REX Sky Force - Cloud Model Sync Explanation

[B777ER 2,485]

4 minutes ago, Tokitaumelie said:

 

Have mine on installed on a separate SSD, not default, if this helps in any way.

Eric, you have the software, folders and all, excluded from AV/Defender?

Not using any A/V or firewall. No 3rd party installed and MS Defender and firewall both off. 

[B777ER 2,485]

5 hours ago, J van E said:

Yep. Glad I am not the only one though who’s having this problem... Wonder why it does work on David’s computer. If anyone else has this problem (and ar aware of it...!), please report! I wonder how many people don’t even know they have problems with SF.

Maybe this might be a reason: 

https://www.realenvironmentxtreme.com/forums/index.php?/topic/46766-individual-textures-do-not-install/&do=findComment&comment=298850

[geolpilot 88]

Somewhere back in this thread, someone commented that they really cannot tell the difference between the cloud texture sets (22 of them) that you can choose from in SF.

It hit me the other day that the clues to the differences in the textures are all in the name - but REX are making you work at the clues!. Rex have put some effort into this naming, they not just fancy random names. Sticking to the meteorological tradition of naming things using words derived from Greek, REX seems to have a resident Greek scholar at work, and their use of these names is very clever.

So here's some:

DENIZEN (default set 01)

Meaning "inhabitant" or "one who frequents" as in "Rob is a denizen of Windmill A-Go-Go"

So a frequently occurring 3D cloud in the sky!. Seen around often, hence it is the default set.

PETRICHOR (set 02)

A term coined by an Australian Meteorologist for that earthy scent after rains on dry soil (aaaah, the scent of African Rains!)

Literally from Greek "petri" = rock and "ichor", the fluid in the veins of the Greek gods.

The texture has well defined lobes or cauliflower heads of various sizes, like a pile of rocks. Only these "rocks" are made from fluid (water vapour) in the realm of the gods.

STYGIAN (set 08)

Meaning "of the river Styx" (the Greek river you crossed after death). Also " dark, gloomy, forbidding"

Look at the texture set and you will see deep, dark shadowing between and marking the edges of the lobes. So a forbidding cloud type, dense rain and ice blocking the sunlight completely, so the cloud self-shadows. Fly through those and you may very well pass over the river Styx!

Just a light interlude to all the overthinking going on here (of which I am guilty, and am I doing it again here???). Simming is educational after all, right!

[geolpilot 88]

Some have commented on the fact that SF only installs 2 cumulus .bmp files (01 and 02). It has long been the case that cumulus  03 to 08 are not used (the dates on these will be early 2017 or around the time you first installed your P3D).

With the 16 tiles in 01 and 02 (you only see 8 in the DF interface), that is 32 very detailed 3D cloud texture variations. Combine these with the detailed cloud models and you have more than enough variation! Texturing up the other 6*16 tiles means 96 more photographs, graphics design and tile processing, a really superfluous effort that will simply go unnoticed by a majority of users

[JoeFackel 760]

Looking at the log it could be an path error during installation of the clouds:

Quote

3D Clouds Installed

ORIGINAL FILE DELETED:
F:\Prepar3D v4\\texture\cumulus01.bmp
FILE MOVED FROM:
F:\REX Sky Force 3D for Prepar3D v4\textures\Clouds\Cumulus\01\DXT5\2048\cumulus01.bmp
MOVED TO:
F:\Prepar3D v4\\texture\cumulus01.bmp
FILE UPDATED:
Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Can you see the double back slash between "Prepar3Dv4" and "texture"?

I will later just copy over the textures from the SF folder to the P3D folder by hand, then i will see if they work.

[geolpilot 88]

30 minutes ago, JoeFackel said:

Can you see the double back slash between "Prepar3Dv4" and "texture"?

Been installing different SF 3D cloud model sets, researching how many possible variants there are. Have the \weather\clouds folder open as I install, and can see the files refresh happening as I click the Install button. Looking at the log file "installogmodels.txt" in the SF directory, all the model entries have that double backslash ( "F:\Prepar3DV4\\weather\clouds\%modelname%.cld" where %modelname% is one of the 1160 model names. So that \\ is not the problem.

I have my SF installed into C;\Program Files, in which case the instruction from REX is that UAC must be OFF Maybe check this?

If that logfile says it has moved the files across and lists these, without reporting errors, I suggest SF has installed its models with no problems.

[JoeFackel 760]

My SF installation is in the root of an dedicated SSD drive for P3D and addons, no AV running and UAC of course OFF. Its and dedicated W10 installation without updates and security shitake ;-)

[JoeFackel 760]

Okay, i've checked the path to my P3D installation in the SF settings: i don't know how that happened (i never touched it after installing SF) but the path was set to "F:\Prepar3D v4\"

As i set the patch manually via "Browse" the path was corrected to "F:\Prepar3D v4" ... you see the missing backslash now?

Edit: i see a problem here that SF is NOT alerting when the path of the P3D installation is not correct

 

[geolpilot 88]

Further to the above post, I would not go manually copying model files across. This can mess things up. For example the Altocumulus models have 3 options (Floccus, Perlucidis, Undulatus) of which only one is used at a time. changing these buttons, causes SF to install 67 new .cld files starting with "alto". If you do this manual copy-across you may choose the wrong alto models, and get weird mixes of the Altostratus clouds models.

Anyhow that's 67 * 2 additional cloud models to the 1160 installed at a time, by changing the Altocumuls model buttons. So we are up to 1294 cloud models available. And there are many more!

The Cumulonimbus Incus/Supercell variations will vary the cloud models for Calvus, Calvus Overcast and Incus Overcast. You have 4 possible combinations of High precipitation or Low Precipitation with Visible Rain Shaft or Visible Wall Cloud. There are 27 Calvus, Calvus Overcast and Incus Overcast models, so thats an additional 3*27 (81) variations, so we are up to 1375 model variants. Calvus can also have Rain shafts with or without Wall Clouds, so more variants again. All Calvus, Incus Overcast models can also have Tornado/Funnels with various combinations of High/Low precipitation and Rain Shaft/Wall cloud. So now getting lost in the possible number of permutations (never been good at my combination/permutation math).

So REX's claim of 3000+ 3D cloud model structures is not hype, despite the fact that at any one time only 1160 models are loaded to the sim's weather directory. This to preempt those who will look at this 1160 number and say "ah-ha" REX is exaggerating. Where are the 3000 plus models?". Remember when Cloud Sync is ON, SF will be choosing varying 1160 file sets to install dynamically according to the weather around you, so you are going to get more variation that that file count number suggests.

[JoeFackel 760]

5 minutes ago, geolpilot said:

Further to the above post, I would not go manually copying model files across.

Uhm, there was maybe an misunderstanding: i was not talking about the models, just about the textures.

I've corrected now the P3D path, looks like the textures were copied over now and i did not copy textures manually. 

But i still have to test now at evening how it looks in flight.

[geolpilot 88]

24 minutes ago, JoeFackel said:

i see a problem here that SF is NOT alerting when the path of the P3D installation is not correct

Yeh Joe tell me about this!

When I first installed SF I wanted it on my networked laptop. Unbeknown to me, a W10 update 2 days before had messed with my network settings and my laptop could no longer see the sim machine. No problem to SF, it accepted the network drive without error, and all hell broke loose. Sluggish unresponsive interface, and even after I had fixed up things so that my sim machine was again discovered by the laptop, and unfortunately in my haste had renamed the sim directory share with a slightly different name, it would not gracefully report "P3DV4 Directory not found", as ASCA does if my laptops has not reconnected to networked drives (cos dummy here has started the sim machine after the laptop)! No way to easily fix this either as SF stores configs in a windows database file, not a simple text file where one can simply edit the path.

So I had to relent and uninstall, and then put it on my Sim machine. Got it running there with an Affinity setting to keep it off the cores that P3D is using. Seems Ok for now.

[ZKOKQ 984]

48 minutes ago, geolpilot said:

it accepted the network drive without error, and all hell broke loose. Sluggish unresponsive interface,

Having the same problem. Had to re set my Sim machine network. Now shows up, but still very sluggish.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, B777ER said:

Maybe this might be a reason: 

https://www.realenvironmentxtreme.com/forums/index.php?/topic/46766-individual-textures-do-not-install/&do=findComment&comment=298850

Interesting. So there might be a path issue, as Joe posted also here, and there might be an issue with the option 'Enable internal logging' which perhaps needs to be on in order for SF to work. (If that is so, why give that option anyway...?!) I will try these two things the coming evening!

BTW How nice of REX to let us spend hours to figure this all out without giving us a helping hand...  Posting on the REX forum has been a total waste of time so far. 

[geolpilot 88]

2 minutes ago, J van E said:

there might be a path issue, as Joe posted also here

There is no path issue. That \\ is there in my log file but the textures and models are loading fine, and the Currently Installed list is showing exactly what I have installed in to the sim

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, geolpilot said:

There is no path issue. That \\ is there in my log file but the textures and models are loading fine, and the Currently Installed list is showing exactly what I have installed in to the sim

Probably, but at this moment in time I am willing to try EVERYTHING, so even if there isn't a path issue I will see what happens if I set that path manually myself.

Although... come to think of it: the cloud files DID install into the correct folder (after I had manually deleted them) so SF knows where things are... But well, still, nonetheless, I will give it a try.  Sometimes it's those odd little things that do the trick.