Well, again a big thank you for the various answers.

I believe it's what we will want to happen to future versions of XP, but with a softer impact in the overal  performance of teh sim.

Maybe Vulkan can bring that, and LR gives weather injector devs a bit more of control over the weather...

I really think this is one of the major limitations of X-Plane, specially taking MFS, from what we've seen, for comparison.

I have tried Xenviro, up to and including the current 1.13 version, and believe it is the future of weather and cloud enhancement for XP.  But not right now.  The stuttering, even with good frame rates, is a deal breaker for me and I have uninstalled it recently.  After much investigation, experimentation, trial and error and hours of sweat and toil, I have arrived at the solution which gives me the best performance and visuals I have ever had with XP11.  It consists of the latest version of Active SkyXP, the Xvision preset of SH 2019 and a single lua script - 11_30_xV_Impressive_TrueShade.lua  That's it.  In the XP Graphics Settings page, I have World Objects set to Maximum but Texture Quality and HDR both to Medium.  I have a 1080TI graphics card and have discovered these reduced settings don't degrade the visuals much at all.  My advice to those who do not currently own Xenviro is to hold off until 1.14 is released and consider the feedback on sites such as this one.  It's a lot of money to fork out and for the equivalent sum, I've managed to purchase the two programs which have provided me with a terrific outcome.

7 hours ago, Charles KS said:

I have tried Xenviro, up to and including the current 1.13 version, and believe it is the future of weather and cloud enhancement for XP.  But not right now.  The stuttering, even with good frame rates, is a deal breaker for me and I have uninstalled it recently.  After much investigation, experimentation, trial and error and hours of sweat and toil, I have arrived at the solution which gives me the best performance and visuals I have ever had with XP11.  It consists of the latest version of Active SkyXP, the Xvision preset of SH 2019 and a single lua script - 11_30_xV_Impressive_TrueShade.lua  That's it.  In the XP Graphics Settings page, I have World Objects set to Maximum but Texture Quality and HDR both to Medium.  I have a 1080TI graphics card and have discovered these reduced settings don't degrade the visuals much at all.  My advice to those who do not currently own Xenviro is to hold off until 1.14 is released and consider the feedback on sites such as this one.  It's a lot of money to fork out and for the equivalent sum, I've managed to purchase the two programs which have provided me with a terrific outcome.

This is my verdict, too. However, as a 1080ti owner myself, I'd feel humiliated to run HDR at medium. It might not be immediately obvious, but you lose a lot of shading detail. With Textures, I agree medium is sufficient (even if you have 11GB VRAM to spare), the difference is only noticeable when you get very close, something that doesn't happen very often. 

On 12/20/2019 at 9:15 AM, HumptyDumpty said:

As you know i don't own it. But from the screenshots it's just too good. It's probably miles ahead of the default wx engine

Performance is bad according to users.

No offense intended, but why do people feel the immense urge to give meaningless, totally not useful replies?

OP: ask for users

1 st reply starts with: I dont own it but..

In my opinion it has promise and if the developers keep improving it, it will be a good product.  It aims to be all in one weather injection/texture system and it does the job fairly well if you have top of the line PC that can keep FPS up for you at the respectable levels.   Aesthetically speaking while I like it just fine and it is quite a bit better than default XP,  I find combination of Active sky, UltraweatherXP plugin and  xvision Ves preset more pleasing to the eye and more friendlier on FPS side.

 

But LR have already said it won't work with Vulkan on Xplane 11.50, not without major re-coding. Hopefully the devs can get it working with Vulkan though, given time.

16 minutes ago, eaim said:

But LR have already said it won't work with Vulkan on Xplane 11.50

xE wont work with Vulkan, but it will work with XP 11.50 for the simple reason that OpenGL will still be supported.

disregard

Edited February 12, 20206 yr by HumptyDumpty

1 hour ago, CarlosF said:

xE wont work with Vulkan, but it will work with XP 11.50 for the simple reason that OpenGL will still be supported.

Thanks for pointing that out, however i'll not buy it until I know it will work with Vulkan and the boost that will bring to help alleviate stutters etc

Ok, so I gave the 1.13 version another go and I must say I am finally converted. Many times it's spectacular, and the few times it screws up are far in between - and it's not like X-Vision is free of screw ups, thinking of bad looking distant clouds at altitude, abrupt visibility changes, generally no feel of flying in and out of weather, lacking cloud types ect. Two things really elevate this to the next level, first thing is the procedural generation - never will you see the same cloud type/formation, everything is random, like in real life. Second is scale - with the clouds extending to the horizon, multiple clouds levels - the sky finally feels built to size, and not like some miniature. I am including some screens that should support these points. Another plus is the lack of required scripts ect. - all that (albeit fun) configuation, that always had a "band aid" feel to me - gone, xEnviro just works, no additional tweaks required. Of course my screens feature my personal Reshade preset, but X-Plane without Reshade generally became impossible for me after seeing what Reshade can do. Even without the clouds, the sky model is spot on, perfect colors, no more gradient banding.

A word about performance. xEnviro is not fully optimized yet, and it needs GPU power and especially VRAM. At 1280x720 with SSAO + 8xAA (I prefer a smooth, cinematic image instead of a clinical look, also X-Plane just can't handle proper AA at higher res., even on a 1080ti), my 1080ti was usually 60-80% busy with VRAM almost full at 10GB (textures high) - 30FPS locked. VRAM usage may be reduced by running textures on med (no effect on xEnviro) or by lowering xEnviro settings, although there ain't much. I guess it's only getting better from here, with xEnviro working on better performance and bug fixing.

 

Broken cover at dusky EDDF

 

Mont Blanc on the way to LFMN

 

Some PNW Peak peeking through the clouds, note the xEnviro lensflare.

 

Odenwald

 

Somewhat towering cumulus above LSZH - note that every cloud is different, procedurally generated.

Edited February 18, 20206 yr by Colonel X

1280x720... with a 1080ti. Seriously?

Clouds do look great, but hope they can get the performance issues fixed.

Edited February 18, 20206 yr by Pugilist2

Well, flight simming is a game of trade-offs. I could run in 2K but then I'd have to turn down AA and get jagged edges, and there's nothing more immersion killing than that. 4K is out of the question for X-Plane anyways unless you're willing to sacrifice a LOT of scenery/shader detail. I am running mostly maxed out on everything, including 100% Global Traffic density and xEnviro and get 30 FPS locked. The difference to 2K is negligible, if you have a display that upscales the image well, for example all Sony TV's do. It's really hard to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p at all. Resolution is probably the most overrated single feature in X-Plane. 

Lensflare pic is spectacular! Looks better than a photo.

Thanks @Colonel X for the latest reports!