1 hour ago, mSparks said:

seriously, its $30 on steam.

Thanks for that. Sim time is precious to me and I am definitely disinterested in spending time and effort to learn an entire new platform, and it would be for me.  But as I say, should MSFS be unable to mature a little more and accommodate quality offerings from PMDG and others I would first look at the XP platform, but not before then.  I'm patient too and have a lot of great experiences on MSFS, and that is w/o my old crutch, FSCaptain, that I never flew in P3D without.  If FSCaptain has a beta version but it's still very limited in scope, and I would guess they would love to follow suit with Ground Services X for MSFS, so again have to be patient.  

 

3 hours ago, Noel said:

disinterested in spending time and effort to learn an entire new platform

Erm, then why are you asking about it?

Max confused face.

___

If you are really one "for the visuals"

Buy yourself a reverb g2 (or similar spec) for christmas, It'll work with update simulator and the free xplane demo. It'll take about 10 seconds of using it before you are left wondering how you ever thought a 2D monitor could deliver good visuals.

14 hours ago, Janov said:

I would actually say those PG shots look good enough to land a helicopter in it.

Would be worth mentioning that all of the PG is considered "landscape" which in MSFS means its a hard surface you can land on.  I've had fun with Hype's H145 doing make believe "exec shuttle runs" from skyscrapers in Manhatten to Teterboro a few weeks ago.

As with most things in life there are tradeoffs.  I readily admit that once you get within 100' or so the PG starts to break down a bit which is why no airports are done with it.  But up until that point, the detail you can see is breathtaking, esp if its an area you know well.  Its also cool to be on some random skyscraper and still see a somewhat recognizable representation of all of the correct AC units, water towers, etc (even if a little mushed) when you're plopping your chopper onto it.  And all of the surrounding buildings still look pretty great.

If you take a look at some of the better Google Earth rips that have been done for MSFS, they arent 'that' big in terms of memory footprint, esp if you are selective.  I've made a couple for that sim, and they are just a very large single "object" (just like an OBJ8 file in XP) and can even be 'texture baked' to use a single texture image which would make it compatible with X-Plane's scenery structure.  The hardest part right now would be trying to get a perfect placement into the world with WED's tools.  Other than that there isnt anything stopping an enterprising soul from giving it a shot - even right now in XP11 (not waiting for XP12 in other words).

Edited December 14, 20214 yr by VFXSimmer

1 hour ago, mSparks said:

Erm, then why are you asking about it?

Max confused face.

Gee I don't know, maybe because I was curious, being an avid simmer for 30y or so now?  Do you think it's possible someone might have curiousity without the need to buy, install and learn a new platform?  Is that really maximally confusing to you?  If so, I don't know what to say.

9 minutes ago, Noel said:

Gee I don't know, maybe because I was curious, being an avid simmer for 30y or so now?  Do you think it's possible someone might have curiousity without the need to buy, install and learn a new platform?  Is that really maximally confusing to you?  If so, I don't know what to say.

Well, yeah.

But on the other hand, the time you spent asking could have been used to try the free demo

https://www.x-plane.com/desktop/try-it/

Plus if you do like it, youll get a load more sim time simply because there are no more updates coming to interfer with your sim plans or break things.

That's just it--I'm not suffering from broken things, CTD, or anything else.  I fly more hours per day/week than I ever did in P3D, so not looking for relief from problems in MSFS.  I continue to be awestruck at how good it is, really.  The truly shocking part to me is that I've done this w/o the awesome crutch that was FSCaptain, which kept my head in P3D quite well.  I'm really looking forward to FSCaptain for MSFS, and of course the PMDG 737 and perhaps a 757 is coming from them as well.  It's nice to know there's a viable alternative should MSFS ever fail to deliver, and it could you never know about the future of anything w/ any certainty.

13 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Nothing wrong with a few screenshots of another sim if it’s to prove something or generate a healthy debate between that sim and XP. Constructive criticism is reasonable. Destructive criticism isn’t.

Does it apply to the MSFS forum or is the x-plane forum the only one in which everybody can come at including personal insults? I've seen (and participated in) multiple posts in the MSFS forum with a "healthy" debate on other flight sims yet those discussions got moderated in a really different manner telling everybody to stick with the thread. Is this thread an MSFS vs x-plane thread or rather a sneak peak about x-plane clouds? Why all of a sudden it is ok to deviate?

Because dear Ray, many of us are aware of mods in this very site personally insulting x-plane users and developers on private messages, locking them out of free comments while moderating every line they write, while others are still here insulting and will come back with their free of moderation comments although last time they told others to take the pills.

I'm sorry, the vibes are discrimination, and trust me when I say it's the same feeling among many other x-plane users in this very site. Meanwhile, we are all tagged as hostile in this pinned post while other forums are much more hostile yet they are told to "ignore" and not that they are "hostile". Hint Hint, the mod that called us all hostile is one of those insulting others in private.

Edited December 14, 20214 yr by mtaxp

@mtaxp,

Mods are drawn to topics when a report is raised. We don’t have the time or inclination to read every topic in the many forums.

It has become clear the XP forum has a far higher number of reports than other forums. And the complaints generally involve a small number of people who are repeat offenders. Another holiday was issued yesterday.

Some people are more sensitive to criticism than others. Not all reports result in disciplinary action. Mods use their judgement.

Now as this is a topic about Clouds in XP12 that’s all I’m saying on this matter.

10 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@mtaxp,

Mods are drawn to topics when a report is raised. We don’t have the time or inclination to read every topic in the many forums.

It has become clear the XP forum has a far higher number of reports than other forums. And the complaints generally involve a small number of people who are repeat offenders. Another holiday was issued yesterday.

Some people are more sensitive to criticism than others. Not all reports result in disciplinary action. Mods use their judgement.

Now as this is a topic about Clouds in XP12 that’s all I’m saying on this matter.

You say holidays yet some non offending people still need to be moderated and approved for every single comment unlike the one called others to take the pills. Frankly, feels you carefully chose what to comment about. 

Next time the same user/s insult others, I'll make sure to remind you all just in case you "missed" all the insults.

Edited December 14, 20214 yr by mtaxp

15 minutes ago, mtaxp said:

You say holidays yet some non offending people still need to be moderated and approved for every single comment unlike the one called others to take the pills. Frankly, feels you carefully chose what to comment about. 

Next time the same user/s insult others, I'll make sure to remind you all just in case you "missed" all the insults.

Who is moderated and for what reasons are down to AvSim staff. I suggest you stop commenting on this now. If you feel a comment is unacceptable then report it. I’m not getting into a debate with you or anyone else about how this site is moderated.

Get back on topic.

12 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Who is moderated and for what reasons are down to AvSim staff. 

Exactly what I thought, question how objective it is.

Quote

Get back on topic.

This made me laugh hard due to the last pages.

Not to be disrespectful frankly, but ohhh so hypocrite sometimes. 

And no worries, my last comment for now, have a nice day Ray!

6 hours ago, Noel said:

I continue to be awestruck at how good it is, really

Then take my advice on the reverb. Its taken a few years

but PC has finally caught up somewhat with Sony.

 

 

Edited December 14, 20214 yr by mSparks

14 hours ago, Noel said:

The combination of ortho scenery, photogrammetry

While I fully understand what people can like about this, yet am still not seeing you post any pics of how they actually look from ground level in many several conditions, I have MSFS and in too many conditions they just look horrible.

Your shots are nice, but they 1/3 of my screen and I can still see how limited is their resolution. How do they react to lighting conditions? Do they look right? Can they have detailed WeatherFX masks? Can they detailed PBR? Can they have artificial lighting sources? and sooo much more in how photogrammetry is more limiting than adding to my eyes.

 Taking a picture and say this is photorealistic is a practice of 20 years ago if not more.

So eventually it is your own preference, sacrifice roof colors or to have an overall much better looking art asset in all conditions.

Xplane's scenery collections and autogen when done right (SFD Global):

 

 

 

In v12 you can add to it:

1) Photometric Lighting Sources.

2) Instanced and animated content with particle effects and FMOD 2.0 for virtually where ever you want.

3) 3D reactive vegetation with seasonal changes.

4) WeatherFX maps for snow, puddles and ice.

I'll take what I posted over "matching roof colors" with a pixel/texel density of a 1990s camera.

*You still have all the roads, networks, mesh, towns, cities accurate already, most of the additional accuracy regarding photogrammetry and orthos are "this is brown mud" "this roof is yellow", nothing that is really NEEDED for VFR simulation at least from my own real life experience.

 

Edited December 14, 20214 yr by akita

29 minutes ago, akita said:

Taking a picture and say this is photorealistic is a practice of 20 years ago if not more.

Others just pretty much speak for themselves.

2 hours ago, mtaxp said:

This made me laugh hard due to the last pages.

Be happy there are still some posts from people you dont agree with. Mods here act pretty quickly, all the posts linked out in

and the ones I haven't got round to adding to it yet probably have more than half their posts hidden and resulted in people taking forced holidays.

The ones you see are the ones above the threshold for them taken action.

Edited December 14, 20214 yr by mSparks