Really faint cloud shadows on ground in XP11

[FlyIce 354]

Cloud shadows on ground look pretty nice in P3D, but I can hardly see any cloud shadows on the ground in XP11. If I look really hard I may see some kind of really faint and flicking grays spots on the grounds, but nothing looks like shadows in P3D. 

Are you guys having the same experience too? Shadows of terrain, trees and buildings etc are kind of ok, though still not as as good as P3D I'd say.

This is the section in my lua file for settings on shadow (modified and collected from other peoples' shadow settings). The set( "sim/private/controls/clouds/cloud_shadow_lighten_ratio", 0.950000) is supposed to make cloud shadow darker but doesn't seem to do anything obvious. I'm new to XP11 and learning the lua and settings though.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
--                            SHADOWS                               --
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    -- reduce "the shake rattle and roll of the shadows"
    -- the max value is 4!
    set( "sim/private/controls/shadow/csm_split_exterior", 4)
    set( "sim/private/controls/shadow/csm_split_interior", 4)

    ------------------------------------------------------------------
    -- shadow_cam_size: Lower quality has jagged edges. 
    -- 2048 (low), 4096 (medium), 8192 (high)
    set( "sim/private/controls/fbo/shadow_cam_size", 8192)
    set( "sim/private/controls/clouds/shadow_size", 4096)

    ------------------------------------------------------------------
    -- min_res_for_shadow:          get rid of flashing cloud shadows?
    -- cloud_shadow_lighten_ratio:  bigger number = darker (default:0.5)
    set( "sim/private/controls/clouds/min_res_for_shadow", 1.5)
    set( "sim/private/controls/clouds/cloud_shadow_lighten_ratio", 0.950000)

    ------------------------------------------------------------------
    -- cockpit_near_adjust: shadow distance?
    -- cockpit_near_proxy: shadow distance?
    set( "sim/private/controls/shadow/cockpit_near_adjust", 3)
    set( "sim/private/controls/shadow/cockpit_near_proxy", 20)

    ------------------------------------------------------------------    
    -- far_limit:  shadow distance
    -- lambda_cockpit: Lower number extends shadow to the horizon  
    --                 up to a point, a whole number doesn't work. 
    set( "sim/private/controls/shadow/csm/far_limit", 50000.00)
    set( "sim/private/controls/shadow/csm/lambda_cockpit", 0.850000) 

    ------------------------------------------------------------------
    set("sim/private/controls/skyc/max_shadow_angle",-89)
    set("sim/private/controls/skyc/min_shadow_angle",-90)
    set("sim/private/controls/shadow/last_3d_pass", 2.0)

 

[sightseer 895]

increasing the visibility (manual weather) will get you more sun and shadow but whether you can do that with real weather or a weather addon I don't know.  I fly with manual weather most of the time. I have no familiarity with lua scripts so maybe someone else can help more.

[alexcolka 183]

I'm fine with the clouds shadows intensity, what I would like is to know how to kill clouds shadows flickering on ground.

[FlyIce 354]

To me is both the intensity (you can hardly tell there are shadows) and the flickering which is very distracting. 

P3D nailed cloud shadow pretty much on the first try, and even FSX can have decent cloud shadows with DX10 plugin (?). I assumed this thing is easy but apparently XP11 just couldn't get it right. 

[exodus1977 37]

I remember changing the cloud shadow setting and could get some darker shadows. I can test it out later. Do you need HDR lighting on?

[FlyIce 354]

I googled and it seems "set( "sim/private/controls/clouds/cloud_shadow_lighten_ratio", 0.950000)" is the one to make clouds darker, default value is 0.5 or 0.75. But I didn't see anything obvious. I have HDR on.

[Murmur 3,941]

Can you provide a screenshot? Have you checked how it looks at max visibility (100 miles)?

[avgaskoolaid 292]

Try this mod:

https://ultimaterealismpack.weebly.com/x-plane-11.html

[NismoRR 191]

I've been really disappointed as well with the flickering, barely visible cloud shadows. I thought something might have been wrong with my PC. Will definitely take a look at that Ultimate sim pack. Thanks for posting Ham. 

[sfreeby 0]

Hello - I'm interested in attempting the changes you suggest to get better cloud shadows.  I do not understand how to make the changes in the lua files.  I can not find a file called "Shadows" nor can I find the "lua and settings"  Please help this newbie - I just switched from Prepar 3D v.2.5 and am not looking back - I love X-Plane 11!  .  Thanks, Scott

[soaring_penguin 428]

Hi Scott,

I suggest you try this tweak from the org: https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/41987-environment/

It is a drop in and forget (I mean you just drop the contents of the zip file in the main X-Plane 11 folder, it puts everything in place, let it overwrite anything you have). It is my preferred.

The only thing you must do is install the latest flywithlua, if you haven't already: 

https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/38445-flywithlua-complete-edition-for-x-plane-11-windows-linux-mac-os-x-version/

[Susu986 76]

You can also try FsEnhancer. It's a complete package with Reshade, textures and scripts. Unfortunately he couldn't got rid of the flickering either, but at least clouds and colors are beautiful, and cloud shadows seems strong enough (maybe it can give you an idea).

[Mountain Man 142]

On 12/5/2017 at 11:38 AM, FlyIce said:

To me is both the intensity (you can hardly tell there are shadows) and the flickering which is very distracting. 

P3D nailed cloud shadow pretty much on the first try, and even FSX can have decent cloud shadows with DX10 plugin (?). I assumed this thing is easy but apparently XP11 just couldn't get it right. 

Are you actually looking for solutions and constructive conversation, or are you just here to plump for P3D and bag on X-Plane?  Because so far, it looks like the latter.

[FlyIce 354]

No not all. Yes I had flied FSX/P3D for like ten years, but XP11 is the only sim I've been flying since last year. As a whole the rendering engine of XP11 is so much ahead of P3D, no comparison here, but that doesn't mean XP11 has no glaring weakness. Shadows in XP11 is certainly behind P3D and I'd like to see them get improved at least to the quality of current P3D. 

17 hours ago, sfreeby said:

Hello - I'm interested in attempting the changes you suggest to get better cloud shadows.  I do not understand how to make the changes in the lua files.  I can not find a file called "Shadows" nor can I find the "lua and settings"  Please help this newbie - I just switched from Prepar 3D v.2.5 and am not looking back - I love X-Plane 11!  .  Thanks, Scott

I kind of stopped fiddling with shadow settings in XP11. No huge improvements I could obtain through these dataref changes. I figure it's better just wait for XP11 to get everything in place while I keep enjoying what I have with XP11. I have made over thousand photoscenery tiles using Ortho4XP and it's a dream flying XP11 + Ortho4XP scenery. I'm just struggling to find enough flight time.

[captain420 3,099]

Were you successful in your attempts to get rid of those annoying flashing clouds?