No matter how much I try, I cannot get myself to love or even "like" EA in this sim.  It still produces the waffle-like "factory replicated" clouds at high altitudes.  It still produces that artificial perfectly straight line across the horizon delineating the clouds from the ground.  It still produces darker images than I (perhaps most simmers) like. It really doesn't reflect the real sky or weather when combined with Active Sky....at least not for me. Active Sky without EA does indeed give me an accurate representation of what I see out my window.

I really want to use and enjoy EA, but after all this time between P3d versions, I really don't think appropriate effort or time was spent on improving EA.  I ABSOLUTELY love this 5.2 version of P3d.  It flies perfectly for me with ZERO stutters or pauses, and practically every one of my sliders are full right.  Draw Distance  and Tessellation are the only 2 sliders that are not full right.  So, the entire sim is wonderful...but EA needs a concentrated effort by LM if they truly want to make it an acceptable option, in my OPINION!

Stan

1 hour ago, spilok said:

No matter how much I try, I cannot get myself to love or even "like" EA in this sim.  It still produces the waffle-like "factory replicated" clouds at high altitudes.  It still produces that artificial perfectly straight line across the horizon delineating the clouds from the ground.  It still produces darker images than I (perhaps most simmers) like. It really doesn't reflect the real sky or weather when combined with Active Sky....at least not for me. Active Sky without EA does indeed give me an accurate representation of what I see out my window.

I really want to use and enjoy EA, but after all this time between P3d versions, I really don't think appropriate effort or time was spent on improving EA.  I ABSOLUTELY love this 5.2 version of P3d.  It flies perfectly for me with ZERO stutters or pauses, and practically every one of my sliders are full right.  Draw Distance  and Tessellation are the only 2 sliders that are not full right.  So, the entire sim is wonderful...but EA needs a concentrated effort by LM if they truly want to make it an acceptable option, in my OPINION!

Stan

Good to read that you found what works abd looks best for you Stan.

What I miss with EA clouds are real cauliflower looking cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds. 
From a distance they look like soft clouds as one blob. The 2D clouds do look better from a distance.

Howrver, I want 3D clouds where the direction of the lighting on the clouds has influence on shadows on the clouds.

And I first wanted better looking OC instead of a flat pancake.

LM has focused on improving ES  dusk/dawn  and giving the opportunity to include 2D clouds into EA. That shows me that the cauliflower looking clouds are perhaps not possible with TrueSky.

As I also fly MSFS and there 3D cauliflower clouds exist I really hope it will come to P3D too….

After having read through this thread and seen some screenshots, I am still not sold on EA because you still encounter white waffles in some situations, and the sunsets are always of the same color (even though they have eliminated the Mars look, for which they deserve appreciation). The only thing that looks good is atmospheric haze during daytime. 

The combination of Active Sky, Envtex sky textures, Envshade and ASCA clouds still gives me the most natural atmosphere with a good variety of dawn/dusk colors - and this goes back to P3Dv3. Although the clouds are 2D sprites, they look realistic to me from a distance, and it's barely noticeable that they are 2D. In MSFS, the clouds often look like white volcanic ashes and sometimes overdramatic.

I have read much less complaints about the weather depiction in older versions of P3D (v3 and v4). Popcorn clouds were the biggest problem, but no more at some point. With EA, the complaints seem to outweigh the benefits. It's somewhat disappointing to see that one year after the initial release of P3Dv5, the weather with EA still has the documented bugs.

Edited June 11, 20214 yr by Afterburner

And this is how a natural visibility layer should look like - without the sharp line!  (This is P3Dv4 with the above mentioned add-ons):

I am

 very pleased with performance with 5.2 non EA used with asca HDR off  the only issue I have is the  white haze in Horizon Not sure if it’s asp3d or P3d ?

im sure it’ll be fixed in a hotfix 

cheers 

mike

From the Simul website, I wonder how we create this scene

3 minutes ago, kand said:

From the Simul website, I wonder how we create this scene

Users asked this question a year ago and the resounding answer from LM is: You can’t.

Hmm @BiologicalNanobot , If the truesky shaders are fully available in P3D, why would LM say this scene is not possible, any idea why this doesn't stack up?

7 hours ago, Chapstick said:

Users asked this question a year ago and the resounding answer from LM is: You can’t.

Do you have a link to that thread ? Thanks

Maybe that was only at the beginning but we are now almost a year of development further. However, the VolumetricClouds.cfg file from 5.2 is the same as the one from 5.1 HF1 so sad enough no improvements have been made ….. 

If a year ago they released EA as atmosphere only + the usual 2D clouds as what 5.2 is capable of, that would have been seen as an improvement .

But we have also seen the TrueSky clouds and they are still like a preview and I feel that it probably is not possible to improve them more ….

 

Edited June 12, 20214 yr by GSalden

8 hours ago, kand said:

Hmm @BiologicalNanobot , If the truesky shaders are fully available in P3D, why would LM say this scene is not possible, any idea why this doesn't stack up?

There is a huge difference between creating a "scene" at some basic or static environment or creating a scene in a dynamic and existing environment.

Also P3D needs a decent performance. Not all CPU/GPU power can be used for rendering the clouds, raymarching, shadows, etc.

This is why there MUST always be a good mix between visuals and performance.

Marcus

Edited June 12, 20214 yr by mpo910

2 minutes ago, mpo910 said:

There is a huge difference between creating a "scene" at some basic or static environment or creating a scene in a dynamic and existing environment.

Also P3D needs a decent performance. Not all CPU/GPU power can be used for rendering the clouds, raymarching, shadows, etc.

This is way there MUST always be a good mix between visuals and performance.

Marcus

My pc can handle the EA clouds at Ultra with ease. So stopping the improvements of TrueSky clouds for P3D is, imho, a big showstopper…

6 minutes ago, GSalden said:

My pc can handle the EA clouds at Ultra with ease. So stopping the improvements of TrueSky clouds for P3D is, imho, a big showstopper…

They should not stop improvements indeed. 

I saw many many issues....really a lot...during whole BETA phase and even after roll out. But I must admit I have to agree on some topics here:

- Waffle clouds at some conditions (more different cloud models needed and mix them up)

- Less pixelated clouds (at dawn and dusk especially)!

- Blending fog, haze with clouds or smooth visual transitions between non, haze, fog clouds

- BETTER LIGHTING (Not lightning) Single light source depending scattering and colorization (sun = strong.....going away from sun looses light power and less dense colors

- More Thunderstorm like clouds. More models needed to mix them up

- Terrain / Cloud rendering view Bug (cloud in front of terrain for instance)

- And transitions between weather updates

I think this are the huge topics. I get it. We will keep going ahead on pushing this

But we BETA users are equally depending on LM as you all are too.

Marcus

Edited June 12, 20214 yr by mpo910

2 minutes ago, mpo910 said:

They should not stop improvements indeed. 

I saw many many issues....really a lot...during whole BETA phase and even after roll out. But I must admit I have to agree on some topics here:

- Waffle clouds at some conditions (more different cloud models needed and mix them up)

- Less pixelated clouds (at dawn and dusk especially)!

- Blending fog, haze with clouds or smooth visual transitions between non, haze, fog clouds

- BETTER LIGHTING (Not lightning) Single light source depending scattering and colorization (sun = strong.....going away from sun looses light power and less dense colors

- More Thunderstorm like clouds. More models needed to mix them up

- Terrain / Cloud rendering view Bug (cloud in front of terrain for instance)

- And transitions between weather updates

I think this are the huge topics. I get it. We will keep going ahead on pushing this

But we BETA users are equally depending on LM as you all are too.

Marcus

Totally agree on this.

No improvements on the clouds in almost a year and now the possibility to use 2D clouds with EA gives me the feeling that further TrueSky cloud development is not a big priority or perhaps not even possible by the way P3D has been build.

Had they only given us EA atmosphere without the clouds …. But we have seen the 3D clouds…

Btw : I will post my VolumetricClouds.cfg today for anyone who wants to try it or use it as a base for further testing.

 

3 minutes ago, GSalden said:

No improvements on the clouds in almost a year and now the possibility to use 2D clouds with EA gives me the feeling that further TrueSky cloud development is not a big priority or perhaps not even possible by the way P3D has been build.

Understand you are thinking this. The development time they have put into this they should have used it for enhancements instead

4 minutes ago, GSalden said:

Btw : I will post my VolumetricClouds.cfg today for anyone who wants to try it or use it as a base for further testing.

Please take me into account of this (PM or @mpo910). I will test this intensively today and the upcoming days and if it better (which it most likely is knowing your effort you put on this Gerard) I hope you allow me to parse it to LM?

 

My modified VolumetricClouds.cfg file :

https://we.tl/t-Q2cto1tJ7W