I'm not sure what's possible in a game engine when it comes to 'gloss maps' or the ability to control which parts of an object reflect more or less diffusely. That might be a limitation of realtime gfx engines.

Personally, I reckon it would be nice to see a bit of subtle cloud reflection on the wings as you turn your head from the cockpit- and for more weathered planes, more bumps and dents in the panelling done via normal map. You can kind of catch the 'skeleton' of planes sometimes through the flash of specular at the right angle. I really like this look.

Anyway, I'm just a visuals junky. Don't mind me... ;)

Good catch. Didn't notice it was there before. I voted yes - it could look very nice but performance should be alright. If it performs much worse then I don't mind if it's left out for now or if it's an option you can only select in the settings.

Hey Shado I wouldn't take all the visual abnormalities as intentional changes in the beta patch. There are a few visual bugs introduced (horizon line bug for example) that clearly weren't intentional, for example I think the cockpit glass is currently bugged in that image.

That said its still good to report everything that we think is out of place or doesn't look right - intentional or not. :)

I voted Yes, I do miss that effect and well done to the OP for the pictures

I think the effect will return if you turn SSAO on.

Mine is ON

Has nothing to do with SSAO if I understand it correctly. SSAO is what adds shadow to the corners and stuff (look around where the radiators meet the underside of the wings of 110 or spit or 109, you'll see a gray'ish shadow in there. That's SSAO.


Example from Half-Life 2, look behind the phone stand. That shadow is created and calculated from SSAO.
http://www.ixbt.com/video3/images/gt200-8/ssao.jpg

The ambient light reflection glossiness thingy should indeed be an option since a few people here chose "no". I liked it a lot and have not noticed any particular increase/decrease in stutters/FPS since that was removed, I only noticed improvements in FPS after the huge terrain generating patch and turning down buildings detail :)

That was my understanding too.

I was under the impression though that SSAO becoming optional happened about the same time the reflections disappeared, so they might be related in that way, with both being removed to optimize the frame-rates, but only the more obvious and easier one to make a switch for being made optional. Just guessing though, it could have been broken by something else they adjusted for all I know.

I'm going to help you all and tell you the proper term for the lighting technique you're describing:

Fresnel Lighting, or alternatively, a simpler way to say it is usally "Rim Lighting".

Here's an example of it being used in a different application:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~nexx/stuff/smg_unreal2.jpg

So, to reiterate;

this is not SSAO, not normal maps, not anything but a simple fresnel shader.

It was not disabled for performance reasons, it was because it affect the whole plane including exhaust manifold, fabric covered parts, etc.
Need to be reworked first
Yea, it's a "simple" shader, they need to rework all the aircraft models so it can be applied only on certain parts, it shouldn't be too hard but devs are quite busy now