AS16+ASCA+ENVTEX+PTA Ray. Couldn't get better than that. 

Cheers

hoang Le

Thanks to all who have given their opinion. It seems everyone chooses one of the two I listed so I have a 50-50 chance of having picked the right one.

2 hours ago, GSalden said:

If you blur a cloud you will get a soft cloud.

Or : take a cloud and use the lowest resolution. Better for framerates with clouds too..

Myself , I use ASCA clouds icw AS16

I was talking about  Rex soft clouds. Friend of mine got ASCA when it came out with AS 16 I didn't like the looks of it at all. 

I have had AS16 since it was released, but was hesitant to purchase ASCA since most of the screen shots that I had seen made the clouds look like oil paintings of clouds rather than actual clouds.  I purchased ASCA yesterday since it was on sale for the Easter holiday weekend.  I now wonder why I waited!  I flew four flights yesterday in full dynamic mode, with clouds set to 1024 texture size at 32-bit resolution, and not once did I experience the oil-painted look in the clouds.  I too am a fan of softer clouds and would have used 256 or 512 texture but did not see a setting at that resolution which was 32-bit.  I have never liked clouds displayed using DXT compression, since it has been my experience that it can cause the painted look I hate.  The clouds during all of the flights were soft in appearance and well-shaded.  I have to say that I am now a big fan of ASCA.  My next step will be to test with ENVTEX in full dynamic mode to see if I like that better.  One thing to consider is that with ASCA you also get new cloud models, which are significantly better than the default models.  The upcoming REX SkyForce 3D will also have new cloud models, but I got tired of waiting for it's release and could not pass up a sale on ASCA.

In my opinion, AS16/ASCA produces the best visualization of real weather conditions so far.

Cheers,

Gerald

 

24 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

I was talking about  Rex soft clouds. Friend of mine got ASCA when it came out with AS 16 I didn't like the looks of it at all. 

Just as a FYI Bob, there have been several updates to ASCA graphics since the original release and the consensus has been very good.

Vic

Soft Clouds is no muss, no fuss and does the job here.  BTW I only us Wx Themes to reduce load.

 

bs

Waiting upon rex skyforce 3d

 

So tempted to get ASCA thou.

 

 

 

 

7 minutes ago, mikeymike said:

Waiting upon rex skyforce 3d

 

So tempted to get ASCA thou.

 

 

 

 

+1.

Been waiting forever now for this. I keep refreshing their status update pages in the hope of some news. This product will easily surpass everything else on the market. I wish they would let out an early beta release!

I will say though, as a temporary solution, ASCA is worth the price!

hde v2 clouds, add mipmaps to them as some are unmipped, keep them 32 bit

I had AsNext and Rex Texture Direct/soft clouds and liked my sim look. Then after the Queen release I upgraded to As16 and Asca. Could not be happier. The best is I can set smaller resolutions clouds and still get full overcast coverage with little fps and vas hit.

11 hours ago, GolfMikeBravo said:

I have never liked clouds displayed using DXT compression, since it has been my experience that it can cause the painted look I hate.

I found this interesting because just like you I don't like clouds that look like an oil painting. At the same time I've always been using DXT compressed textures for clouds since that will result in a much smaller filesize which I thought would help you save on the precious VAS.

I never use textures bigger than 1024 and for clouds I stick to 512. Comparing DXT5 vs 32-bit the DXT5 clouds weights in at 342 kB where the equivalent 32-bit clouds weights in at 1366 kB meaning more than 4 times as big.

But maybe this won't have that much of an impact on your VAS and/or FPS after all?

Would also be interesting to know what will have the biggest impact on VAS/FPS - the resolution or the compression?

Guess I'll try and play around with this a bit.

15 hours ago, Novation said:

As a long time (and that is day one on most of their range) REX supporter, I now have to say I much prefer ASCA, with their revised structures and textures that match the stuff from REX and go several steps forward IMHO. You can use the ASCA structures with any other textures of course, but the ones supplied are as good as anything out there, with an amazing weather engine to boot. REX have dragged their feet too long in giving us their new, long promised, product (I would say FUD) so they have now lost me to Hi-Fi and others who seems to work hard to make great products without the BS. Skyforce, or whatever it was called will not be bought by me now.

There are some great freeware clouds (and sky's far exceeding REX) and other decent payware (ENVTEX for one) package to choose from as well.

I came to the same conclusion regarding REX's products several years ago, Novaition.  To that point, their products typically offer more hype then substance (e.g. latitude, SimAir (epitome of hype), OverDrive, etc...).  I can not fathom why simmers choose to wait for SkyForce at the expense of not procuring AS2016+ASCA+ENTEX.  After all, when has a REX wx engine surpassed HiFi products?  Like the vast number of REX products, I suspect SkyForce won't live up to their perpetual overzealous marketing strategies...   

Did some testing and below are the results and I found them quite interesting. Both how little the resolution as well as the compression seem to matter but also that I got the best result using the higher resolution and 32-bit textures even if by a very small margin.

All tests were performed using the exact same setup, weather, test procedure and so on. The NGX parked at F33L at Orbx ESSA with AS16 running providing real-time wx and using ENVTEX textures.

Started in the v/c looking straight ahead and panned around 360 degrees twice in both directions. I then used spot view, zoomed out max and performed the same 360 panning twice in both directions at approx a 45 degrees angle. Finally went back to v/c looking straight ahead and checked the VAS and FPS.

Here are the results:

Resolution    Compression    VAS left       FPS

512               DXT5                1389460      49-50
512               32-bit                1382696      50-51
1024             DXT5                1404316      50-51
1024             32-bit                1418952      51-52

Hiya Ray,

Good to see you've made the switch to P3D.  I'll go with most of the folks recommendations here and agree AS16 and ASCA seem to be the best.

I do find i'm spending more time in XP11 though.  The night flying experience blows P3D out of the water.

Just now, Dean_EGTC said:

Hiya Ray,

Good to see you've made the switch to P3D.  I'll go with most of the folks recommendations here and agree AS16 and ASCA seem to be the best.

I do find i'm spending more time in XP11 though.  The night flying experience blows P3D out of the water.

Sure does lack a great deal in daytime flying, however.