Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
SteveFx

DX10 Cloud Shadows - Known Issues

Recommended Posts

1. Clouds appear as lines low down on distant mountains and can be seen to extend across hanging valleys. Sorry but this is fundamental to the (simple but fast) approach that is used and I do not anticipate any improvement.

2) When flying in the vicinity of hills/mountains a hard edge can be seen moving as the shadow is revealed without fading.

This was fixed in 1.3

3) Autogen is not currently shaded by clouds and so stands out.

This is fixed in 1.4 .

4) In a few cases clouds do not appear at all. This is actually a fixer issue related to systems which have had fsx and fsxse and fsx is removed and fsx:se reinstalled.

This was addressed in the Fixer version 3.2 and 1.2 drop of Cloud Shadows.

5) Incompatible with Reshade V3.x - Note that it is now compatible with the latest build of FSL Spotlights.

6) dawn or dusk over water, shadows may move if you change altitude.

This was fixed in 1.3.

7) For a small number of users there is a CTD in dx10fixer.dll when exiting FSX.

This was fixed in 1.5

😎 The METARs feature does not apply to Autogen or Water.

This was fixed in 1.5

9) Ground Shadows ticked in FSX settings along with the Fixer Shadows option "Disable Volume Shadows" will cause a CTD on launching a flight (during the day at least).

This was fixed in 1.5.

10) In 1.5 I slowed the Metar requests to every 10 seconds. I think that the changes in shading are now consequently too slow - e.g It takes 100 sec to adjust the lighting when the cloud coverage goes from 4/8th to 5/8ths. Will be improved in 1.6 

Addressed in 1.6

11). Top down view shows the cloud shadows (as if painted on camera) from previous view. Workaround is to look up before switching to top down view.will be fixed in 1.6 (I hope)

Fixed in 1.6

12)  If in the water dialog the Sky reflection Slider is at 100% and Disable Distant Land is unticked  then the land and sea will appear blue when cloud shadows are enabled. 

Fixed in 1.7

13)   If cloud shadows is installed and active then if  fsx.cfg is deleted or simply the line SHADER_CACHE_PRIMED_10 removed then fsx will crash on startup.   
As a workaround for this disable cloud shadows in the Addons Menu, run fsx, then enable cloud shadows. 

Fixed in 1.7

14) The Cloud Shadows installer assumes that dll.xml will exist and fails if it does not.  If you install something else with a dll first it will act as a workaround.

Fixed in 1.8

15) If the addon  path used contains multi byte characters then cloud shadows may not work as the wrong path is added to dll.xml

Fixed in 1.9

16) when flying over  a desert and looking down the cloud shadows may cease to work as  fsx decides that no refelection pass is required.  Prior to 1.9 the shadows then become unstuck and move with the viewpoint, in 1.9 they are hidden in this circumstance. 

Fixed in 3.0

 

17) False floating shadows if the water slider in fsx settings is set to water 2.0 max.

I have a beta fix for this, send me a pm if this is an issue for you and I will let you try it.

Edited by SteveFx
new bug report
  • Upvote 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for your continued support of the FSX community, Steve! :cool:


Mark Robinson

Part-time Ferroequinologist

Author of FLIGHT: A near-future short story (ebook available on amazon)

I made the baby cry - A2A Simulations L-049 Constellation

Sky Simulations MD-11 V2.2 Pilot. The best "lite" MD-11 money can buy (well, it's not freeware!)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

"5) Incompatible with Reshade V3.x"

I did some experimentation with Reshade V3, and I found that it works very well with DX10 Fixer ,but obviously makes the cloud shadows disappear.

I wonder if you're planning to make cloud shadows compatible with Reshade V3 ?

It will allow for personal adjustment of a graphical depiction.

Thank you for your hard work.

mike


Sim,PC, monitor,prescription glasses, chair.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Are there any reports of issues with snow covered ground?

Cloud shadows appears on open water/sea, but little or no shadows are visible on the snow covered ground (lower cloud layer at 3000 ft - flying at 3500 ft)

 

FSX/Acc/DX10 Scenery Fixer 3.28/DX Cloud Shadows V1.5/REX 4 TD/ORBX EU Norway/daytime flying-winter

 

All settings as required in manuals for Fixer and Shadows

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What location in Norway, what time and date?  

 

Experimenting with Northern Norway in winter there is so little daylight that the FSX derived  shadow factor is zero -  so I don't see shadows on the aircraft even.   Flying around Oslo I can see cloud shadows  but they are somewhat weak for the same reason - i.e they match the somewhat faint aircraft shadows.

 

So I suspect that the answer is that the somewhat flawed  FSX logic to determine shadow intensity based on sun height may be what you are experiencing?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for answer Steve, and for great addons made for us stuck with FSX.

 

I changded season to summer and afterwards to fall, and shadows appear clearly, both on ground and water. Changed back to winter and I can see shadows (a weak tint of) on snowy ground. Shadows appear clearly on water at all seasons.

I was flying in the south-western parts of Norway (Stavanger ENZV - Bergen ENBR), time was about 1 to 2 pm (daytime when the sun is at its highest) and date was January 17. During tests I used several cloud densities all from 2/8 and up to 6/8 (cumulus).

 

And yes, you may be right about FSX logic to determine shadow intensity based on sun heigh...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes if you look at the shadows cast on the aircraft you can see how weak they are. It's a shame but I don't think that I can improve it. On water I suspect that you are seeing the blocking out of specular light when you look towards the sun which goes via different logic, I think shadows looking away from the sun will be as weak on water.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I did a new test flight this evening. Date set to March 8 (daytime-same area). Now I got a lot of cloud shadows over the snow.  More ambient light and more distinct shadows. :smile:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
Sign in to follow this  

  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...