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yorgosGK

Popcorn clouds continue in 2.5.12944

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Richard, when you get a chance, can you share your settings that have worked for you? Also I see your not an ASN user...I think that ASN takes over all those advanced settings, but I am not sure; I'll have to test. Please share your advanced weather settings page! It would be a good footstep to my testing. 

Thanks buddy!

 

No problem after I do a fresh install either tonight or def tomorrow - but really all you need to do is the cloud type change and that 7/8 broken - changing these settings should over ride ASN - I have and use ASN but find Opusfsi is great on fps and visually excellent


Rich Sennett

               

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I think Rich is on the right track but, unfortunately, the settings return to the default whenever you restart P3D.  I use ASN and sometimes do not like the cloud layers so go into the P3D settings as Rich described above and change the height of a couple of layers and go back to my flight and the clouds look awesome and not totally flattened out.  I am pretty sure ASN takes over your default weather settings and, when you click on the ActiveSky Theme, you'll see you do not have the options to go into advanced settings and change the layers, etc.  So I'm almost positive it all has to be done via the ASN program and, since it's going to rain later today, I think I'll read the manual.  I noted that in the Advanced Weather for Cloud coverage, the default is few 2/8.  In ASN the default setting is 7/8.  If you change the P3D advanced weather setting to 7/8 and go back to your flight, you should see a large blooming clouds and separated.  But this setting goes back to the default in P3D when you restart P3D.  It shouldn't have any bearing on the P3D advanced clouds settings but evidently you have to have 7/8 showing in P3D too.  Having to go in there and manually change it all of the time can get old real fast.

 

That's what I've seen so far.  I agree with the OP and do see more "popcorn" clouds than large thundering clouds.  I know I have to be in an area where the weather is bad for that to happen and maybe I'm flying in too many "nice" and sunny areas....

 

Best regards,


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I have not noticed it reverting back Jim - maybe its an ASN thing in opusfsi all good - thanks Buddy 


Rich Sennett

               

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This is still my only lingering gripe with P3D regarding visuals. Otherwise my sim is beautiful. But gone are the towering, epic REX clouds I once admired in FSX.

 

In my experience the problem persists despite REX/ASN/P3D settings, or cloud texture choice. Soft clouds, same thing. 

 

I know Rob and others may protest my view again, but I am far from convinced that clouds look acceptable in P3Dv2.5. Yes, they have more volume and density. The fog is wonderful. Cloud shadows - amazing. Big gains in those departments. But P3D is rendering the cloud textures at what seems to be at least 1/5 the size they are are rendered in FSX, if not smaller. You can see repeated textures within each individual cloud. Clouds in the distance look like popcorn on a string. Unacceptable to my eye, especially when sprinkled across jaw-droppingly beautiful water and scenery. Kills my immersion.

 

I hope someone can explain exactly why cloud textures are rendered vastly smaller in P3D than FSX. Clearly the textures weren't designed to be displayed like this. Do cloud textures need to be redesigned specifically for P3D2.5? I tend to think the answer is yes.

 

I will try everything in this thread, with hopes up.

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This is still my only lingering gripe with P3D regarding visuals. Otherwise my sim is beautiful. But gone are the towering, epic REX clouds I once admired in FSX.

 

In my experience the problem persists despite REX/ASN/P3D settings, or cloud texture choice. Soft clouds, same thing. 

 

I know Rob and others may protest my view again, but I am far from convinced that clouds look acceptable in P3Dv2.5. Yes, they have more volume and density. The fog is wonderful. Cloud shadows - amazing. Big gains in those departments. But P3D is rendering the cloud textures at what seems to be at least 1/5 the size they are are rendered in FSX, if not smaller. You can see repeated textures within each individual cloud. Clouds in the distance look like popcorn on a string. Unacceptable to my eye, especially when sprinkled across jaw-droppingly beautiful water and scenery. Kills my immersion.

 

I hope someone can explain exactly why cloud textures are rendered vastly smaller in P3D than FSX. Clearly the textures weren't designed to be displayed like this. Do cloud textures need to be redesigned specifically for P3D2.5? I tend to think the answer is yes.

 

I will try everything in this thread, with hopes up.

Took the thoughts right out of my head Aaron. Totally on the same page with same feelings. Look forward to a bit more testing. 


George Kyriazis | www.georgekonline.com

 

ELB729.png

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I hope someone can explain exactly why cloud textures are rendered vastly smaller in P3D than FSX. Clearly the textures weren't designed to be displayed like this. Do cloud textures need to be redesigned specifically for P3D2.5? I tend to think the answer is yes.

 

This morning I went to St Louis at about 10 AM and it was raining.  Went up through the clouds and saw no popcorn clouds and big thunderclouds way off in the distance.  The good thing with the ASN weather program is that you can make modifications while the sim is running and most of the changes you make will show up in your current flight.  There are a couple of settings that require you to shutdown and restart but those should not affect the clouds.  There were also a couple of nice standalone soft rounded clouds that I was able to fly to and just fly around the cloud.  It actually looked very real.  I guess, if you are seeing popcorn clouds during a flight session, you just need to do what Rich suggested and go into the Advanced weather settings and make a couple of modifications and see if that doesn't improve things.  You can also make changes with ASN too and you should be able to see the results immediately, good or bad.

 

Best regards,


Jim Young | AVSIM Online! - Simming's Premier Resource!

Member, AVSIM Board of Directors - Serving AVSIM since 2001

Submit News to AVSIM
Important other links: Basic FSX Configuration Guide | AVSIM CTD Guide | AVSIM Prepar3D Guide | Help with AVSIM Site | Signature Rules | Screen Shot Rule | AVSIM Terms of Service (ToS)

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I guess, if you are seeing popcorn clouds during a flight session, you just need to do what Rich suggested and go into the Advanced weather settings and make a couple of modifications and see if that doesn't improve things.  You can also make changes with ASN too and you should be able to see the results immediately, good or bad.

 

Best regards,

 

Will do, thank you sir.

 

Aaron

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I believe when you are changing the "advanced setting" in P3D (or FSX), all you are doing is changing the actual weather conditions.  The sim defaults to 2/8 at startup because default weather is few clouds which is considered 2/8 for any given cloud layer.  If you saved a different weather theme for startup, that page would reflect whatever cloud coverage your saved weather was.  When you use ASN, that page is overridden anyhow to make way for ASN's custom depiction.

 

Setting to 7/8 is just forcing broken coverage to one step short of overcast (8/8).   

 

I don't like forcing the sim to 7/8 broken (an option in ASN) because then EVERY cloud layer reported as BKN defaults to almost full sky coverage.  You lose out on broken layers that are more spread out which would be considered 5/8 or 6/8.  However, to overcome the "popcorn" effect, I suppose it would be worth it.

 

See for more information:  http://meteorologytraining.tpub.com/14269/css/14269_39.htm

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I'd have to say that even playing with advanced settings my clouds look pretty bad....After reading the ASN manual I did see that they recommend 500 ft above AGL for clouds in P3D....I put it to 500 and it made it a LITTLE better.....Thats just because they got raised and looked closer....There is nothing really unique about the ASN manual for P3D.
 

Maybe REX needs more variations for P3D and bigger textures....I don't know....i do know that There product looks great in FSX.

 

I doubt its ASN either because I put a default weather overcast theme and it was still tileing and popcorns going on....It seems off as well.....Something just isnt right.....I deleted shaders after every change.

Maybe someone can share settings that they really like.

 

Currently what works best for me is ASN in Realism mode preset. 


George Kyriazis | www.georgekonline.com

 

ELB729.png

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I would say this falls under inappropriate for 2015 standards lol

 

Extra butter for me please! 

 

warning big picture* 

http://i.imgur.com/bVXE2km.jpg

 

I cant comment on the interaction between ASN and Rex soft clouds as I found fps with opusfsi better on my system than ASN so I never tried ASN with soft clouds but I can tell you I noticed this popcorn effect after loading soft clouds as it stood out like a sore thumb so by chance I played with the advanced P3D cloud/weather settings and it cleared things right up


Rich Sennett

               

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Any news? / work around's? / comments?

 

110FPS is very good.

What are you cooling that 4790K with.

 

Thanks,

gb.


YSSY. Win 10, 6700K@4.8, Corsair H115i Cooler, RTX 4070Ti, 32GB G.Skill Trident Z F4-3200, Samsung 960 EVO M.2 256GB, ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger, Corsair HX850i 850W, Thermaltake Core X31 Case, Samsung 4K 65" TV.

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Cant comment on ASN as I am using Opusfsi now - regardless the tweaking needs to be done in P3D advanced settings to bring it all to life

 

heres proof before tinkering I had ugly popcorn clouds after it looks like this - pretty impressive imo - by the way this was UTX V2 USA and FTX global REX4 and soft clouds only in these shots

 

http://www.realenvironmentxtreme.com/images/rich2.jpg

 

http://www.realenvironmentxtreme.com/images/uwuog.jpg

No need for in ASN it's done automatically when chosen will post later some cloud shots.... from previous flights...


 

André
 

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Something else we may be missing here is the Cloud.fx setting (GetScreenQuadPositions( quad, width*0.5, height*0.5 );) This is in effect overriding the texture sizes and making them half of what the texture size really is? There was a rather lengthy discussion around this very topic back on Dec 30th for v2.4 (http://forum.avsim.net/topic/458860-is-this-how-rex4-asn-clouds-should-look-like-in-p3d/) and someone posted up a great looking test pattern (Page 2) and explained what was being loaded. I'm not certain if the .5 and .5 are physically reducing the size by half so Rob...chime in if I'm wrong :-)

 

Looking back at that thread, it looks like .GetScreenQuadPositions( quad, width*0.7, height*0.7); was the sweet spot (good thing I re-read that!) so give that a shot and see how it looks for you

 

Mike

 

**UPDATE**

 

Here's a couple of screen shots from a quick test flight after increasing the height and width to .7 from .5. Clouds look a lot better and my frames are locked at 31 in sim and stayed there throughout the climb to FL210. There appeared to be some "micro" stuttering but I can live with that if the clouds look much better. I'm using the Project Airbus A320, ASN, and REX Softclouds. Depending on which aircraft you fly and if they're heavy hitters on the FPS, you may need to reduce the size until you get a good compromise of cloud size and performance.

 

Departure: KYKM (KYKM 141753Z 19016G25KT 10SM BKN070 18/08 A2982)

Arrival: KGEG (KGEG 141753Z 20018G25KT 7SM -RA BKN010 BKN025 OVC032 10/08 A2986)

 

20150314_001_p3d-0.jpg

 

 

20150314_002_p3d-0.jpg

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I cured my "popcorn-clouds" with the above mentioned tweak:

 

In cloud.fx I changed from:

 

(GetScreenQuadPositions( quad, width*0.5, height*0.5 );)

to

(GetScreenQuadPositions( quad, width*0.68, height*0.68 );)

 

This will increase the the cloudpuffs to a more realistically looking size IMHO. I get nice volumetric clouds this way. The only downside is, that in certain conditions, they will reach the surface. Give it a try, You cant do any harm when making a backup first.

 

Marcel 

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