TRUESKY (weather engine?)

[clive6354 12]

Hello

Please would someone inform me if TrueSky in P3D v5 has a intregrated weather engine to generate live weather whilst flying?

 

Clive Alexander

[ErichB 3,642]

Not integrated.  This is being left for 3rd parties.  Active Sky is on the case

[Rocky_53 1,579]

I hope Rex or someone manages to provide some alternative clouds to the default!

[ErichB 3,642]

Have to say, the TrueSky cloud models are not as awe inspiring as they were in Flightsim World (or whatever it was called).  I'm sure the REX and HiFi boys will make us all smile.  The default lighting however, is streets ahead of previous default lighting but I still think there is huge scope for shader alternatives.

Edited April 16, 2020 by ErichB

[GSalden 4,656]

But what will enhanced weather with multiple cloudlayers and sometimes bad weather do to VRAM ?

[kand 205]

Here on my single 1080ti using nvidia surround with 3 screens at a resolution of 5760x3072 I am hitting 7.4gb of VRAM used out of 9.2 available. 

This with most sliders toward the right, AIG AI traffic at 40%, all ORBX stuff installed including full fat resgions  (except true earth)  clouds on ultra and I have set 3 layers so far with most at overcast. Will do some more testing later once work has finished. I think anyone running at 4K on more than 1 screen will easily exhaust VRAM on an 11gb card. Over LHR with the above and simwings airport easily maintaining 30FPS where as on 4.5 I was high teens. 

I run a jetmax 777 setup so dont use any complex add on aircraft 

Edited April 16, 2020 by kand

[Dominique_K 10,138]

30 minutes ago, ErichB said:

Not integrated.  This is being left for 3rd parties.  Active Sky is on the case

 

7 minutes ago, ErichB said:

Have to say, the TrueSky cloud models  are not as awe inspiring as they were in Flightsim World /…/  there is huge scope for shader alternatives.

Hey Erich

Warning my friend : I am going to tease you.😈,  

About the weather and sky ;  no engine weather even rudimentary, clouds and shaders so so, the awful yellow small roundel in the sky supposed to be the sun is back. Also, in some of the screenshots I saw, the atmospheric light is kind of yellowish when the sun is low (do you confirm ?).

What exactly  is there in this department in v5 that we should be looking forward to if we haven't bought it yet ? Tongue in cheek and serious at the same time.

I have another question. I saw in some shots large patches of foam on the ocean,close to the shore. Are they animated  or  still ? They look awful in a pic, kind of a pollution, but could be nice if  animated.

 

[kand 205]

I think the reason people complain about sun size is because the default zoom level is too low (too zoomed out) . If you set your zoom level to the correct setting for your screen size and distance, the sun size is far better. 

On my setup, I use a zoom of 1.32 across 3 screens, this number calculated properly using an equation. The sun looks far better, I will post a screenshot later 

Edited April 16, 2020 by kand

[G-YMML1 582]

Am I correct that even LM themselves stated that TrueSky is in beta?

WOuld appreciate some clarification

[ErichB 3,642]

59 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

 

Hey Erich

Warning my friend : I am going to tease you.😈,  

About the weather and sky ;  no engine weather even rudimentary, clouds and shaders so so, the awful yellow small roundel in the sky supposed to be the sun is back. Also, in some of the screenshots I saw, the atmospheric light is kind of yellowish when the sun is low (do you confirm ?).

What exactly  is there in this department in v5 that we should be looking forward to if we haven't bought it yet ? Tongue in cheek and serious at the same time.

I have another question. I saw in some shots large patches of foam on the ocean,close to the shore. Are they animated  or  still ? They look awful in a pic, kind of a pollution, but could be nice if  animated.

 

As it's you, that's ok 😛

The atmospheric light is at certain times of the day yellowish, but overall, the lighting model is FAR better - even in this early default state.  Shaders I think will do alot to make this far better still I hope.

I just did a flight around Orbx Southern England in the C130.  Sliders approx 75% maxed.  2 cloud layers about 1000 ft  thick, 80% overcast.   40-45 fps.  Never ever experienced that over Orbx London before. Butter smooth.    No 5.6/9.8 GPU RAM used.  4K 55' monitor.   Cloud and cloud formations need work and there's some artefacting in external view when passing by those clouds.  But the clouds generally look volumetric and much better than those ridiculous cut and paste 2D sprites.

Lot's of potential here.  If you haven't bought it yet, just wait until they release a HF. 

If you're just a GA flier and want to go bombing around an Orbx region in the PNW, I would say 100% buy it.   If you wan to fly tubes and are reliant on real weather , FSLabs and PMDG , HiFi and REX , wait a bit longer.  But when they all come to the table, I think this sim will sing.

Edited April 16, 2020 by ErichB

[pmb 5,137]

46 minutes ago, kand said:

I think the reason people complain about sun size is because the default zoom level is too low (too zoomed out) . If you set your zoom level to the correct setting for your screen size and distance, the sun size is far better. 

On my setup, I use a zoom of 1.32 across 3 screens, this number calculated properly using an equation. The sun looks far better, I will post a screenshot later 

I use one 3440x1440 monitor and the wide screen setting in sim. In this case a set of older YT videos suggest a zoom value around 1, and I have it at 0.9 at present. The default value indeed is much too low and gives me a fish-eye effect.

Kind regards, Michael

[Rocky_53 1,579]

1 hour ago, kand said:

Here on my single 1080ti using nvidia surround with 3 screens at a resolution of 5760x3072 I am hitting 7.4gb of VRAM used out of 9.2 available. 

This with most sliders toward the right, AIG AI traffic at 40%, all ORBX stuff installed including full fat resgions  (except true earth)  clouds on ultra and I have set 3 layers so far with most at overcast. Will do some more testing later once work has finished. I think anyone running at 4K on more than 1 screen will easily exhaust VRAM on an 11gb card. Over LHR with the above and simwings airport easily maintaining 30FPS where as on 4.5 I was high teens. 

I run a jetmax 777 setup so dont use any complex add on aircraft 

But I'm guessing you're not running a VC hence the perfectly acceptable frames.

[kand 205]

10 minutes ago, Rockliffe said:

But I'm guessing you're not running a VC hence the perfectly acceptable frames.

Correct- only use a VC with no model attached except a landing light array

[kand 205]

Yeah, I guess the sun is a bit scaled down actually, but dont forget this photo is captured across 3x42" HD TVs 

https://ibb.co/bm6wWR4

https://ibb.co/VQfksMk

2nd image over ORBX London. 4 layers of cloud varying densities, no effect on FPS or VRAM surprisingly 

Edited April 16, 2020 by kand

[JRBarrett 3,070]

25 minutes ago, G-YMML1 said:

Am I correct that even LM themselves stated that TrueSky is in beta?

WOuld appreciate some clarification

In the graphics settings screen the word “beta” appears next to the check box for “enhanced” atmosphere, which enables True Sky.

From comments in the official support forums at LM, it appears that at this time, True Sky only supports 2 cloud layers.

I do like the way that True Sky changes the appearance of the atmosphere in terms of haze and lighting, but I’m not really impressed by the clouds. Using the default “fair weather” theme, the scattered cumulus clouds have very little structure - they look like individual clumps of fog. Actual cumulus clouds have flat bases but are “bumpy” on the upper side. 

The visual effect of flying through one is very nice from within the cockpit - it looks more like what you would see entering and leaving a cloud  in a real airplane.

Using the default “fair weather” theme, the scatter cumulus clouds in True Sky are rather few and far between, and I see no higher layer. Turning the enhanced atmosphere off uses the standard cloud system we have always had in P3D. There are more cumulus clouds at lower levels, and a definite upper cirrus layer.
 

True Sky uses more VRAM. I have an 11 GB GTX1080Ti GPU. Looking at the frame rate counter sitting on the ramp at my home airport (KELM), in the default Mooney Bravo, with Orbx Global Base Textures and OpenLCNA, with original default clouds set to 100 miles draw distance and cloud detail slider set to maximum, I am using 2.8 GB VRAM (out of 9.2 GB available).

Switching to True Sky (using the same fair weather theme) consumes 3.5 GB VRAM. That’s still plenty of overhead in terms of free VRAM left on my GPU,  but that is with a default non-complex aircraft at a default airport.

For me, the limitation of two cloud layers is a problem. I don’t see how Active Sky could produce the magnificent cloudscapes they are known for with only two layers to work with. However, since the original cloud system is still available, I’m sure they will be able to use that they way they always have once they produce a V5 version of AS.