Can cloud texture transparency be controlled?

[sightseer 895]

The overall transparency of my cloud textures changes with different weather. Sometimes they are full and thick and look great but other times they are weak and transparent and take on the colors of the background sky and you can also see through them to the clouds behind them.

 

This has always been an issue in flightsim but since it occurs in some weather and not others, I am wondering if it might be possible to NEVER have transparent clouds? because they don't look good and I don't see any point in them. Cloud transparency is part of the cloud texture itself and a big towering thunderhead that you can see through just doesn't look right.

[Opus Software 84]

Cloud textures and rendering is purely an 'in sim' function and has nothing to do with the weather engine or weather injection. Have you tried installing other cloud textures such as REX.

 

Stephen :-)

[sightseer 895]

 

Have you never seen transparent clouds?

 

REX is actually the worst in this regard due to their tendency to make textures with transparent middles. Did they fix this?

 

All cloud texture sets do it from what I can tell but with some weather conditions the clouds are more transparent than with other conditions. The size of the individual cloud textures are also varied quite a bit by weather.

 

I'm talking about P3D by the way.

[Opus Software 84]

This is all sim stuff and nothing to do with the Live Weather Engine which simply injects accurate live weather. Weather engines do not select or render cloud textures. Best find some non transparent cloud texture bitmaps. I've always used FEX Soft and Naturals for FSX and the standard P3D clouds and haven't noticed any problems. Even so it's nothing I can influence without fudging the weather. Of course with OpusFSI you can relocate weather or import your own weather if that's what you want to do. If the REX textures aren't to your liking can't you select a different set of just use the P3D standard set. Not really an OpusFSI issue.

 

Stephen :-)

[sightseer 895]

 

I was just asking a question Stephen. I had hoped you might know of some way to do what I was asking.

 

One thing I have noticed is that lower resolution cloud sets don't suffer from the cloud resizing issue as much and the transparency issue seems less.

 

I still love OPUS's cloud layouts. Ill just live with transparency. Like I said, its always been there.

[Opus Software 84]

Hi Dave,

 

I've always installed the lower res sets so that's perhaps why I haven't noticed the problem too much in the past. I know the sim has always assume far too much transparency when looking down through any cloud texture. Hence, ground lights are visible even though cloud should mask them.

 

Let me know if you find a non-transparent set. If there was a simple mod the weather engine could do that wouldn't alter the weather I would look into doing it. There are other factors though that are also needed to prevent the sim producing silly looking cloud formations.

 

Have you tried some alternate REX textures? Not sure if there are some free textures that can be installed into P3D. This might be one of those long standing issues that has never been corrected in the sim code. Only hope is LM now.

 

Stephen :-)

 

I suppose you've tried the Cloud Coverage Density setting in P3D.

 

http://www.prepar3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6862

 

Stephen

[sightseer 895]

 

Stephen - I have a hunch that this may be a part of some of the cloud model files - the .cld files.

 

I know how to make my own textures but Im not rich enough to afford the software required to create my own models and I probably couldn't learn it anyway. It took me years to figure out that anyone with a camera, editing software, and the SDK could make their own textures. But its still the .cld files that assemble those textures into the actual clouds and I suspect that the default files may have been intentionally written with different transparencies. I don't really know though but I think it makes sense.

 

I appreciate your response here. If I can gather enough brainpower I may try to determine if my .cld file theory is correct but for now I have to drop it.

 

Thanks again.

[Opus Software 84]

You're welcome Dave and good luck with your quest.

 

Stephen :-)