FS2004 approaches, ATC etc

In ,
"David G. Bell" wrote:

On Sunday, in article

"Mark Cherry" wrote:

So my basic point is, "who's to say what colour the sea should be?"

There's actually a relationship between sea colour and sky colour,

You'd have thought the sky would at least be the same colour everywhere,
wouldn't you? Provided it was cloudless, that is G
Then again, I wonder if the angle of the sun is a factor? Changes with
latitude, maybe?

I dunno if it's different film-stock, special filters, or a genuinely different
quality to the light but when I see film of places in the sates, the colours
always look a lot more intense than over here (UK).

which is partly why the Grey Funnel Line uses grey.

Nevererdovit. Whereabouts? Manchester ship canal? ;-)

In WW2 over the North Atlantic, the long-range anti-sub patrols used
planes painted mostly white, with only the top of the wings and
fuselage camouflaged. From a ship or a U-boat the white reflected
the sea colour and blended with the cloudy sky.

And it's not easy to see white against a clear sky.

I always thought that the upper surface camouflage was only meant to work when
the plane was parked up and thus vulnerable to air attack. Once they're
airborne, the movement will usually catch the eye anyway, whatever colour it is
and at quite a distance. I'll grant that the white underside cammo would make
the outline less well defined at a distance, due to poor colour contrast and
thus cause a crucial amount of delay in the defender identifying the type and
whether it is friend or foe.

I've never seen white paint reflect any perceptable colour other than white
before but I'll take your word for it. I was going to say that white underside
against the background of a high cloud deck would be quite effective but maybe
not.

You'd imagine a WWII U-boat crew on the surface would have *heard* the plane
coming, long before they spotted it and the general reaction was to submerge
immediately, rather than try to slug it out.

I think a big factor in sea colour is what's living in it, near the surface. In
the case of the crystal-clear waters (Caribbean, Med etc), there's next to
nothing living in the top layer. Less scattering of light and more refraction
going on. Red is absorbed more strongly too, IIRC. Out in the deeper ocean, the
surface layer is full of algae, contributing more green and blue-green shades.
The turbidity means more back-scatter, more light absorption and few refraction
effects, so less of the blue shade.

Whether they'll ever bother to put regionalized ocean colours into the sim is
barely worth much discussion now that 2004 has been released. I gather they've
just intruduced wave effects though, so they're obviously paying some attention
to the needs of those who find flying over long stretches of water a bore
(LBFOW). That leaves it down to the 3rd party scenery builders whether to tinker
around with the colour scheme.


--�
regards,

Mark

Mark Cherry schrieb:

In ,
Skyhawk wrote:

After a day with FS2K4 I would say it is worth $50. If for no other
reason than the huge difference in the weather, improved ATC, the
Garmin 500/295, and the new aircraft. The DC-3 and R-22 are great!
No, I do not work for MS! I will not remove FS2K2 from my system
mainly due to the instructor station in the Pro version. There are
faults with FS 2004, mainly the bridge problem and all of the water
(oceans, lakes, rivers) seem to be the wrong color of blue. Much too
light.

Now that's another debate in its own right. (So I've changed the thread title)

Living in the UK, where the sea is usually a pale, murky, grey-greenish colour,
I was always foxed by the deep cobalt-blue shade which versions up to FS98 used
(I can't speak about the more recent versions until I get my new PC and install
2k2Pro, next week). I always wondered what part of the world the sea actually
looks like that.

I'm not one for browsing holiday brochures but I've seen plenty of holiday
adverts for various parts of the world and the sea colour never seems to be
quite the same from one region to another.

I bought and installed England & Wales VFR scenery for FS98 and it used a pale,
blue-green colour (reminiscent of "duck-egg blue" - that's the nearest
description I can manage which others might be able to relate to) which I found
much more acceptable. Not quite as dark a shade as I would consider realistic
but the contrast between the land textures and the sea looked about right.

However, it requires using a batch file to substitute the MS sea texture with
its own one, so you get this sea surface all over the world, *except* when you
get into regions with synth-block coastlines. The coast tiles with convex or
concave curves to them are part land and part original MS-sea colour, so the
combination is a bit ugly...

So my basic point is, "who's to say what colour the sea should be?"

--�
regards,

Mark
As you say.depends where you live. Back in the FS98 days I once
downloaded some Baltic Sea colours that looked exactly like the North
Sea as viewed from most parts of Britain (sludge colour).
If you want to see real real turquoise blue sea, then stop wasting your
your money on MSFS and buy a real plane ticket to somewhere else.
Reality is better.
Tom

In ,
Alan White wrote:

On Sun, 21 Sep 2003 12:25:34 +0100, "Mark Cherry"
wrote:

I always wondered what part of the world the sea actually
looks like that.

The north west of Scotland?

Are you asking, or telling? :-o



--
regards,

Mark
(1 mi NNW of yucky-grey-green English Channel)

On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 02:46:13 +0100, "Mark Cherry"
wrote:

Are you asking, or telling?

Remembering :-)

--
Alan White
Twenty-eight miles NW of Glasgow.
Overlooking Loch Goil and Loch Long in Argyll, Scotland.
http://tinyurl.com/55v3

In ,
Alan White wrote:

On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 02:46:13 +0100, "Mark Cherry"
wrote:

Are you asking, or telling?

Remembering :-)

Ahhhh. You know, nostalgia ain't what it used to be? I prefer nosh-talgia -
the art of remembering great meals from your past. Or should that be repast?
g


--
regards,

Mark
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