Adam Banks Posted November 14, 2018 Share Posted November 14, 2018 Having put in many hours messing with PTA, I'm wondering whether it still has a future, considering LM may be considering a new PBR-style lighting model. So ... I decided give the freeware TomatoShade a whirl. It appears to have 99% of the PTA tweaks, plus a few new ones - and has a separate app for modifying aircraft lighting models (which I decided not to bother with). Here's a Dornier over NZNI (Coromandel Peninsula): All in all, I'm quite pleased with it - tweaking it back up to more or less my PTA colouring. Here are some more odd captures - all over ORBX NZNI (beautifully coloured anyway, I have to say!!). I think this was with aircraft reflections enabled (a default profile) - which explains the amount or reflected green the Herc has acquired. You can create/edit your own profiles, but it's seriously nerdy! One of myfavourite aircraft: Early days of tweaking, but I love the old Meteor! I think TomatoShade gives you a tiny bit more control (it adds a separate gamma value to many of the tweaks) so you can get some quite subtle shots: Even with all this tweaking, I still think P3D lighting is nowhere near what I'm seeing in the recent spate of XPII (and AFS2) shots - especially all those stunning TrueEarth UK ones. I'm wondering what it would take to persuade ORBX to go for a TrueEarth New Zealand ? Well - it's only a tiny little country ... wouldn't take *that* long, Shirley? !! Adam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chunk Posted November 14, 2018 Share Posted November 14, 2018 Dang it Adam, I was planning on sticking with your PTA settings as long as I could, but if you go to Tomato, you'll force my hand. I absolutely love the shot of the L-39! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Banks Posted November 14, 2018 Author Share Posted November 14, 2018 12 minutes ago, Chunk said: Dang it Adam, I was planning on sticking with your PTA settings as long as I could, but if you go to Tomato, you'll force my hand. I absolutely love the shot of the L-39! Thanks, Chunk! To be honest - if you have PTA already set up to your liking, I'd stick with it. The PTA GUI is better, IMHO - as it has preview screens for many of the tweaks. It's easy to forget what does what. I found I had to use TomatoShade with PTA open in the background. The deciding factor may be how much you'd like to experiment with the additional aircraft lighting functions. If you can find an exisiting profile for a particular aircraft you're all set - but enabling the function applies a default profile globally to *all* your aircraft - and I found some of my "shiny" aircraft lost much of their shine. Of course you can get it back, but you'd need to create/edit a profile to do it - and it's way over my head (the process doesn't seem to be documented anywhere). Even so ... maybe the lighting *is* slightly better? I must admit the ever-beautiful ORBX NZNI/NZSI seems to gained a little extra something. Adam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Sawyer Posted November 14, 2018 Share Posted November 14, 2018 I'll stick with PTA too, I like the UI, and I'm with you, the XP shots have been stunning. If I had more time I'd fly them all but my memory would have a tough time constantly reconfiguring. But these shots, especially the C-120 are amazing!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olderndirt Posted November 14, 2018 Share Posted November 14, 2018 "Rotten Tomatoes" - no movie review? When I first read you had PTA, I hoped it wasn't terminal and it seems not. Whatever you're doing there seems just right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stillwater Posted November 14, 2018 Share Posted November 14, 2018 It does not look that rotten here Adam. You tease me....! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Emms Posted November 14, 2018 Share Posted November 14, 2018 Smashing shots Adam. cheers Iain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifejogger Posted November 14, 2018 Share Posted November 14, 2018 Excellent shots Adam!! PTA or rotten tomatoes it is all Greek to me??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adambar Posted November 15, 2018 Share Posted November 15, 2018 TomatoShade looks pretty darn good to me Adam. Myself I just use the settings in P3D and Envshade/Envtex for water colors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodger Pettichord Posted November 15, 2018 Share Posted November 15, 2018 I have no idea what you accomplished and experienced screenshot guys are talking about, but I really liked your screenshots, Adam. The colors looked natural and the lighting seemed normal. Whatever you are doing with whatever programs you are using, it all comes out really well to these amateur eyes. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulb Posted November 15, 2018 Share Posted November 15, 2018 Very impressive Adam! Great colours Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VH-KDK Posted November 15, 2018 Share Posted November 15, 2018 Every one a winner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Banks Posted November 15, 2018 Author Share Posted November 15, 2018 Thanks for the nice comments!! As with PTA, Tomato-Shade has a bit of a learning curve. Even with all my PTA experience, I still balked at editing aircraft reflection profiles. Something kept telling me "should I really *need* to have to do all this?". Keeps me out of trouble, I suppose! Adam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Hobson Posted November 15, 2018 Share Posted November 15, 2018 Adam, A little off topic--What's your opinion of the Dornier 228 from Carenado? It looks nice, but how does it fly? Carenado has always had nice looking products, but the flight characteristics of their aircraft and their systems representations in the past has been spotty, some good, some not so good; so I'm reluctant to even try their recent stuff. But what about this Do 228, if you don't mind? Stew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Banks Posted November 16, 2018 Author Share Posted November 16, 2018 10 hours ago, Stewart Hobson said: Adam, A little off topic--What's your opinion of the Dornier 228 from Carenado? It looks nice, but how does it fly? Carenado has always had nice looking products, but the flight characteristics of their aircraft and their systems representations in the past has been spotty, some good, some not so good; so I'm reluctant to even try their recent stuff. But what about this Do 228, if you don't mind? It's a fair question - and I've heard this said about Carenado products in the past. To be honest, I'm sorry to say that I really don't know. My hours in RL for piloting are so few - and most of those were in gliders. I just don't really know how an aircraft of that size would handle or feel. That said - there are, occasionally, some FS aircraft that give you a pretty good *impression* of what it might be like - whilst others dart around the sky as if they had no mass or drag at all. I've never understood why so many are quite so bad - it's fairly simple maths, compared to the complexity of some of the other behind-the-scenes coding that goes on. I've never flown a C-130, but the old CS flight model always had a high "suspension of belief" value for me. Even the recently updated QW 146 "feels right". Most of the A2A products feel good - and their attention to detail is legendary. Carenado ... hmmm ... I understand the criticism but I can't say it bothers me much. Such a lot of sitting in front of a small screen with no g-forces acting on you makes the whole experience pretty unrealistic anyway. I've just fired up the Dornier for a more critical look. Roll-rate seems OK, but pitch seems way too responsive but, as I said, what I I know? LOL. Generally though, it's a great add-on IMHO - and up there with all the other Carenado releases. It's probably my favourite Carenado aircraft - much preferred over my B1900 or B200. Here's another teaser! Adam. EDIT: If anyone has Tomato-Shade (or wants to try), my TS preset can be found here: Adam_TS_25_01. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlosqr Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 Beautiful pictures indeed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Hobson Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 Thanks for your impressions of the Do228, Adam. I'll keep this bird in mind for a possible future purchase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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