Like many, I am not a big fan of the clouds in X-plane 10 especially at ground level. However, a couple of days ago I had an idea on what could be done to improve the situation.

 

At ground level, could Laminar (or REX etc.) produce photo realistic 2 dimensional clouds like REX do and then when you reach a certain altitude, i.e. before entering the clouds, they change to cloud puff?. Similarly, when you go beyond a certain altitude above the clouds, the clouds below you revert back to 2 dimensions to give a more convincing effect of full cloud coverage to the horizon.

 

This would be sort of like what happens with the scenery add-on available that enables satellite scenery after you reach a certain altitude to overide the ugly X-plane horizons.

 

Maybe my judgement of how this could be implemented is rather cloudy itself but it sounds like something plausible and possible. Cloud puffs look good when you are flying through them but from ground level they look like something from the late 90's. This way, the best of both worlds could be achieved at least until Laminar find a solution on how to make cloud puffs look more convincing and extend until the horizon.

 

Cheers

 

Steve

try setting clouds to 100% puffs with HDR ON if your pc can handle it.  this pic is at sunset with 100% clouds:

 

 

 

Soon we will have REX, they made an xp9 version and they will make a 10

Really? Where did you read this? If this is true then it would solve one of the four major issues (as I see it) - lack of landmarks, lack of proper AI traffic/ATC, clouds, blurry horizons/viewing distance.

 

Unfortunately though, that's still a lot to solve and frankly X-plane 10 has already been out quite a while even if it is in so called beta form (which in the Xplane universe is almost an eternal beta!). I think it will be X-plane 11 before we see all/some of those issues being resolved. I am patient but it would be nice if they could give us some sort of timeframe to help align expectations.  

 

I noticed a lack of expectation setting by Aerosoft as well. There has been almost no mention of building scenery add-ons apart from airports even though the sim supposedly has their full backing. It'd be nice to have a few scenery add-ons to look forward to and would make good marketing sense.

 

 

 

Really? Where did you read this?

on the REX forums in 2012 by a dev, I like xp10 3d clouds but in fsx when my plane goes through a cloud it looks like it just went through a white wall(2D)

 

 

on the REX forums in 2012 by a dev, I like xp10 3d clouds but in fsx when my plane goes through a cloud it looks like it just went through a white wall(2D)

 

Thanks for the reply but I'm not sure how this quote you gave from an REX developer implies that they are or will be in development of clouds for Xplane 10. Saying they like Xp10 clouds doesn't mean they will be able to develop them. In fact I remember reading somewhere that Xp10 clouds are very difficult to develop further due to the fact that they use puffs. Never say never but I don't think there is any conclusive evidence that REX will develop for Xp10. Believe me, I would purchase in an instant if they did!

I'm not us if Ben Sputnik has said something along the lines that the cloud engine is pretty much fixed and will need redevelopment if 3rd parties want to create their own textures. I could be wrong though.