Hi All,

 

Been working through setting up P3D v2.4 on my system and one thing I'm noticing pretty frequently is the cloud formations in P3D when using ActiveSky NEXT for P3d and REX4 themes are presented very differently than what I've seen in FSX. Here are a couple of shots to show what I mean.

 

 

Take note of the clouds in the upper right hand side of the screen shot. 

 

 

 

This is one of the more frequent views I see when flying. It looks like it's the same cloud texture repeated over and over with no other variation presented.

 

Here are my system specs:

• Intel i7-4930K 3.40ghZ OC'd to 4.5Ghz
• 16GB Corsair Dominator GT DDR3 2133MHz CL9 Quad Channel Kit
• eVGA GeForce GTX 780 Dual Classified w/ ACX Cooler
• Asus Rampage IV Extreme w/ DDR3 1866, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, PCI-E, 4-way CrossFireX / SLI
• 1X 250GB Samsung EVO SSD for my OS and 1X 500GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD for FSX and P3D
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64
• Corsair AXi Series AX860i Digital Modular Power Supply
• Corsair Hydro Series H100i Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

Here's what I have running for P3D

• Prepar3D_v2_Academic_2.4.11570.0_Full
• REX4 Texture Direct 4.3.2014.1210
• ActiveSky NEXT for P3D build 5410
• Orbx FTX Global

Holi cotton balls batman! Some ting wong....

Definitely not!  Did you actually install the textures from REX?  That would be the first thing to check.

Definitely not!  Did you actually install the textures from REX?  That would be the first thing to check.

 

Thanks for that tip. I checked in my Prepar3D v2\texture folder and can confirm REX is installing the cloud/environment files.

Try a different weather set, and different location.

 

Try deleting shaders also and increase cloud thickness using custom weather.

 

This happens on the odd occurrence, I think you can also set some settings in ASN for what kind of cloud coverage you get which may help.

Try not using ASN and load static weather from P3d. If all looks good... Look in your ASN settings for parameters that can affect sizing and doubling of clouds... I recall there were some options I'm unable to verify at the moment.

Gents,

 

Thanks for the tips. Here's the follow-up from your suggestions:

 

 

Try a different weather set, and different location.

 

Try deleting shaders also and increase cloud thickness using custom weather.

 

This happens on the odd occurrence, I think you can also set some settings in ASN for what kind of cloud coverage you get which may help.

 

1 - Tried a few different weather themes (2 created from scratch) - no joy

2 - I delete the shaders folder every time I install a new weather theme or make a change as I tweak - no joy

3 - Reset ASN back to defaults and re-ran all my tests - no joy.

 

 

Try not using ASN and load static weather from P3d. If all looks good... Look in your ASN settings for parameters that can affect sizing and doubling of clouds... I recall there were some options I'm unable to verify at the moment.

 

1 - I ran P3D without ASN and used the "stock" weather themes - no joy

2 - I ran P3D with customized weather - no joy

 

 

The interesting thing is as I'm flying through the clouds, they look great but as I climb and they fall further below me, this is where the visual "issue" becomes more pronounced. At FL310 the clouds look like the images I posted above but if I'm climbing through them of cruising just above them, they look properly sized. It's like P3D stops sizing the clouds after a certain height.

 

Thanks again for the suggestions!

 

Mike

That looks oddly like the cloud sizing issue that used to affect some of us in 2.3. Did you do an upgrade to 2.4 Mike, and are you sure the upgrade took? 

If you can provide location and altitude and date/time, I can test.  I have ASN, Opus, FSGRW.

 

Cheers, Rob.

That looks oddly like the cloud sizing issue that used to affect some of us in 2.3. Did you do an upgrade to 2.4 Mike, and are you sure the upgrade took? 

 

Thanks Dylan. I purchased P3D v2.4 and did a clean install so no previous versions existed before I purchased. I did however, download the cloud.fx fix file from one of the posts here so I wonder if that may have something to do with this issue I'm seeing. I made a full back up of the initial P3D install before I installed any add-ons so I'm going to try and pull the cloud.fx file over and see if that makes a difference.

 

 

 

If you can provide location and altitude and date/time, I can test.  I have ASN, Opus, FSGRW.

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

Thanks Rob. I'll send you all the details once I get home from work. Did you also want the REX theme I'm currently using?

Sure, I have REX 4 with latest SP and their soft clouds which I'm really enjoying.

 

Cheers, Rob.

That looks oddly like the cloud sizing issue that used to affect some of us in 2.3. Did you do an upgrade to 2.4 Mike, and are you sure the upgrade took? 

 

The clouds in 2.3 were bigger not smaller... its only since the sizing-down that you get these puff balls when cumulus are placed at high altitude.

 

Resize the clouds by 100% and they look much better, but impact performance, and cause issues where they hit the terrain.

I have the exact same issue....I have been trying to fix it for over 2 weeks.

 

I patched up to 2.4 I dont have a full clean install....do you?

 

I have ASN and REX4 I am getting the same looking tile effect and have posted this in the LM forum as well. I also see them at the same time....when at higher FL's

 

Did you get a good workaround with any other of your tests?

 

its really getting anoying....first verticle clouds now tiles!

Ditto - also have this problem. Have seen it several times at various locations around europe. Next time i encouter it, I'll provide the loaction etc.

Ran some tests, I can't get my clouds to look like that?  The closest I got was using Scattered 3/8 4/8 or Broken 5/8 6/8 using a Cloud Density setting at Medium but they never looked as "organized" as your image ... I tried cumulus at 2000-5000, 4000-10000, 14000-20000 ... flight was between FL310 and FL330.

 

Quick video - isn't as bad as what you are reporting ... but I tend to agree a "little" more randomizing would help.  I haven't tried with ASN ... I was using a custom weather setup.

 

 

Cheers, Rob.