I'm so happy to see this released. John very kindly sent me a beta copy a while back and all I can say is that it changes XPX no end for me. I can finally run maxed out clouds with this slider over three screens. Default clouds were just a no no. So congratulations john, you deserve it.

 

Jess b

Thanks Jess!  Lets not forget Sun-Dog who decided to partner up with me   and especially the community who provided tons of valuable feedback!

I am finding the "shadow detail" in the rendering settings has a lot to do with looks. I felt like despite different sky settings I was always  flying at night and the clouds looked washed out-turning down this setting to the minimum gives me better results and even a little more fps. Still tweaking looking for a sweet spot where the  clouds are as vivid but the "darkness" is gone. This is starting to get there. Any ideas for tweaking the sky to be "brighter"? The ground looks perfect-but the cockpit and sky look still dark considering it is twelve noon! However, it looks pretty darn good-and the clouds are great now that I can see them better.

 

<edit> I am also finding little performance difference between most of the sliders being maximized on my rig (maybe due to a lot of video memory?). However, the crespular setting seems to do nothing except make the clouds look more pixilated the further to the right it goes.

cloud1.jpg

try the hazy dayz medium or high contrast skycolors.......true blue also will be brighter.....

Indeed John, congratulations to everyone involved. We demoed skymaxx at Lelystad this year for a few people and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Just add urbanmaxx and enjoy XPX at its best.

Yeah-I have tried them all...

Yeah-I have tried them all...

Have you increased gamma and visibility from the weather dialog?   What you are seeing is the default X-Plane creating an overcast condition which is darker than clear skies.....

Yeah-it may be an xplane limitation. With a gamma around 2 the ground color looks perfect. To get the sky/cockpit brighter I have to set the gamma at a level that the ground then looks washed out. I'll keep experimenting-the clouds look so great I want to see them better!

Yeah-it may be an xplane limitation. With a gamma around 2 the ground color looks perfect. To get the sky/cockpit brighter I have to set the gamma at a level that the ground then looks washed out. I'll keep experimenting-the clouds look so great I want to see them better!

Turn off crepuscular rays, It can saturate things a bit and make sky and cloud colors not match as well. Also, I had added other sky & cloud enhancements (like the HD one) which amongst other things, altered some shaders. I cleaned all of it out, just to be sure.

Yep-turning off the rays helps. I just wish I could get a little more contrast in the sky.

Here's a few more. Playing with the settings for max and min cloud size matters...

 

KingAirC90B_3.jpg

This picture shows something I have been looking at. The "Holes" in what I guess is supposed to be that stratus layer just don't look quite right to me. Probably better if it was just pure white, because under most conditions it appears as if irregular shaped disks are hanging in the sky. (saucer invasion)  :p0504: 

This picture shows something I have been looking at. The "Holes" in what I guess is supposed to be that stratus layer just don't look quite right to me. Probably better if it was just pure white, because under most conditions it appears as if irregular shaped disks are hanging in the sky. (saucer invasion)  :p0504: 

Switch the overcast layer to "med" in the UI......this will generate a volumetric stratus layer.....

Switch the overcast layer to "med" in the UI......this will generate a volumetric stratus layer.....

I actually tried that and nothing happened. I will try again.

Yeah let me give that a go myself.....

 

EDIT:

 

Not stratus, it affects the overcast conditions, the stratus is a nice solid layer without those holes.....

I mean really, have you ever seen anythink like this?

 

 

 

Oh wait! I snapped this getting off the bus the other day and it looks like somebody had installed a copy of SkyMAXX into the sky over my head 

 

 

Was watching Atomicfrawgs stream last night on twitch

http://www.twitch.tv/atomicfrawg/b/482457161

 

Around the 1:08.00 minute marks the cloud layer developed into a pattern of 3 heart breaks. Fluke or maybe I'm missing something.

OK, trying again:

 

The Storm: Approach and Escape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for the screenshots guys!