realized it's better I focus on what I can do good & would enjoy myself as a customer instead of trying to create something I don't really get myself.

 

And just to be clear, there are interiors added! It's not like you will watch a flat window, and I've honestly spent a massive amount of hours on that as well, but I have cut corners on how it's made to save on performance and time making them. I found it more important the correct restaurant or store could be viewed from the cockpit than it would look great if you went with the drone camera. That's really it. Everything I have previewed so far is included and all terminals will have interiors, but as you will probably notice is that we don't really feature many screenshots from the inside, of the simple reason it doesn't look as good from that angle.

 

I understand and actually agree with what you said @Flyer2022 (also thanks for a very constructive post) that it's better to focus on what is included instead of proudly pointing out what is not, and I apologize about that. I will try to have a better attitude moving forward.

 

 

 

I respect this and I also like your style. There are good and bad texture artists both when it comes to PBR and texturing using photographs. It all comes down to how well you know your craft. I think you have mastered the art of texturing using photos. The only thing I don't like about this method and especially in a game engine as advanced as Microsoft flight simulator are glass textures with baked reflections. It just gives a very early 00's look and goes against graphical achievements made. I think high polish surfaces should be represented using proper PBR that allows the game engine to render reflections without interference of baked in reflections from when the photograph was taken. Other then that I see no issue.  

[Update on what I've been up to lately]

On 10/12/2022 at 5:58 PM, Marcus Nyberg said:

 

Thanks Neil that is very very kind of you to say

 

Yes! ESGG is getting a similar update to ESMS.

 

A little teaser coming here! Here are some of the new ground textures for ESGG (last one is the current look of them), same ones we are using for ESSA

 

 

 

 

And current look:

 

 

Quite an improvement if I may say so! Quite proud to be honest!

 

 

WOW! That is beyond amazing looking! It will really bring ESGG to life. Thank you! Probably the best ground texture work I have seen in the sim so far. What a treat for Göteborg!

[Update on what I've been up to lately]

WOW Marcus! ESSA is really coming together in an amazing way. This is your best work to date. Any chance ESGG will get some upgrades to this level of detail as well? Or is the update just to open the new terminal? 

[Update on what I've been up to lately]

Just bought all your Swedish airports! Really looking forward towards the updates for Malmö and Göteborg. Arlanda looks amazing so far!