This looks interesting - anybody tried it yet?

It is a plugin to adjust atmosphere, clouds, water, and scenery lights and shadow.  Although it looks good, I am worried using shaders and plugins like this because default XP12 is so good.

José beat you to it...

 

Edited February 20, 20233 yr by Bjoern

Honestly I am staying away from these sort of plugins up until Ben Supnik has finished working on the lighting engine. I believe they are still fine tuning various aspects of the photometric renderer and will be adding more features to it. If you read the latest Dev blog, you would have noticed that they're working on further improving the bloom aswell. So if I were you I'd stray clear of these plugins and let Xplane 12 runs it's course through the visual enhancements atleast. Nothing wrong in using such plugins but my xplane 12 is rock solid right now and I really don't want to plague it with artifacts stuff. My honest 2cents.

3 minutes ago, Baber20 said:

Nothing wrong in using such plugins but my xplane 12 is rock solid right now and I really don't want to plague it with artifacts stuff. My honest 2cents.

My feelings too, but at least it can be disabled as XP12 is updated. The plug in looks to run automatically, but has many sliders to adjust effects.

Baber20 and MrBitstFlyer, I see your point and I agree too... Better wait a bit more. One thing is for sure - XP12 is getting better with each new update.

1 hour ago, cagarini said:

Baber20 and MrBitstFlyer, I see your point and I agree too... Better wait a bit more. One thing is for sure - XP12 is getting better with each new update.

That is very true.  VisualXP can download its own weather, but that can be turned off so XP12 default live weather can be downloaded. VisualXP then adjusts clouds, water, scattering etc from what XP12 downloaded.  I decided to get it so will report back my findings.

For those that may be interested in this plugin, here are a couple of comparisons.  VisualXP can download and inject its own weather, but for these images that is turned off with Default XP12 Live weather used.  There are many sliders for adjustments, but for these examples I have left everything on Auto.

First image default XP12, second image with VisualXP turned on.
First obvious observation is In the second image with VisualXP is drawing clouds out to the horizon. The light scattering is very good at the horizon and the clouds are more 'solid' with more contrast.

First image default XP12, second image with VisualXP turned on.
Again, clouds out to the horizon with VisualXP on.

Default clouds look better! The 'visual clouds' have way too much detail. 

DCS has the best looking clouds in any sim. 

The default atmosphere and clouds look better.

Another vote for the default pics. 

Another couple of screenshots of VisualXP.  I have adjusted some of the settings which are comprehensive.  The clouds at default do look too detailed, but they can be made very low res.  Somewhere in the middle I got these clouds and lighting.  VisualXP can be turned on/off so no problem going back to default clouds/lighting.  It is great to see clouds right up to the horizon.

live weather doesn't work all that well, injecting the wrong cloud heights into the sim (or XP not displaying them correctly). you also get the clouds popping up when changing to a new metar station, a bit of a step backwards really

when using the plugin with XP's live weather i get weird fast moving clouds

there is also quite a big fps hit with the detailed clouds and fog lighting

Edited February 21, 20233 yr by UKflyer

Seems that they are aiming to offer a more dramatic cloud representation, similarly to MSFS' approach.

With the recent improvements on default XP12 WX generation, I will refrain from purchasing this one. If only it would solve the cloud artifacts issue, but I don't think a plugin would be able to solve that.

Edited February 21, 20233 yr by GCBraun

49 minutes ago, GCBraun said:

Seems that they are aiming to offer a more dramatic cloud representation, similarly to MSFS' approach.

Default settings are very dramatic, but everything can be toned down to your liking. Default XP12 weather is the best it's ever been, but it is good to see plugin like this one make an  appearance.

VisualXP can produce some very good atmosperic effects.