What clouds are you using in P3Dv2.5

[mickatmian 52]

You can just buy REX Soft Clouds but REX4 with soft clouds is perfect.

 

The thing i would like to point out is REX4 has a tab were you can enter a ICAO code and it will give you the best clouds sky and sun to match that report, everything else is random but that does not matter the clouds sky etc do. Save the set as "temp" then in options just load the clouds sky sun. Loading the textures into the sim takes less that 1 second so you can have the right feel for the weather your going to  fly.

Note it does not always give the soft cloud option but just pick one that matchers. 

 

REX Soft Clouds are by far the best clouds ive ever used.

 

Thanks for that information it's a feature I had missed. Just tried it at ECXC which is near to where I live and with ASN it looks very realistic. (And works exactly as you described.)

 

To the op you really can't go wrong with REX soft clouds for such a minimal outlay.

 

Mick

[Nyxx 6,993]

Thanks for that information it's a feature I had missed. Just tried it at ECXC which is near to where I live and with ASN it looks very realistic. (And works exactly as you described.)

 

To the op you really can't go wrong with REX soft clouds for such a minimal outlay.

 

Mick

Thanks Mick

Happy to help.

[spearmint_flyer 579]

Is there a way to set up a poll? Maybe we can get a better understanding of what the public prefers to use. You know what maybe I can set one up in my blog. Just in case its not possible here.

[Guest]

Tried quite a few including soft clouds but I always come back to HDE v2 for sky and clouds. Soft clouds are nice though, I use them in FSX (#5 is my favorite so far). They seem a little too undefined in P3D though so HDE v2 clouds resized to 512 px with ( quad, width*0.65, height*0.65 ) is currently doing the trick for me.

+1

 

I don't use HDE v2 (clouds and sky) because it's free but because it gives me the imho most realistic skies. The sky color is very realistic (no cartoonish colors) and it also has no bands at all on the horizon (like the default stuff has or most REX textures I tried). The transistion from sky to the edge of visibility and to the ground is the best. Very realistic. Other solutions often make it very obvious you are looking at separate textures. The great looking clouds also disappear quite nicely into the distant sky colors. Love it.

 

I also use resized cloud textures (I only use cumulus btw, cirrus is default) and if I remember well you also have to convert the sky textures somehow. If someone wants them I can mail the converted files, ready for use, including the original textures for easy restoring.

[WebMaximus 372]

+1

 

I don't use HDE v2 (clouds and sky) because it's free but because it gives me the imho most realistic skies. The sky color is very realistic (no cartoonish colors) and it also has no bands at all on the horizon (like the default stuff has or most REX textures I tried). The transistion from sky to the edge of visibility and to the ground is the best. Very realistic. Other solutions often make it very obvious you are looking at separate textures. The great looking clouds also disappear quite nicely into the distant sky colors. Love it.

 

I also use resized cloud textures (I only use cumulus btw, cirrus is default) and if I remember well you also have to convert the sky textures somehow. If someone wants them I can mail the converted files, ready for use, including the original textures for easy restoring.

 

Guess I'll give the HDE v2 clouds a second chance. Last time was several years ago back in FSX and that time I ended up using the AS2012 textures as I already mentioned but now with P3D where I don't really want to install AS2012 trying to keep my installation as tidy as possible the HDE v2 seems like a good option.

 

You both said you resized the textures, why is that?

[Jim Robinson 122]

In heavy clouds you notice quite a difference between a 1024px and a 512px cumulus01.bmp performance-wise and actually the default in P3D2 is only 256px. I tried resizing the HDE cumulus01.bmp to 256px and it looks fine if the clouds are several miles away but when you're close or flying through them you can see some pixelation. For me 512px was the best compromise for the flights I do but I wouldn't hesitate to install the 256px texture if I was doing heavy clouds with a complex airliner and complex airports. I couldn't really see where the full 1024px texture was advantageous, I guess the clouds look sharper but to me that was possibly a little unrealistic for all but the really huge towering cumulus, it just wasn't worth the performance hit.

[WebMaximus 372]

Ok, got it and guess I'll resize them as well if I decide to go with them.

 

As for the sky textures IIRC FSX would crash on me when using them but guess that can be solved by converting them as was mentioned above.

 

Will look more into this.

[Guest]

 

 

Will look more into this.

Or look into your PM box. ^_^

[WebMaximus 372]

Or look into your PM box. ^_^

Thanks, will do :smile:

[WebMaximus 372]

Did a quick test with the HDEv2 textures since I already had them on my disk. For this test I used the cirrus clouds that come with HDEv2, the 'Normal' cumulus set which means 512x512 32bit and I also used the HDEv2 sky textures. What I did to these though was to convert them to 32bit from 24bit, maybe not doing so was the reason I couldn't get them to work in the past in FSX.

 

Anyways here a comparison and must say I'm very pleased with the result, much less "cartoonish" look both looking at the clouds and the color of the sky at least to my eyes. The screenshots are only 960x529 since I'm not sure if there are some rules in here so figured I better downsize them a bit before posting.

 

HDEv2 cloud and sky textures

 

 

P3Dv2.5 original cloud and sky textures

 

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

I'm firm believer in HDEv2 as well and think the sky looks better than anything on the Payware front.

 

To save time for anyone who wants the sky or cloud textures you can download the already converted sky textures from this link.

 

http://simviation.com/1/search?submit=1&keywords=hde+

 

When the link opens, the first download is for the FSX compatible sky textures and the second download below it is for the clouds. The second link also has sky textures as well but they are the FS9 version. The clouds and be used in either P3D, FSX, or FS9.

Did a quick test with the HDEv2 textures since I already had them on my disk. For this test I used the cirrus clouds that come with HDEv2, the 'Normal' cumulus set which means 512x512 32bit and I also used the HDEv2 sky textures.

 

 

Why not use the 512 DXT version and save even more resources? There's not much of a visible difference between the 512 32bit and 512 DXT versions imho.

[snglecoil 1,828]

I'm with Adam. I used REX TD4 before v2.5. Never reinstalled after the update and I have to say I actually prefer the defaults.

[WebMaximus 372]

I'm firm believer in HDEv2 as well and think the sky looks better than anything on the Payware front.

 

To save time for anyone who wants the sky or cloud textures you can download the already converted sky textures from this link.

 

http://simviation.com/1/search?submit=1&keywords=hde+

 

When the link opens, the first download is for the FSX compatible sky textures and the second download below it is for the clouds. The second link also has sky textures as well but they are the FS9 version. The clouds and be used in either P3D, FSX, or FS9.

 

Why not use the 512 DXT version and save even more resources? There's not much of a visible difference between the 512 32bit and 512 DXT versions imho.

Good to know they are available but I already had them on my disk and the conversation took me some 20 mins so no big deal.

 

As for 32bit vs DXT I'll give it a try but I honestly never saw any real difference in the past looking at the performance impact but I guess it will help you keep away from OOMs.

[Tomaz Drnovsek 440]

For me, REX4 is the best!

[DarkstarF16 72]

I've never used HDEv2 before. Previously, when I was using P3D v2.0 I used AS2012 which injected the cloud type dependant on the weather and I was happy with the results.

 

I was not able to use P3D until the current version and the clouds have not worked for me until today when I installed the sky and cloud textures using HDEv2

 

I've tried Soft clouds and for me they are soft, too soft, and leave me with that 'somethong is not right' feeling. I was a little apprehensive to install the sky textures from HDEv2 as once upon a time I used REX sky textures which are dramatic. They do instill a certain artists impression of the time of day which at a glance has a certain wow factor but it's too vivid and looks nothing like the real world to me. I liken it to a photoshopped image you see on a magazine cover, you glance at it and go wow but for long term realistic flying I prefer something that has the feeling of the real world.

 

This topic is about popcorn clouds and the clouds in P3D v2.5 look like clouds but... They look like they belong in one of those snow domes. They give the impression of clouds but put them in a big sky and suddenly something's not quite right.

 

For me, HDEv2 has made all the difference, I now have a Sky filled with clouds. Coupled with the shader mod (I'm using width, height 0.64) I'm in cloud heaven. We have thunderstorms forecast here in the UK today so I went searching and found some around EGCC HDE has made then forboding. Thank you to everyone that's brought HDE to the forums attention. It's working for me in 2.5