Whenever I see someone's FS9.cfg file I see that almost all of them have clouds draw distance lower than clouds sight distance. Shouldn't it be the other way around - if clouds draw distance is beyond the visual (sight) range then you will never see them being drawn on the monitor and isn't it what we want?Michael J.WinXP-Home,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8, Radeon X800 Pro,WD 36GB Raptor,1 GB PC3200

Having cloud draw distance too high can bog down the best of systems.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

Although it was noted about the cloud draw distance bogging down the sim, you do raise a good point... If I want clouds going to the limit of my sight distance, I usually compromise and set my vis. to thirty miles, and my cloud draw distance the same. This combo sets up some very realistic skies, except for those in the desert southwest where I live (where on a dry, clear day it's not uncommon to see the San Francisco Peaks over 100 miles distant from Phoenix). Attached is a small shot showing what I mean in terms of how realistic these settings seem to make the sky for me...-Johnhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/92476.jpg

That's an interesting thought I will be experimenting with.However it strikes me that what is good for low altitude GA flying doesn't necessarily work for the view from high altitude airliners.As regards the latter, I have been experimenting with very long draw distances (100 miles)in order to avoid an unpleasant phenomenon whereby the horizon (particularly if mountains)"moves" or "flickers". Does anyone else get that or it is it just me? It's similar to and as bad as seeing clouds drawing.With "extended terrain" set to "No" that doesn't seem to hit frame rates too badly, even though I have a rather old rig.However, maximum clouds would be a killer, as someone mentioned, so I have this set at a considerably shorter distance.The problem with that is that you get a "halo" effect of a 40 mile ring of clouds (or whatever)in a 100 mile visible area.The key to making that look reasonable is haze. Your pic looks great because of the amount of haze, which can cover a multitude of sins.I have a registered version of FSUIPC, which allows for restricted visibility, and use the freeware FSMetar programe to control real weather.I get good haze sometimes, but at others not, when problems become visible. It seems to me that this can happen within a single flight: it's as though the system has haze but then drops it: I don't think this is just when flying from one weather zone to another: my guess would be when under frame rate "distress", FS drops the haze and then doesn't get it back properly.Can anybody tell me how to ensure a permanent, hazy view?

>Can anybody tell me how to ensure a permanent, hazy view?I personaly love the BlueSphere textures available here in Avsim library (free). They have no impact on performance and create this natural, slightly hazy-bluish look of the ground. It also impacts your far view. It is done with great taste and the effect is very subtle but does away with those original "technicolor" ground textures.Michael J.WinXP-Home,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8, Radeon X800 Pro,WD 36GB Raptor,1 GB PC3200 http://www.reality-xp.com/community/nr/rsc/rxp-higher.jpg