Before I go through the trouble of uploading the textures, first tell me whether these pics look acceptable.... What I will tell you is it leaves no "hole" under the aircraft, at night you can't see a thing through the "deck", and fps isn't tanked. Interested? Here's shots from above and below the deck:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/38038.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/38039.jpg

I would love to hear how you accomplished this. I would like to also know what the clouds look like after you did this with a scattered or broken layer. Pictures look good. I would be willing to give it a go.

A simple rundown....Cirrus clouds in FS9 are actually 2-d clouds. They consist of two parts--a texture and an alpha channel that controls transparency. I took the cumulus overcast (for a more realistic effect) and cleared the alpha channel to white (fully opaque), and saved it into the cirrus overcast textures. Then I fired up FS2004 and set up a overcast cirrus layer 2 ft. thick. That's right--2 feet.On top of that I layed some stratus, in this shot 7/8ths coverage. Because the cirrus layer is so thin, the stratus "bleeds" through the cirrus, giving it a better appearance from above and below. The whole effect is fairly natural--but there's one drawback...Every few miles, there's an obvious "seam" in the cirrus layer. I suspect this has something to do with why overcast wasn't truly implemented in FS9. But using the cirrus/stratus combo I describe above, you quickly forget about the seam. The same can be done with cumulus, but cumulus does hit fps a bit more on slower systems.Anyone with DXTBMP and about ten minutes can do what I did. Basically, I took the cumulus overcast, cleared the alpha to white, and renamed it as cirrus_overcast, cirrus_overcast1, cirrus_overcast2, and cirrus_overcast3. Broken cirrus isn't bothered by the change... -John

Here's one last shot from the pilot's view--trying to find a break in the clouds, over very rugged country :)http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/38063.jpg

I did this, only I used the cumulus_overcast_above.bmp and just renaming instead of modifying the cumulus_overcast.bmp.Kurt M

Only problem with that, is the overcast layer still takes on a translucent appearance, especially around the edges or at night. Modifying the alpha channel allows for a solid deck. Since I posted the thread, I actually found it a bit better to place the cirrus "deck" above the layer of cumulus or stratus which you wish to take on a "solid" look. Some shots of the final result are in the screenshots forum. To set up the shots, I set up a cumulus layer (full coverage) from 3500 to 3999 ft, and a modified cirrus overcast layer from 4000-4001 ft. It's about as good as it can get....and the deck is solid...-JohnEdit: One item to note--using the cumulus_overcast_above with a white alpha channel does look better than the cumulus_overcast when copied into the cirrus_overcast* textures

John,I too have been suffering from not being able to fly under/over overcast sky's in FS2004. Did you have a chance to test those textures with real weather (either FSMeteo, Wxre or FS2004 weather)in a region that actually reported overcast or broken?Cheers,Petehttp://members.aol.com/pzsoulman/myhomepage/logo.gifAthlonXP2000,AbitKX7-333(latest4in1),512MB/2700SDRAM,WinXP,DirectX8.1,Geforce3TI200(128MB)(Det.30.82),SBlive(WDM5.1.2601.0)

Sorry it took me so long to get back to the thread...I'm afraid the textures wouldn't work with real weather, unless you go in and manually add the 2 ft cirrus layer wherever the overcast layer is supposed to be. That'd be pretty hard with real weather, as you know how different weather can be on a long cross country trip.The cirrus suggestion is a fudge--pretty much a last ditch thought for those who are unhappy with the way overcast/ILS approaches are recreated in FS9. Even on the fastest systems, with all cloud settings maxed, this is the only way I know of to create a truly "solid" deck.Now if someone involved with one of the third party real weather programs saw my thread, they may be able to incorporate my tweak by automatically tacking on a thin overcast cirrus layer to any layer defined in the download data as "overcast".-John

Just bumping the thread for anyone who may have missed it since it was posted over the weekend....-John

>I'm afraid the textures wouldn't work with real weather,>unless you go in and manually add the 2 ft cirrus layer>wherever the overcast layer is supposed to be. That'd be>pretty hard with real weather, as you know how different>weather can be on a long cross country trip.>-JohnHi John,But at least it could be made to work with third party weather generators, including utilies that will generate the new weather themes.