Popcorn clouds continue in 2.5.12944

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Just for the record Rich REX doesn't inject but does a simple install of textures to avoid confusion  ;-)

No the effect is less with particular textures...

 

Yes thats what I think I said in a different way

[MikeAdamo 51]

for what its worth just did an install of the very latest version of P3D rex4 and soft clouds and this time no popcorn in the sky - I wonder if installing it just after P3D install has something to do with it - just not sure on this one

 

Hey Richard,

 

I think the appearance of the "popcorn" clouds has a lot to do with the weather conditions and the weather engine being used. It looks like there are so many flavors of weather apps in use, cloud textures and places people are test flying around it's hard to pin down the exact conditions where the "popcorn" clouds can be reproduced 100% of the time. Re-installing REX and loading up all the textures again may have yielded a false positive if your weather conditions are different than the last time you tested.

 

From what I've seen with the REX OD and REX4 texture size differences and how the OD larger sizes have a "better" visual appearance (a more subdued version of the popcorn clouds) than the REX4 textures tells us the weather engine isn't taking the smaller files REX4 uses and  somehow intelligently blows them up in game to give us the FSXish cloud scapes we're all used to seeing. Remember, the Cloud.fx fix of reducing the GetScreenQuadPositions( quad, width*0.50, height*0.50 ) was put in place to give better performance and as a result, the .50 scales the images to 50% of their size which gives us the unrealistic look of those "popcorn" clouds. Increase the width and height to 1.00 and you get a much different visual appearance of the clouds but at a huge cost to performance.

 

In my most humble opinion, either the 3rd party folks need to work around the width*0.50, height*0.50 limitation and design new textures to "trick" P3D into displaying clouds properly or, we all move over to the P3D forums and start letting the devs know this is an issue that needs to get addressed in a future release. I love hanging out with everyone here bashing around ideas on what can be causing this and what we can do to work around it but...I think it's time we bring this to LM's attention and get some answers from them now.

 

M

[Drumcode 1,893]

I've paid the 5 bucks for the OD to see if it helps and it didn't do much for my system. I still have SP2 and 3 to install, but as far as I see there's not much difference here. ASN + REX3 OD.

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

I've paid the 5 bucks for the OD to see if it helps and it didn't do much for my system. I still have SP2 and 3 to install, but as far as I see there's not much difference here. ASN + REX3 OD.

 

All great points Mike - thanks for sharing

 

 

I've paid the 5 bucks for the OD to see if it helps and it didn't do much for my system. I still have SP2 and 3 to install, but as far as I see there's not much difference here. ASN + REX3 OD.

 

Good to know - thanks for the info Jacek

[virtualstuff 759]

Yes thats what I think I said in a different way

 

Lol Rich you said it indeed different ;-)

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Lol Rich you said it indeed different ;-)

 

Andre Youuuuuuuuuuuu    I ramble sometimes

[Drumcode 1,893]

OK guys. ASN + REX3 OD SP2 and the difference is night and day. I've installed SP2 for the OD, installed the theme and the only piece I skipped was to install any soft clouds and it really looks great now.

I'm not going to point any fingers, but the evidence is clear.

[Dominique_K 10,150]

_{As I've no intention at that stage to buy any cloud textures as a bandaid to this issue (the default set suits me well), I'd appreciate LM doing something about it... Possibly without bringing back the spinning disks  !}

[ComSimPilot 623]

OK guys. ASN + REX3 OD SP2 and the difference is night and day. I've installed SP2 for the OD, installed the theme and the only piece I skipped was to install any soft clouds and it really looks great now.

I'm not going to point any fingers, but the evidence is clear.

 

Hello Jacek..thanks for the info, but I am a little confused.  Would you mind clarifying? ..If I get it right, with REX OD SP3 and ASN you get popcorn clouds, but using REX OD SP2 and ASN you have the problem solved?

[Drumcode 1,893]

No, here are my findings and how I tested last night. My apologies for no images as it was late last night and I needed to get to bed.

 

1. Installed REX3 OD applied any theme, applied REX Soft Clouds set 2, fired up ASN = popcorn

2. Installed REX3 OD SP2, applied any theme, skipped applying any soft clouds, fired up ASN = no popcorn, clouds are looking awesome

 

Tested at ORD within an hour, metar did not change much so I'm content that this test was fully valid. REX4 TD was not used at all during testing after I installed REX3 OD.

[yorgosGK 7]

Thanks Jacek for sharing your findings. Can you confirm you where way up to FL320+ thats where you can really start seeing them....below or under the clouds they look descent. 

[Drumcode 1,893]

I actually was getting popcorn clouds from ground level too and no, I did not go up this high to test - I will tonight though.

[yorgosGK 7]

I actually was getting popcorn clouds from ground level too and no, I did not go up this high to test - I will tonight though.

 

Well, yes you can tell you will be seeing them once you get high....lol So the effect is still on the ground you are correct (but tolerable). Once your up there its show time! Extra butter for me please.

[ComSimPilot 623]

Jasek, thanks for clarifying...I downloaded my REX OD installation from the flightsimstore and the filename is "REXEssentialPlusODSP3.zip"...thats why I mentioned SP3.

[TurboTomato 90]

I have the following:

 

P3D 2.5 on 2nd hotfix

REX Essential Plus (P3D extra License)

REX4 Texture Direct

No ASN, no Opus, no FSGRW, no REX Soft Clouds

 

I was using REX4TD for textures, but gave up as they just didn't look right (pre-2.5 reinstall). REXE+ doing the weather injecting.

 

After installing 2.5 I used the default cloud textures for a while, but stilling using REXE+ for weather injecting. Wasn't happy with how they looked (fairly sure I was experiencing the popcorn ones) so installed a HD set from REXE+. Still get popcorn clouds.

 

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.