2 hours ago, Murmur said:

In current volumetric clouds implementation, unrealistic large-scale shapes bother me more than their low resolution.

Would it be possible to add some constraint rules to the simple noise algorithms in order to produce more realistic cloud shapes, even at large-scale? E.g. so that the noise produces flat bottoms, cauliflowering tops, anvil shapes, etc? All without increasing significantly the noise complexity or granularity.

Most volumetric cloud implementations already do that - I don't know if it's the case for X-Plane 12 as well or not, but it likely is. For instance, in ES and EC I change the cloud density as a function of altitude to get more flat bottoms and softer tops. Similarly, some implementations fade from a wispy noise (Perlin or inverted Worley) to a caluliflower-like noise (Worley) as the altitude increases. But these methods are quite limited due to a few reasons. The raymarcher doesn't know where a specific cloud is, so it has to apply the effect either to all clouds or a specific region, but there is no guarantee that the specific region will definitely have clouds because even if the coverage map indicates a non-zero coverage, it doesn't necessarily translate to an actual cloud actually being there due to the cloud noise having its own empty spaces. So these effects have to apply everywhere in a symmetric way, usually depending in just altitude. And this is simply not enough to "carve" realistic shapes into the noise.

Edited August 8, 20232 yr by Biology

13 hours ago, Pe11e said:

@coastaldriver

Not gonna lie, but it took me a couple of seconds to realize it's not a real world photo. Not joking. The lighting on that shot is just spot on!
What's the ICAO?

NWWW - Tontouta. XP12 +SimHeavens Oceania. Nothing else added there by me so it is the XP12 Gateway airport. 

Edited August 9, 20232 yr by coastaldriver

10 hours ago, flying_carpet said:

Do you SERIOUSLY expect that (rendered in realtime)?

Close to that.

18 hours ago, Biology said:

(Perlin or inverted Worley)

https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.15096
You know of anyone using something like this? 

XP12 looks really REALLY nice after latest updates. Lighting is spot on now, I shear joy to watch scenes like this. LR just need to fix the lack of AA around the clouds, and the fact that the aircraft will be in the shadow no matter if it's above or below the clouds.

Indeed - XP12 has got it right, Lighting and detail - the next two screenshots are at Darwin (YPDN), The lighting is amazing, first shot was taken from the shadows terminal side

Then this one on the apron

I noted that the reflections in the underside aluminium of the aircraft are the objects in view not a facsimile. That is very impressive as well. 

Edited August 9, 20232 yr by coastaldriver

Just another day in Xplane paradise 😃

 

Edited August 9, 20232 yr by UKflyer

 

6 hours ago, Pe11e said:

LR just need to fix the lack of AA around the clouds

This effect comes with the cloud raymarching algorithm and improving it to be unnoticable will destroy your framerate in turn.

I'm sure @Biology can elaborate further as this also was an issue in Enhanced Cloud-/Skyscapes for XP11.

Edited August 9, 20232 yr by Bjoern