SMP 4.5 is now available for download!

[Paraffin 2,197]

A few screen shots. First, this is what I like about SMP 4.5 -- the way it makes flying through low-level weather look interesting and challenging, and also matches what I remember of real-world flying in bush planes and helicopters in Central and South America. 

Another shot closer to sunset, a nice "atmospheric" scene for heavy weather, but there are some weird squiggly artifacts in these clouds that need to be fixed:

Here is a blue sky day with a few clouds. This is with cloud draw radius set to 20,000 sq. km. At a low flight level like this (2,000 ft.), the cut-off doesn't look too bad because it tends to blend into the horizon haze. This is also showing that odd beige tint in the clouds, that I don't think should be there at noon.

The next image is the same exact setup as before, just raising the plane from 2,000 ft. to 30,000 ft. altitude (service ceiling for the PC-12 so I'm not cheating!). The clouds are now white, and the draw distance cut-off is more noticeable. I don't think I'm buying this sky color at this altitude. It's not deep blue enough, but again it may be just the color settings.

The next one shows how you can get an Overcast sky out to the horizon if you choose the "Solid Stratiform" option. It looks good, but there isn't an option like this for cumulus layers:

Notice that I'm getting very good frame rates with all of this, from mid 30's to an amazing 59 fps in that first shot with the clouds among mountains. SMP 4.5 is very easy on the frames until you start extending that draw distance. 

[michaelray 236]

This has been a informative series of posts. Thank you to those who answered my questions in a previous post.

Considering I do most of my flying at high altitude I think the lack of a visually to the edge of the horizon look for clouds is going to bother me. As advised I think I will wait and see what xEnviro 1.07 brings to the table. 

I wish LR would improve the core weather so Developers had something better to work with to reach a level closer to FSX/P3D.

Michael

[Guest]

Yep, thanks for the helpful posts. I'll wait for the X-enviro update as well because cloud draw distance and performance is very important to me. It seems SkyMaxx does look nice when flying low though.

[Pugilist2 879]

I was waiting for this update to see what xAviation could bring to the table with SkyMaxx Pro 4.5, but xEnviro still looks more realisitc to me.