" SOFT HORIZONS " Question:

[Guest PARADISE]

I see John Cillis'(JohnCi) post below where he mentions his "Soft Horizons" add on, so this question may be more directed to him, or anyone that's installed his creation. Does "Soft Horizons" work with Flight Environment for FS9? Does it effect any files in an adverse manner where I might lose some of the effects of FE? I have very little add on scenery installed, use FS Global 2005, some of the effects of Real Pro Environment and usually use FS Real World Weather.Thanks in advance for any replies,John M

[Guest SilverCircle]

Soft horizons is a set of textures which *only* affect the look of the sky and the horizon.So, in short: If you have installed sky textures from Flight Environment (or whatever else addon which provides sky textures - active sky for example), soft horizons will overwrite them, yes. Anything else (water, ground textures, clouds) are not affected, though the sky colors can change the overall look somewhat (sky color has some impact on the color of water surfaces, for example).In my opinion, the "soft horizons" (available from the avsim file library) provides the best look for the horizon. I tried a lot, but always reverted to softhr. It blends the sky very nicely with the terrain and creates the most "natural" looking horizon for FS9. It also has good looking sunrise and sunset texture sets.Of course, that's a matter of personal taste. I don't have FE, but Active Sky 6 also comes with some very nice sky texture sets (part of active sky graphics).You can play around with those textures - just remember to backup your current sky color files. They are all in the FS9/texture folder and start with sky_ - so just backup all sky_*.bmp files and you can easily restore your old look in case anything goes wrong).

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Thanks for the kind words Alex--you explain what Soft Horizons does very well.This thread links to some recent screenshots. Shots 2-4 aren't the best at showing what Soft Horizons does since they were taken fairly low, but what I'd want someone to get from the screenshots is how the distant hills (I had 150 NM vis enabled for the shots) are faded into the haze vs. standing out in sharp relief against the horizon. With Soft Horizons I did not tweak any of the sky colors--only created a "haze" layer that would help make distant peaks fade into the distance as they do in real life.-Johnhttp://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...&mesg_id=249140

[Guest neslesman]

I just gave Soft Horizons a try (it's easily reversible) and I'm really pleased with it. I didn't have much problem to start with but it's much improved nevertheless. There is also a second tip with the file about toning down some of the exxagerated sun effects and I like that very much as well.Soft Horizons gets a 9 out of 10 on my card.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Thanks for your comments too Nes! For the original post, I added some screenshots that better show what Soft Horizons can do, especially in the Flight Levels:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...id=249457&page=

[Luis Hernandez 568]

John, I had to reduce visibility to 30 miles in clear weather in order to gain some performance (maybe I have, after you, the 2nd slowest system in the FS world ;), but I'm more into heavy airliners). Will Soft Horizons work fine with this setting?Thanks a lotLuis Miguel

[John_Cillis 2,406]

"John, I had to reduce visibility to 30 miles in clear weather in order to gain some performance (maybe I have, after you, the 2nd slowest system in the FS world ;), but I'm more into heavy airliners). Will Soft Horizons work fine with this setting?"Yep--the last screenshot in the link is at 20 miles vis. Here's a small example @ 30 miles vis, at dusk:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/163994.jpg

[Guest PARADISE]

Hi John,Thank you,and the others, for your prompt replies. I just installed your "Soft Horizons" and took an inaugural flight with it from Bangkok (VTBD) to Beijing (ZBAA). Plenty of haze in that part of the world and I must say your add on brings a whole new level of realism to the flightsim experience. Leaving VTBD with 5nm visibilty I broke out of the haze at 15000'. But instead of getting the instant clear condition that is so common with FS9, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a nice early morning haze all across Thailand as far as the eye could see. That, and a nice cirrus layer at FL300, gave an incredibly realistic look. I could almost feel and taste the humidity in the air. It also does a great job of blending the closer sharper textures with the somewhat blurry distant ones, actually giving another realistic effect since haze will cause far away objects to be blurred.I'm very impressed and thankfull by your work:) John M

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Thanks for your kind words John. Glad to see my investment in Soft Horizons is still helping others so long after its release. I originally wrote it because I found myself constantly going back to FS2002 because of the way the haze looked--landscapes in spite of having less detail just seemed more real. I knew how the sky in FS9 could be manipulated, but I never sat down to play with it. Finally, one morning I sat down and modified a few bmps, then a few more. Later that day, 100 some odd bitmaps later, Soft Horizons was done. Just one flight compelled me to post the file for others to try. Anyone who has done real flying as I have, whether from the cockpit, the passenger seat, or both, can appreciate how the terrain blends into the horizon even on the clearest of days. Anyway, that's a little history behind the package. Since then a couple of others have released some more sophisticated add-ons with the same goal or the shared goal of improving haze and updating sky colors. But Soft Horizons "reinvented" FS9 for me and I will always keep it.Regards,John

[barryward12345 0]

Hi John Can you please advise whixh textures your programme affects ? The reason I ask is that I use VOZ - which as you may or may not know, uses a "switcher" to swap textures around depending on whether you are flying in Australia or the rest of the world. If I knew what textures you modify, I could work out whether I should apply your programme to FS2004 "Vozzed" or "unVozzed" Regards Barry

[John_Cillis 2,406]

If you look up the Soft Horizons download in the file library and do a "ZipDive", all the bitmaps used are displayed. There's a bit over a hundred, so don't want to post 'em all here.-John

[Luis Hernandez 568]

Well, I tried it, and I liked it. Finally I could get rid of the annoying gap between land and sky I had. Well... back to tweaking (and then to flying;))Thank you JohnLuis Miguel

[Guest rpjkw1155]

John's Soft Horizons works great with Flight Environment. I've noticed, though, sometimes when I make changes in FE, I have to "reinstall" Soft Horizons. It takes only a minute, but it's well worth it. I wouldn't fly without Soft Horizons.Bob