Low Ceiling Vanishes

[Cameron]

5 minutes ago, HamSammich said:

Uhhh. You're doing it now. 'nuff said on my end. I'll leave it to others to look at some of your past replies, and other threads, and judge for themselves. Maybe it's my sensibilities that need calibration. But in my experience, it's not how you think you act that matters, it's how others see it.

Best,

 

marshall

 

My posts in this topic have no relevancy to posts in others, and while I may be short and to the point much of the time, I certainly don't fear "shortcomings" or criticism. Sure, anyone can go look and make any assessment they want. I stand by my last post.

The point here is someone researching SkyMaxx Pro may come around and find this post and go, "Oh no, most customers complain about this and they don't do anything about it!" Context is everything, and that was simply improper context. If anyone wants to follow anything, one thing we do is ALWAYS improve upon. Like it or not, @HamSammich, I'm definitely not out of line here.

[HamSammich]

My remarks were not aimed at the minutiae of your interchange with the customer in question. My impressions were based on reading your posts over time. I don't doubt you have a passion for making software and making it the best you can. That's not at issue. What I have noticed, over the years, is that you are prickly and defensive, even when you're right.

About a million years ago, I got some customer-service training for a major retailer that was known for truly excellent service. The primary lesson was simple--It is always a bad idea to win an argument with your customers. Even if you're right.

At worst, you lose them as customers. At best, you sow doubts such as "Gee, this guy spends so much time trying to win an argument; I wonder how much time he actually spends improving the product and my experience."

Again, I have no doubt you're proud of what you do and make. I'm a major fan of RWC. I'm a MINOR fan of SkyMaxx. I'm a devoted fan of IXEG. That's not the issue. I just think the tone sometimes is off-putting--and it's something I never notice from Morten, or Jan or Frank and others.

 

best,

 

marshall

 

 

[Cameron]

41 minutes ago, HamSammich said:

My remarks were not aimed at the minutiae of your interchange with the customer in question. My impressions were based on reading your posts over time. I don't doubt you have a passion for making software and making it the best you can. That's not at issue. What I have noticed, over the years, is that you are prickly and defensive, even when you're right.

If this is truly your take, I see no reason you felt it was appropriate to bring this up in this topic. You're only asking to derail topics at that point, and if that's what you feel is going to be appropriate, I'm going to ask you to please not do it.

While I can appreciate your background, it has no bearing on the dynamics of the niche market we live in. There are many bigger corporations where people do not interact in the same fora as X-Plane type users would, and as such not all things will apply.

Lastly, the tone you read is in your mind. If you want to have a negative outlook on someone or something, you can surely make something neutral (or even positive) read in your mind as negative. Be a little more open-minded and you may come to see that. Sometimes people will even perceive short, precise comments/answers as rude. Others will read the words for what they are and understand no desire to be upsetting was ever intended.

Please, leave this topic ON topic. Further derailment will quickly lead to its closure. There was simply no necessity to you sparking this discussion in the way you did.

[HamSammich]

Cameron,

Fair enough.

We now return to our regularly-scheduled questions about why certain clouds do and don't appear the way they should in SkyMaxx. :-)

 

best,

 

Marshall

[Cameron]

6 minutes ago, HamSammich said:

We now return to our regularly-scheduled questions about why certain clouds do and don't appear the way they should in SkyMaxx. :-)

Only after you get the requested METAR file off to Frank.

[poodster]

15 hours ago, sundog said:

It really comes down to tradeoffs between visual quality and performance. These particular cloud types are especially demanding on today's GPU's. Remember our clouds are truly 3D and volumetric, so you can't really compare them to the flatter representations other sims use for these clouds.

You're right that these clouds don't really get quite that close to the ground in nature (usually); the intent is to approximate the "virga" you see underneath a heavy thunderstorm which does reach the ground and obscures visibility beneath the cloud. The cloud size, although not as huge as I'd like in a perfect world, is still realistic - they range from 5000 to 7000 meters tall when created by RWC (16,000 - 22,000 feet.)

A big challenge for us is that there are many different kinds of cumulonimbus clouds that can be in a wide range of development, and METAR data doesn't really give us any insight into which one is "correct" for a given location. Our thunderstorms may look great to someone in Florida who sees fully-developed monsters every day, but not so much to someone in Europe where the conditions are different.

Anyhow I agree it's something we can keep iterating on and making better in future versions, especially as video cards keep getting faster over time.

Thank you for the explaination frank. Yea I wasn't trying to compare the texture of the cloud itself, I was just wondering about the placement and the altitudes that these clouds go in the sim. And yea, those fine lines of performance and quality. A tug and war battle. 

I see you mentioned the metar doesn't give good insight to for which one is correct for a given location. For the future, is it possible for have RWC and skymaxx shape the type of cumulonimbus clouds that usually occur in those areas? Or is that not possible and not within the limits? I may have a feeling that could result in even a worse representation of realism, but I don't know. This is just a question I was curious about.

I look forward to seeing what the future holds for skymaxx and RWC. And for better gpu's