Clouds

[DChockey08 299]

I think one of the issues with EA (and v5 in general) is that there isn’t much customization possible to the shaders that I am aware of. 
 

PTA/Tomatoshade had so many more customization options that are missing from v5

[shermank 170]

12 hours ago, SergioN said:

Thanks Sherm, what about upper winds and integration with NGXu's weather radar?

Sergio, I do not use NGX or any of the large jet aircraft, FMC, etc. I usually fly twin props like the DC3 or single engine Cessna from A2A.

Sherm

[d.tsakiris 418]

I'd like to permanently switch to volumetric clouds, but when I test them, it seems there is still the limitation that only one condition can be displayed, meaning you won't see what you're flying into. Yesterday I had all kinds of colors in front of me on the weather radar, but on the outside that didn't materialize until I was almost on top of it. Can someone confirm this, or am I missing something?

[Bunkie 43]

9 hours ago, coastaldriver said:

Bunkie, i thought the slider for volumetric cloud was controlling the amount but apparently this is not the case with V5.2 HF1 on. All the slider does now apparently is control the distance that cloud is drawn (according to Adam Pestridge -  bestsee his vids on youtube on this and volumetric cloud+EA) It is the same as supposedly switchin off/on volumetric fog the sim config resets it to the default (off), So basically the weather injection or weather engine will take the cloud amount provided on forecastas or met reports and hence display those amounts and type. The LM volumetric cloud config file controls the way the cloud looks and changes and the cloud types! EA is controlling the lighting and shading along with the shaders! The only tweak I now apply is with ENVSHADE to drop back the haze effect and to pick up the depth of the sky colour. I also discovered that backing off the HDR also improved the so called interior dark cockpit as well. I turn off cloud shadows because it creates a few unwanted artifacts and besides unless it is perfectly clear still day in real life you do not see cloud reflected on water just the shaded patches!

So basically apart from a few shader changes I am letting the sim program provide and control the lighting and cloud and letting AS direct the weather injection. Happy to post a screen of these settings for those interested. Still waiting a tweak file from Adam for his tweaks for cloud to make it even better!

Thanks for this, it's all starting to make more sense to me now.  But about the slider - that's not what I'm seeing on my system.  With the slider on 1 I had no clouds (not matching the reported wx) and with the slider on high I had wall to wall clouds (again, not matching the reported wx).  I'll go watch those videos and see if my tiny brain can figure this out - or discover that I'm mis-reading the reported wx!

[bbuckley 133]

10 hours ago, rob0203 said:

I had that also before but now Volumetric clouds are much better! Rex clouds are also 2D sprites

“REX SkyForce 3D” is 2D? I’m using the 3D cloud models. 

[Balint Szarka 123]

5 minutes ago, bbuckley said:

“REX SkyForce 3D” is 2D? I’m using the 3D cloud models. 

Yes technically they are just 2D clouds, they rotate around as you fly by them to create an illusion of them being 3D. While P3D's solution of depicting clouds made out of noise and other technical stuff I don't understand makes them 3D / have volume, just like real clouds made out of water vapor.

[SN737 139]

2 hours ago, shermank said:

Sergio, I do not use NGX or any of the large jet aircraft, FMC, etc. I usually fly twin props like the DC3 or single engine Cessna from A2A.

Sherm

Roger that

[coastaldriver 919]

True Sky and hence EA is software developed by Simul Software engineering. Primarily for games programs. It is amazingly versatile and very very clever programming - it is basically a light and pixel rendering engine operating via an API. They only market to developers and it is expensive! You have to rely on the skills and work of the licensee (LM) to give you top results. What we have in P3D is LM's implementation of the Simul Software license. You can actually read the software manual on how to use it at Simul and there you will see that LM's implementation is controlled - that is we do not have access to the wide variety of tools for modifications etc that they have or Simul provide. We only have a limited amount of control (at the moment) via the GUI sliders in the P3D program. 

If you have a look at their youtube page (videos and examples) you will see that what this software can do. My view is that LM's latest implementation via HF1 for V5.2 is very good. The volumetric cloud config is pretty good too (a few tweaks there still to come)  The trick is learning how to use the controls we have to just get better results - it is not busted but this is all new technology so change and mods are inevitable. That said I am impressed to the point why would you revert back to 2D textures etc for clouds with a dynamic rendering engine like this! 

Here is a link to the Simul page for those interested in actually getting a better grasp of True Sky. If you have a look at this you will see that you will need to spend a little time in sim trying different settings so you get the result your after. At the moment the outcome for me is a very realistic sky rendering and cloud simulation outcome. I am conversing with one of the gurus on some other aspects - I am happy to share the outcome of those further improvements in due course. 

trueSKY - YouTube

Also have a look a this thread where I posted some images of sky and snow (that is also a True Sky feature by the way the rendering of precip and snow)

P3DV5.2 + AS - Real Weather and Clouds - The Prepar3d Forum - The AVSIM Community

[mikeymike 360]

Are there any tweaks in the vol clouds cfg that need to be changed now with new asp3d?

or it’s working well as is?

cheers

mike

[coastaldriver 919]

Mikeymike - there are a few minor tweaks that can be applied. I do not have them yet but basically there is not much change to the LM default volumetric cloud config. Adam Pestridge who really has a good handle on this feature and simming in general (Check out his Youtube videos of some of his flights if your interested) has promised me a copy of his minor tweaks but he also says the default config with V5.2 HF1 is very good and little to change! With Adams permission when I get them I will post the new config file here!

[MäxliBäxli 41]

On 8/20/2021 at 3:00 PM, rob0203 said:

You should try again with latest Active sky:

EA on

Volumetric clouds on

Detailed clouds checked in Active Sky

Max Cloud layers 9

It is amazing now!

Example:

https://imgur.com/gallery/aa2GfVl

Rob two questions - what about following settings in ASP3D (True or False):

Prevent ASP3D EA Volumetric Cloud Control in P3Dv5

Disable default haze layer

 

Greets,

Markus

 

 

[Juliett Alfa Romeo 530]

https://postimg.cc/CBNWGWxN

https://postimg.cc/Cdc3zTtM

https://postimg.cc/YLCTbb4w

https://postimg.cc/pyVNWXs1

[Caveney737 66]

On 8/20/2021 at 2:00 PM, rob0203 said:

You should try again with latest Active sky:

EA on

Volumetric clouds on

Detailed clouds checked in Active Sky

Max Cloud layers 9

It is amazing now!

Example:

https://imgur.com/gallery/aa2GfVl

I have my volumetric clouds looking really good now, but I never seem to get more than one layer between about 3 to 8 thousand feet, I have certainly

never seen anything like your screen shot! I have even set maximum cloud layers in AS to 15 and still the same. Also never see any Cirrus clouds - is this normal

and maybe being addressed by LM or AS?

I also notice that the top level of the one cloud layer I do get is flat, no clouds sticking up above others. Again is this normal or am I missing something.

Thanks for any help or info.

[rickgo 64]

4 hours ago, Caveney737 said:

Also never see any Cirrus clouds - is this normal

I also have never seen cirrus in AS live weather.

However if you dont startup AS, and use one of the weather schemes such as

"Building storms" , cold fronts and fair weather you should be able to see cirrus.l dont have a clue why AS cant show cirrus.

[coastaldriver 919]

Rickgo - I am certain a large part of peoples frustration about what they see or not see using real time weather is related to the way weather is reported/forecast. We know all the weather engines rely primarily on metars or met reports, forecasts are divided into low level area and high level forecasts. Low level forecasts will have the mid and higher clouds on them but these forecasts are primarlly for the GA flyer. Jet folk get grid winds/temps and an overlay forecast that provides data about high level weather (note weather such as CB's and jetstreams or turbulence) the latter forecasts do not have cloud descriptors or levels on them. The reason is simple at these altitudes the cloud is basically layers of thin ice particles and not a problem for any aircraft whereas a CB or CAT is! The next problem that emerges is the way cloud and weather is reported in metars. Metars and TAF's focus on the airport area in particular generally not beyond about 5 nm. They only report cloud in the largest amound first then the next so there may be smaller amounts of another cloud but it will not be reported. The term CAVOk can result in their being overcast condtions but no cloud below 5000ft at all so the term CAVOK means no cloud is reported at all unless it is significant. Automated weather stations do not even record cloud again giving clear skies when it might be pouring rain!

You can see the issues now that the weather engines have to deal with. They cannot interpolate of high level met because they are just a group of pictures and symbols about weather phenomena, the winds and temps come in a grid format (that they can handle) and the only cloud given is on low level forecasts and how well if at all any weather engine can use this data is unknown, I suspect not at all, they can grab winds and temps at low level (also on a grid chart) but the low level forecasts are not so easy to decipher or recast using current software tools. 

I find the weather injection in the sim mirrors this situation - so I do not get a lot of display with multi layers (unless they are accurately reported by chance on some reports) that the winds and temps are correct compared to forecasts but other weather phenomena is well flaky but then again looking at a high level weather forecast you would see that a circle around an area say the size of england with a few squiggles indicating CBs is not going to show up unless it is being reported below. I also see the issue of clear skies but it being overcast at altitude (the CAVOK issue) and the lack of layers because of the method of cloud reporting in real time weather. 

Aviation weather reports and forecasts are tailored to aircraft operation, you want to know what is the dangerous weather, what are the winds, what are the minimums and what signifcant weather has been observed or reported. If you IFR what layers give icing (you work it out they do not tell you - your expected to have learnt met anyway). That said you can derive a very accurate picture from this material of cloud and weather but not the sort that a sim weather engine can use. Now that said all the world weather bureaus or organisations collect a huge amount of very accurate data and reports but these all live on different systems and the forecast people use that and a whole bunch of other stuff which our weather engines cannot. 

I think the weather engines do a pretty good job with what they can use it is just not complete and never will be for the reasons I have explained. I guess if you want a fancy sky with lots of layers etc they go into the weather section of the sim and create it - if you do that you will see it! but it is a static picture!