My System Specs : i7-7700K / 16GB 3200 RAM / GTX 1080

I am able to maintain “smooth" flight with most sliders to the right except all traffic disabled / Special effects on medium \ No HDR / No Speedtrees / 8MSAA.

I only have ORBX (Global / Vector / OpenC NA / HD Trees) s addons.

 

So…

I want to buy ASP4, but I am just looking for a variety of cloud patterns other than the presets in P3D. I am not that big on weather and would just like a similar cloud look (or density), but just representing real weather. I read where 3 cloud layers in ASP4 is a good compromise on performance (I can live with this if it gets me close to the cloud density that I currently have with default clouds.

I can also live with the default clouds, but I hear that ASCA really integrates well with ASP4.

So my options are 1) ASP4 with Default clouds or 2) ASP4 with ASCA.

Can anyone give me a sense of the performance over default clouds that the 2 options above with have given that I mostly fly with the current presets (all of them) in P3D? Is there a big performance impact / pretty much the same / or better performance than default?

Also, I see that there are tons of options in ASP4, I really just want to load the program, and just have it load real weather and fly, i am really not that savvy with weather options, I am assuming that I can bypass most of the options to just load and fly. Is this correct?

You ought to be just fine.  Just remember v4 generates a LOT MORE than v3, so sliders might have to be backed off a bit.  For ASCA run lower textures (512).  I have even run 256 without noticing any difference.  The combination, with live weather enabled, is getting very close to perfect.

Just one opinion, there are many.......

HTH- C

With your setup, performance will be great.  I have a much older CPU than you @ 4ghz but the same GPU and RAM.  Performance is great and an upgrade on cloud textures is definitely what you want.  If you have some spare cash, I'd recommend ENVTEX as well.  For me thy represent the most realistic looking clouds in a variety of scenarios.

I have ASP4/ASCA/Envtex and am quite happy with the performance in v4.

I am running 7 cloud layers but dialed down the cloud texture resolution in ASCA and set ENVTEX to "performance" instead of "quality" and it all runs very well.

Heavy overcast at Heathrow however may lead to not very good framerates.... but I don't care :-) It is always a tradeoff...

Thanks to all for the suggestions / comments.

2 hours ago, ErichB said:

With your setup, performance will be great.  I have a much older CPU than you @ 4ghz but the same GPU and RAM.  Performance is great and an upgrade on cloud textures is definitely what you want.  If you have some spare cash, I'd recommend ENVTEX as well.  For me thy represent the most realistic looking clouds in a variety of scenarios.

How does EnvTex run with ASP4/ASCA? Does it totally replace all ASCA clouds or just certain clouds. I see that some users run ASP4 and ASCA and Envtex all together. Would all 3 be necessary or does ASP4 with EnvTex suffice?

If you are fine with the default clouds then stick to them. ASCA+Envtex is an ok solution but ASCA clouds alone.. Not really. Personally I still like REX Clouds, but it is not compatible with what ASCA can provide unfortunately.

25 minutes ago, costamesa said:

If you are fine with the default clouds then stick to them. ASCA+Envtex is an ok solution but ASCA clouds alone.. Not really. Personally I still like REX Clouds, but it is not compatible with what ASCA can provide unfortunately.

You can use Rex soft clouds with ASCA, just have to untick cloud textures in asca and away you go everything else works fine.

Your best bet for seamless integration is ASP4/ASCA - they were designed to work together. For what you want, Envtex is overkill. I use it and love it but as you describe what you are looking for - not necessary. Get ASP4/ASCA - set the cloud layers to 3 to start , you can increase/decrease as necessary. Set ASCA for eithe Global or Dynamic. Set ASCA clouds at 512 - you can always change them.

Go fly.

Vic

I'm running I7-3770 non k , gtx 960 and run 6 cloud layers just fine. Using 512k textures for clouds. Don't really see a big difference from the larger textured clouds, I can use the needed frames in other areas

.

On 7/31/2017 at 4:34 PM, vgbaron said:

Your best bet for seamless integration is ASP4/ASCA - they were designed to work together. For what you want, Envtex is overkill. I use it and love it but as you describe what you are looking for - not necessary. Get ASP4/ASCA - set the cloud layers to 3 to start , you can increase/decrease as necessary. Set ASCA for eithe Global or Dynamic. Set ASCA clouds at 512 - you can always change them.

Go fly.

Vic

HI, Dont mean to hijack this thread but could you plse assist. I have ASCA/ASP4 installed and I'm not sure if ASP4 is auto loading the appropriate ASCA textures for the given weather conditions. In ASCA the UI wont allow me so activate either the Global or Dynamic themes (get message that I need AS16 installed). So does that mean ASCA/ASP4 are nor intergrated for me.

Thanks Brian (confused !)

Make sure you have the latest versions of both. Reinstall both. See if that helps. I am assuming that both ASP4 and ASCA are on the same system.

Vic

It might be because you did install AS16 and not ASP4.

3 hours ago, SpaceMonkey said:

the UI wont allow me so activate either the Global or Dynamic themes (get message that I need AS16 installed). So does that mean ASCA/ASP4 are nor intergrated for me.

Start up AS16 (P3D does not need to be running).  Open up ASCA and go to the Global theme and select it.  Run P3DV4 and it will load.  It's just that ASCA has to "see" AS16 running.  It worked for me.

Best regards,

Jim