Any hope for Cloud's Shadow? - Number of variables insi...

[Touradg 0]

Hello friends,First, after reading last post in Phil

[frankla 44]

If I am not mistaken, they had implemented cloud shawdows for FSX, but they took it out for being very resource hungry. (I even saw a screen shot of setup that allowed you to check/uncheck the option). Basically there needs to be another rendering pass to do the shadows. If you think frame rates are bad now, then imagin it with cloud shawdows.

[Guest Len]

And yet they have light bloom which requires the same pass and is equally resource hungry. That is an option but cloud shadows isn't. Doesn't make sense.

[Touradg 0]

Yeah remember a shot which i think was for CES and fsx introduction show.But because of these things i guess that there is no hope for that.maybe fs11!touradg

[Ramasurinen 0]

Yup, it's a big visual element of flying no doubt, and one I've been looking forward to for several versions. If they did no other visual improvements in the DX10 patch except for that I'd be stoked. I'm no expert on this aspect of FSX, and I'm sure the ACES team has thought of it and discarded it for some valid reason, but since the terrain engine is already doing self shadowing with dynamically created shadowmaps based on the position of the sun, wouldn't it be possible to incorporate clouds into that calculation as well and fit it into the same shadowmap pass? It might not be perfect looking, and I'm sure the fact that the clouds move would cause all sorts of complications, but a rough approximation might be better than nothing.Anyway, just a thought. :)-Mike

[MatthewS 761]

I agree, cloud shadows is number one for me too. Isn't FSX meant to be Microsoft's showcase for DX10? I think if the DX10 patch doesn't add lots of eye candy then what's the point of upgrading to DX10 and Vista?Also the World in conflict beta has cloud shadows under DX10!

[Mace 1,925]

For the record I'd like to see cloud shadows too, if it can be feasibly done. I think one of the goals for a version Direct3D should be implement features like bloom and shadowing without having as much overhead. That's the whole point of a new API it seems to me!RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

[Touradg 0]

HiSo i am not alone.I am sure this is not something that difficult.We already have this in X-plane 8.5 and it is very nice recreation.touradg

[PhilTaylor 45]

Given FSX has bloom today, it is reasonable to expect us to do something with it in DX10.Given FSX doesnt have cloud shadows today, that is perhaps not as reasonable.Thats not to say there are no new features, just that we are somewhat limited in that its not a full new game and is only a patch.Its not that long before I spill, so be patient a few weeks more :-).

[DadJokeCinema 145]

>I agree, cloud shadows is number one for me too. >>Isn't FSX meant to be Microsoft's showcase for DX10? >>I think if the DX10 patch doesn't add lots of eye candy then>what's the point of upgrading to DX10 and Vista?>>Also the World in conflict beta has cloud shadows under DX10!Yeah, World in Conflict also requires a DX10 card to do dual monitors, so where is the fairness in that? :(

[Touradg 0]

Hi Phil,I know that you are very busy these days but please give it a consideration. This is going to be a fix rather than a new feature in my idea Phil. I know that this maybe a difficult implementation due to the moving and variable characteristics of clouds.Thank youTouradg

[Touradg 0]

And any idea about the number of variables inside fsx?

[frankla 44]

Perhaps it was more of a frame hit. I am sure they didn't throw a coin up to decide between the two features. They had to stop somewhere!

[Mace 1,925]

I think what Phil is saying is that the way FSX is set up right now, the perf hit is very very big with cloud shadows. This was mentioned in pre-prelease stuff about a year ago.But the good news is that cloud shadows are on the radar screen and perhaps a workable, *efficient* way to handle them (taking advantage of what I hope to be a more streamlined D3D API) can be found in the future. The not too distant future.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

[Guest cbuchner1]

Well the interesting part is they have terrain shadow. The terrain casts a shadow on itself, depending on the position of the sun. It's quite a show flying with Tileproxy at sunset in the desert. The shadows actually work, although I find the contrast should be much higher. The only downside is the low resolution of the shadow, you can see jagged edges.I think cloud shadows could (and should) be implemented in the same way, using a simple 1 bit shadow stencil mask. And maybe get the resolution up a bit.The problem with cloud shadows may be that the clouds can move faster than the sun and hence a higher update frequency is required, especially with strong winds. ;)