Does anyone know how the ProPilot team managed to model volumetric clouds when Microsoft cannot? Flying in and out of the clouds in ProPilot was a visually stunning experience - very realistic.Dewey

Hi, It's all in the hard code rendering,I did not see pro pilot but Il-2 and Cfs3 don't have true volumetric clouds, they have clouds on each side togheter thats "simulate 3d volumetric clouds". In IL-2 I have seen thing like 10 bunch of white puffy clouds texture or more all togheter on the same place in circle make appears thats are volumetirc clouds, sometime you can see some clouds rotation and quick corrected by the engine in IL-2 but this is very subtle.It's hard to have wihtout frame rate impact, I don't think there is True volumetric clouds yet.Clouds Rendering will be better in Fs2004, CFS3 rendering is better than fs2k and fs2k2ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFshttp://fsw.simflight.com/fsw.jpg

>Does anyone know how the ProPilot team managed to model >volumetric clouds when Microsoft cannot? Flying in and out >of the clouds in ProPilot was a visually stunning experience >- very realistic. >As I remember, since of was quite the fan of Pro-Pilot at the time; is that the clouds became pretty much a sudden "white out" when in them. It seemed as though you approached, and then a sudden white out. Of course, they were the best by any measure at the time.An improvement was the clouds in the orignal FLY and add-ons such as SKY2. The sky was a realistic blue and white see through "puffies". An advantage of FS, was more types and more possible layers, but not as good looking with-in, but sometimes better looking from a distance.In the meantime, try the "pre-canned" FS flight lesson called Instrument VOR (as I remember). The dark murky effect of low layer clouds is very good. Probably better than either Pro-Pilot or FLY for this low altitude/low visibility.L.Adamson

Fly! SE and Sky!2 - best atmospherics I've seen in a sim yet. FSSW certainly comes close to bringing FS2K2 up to that level, though - given the limitations of the MSFS weather engine.

http://www.vterrain.org/Atmosphere/Clouds