Realistic Sky Textures - recommendations

[GSalden 4,657]

3 minutes ago, Sethos1988 said:

But alas, it's merely an optional shader preset. Options for the community is never a bad thing.

Exactly.  My set is just one of many.. And everyone has its own taste 👩‍🍳

[Nyxx 6,993]

On 6/4/2019 at 6:54 AM, Sethos1988 said:

They almost look like cartoon clouds

I agree, there are for my taste far too harsh and have no subtlety to them.

 

But what shader preset is being used has nothing to do with the clouds structures or looks of the clouds themselves, PTA is doing the lighting and that's nice on that shot. 

It's all personly taste. Personly I love mostly soft looking clouds. The next person will like ASCA clouds and so it goes on. It's good we have choices to suit all our tastes.

Edited June 8, 2019 by Nyxx

[Sethos 4,336]

34 minutes ago, Nyxx said:

But what shader preset is being used has nothing to do with the clouds structures or looks of the clouds themselves, PTA is doing the lighting and that's nice on that shot.

PTA has a lot of options for changing how the cloud is shaded, depth of the shadows, directional lighting, alternative lighting methods etc. all can completely change how it looks. You can seriously screw up how clouds look with a few clicks. Obviously not structures and base textures themselves, you're right but oh man, you can easily make some monstrosities out of the clouds with PTA. I even did some tweaking earlier this week in regards to clouds and managed to get them pretty close to that cartoon look once you start messing with the shading of the clouds. It really changes how they look.

But yeah, being ASCA doesn't help, not a fan of them either.

Edited June 8, 2019 by Sethos1988

[GSalden 4,657]

57 minutes ago, Sethos1988 said:

PTA has a lot of options for changing how the cloud is shaded, depth of the shadows, directional lighting, alternative lighting methods etc. all can completely change how it looks. You can seriously screw up how clouds look with a few clicks. Obviously not structures and base textures themselves, you're right but oh man, you can easily make some monstrosities out of the clouds with PTA. I even did some tweaking earlier this week in regards to clouds and managed to get them pretty close to that cartoon look once you start messing with the shading of the clouds. It really changes how they look.

But yeah, being ASCA doesn't help, not a fan of them either.

My screenshot was 21 june at 13.00h at 25.000 ft above Greece.

Looking at these clouds 3h later shows more shadows , less brightness and slightly more saturation.

Directional Lighting is already in P3D but no so good yet. Therefore 2 of the 3 Cloud Directional Lighting tweaks remain. At dusk you can see there influence : cloud parts facing the sun are more bright with less Shade than clouds with the sun behind them.

Alternative Cloud Lighting only has a very small impact on lighter-dark parts.

It all has to be implemented very subtle and with small values otherwise indeed you can make them look terrible.

After 2 years I am getting close to the look I want but there is always room for improvement .

Also the fact that LM changes Shader parts with each update can make preset developers start all over which is sometimes a lot of work ...

 

[CFIJose 5,485]

I'm also a fan of soft "realistic" looking clouds an not the "cartoon" or "painted" look. That's why I've always preferred the look of REX Soft Clouds and now REX SkyForce with its amazing structures & beautiful sky textures. ASCA clouds always appeared like the "cartoon" or "painted" look and users have had to buy another addon to get nice looking sky textures because ASCA's sky textures don't look as good as REX or even KIWI's textures.

I'm also a big fan of Gerard's PTA presets. I've tried many of them. Aside from the excellent sky textures available with REX SF it's what allows me to experience the best looking flight sim available today Gerard's preset transform the clouds with different shades of colors, just like in real life, and even the water color is affected by the region and altitude, just as I recently demonstrated in  my water color thread.

If you want to keep it simple, get ASP4, REX SkyForce, and PTA and enjoy the best looking sim. Until REX EV is working reliably I'm sticking with PTA and Gerard's preset.

 

[GSalden 4,657]

56 minutes ago, DJJose said:

I'm also a fan of soft "realistic" looking clouds an not the "cartoon" or "painted" look. That's why I've always preferred the look of REX Soft Clouds and now REX SkyForce with its amazing structures & beautiful sky textures. ASCA clouds always appeared like the "cartoon" or "painted" look and users have had to buy another addon to get nice looking sky textures because ASCA's sky textures don't look as good as REX or even KIWI's textures.

I'm also a big fan of Gerard's PTA presets. I've tried many of them. Aside from the excellent sky textures available with REX SF it's what allows me to experience the best looking flight sim available today Gerard's preset transform the clouds with different shades of colors, just like in real life, and even the water color is affected by the region and altitude, just as I recently demonstrated in  my water color thread.

If you want to keep it simple, get ASP4, REX SkyForce, and PTA and enjoy the best looking sim. Until REX EV is working reliably I'm sticking with PTA and Gerard's preset.

 

Totally agree that the cloud texture also has a great influence.

In my case I use 2x 43"4K , so almost 86" for the front view only.  Therefore I use the ASCA Silk clouds. In my cockpit they are blown up a lot so no painted look then  ; more a soft look. And they are 256x256 not 4096x4096. 

REX Soft Clouds I have too , but when blown up they do not look good anymore. But that is because of blowing them up.

Perhaps SF clouds look better, but as I use WidevieW a lot of features I cannot use.

Everyone has its best looking clouds 😁

Pics from clouds are always made with the right diafragma to prevent overexposure. Look out in a real aircraft without sunglasses around noon with a good visibility and you have to close your eyes almost to look at the clouds being so very bright and white. 

But that is not what most want in the sim. Myself I want them to be so bright at noon in summer  that you allmost have to wear sunglasses when looking at them onscreen. 

Eg : take a look at this vid around 1:10. Imagine these cumulus clouds being filmed without auto diafragma.They would appear so bright and white that they would almost blind you. One of the 2 pilot friends once said to me that if he felt wearing sunglasses in my cockpit because of the sun shining on the clouds I got it right..

LOL... 😂 

 

Edited June 8, 2019 by GSalden

[AgentIronside 0]

I wholeheartedly agree with Evntex; more times than I am willing to admit, I'll look at the sky IRL and think about P3D/Evntex sky textures and how they nailed it. As a photographer myself, I'm obsessed with color representation, so I'm not completely insane for doing this. 😛

Edited June 8, 2019 by AgentIronside

[CFIJose 5,485]

Here's a quick snap while testing Seychelles.

Eye of the beholder?

[GSalden 4,657]

40 minutes ago, DJJose said:

Here's a quick snap while testing Seychelles.

Eye of the beholder?

Very nice screenshot. Beautiful island.

What are those very dark clouds doing there  ? The other ones are white.

 

[CFIJose 5,485]

1 minute ago, GSalden said:

Very nice screenshot. Beautiful island.

What are those very dark clouds doing there  ? The other ones are white.

 

I changed some values in the clouds section of PTA and it looks like the TS clouds appear a little darker. I like the way it looks, but you are the expert!

[GSalden 4,657]

1 minute ago, DJJose said:

I changed some values in the clouds section of PTA and it looks like the TS clouds appear a little darker. I like the way it looks, but you are the expert!

LOL.. I am an amateur like you and many others.

Myself I would make them a little lighter but only your opinion is important for your Sim 🤗

In total the screenshot looks great 

[Jonathan93102 3]

On 6/3/2019 at 1:31 PM, Nyxx said:

SkyForce, soft and natural looking IMO, but this topic is a bit like asking what's your favourite car colour.

 

 

Hello Nyxx,

I love this combination, which clouds and sky textures are you using in Sky Force?

Many thanks,

Jonathan.

[Nyxx 6,993]

Jonathan, I am using EF so it’s users the sets it feels matches the weather.

[pete_auau 1,159]

2 hours ago, Jonathan93102 said:

Hello Nyxx,

I love this combination, which clouds and sky textures are you using in Sky Force?

Many thanks,

Jonathan.

why  not  try  different  sets   for  your  self  to  try out, since  their  are  many  combinations  you  could  try  for  each  flight  till  you  find  the  right  ones  you like

[Simicro 247]

VHOJT (Rudy), in the end, what have you decided?