Hi all,I am not a framrate freak, over the years I have found that as long as the framerate doesn't dip into single digits I can handle things OK. I have the Max set to 18 and this generally speaking, is where it stays.However I have noticed that there seems to be one very particular cloud type that kills the framerate, as soon as this type shows up the whole thing becomes unusable the framrate dropping from 18 to 4!. For this reason I have ended up with the "Medium Low" setting (the first setting that doesn't have "simple clouds" checked)I pass this on as information, but also I wonder if anyone else has this problem and if there is any way to detect which actual cloud BMP is in use? Perhaps modfiying this bitmap would help?It would be nice to use "all maxxed" cloud slider, they do look nice...GeoffSystem is ASUS P4P800, P4 2.8Ghz with 1GB RAM in Dual Channel mode. NVIDIA FX5700 256MB

First look here:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=219Chris Willis, the creator of FS Skyworld created FS Skyworld, designed some high performance clouds available as DXT3 textures and for those who must keep render-to-texture off some bitmapped clouds. The forum above will point you to info.There are versions for FS2K2 and FS9.

you also might want to look here for a bit more detailed package....http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=fe2004

Or wait awhile a get ActiveSky V which will have cloud textures, a weather interface, weather RADAR, flight planner, and a whole bunch more.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Sales and Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

Thanks all!I will look around...Geoff

Flight Environment gives you fantastic looking clouds and they are frame rate friendly.