Pete, try as Kurtb said, rename the .exe?

Also once  you install the rex textures I suggest deleting your shader so no left overs from ASCA or any other old textures are there. Just a thought!

4 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

Looks like I'll have to uninstall it then, as I have AS being loaded by FSUIPC, so I can auto-close it down at end of session. I was going to start SF3D in the same way. I don't really want to have to intervene via keyboard during P3D initialisation.

Pete

 

Pete,

Per the manual: "If you wish to disable ASCA texture installations, you can do so by using the ASCA options screen to disable the categories of your choice."  Just deselect all the options via the options menue; ASCA will start, but won't load any textures into your sim, nor should it consume any computer cycles. 

Just a question after reading the thread about the sync debate not provoking anyone at all, just curious:

What is the difference of :

a) having X number of cloud textures preloaded on memory and use the appropriate ones on different weather engine requests

b) having the program to inject the textures as you fly?

As far as I understand, both systems pre-load the textures on the memory and use them accordingly.  Different Textures and structures are used by both systems in a flight session, no matter if one injects or the other read them from memory. Isn't it the same? In that case the one with more variety wouldn't be the superior?

13 minutes ago, Daedalus said:

Isn't it the same?

Well, you could say that injecting textures gives the weather engine the possibility to use a huge number of different textures. In theory a limitless amount. I don't think ASCA pre-loads all textures: I suppose it reads of from disc when needed.

When you use one set of installed textures, like SF, you simply have less stuff to play with. However, REX doubled the size of the textures hence doubling the amount of clouds to play with.

I wonder how often and how many textures ASCA actually loads during a flight? Could well be that in the end SF and ASCA are using a similar amount of textures and offer the same kind of variation. I wonder if anyone ever actually noticed it if ASCA had loaded a significantly different kind of texture. Even with an old kind of texture set you could get a lot of variation.

Let's also not forget that SF uses more 3D models: this also adds to the variation of the skies! In fact, it might add more obvious variation than textures could.

In the end all that matters is: do my skies look realistic and varied? It doesn't matter if that goal has been obtained by injecting stuff or not. I would have liked it if SF had the option to inject textures because it gives you the idea things would look even more varied and hence (theoratically) real but I still wonder in how far for instance the ASCA way of doing things gives you appropriate skies or just random skies. Maybe the randomize option of SF is just as good.

13 minutes ago, Nyxx said:

Pete, try as Kurtb said, rename the .exe?

Okay, as long as that doesn't provoke an error message from ASP4, as it might it it is checking the Registry to see if ASCA is installed. I'll try it.

13 minutes ago, kingm56 said:

ASCA will start, but won't load any textures into your sim, nor should it consume any computer cycles.

Ok. Thanks. I'll try that if the above isn't good.

13 minutes ago, Nyxx said:

Also once  you install the rex textures I suggest deleting your shader so no left overs from ASCA are there.

Won't only REX textures be chosen? 

Do you mean delete the Shaders folder in AppData? I think that just forces P3D to generate a new one, right?

I have EnvShade too, not even installed yet. Is that now superfluous or does it deal with different things?

Also I can't find a way of ensuring SF3D loads and minimises itself quietly, like ASCA and AS.  It would be a little annoying to have to do this manually. Currently all I need to do to get everything running is start P3D!

Sorry about all these quiestions. I feel a complete novice among all this graphics-related stuff, never been my area!

Pete

 

 

2 hours ago, J van E said:

- EDIT forgot to say that SF also comes with PTA presets integrated: the presets will also load appropriate sky textures

Well, that's it in a nutshell.

What do you mean will load sky textures? PTA presents cannot load sky textures. They can influence how sky textures look. AFAIK only ASCA can dynamically change sky textures while the sim is running.

1 minute ago, B777ER said:

What do you mean will liar sky textures? PTA presents cannot load sky textures. They can influence how sky textures look. AFAIK only ASCA can dynamically change sky textures whole the sim is running.

SF says this on the PTA page of the program:

"When using PTA intergration, please do not install sky textures as they are automatically matched and installed with the PTA preset."

So if you use the PTA opion in SkyForce (!!!) installing a PTA preset will automatically install sky textures (for dawn, day and dusk) that the developers decided would suit the preset best. This isn't done dyamically! This is done before you start your sim! Just like you will have to install sets for clouds or whatever before you start the sim. Only ASCA can inject textures (clouds and skies) dynamically. The only thing that SF can do dynamically is injecting cloud models/structures (not textures).

9 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

1. Won't only REX textures be chosen? 

2. Do you mean delete the Shaders folder in AppData? I think that just forces P3D to generate a new one, right?

3. I have EnvShade too, not even installed yet. Is that now superfluous or does it deal with different things?

4. Also I can't find a way of ensuring SF3D loads and minimises itself quietly, like ASCA and AS.  It would be a little annoying to have to do this manually. Currently all I need to do to get everything running is start P3D

1. Yes, but there may be leftovers from ASCA in the shaders cache. I doubt it but it's usually a good idea to reset the cache when you install new texture related stuff.

2. Yes, that one. And P3D will indeed generate new shaders automatically (after loading the sim: things may look black or empty at first for a while while the shaders are being 'created').

3. ENVSHADE is similar to PTA and has nothing to do with textures as such. It has to do with lighting and brightness and things like that in the sim. You may still use ENVSHADE with SF but then don't use the integrated PTA options of SF.

4. SF itself has no build in option that I know of to start it automatically and minimized.

6 minutes ago, J van E said:

SF says this on the PTA page of the program:

"When using PTA intergration, please do not install sky textures as they are automatically matched and installed with the PTA preset."

So if you use the PTA opion in SkyForce (!!!) installing a PTA preset will automatically install sky textures (for dawn, day and dusk) that the developers decided would suit the preset best. This isn't done dyamically! This is done before you start your sim! Just like you will have to install sets for clouds or whatever before you start the sim. Only ASCA can inject textures (clouds and skies) dynamically. The only thing that SF can do dynamically is injecting cloud models/structures (not textures).

Hmmm, I wonder then if one can actually keep ASCA running for sky textures to be dynamically injected? Just unclick clouds and structures in the ASCA menu?

7 minutes ago, B777ER said:

Hmmm, I wonder then if one can actually keep ASCA running for sky textures to be dynamically injected? Just unclick clouds and structures in the ASCA menu?

Yes, you can! Just disable the skies in SF (and whatever else you don't want to use it for) also and you're good!

I do believe though that if you want to make good use of the SF structures you do need to use the SF cloud textures because they are double in size. In theory I suppose it is possible to even use ASCA or ENVTEX cloud textures while using SF 3D structures but then you will be missing out on things because ASCA and ENVTEX cloud textures contain less stuff to play with.

7 minutes ago, B777ER said:

Hmmm, I wonder then if one can actually keep ASCA running for sky textures to be dynamically injected? Just unclick clouds and structures in the ASCA menu?

This is a real interesting question.

I see we are a little spoiled by ASCA's dynamic injection feature. However, I would like to set a question that I have never seen actually answered.

Does ASCA sky textures dynamic injection takes into account, geographical location and time of the year? Because I think its just a random selection mechanism.

The same goes for their clouds injection. I don't think they vary the textures according to weather, but rather to time of flight, to give the illusion of real word variability.

So, if ASCA is just randomly injecting sky and cloud textures, there is nothing superior to that. Of course, if someone could prove that ASCA chooses sky and cloud tectures based on weather, date and location I would be glad to know. But I suspect if such a sophisticated system was working there, it would be properly advertised.

4 minutes ago, Daedalus said:

Does ASCA sky textures injection takes into account, geographical location and time of the year? Because I think its just a random selection mechanism.

The same goes for their clouds injection. I don't think they vary the textures according to weather, but rather to time of flight, to give the illusion of real word variability.

So, if ASCA is just randomly injecting sky and cloud textures, there is nothing superior to that. Of course, if someone could prove that ASCA chooses sky and cloud tectures based on weather, date and location I would be glad to know. But I suspect if such a sophisticated system was working there, it would be properly advertised.

That's what I've been thinking and saying for ages already. How can an addon select appropriate cloud textures based on METAR only...? I also think it is (mainly) a random option and yes, this means SF is just as good if not better because its cloud textures are supposed to be double the size.

7 minutes ago, Nemo said:

This is a real interesting question.

And it's answered already. There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to use the ASCA injection option. And heck, you can even add ENVTEX to the mix. Send ENVTEX skies dynamically into the sim using ASCA and let SF take care of the clouds. But well, maybe you might as well use the SF random option for the skies...

ok set up a tutorial

2 minutes ago, kurtb said:

ok set up a tutorial

I actually thought about that but I thought no one would take me seriously. Besides, I don't use ASCA (so I'd have to write things based on information from others) and I don't own ENVTEX.

I have to say though that the manual of SF is more complicated than needed. It has a lot of pages but in the end the interface of SF is quite simple and self explanatory (despite a few mistakes... ) I could write a short as possible tutorail here for the use of SF with AS though...