What clouds are you using in P3Dv2.5

[Jim Robinson 122]

I resized the cumulus01.bmp to 512px but I'm using GetScreenQuadPositions( quad, width*0.68, height*0.68 ). They're two different things though. FPS doesn't seem to be affected (vs default *0.5) unless the cloud cover is very heavy and then I start to run into the frame slow-down problem we all discussed in the "Clouds kill FPS in v2.3" thread last summer where LM eventually discovered the math error and suggested we all go to GetScreenQuadPositions( quad, width*0.5, height*0.5 ). Remember how that was where everything seemed fine up until you hit a certain cloud density and then the FPS fell on it's face? *0.68 still does that in severe cases but not as bad as the original *1.0. I should also note that I'm still using v2.4 so I don't know how this all changes at v2.5 if at all.

 

I don't usually monitor VAS because I usually fly fairly simple GA aircraft and the freeware FTX KAPA is about the most complex airport I fly in and out of. I've never seen an OOM in P3D2 except at v2.1 when everyone was getting them left & right. The default cumulus01.bmp is 256px so I'm sure my 512px variant costs a little additional VAS but it hasn't caused me any problems.

[robert young 2,897]

What the HDE V2 clouds seem to do is handle cloud "streets" so much better than the P3d or FSX defaults which tend to be far too uniform and end up as individual lumps or blobs with a distinct grey line underneath. For a freeware product I think they are remarkable. If used with Steve's DX10 fixer in either version of FSX they can be prevented from being anti aliased which means you can run them at full res and dense coverage with virtually no fps hit at all. But for me P3d also runs them almost without a hit. It is P3d's poor implementation of shadows and more than 2x SGSS and 2x MSAA that kills fps. especially if you also have internal shadowing switched on.

[molleh 451]

+1 for HDE v2! I have tried so many cloud sets and this is still the one I come back to every time.

 

[WebMaximus 372]

If used with Steve's DX10 fixer in either version of FSX they can be prevented from being anti aliased which means you can run them at full res and dense coverage with virtually no fps hit at all.

 

I wonder if there's any way to accomplish this in P3Dv2.5 and DX11? I'm overall very happy with both the IQ and the performance but I do get some performance drops and stuttering entering dense clouds. This is with 4xSGSS which I prefer to stay with to have good IQ.

 

Then I noticed another thing with the HDEv2 clouds, the cirrus clouds are rather big. So I figured I should try to downsize them a bit but I'm not sure how to accomplish that?

 

Usually I'm using a combination of Aces Image Tool and Paint.NET to work with textures but when I open one of the HDEv2 cirrus cloud textures in Paint.NET to resize it Aces Image Tool will report format to be 8-bit rather than 32-bit and also Alpha reports 'None' rather than 'Alpha' after the texture has been downsized.

[Fi5kuS 57]

Can you use HDE with REX Soft Clouds?

[WebMaximus 372]

Regarding downsizing the cirrus clouds I found the answer to my own question, using XNView will keep both the format and the Alpha-channel just fine :wink:

[virtualstuff 758]

I wonder if there's any way to accomplish this in P3Dv2.5 and DX11? I'm overall very happy with both the IQ and the performance but I do get some performance drops and stuttering entering dense clouds. This is with 4xSGSS which I prefer to stay with to have good IQ.

 

Then I noticed another thing with the HDEv2 clouds, the cirrus clouds are rather big. So I figured I should try to downsize them a bit but I'm not sure how to accomplish that?

 

Usually I'm using a combination of Aces Image Tool and Paint.NET to work with textures but when I open one of the HDEv2 cirrus cloud textures in Paint.NET to resize it Aces Image Tool will report format to be 8-bit rather than 32-bit and also Alpha reports 'None' rather than 'Alpha' after the texture has been downsized.

 

In DX10 only MSAA is exclude from clouds not SS ;-) same as P3D...

[WebMaximus 372]

In DX10 only MSAA is exclude from clouds not SS ;-) same as P3D...

 

Ah, OK - got it. Anyway looks like I managed to improve things a bit after my downsizing of the HDEv2 textures. Didn't experience the same amount of stutters now on my return leg back to ESSA which feels great!

[virtualstuff 758]

Ah, OK - got it. Anyway looks like I managed to improve things a bit after my downsizing of the HDEv2 textures. Didn't experience the same amount of stutters now on my return leg back to ESSA which feels great!

 

Which scenery do you use for ESSA? Used the the Aerosoft one in FSX but never was impressed with that one...

[WebMaximus 372]

Which scenery do you use for ESSA? Used the the Aerosoft one in FSX but never was impressed with that one...

Yep, using the Aerosoft scenery since that is the only one available AFAIK and I don't want to use the default one ESSA being my home airport.

 

I keep my fingers crossed Aerosoft will make a new scenery one day or some other developer for that matter.

[DarkstarF16 72]

I do hope you sort out your stutters Max and just for information I don't use any SGSS and no stutters in heavy cloud with the HDEv2 clouds. Not much help to you I know.

 

Today I did however carry out the HDR tweaks that Rob and others posted in another thread just to experiment. I'm using the HDEv2 clouds and have cloud shadows turned on. As I was sitting at the apron (ASN running) suddelny the world went dark then light and this happened a few times. It's the first time I noticed it and thought at first I had a problem then realised that it was the clouds passing overhead. I'm guessing that the HDR tweaks made it more noticable. It's certainly improved the overall brightness of the scene but although the clouds passing overhead was cool the shadows in the cockpit weren't as bright or should I say the difference between the light and shadow was not as distinct. More tweaking needed me thinks. Perhaps others have already seen this but for me it was a first so made me smile.

[robert young 2,897]

On a slightly related topic, I am finding that P3d (with the Nvidia driver I am using) cannot handle both MSAA and SGSS at the same time, unless I run both at 2x rather than 4x, especially when using internal shadowing. In FSX with either DX9 or DX10 I can use 4x MSAA and 4x SGSS with very little frame rate hit. Why would this be?

 

Is it that P3d has not yet optimised these anti aliasing options? Making matters worse still, P3d will not eliminate shimmering unless you use Sparse Grid Supersampling. You cannot use the other options available in FSX like SSAA or a whole list of other alternatives.

 

While you can use FXAA with no performance hit in P3d it is not a pre-processing option - it merely imposes a post processing blurr on existing shimmers.

 

I hope LM can sort out the poor performance with Sparse Grid combined with MSAA. Without them most VCs are awash with shimmers. With them (plus internal shadows) I think this is the reason some are reporting poor performance. If you are getting poor frame rates, try reducing to 2x on both counts. You'll get some shimmering but your performance should increase quite a lot.

[spearmint_flyer 579]

On a slightly related topic, I am finding that P3d (with the Nvidia driver I am using) cannot handle both MSAA and SGSS at the same time, unless I run both at 2x rather than 4x, especially when using internal shadowing. In FSX with either DX9 or DX10 I can use 4x MSAA and 4x SGSS with very little frame rate hit. Why would this be?

 

Is it that P3d has not yet optimised these anti aliasing options? Making matters worse still, P3d will not eliminate shimmering unless you use Sparse Grid Supersampling. You cannot use the other options available in FSX like SSAA or a whole list of other alternatives.

 

While you can use FXAA with no performance hit in P3d it is not a pre-processing option - it merely imposes a post processing blurr on existing shimmers.

 

I hope LM can sort out the poor performance with Sparse Grid combined with MSAA. Without them most VCs are awash with shimmers. With them (plus internal shadows) I think this is the reason some are reporting poor performance. If you are getting poor frame rates, try reducing to 2x on both counts. You'll get some shimmering but your performance should increase quite a lot.

I know what you mean. I had a slideshow the other day in overcast until I disabled SGAA, Instead I use DSR 4.0 and MSAA 2X

 

No stutters and smooth. 

[WebMaximus 372]

I've been a big fan of SGSS for a long time in FSX looking at the great IQ it will give you but now in P3D2.5 I guess I have no choice but to find an alternative because the stutters when entering dense clouds or even worse overcast conditions simply isn't acceptable.

 

Will try to play around with DSR and MSAA and see what I end up with.

[WebMaximus 372]

Waking up and old thread here to say I replaced the HDEv2 freeware clouds with the REX Soft Clouds package and the result is very good and in my case an improvement over the HDEv2 clouds.

 

Reason was I had some performance issues after replacing my 1080 screen with a 4K screen and in very dense weather I noticed a performance drop and some stuttering every now and then. So...looking at the very reasonable price for the REX Soft Clouds package I thought why not give it a try and I'm happy I did because the visuals are just as good as the HDEv2 clouds if not better and the performance issues I had seems to be gone.

 

So...for anyone else hanging on to the HDEv2 clouds and with performance issues I can highly recommend the REX Soft Clouds package.