Best clouds in terms of FPS?

[Roger_Hodgson 11]

Hi guys, What are the best clouds you can download in terms of frame-rates? I still find that the default clouds slow my system. Cheers

[Johan_Dees 84]

depends a little on the rest, like FSAA settings.remember that its best to enhance the FSAA settings, since the program (FS) knows best where to apply AA and where not.i have the experience that 24bit gives better performance then dxt clouds (strange)also, sight distance comes in play, and all other settings.

[Roger_Hodgson 11]

Thanks for the reply. A the moment I use Active Sky 6 and their lowest level clouds; but I'll try the 24bit instead of the dxt. Cheers

[Humpty 751]

I had HDEv2 and no problems. and also use it in FSX.

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

One of the advantages of ASKy (probably other payware weather programs ,but can only speak for ASKy) Is it allows for a selection of different cloud settings for optimal performance on various PC set-ups. these range through 64,128,256,512Kbs and can also be dxt3 for further performance boosts as well.So it doesn't just seem as though I am plugging ASKy I believe there may be some freeware cloud packages available here(AVSIM) and at other fine simming emporiums as well,that are reduced texture sizes for added simming enjoyment on mid-life aged PCs.Anyways some thoughtscheers Andy

[MarkW 1,491]

REX2 1024 size. That is what I use and I find they are great for performance and really not much difference in terms of looks to the larger sizes. Mark.

[kiwiflyer45 123]

I don't think it matters which cloud set you are using - what matters for FPS is how you configure them. Resolution, density and sight distance all matter and you have to play around with them until you get the best compromise between appearance and performance. If you want the best looking clouds, I use the combination of Active Sky and REX and registered FSUIPC and it can be absolutely amazing how stunningly realistic and yet FPS friendly it can be. (Before someone points out that AS and REX both provide cloud textures so one will overwrite the other - I use AS to configure the weather, then REX to provide the cloud textures (and a lot of other things) and finally Ground Environment Pro to set the ground textures to match the weather conditions...) If I could only purchase one of these, it would be REX

[Jim Robinson 122]

REX2 1024 size. That is what I use and I find they are great for performance and really not much difference in terms of looks to the larger sizes.

1024? That's the largest texture allowed in FS9 and if you have good performance with textures of that size it's because of your i5-2500K and GTX-560. On older/lesser machines 1024 textures will result in a slideshow in heavy cumulus. The culprit is "cumulus01.bmp", and resizing it down to 512 x 512 or even 256 x 256 will make a world of difference when flying in heavy weather. Visually it makes very little difference whether you run 1024 or 256, there will be a slight loss of quality but nothing like you'd expect. I have a batch file that converts Pablo's HDEv2 clouds to "high performance" If anybody would like to use it I can remove my installation-specific lines, revamp things a little and post it up. Jim