July 21, 201411 yr So you know how there is no cloud effect in FSX, when you fly through the clouds since they are not 3D they don't give any realistic experience. So I was thinking the exact thing the other day and I realized that the default jet contrails effect in fsx would be a great cloud effect if "somehow" by being positioned at the front left and right of the aircraft and if somehow it was possible to turn it on(I am willing to turn it on [like smoke system] as you fly through the cloud. The most challenging thing would be synchronizing the "flying into the clouds" and the actual screening of the effect i am guessing, so could it be automated, is it possible for FSX to bring the smoke effect as the plane flies through the clouds? On the other hand, positioning the contrail effect to the front of the aircraft shouldn't be that hard- thinking this could be possible.
July 21, 201411 yr Commercial Member Good idea. Did a bit of experimenting with contrail.fx files and found that fade out of that smoke puffs used in contrails is not good. It fades out very fast and you can't change the speed of the effect. Current system: ASUS PRIME Z690-P D4, Intel 12900k, 32GB RAM @ 3600mhz, Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity, M2 SSD, Oculus Quest 2.
July 21, 201411 yr that's pretty much what ASN does, except it turns the visibility down to 0 instead of drawing more textures.
July 21, 201411 yr Author that's pretty much what ASN does, except it turns the visibility down to 0 instead of drawing more textures. I have't tried Active Sky yet, but turning the visibility down is (i think) how other weather engines deal with this cloud transitions as well I am talking about an effect while you pass through the clouds you look to your left in the cockpit you see the cloud passing by with a speed equal to the plane's. When in outside view you can see that the contrails smoke is somewhat 3d, or at least it gives that sort of impression . Does ASN give that effect in particular?
July 21, 201411 yr So you know how there is no cloud effect in FSX, when you fly through the clouds since they are not 3D they don't give any realistic experience. Using ASN, as spesimen stated, there are cloud effects. Try the 7 day free demo to check it out for your system.
July 21, 201411 yr Author Using ASN, as spesimen stated, there are cloud effects. Try the 7 day free demo to check it out for your system. Why, I must have seen this somewhere, been looking for it for a while but I ll need to check youtube first Like in this video, you can see that the clouds just rapidly flows by wings and i think we can get close to this effect by using default contrails placed in front when passing through the clouds
July 21, 201411 yr Programming the contrails when to appear would be a bigger problem, as I doubt FSX has any idea where the clouds are placed. Flew trough of what appeared to be a cumulonimbus the other day and there wasn't any difference at all, hence my point...
July 21, 201411 yr Like in this video, you can see that the clouds just rapidly flows by wings and i think we can get close to this effect by using default contrails placed in front when passing through the clouds right, what i mean is, you can also get close to that effect by varying the visibilty. the tricky part, as you pointed out, is doing it automatically when you intersect the 2d cloud sprites, which is what ASN brings to the table. anyway try the demo and fly into some storms if you're curious! cheers -andy crosby
July 21, 201411 yr Author Programming the contrails when to appear would be a bigger problem, as I doubt FSX has any idea where the clouds are placed. Flew trough of what appeared to be a cumulonimbus the other day and there wasn't any difference at all, hence my point... Yeah mate I see what you mean
July 21, 201411 yr I doubt FSX has any idea where the clouds are placed. Using ASN, FSX knows where the clouds are placed.
July 22, 201411 yr Author well, i did managed to use the smoke system to simulate the cloud effect by re-positioning the contrail. now to make this automated and part of the clouds, anyone who know how?
July 22, 201411 yr Commercial Member Never used this myself but I imagine it would be as good as place as any to start your research. From the FSX SDK , Simconnect: SimConnect_WeatherRequestCloudState The SimConnect_WeatherRequestCloudState function requests cloud density information on a given area. Syntax HRESULT SimConnect_WeatherRequestCloudState( HANDLE hSimConnect, SIMCONNECT_DATA_REQUEST_ID RequestID, float minLat, float minLon, float minAlt, float maxLat, float maxLon, float maxAlt, DWORD dwFlags = 0); Parameters hSimConnect [in] Handle to a SimConnect object.RequestID [in] Specifies the client-defined request ID.minLat [in] Specifies the minimum latitude of the required area. This should simply be the lower of the two latitude numbers.minLon [in] Specifies the minimum longitude of the required area. This should simply be the lower of the two longitude numbers.minAlt [in] Specifies the minimum altitude of the required area, in feet.maxLat [in] Specifies the maximum latitude of the required area.maxLon [in] Specifies the maximum longitude of the required area.maxAlt [in] Specifies the maximum altitude of the required area, in feet.dwFlags [in, optional] Double word containing any flags. Reserved for future use. Return Values The function returns an HRESULT. Possible values include, but are not limited to, those in the following table. Return value Description S_OK The function succeeded. E_FAIL The function failed. Remarks The main purpose of this function is to enable weather radar. If the call is successful, the cloud state information will be returned in a SIMCONNECT_RECV_CLOUD_STATE structure. This structure will contain a two dimensional array of byte data. The array will be 64 x 64 bytes in size, and each byte will contain a value indicating the cloud density for each cell. A value of zero would mean no clouds, to a maximum of 255. The area defined in this call is divided into 64 by 64 cells, so the size of each cell will be determined by the values given for the parameters above. Note that the entire World's weather is not simulated all the time, but only a region around the user aircraft, with a radius of approximately 128 kilometers, is modeled at any one time. A request for cloud data outside this region will simply return zeros. The defined area can cross the Equator or the Greenwich Meridian, but it cannot cross the Poles or the International Date Line. See Also Or you can use the var A:Ambient in clouds,book which will return true if the aircraft is in a cloud (according to the SDK) www.antsairplanes.com
July 22, 201411 yr Why, I must have seen this somewhere, been looking for it for a while but I ll need to check youtube. Like in this video, you can see that the clouds just rapidly flows by wings and i think we can get close to this effect by using default contrails placed in front when passing through the clouds This is literally what you see in ASN while you are inside a cloud. Certain small sprites don't trigger the effect but for the most part, you hit a cloud bank, look out the window, the wing is vanishing in and out of the mist. You really should try the demo. What it doesn't have are the clouds rapidly deforming around the aerodynamic profile of the wing. That's pretty cool. But if the wing flex connoisseurs draw rebuke, I'm not touching that one with a ten foot pole. Edit: I think the effect you created would pass as a great condensation or sonic boom effect for fighters. I would actually contact Milviz or VRS about it. Ethan Edelson
July 28, 201411 yr Author ---- Edit: I think the effect you created would pass as a great condensation or sonic boom effect for fighters. I would actually contact Milviz or VRS about it. Ok I have worked on the contrail effects "a bit" more and here is the result you can clearly see that the wing is getting in and out of the cloud, though the same mechanism [sMOKESYSTEM] is in charge Never used this myself but I imagine it would be as good as place as any to start your research. From the FSX SDK , Simconnect: SimConnect_WeatherRequestCloudState The SimConnect_WeatherRequestCloudState function requests cloud density information on a given area. Syntax HRESULT SimConnect_WeatherRequestCloudState( HANDLE hSimConnect, SIMCONNECT_DATA_REQUEST_ID RequestID, float minLat, float minLon, float minAlt, float maxLat, float maxLon, float maxAlt, DWORD dwFlags = 0 ); Parameters hSimConnect [in] Handle to a SimConnect object. RequestID [in] Specifies the client-defined request ID. minLat [in] Specifies the minimum latitude of the required area. This should simply be the lower of the two latitude numbers. minLon [in] Specifies the minimum longitude of the required area. This should simply be the lower of the two longitude numbers. minAlt [in] Specifies the minimum altitude of the required area, in feet. maxLat [in] Specifies the maximum latitude of the required area. maxLon [in] Specifies the maximum longitude of the required area. maxAlt [in] Specifies the maximum altitude of the required area, in feet. dwFlags [in, optional] Double word containing any flags. Reserved for future use. Return Values The function returns an HRESULT. Possible values include, but are not limited to, those in the following table. Return value Description S_OK The function succeeded. E_FAIL The function failed. Remarks The main purpose of this function is to enable weather radar. If the call is successful, the cloud state information will be returned in a SIMCONNECT_RECV_CLOUD_STATE structure. This structure will contain a two dimensional array of byte data. The array will be 64 x 64 bytes in size, and each byte will contain a value indicating the cloud density for each cell. A value of zero would mean no clouds, to a maximum of 255. The area defined in this call is divided into 64 by 64 cells, so the size of each cell will be determined by the values given for the parameters above. Note that the entire World's weather is not simulated all the time, but only a region around the user aircraft, with a radius of approximately 128 kilometers, is modeled at any one time. A request for cloud data outside this region will simply return zeros. The defined area can cross the Equator or the Greenwich Meridian, but it cannot cross the Poles or the International Date Line. See Also Or you can use the var A:Ambient in clouds,book which will return true if the aircraft is in a cloud (according to the SDK) I wish I could understand how it all worked, thanks for your help though.
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