The "Popcorn-Clouds-Story" continues in V3

[Novation 534]

Sorry swiesma but I don't think they look great, but if you're happy then thats cool.

 

 

I think I have kind of solved, or reduced much of the most obvious repitition and in turn reduced the pop corn effect, though it is dependant of the height and depth of the cloud layers to some extent.

 

 

Open the cloud.fx shader in Notepad++ and scroll down to line 340 and find these lines below. Please back up the file first!.

 

 

        /// Calculate the lighting of the clouds based on position of each corner

        GetPointDiffuse( Out.diffuse, position, spriteCenter.xyz );

 

 

Now change the bold line above to the bold text below, then save the file, and delete the shader cache and start P3D.

 

 

        GetPointDiffuse( Out.diffuse, position, groupCenter.xyz );

 

 

You can also alter the saturation and brightness of the clouds, by making changes to line 228.

 

 

diffuse = saturate( float4( .85f * colorIntensity.rgb + ( 0.33f * saturate( colorIntensity.rgb - 1 )), colorIntensity.a ));

 

 

Make the first value lower (try .70f) to darken the clouds (or higher to lighten) and raise the second value to increase the saturation (try 0.93f) to make sunrise and sunset colours pop a bit more. Again any changes need to be saved, than the shader cache rebuilt, by deleting the file in C:\Users\YOUR NAME\AppData\Local\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3

 

Back up everything first ok!.

 

Better than the last p3d shot and closer to FSX clouds.

 

Before above changes.

[swiesma 625]

Sorry swiesma but I don't think they look great, but if you're happy then thats cool.

 

 

 

That's ok. Everyone has a different taste. But what exactly do you not like on the "standard" ASN + REX Softclouds?

[Mickeyj 35]

Just my real world observation 3 days ago on the approach to Munich/Germany.

 

 

 

 

 

[Novation 534]

That's ok. Everyone has a different taste. But what exactly do you not like on the "standard" ASN + REX Softclouds?

 

Its not ASN or Soft Clouds, its the way P3D uses the cloud textures, giving lots of very obvious repeats (especially with high cloud density) and unrealistic blobs. Yes real clouds do form small clusters as the photos above show, its just P3D does it badly, and they end up looking very fake, unless you add the GetPointDiffuse( Out.diffuse, position, groupCenter.xyz ); line to the cloud.fx, and scale them a little too, which seems to avoid the worst of the repeats, and odd clustering.

[TurboTomato 90]

Forgive me for reading little more than the title of this thread...

 

But I still see popcorn clouds in V3 with ASN.

[AlexMD11 15]

Apologies for the bump - however, I have been dealing with the so-called 'popcorn' clouds as well.

 

At first I thought it might have been my texture sets (REX TD and Soft clouds), but when I started to load scenarios in different parts of the world (where overcast/broked clouds are present with ASN), it struck me that I only see these popcorn clouds and repetitive patterns at locations that are closer to the poles. I have seen beautiful cloud formations with large clouds close to the equator (WSSS, SEGU), but further up North (EFRO, CYYC) these ugly cloud patterns persist.

 

I believe I have read about this issue regarding lattitude before, however, I was wondering whether some way of fixing this has come past? 

[Fi5kuS 57]

Sorry for bringing up an old post, again - but here's another noob experiencing popcorn clouds in V3.2. 

 

I managed to fix the popcorn cloud issue in P3D v3.0 by using Rex Essential Overdrive together with Rex Soft Clouds as REX4 for some reason induces massive popcorn cloud formations. Now, none of these options seems to fix the issue.

[TurboTomato 90]

Still have it in 3.2 with REX4TD and ASN.

 

Makes me wonder why it hasn't been fixed yet.

[WarpD 824]

Still have it in 3.2 with REX4TD and ASN.

 

Makes me wonder why it hasn't been fixed yet.

Because it's not broken.

[TurboTomato 90]

What changed then? Something must have changed for so many people to witness the same thing.

[Fi5kuS 57]

Because it's not broken.

 

 

Please elaborate upon what types of clouds/software you use then.

[WarpD 824]

It doesn't matter. You may not like the appearance... and that's fine... but that doesn't mean it's actually broken.

[Fi5kuS 57]

It doesn't matter. You may not like the appearance... and that's fine... but that doesn't mean it's actually broken.

 

That doesn't make any sense.

 

Its pretty easy to look outside the window to spot how clouds "should" look like. In P3D v3.0 they looked great and realistic. Now, in 3.2 they look exactly like lumps of popcorn stacked horizontally.

 

I call that broken.

[WarpD 824]

Of course it makes sense. You just want to be right is all.

 

It's a sim, it's not going to randomize clouds to the level the real world does... and it is certainly not going to ever meet your demands because there will absolutely always be something you'll complain about.

 

It's been that way for many, many years.

 

It's not broken, it's just not good enough for you. There really is a difference.

[Bobsk8 12,836]

I think the clouds looked better prior to 3.2. Now it looks as if they are cut off at the bottom in a flat line.