Rain Clouds

[Scottvdken]

First off, let me say that after having tried now every other option currently available, I am very, very pleased with SMP4 and RWC. Your cloud formations are simply stunning, and the real weather inputs flawlessly for me so far using FSGRW. My poor PC is absolutely chugging through clouds at 40k sq km, but my frames are fine while in real time, and I only ever notice FPS issues if I try and use time compression. A welcome, and perfectly acceptable tradeoff, in comparison to the absolutely massive suite of issues (and just as many excuses) certain competitors of yours are currently experiencing. 

I did have two questions regarding rendering of rain clouds:

-Using the "fast" cloud option. I prefer the look of these clouds, but I notice nothing but white clouds. Am I missing a setting somewhere that will darken rain clouds, or is it just not possible at this current time?

-The only other thing I had noticed was the prevalence of lone towering cumulus clouds in stormy weather. Are there plans to somehow autogenerate a significant amount of clouds around each of these towers? While I understand it is common in some areas to see lone towers like this, it can look funny on the ground (I'm no meteorologist, but I have never seen that IRL), especially when many of them are present. 

Sorry for being long-winded. Those are the only two questions I had for now. Keep up the good work.

[sundog]

Rain is generally associated with stratiform clouds. Setting your overcast setting in SMP to "solid stratiform" will produce more natural looking stratus clouds from the ground, but it's rare for FSGRW to generate the conditions that would result in these cloud types being shown. As for cumulus congestus clouds that may be generating rain, it gets tricky because although they may appear dark from below, generally speaking they are still white from above. Earlier versions of SMP would darken the clouds based on how dense they were, but this resulted in a lot of complaints from people who still wanted them to appear white.

So I guess that's a long winded way of saying - it's complicated, but setting overcast to solid stratiform may help in some situations.

Regarding the lone towering cumulus clouds you're seeing - I'd recommend experimenting with not running FSGRW, but just letting SMP and RWC do its thing. We just place clouds where the weather data tells us to, so we rely on the fact that it's unusual for towering cumulus clouds to appear in areas where there are not other cumulus clouds present in nature. If you're seeing otherwise, it suggests a problem in the incoming weather data.

Glad you're enjoying SMP/RWC overall!