Andre Youuuuuuuuuuuu    I ramble sometimes

Lol :drinks:

Lol 

 

Have a great weekend Andre 

I was going to say go figure but that's not the case; it's clear that it's not the texture applications (though obviously some cloud sets will exacerbate the problem), and it's likely that those that do change to REXE+ or OD and think they're successful are having false positives. The problem then would seem to be with the P3D weather engine, or what the weather engines are injecting into it.

+1

Exactly!

It's up to LM to improve cloud appearance and also cloud performance with SGSSAA activated

+1

Exactly!

It's up to LM to improve cloud appearance and also cloud performance with SGSSAA activated

 

I have no hit using tons of clouds must be my titan - it goes through heavy clouds like butter but my only complaint would be AA - it needs to be a bit better out of the box

I have no hit using tons of clouds must be my titan - it goes through heavy clouds like butter but my only complaint would be AA - it needs to be a bit better out of the box

 

Well I'm on the same page Rich performance in clouds great only AA is the weak point of P3D

Well I'm on the same page Rich performance in clouds great only AA is the weak point of P3D

 

Yah Andre so close to nirvana but not quite - we all know the reason why its the way P3D does its rendering in full screen - not sure what the answer is to fix it

An experiment for you guys:

 

Please start up Prepar3D without running your third party weather engine.

 

Clear the weather (go into User Defined Weather -> Customise and ensure the Clouds are clear).

 

Click ok twice so that the sky is clear ingame.

 

Go back into weather, User Defined Weather -> Customise -> Advanced Weather, and make a new layer - use a cumulus cloud set, few 1/8 clouds, top 6000 ft, cloud base 5500 ft (if you're sitting a high altitude airport, try bumping it to say, 9000 ft top and 8500 ft base, point is to make the cloud layer quite a thin band).

 

Click ok.

 

Take a screenshot or at least have a look at what your clouds will look like. I wouldn't mind see what you REXE+OD users are getting?

 

This, is generally the most popcorn-y version your cloud textures will be injected by your weather engine. If you are happy with these results, then great! If not, try a new weather theme in REXE+OD/REX 4, then repeat the above procedure.

Also, for anyone running ASN, and want to use a larger cloud.fx, in ASN settings you can set it so that the cloud does not intersect with the ground. (you can do this without using the larger cloud.fx anyway, of course).

 

Go into Settings -> Cloud Options -> P3D Low cloud offset and pick something like 500 ft.

As an experiment, I ran through the same flight in P3D using each of the major scenery enhancements, AS2012 (1024 and 2048 px), REX Essential+Overdrive and REX 4+SoftClouds (both at 2048 px). The weather engine was ASNext for all 3 flights. I departed LIPV (San Nicolo, Venice, Italy) on heading 60 deg from runway 6. I followed runway heading up to an altitude of FL120.

 

Interestingly, I only saw popcorn clouds once and the was with REX4, although it could have been a fluke. I had forgotten how decent the AS2012 graphics are...I actually prefer their water textures.

REX4 wins for me for clouds although none of the 3 products are slouches in this category, and as I can switch between them, I'm done buying this type of software..

 

I could post the 50+ pics here, but that might annoy folks, so here is a link to the slideshow, in case you're interested.

 

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/gtrbarbarian/slideshow/P3DClouds

Well maybe REX4 Direct cloud textures were made to work correctly with the REX weather engine. Consider that they have moved from larger compressed textures to smaller native textures, which load very quickly. So ASN/Opus have to render whatever is in the sim. REX Weather Direct (someday) may be optimized to work only with REX4 textures and vice versa. My suspicion is that the small, quick loading textures are required, so that REX weather engine will be able to dynamically load textures based on local weather conditions.

 

Opus cameras require Opus weather to accurately portray turbulence. Orbx regional airports require Orbx regions. Why not REX Texture and Weather Direct? "Want to bring out the full beauty of REX textures? Use our weather engine."

 

This is just idle speculation. But I'm not charging by the word. Good thing...eh?

 

Am going to try changing cloud volume. If that doesn't work, will try REX OD. Failing that, I'll just fly in clear skies.

Nice try Graham  but a cloud is a cloud is a cloud to whatever engine. One set may load faster and/or look better but it will be the same for all engines.

 

This isn't to say that it can NOT be done but, if it were, I guarantee that the dev would be tooting their horn about the plusses in using their combination.

 

But for now, all that happens is that the default cloud sets are replaced by your favorite and the current cloud set is what is called by the engine.

 

Vic

Nice try Graham  but a cloud is a cloud is a cloud to whatever engine. One set may load faster and/or look better but it will be the same for all engines.

 

This isn't to say that it can NOT be done but, if it were, I guarantee that the dev would be tooting their horn about the plusses in using their combination.

 

But for now, all that happens is that the default cloud sets are replaced by your favorite and the current cloud set is what is called by the engine.

 

Vic

Thanks man

Does LM actually know this problem exists? Are they working on a (hot)fix? 

2.3 was the sweet spot of the v2 series on my hardware, it ran really well and looked great, maybe a little dark with HDR if I had to find a fault.

With 2.4 my frame rates were worse and now with 2.5 the clouds are broken and my textures are blurred as if the LOD is much lower, VC shadows are not as crisp now as they are in  DX10 which is definitely different to how 2.3 rendered them.

 

Really hope 2.6 finally fixes some of the issues without introducing more problems but at the moment it feels like the series is going backwards after a promising start.

IMHO, the best was the 2.2.

So no Fix for the PopCorn clouds?