overcast clouds in simple clouds settings, this is what i would like to achieve, but i can notis this normal in fs9?i have a few clouds, but a complete overcast as in fs 2002 is not possibleand 3d clouds demand way to much from my rigathlon xp 3000+1024 ramradeon 9600 pro 256thanks for any helpdc

True overcast isn't possible in FS9. I created one "fix" for the issue which is in the library here, but the "fix" causes another issue and is incompatible with real weather and third party add-ons. 3-d clouds, as long as you keep your cloud layers down and cloud draw distance down, should not tax your system if you use some of the cloud sets that are available on this site. I get performance as good as FS2002's 2-d clouds with the 3-d clouds in FS2004 by keeping the settings reasonable. Your rig should do much better than mine.-John

Hi John, I noticed in another thread that you are runnign a P3 800 corerect? well if so im just curious as to what yu have your cloud settings(exactly if possible lol) to get good performance and a close to overcast sky, also are you using a weather add-on such as active sky?Thanks

Good question. I manually set my weather to control the hit it has on my system. My only paid add-ons are aircraft add-ons.For cloud settings I use 100 pct. 3-d and have density maxed, and even my sight distance maxed. But I keep the draw distance to 30 miles and I normally allow myself one 3-d cloud layer of around 3/8ths coverage, and one deck of cirrus.I also use an add-on I wrote called "Soft Horizons" which gives (to my experience) a nice realistic haze to the surrounding terrain. Problem is as with most such add-ons, it overwrites similar add-ons by payware and freeware outfits. But for me, it was the one thing I did for FS2004 that made it finally exceed FS2002 in all respects. Do these settings recreate "real" flight? For me they do--all flight on the PC is simulated. Even Real Weather doesn't capture all the nuances of flying in the chop. I'll usually set my flight up with some random chop, variable winds, and whatever clouds I wish to set the mood. I can't ask for too much with a rig like mine, but as was true yesterday when I "flew" all day, I get hours of fun with my rig and FS2004 and that's all that really matters :)-John

Thanks for the quick replie, Your right, all that does matter is the fun factor, I have been playing around with cloud settings for a while trying to get the best performance while as you said having fun at the same time, anyways i have some tinkering to do with my sim lol.Thansk again and happy new yearGerry

hi john,thanks for your help and sorry for the deleay in answering, i am sick at homei have downloaded the latest catalist driver from ati 5.13 and i have now more coverage in 2d settings, but more strange, only a minor difference between 2d and 3d cloudsdue to the fact i recentely did a format c: i still had the original driver installes,it is much better nowthanksdcand my best whishes

Given that we have competing developers in the field of 3-d clouds, why has no-one thought to try to enhance the 2-d?:-hmmmAllcott