I heard quite a bit from the cloud and weather tweakers when we started 1030. At the beginning of the beta, I thought I’d have the visibility and fog improvements ready to go, and so I posted about possible changes.
Those features got pushed out to a future patch. The cloud lighting did change. So what was the total set of changes?
- Scattering and lighting did not change, and there are no changes to art controls. So hacks to atmospheric scattering are unaffected.
- The format (size, color format, usage) of the cloud textures did not change – if you have a replacement cloud texture set, you can keep using it.
- The actual default cloud textures did change – I beat them up a bit in PhotoShop. Hence if you have custom cloud textures installed, the updater will yelp.
- The lighting and placement of the cloud puffs has changed, so color choices for custom textures may have to be revisited.
- Art controls to kill clouds are still there – but if you want our clouds gone, use the new override_clouds dataref!
- There are new art controls controlling the (now redone) white-out effect.
So the total impact on cloud and atmosphere tweaks should be relatively low – but the lighting definitely changed on cloud puffs.
My expectation is that when the scattering art controls change (and they will change someday) it will be due to a change in the scattering code itself that will be “worth it”, e.g. a major iteration to improve the look of scattering itself.
Love that you tackle the default clouds, I for one would rather use those than a third party package. For me It’s all about finding a Good balance between performace and eyecandy.
Does that effect the density? I found that framerate is quite good in light-medium clouds, but when you hit the heavier clouds then it all goes south, but in reality the view is the same.
So my point is that a lot of the cloud puffs that are building up behind one another are getting thicker and thicker as they are supposed to, but really once the actual cloud is formed then these thicker areas are just hurting you badly with no benefits. Once you hit a certain thickness or density then what are benefits of more and more cloud puffs you can’t see?
Some cloud formations that were ‘under’-solid may be denser now.
The problem with density is this: the cloud is fundamentally a _3d_ arrangement of small puffs. Because it’s 3d there is always depth overlap. This is unavoidable unless we change to a truly 2-d approach or have a way to dynamically remove overdrawn puffs.
Hi Ben,
was there any change on how water looks like in 10.30?
The Mediterranean Sea just out of LIRF looks a lot like a light blue Caribbean lagoon rather than what it used to look like in 10.25 …
Thx
Massimo
No changes.
Hi Ben,
Good to hear that fog and visibility patches are coming. Just one question about visibility and fog in 10.30. I’ve noticed that if I set visibility at say 5 miles, visbibility setting is kept up to say 2500-3000 feet and at higher altitudes it increases by itself to 50 or more miles. So the question is if that is a “feature” or should I submmit a bug?
Regards/Nenad
It is mostly intentional – the tuning is a little bit more aggressive than we’d like; that has already been logged as a bug.
Note that by setting the bottom cloud layer you can control -when- the cutover starts, -even- for clear weather.
Hi Ben,
I saw an interesting trick in another cloud engine: basically there is just a single, static, big texture for every cloud layer, covering the whole sky. Part of it (depending on cloud coverage) is transparent, while the actual visible clouds are “holes” in the transparency. Cloud movement due to wind can be easily obtained then. The effect is very convincing! Of course in this form it’s only applicable to 2D cloud layers (cirrus, etc). I presume it would be hard to make something similar for 3D clouds.
I just wanted to share this idea around, you never know, what a revision of cloud engine could bring in the (distant) future! 🙂
Will we ever see big puffy Cumulus looking clouds, Towering Cumulus, etc, ? The clouds look more Stratus looking.
How do I set that option you mentioned in the sim? Is there a menu or key I need to set this?
override_clouds dataref!
No. Datarefs are for plugins – you need to write code.
Ok, Thanks.
Is there a way to disable the clouds in the sim because its hard on my frames.
Is there a setting where I can leave it off even if I have real world weather.
I still would like the real weather winds and temp but would just like to have the clouds disabled.
Any suggestions? Thanks
As novice of Ubuntu 14.04, I should say ‘cool’. Last 10.30r2 version allows me to flying with pleasure. The Performance has increased significantly. Probably for high end computers it’s not really noticeable. BTW, I’m flying with_voice_of_ ATC, but until unfortunately without ATIS/AWOS voices. My researches for solving this a ‘bit’ even a ‘nano’ problem to be continue. Thanks, Ben for this update.
Cheers
Youri
Right – we use the OS default text to speech engine for ATIS/AWOS. Basically if someone sends me working sample code to use a highly available Linux text to speech engine, I’ll drop it in.
Hi Ben,
I’m sorry to be the one that asks “when?” 🙂 but can we expect the fog related bugs (mainly low visibility fog , and the abrupt change in color between DSF’s*) in a patch that’ll come this year ?
* it seems like this abrupt change in color is even more noticeable when scattering in on and with edited art controls , so it kinda ruins the “connection” between the sky and the ground in high altitudes.
Hi Ben,
I have skymaxx pro. Do I need to use the data ref editor plugin to re-set override_clouds dataref or is there no difference?
Thanks
No – skymaxx takes care of the datarefs for you. These datarefs are NOT meant for end users to play with.
Ben. Help please. I can not solve the problems in the new version of X-plane. When you install any clouds third-party developers, in any case cease clouds appear within a certain radius around the aircraft. All the time around the aircraft “donut hole”, a circular space. When you fly, the clouds disappear in front of face.