No cloud shadows visible

[Chock 17,769]

Got the DX10 Fixer and the Cloud Shadows add-ons, but not seeing any cloud shadows. This is with FSX-SE.

 

I'm pretty sure I've got the settings correct for it to be displaying them, i.e. water is up on a high setting etc. It was working ok at one point, but it just doesn't want to know now for some reason. Anyone know if there is something I can try in order to get it working?

[SteveFx 258]

Hello

 

I have created (just) a locked and pinned FAQ for cloud shadows not working - can you check through it

[Chock 17,769]

Will do, thanks.

[Chock 17,769]

Checked all that stuff, it's all okay, so added the line of text to this bit of the D10 config file:

 

[DX10Addon1]
DebugCloudShadows=1
CloudShadows=1
SuperShadowMap=0
EnhancedVC=1
ShadowHeight=1
WaterWindDir=1

 

Flew toward Brighton at 3,000 feet in the default Cessna 172, passed over it a few times, tried a few different weather settings to see if that made any difference, got something with clouds which should probably show shadows, but didn't see any. Here's a screenshot:

 

[SteveFx 258]

Actually I forgot to tell you to rebuild the shaders after adding that line, sorry.

 

See updated FAQ - to save me typing twice.

[Chock 17,769]

Got this, note that there is a green line off in the distant right, the red stays with the water areas when I pan the view. I presume this means something to you other than it's obviously a test to see how FSX-SE is displaying something in RGB in relation to the scenery, since it drops out when it passes over the autogen and the clouds (which if it helps, is Revolution X autogen over Just Flight's VFR photoscenery of the UK and default FSX weather, although I normally use some REX textures with Active Sky Next doing the weather generation):

 

[SteveFx 258]

The red water on the LHS means that the altitude that is being used by the shaders is 0 (hence no shadows) which suggests an issue with the SimC library, dll.xml or SimConnect - and doesn't suggest any issue with the install or with an incompatible addon like Reshade 3 - it would be blue in that case.

 

Do you just have FSX:SE installed? Has the DVD version ever been installed?

 

Can you send me the dll.xml from appdata roaming fsx or fsx-se as appropriate.

 

The latest fixer uses the coexist registry value to determine the directory so if it exists and is zero then it uses fsx else its fsx-se

[Chock 17,769]

Yes, I did have the boxed version installed (no longer, only use FSX-SE now), but there is still an FSX folder for it located in C:\Users\Al\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft as well as the FSX-SE one, it has six files in it which appear to be configs, they are DLL, an EXE and SCENERY. I have on occasion had to get fancy with there being two such folders for the occasional install of some stuff, notably the JF VFR scenery if I recall correctly:

 

Here is the FSX-SE dll.xml files contents:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="Launch" version="1,0">
  <Descr>Launch</Descr>
  <Filename>dll.xml</Filename>
  <Disabled>False</Disabled>
  <Launch.ManualLoad>False</Launch.ManualLoad>
  <Launch.Addon>
    <Name>FSUIPC 4</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Path>Modules\FSUIPC4.dll</Path>
  </Launch.Addon>
  <Launch.Addon>
    <Name>as_connect</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Path>DLC\364340\as_srv\as_btstrp.dll</Path>
  </Launch.Addon>
</SimBase.Document>

 

Here is the dll.xml file's contents from the old FSX boxed install, which is quite evidently longer, so I suspect you might be onto something, as this one should effectively be 'redundant' as far as cranking up FSX-SE is concerned:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="Launch" version="1,0">
    <Descr>Launch</Descr>
    <Filename>dll.xml</Filename>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Launch.ManualLoad>False</Launch.ManualLoad>
    <Launch.Addon>
        <Name>Instant Object Studio</Name>
        <Disabled>False</Disabled>
        <ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
        <Path>C:\Flight One Software\Instant Object Studio\InstantObjectStudioFSX.dll</Path>
    </Launch.Addon>
    <Launch.Addon>
        <Name>iFly Menu</Name>
        <Disabled>False</Disabled>
        <ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
        <Path>Modules\iFly737NG.dll</Path>
    </Launch.Addon>
    <Launch.Addon>
        <Name>Captain Sim Sound</Name>
        <Disabled>False</Disabled>
        <ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
        <Path>Captain_Sim\bin\cs.sound.dll</Path>
    </Launch.Addon>
    <Launch.Addon>
        <Name>PMDG Interface</Name>
        <Disabled>False</Disabled>
        <Path>PMDG\DLLs\PMDG_Interface.dll</Path>
        <DllStartName>module_init</DllStartName>
        <DllStopName>module_deinit</DllStopName>
    </Launch.Addon>
    <Launch.Addon>
        <Name>RAASPRO</Name>
        <Disabled>False</Disabled>
        <Path>.\RAASPRO\RAASPRO.dll</Path>
        <DllStartName>module_init</DllStartName>
        <DllStopName>module_deinit</DllStopName>
    </Launch.Addon>
  <Launch.Addon>
    <Name>b21 vario sound control</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
    <Path>Modules\b21_vario\b21_vario.dll</Path>
    <DllStartName>module_init</DllStartName>
    <DllStopName>module_deinit</DllStopName>
  </Launch.Addon>
  <Launch.Addon>
        <Name>XMLTools</Name>
        <Disabled>False</Disabled>
        <ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
        <Path>XMLTools.dll</Path>
        <DllStartName>module_init</DllStartName>
        <DllStopName>module_deinit</DllStopName>
  </Launch.Addon>
  <Launch.Addon>
    <Name>Dbs ProfileRadar</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Path>Dbs\Dbs.ProfileRadar.dll</Path>
  </Launch.Addon>
  <Launch.Addon>
     <Name>Just Flight TCAS Module</Name>
     <Disabled>False</Disabled>
     <Path>TCAS2v7.dll</Path>
     <DllStartName>module_init</DllStartName>
     <DllStopName>module_deinit</DllStopName>
  </Launch.Addon>

</SimBase.Document>

[SteveFx 258]

Actually the Fixer Interface to SIM Connect isn't in either!

 

Try my new step 10 in the FAQ uninstall/reinstall libraries from controller and test. If that doesn't fix it post the 2 DLL.xmls again.

[Chock 17,769]

Thanks for taking the time to look into this. I appreciate your efforts. I will give that a try.

[Chock 17,769]

Yup, tht's sorted it. Thanks for your efforts in helping me with this.

 

 

For your reference, binning off the libraries and reinstalling them results in the dll now looking like this:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="Launch" version="1,0">
  <Descr>Launch</Descr>
  <Filename>dll.xml</Filename>
  <Disabled>False</Disabled>
  <Launch.ManualLoad>False</Launch.ManualLoad>
  <Launch.Addon>
    <Name>FSUIPC 4</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Path>Modules\FSUIPC4.dll</Path>
  </Launch.Addon>
  <Launch.Addon>
    <Name>as_connect</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Path>DLC\364340\as_srv\as_btstrp.dll</Path>
  </Launch.Addon>
<Launch.Addon>
    <Name>Dx10Fixer interface</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Path>C:\SteveFx\DX10 Scenery Fixer\Libraries\dx10SimC.dll</Path>
  </Launch.Addon>
</SimBase.Document>

[SteveFx 258]

Ok that's good, and the FAQ is now more helpful as well!

 

You should also try the metars feature - it didn't look to be turned on based on the colour coding.

 

I would think that you probably need to look into the other missing dlls (PMDG, CaptainSIM etc)

[Chock 17,769]

Yup, I know that the iFly 737 comes up with some not loaded message when it kicks in, and that's probably related to that dual folder malarkey, and as you say, there will be some others probably affected, so I'll give that a look.

 

Just glad to have my groovy cloud shadows back as they do make a major contribution to FS looking like it does when I really fly. Thanks again for your help, hope your stuff sells in droves, as it really is cool and deserves to, and as evidenced by this thread and others on this support forum, your commitment to product support is equally impressive.

[SteveFx 258]

So long as you first backup your active dll.xml you can copy sections from the old one using notepad

 

Each Addon section starts with <Launch.Addon> and ends with </Launch.Addon>

 

take a complete section and paste after an existing section ends and before the next one starts

 

so between a close </Launch.Addon> and a <Launch.Addon>