sightseer

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? Journey to the Center of the Earth?

I had no idea our generations overlapped as far as movies were concerned. I just watched (my mom and I) "2010:The Year We Make Contact" which is a reasonably good sequel to 2001:A Space Odyssey (one of my all time favorites). We were on a Star Wars kick before that. Is "Close Encounters of a Third Kind" on your list? That was good...need to see that again.

This is not a 'teaching' resource but one can learn from this guy anyway. He's a private corporate jet pilot with really good quality videos showing how a real world pilot interacts with his aircraft AND real world ATC. Books and guides may lead you to believe things are a certain way - like driving instruction that says keep your hands at ten and two...The real goal is safe operation of you vehicle in a real world environment and it has helped me as a non pilot to watch this guys videos. Plus its great sightseeing. Premier 1 Driver on youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG4IsPelLNPJZrL7sqZmBPQ

I picked up OpusFSI yesterday after having using OpusFSX for years. I had been using static weather that had been caught in saved flights but it was time for something new. and Ill say plainly - GOOD JOB! I honestly don't see much difference in the two products (for what I know how to use) but I have always preferred Opus because you guys just know how to lay clouds out so they look realistic. Don't ever change. You're the best. I intend to attempt to learn how to make use of the other features (like camera positioning and control) but its good to have the dynamic head movement back. I'd been so long without it that I forgot what a nice touch it was. anyway...I'm pleased.

yes, Bill. but I personally wouldn't want a 737 with steam gauges. I know others might. but Im not them so...

I echo what most here have said: It depends on the plane and both should be included. I voted Steam because GA is mostly what I fly but I wouldn't want a 737 with steam gauges. GA should be steam and jets should be glass.

I tried to make a better sky but what Ive encountered has made me just stop. The lighting pixels have some control but the daytime texture can be solid black and you still get a blue sky. I had to delete the shader cache to make sure I was seeing correctly. The colors are coming from somewhere else. What I noticed though is that the brightness of the first three pixels can be reduced to eliminate the bloom but this also darkens everything else. Something to try: create an all black texture or something like RGB 0 35 51 set the first two pixels to R189 G190 B191. third pixel can be black (or 0 1 2). fourth pixel can be RGB 0 2 3 (or 0 1 2) and the fifth pixel RGB 32 128 217 set the bottom two rows of the texture to RGB 207 218 229 -- it may help - Im not sure. you can brighten pixel5 to make the clouds more overall bright and you can add color to pixel2 (for example yellow RGB 199 198 195)) to lessen the brightness of the clouds. I think its the best I can do. nothing gets rid of the brownish haze that Ive discovered. In P3D, changing cirrus overcast3 can affect haze. maybe that works here too?? or maybe its part of an environment .dds. or maybe its shader code or other code. whatever...FWIW...my .02

This is first a question - Does the SDK contain any tools for creating your own clouds and skies? Does it contain any information at all on that subject? I've read what I've seen written on the SDK and there was no mention of clouds or skies so I haven't downloaded it. If you did DL it, an answer to my question would be appreciated. second - if the current SDK contains nothing about clouds or skies - this is a request that I hope IPACs will see...because I really don't want to create another forum account right now. Skies and clouds are my hobby and I could use a diversion from my current P3d stuff.

part of the problem for me is that I've never seen anything in Noel's writings that were that offensive. he's like a funny newspaper column that shows up in your flightsim forum. I have the feeling that he and I are on opposite ends of the political spectrum but his words are nothing compared to things I've read from others. Maybe I just don't understand. wouldn't be the first time. Even Noel agrees that he should have been banned a few times. I just remember all those times I "did wrong" and never could figure it out. Its frustrating. We are emotional beings and that clouds the issue.

edit: written before Noels most recent post: I always tend to walk on eggshells over there but I do that pretty much everywhere because Ive always been the type to get banned, beaten or put in solitary just for having a personality I tend to get very matter of fact when asking for assistance. its easier not to. The problem with things like the Gadsden flag is that we can't even discuss it without getting political and that breaks forum rules in many cases. I think banning someone just for using it is too much. A warning would have been better. As for popularity points - I once lost several hundred over the course of a few days and I wasn't even posting anything. I figure that maybe forum cleanup turned me into a less popular person -- like I needed help in that department. and after Noels post: Noel - don't know. Im not in charge. but I know you weren't talking to me so...

I tried Win10 on one of my systems for about three months. It was a bit to get used to and I was almost OK with it but one day I had a problem with menus that seemed to have just disappeared. The entire 'settings' menu simply didn't exist anymore. All of the links to bring it up did nothing. I finally decided to search my system and I typed a few things into the search bar and found a menu that allowed to me to at least get online but then there was no evidence of Windows Update and no way to update. I shut down for the day and the next day my menus were back but I decided that if Win10 can just lose its menus then I'd rather go back to Win7. At least it works.

Cool. I love Terry Crews. I never pictured him as the build your own PC type though. guess it goes to show that you cant judge by appearances or what you think you see.

I think its more of a job for Lockheed Martin. Clouds will contact the ground but theres something about the DX11 shaders that makes these things worse than they used to be. Clouds just used to be softer by design somehow. and they had much more color at sunset back in version 2.2. I wish LM would go back a bit and rethink what they've done to the lighting and clouds.

The REX Soft Clouds would probably be your best bet for minimizing this problem because its caused by the level of alpha in the cloud textures. Brighter alphas create denser clouds with more defined shadows while lesser alphas create misty clouds that wont cause such hard lines that you describe. If you have FEX, you might try creating a cloud set with 'cloud density' (I think it was - in the designer) set on minimum. That will create softer, mistier clouds.

Thanks, Micheal. No, I had missed it. What's weird is that my original download was over 30 Gig and yesterday it downloaded 12 Gig but today I looked and the folder was still around 30 Gig. I went for a flight yesterday and it looked better than I remembered. Im looking forward to the new stuff. Thanks again.

Micheal - is this something that gets downloaded automatically or do you have to choose to download? I already did the 12 Gig DL that showed up. was that it?

lovely shots except for the last two. atomic bombs? love the lights in the first shots. xplane is great for lighting. absolutely love shot5. very nice. and is that vanilla 10.5 with Skymaxxpro or what? I haven't bought/obtained ANY addons for XPlane yet but shots like these make me wonder what the heck am I waiting for! great set.

Tim - I own both REX4 TD and REX Soft Clouds but have neither installed for the same reason Devon stated. I understand they are now combined into a single product but only for those who buy it as a single product. Is there one single download that I can do as an owner of both or is it more complicated? thanks.

Ok...a few things: first - REX low level clouds means 'the cumulus texture' and high clouds are the cirrus sets. the 'low level clouds are used by the .cld files (see the SDK) and the artwork files to represent alto or cirro cumulus. the stratus textures (part of the cumulus01 texture) are mostly used for this but some of the wispy textures get thrown up there too if using the default artwork files. hiFi should be changing all of this I thought. Also - the brightness of Pixel5(sky texture lighting) has great impact on the stratus and so a darker pixel5 will create gloomy unrealistic altocumulus. this is one reason I like to use a bright pixel5. not to mention its other benefits. I think LM should improve the lighting.

well, the video from Silicus shows the blueness that towering cumulus can get. its entirely possible with P3D but neither REX nor HiFi seem interested in putting that appearance into the sim. I was under the impression that HiFi could place as many different textures into any one scene as they wanted so there shouldn't be repeating textures. Hopefully they can fix that. I can see now why LM changed their program so much and I guess in the long run its a much better approach. Multi colored sunset clouds should also be possible with this approach but Ill leave it HiFi and REX to figure that one out. I'm looking forward to hearing more about REX's new product line and also updates from hiFi. Its fun watching progress in the flight environment world.

Webmaximus - that's a photograph so it should look good.

Hi Steve - Sure. I had asked Tim Fuchs directly about introducing some softer looking clouds. I was disappointed that TD4 did not have what I had been expecting. Tim told me that they were working on an update and that I'd be pleased. I was happy to hear that and I waited for the 'update'. Updates did come but there were no softer clouds. and then the soft clouds product was released as a stand alone and I felt a bit deceived by Tim. I bought Texture Direct 4 because I was sure that it was a 'best of' product that included new textures (HD and HDR they say). I had been frustrated by the difficult to decipher upgrade paths and I thought I could get one complete updated product. TD4 is what it is but when the updates started, I was happy enough. and then soft clouds came and I bought it just like I bought REX3 and REx Overdrive and of course REX4. But something just wasn't right about the whole thing. There are about five combined reasons for my feelings towards REX and I have no reason to tell you about most of them. REX has a great many fans and they have done some good work along the way. But I have the right to feel the way I do and it surely isn't based entirely on my soft clouds experience.

well that is really cool. you can almost see a face on the funnel if you look close.

sorry for your loss, Rob. My dad died back in 2004 and it was a very emotional time for me. Im taking care of my mom now too to some extent (shes mid 70's)

No, Rob, I can't. I don't have FSX on my machine...only P3Dv3.2. It is discouraging that you have never noticed any of the shader code changes that LM keeps making. As a sky and cloud designer, I have noticed the changes a lot. It isn't just the shaders. P3D can do things that FSX never could but FSX can do things that P3D cannot. It comes down to what was possible in all of the versions from FSX thru P3Dv2.2. It was possible to adjust the amount and color of shadow in the clouds themselves using the sky texture. This is no longer possible in P3D. It was possible to create more dynamic looking sunset clouds in FSX. You could have both a heavy blue shadow and a bright orange or red or other color highlight. In P3D the clouds become very monochrome at sunset. The highlights and shadows seem to come towards each other - highlights get darker and flatter and shadows get brighter and flatter (less color overall). In all version from FSX thru P3D2.2, the shadows that were in the clouds came from the sky texture and a sky designer could adjust those shadows throughout the day and they would noticeably track the sun. P3Dv2.3 changed all that. It took away the 99% of the sky textures influence and control over the in cloud shadows that once tracked the sun. After that point, the only way to get shadows in the clouds themselves was to put them into the cloud textures and those shadows would not track the sun. they look great during the day but the shader code minimizes the difference between highlight and shadow at sunset.(and probably dawn but I haven't actually checked or studied dawn) (and when I say 'sunset' I mean literally the sunset texture time period. the time that the clouds should arguably be most colorful and dynamic is when they are the least dynamic). Shadows in clouds exist due to light sources. (not all clouds have noticeable shadows during the day but that's due to cloud formation). The shadows in the clouds will change as the lighting changes. If a cloud has a blue shadow during the day then that shadow is not going to decrease because the sun moves. The part of the cloud that is in shadow will change as the sun lowers. During the day the cloud is hit by light from the top and if the cloud is dense enough it will block light from hitting the lower portions of the cloud and produce a shadow. As the sun moves, so does the shadowed part of the cloud. As the sun sets and shifts hue and intensity, the color hitting the face of the cloud will change (the highlight) but there still is light and the cloud hasn't necessarily changed, its just the sunlight that has changed - so the shadowed part of the cloud moves and tends to grow due to decreased light. If you spend time watching many many sunsets you will see that cloud shadows (shadows in clouds) generally remain a blueish color until all traces of light are gone. Clouds that would not have much of a shadow during the day will indeed fade to a blackish color sooner but those blue shadows are commonly there and if you are looking at the setting sun then you are looking at the shadowed side of the clouds. Sunset clouds have, in general, both a highlight and a blueish shadowy part. This was possible in FSX thru P3D2.2. Its not nearly as possible in P3d since the changes that occurred in 2.3. and that's the difference Im talking about. FSX had different and, in my opinion, more useful cloud lighting controls.