I think you're in a stall Jeroen!!  Hehe ... sorry couldn't resists.

 

Looks nice, what was visibility set to?

 

Cheers, Rob.

LOL Yes, I slewed into a good position there... ^_^

 

Visibility was set to 50 nm/80 km after first loading the clear sky theme. I (obviously) had closed ASN for this test. I just flew (without slewing this time ^_^ ) for a while with ASN on and the clouds and skies from HDE really work well together! It's almost impossible but once more P3D has become even better! (Where does it end! :rolleyes: )

Glad you're pleased with what you're seeing Jeroen. If you want darker cockpits you can adjust that on your sky textures, have a look at the first page of this thread:

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/450628-v23-looks-almost-picture-perfect/

 

Particularly the graphic I posted in post #13. You can use PhotoShop (see post #16) to lighten/darken the pixels that control certain aspects of the lighting in the sim. Also note that you can use the imagetool command to convert any FS9 sky textures for use in FSX/P3D so there are hundreds of options available in the file libraries and if you have GEPro from the FS9 days it would also generate random or custom sky texture sets that you could convert and try in P3D2.

 

Great idea on renaming the texture folder like that BTW.

 

Jim

The sky textures are already available in 32bit format here: http://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/18029/fsx-hde-sky-textures-v20/

 

Quote: "Converted for FSX. These files act as HDE sky texture replacements for importing into FSX. Original by Pablo Diaz. Retooled for FSX by Danny Glover.

 

           The original release of HDE & HDE v2.0 created a high-quality freeware environment improvement for FS9. Many of the high-definition textures offered for FS9 were also easily portable over to FSX, except for the sky textures. From multiple experiences, the sky textures when placed into FSX would not allow the sim to start and would end up crashing session altogether. The problem was that FSX's default sky textures came with a color bit depth of 32, and FSX would read ONLY that bit depth. HDE and HDE v2.0 came in 24 color bit depth, so FSX could not read the textures and therefore could not create a suitable simming environment using them. This package contains all 140 sky textures in 32-bit color depth form, for usage in FSX."

 

I gave them a try and although they they do work fine in P3DV2.3, I went back to the P3DV2.3 default sky textures as I prefer the color in the originals. To each his/her own I guess.

.

Lyn

Jim thanks for sharing your sky texture tips, I just tested them out and must say that I am overall pleased with what I am seeing, the clouds fading in the distance adds depth and looks very realistic.  Thanks!

 

Jim thanks for sharing your sky texture tips, I just tested them out and must say that I am overall pleased with what I am seeing, the clouds fading in the distance adds depth and looks very realistic.  Thanks!

 

 

Can i ask what benefits over REX+ or REX4 in terms of visual and memory use ? I have REX+ for FSX and considering REX4 for P3D.

 

And one more thing , what is your TML for these HD sky textures ?

 

Thanks

 

Michael

 

 

Can i ask what benefits over REX+ or REX4 in terms of visual and memory use ? I have REX+ for FSX and considering REX4 for P3D.

I don't think that this is better then REX4 but it's cheaper.

Spirit

I don't think that this is better then REX4 but it's cheaper.

 

 

It's indeed cheaper. If it is better is for everyone to decide. I have used the previous version of REX in FSX but didn't upgrade to use REX4 in P3D because I only used REX for clouds and skies and I liked P3D default as it was. But after installing the HDE skies (the clouds I already used) I think they are great and are equal if not better than anything REX offered me in the past! Obviously, REX offers a LOT more than just clouds and skies but for now I don't need all those extra's.

 

 

 

And one more thing , what is your TML for these HD sky textures ?

 

 

You mean what resolution I use within P3D? (I've blocked all FSX tweaks and associated abbreviations out of my mind so I have to dig deep here...  ^_^ ). I have resolution in P3D set to its default (1024). My clouds are 512 and I have no clue what those skies are at but they look perfect with the default 1024 setting.

 

 

 

the clouds fading in the distance adds depth and looks very realistic.

 

Yes, it's great, isn't it! A huge (and free) improvement over the default skies!

Do you use the cirrus from HDE v2 too, or only the cumulus?

 

The cirrus are somewhat bigger than the stock ones, just wondering how they perform.

I use them but I've resized them down so they match whatever the default cirrus textures are. These are 2D clouds though I believe, I don't think they have anywhere near the impact at large sizes that cumulus01.bmp has.

 

Jim

No performance impact is better. :wink:

I'll give resizing a shot, thanks Jim!

I've got a batch file that'll do that JP :smile:

 

You need to find a copy of nconvert.exe, it's a free command line utility sorta like imagetool, google should find it. Then drop nconvert.exe and imagetool.exe into the HDEv2\CIRRUS folder. Make a new text document in the same folder, paste the commands below into it and save:

 

 

nconvert -overwrite -resize 512 512 cirrus_broken.bmp
nconvert -overwrite -resize 256 256 cirrus_broken01.bmp
nconvert -overwrite -resize 32 32 cirrus_broken02.bmp
nconvert -overwrite -resize 256 256 cirrus_broken03.bmp
nconvert -overwrite -resize 512 512 cirrus_few.bmp
nconvert -overwrite -resize 256 256 cirrus_few01.bmp
nconvert -overwrite -resize 256 256 cirrus_few02.bmp
nconvert -overwrite -resize 256 256 cirrus_few03.bmp
nconvert -overwrite -resize 512 512 cirrus_overcast.bmp
nconvert -overwrite -resize 256 256 cirrus_overcast01.bmp
nconvert -overwrite -resize 32 32 cirrus_overcast02.bmp
nconvert -overwrite -resize 256 256 cirrus_overcast03.bmp
nconvert -overwrite -resize 512 512 cirrus_scattered.bmp
nconvert -overwrite -resize 256 256 cirrus_scattered01.bmp
nconvert -overwrite -resize 256 256 cirrus_scattered02.bmp
nconvert -overwrite -resize 256 256 cirrus_scattered03.bmp

imagetool -brief -nobeep -32 -e bmp *.bmp
pause

 

EDIT: Seems the latest version of nconvert has a new anti-overwrite feature where it outputs a new file appending a "1" to the filename, that won't work of course, so I added the -overwrite flags above.

 

 

Then rename the text file to something.bat (baseball.bat, vampire.bat, fruit.bat, doesn't matter) and double click it. Make backups first and copy/move them into the P3D2\texture folder.

 

Jim

Thanks! Nice, something else I will try. As I posted before I didn't really like the HDE Cirrus but maybe resizing them helps.

That's simply not true, IMHO the HDE V2 sky textures are the best out there and all they need is a 10 second conversion to 32 bit. I guess it's a matter of preference on the cirrus but I'm using them to and see no problems with them. I wouldn't use the cumulous01.bmp as is at DXT3 though, that one's supposed to be DXT5.

...

 

This is become a huge topic simply because of performance, and now that that issue seems to be at least ameliorated, I got to ask ...

 

what makes one cloud set

 

that different from

 

more usable than,

 

more beautiful than,

 

faster rendering than,

 

than another?

 

What's with the "HD"....HDR??....

 

Yeah yeah I know that HDR is high dynamic range I've been using it photographically for years but is it just eye candy?...is it worth the performance penalty... Or is it just a matter of choice?

 

 

Which… I seem to be answering my entire message here… after the performance requirements are met, Is it all just a matter of choice?

 

What are the comparable benefits of the various weather engines?... Am I just pissing in the ...clouds, with OpusFSX because it doesn't offered 10 layers?

 

I've been FS'ing for over 30 years, and now I feel like a babe in the woods with all this cloud discussion

 

Chas

Can i ask what benefits over REX+ or REX4 in terms of visual and memory use ? I have REX+ for FSX and considering REX4 for P3D.

 

And one more thing , what is your TML for these HD sky textures ?

 

Thanks

 

Michael

Michael,

 

I don't normally monitory memory usage since I use fairly conservative settings in P3D, I can check if you'd like.  I'm using 1024 TML as well as 512 DXT5 for clouds. 

 

In the screen I attached, I was using ASN to test/depict real world wx with overcast and rainy conditions below.  Prior to Jim's input, I had to use volumetric fog with REX Direct textures in order to achieve the same effects, that caused stutters which I can't tolerate.  Now with Jim's advice I have nearly the same effect w/o having to use volumetric fog and have clouds set at maximum and no stutters and very fluid flight.

 

Rex Direct is great for clouds/water/airport textures, I just can't find sky textures particularly during the day that I find realistic, this suggestion has changed things for me.  I think J van E depicted it nicely in his previous post.

 

Here's REX sky/clouds

 

Here's HDE V2 Sky/clouds

 

HDE V2 sky again, I tried to capture the haze in the mountains ahead, didn't quite show up here.

 

 

I'm hooked, I spent way to many hours flying into the night and am back at it again today.