SkyMAXX Pro 1.2 released

[GoranM 3,764]

1.2 is ok but I still don't think that Skymaxx is our answer to XP10 horrible skies.  SMP clouds look out of place, sometimes the clouds disappear and reappear, real weather bugs are still occurring, etc. etc.  Once REX is released, Skymaxx is finished...everyone will be using REX.  I'm sorry but this payware is terrible :( :mad:

 

Probably the most ridiculous 2 statements I've read all year.  You'll find quite a few people who strongly disagree with you.  But by all means, buy REX...whenever, and if ever it comes out for XP10. 

[jcomm 5,939]

While I think that Steven has passed his message in a somehow radical manner, I think I can nonetheless understand his feelings.

 

In fact, traversing the skies at cruise altitude on my NEO I see clouds pop-up/ off all of a sudden, around me. Even setting the cloud draw distance to the maximums, I can't really obtain an acceptable compromise.

 

There are also mostly cumulus clouds. Even with the overcast layer maximized I can't find Sc.  The thunderstorms still require some art work too, IMO.

 

Anyway, what we have now looks a lot better than what we had before. Also, the team behind Sky Maxx continues to work and bring new features / fix problems.

 

Of course Sky MAxx is not a weather generator, and depends strongly on whatever X-Plane's METAR-based weather "gives" him to process.

 

We need an integrated or independant weather generator. Sky Maxx can either continue to be developed as a sky enhancer app, or try to also work the weather processing / injection component, but weather injectors are rather complex!

 

I also think that most probably before someone starts thinking about a weather injector app, LR must create the necessary links to turn it possible to edit all weather variables/datarefs  already available and some more.

 

So, I really think I understand Steven's exclamation, and it would not be honest from me to say that I am completely satisfied with the results, while, at the same time, I am glad with what Sky Maxx already provides.

 

Just like anything about X-Plane... and the interview published today is a good example of it, a lot is going on in the back scenes but there is still a lot required to bring to X-plane all features we users, specially those comming from FSX, wnated to get right away. X-Plane is, IMO, a culture :-)  If we decide to embrace it, we have to accept the good and then not so good aspects of a simulation platform run by a very small, even if also very talented team.

[HiFlyer 9,359]

Have we forgotten that quickly the circle of puffy steel wool from the default clouds? The whiteout bug? The fog layer problems? Now we have God rays, correct HDR, much less rendering overhead, reflections have just been added, and Silver Lining has the capability to do ground shadows and correct star/moon phases, not yet implemented........

 

To me, for a Volumetric cloud generation system SkyMaxx pro is doing real-time miracles. There are computational limits to how far they can stretch things and not swallow Xp's frame-rate after all, and speaking of frame-rate, how many of us were flying with no clouds at all just scant weeks ago to save some frames?

 

And speaking of weather patterns........  :lol:

 

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

I get some beautiful cirrus clouds.  They sometimes show up as the default clouds, but that is usually after I have been monkeying around with the settings.  I find very little difference in FRs with G-Rays on and the same with water reflections.  Also, there has been a great improvement in flying toward the sun.  No glare which had the effect of washing out everything.

 

I'm happy Cameron.  Keep these great things coming... if there is, in fact, room for improvement!

 

John

[benrussell 20]

1.2 is ok but I still don't think that Skymaxx is our answer to XP10 horrible skies.  SMP clouds look out of place, sometimes the clouds disappear and reappear, real weather bugs are still occurring, etc. etc.  Once REX is released, Skymaxx is finished...everyone will be using REX.  I'm sorry but this payware is terrible :( :mad:

 

REX for X-Plane 9 was junk.

 

- Windows only.

- No support or updates for two or three years.

- Texture pack ONLY, no real changes to the underlying cloud engine.

 

 

BUYER BEWARE.

[ohsirus 241]

REX for X-Plane 9 was junk.

 

- Windows only.

- No support or updates for two or three years.

- Texture pack ONLY, no real changes to the underlying cloud engine.

 

 

BUYER BEWARE.

 

Junk is a strong word. I had it for XP9 and it did what it advertised. No more, no less. True it didn't match its FSX/FS9 counterpart. Some would call SMP junk as it's not Active Sky Next/OPUS comparable or that it's not Linux compatible, but it's not being advertised as such either. 

[scotchegg 4,186]

 

 

sometimes the clouds disappear and reappear, real weather bugs are still occurring, etc. etc

 

I just do not understand why you continue to criticize SMP for not doing things it's clearly not designed to do, and no-one ever claimed it could do. For hopefully the last time, fixing XP10's admittedly annoying weather-handling quirks doesn't fall under SMP's advertised remit. Neither will it find your missing socks after laundry, nor put the right amount of sugar in your tea.

[scotchegg 4,186]

 

 

and Silver Lining has the capability to do ground shadows and correct star/moon phases, not yet implemented........

 

Do we know if they're on the way...?

[HiFlyer 9,359]

Jspahn is the one to ask, but last I knew they needed some help from LR. It would certainly be a coup for x-plane.

[Cameron XA 272]

1.2 is ok but I still don't think that Skymaxx is our answer to XP10 horrible skies.  SMP clouds look out of place, sometimes the clouds disappear and reappear, real weather bugs are still occurring, etc. etc.  Once REX is released, Skymaxx is finished...everyone will be using REX.  I'm sorry but this payware is terrible

 

I'm really struggling with this post. Here's why:

 

1. You are using a fake name in the forums here, or on your customer account. We have no customer named Steven Thao, which means no valid customer with this name who purchased SMP.

 

2. You are singing the same song very similar to one specific individual everyone knows here...HarryCYUL. The constant talk out of you about REX is suspicious, as this is exactly what HarryCYUL has been doing at X-Pilot (and the only person doing it). Strange is all I am saying. If I remember correctly, wasn't this person (or his wife) banned from Avsim? I guess I raise my eyebrow a bit more because your account is only a couple of months old here as well, BleedAir. The commonality of "talk" is just uncanny.

 

3. You have been told multiple times that SMP is not a weather injector, yet you still harp the same tune as if you never heard what's already been explained to you.

 

So...what gives?

[uwespeed 497]

... and Silver Lining has the capability to do ground shadows ....

 

That would be a great thing, although cloud shadows are actually already implemented, but toned down (too much in my opinion) * - obviously only with the default clouds (and not Skymaxx). You can see this, when still having the default clouds (or deactivating Skymaxx?) and pressing K or L for changing the time of day. Cloud shadows are wandering around.

 

But as it seems, the shadows won't be darkened again in stock XP, I'd appreciate if Skymaxx can add this feature.

 

* I made the below screenshot in XP 10.01. In XP 10.03 unfortunately they were toned down to almost invisibility.

 

 

 

[scotchegg 4,186]

 

 

Strange is all I am saying. If I remember correctly, wasn't this person (or his wife) banned from Avsim?

 

I was a bit suspicious of this user. Joined a few weeks after Five by Five was banned and has exactly the same posting habits as her (posts on multiple platforms' forums, puts a row of excited smileys under embedded videos and links). Just sayin'....

[jcomm 5,939]

Well, gentlemen, this is certainly not the best way to go... Don't you think?

 

Every user is entitled to it's own oppinion. Sometimes we use stronger words than we should, are biased in our evaluation of a flight simulator or of a simple add-on, and many other things in our lives, or even bahave like if we were blind, and most of the time even know we're not being fair. I speak for myself!!! Some of us are more "low profile", can better control our emotions, others are more expansive...

 

It's up to the makers of those products to be professional, and show we are not being fair, by continuing to show how good their products really are / can be... This can be tricky of course, when they read comments that they think are far from fair, but that's one of the problems of being in the market and selling something.

 

A completely different case is one where the poster clearly belongs to some other brand... doing the same type of product, and using forums to bash... which I really don't think is the case here!

 

And, BTW, now that you mention Five, I confess that I do miss her posts here at the AVSIM X-Plane forums. Most of those posts were rather positive, pointing us to the best aspects of X-Plane and some of it's add-ons, just as some of these forums members continue to do and we certainly appreciate. 

 

Above all, I believe the best thing to do is to try not to turn this great hobby of ours, this escape, this chance to simulate what we would like to be doing for real, into a stressing activity. There is already way too much stress around us to deal with....

[Cameron XA 272]

Jcomm, with all due respect...I am very well aware of your friendship with HarryCYUL in the past, and hope I don't have to post proof of that here. Let's leave the bias out for a moment. I have already had a chat with Mr. Allensworth about this issue, and we are awaiting reply from this individual.

 

 

 

Well, gentlemen, this is certainly not the best way to go... Don't you think?

 

Yes, it most certainly is. We have a "customer" trash talking our product in this very topic, constantly trying to throw it under the bus with REX, using a fake name in their signature. This doesn't go one way, Jcomm.

 

 

 

And, BTW, now that you mention Five, I confess that I do miss her posts here at the AVSIM X-Plane forums. Most of those posts were rather positive, pointing us to the best aspects of X-Plane and some of it's add-ons, just as some of these forums members continue to do and we certainly appreciate. 

 

Please don't get my conspiracy juices moving. I'll have to go back in time, but I'm pretty sure it was either you or someone else that I'm confusing you with not too long ago mentioning that the person in question had a new username on these forums and was hiding behind it after the ban, yet no one was willing to divulge the name. I would hope you aren't busy being protective as a moderator at this point.

 

The bottom line here is that this individual (whoever it may be), should not be using a fake name in the signature, trash talking a product for something it isn't designed to do, and then constantly throwing it under the bus mentioning another product that doesn't even yet exist to save the world. 

 

If this person didn't want to be called out or figured out, perhaps they should have thought more before they spoke. Just an idea...

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

Jcomm, with all due respect...I am very well aware of your friendship with HarryCYUL in the past, and hope I don't have to post proof of that here. Let's leave the bias out for a moment. I have already had a chat with Mr. Allensworth about this issue, and we are awaiting reply from this individual.

 

 

 

 

Yes, it most certainly is. We have a "customer" trash talking our product in this very topic, constantly trying to throw it under the bus with REX, using a fake name in their signature. This doesn't go one way, Jcomm.

 

 

 

 

Please don't get my conspiracy juices moving. I'll have to go back in time, but I'm pretty sure it was either you or someone else that I'm confusing you with not too long ago mentioning that the person in question had a new username on these forums and was hiding behind it after the ban, yet no one was willing to divulge the name. I would hope you aren't busy being protective as a moderator at this point.

 

The bottom line here is that this individual (whoever it may be), should not be using a fake name in the signature, trash talking a product for something it isn't designed to do, and then constantly throwing it under the bus mentioning another product that doesn't even yet exist to save the world. 

 

If this person didn't want to be called out or figured out, perhaps they should have thought more before they spoke. Just an idea...

Cameron, and I for one...in reading her/his post...do not get what the heck they are critiquing?!?!?   You and John, have NEVER intimated, that your product will 'generate' weather.  Never!  It was clearly a cloud depiction enhancement over the default offering.  It DOES JUST THAT....and so, her/his post is totally vacuous.  Anyway...having a blast with the CLOUD depiction offering I bought off of your site...and doing what I EXPECTED it to do...and nothing more.  What it does...it does well...and really like 1.2    Keep the  .x's coming...

 

Ses