Download:

http://xenviro.net/update.php

Release notes:

https://forum.thresholdx.net/topic/3368-114-release/?fbclid=IwAR1hviXF5ngrY1qQXCYSysz_D2UVZ5A9XC3VojWC6yjlW9A-TIumIceF3F4

 

 

If it ever gets updated for Vulkan, I will consider purchasing.

Edited November 25, 20205 yr by Pugilist2

I thought this was the Vulkan update, but sadly not yet.. I simply can't go back to OpenGL now, so sadly this will remain off for now, but glad it's on their roadmap for the next version

"Too little, too late" by the playbook...

Was excited at first. Then realised no Vulkan. Hard Pass.

It was a first day purchase for me. Checked out every new release just to be disappointed again. And now not Vulcan-ready, that tops everything.

DO.NOT.BUY.EVER.

I'd expect vulkan to follow pretty quickly tbh, its a solved problem now and shouldn't require much rewrite.

The issue is that I feel it's too late now and the clock is really ticking on this one. Not only is LR going to update/improve the weather in XP12, but also the elephant in the room (MFS) and even P3D are a long way ahead in terms of rendering clouds that they really need to work faster on this one. A really steep uphill battle I fear, with LR not being too cooperative giving them features they need. 

It matters not in most cases, because I bought xEnviro back when it was first released for a premium price, and it always bugged me that I can't set my own weather themes, so much so that I rarely use it because of this. The freeware EnhancedCloudscapes actually works better for me, although not as pretty looking, it at least respects whatever weather you set in the sim and has lots of tweaking options. I also own SkymaxPro which I use on Mac OS X since nobody else seems to want to support that platform even though it makes up a fair chunk of X-Plane users now (and they are likely to stay rather than jump ship to MFS 😉)

10 hours ago, tonywob said:

A really steep uphill battle I fear

I think that one is obvious just from how long its taken them to get here...

Not that I really disagree, completely useless to me with no macOS or Linux support anyway.

But I have to say I'm not really expecting that much from XP12 weather any time soon, they've more than got their hands full with this garbage

(I mentioned in the Austin video thread how shocked I was about default scenery - they're why)

Really used to my scenery always looking like this (my EnhancedCloudscapes fork + ortho4XP):

I'd expect XP12 weather to be more an incremental change than revolutionary, feedback page is "looking into it", which means to me they don't have much there, and weather simulation visualisation is an absolutely epic challenge (not to mention the weather simulation side). I'd be very very surprised if XP12 weather is competitive with XEnviro, which means XE could well end up a "must have" XP12 plugin for windows users. Nanobot has actually looked into TruSKY, and so far even that sort of import is a long way from a panacea.

 

Any serious interim hope for a medium-term improvement in weather depiction may lie with Active Sky, although HiFi has lately fallen silent about its possible development of a cloud system (presumably volumetric) for XP.

I invested in XEnviro years ago, and eventually wrote it off as an interesting exercise, but a total loss. XE never got its volumetric solution right for OpenGL, and then rejected development for Vulkan - saying that the LR goalposts were moving so much, it was impossible. Now that XP Vulkan is stable, XE says it will produce a compatible product. But like all previous versions, they never say when, or what to expect. Purchasers of this product are, in effect, eternal guinea pigs.

I nevertheless respect the XE developers and its supporters. However, even its latest iteration for OpenGL is reported to stuff the fps while retaining many of the original problems.

XE could prove to have been a bridge too far for its authors, so - not least because it costs too much - I recommend people to not buy XEnviro until it is a product proven by users. Potential purchasers should also visit XE-related forums to get an idea of how long this has been going on and how so little has been resolved.

Edited November 27, 20205 yr by Brian Mackie

58 minutes ago, Brian Mackie said:

is reported to stuff the fps

The number of people with graphics cards barely capable of rendering a pie chart we get complaining about performance and artifacts on the Enhanced Cloudscapes discord leaves me seriously doubting the veracity of any such reports.

Plus, its windows only, if fps was a major concern you couldn't even run it.

 

I guess there was always an issue with clouds, now we have vulcan, there may have a way around it.

7 hours ago, mjrhealth said:

I guess there was always an issue with clouds

default clouds:

EC Freeware

XP default clouds dont look that bad, its only when you start watching them you realise how bad they really are.

19 hours ago, mSparks said:

 

I'd expect XP12 weather to be more an incremental change than revolutionary, feedback page is "looking into it", which means to me they don't have much there, a

 

I would say the "looking into it" is WIP, lightning is also "looking into it" and ben said he is working on that for a while now. I also recall ben said on the fsilite interview, a year and a half ago that he already did some stuff for clouds, who knows...

 

Edited November 27, 20205 yr by mtaxp