One topic, I think, changed a lot from P3Dv3,4, is clouds and skies. Now we have new options, old software has been "updated" to work with the new sim features and, as we are doing with scenarios, I ask you to take a chance to review the sky in our sim.

I used to buy and test every add-on. I have tested default skies, ASP3D, ASCA, ENVTEX, REX SKYFORCE. Right now, after some weeks installing and reinstalling the sim and sky related addons, IMHO, I think ASP3D (without ASCA) and SKYFORCE are working great. What do you think about it? What are you using instead? What addons do you believe are not needed anymore?

For this to work I have to set the sim with the following config (wheather related). Is this config fine:

EA = On
Volumetrics Cloud = Off
Godrays, Windshield Effects and Turbulence = On
Thermal Visualization = None
Cloud Coverage Density = Maximum

 

 

I totally agree with you.  I never liked asca sky colors.  But sometime in last year I lost my taste for their clouds.  I do everything you do above but also go HDR off.  For my setup it is the better look.  

hi , if we started yet another thread regarding the look of WX/Clouds i think it will only confuse everybody even more than they are now. The look of the weather / clouds is a very subjective and personal thing. I personally have tried all combinations REX, ASCA, Default, and TrueSky . I really have tried to get on with TrueSky but in my opinion still has more to do , so for now AS and ASCA for me very happy with it , others will no doubt have a different opinion Lol 😁

1 hour ago, micstatic said:

I do everything you do above but also go HDR off.  For my setup it is the better look.  

That combo of EA On and HDR Off will stick until you need to access any part of the P3D menu such as Vehicle fuel / payload. When that happens HDR is turned on by P3D.

I imagine you know that but that’s where that combo ended for me and I turned EA Off.

18 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

That combo of EA On and HDR Off will stick until you need to access any part of the P3D menu such as Vehicle fuel / payload. When that happens HDR is turned on by P3D.

I imagine you know that but that’s where that combo ended for me and I turned EA Off.

Well, you learn something every day! As I never use the P3D menu for fuel/payload (I only fly PMDG and that menu is part of their FMC), I never knew that. In any event I use EA without Volumetric clouds, together with HDR on.

I like ASP3D and ASCA (Active Sky Cloud Art).  This combo with EA on, VClouds off, Rays on.  Works very well for me and I do like the looks of the sky and the clouds.

Stan

2 hours ago, spilok said:

I like ASP3D and ASCA (Active Sky Cloud Art).  This combo with EA on, VClouds off, Rays on.  Works very well for me and I do like the looks of the sky and the clouds.

Stan

Exactly! That´s it actually. And ENVSHADE +TEX put the icing on the cake.

4 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

That combo of EA On and HDR Off will stick until you need to access any part of the P3D menu such as Vehicle fuel / payload. When that happens HDR is turned on by P3D.

I imagine you know that but that’s where that combo ended for me and I turned EA Off.

I knew that turning EA off or on would make the HDR come back by on but haven't noticed any other setting changes do it also.  But, I don't usually have to adjust vehicle fuel/payload via p3d.  So who knows.  I wish they wouldn't lock it on like that as I very much dislike having to close the program, change the cfg and then reboot again.  totally unnecessary.  

 

4 minutes ago, micstatic said:

I wish they wouldn't lock it on like that as I very much dislike having to close the program, change the cfg and then reboot again.  totally unnecessary.  

Agreed it’s annoying. HDR is rubbish on my high quality BenQ monitor and I’m not sure why it’s mandatory because you should be able to have EA without HDR. Nothing breaks with that combo.

5 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

That combo of EA On and HDR Off will stick until you need to access any part of the P3D menu such as Vehicle fuel / payload. When that happens HDR is turned on by P3D.

I have never noticed this before so I just did a test.

I accessed the payload/fuel menu and the lighting did not change.

I have EA on and HDR off, set in the Prepar3d cfg file.

Dave

40 minutes ago, dave2013 said:

I have never noticed this before so I just did a test.

I accessed the payload/fuel menu and the lighting did not change.

I have EA on and HDR off, set in the Prepar3d cfg file.

Dave

I’ll check again but having set the option in SimStarterNG I was certain HDR was off. After entering the fuel HDR was on. I’ll be back.

19 hours ago, BerndB said:

Exactly! That´s it actually. And ENVSHADE +TEX put the icing on the cake.

Thank you for your comment. I was using ENVSHADE + ENVTEX but I wasn't really happy with clouds, skies and darkness of the cockpit. Off course that could be me, "bad using" the addon. Temporarily, I completely removed everything (I mean full uninstall just to be sure everything is removed properly) and now, for me, is looking better without them. I have nothing but v5.3HF2, ASP3D, REX and the airport I'm flying from/to (testing fly LEBL/LEPA).

The tweak for the HDR.hlsl file, published over there, is working better than ENVSHADE for me.

Could you let us know how are you applying these add-ons?

This is a serious issue. Not all of us can properly configure the components because many times it is assumed that we all have the same level of experience and this is not always the case. Installing, uninstalling process, always leave garbage.

I think we need a "Best Practices" topic only managed and updated by moderators. Collecting every "gold comment" lost in this amazing forum as a "needle in a haystack".

LM, as I read over there, is not always doing a good job sharing well their "improvements" and with any new version we got, everything starts again.

Best regards boys and girls.

I am honestly using ActiveSky with EA and Volumetric Clouds on Medium settings and things look gorgeous. Honestly, in some weather conditions (and especially in early dusk with rain) I get such gorgeous weather that, honestly??? MSFS has NOTHING on it. I have so many gorgeous screenshots from this past week, I wish I could post them here. Absolutely phenomenal weather depiction. 

I find EA On, Vol Clouds off with Active Sky providing the weather and REX Sky Force doing the clouds works rather well for me, though I had to adjust the settings for Sky Force as the defaults were causing VRAM Problems on my machine.

4 hours ago, mdelacruzperu said:

This is a serious issue. Not all of us can properly configure the components because many times it is assumed that we all have the same level of experience and this is not always the case. Installing, uninstalling process, always leave garbage.

I think we need a "Best Practices" topic only managed and updated by moderators. Collecting every "gold comment" lost in this amazing forum as a "needle in a haystack".

Well, i guess this would be an impossible mission, based on everyones individual exspectations. As an example take the people who where complaining about "uh, the night is too dark" when EnvShade increased the darkening on the scenery at night. But that´s just how it is in real life. In the night, flying over Europe or Germany you can´t see anything on the ground at FL340, apart from the citylights. It´s just dark as in a bears butt (as we like to say in Germany). But for many simmers taste it´s too dark. Me myself, i prefer to see the world in my Sim as much as possible as i used to see it in real life, though i prefer to look into the dark at night as dark as possible. I personally don´t care about dark cockpits, because i use a real homecockpit and just need the SIM for the outside view of the world. Then others say, "can you eliminate this bluish haze in the athmosphere" even if this is also most of the time what you will see at daytime in real life, because of the water vapor in the athmosphere and also the polution you can see above civilian areas like central europe, even at clear skies, where the sky will never be "really clear" usually in real life. I would not judge others, if they want to have a different look in their sim, but i prefer "as real as it gets" always, but all these different mindsets about how "their" Sim should look like, would make it just an impossible task to get everyone satisfied with just one rule saying "this is how you have to set everything here and there to get the best look" - because it just depends. 

So in fact, there is no ultimate "right or wrong". But the tools like AS, REX, TOGA etc. just provide a wide range of capability to combine everything as you like to match your individual exspectation. At least it´s a lot more options you would ever get from the real life. 😜

P.S. one individual Best Practice tip i would give in case of EnvShade + Tex. Just start with their standard settings. Look how it appears for you at day, dawn, dusk and night. Then slightly customise the single settings, starting with scenery saturation, and scenery brightness and then go further. The capability of P3D V5, that you can reload the shaders "on the fly" is very helpful in finding the best look step by step.

Edited March 14, 20224 yr by BerndB