Weather and frame rate

[Scott Miller 12]

While using both ActiveSky (enhanced with Flight Environment) and weather data downloaded from within FS2004 I was shocked at the tremendous hit the frame rate took everytime a lot of big fluffy balls of cloulds appeared (going from the 30s to low 40 fps to less than 10! This really didn't seem to be a problem at FL320 but a frame rate that low during an approach could prove fatal! Can ActiveSky and/or FS2004 be tweeked to maximize frame rate when clouds are present?I must say that the lightening visible at one point was fantastic! The most realistic weather I've seen so far!

[Murmur 3,941]

>While using both ActiveSky (enhanced with Flight Environment)>and weather data downloaded from within FS2004 I was shocked>at the tremendous hit the frame rate took everytime a lot of>big fluffy balls of cloulds appeared (going from the 30s to>low 40 fps to less than 10! This really didn't seem to be a>problem at FL320 but a frame rate that low during an approach>could prove fatal! Can ActiveSky and/or FS2004 be tweeked to>maximize frame rate when clouds are present?What configuration do you have?Active sky lets you choose several resolutions for the clouds.64x64 is the minimum resolution and the more FPS friendly.It also lets you choose to use DXT3 clouds. DXT3 clouds are more FPS friendly (resolution being the same).Of course if you use ASV clouds, you cannot use Flight Environment clouds.Marco

[Guest Yak Yak]

AV6reduce the layers to 2 or 3turn off overcast enhancementchange layer thickness to maybe 5000 or 8000 ftFS9cloud draw distance to 30you can change 3D clouds to lower (50-60), but you'll see grey edgescloud coverage to high (tho it doesn't make too much of a difference when on max)Texturereducing the texture down to 64x64 won't do too much (i have mine at 512x512, 32-bit), unless you have a really old v-card. All the clouds are made from one texture, so it's a one-time load on the GPU. Why is it so slow:one word: Alpha The 3D clouds use a ton of alpha layers, resulting in over-draw. Basically, when you look through a single sheet of cloud, it is drawing whatever behind it twice. Now increase those clouds to several layers, and those sceneries/planes are drawn "n" times. <- producing a huge load on the CPU. There is just no way around this unless you get a fast CPU+GPU. Another solution is to decrease the resolution of the game...to say 1024x768. This will take a load off the CPU/GPU. You can do a quick test: run fs9 in window mode. Then go into a heavy cloud layer. Your fps should drop. Now re-size the window until it's tiny (like 320x320 on your desktop). Just watch those fps sore! I can get 100+ this way...haha. -feng

[Johan_Dees 84]

Can the alpha leyers be removed?JohanA LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION, AND A LITTLE MORE ACTION PLEASE..

[Guest allcott]

>Can the alpha leyers be removed?>>Johan>>A LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION, AND A LITTLE MORE ACTION PLEASE..>Yes, just choose SIMPLE clouds. ;) Frankly if the vis is low (and ASV does this so much better than FS) then 3d clouds are superfluous to requirements.Allcott