Cameron Posted January 14, 2021 Author Report Posted January 14, 2021 1 hour ago, Honey56 said: I think it's a shame that you have to pay again for an update from 4 to 5, the discount is limited to 60 days. if you see the prices in relation to X-plane it is overpriced anyway. So we are really ripped off again. Eat or die Hi @Honey56, This is a pretty extreme comparison. If $19.95 USD is going to cause you a life or death situation, you should probably re-evaluate flight simming. I'm sorry that you're in tough times. I do hope things improve for you in 2021. On our side, SkyMaxx Pro v4 has been on the market for 4 years. In that time there have been many updates; all free. At some point, just like X-Plane 11 going to X-Plane 12 will be, new transitions must be made to keep development flowing. This is common in software (heck, even cars!). We are happy to offer you the 50% discount and feel this is a more than fair price discount for your past support. All the best! 4
Cameron Posted January 14, 2021 Author Report Posted January 14, 2021 41 minutes ago, AtariX said: Yellowish clouds again? When will they be white, as in nature? Hi there!, I see that you're in a part of the world where it's currently past sunset. Technology is a fun thing, and these days manufacturers of phones and computer operating systems now have the night shift where blue light is removed and a yellow hue comes in. This got me the other day. Be sure to turn off any night shift mode on your operating system or phone, and view again. These clouds are very...white. 2
Sims Smith Posted January 14, 2021 Report Posted January 14, 2021 Looking forward to promo video or stream to understand the improvement being made. 2
Honey56 Posted January 14, 2021 Report Posted January 14, 2021 52 minutes ago, Cameron said: Hallo @ Honey56, Dies ist ein ziemlich extremer Vergleich. Wenn 19,95 USD zu einer Lebens- oder Todessituation führen, sollten Sie das Flug-Simming wahrscheinlich neu bewerten. Es tut mir leid, dass Sie in schwierigen Zeiten sind. Ich hoffe, dass sich die Dinge für Sie im Jahr 2021 verbessern. Auf unserer Seite ist SkyMaxx Pro v4 seit 4 Jahren auf dem Markt. In dieser Zeit gab es viele Updates; alles kostenlos. Irgendwann müssen, genau wie bei X-Plane 11 zu X-Plane 12, neue Übergänge vorgenommen werden, um die Entwicklung am Laufen zu halten. Dies ist in Software üblich (zum Teufel sogar in Autos!). Wir freuen uns, Ihnen den Rabatt von 50% anbieten zu können und sind der Meinung, dass dies ein mehr als fairer Preisnachlass für Ihre frühere Unterstützung ist. Alles Gute! Hi there, I do not think so. the entire X-plane with everything costs $ 60 for the skymax and realwetter conector i also paid $ 60 plus now another $ 20. and that for such a small detail. I don't think that's proportionate at all. a tiny plugin for the complete X-Plane.
Cameron Posted January 14, 2021 Author Report Posted January 14, 2021 25 minutes ago, Honey56 said: Hi there, I do not think so. the entire X-plane with everything costs $ 60 for the skymax and realwetter conector i also paid $ 60 plus now another $ 20. and that for such a small detail. I don't think that's proportionate at all. a tiny plugin for the complete X-Plane. I totally respect that you feel differently and wish you nothing but the best in your flight sim adventures! 1
Radiosabines Posted January 14, 2021 Report Posted January 14, 2021 Great new , in two ways, first in the performance of the software itself with Vulcan and second nice commercial approach for us the users and owners of SMP and RWC I'll be there next week for buy V5 , thank you 2
Cameron Posted January 14, 2021 Author Report Posted January 14, 2021 Thanks for the support, @Radiosabines!
wain Posted January 14, 2021 Report Posted January 14, 2021 fantastic piece of news, when I fly XP11 I always use SMP4 with RWC and Activesky, on the odd occasion it may be a little slow but my system is 3 years old.......I have tried them all and still come back to SMP as this to me usually looks great and especially lately performs very well.... can't wait for release and also feel the upgrade cost is good to.... 2
FlyAgi Posted January 14, 2021 Report Posted January 14, 2021 One more thing: Are you bringing back the water reflections when using Vulkan rendering? Not having water reflections is currently leading me to not use SMP 4.x because when flying Helicopter mostly nose down I see more water than clouds and XP water sadly looks very bad without reflections (this is an XP issue of course).
sundog Posted January 14, 2021 Report Posted January 14, 2021 18 minutes ago, FlyAgi said: One more thing: Are you bringing back the water reflections when using Vulkan rendering? Not having water reflections is currently leading me to not use SMP 4.x because when flying Helicopter mostly nose down I see more water than clouds and XP water sadly looks very bad without reflections (this is an XP issue of course). I'm afraid our hands are tied on this one. The plugin API Laminar offers under Vulkan does not give us access to the water reflection pass.
FlyAgi Posted January 14, 2021 Report Posted January 14, 2021 (edited) So it's also impossible to inject some kind of generic fake reflection bitmap onto the water (derived from the actual SMP cloud coverage but simplified) or into the PBR engine? And, I forgot to mention: Is it possible to add a clouds brightness control to the menu? I think the clouds in your preview screenshots are a bit too bright when seen from below but as this is a matter of taste maybe this should be adjustable. In the previous SMP releases there also where darker clouds depending on weather, I hope those are still avalable in the v5 release. Edited January 14, 2021 by FlyAgi
sundog Posted January 14, 2021 Report Posted January 14, 2021 50 minutes ago, FlyAgi said: So it's also impossible to inject some kind of generic fake reflection bitmap onto the water (derived from the actual SMP cloud coverage but simplified) or into the PBR engine? And, I forgot to mention: Is it possible to add a clouds brightness control to the menu? I think the clouds in your preview screenshots are a bit too bright when seen from below but as this is a matter of taste maybe this should be adjustable. In the previous SMP releases there also where darker clouds depending on weather, I hope those are still avalable in the v5 release. It's not possible, certainly not while following the rules Laminar establishes for plugins. How bright the clouds should be has been the subject of a lot of internal debate! Making it adjustable without hacking config files is a good idea, but it'll have to wait for a later update... we're kind of locked into what is shipping for v5.0 at this point.
ghun1 Posted January 14, 2021 Report Posted January 14, 2021 will this require a new upgrade to real weather connector or will we be able to stay with the one we have? And will FSGRW still work? Any idea on pricing yet?
Cameron Posted January 14, 2021 Author Report Posted January 14, 2021 Just now, ghun1 said: will this require a new upgrade to real weather connector or will we be able to stay with the one we have? And will FSGRW still work? Any idea on pricing yet? Hi there, All of these questions are answered in the original post below the screenshot previews, but I'll answer them again here. 1 minute ago, ghun1 said: will this require a new upgrade to real weather connector or will we be able to stay with the one we have? It will require a new version of RWC. This will be FREE for all current customers of RWC. 1 minute ago, ghun1 said: And will FSGRW still work? FSGRW and ASXP will still continue to work. 1 minute ago, ghun1 said: Any idea on pricing yet? Pricing remains the same. $39.95 for v5. A 60 day 50% discount for current v4 owners will be provided, making the v5 upgrade $19.95.
berniegtr Posted January 14, 2021 Report Posted January 14, 2021 (edited) Good news, thank you! Looking forward for next week Does V5 also support X-Plane´s Multi Monitor features like V4 did? Edited January 14, 2021 by berniegtr
pdg17 Posted January 14, 2021 Report Posted January 14, 2021 7 hours ago, sundog said: It would depend a lot on how efficient your GPU is at parallelizing fragment shader operations across the pixels on your screen. I would expect resolution to have an impact on performance, but I can't say how much as there are many other factors at play. I don't personally have a 4K monitor so it's not something I've been able to benchmark yet. I have an RTX2080 gpu, i9 9900k cpu so here's hoping :-)
Udo EDBM Posted January 14, 2021 Report Posted January 14, 2021 (edited) I have the total package Skymaxx Pro v4 - FSGRW and Real Weather Connector and am very happy with it and my current settings. Great real 3D clouds Will Skymaxx v5 also have the existing cloud textures? Cloud Art Cumulus - Swept - Turbulent - Stormy etc? Or will there be completely new ones? I would like to see more pictures of each cloud type in v5 - - somehow the v5 thumbnails don't really appeal to me Will the slider for Puff Rotation Speed remain? Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) Edited January 14, 2021 by Udo EDBM
JohnMAXX Posted January 14, 2021 Report Posted January 14, 2021 32 minutes ago, Udo EDBM said: I have the total package Skymaxx Pro v4 - FSGRW and Real Weather Connector and am very happy with it and my current settings. Great real 3D clouds Will Skymaxx v5 also have the existing cloud textures? Cloud Art Cumulus - Swept - Turbulent - Stormy etc? Or will there be completely new ones? I would like to see more pictures of each cloud type in v5 - - somehow the v5 thumbnails don't really appeal to me Will the slider for Puff Rotation Speed remain? Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) These options will still be available for the original cloud types, that are still available... The new volumetric clouds will not have these options since they are procedurally drawn and not based on art assets...
FlyAgi Posted January 14, 2021 Report Posted January 14, 2021 2 hours ago, sundog said: It's not possible, certainly not while following the rules Laminar establishes for plugins. I understand. Thanks for clarification. I have just checked with current SMP 4.9.6 and non glossy waves and it looked better than what I remebered, maybe an XP 11.50 effect or something like that so it's not that much of an issue for me now. 2 hours ago, sundog said: How bright the clouds should be has been the subject of a lot of internal debate! Making it adjustable without hacking config files is a good idea, but it'll have to wait for a later update... we're kind of locked into what is shipping for v5.0 at this point. Would be cool to see this in a later update but even better would be if the clouds get somewhat darker when seen from below and brighter wenn getting above them. And then add an option to adjust both brightness values (above and below) in the menu and it should be perfect - for everyone. 1 hour ago, JohnMAXX said: the original cloud types, that are still available Will the original clouds look like they do now in 4.9.6? I really like the brightness here with the shading and variation and in case I don't like the new voxel clouds this would be great.
Cameron Posted January 14, 2021 Author Report Posted January 14, 2021 33 minutes ago, FlyAgi said: Would be cool to see this in a later update but even better would be if the clouds get somewhat darker when seen from below and brighter wenn getting above them. This is already the case for v5 voxel clouds. Ambient light and how it scatters within the cloud based on the sun or moon position are factored in. 33 minutes ago, FlyAgi said: Will the original clouds look like they do now in 4.9.6? I really like the brightness here with the shading and variation and in case I don't like the new voxel clouds this would be great. Yes, they will remain the same. 2
danhenri Posted January 15, 2021 Report Posted January 15, 2021 I already get fantastic results with SMP and FSGRW (RTX2080 and an i7 CPU) and would upgrade for sure. I have two questions : May I expect better performances with .5 version using FSGRW (because it's still quite demanded in heavy weather situations) ? Could you give us more information about what means "GPU ray-casted clouds" ? (try to translate this expression in french, but it did not mean much more to me...)
crisk73 Posted January 15, 2021 Report Posted January 15, 2021 (edited) Hi excellent news, as a v4 owner I'll get this for sure. Currently using default though because of better fps in VR. V5 hopefully will take the lead. One question, what about weather transitions between metars? Will it be smooth? What I hate about default xp clouds is the complete sky redraw. Tx. Edited January 15, 2021 by crisk73 1
sundog Posted January 15, 2021 Report Posted January 15, 2021 2 hours ago, danhenri said: I already get fantastic results with SMP and FSGRW (RTX2080 and an i7 CPU) and would upgrade for sure. I have two questions : May I expect better performances with .5 version using FSGRW (because it's still quite demanded in heavy weather situations) ? Could you give us more information about what means "GPU ray-casted clouds" ? (try to translate this expression in french, but it did not mean much more to me...) It's hard to make promises about performance, because everyone's system and set of add-ons are different. But I can tell you that the new volumetric clouds in version 5 do perform better than the clouds in version 4 on my own system, especially under heavy weather conditions. GPU ray-casted is a more specific way of describing how "volumetric" clouds are drawn (technically, the version 4 clouds are also "volumetric" but that's not what most people in the flight sim world mean by it.) The way it works is that your GPU casts a ray from your viewpoint through every pixel on your screen that might contain clouds, and as this ray "marches" toward the horizon, it computes how many clouds it passes through and how they are lit at each point, to produce the final result at each pixel. An even more specific term is GPU ray-marching. But, in the flight sim world, you can just think of it as a synonym for volumetric.
sundog Posted January 15, 2021 Report Posted January 15, 2021 2 hours ago, crisk73 said: Hi excellent news, as a v4 owner I'll get this for sure. Currently using default though because of better fps in VR. V5 hopefully will take the lead. One question, what about weather transitions between metars? Will it be smooth? What I hate about default xp clouds is the complete sky redraw. Tx. If you also have Real Weather Connector installed, it has an option called "never change visible weather" you can enable. This will cause new METAR data to only affect new weather you are flying into, rather than redrawing everything around you.
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