Acive Sky and EA.....hmm?

[spilok 1,136]

Is it even possible that ACTIVE SKY can affect EA?  I really didn't think it could.  However, with the new update to Active Sky today, I thought I'd just try to fly with EA once more.  I turned if off previously because it creates such artificially looking checkerboard or waffle-like clouds in a continuous, monotonous pattern.

But, I had a suspicion today that maybe, just maybe, Active Sky had the "capability" of affecting the clouds in EA.  So, I fired up an A-320 and departed Allentown, Pa (KABE) and headed south to Charlotte, NC (KCLT), a flight of about 80-90 minutes. There was more than an adequate cloud covering the farther south I flew. I ascended to FL300 and cruised at 305 KTS per hour.  What is saw from the cockpit was NOT that monotonous cloud structure but pretty nice looking clouds. Was it absolutely perfect?  Not really, but its sure wasn't what I had previously seen when flying at this altitude with cloud covering.  I actually looked normal.  When I scanned below the aircraft, I saw a very little of the pattern, but not significantly so.  When I looked out the windshield and to the sides of the plane, the clouds were pretty normal and somewhat impressive. This was a 100% improvement in my opinion.  I surely hope I'm not jumping to conclusions here, and I will make many more flights to test this.  When I descended to FL250-200, the clouds got even more realistic and beautiful.

So, I'd really like to know if AS can affect EA.  Is it possible?  Because if this is true, I am very optimistic that HI-FI will make EA work better than LM is able to.  With 5.2 and Active Sky, I am a very happy simmer.  I'll be really happy if I can use EA and not be disappointed with what I see at altitude.

Stan

[BerndB 349]

Ho Stan, yes, AS can effect EA. They do it while changing the cloudprameters of volumetric clouds, but i guess they have just started and we can exspect more improvements.

[andreh 125]

With AS, the waffle clouds appear sometimes and sometimes they don't. You only see it at high altitudes and directly below or above the aircraft. But generally, I think it works really well.

Regardless, I find it's better than the cardboard cutouts that the legacy clouds are, especially if you fly VR where the cardboard cutout effect becomes really obvious.

Since 5.1, I've flown some really amazing looking flights with EA and AS. Better than I've ever seen in P3D.

 

 

[spilok 1,136]

27 minutes ago, andreh said:

With AS, the waffle clouds appear sometimes and sometimes they don't. You only see it at high altitudes and directly below or above the aircraft. But generally, I think it works really well.

Regardless, I find it's better than the cardboard cutouts that the legacy clouds are, especially if you fly VR where the cardboard cutout effect becomes really obvious.

Since 5.1, I've flown some really amazing looking flights with EA and AS. Better than I've ever seen in P3D.

 

 

Have you updated AS today?  I agree that AS before the update did present the waffle clouds.  After the update, at least for me today, the clouds appear much more normal than before.  I will continue to test and see if it is indeed as I have reported.

[andreh 125]

10 hours ago, spilok said:

Have you updated AS today?  I agree that AS before the update did present the waffle clouds.  After the update, at least for me today, the clouds appear much more normal than before.  I will continue to test and see if it is indeed as I have reported.

Updated yesterday evening, but haven't tried it yet.

[spilok 1,136]

5 hours ago, andreh said:

Updated yesterday evening, but haven't tried it yet.

You may be surprised.

 

[pads103 37]

The clouds look better but AS is giving me unrealistic white haze even at night.

[spilok 1,136]

As the original poster of this thread, I have to "back off" of my initial assessment of the effect Active Sky has on EA.  For some reason, yesterday's flights seemed to produce better clouds than I've seen with EA previously.  I had 3 flights yesterday and EA and Active Sky seemed to produce what I thought were cloud formations not of the "waffle type" we've discussed since EA was part of P3d.

Well, I guess I better not DRINK before flying because.................................today's flights all seemed to revert back to the "clone cloud syndrome" again.  Needless to say that I'm very disappointed for believing I was "on" to something.  Alas, it was not meant to be. I'm back to turning off EA so that I can enjoy clouds somewhat as they look in real life.

Stay sober.  Ha, Ha.

Stan

[andreh 125]

3 hours ago, spilok said:

As the original poster of this thread, I have to "back off" of my initial assessment of the effect Active Sky has on EA.  For some reason, yesterday's flights seemed to produce better clouds than I've seen with EA previously.  I had 3 flights yesterday and EA and Active Sky seemed to produce what I thought were cloud formations not of the "waffle type" we've discussed since EA was part of P3d.

Well, I guess I better not DRINK before flying because.................................today's flights all seemed to revert back to the "clone cloud syndrome" again.  Needless to say that I'm very disappointed for believing I was "on" to something.  Alas, it was not meant to be. I'm back to turning off EA so that I can enjoy clouds somewhat as they look in real life.

Stay sober.  Ha, Ha.

Stan

Like I said, sometimes they're there, sometimes they're not.🙂

[BerndB 349]

i´am happy in use EA with legacy clouds+AS+ASCA+ENVSHADE*ENVTEX

[IanHarrison 522]

On 6/22/2021 at 11:15 PM, andreh said:

Like I said, sometimes they're there, sometimes they're not.🙂

Tried it today and was not happy, still the same old waffle coverage, just a bit thinner.

[pgde 571]

Fixing the waffle clouds was not on the changelog (https://hifisimtech.com/asp3d-update-for-p3d-v5-2/).

[shermank 170]

I am flying the A2A Cessna 182 our of my home fieild, KUGN, over NE Illinois.

I have AS, ASCA, Envshade all active. I am not using volumetric clouds, This is what I am seeing out of the cockpit and from an external view...I think the sim is working very well. BTW, FPS is set at 37 1/2 my monitor's refresh rate, with VSync off and 1/2 adaptive set in Nvidia controller.

Sherm

 

 

Edited June 27, 2021 by shermank
add pix

[spilok 1,136]

1 hour ago, shermank said:

I am flying the A2A Cessna 182 our of my home fieild, KUGN, over NE Illinois.

I have AS, ASCA, Envshade all active. I am not using volumetric clouds, This is what I am seeing out of the cockpit and from an external view...I think the sim is working very well. BTW, FPS is set at 37 1/2 my monitor's refresh rate, with VSync off and 1/2 adaptive set in Nvidia controller.

Sherm

 

 

I never have a problem with GA low flying aircraft.  The waffle clouds always appear at around FL280 and higher.

[shermank 170]

That is interesting about the waffle clouds. Earlier today, i downloaded and flew a freeware 737 to get an idea about the tubeliners. i climbed to nearly 40,000 out of Chicago, heading SW....I used AS, ETC... good looking realistic clouds, nothing waffle about them...maybe a little French toast....well, never mind...i should have taken a screen shot or two....next time I will post here.

 

Sherm