Thanks for your tip to you using now a layer of 10. I never would have thought to go that high....it just was NEVER possible before....(slide-show).

I'm wondering about these 10 layers too. Maybe it doesn't work?

Spirit

Here is a 'totally zoomed out as far as P3D can go' shot..to show all of the layers being generated, and even at full zoom out...I COULD NOT show you how sophisticated and complex the cloud layers are all around me. It is simply an amazing display of sim coding.....but I can't show you...as the full out zoom can't even handle what is on the monitor!!!!

 

So..here is the best that I can capture....this is with an ASN setting of 7 layers. I'm playing around...and even at 7 from the 10 of a few moments ago...post-Beau Tweak, is a true transformation for cloud formation, and generation.  Wow, wow...wow......  Here is the fish-eye, and again, it doesn't even begin to show you the true vision on my monitor...wow....:

 

http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshotsv2/t5A

Hey Spirit_66,  I have been playing around with ASN Cloud Layers, post Beau-Fix, and have seen that a setting for layers at 7 is the sweet spot. At one point of the flight, with a setting of your 10, cloud layers actually disapeared  above me, but when taking it from 10, through 9,8,....and finally to 7....the layers returned, so...you might want to take it two above the default of 5 and try that for some flights.  Personally, I'm now going to make my Mitch-Default, (lol) as a setting of 7.  I'm done...back to flying through the most amazing sky yet...and with no FPS hit....go figure!  I think that the next hot-patch...and eventually v2.4 is going to be spectacular!  Go LM team...GO----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

Soon P3D v2.x together with ASN will be the perfect cloud simulator.

Spirit

Soon P3D v2.x together with ASN will be the perfect cloud simulator.

Spirit

Yep...better in general...

 

Here is my descent/approach this morning into Toronto with ASN set to Mitch Layer # 7.........headed for CYTZ    James Bond, would have called this girl; Cloud Galore and not...er..well...you know...lol! 

 

http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshotsv2/t5L

 

Post Edit:  Well, I decided to land instead at CYYZ (Toronto Pearson)..finished taxi..and am now sitting on a grassy area, watching the coming and going of A.I.

 

Man..is it pouring!  

 

http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshotsv2/t5i

 

Have a good weekend, all....

 

 

Alan_A, on 05 Sept 2014 - 5:36 PM, said:

5.4b set at 20 percent.
 
You can bring this up to 5.4c for free....just go to the MyTraffic support forums.  You'll have a better A.I. experience going through those clouds....

 

Will try that.  I have 5.4c on hand from FSX, IIRC there was some sort of compatibility issue with earlier versions of P3Dv2, but will be happy to experiment.  Re: settings, I mistyped - 15 percent AI via MyTraffic, not 20 percent.  It seems to generate a bit more traffic at a given slider setting than it did in FSX so I've backed them off.

 

Back to the main topic - I still haven't had time to apply Beau's cloud fix.  Got a lot of P3D work ahead this weekend...

Just to confirm what other's have discovered/suggested.

 

With ASN the P3D cloud density slider has a HUGE impact on performance (with or without the LM adjustments) at KMRY (Orbx NCA). ASN is set to 2 layers which is how P3D "Building Storm" is setup:

 

Cloud Density = Medium  - 30-33 fps

Cloud Density = Max - 13-14 fps.  

 

Using the P3D default weather set "Building Storm" same location same time, etc.:

 

Cloud Density = Medium - 30-32 fps

Cloud Density = Max - 29-30 fps

 

These are REX 4 Cloud textures 1024 32bit

 

So it appears that weather engines have a significant impact when Cloud Density value is changed which is NOT the cause when using P3D default weather themes where the Cloud Density change seems to have very little impact.

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

"Ouch, my 2GB GTX680 heard that!!!".   Seriously, let us all know if updating beyond your present CPU and GPU, with FPS and general performance in mind, was worth the expense outlay. I have a 5 year old system, that gives me pretty much 30 FPS on average, and so wonder what the benefit-to-cost would actually be....

 

Please...let us know.  I'll be looking for a post from you on post-build-purchase!!!

 

I thought that you were already happier than a happy person on happy pills sitting on a bench in Happy Park singing "Happy days are here again"?

 

 

So it appears that weather engines have a significant impact when Cloud Density value is changed which is NOT the cause when using P3D default weather themes where the Cloud Density change seems to have very little impact.

 

Confirmed. Although I would use the word 'difference' instead if 'impact'. Impact makes it sound as if there is a difference in performance only but with default weather themes that slider makes no difference at all, so it seems!

Before I used a weather engine I tested various settings and noticed the slider made no difference in appearance (exactly the same amount of clouds) as in performance. So I kept it at default (Medium, if I remember well.)

As soon as I used ASN weather the slider made a HUGE difference! So I of course moved it full right. ^_^ So far that setting didn't give me any problems.

 

 

 
So it appears that weather engines have a significant impact when Cloud Density value is changed which is NOT the cause when using P3D default weather themes where the Cloud Density change seems to have very little impact.

Hey Ron, I'm running ASN and saw very little drop in FPS going from normal to maximum cloud density, and I have ASN set at 5 maximum cloud layers (default).  But I'm not use REX textures.

So it appears that weather engines have a significant impact when Cloud Density value is changed which is NOT the cause when using P3D default weather themes where the Cloud Density change seems to have very little impact.

Seems to hold true with Rex Essential Plus weather engine which I'm using currently. I flew yesterday a bit in ORBX South Alaska with quite rainy, foggy and cloydy weather and performance impact with clouds slider at right was still significant even with the recent LM fix, although a lot better than before, perhaps 10-15 FPS and I returned to medium setting and enabled volumize on the shader code again. Weather "quality" didn't seem to suffer that much, but FPS was a lot higher with medium coverage and so far I'm quite happy with the end result.

Moving that density slider left may help with performance but in this case it hurts realism imho. Afaik ASN recommends that slider to be full right to get real weather. Setting the slider to normal turns an overcast sky into a lightly clouded one. And since everyone is using weather engine (and paid big bucks) to get more realism, I think everyone should be aware of this! (Makes me wonder how many people who said this or that weather engine didn't do a good job on portraying real life weather had that slider to the left...)

Moving that density slider left may help with performance but in this case it hurts realism imho. Afaik ASN recommends that slider to be full right to get real weather. Setting the slider to normal turns an overcast sky into a lightly clouded one. And since everyone is using weather engine (and paid big bucks) to get more realism, I think everyone should be aware of this! (Makes me wonder how many people who said this or that weather engine didn't do a good job on portraying real life weather had that slider to the left...)

Probably true. Although I didn't check if the weather was in real life fully overcast yesterday during my flight, I didn't see a single hole in the sky when flying low under the cloud layer and visibility was beautifully low. The fact is, I have a triple screen setup and I accept some sacrifices to maintain the FPS level I always try to aim, that is preferably over 30. Results can probably vary quite a lot between different engines also.

Moving that density slider left may help with performance but in this case it hurts realism imho. Afaik ASN recommends that slider to be full right to get real weather. Setting the slider to normal turns an overcast sky into a lightly clouded one. And since everyone is using weather engine (and paid big bucks) to get more realism, I think everyone should be aware of this! (Makes me wonder how many people who said this or that weather engine didn't do a good job on portraying real life weather had that slider to the left...)

 

What slider are you talking about - P3D ? ASN ? more specific would be great

Richard, crank up the cloud density in P3D's weather setting as high as you can.

 

After applying the LM cloud size fix (I had restored the #define VOLUMIZE code), I've been leaving it at maximum (going from normal to maximum only resulted in a small drop in FPS).

 

I have ASN, set to 5 maximum cloud layers (which is default). Also make sure that you have "P3D low cloud offset" set to 0, as this doesn't work correctly with the 2.3 fix (according to HiFi) . . . enabling this will cause the (now correct, with the fix) bottoms of the clouds to be cut off, resulting in less cloud coverage.

 

 

What slider are you talking about - P3D ? ASN ? more specific would be great

 

Cloud coverage density slider in P3D.

 

For me, holding the slider at Medium really compromised the realism, especially in overcast conditions... but was necessary for reasonable performance.  As noted above, haven't applied any of the fixes yet.  Heading off to do that now.  Thanks to all for suggestions - am eager to experiment.