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No cloud shadows on XP11.5b9 on Vulkan


omarsmak
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Hello Team, 

 

I just purchased SMP and I installed into my XP11.5b9 with Vulkan enabled. I am pretty new to SMP and I am still trying to tune it best to my taste hence please bear with me :).

 

Anyways, I have noticed the cloud shadows don't show up at all, I have tried maximum intensity but still the same thing. When I disable SMP and use the default clouds, I can see the shadows as expected. I am attaching some screenshots for better understanding.

 

SMP enabled

1991942124_Cessna_172SP-2020-05-281_19_14PM.thumb.png.74e6f41b4f05a9d1c8415f77d2db4243.png

 

SMP disabled 

695443559_Cessna_172SP-2020-05-281_18_40PM.thumb.png.003c5c3628b9b71a8f48d3b57fc6b05a.png

 

My settings

skymaxx_1.PNG.376584e273521a00ef341cc461922578.PNG

skymaxx_2.thumb.PNG.f2fbb35a53ad38adea69c6df259748e5.PNG

skymaxx_3.thumb.PNG.86ae54f6732b66d32c6eea0ff170a1af.PNG

 

 

Logs are also attached to this thread

 

Apperciate your help in advance! 

 

Thank you,

Omar

Log.txt

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Hm, I just checked and they are at least working in beta 9 under Vulkan (see attached image). That said, cloud shadows can be finicky. Some things to try:

- Reduce your graphics setting to "medium." X-Plane's HDR processing has a tendency to wash out our cloud shadows, regardless of how dark we draw them. This will also alleviate some memory pressure on your system, which your log is complaining about. Without HDR, cloud shadows are much more distinct.

- Make sure you are not in an area of low visibility. We don't draw cloud shadows over hazy terrain, as the haze would diffuse them.

- Try a different time of day. If the sun is low in the sky and you're facing in the wrong direction, shadows might not be visible because they are being thrown in the opposite direction from where you are looking.

Based on your screenshots though, I suspect HDR is to blame. I took this screenshot with HDR on, but there might be something about your custom scenery that's making the shadows even harder to see.

F-4 - 2020-05-28 08.35.26.png

Edited by sundog
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Thank you @sundog and @JohnMAXX. So I did a new test. this time, in an area where I have no Orthos, only default SFD Global. Here are the results: 

SMP enabled with HDR on

2141234016_Cessna_172SP-2020-05-2815_56_13.thumb.png.52b6be681110a6546af2d2a3e0bcb509.png

 

SMP with HDR Off

58299835_Cessna_172SP-2020-05-2815_57_43.thumb.png.7226682df9c7e6e8a3155807c47c5096.png

 

Default clouds

50732472_Cessna_172SP-2020-05-2816_02_02.thumb.png.c9715dbc85a26f4825499bf5eea65804.png

 

Also I have played around with the time of the day but it is always the same results :(

Tried as well the following with no luck:

I have deleted the shadercache but it is always the same results.

- Change the time of the day.

- Switch to OGL,/

Also, I saw a post in FB, I think x-plane group, someone had no shadow as well with SMP in Vulkan, no idea if this related though :(. Kinda clueless now. 

Thank you for your help!

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1 hour ago, JohnMAXX said:

Thanks for taking the time to test, we will investigate...

 

Quick question AMD or nvida gpu? 

Thanks a lot, here are my specs:

i9-9900 K (OC to 5.0ghz)

Nvidia  RTX 2080 Super 8gb ram 

32gb RAM

XP installed on SSD

 

Thank you again!

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I've still had no luck on reproducing the issue. If you're not seeing cloud shadows even in OpenGL with HDR off and the cloud shadow slider all the way up, I really can't explain that.

The only other Idea I would have would be to start with a fresh installation of nothing but X-Plane 11 and SkyMaxx Pro / Real Weather Connector and see if that works. Sometimes re-installing everything clears up weird issues like this.

 

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19 hours ago, ianrivaldosmith said:

I too have that issue. GTX 2080ti. Tried all above, same issue. I read it is now because they locked vulkan down from editing or using sim private controls. 

I don't know where you read that, but that would not have any effect on SkyMaxx Pro's cloud shadows. We don't use private controls, we only use API's approved for use by third parties by Laminar. Our shadows are completely independent from X-Plane's built in shadow system.

They appear fine for me and for most other customers, so I'm kind of at a loss here to be honest.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello,

No cloud shadows here either.  Not the end of the world, but it would be nice to have them.

GTX 2080Ti

XP 11.50b11 Vulkan, Draw shadows on scenery option makes no difference

I've tried increasing the shadow options in SkyMaxx Pro

Medium Visual Effects

Middle of the day with overhead sun

Using OrbX TrueEarth England scenery

Cloud shadow slider maxed out

 

I haven't finished trying to troubleshoot this locally in case it has something to do with my setup, but thought it worth a mention.

 

 

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1 hour ago, BlackBeltMike said:

Hello,

No cloud shadows here either.  Not the end of the world, but it would be nice to have them.

GTX 2080Ti

XP 11.50b11 Vulkan, Draw shadows on scenery option makes no difference

I've tried increasing the shadow options in SkyMaxx Pro

Medium Visual Effects

Middle of the day with overhead sun

Using OrbX TrueEarth England scenery

Cloud shadow slider maxed out

 

I haven't finished trying to troubleshoot this locally in case it has something to do with my setup, but thought it worth a mention.

 

 

Have you tried it using default scenery? I'm kind of grasping at straws because the shadows work fine for me under Vulkan, but I'm not using custom scenery so that may have something to do with it.

Try looking for cloud shadows on lakes... they tend to stand out more there.

 

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23 hours ago, BlackBeltMike said:

Thanks Frank, will do some A/B testing on it this evening.  Are there recommended cloud types for best depiction of scenery shadows?

Is X-Plane's "draw shadows on scenery" option required when using SMP?

"Draw shadows on scenery" shouldn't matter; SMP draws its own cloud shadows outside of X-Plane's internal system.

To see cloud shadows the best, try a broken cumulus cloud layer under good visibility conditions, and crank up the cloud shadow slider in SMP all the way.

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Hi, 

So I'm now convinced the missing shadows is due to (in my case at least) the previous installation and maybe incomplete or incorrect uninstallation of a competitor's weather product.  Reason for thinking is that uninstalling SMP unexpectedly left XP11 in a very broken state (please refer to this thread for identical error message and circumstances https://forums.x-pilot.com/forums/topic/17008-sun_glow_sockedpng-critical-error/).  After this error I clicked Steam's Verify Files Integrity which identified 39 files needing replacement.  After this, I reinstalled SMP and noticed some shadows, but they weren't right... when viewed from an external camera, they would be positioned kind of in front of the camera and move weirdly in a different plane to the ground, rather than be positioned and orientated as they should against the terrain.

At this point I decided there was unknown mess so trying to troubleshoot would take much longer than reinstall everything, so that's what I did.  I copied my plugins folder to another HDD location so I could later quickly pull needed plugins back in easily, uninstalled SMP, RWC, ASXP and a couple of other bits such as OrbX scenery, then made sure to delete the X-Plane folder completely.  Reinstalled X-Plane 11.50b11 from Steam, reinstalled SMP, ASXP and RWC and tested.  Shadows all looked good now in several scenarios, so I spent the evening reinstalling everything which of course does take a long time.  It's a big job.  

Result is that as of this moment, everything's working fine, including with the OrbX TrueEarth England scenery, and hopefully it will keep working. :)  I know reinstalling everything isn't the first path people might choose to head down because it really can be a big job (and my setup is relatively straight-forward) but sometimes when things are broken like this was, it can work out to be quicker than the alternative.

Hope this post helps others.

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