SkyMaxx Pro v4 coming tomorrow

[Glenn_C 135]

Some screenshots from me. 

 

I had v3 already so paid the $20 bucks upgrade.

 

There are a few things that can be improved like the way the clouds near the ground just form a straight line which you can see in the first screenshot. I fly predominantly between 0 and 23k feet so for me it is fine and I am reasonably happy with it. Could it be better? Yes of course it could but it is what it is in X-Plane at the moment regarding weather and clouds so I'm not gonna dwell on it and just try and make it as best and cheaply as I can without the dreaded default clouds

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tonywob 4,769]

Apparently neither SMP4 or X-Enviro will do the job as ASN does with HDEv2 clouds. XP11 is a clear weather sim right now and that does get kinda boring after a while.

 

I'll agree here, there sadly seems to be something lacking in XP with weather depiction, and I blame the sim here and not the third-party developers that do what they can given the limitations that they have. I haven't tried xEnviro yet (and probably won't until it comes down in price), but judging from the screenshots both are some way off looking like the weather depiction in P3D/FSX (I had REX HD at the time). At least with what I have now with SMPv4 an XP11, I can have some nice looking clouds around as I fly around in a Cessna 172.

 

Looking at the bright-side though, we now have two good weather products and they will start competing to better each other. That can only be a good thing. 

[Guest Mik75]

Hmmm, the screenshots don't show too much difference to v3!?

Sorry, but concerning xEnviro I have to disagree, guys.

The weather depicted by this plugin looks and "feels" (interaction of the simulated aircraft with the simulated environment) extremely realistic. Different to what ASN and ASCA do in ESP sims, but definitely just as good at least!

Overcast, building storm fronts, flying through clouds, into them and out of them again, the distance of depicted weather, the sky colours, the rain, the snow, that is all extremely good! Not sure about the most recent version though. But anyways, this thread is about SMP, so back to topic! ;-)

[jcomm 5,925]

Nah... weather still doesn't convince me in X-Plane... Maybe along the 11 cycle something rally positive can happen in this particular area...

[fkane 6]

Just to speak to the issue with jet exhaust in XP11 being overdrawn by SMP's clouds - we filed an issue with Laminar on this while testing SMP4. The way XP11 draws transparent things has changed and may change further during the XP11 beta cycle.  Remember XP11 itself is in beta.

[Desaix 235]

Waiting for some more videos, but the few showed so far makes me think to start saving for X-Enviro. Not in a rush since I don't fly XP11 yet and SMP3 looks enough in XP10 to give a decent GA experience, but for liners I think it's a surpassed product even if you can boost cloud range to maximum which I doubt without heavy impact on FPS.

 

Anyway two months ahead to decide, not a big deal to loose the upgrade offer and see what SMP5 will bring to the dish in 2018, maybe with a revides weather system by LR

[xXNightEagleXx 30]

Since SMP devs blame XP11, I would suggest to people to start posting XP 10 shots, at least they will not have any sort of excuse anymore, fair or not. At the moment all my fears about SMP has been confirmed and although i wish them all the best i don't see me diving into version 4. There is no overcast (seeing the storm far away) and just too much copy and paste sensation.

 

Judging all the images i've seen, I don't see a real reason to drop RWC+SMP3+Ventura Sky and below 20K for SMP 4, unless you want at all cost to play SMP with XP11. For me a +1 version means a whole new level and not just improvements, it feels like a 3.5 version rather than a 4.0.  I mean if this is what they offers, i feel better to jump on a totally new direction like xEnviro (although i guess it needs to maturate a lot more). 

 

Again i hope it is a matter of XP11 compatibility but i will not hold my breath.

[Novation 534]

Sadly this looks awful based on the screenshots. It lacks any sense of genuine atmospherics or realism, with the same textures repeating all over the place, and those textures don't even look good I'm sorry to say.

 

About the best thing you can say is it does look better than default, but that is not difficult.

 

XP = clear weather flying, unless the competition drops its price. For flights with interesting weather, which is most of them, I'll use P3D.

[xXNightEagleXx 30]

Another one last point about SMP, I would say that i would feel safer to buy the product if only they add a public roadmap. Why? Because with that you know:

1 - What they are aiming for and what are they goals.

2 - What they recognize/admit to be a bug and what not.

3 - What they accept as "ok we followed our path, but it hasn't been praised by the customers/community so we will actually try to go to another direction".

 

Without that you are left apart with the "We follow our own vision", which as programmer i can interpret that in infinite negative way (eg. we don't want to dive into another direction because -  it is too hard/too much work/no guarantee of success/bigger investment - so we stick to the old one and label it with a huge WE FOLLOW VISION).

[CFIJose 5,485]

My eye test (at the moment) sees SMP v3. Nothing that resembles what the community has been clamoring for X-Plane.

 

I know that it's unfair to compare SMP to AS16/ASCA, but that's what I'm looking for in a weather add-on. So far it looks like xEnviro is the only add-on that delivers similar results.

 

Maybe future updates could change SMP v4, but right now, I'll pass on this upgrade.

[Sethos 4,335]

I was really excited about this one, see what kind of improvements they brought to the table. Unfortunately, I hit a series of issues that I reported on their forum. Worst one being the fact that it doesn't render fully to the horizon. It seems you can see further than SMP actually renders, due to a disparity in how X-Plane handles visibility as I understand. So you still have that circle effect when high above the clouds; https://gfycat.com/DismalLividDeinonychus

[Swe_Richard 1,172]

I was really excited about this one, see what kind of improvements they brought to the table. Unfortunately, I hit a series of issues that I reported on their forum. Worst one being the fact that it doesn't render fully to the horizon. It seems you can see further than SMP actually renders, due to a disparity in how X-Plane handles visibility as I understand. So you still have that circle effect when high above the clouds; https://gfycat.com/DismalLividDeinonychus

 

A real bummer... no buy from me then....

[hhbrbg 139]

refuse to acknowledge or even to try Active Sky Next/ Active Sky 2016 on the P3D platform.

 

 

Hi Allen,

 

of course, they will never admit it. But I'm sure SD Software watches their competitors very closely. I think most weather related posts at avsim are also watched by them.

 

Not meant for a specific developer:

Developer (hopefully) know the strengths and the weaknesses of their products. At one point a programmer has begun writing very complex software. It's a big investment (in code) for a small company and they cannot afford to change the horses while in race. Hopefully the developer has written manageable code and as foundation a flexible engine.

 

Tom

[Mochi 82]

Grabs popcorn... This is thread is gonna get gud guys....  :excl:

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Ok, well... so if I want to enjoy nice weather I will have to use P3D, it seems. Apparently neither SMP4 or X-Enviro will do the job as ASN does with HDEv2 clouds. XP11 is a clear weather sim right now and that does get kinda boring after a while. And I don't dare yet to buy any addons for XP: I want to be totally sure it is worth it. Bummer, because I really hate to go back to the late loading scenery of P3D... I just can't, really. Shoot...

Yep. I just updated to SMP 4 and it's okay for $20 US, but no big improvement over version 3. And $70 US is still way too much to pay for an addon (X-Envrio) that is even more of a work in progress than XP11 is.