X-Plane 10: Experimenting with art controls (Raleigh scattering)

[Pascal_LSGC 298]

Hi,

Thanks to AUA425 in this thread, we are now able to recover the lost cloud shadows. I tried many interesting art controls for clouds to get rid of the ugly dark-grey clouds. When exploring deeper the art controls with dataref editor, my attention was drawn to a few of them containing the word "raleigh". I started to tinker with these, and here's what I got. Especially, look at the distant landscape colors:














Notice the blueish hills in the far. I have yet to find the ideal setting, but this is already way more realistic than X-Plane's default. Combined with cloud shadows, we now have some beautiful atmospheric effects, already present in X-Plane's engine, just not used at their full potential. Some would say ironically, with some reason, that X-Plane's beauty is an inside beauty.

But that's not the end of the story. Like everyone here tinkering with clouds shadows, I had to regret the volatility of the process. I then remembered that datarefs can be set when you open a plane if you follow this marvelous advice by Dan Klaue. Just had to figure out which prefix the art control need.

Now, I have a plane which is loaded with some experimental settings. I just put the SASL plugin inside, create an "avionics.lua" file containing some lines like:
 

defineProperty("CloudShadowLightenRatio", globalPropertyf("sim/private/controls/clouds/cloud_shadow_lighten_ratio")) set(CloudShadowLightenRatio, 1.0

When I open the plane, all the values are applied to the art controls, and stay so for the current X-Plane session. This is a bit weird, but it works.

Pascal

PS: Important notice: Raleigh and Mie scattering atmospheric effects only work with HDR.

[jcomm 5,917]

Great findings Pascal!

[Pascal_LSGC 298]

Great findings Pascal!

Thanks Jcomm !

[saed45 38]

dude these are great shots. wow those cloud shadows look amazing. 

[Murmur 3,941]

Hi,

 

Thanks to AUA425 in this thread, we are now able to recover the lost cloud shadows. I tried many interesting art controls for clouds to get rid of the ugly dark-grey clouds. When exploring deeper the art controls with dataref editor, my attention was drawn to a few of them containing the word "raleigh". I started to tinker with these, and here's what I got. Especially, look at the distant landscape colors:

 

Great! Can you share the DataRefs values you used in your shots?

[gheeD 62]

Whoa, thats a great find and those screenshots look unbelievable. I'd be ready to ditch my skymaxx in a heartbeat for that atmospheric scattering (i believe that is the correct term for the blue hue in the horizon?) and cloud shadows!

[CapnSplat 36]

Wow, nice sleuthing! Those screens are amazing! I can't believe that those effects have been under our noses this whole time; if only there was a way to get the necessary dataref values to "stick" sim-wide.

[JGregory 76]

From Ben's blog...

 

The art controls are mapped into the domain sim/private/controls/…. by X-Plane. 

 

Like all sim-private datarefs (sim/private) these datarefs are undocumented and unsupported and may not be there in future builds.

 

Your plugin, panel, or object should not depend on any sim/private datarefs!  They should only be used for diagnostics/debugging.

 

 

Also see this.

[twiggys 41]

Pascal;

 

Those shots look dazzling, I definitely got to give this a try.

No; could these effect be included in 10.30 update.

[jspahn 268]

Looks Great!

[MikeT707 1,181]

That looks incredibly realistic.  Keep investigating to see what you can find.  

 

I hope this sort of visual beauty helps more third parties check out the xpx platform.

[deetee 164]

WOW, fantastic! Ben & co should implement your settings as default in XP10.

[Pascal_LSGC 298]

From Ben's blog...

 

Also see this.

Well, now, this is documented !

 

Frankly, this, and cloud shadows totally changes the atmosphere of the sim. Like a new sim. This is too late to ask me not to use it, sorry if this is a big problem for you, JGregory.

 

Pascal

Great! Can you share the DataRefs values you used in your shots?

I didn't write down these in particular, and I'm still experimenting. Will share.

I've noticed some potential problem with the horizon and the planet rendering. I'll look if this is caused by my tweaks, or some other mod I installed.

Look for "atmo" in the dataref editor to find the art controls.

 

Pascal

Whoa, thats a great find and those screenshots look unbelievable. I'd be ready to ditch my skymaxx in a heartbeat for that atmospheric scattering (i believe that is the correct term for the blue hue in the horizon?) and cloud shadows!

 

Thanks, yes, that's atmospheric scattering.

 

Pascal

[jspahn 268]

On my end I hope to have cloud shadows implemented with SM......

 

 

This other option seems to make high altitude more realistic......I have to ask what kind of hit on frame rates do you have? 

[avgaskoolaid 292]

Congratulations, Pascal! After much indecisiveness, I have finally resolved to buy X-Plane because I can see what stunningly realistic visuals are achievable with your tweaks. What ground textures are you using, by the way?