A keypress to change Volumetric Cloud setting?

[Noel 4,502]

Right now, w/ my 2070 Super, about the only thing that will nail me is flying thru those diffuse clouds when I'm set on Ultra.   A moment ago, GPU load hardly went over 80% while taking off out of Denver until I ran into widespread diffuse clouds during which GPU load went to 100% and w/ it the concommittant dive in frame rate from a rock solid 30 down to 20 and with it bad stuttering.  The irony is here I'm flying out of Denver and there is so much going on in this busy metro area, and no probleme whatsoever until up to 30K feet and we enter this thick cloud layer.  Shot up to 44K feet to get thru it and now as you can see on Ultra GPU load is around 74%:

Especially since I can't find a blithering GPU upgrade, I would just love to not have to stop and dial back clouds to High, which usually takes care of it, then another stop to dial back up to Ultra once out of these clouds.  Often, as you well know, GPU load can be substantial while on the ground at a busy airport, so again being able to quickly toggle clouds back a notch or two often is all it takes, then during ascent its ready to go back to Ultra.  I know, you can start at High but I like the quality at Ultra.  Kind of like the key press sequence you to do change Sim Rate, I would love to be able to do this during runtime and I have to think it definitely could be done and perhaps quite easily.  

Let me know if this is something you too would like to have and I'll Wishlist it w/ a link here.

 

[wim123 763]

def would be handy yes, for me would be between medium and high.

[Tuskin38 6,507]

I honestly don't see that big of a difference between high and medium other than performance.

[Noel 4,502]

I see enough of a difference to appreciate being able to toggle levels of complexity.  It's amazing the impact in terms of performance is what it is.

[Noel 4,502]

I'm amazed there isn't more interest in this idea.

[bean_sprout 1,201]

I suspect most would like to have it dynamically done based on current performance.

Regards

bs

[Ixoye 1,821]

Am I the only one that think High looks better than Ultra? but I'm glad i do, because the performance hit is huge between them.

[The Moose 1,177]

38 minutes ago, Ixoye said:

Am I the only one that think High looks better than Ultra? but I'm glad i do, because the performance hit is huge between them.

Nope. Ultra is very noticeably better looking than High.  

Not sure why clouds are causing you guys such bad performance hits. Both you and Noel have better cards than i do but i'm seeing virtually no performance drop between medium and ultra which is why i stay with ultra clouds at all times.  They are the last thing on my list to change if i need to tweak for performance.

I'm only playing at 1080p mind you.  Perhaps the relative performance of clouds is far worse at higher resolutions.

[Noel 4,502]

2 hours ago, The Moose said:

Nope. Ultra is very noticeably better looking than High.  

Not sure why clouds are causing you guys such bad performance hits. Both you and Noel have better cards than i do but i'm seeing virtually no performance drop between medium and ultra which is why i stay with ultra clouds at all times.  They are the last thing on my list to change if i need to tweak for performance.

I'm only playing at 1080p mind you.  Perhaps the relative performance of clouds is far worse at higher resolutions.

Presumbly because of the positions of all the other sliders affecting GPU load.  I'm at 1440p as well FWIW.  I def prefer Ultra on clouds, and often I can get away with it in the air, except those widespread diffuse clouds as in the screenshot then perf can really tank.  This happened in P3D as well w/ certain types of mist and haze which could really tax the GPU.  One of the aspects of clouds in MSFS I don't see enough of is very high definition clouds w/ crisp edges like you see in the real world at times, lots of times, and Ultra is a bit closer to that.

I posited a runtime optimizer where users prioritize what matters to them, the sim 'looks' at GPU and CPU loads and adjusts accordingly.  It strikes me this is vastly more doable in MSFS than FSX/P3D, where you had to stop and do a complete re-render whenever scenery variables were changed, and this is not the case w/ MSFS, where you stop the sim, makes adjustments, sometimes big adjustments, and hit save and resume and the repaint is instant.  This suggests a runtime optimizer could really go a long ways to help people adapt to their hardware while at the same time get the best possible IQ, always.  Strangly there too there was very lukewarm interest, whereas to me it seems like one giant no-brainer to want to see happen.  I really don't like having to stop and readjust, and yet I really like getting best IQ.  Oh well I try 

[David Mills 4,771]

On my system, Cloud settings are the single-most important determinant of FPS. Also -- and this is rarely discussed -- the Cloud settings affect performance whether there are any clouds in the sky or not. Try it for yourself: Set Clouds to ULTRA, then set up a flight with Clear Skies. Note your FPS. Then, turn Cloud settings down to LOW, and again fly in Clear Skies (where no clouds at all are visible). My system gets a 5 FPS boost (at least) with clouds on LOW (as compared to ULTRA), even when flying in totally Clear Skies. So the moral of this story is this: If you're going to be flying in Clear Skies, turn your Cloud settings down to LOW. Although quite counterintuitive, it does make a very real and very big difference in FPS.

[Noel 4,502]

3 hours ago, David Mills said:

the Cloud settings affect performance whether there are any clouds in the sky or not. Try it for yourself: Set Clouds to ULTRA, then set up a flight with Clear Skies. Note your FPS. Then, turn Cloud settings down to LOW, and again fly in Clear Skies (where no clouds at all are visible). My system gets a 5 FPS boost (at least) with clouds on LOW (as compared to ULTRA), even when flying in totally Clear Skies. So the moral of this story is this: If you're going to be flying in Clear Skies, turn your Cloud settings down to LOW. Although quite counterintuitive, it does make a very real and very big difference in FPS.

Right on David I have noticed this for a long time now.  Since I'm vsync'd to 30hz, I can't really watch FPS per se, instead I just watch GPS utilization %, and as GPS utilization starts to approach 100% the system is unable to maintain 30FPS.  My sense is the reason for this may have to do w/ aerosol density. This is consistent with when you fly thru diffuse thin clouds as in the shot above the perf hit will be huge, and so w/ 'clear skies' there will be some haze and this is then why by turning down in clear skies you get a drop in GPS load.

Edited June 19, 2021 by Noel