Ok, so with the new platform of DTG FS, I am thinking that maybe we could have a new approach to sky textures and lighting interpretation.

 

It has frustrated me for a while that there are no separate and distinct controls for cloud lighting.  I think there should be because sometimes the colors that would make the clouds look better are not the same ones to make the other scenery look good.  I think there should be pixels that can adjust the sky texture itself and nothing else and then there would be pixels that light the ground, airplane  and ground scenery objects and also set shadows for those objects and finally of course there would be pixels to set the cloud sun and shadows.  The current routine where one or two pixels effect everything and then the other pixels only do a little is annoying.  I am sure it could be better.

 

I also would love to see a higher resolution sky texture format instead of the 32x32 pixels.  this would allow for better and more realistic sunsets in my opinion.

 

Also it would good if the sky texture compression routine were altered.  Right now, at ground level (sea level 0 MSL), you see the bottom half of the sky texture and one row of pixels is used to color the 'ceiling' for lack of  a better word.  As you gain altitude, the 'ceiling' (top part of the sky?) gets replaced by the next row of pixels going up but the bottom part of the sky doesn't really compress in any way so the top part of the sky gets darker and it will meet a solid lighter portion of the lower sky.  Id prefer it to fade more evenly.

 

and it would also be great if HDR was adjustable so that at minimal settings the appearance would be much like a slightly brighter FSX (like P3D1.4) and then at the other end of the scale would be whatever effects and benefits people think HDR would impart.  personally I wish we could just have the sun bloom without all the sky hue shifting and overbrightening that occurs.

I'm right with you Dave. It would be nice to have a new approach to sky and cloud lighting and I too get frustrated by the simple way terrain colouring ties in with cloud lighting, via the sky textures. With care the current system can work reasonably well, but it often shows its limitations, especially in P3D where HDR can do some very odd things. I have a feeling this won't change in this release, or the full simulator, as it would no doubt involve a huge amount of work for something a relatively small number of us are concerned about.

 

It may seem shallow to some, but I care as much about the graphics as the flight models.

There's nothing shallow about caring about graphics.  Every iteration of flight sim has involved improving the realism by improving the appearance among other things.  I think most people care about graphics but some seem satisfied with where things are now.  Im not satisfied and that's mostly because LM has gone in the wrong direction in my opinion.  I have to assume that P3Dv3 looks the way it does and acts the way because the loudest voices were wanting what we now have.  It may be a technical limitation of DX11 but I certainly hope not.  If it is then why exactly would I want it?  Dx11 cant possibly have anything to do with working circuit breakers or flight models or anything aircraft systems related.  it has to be 'graphics'.  I just don't know - Im not a programmer.  The closest I ever came to programming was when I used to use C to write these clock programs that used sea scenes and I had these sailboats that would traverse the screen and their positions on screen would tell you what time it was (roughly).  If you didn't know it was a clock, you would just think it was a cartoon sea scene with sailboats.  But C++ came along and life happened and I got sidetracked.

 

 

I doubt there will be any major (or even minor )  changes in the sky texture/lighting interpretation but Id like to offer my view on things in the hopes that Ill get working sunsets again.

just like to add that its entirely possible to implement a new approach while maintaining 100% backwards compatibility.

 

All that's needed is a new system that recognizes the old 32x32 pixel texture plus a new larger size - perhaps 256 x256.  It would check for a key of some kind - like if the first  pixel on the top row is pure white then the system will look to the second row for the new updated lighting scheme that will hopefully be explained in the SDK.  just a thought.