Guide to setting up ASCA+ENVTEXT(with AS+SF)

[hs118 707]

Using your guide, are there any parts of Envtex that you show turned off that if they are turned on, will negatively affect the ASCA+ENVTEXT configuration you are showing?

[vgbaron 3,612]

4 minutes ago, Henry Street said:

So are you saying you have not tested your suggested settings with a full implementation of Envtex? Not trying to be confrontational, but having most of the product turned off is not very informational. 

Henry - this just ONE person's opinion on how HE likes his system set up. Many people do it the exact opposite and are very happy. A new product (SF) has been released and there is much confusion as to how to integrate it with current weather options. This is just one more thing to try - if you do and like it - fine - if not - don't use it. I prefer ASCA+ Envtex with all options on as I prefer ASCA clouds. Each person is different.

Vic

[hs118 707]

1 minute ago, vgbaron said:

Henry - this just ONE person's opinion on how HE likes his system set up. Many people do it the exact opposite and are very happy. A new product (SF) has been released and there is much confusion as to how to integrate it with current weather options. This is just one more thing to try - if you do and like it - fine - if not - don't use it. I prefer ASCA+ Envtex with all options on as I prefer ASCA clouds. Each person is different.

Vic

Thanks Vic, that is all I wanted to know. I like the Envtex other features as well.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Nyxx said:

Please note I don't know why above it says 36 because within you will see upto 64.

‘Envtex 36’ on your 3rd screenshot is the name of the last activated sky texture. It has nothing to do with the amount of textures that were installed by ENVEX into ASCA. When you start a new flight and the weather will change the sky will probably also change dynamically and then you may see something like Envtex 9 or Envtex 26 appear in that spot or whatever name of any ENVTEX sky texture ASCA decides to install.

[Nyxx 6,993]

10 minutes ago, J van E said:

‘Envtex 36’ on your 3rd screenshot is the name of the last activated sky texture. It has nothing to do with the amount of textures that were installed by ENVEX into ASCA. When you start a new flight and the weather will change the sky will probably also change dynamically and then you may see something like Envtex 9 or Envtex 26 appear in that spot or whatever name of any ENVTEX sky texture ASCA decides to install.

Never know that J thank you. I've edited the line out.

[Cruachan 705]

Hi,

There is one question that continues to niggle me and, as far as I am aware, has never been discussed in any detail. How do you reconcile your use of a specific PTA Preset with a Sky Texture, selected from within a Set, that changes under the influence of ASCA configured for Full Dynamics?

REX Sky Force 3D includes a range of PTA Presets, each of which has been configured to work well with a specific REX Sky Texture Set. The latter is installed automatically when each REX PTA Preset is applied. Now, I assume that each of these Presets has been designed to deliver good visual results throughout the range of textures within a matching REX Sky Texture Set. So, how does this work while using a preferred 3rd Party PTA Preset which was probably configured while using the Prepar3D default Sky Textures (or another specified Sky Texture Set, which is Adam's approach), and not those provided by, say, ENVTEX +/- ASCA Full Dynamics?

I have the impression that many of you are preferring to use ENVTEX Sky Textures along with an unrelated 3rd Party PTA Preset. Presumably you are satisfied with the results, yet this appears to be going against what is known about the importance of marrying a PTA Preset with a particular set of Sky Textures if the results stand any chance of being consistent throughout the Texture range while using ASCA integration with the Full Dynamics setting.

Mike

[vgbaron 3,612]

Mike - there are only two things to consider in all of this - performance and visual quality - period.

Both are completely subjective as to the individual and their system. Many years ago I did what many seem to be doing now, try all sorts of combinations, looking for the perfect mix. The phrase "analyze and paralyze" comes to mind.

Eventually I figured  it out - sine the ONLY person who can make that decision was me - I just picked the combination that looked good to me - don't worry about matching this with that - if it looks good and runs well - you have a winner.

Vic

[Cruachan 705]

Ah, Vic, wise as ever!

However, I remain curious as to how others are tackling this particular issue.

Mike 🤓

[Mike62 29]

Does anyone know if there is an alternate way to download the program files for ENVTEX.  I purchased from simmarket tonight and it is going to take about 12 hours or more to download each of the large files.  They have my money, I have fast internet but am getting dial up speeds not happy! 

Thanks

Mike

Decided to start downloads anyway, hopefully first one is complete before bed and then I will start downloading the other while I sleep.

[Nyxx 6,993]

15 hours ago, Cruachan said:

Ah, Vic, wise as ever!

However, I remain curious as to how others are tackling this particular issue.

Mike 🤓

Vic is right, but I would add depiction to performance and visual quality.

The PTA is a good question. Myself I use Matts but now have tweaked it a few times to look better with SF.  But that's where it ends because looks is personal and very much down to even a monitor used. The great thing even when you know very little like myself about it. It's easy to use. I adjust one setting at a time and take that to the max so I can see what the extreme does and then work back to suit.

So yes SF did imo need some PTA adjusting. I always wanted my VC light to be how I think it should be, when you break though the clouds the sun is very strong and I wanted to capture that feel and now I have it. 

 

[Dirk98 354]

Guys, a couple of questions on using SF3D with ASP4, ASCA, ENVTEX: 

1) how do you know if SF3D actually injects cloud structures dynamically after the 1st structure/texture download at the beginning of a flight session? Is there a way I can check it somehow on my side besides just staring at the monitor and trying to make it out there visually? What is the period from one injection to another and how can I check they are actually working?

2) how can I disable all environmental textures in SF3D Settings? The Settings interface is not that clear for me in regards to managing their other environmental textures.

3) after installation of SF3D (I put it alongside with ASP4, ASCA and ENVTEX on the networked machine) and disabling all cloud textures in ASCA I started getting regular errors that ASCA can't find ENVTEX # foldesr inside its path. It's weird as ENVTEX numbers referred to in those errors seem to be random and do not exist and I'd say never existed inside ASCA folders. Normally I have had 4 of those ENVTEX folders there, with other numbers, like ENVTEX 60 , ENVTEX 62 etc. Any idea here?   

Thanks,

[Dirk98 354]

Forgot to mention: I fully agree with Nyxx on the incredible new looks of the clouds and their new forms as well as an excellent performance with the drawing/viewing distances I've never used before. And btw - 6 layers here! Unfortunately ASCA injections seem to be broken as I posted above.

Thanks,

 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Dirk98 said:

Guys, a couple of questions on using SF3D with ASP4, ASCA, ENVTEX: 

1) how do you know if SF3D actually injects cloud structures dynamically after the 1st structure/texture download at the beginning of a flight session? Is there a way I can check it somehow on my side besides just staring at the monitor and trying to make it out there visually? What is the period from one injection to another and how can I check they are actually working?

2) how can I disable all environmental textures in SF3D Settings? The Settings interface is not that clear for me in regards to managing their other environmental textures.

3) after installation of SF3D (I put it alongside with ASP4, ASCA and ENVTEX on the networked machine) and disabling all cloud textures in ASCA I started getting regular errors that ASCA can't find ENVTEX # foldesr inside its path. It's weird as ENVTEX numbers referred to in those errors seem to be random and do not exist and I'd say never existed inside ASCA folders. Normally I have had 4 of those ENVTEX folders there, with other numbers, like ENVTEX 60 , ENVTEX 62 etc. Any idea here?   

Thanks,

1) You can't know. There is no way to check if anything is happening in the background. In fact, I myself even doubt if there actually is something happening in the background. When you install SF 1160 cloud structures are copied into the P3D folder (and not 1509 or whatever the SF interface says: I have no clue where that number comes from). Those 1160 simply are available for use during the flight: there is no need to load them or activate them or sync them: whenever the sims needs a specific structure it will load it from disc. I have no clue if that Sync option actually does something at all. I've never seen an addon with ground textures that suddenly needed its textures to by synced instead of simply loaded and I don't understand why it should be different for structures. You could even add 16000 structure files to the P3D folder and they still wouldn't need to be 'synced dynamically'. (For cloud and sky textures this is different but SF doesn't do that.) But well, if things actually do get synced dynamically: nice! If it doesn't happen at all: not so nice but my skies look awesome regardless so I don't really care and I have given up on trying to get to the bottom of all this syncing business... 

2) Go to the SF settings (gear icon on the lower left corner) and then to Install. Disable everything apart from the clouds. 

Can't help you with 30 because I don't use a network myself.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

2 minutes ago, J van E said:

1) You can't know. There is no way to check if anything is happening in the background

If someone were so inclined they could use Process Monitor:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon

Set the filters to just RSF and specific activities like file reads. Personally, I'm not that interested.

 

[Nyxx 6,993]

2 hours ago, Dirk98 said:

2) how can I disable all environmental textures in SF3D Settings? The Settings interface is not that clear for me in regards to managing their other environmental textures.

3) after installation of SF3D (I put it alongside with ASP4, ASCA and ENVTEX on the networked machine) and disabling all cloud textures in ASCA I started getting regular errors that ASCA can't find ENVTEX # foldesr inside its path. It's weird as ENVTEX numbers referred to in those errors seem to be random and do not exist and I'd say never existed inside ASCA folders. Normally I have had 4 of those ENVTEX folders there, with other numbers, like ENVTEX 60 , ENVTEX 62 etc. Any idea here?   

Thanks,

I think I "might" know why your getting error 60--62, they sound like Envtex errors they sound like the texture set being called for. 

It might be because you running SF as well

First go here and set up a complete texture set just like you see below and save it as e.g. Dirk Default.

DO Not install.

 

Then 

Go here and turn off all sky options

Now Install

Now try.!