So, about these new sims... (FSW, P3Dv4)

[Gabriel Teles 172]

The children of the FS series, so-to-speak.

Just for the sake of curiosity: how's the sky rendered in these new sims?

I mean, they are all going 64 bits... we'll see 4k textures in everything, I guess. I'll be a bit disappointed if the sky textures continue to be those 32x32px bitmaps... and it's the sky! The most important "environment" in a flight simulator.

So... did they change this or I'll continue to struggle with those tiny textures?

 

Regards,

[fs4fun 366]

Rumor is that FSW is integrating some flavor of Simul's trueSky/weather tech.

Here's an old article about Simul weather (probably quite out of date):

https://web.archive.org/web/20130425063236/http://www.modsim.org/Articles/Simul/index.htm

[Gabriel Teles 172]

4 hours ago, fshobby said:

Rumor is that FSW is integrating some flavor of Simul's trueSky/weather tech.

Here's an old article about Simul weather (probably quite out of date):

https://web.archive.org/web/20130425063236/http://www.modsim.org/Articles/Simul/index.htm

Seems awesome. Hope they follow this path.

I saw some P3Dv4 screenshots and people were using sky sets they already had... which probably means that (unfortunately, in my opinion) things haven't changed in this regard on v4.

It's crazy. Without VAS limit, we'll have a 4k texture for the interior of a terminal building which folks will rarely see, while using such a small texture for the sky.

[sultanofswing 57]

59 minutes ago, Gabriel Teles said:

Seems awesome. Hope they follow this path.

I saw some P3Dv4 screenshots and people were using sky sets they already had... which probably means that (unfortunately, in my opinion) things haven't changed in this regard on v4.

It's crazy. Without VAS limit, we'll have a 4k texture for the interior of a terminal building which folks will rarely see, while using such a small texture for the sky.

V4 was just released, give it time.

[Gabriel Teles 172]

20 minutes ago, sultanofswing said:

V4 was just released, give it time.

In this case, the compatibility is concerning.

The sky textures aren't "normal" textures, in the sense that they govern other aspects of the visuals beyond displaying the image they contain, so-to-speak. I'm talking about environment lighting and shadows, lighting and shadow coloring etc.

In order to do this, they have to follow a certain structure (i. e. 32x32px, being the first line of pixels the one that will give the textures those special attributes...).

If P3Dv4 is using such textures without any issues, I guess this structure remains. I hope I'm wrong -- I really wish sky developers could work more freely (just being able to use a bigger file size would improve things a lot), but...

[Fi5kuS 57]

Agreed. I would much rather have 4K sky textures than ultra-resolution interior textures which I seldom see.

[sightseer 895]

Gabriel - It's actually worse in both P3D ( I have to assume about v4 because I don't have it but do have v3) and in FSW.

Whereas in FSX you can change the sky texture and lighting pixels and they have the effects they have, those same lighting pixels don't have the same effects on the same things in the same ways.  You can change the texture in P3D but you'll be fighting their HDR and in FSW the sky texture seems hard coded to some extent.  You can change the direct lighting and it will influence the tint of the sky (more so in the original release but less now it seems) but changes to the sky texture don't seem to have much effect.  I think the sky color is in the shaders and its not right - too purple.

It would be easy for these companies to totally revamp the sky texture system AND keep complete backwards compatibility just by having the system look for a key of some kind (like if the first five pixels are all white then expect the new format but if not then the old format would exist).  It wouldn't be hard.

 

But Im really hoping that FSW gets the TrueSky thing and I hope its done well because skyscapes/cloudscapes have been severely dumbed down over the years.

[kiwi_biplane 635]

 

The textures in P3D v4 remained the same size: 32x32x32, but the lighting and perception of textures created for previous versions of FSX and P3D have changed. New cloud lighting creates a completely wrong contrast with the sky in the morning and in the evening, so the textures of the environment need to be corrected or created new ones. The general impression of the landscape can be improved with the help of PTA, but completely getting rid of the children's diseases of the simulator without new textures is a difficult task. I made such an attempt. The simulator looks much better, but the miracle did not happen. Moreover, the need to lighten the horizon increases the unpleasant effect of the "arc" at the brightness boundary when climbing to a higher altitude. You can try the sky textures for P3D4, complete with a preset for the new version of PTA. (Set "ADAPTIVE v4"). If a pop-up window with an invitation to register appears, close it and continue downloading.

Regards

Спойлер

P3D v4 with clouds by default

 

Set «ADAPTIVE v4» and   my clouds

 

 

[reecemj 145]

4 hours ago, kiwi_biplane said:

 

The textures in P3D v4 remained the same size: 32x32x32, but the lighting and perception of textures created for previous versions of FSX and P3D have changed. New cloud lighting creates a completely wrong contrast with the sky in the morning and in the evening, so the textures of the environment need to be corrected or created new ones. The general impression of the landscape can be improved with the help of PTA, but completely getting rid of the children's diseases of the simulator without new textures is a difficult task. I made such an attempt. The simulator looks much better, but the miracle did not happen. Moreover, the need to lighten the horizon increases the unpleasant effect of the "arc" at the brightness boundary when climbing to a higher altitude. You can try the sky textures for P3D4, complete with a preset for the new version of PTA. (Set "ADAPTIVE v4"). If a pop-up window with an invitation to register appears, close it and continue downloading.

Regards

  Reveal hidden contents

P3D v4 with clouds by default

 

Set «ADAPTIVE v4» and   my clouds

 

 

Thanks Mamedov I like this one. Glad you are working with v4 now.