XP12 clouds CAN be spectacular!

[Baber20 1,496]

1 hour ago, Murmur said:

I think they nailed it in terms of lighting and visibility. Most realistic I've ever seen in any sim. No oversaturated images, realistic haze, accurate visbility settings. What a real pilot would actually see in the air.

Just insane....I can't believe what team laminar had achieved with such limited resources as compared to MSFS. 

Unfortunately people are judging it way too harshly. I don't understand why. I mean it is early access. Things WILL get better. I received an email from Austin yesterday mentioning that scenery overhaul is coming and it is basically the NEXT thing they're going to do. If you want to keep your sanity don't even read the thread on Xplane on the other forum. Lots of trolls predicting and wishing for the death of Xplane. 

Simmers need to understand that competition is healthy. I just hope that Xplane 12 gets huge support from 3rd party devs.

Edited September 10, 2022 by Baber20

[MrBitstFlyer 3,910]

9 hours ago, Baber20 said:

Been saying this since the start.  Xplane 12's photometric rendering engine is really well crafted. There is a whole dev blog on this if you want to read the nitty gritty details https://developer.x-plane.com/2021/11/photometric-lighting-what-is-it-and-why-do-we-need-it/ The blog is really interesting and I think you should definitely read it. There is some amazing tech work going on behind the scenes. I was watching a flight dynamics comparison video between xp12 and msfs from 'vr flight sim guy' and the first thing he commented on was how Xplane 12 looked far more realistic and natural compared to MSFS. I for one always hated the over vibrant colors and often washed out look of msfs. Xplane 12's built in HDR/deferred renderer nails the depth and dynamic range of colors and you get this vivid natural scene which looks very realistic. 

An interesting read.  Laminar Research have done a fantastic job with the lighting.

[MrBitstFlyer 3,910]

7 minutes ago, Baber20 said:

Just insane....I can't believe what team laminar had achieved with such limited resources as compared to MSFS. 

Unfortunately people are judging it way too harshly.

The lack of satellite scenery was never going to be an issue for me - I considered XP11 with SimHeaven to look great.  Therefore it was the clouds, atmosphere and lighting were the things to be judged 

I don't blame anybody for initially feeling the clouds were poor. There were enough reviews focusing on the worst of the clouds. However, after just a few flights I saw a combination of clouds, haze and lighting that stunned me.  I feel I have MSFS looking very nice indeed, but XP12 looks more real to me in this regard. 

What I find a shame is the attitude of some.  MSFS has its faults, but there are enough pros with it to overcome the shortcomings. XP12 is the same - it has some cons at release but there are enough pros to also overcome its shortcomings. 

[Baber20 1,496]

Talking about simheaven, their Xplane 12 update will be out soon and it looks amazing !

[MrBitstFlyer 3,910]

20 minutes ago, Baber20 said:

Talking about simheaven, their Xplane 12 update will be out soon and it looks amazing !

Yes, it looks really good. Looking good for XP12 so far.  I have purchased three native XP12 addons, SimHeaven is on its way and Laminer Research are further developing ground textures.  

[strider1 579]

11 hours ago, Murmur said:

I think they nailed it in terms of lighting and visibility. Most realistic I've ever seen in any sim. No oversaturated images, realistic haze, accurate visbility settings.

Agreed! I like what I was seeing weather wise in the sim today!

The weather in LA today.

 

The weather in the sim today!

[Greazer 1,354]

In some situations the hazy clouds look okay. The other clouds types are not rendered. Such as cumulus clouds which have defined edges and definition. So I don't think you can even release a flight sim these days without cumulus clouds. I would accept a flight sim if it didnt yet render cumulonimbus or tornados. But cumulus is kind of important. No cumulus = no buy here. Also, I'm not going to pay a cost for some weather addon like xEnviro just to get proper looking clouds. LR need to complete the core features like clouds and not point to some addon guy who charges an extra 70 bucks!

[MrBitstFlyer 3,910]

21 hours ago, Baber20 said:

Xplane 12's built in HDR/deferred renderer nails the depth and dynamic range of colors and you get this vivid natural scene which looks very realistic. 

I have spent ages in MSFS with NVidia Freestyle filters and then ReShade, to get the scene looking realistic to my eyes - colours, shadows and tint. I enjoyed doing it and do like the look achieved.

The way Laminer research has done the lighting and rendering it looks correct and pleasing out the box.

[Sethos 4,624]

I agree, X-Plane 12 just looks naturally realistic. I've sat in some scenes, that didn't look bombastic or full of saturation and just thought to myself "Huh, this almost looks real". I almost always use ReShade but, I have a hard time figuring out what I'd do with it in X-Plane 12. 

[Humpty 752]

I like it 

[Baber20 1,496]

3 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

I have spent ages in MSFS with NVidia Freestyle filters and then ReShade, to get the scene looking realistic to my eyes - colours, shadows and tint. I enjoyed doing it and do like the look achieved.

The way Laminer research has done the lighting and rendering it looks correct and pleasing out the box.

That's the beauty of it. The entire pipeline is hdr right till the very end. The numbers that they have for the colors are meant to be actual physical quantities that you see outside for the sky, sun, clouds etc. Everything is physically correct. 

[Humpty 752]

I want god rays

[jcomm 6,049]

1 hour ago, Humpty said:

I want god rays

Go to the church and ask for it !

[Humpty 752]

10 minutes ago, jcomm said:

Go to the church and ask for it !

He said the Uninstaller will uninstall them

[MrBitstFlyer 3,910]

9 hours ago, strider1 said:

Agreed! I like what I was seeing weather wise in the sim today!

The weather in LA today.

These two images are remarkable!  XP12 lighting levels, colours and tints are exactly the same as the real photo!

When MSFS was released we all marvelled at the global satellite imagery and the new technology clouds.  With XP12 I find myself marvelling at this HDR lighting pipeline.  The lighting not only looks right, it FEELS right - flying under a shower looks AND feels oppressive.