SMP V4 subset of SMP V5

[Fab10]

Hi,

First of all, thank you for your continued efforts in stabilising SMP V5  for us.

Perhaps I have misunderstood, but my understanding of SMP V5 is that all of the basic features of SMP V4 remain present within V5.

When my SMP V5.0.4 FPS lowered unacceptably just now on ascent out of a cloudy NZWN, I switched from volumetric to standard, but immediately I lost one (or more) layers of cloud. When I tried switching overcast to non-volumetric, XP11.51 crashed.

I read in one of Sundog’s posts that volumetric clouds cannot easily blend with terrain, and so an automatic lower cloud limit of 500m was implemented, which is something I hadn’t expected.

If possible, please could you clarify how this system operates, specifically whether reported weather cloud bases are accurately represented as per weather engine METAR reports?

How should SMP V5 users who wish to momentarily regress back to SMP V4 standards go about achieving this, such that all features and functions of SMP V4 are again available?

With thanks,

Fabio

 

[sundog]

The 500m lower limit is only applied to volumetric clouds. Non-volumetric clouds work as they did in version 4.

It's possible you just picked up newer weather conditions when you switched, especially if you had "never change visible weather" active in Real Weather Connector.

[FlyAgi]

33 minutes ago, sundog said:

The 500m lower limit

I have one more question regarding this as with 5.0.4 the results are now much more detailed but I still found some discrepancy to the metar: Is this 500m shift based on sourrounding base mesh elevation so if there is a mountain in range the mountain top is the baseline, then add 500m and you get the lowest possible height for a cloud base? If this is how it works it seems to work fine with 5.0.4.

Edited January 24, 2021 by FlyAgi

[sundog]

2 hours ago, FlyAgi said:

I have one more question regarding this as with 5.0.4 the results are now much more detailed but I still found some discrepancy to the metar: Is this 500m shift based on sourrounding base mesh elevation so if there is a mountain in range the mountain top is the baseline, then add 500m and you get the lowest possible height for a cloud base? If this is how it works it seems to work fine with 5.0.4.

Yes, it's 500 meters AGL. I can probably remove that as well in a future update...

[Fab10]

Thank you, seeing weather layers change like that makes sense as I have “Never change visible weather” enabled at the moment.

Please forgive my well intended questions; I mean these to be respectful, objective, and ultimately constructive. Equally, my understanding of the technical aspects of volumetric clouds is less than basic and somewhat confused, so I’m really seeking clarity.

When you responded to FlyAgi’s post, I believe that you hinted about the possibility of removing the 500m lower AGL cloud limit, which is something I’d look forward to.

I get the technical necessity for changing the reported cloud base (volumetric clouds vs. terrain blending), but I’m unsure how I feel about adjusting weather conditions.

Much of my flying is intentionally aimed at challenging situations, and I’ll often seek out weather to match (for instance my arrival / departure at NZWN was with low cloud and blustery winds set in-sim as historic weather).

Obviously, I’d not enjoy breaking through cloud at an airport where purposely I’d selected conditions to match official minima, only to find an artificially set inaccurate cloud base.

Thinking off the cuff, given a weather situation whereby the base is overcast, then if this is set to legacy SMP, will the 500m limit be enabled if a cumulus layer above is set to volumetric?

What options are there with respect to this, for instance:

1. A user selectable opt in/out cloud base limit check box.

2. An automatically invoked cloud limiter with optional visual indicator flag (eg. user removable warning dialogue box “SMP cloud base set to 500m AGL”).

Back to the implementation of SMP V4 features within SMP V5; are there any known limitations, disabled features, or performance issues (eg. do landing lights still illuminate clouds)?

Might it be possible to create a product feature grid showing what is or isn’t available or limited in the different operating modes of SMP V5?

As always, thank you,

Fabio

 

[sundog]

Landing lights don't illuminate volumetric clouds. The "cloud/terrain blending" slider does not affect them. Nor does the cloud puff rotation setting, as they have no puffs. Those are the only differences in terms of functionality I can think of.

I wouldn't worry about ways around the 500m limit as I've already disabled it in the code here. In the next update it'll be gone. But to answer your question it currently applies to both overcast and cumulus volumetric clouds.

 

[Fab10]

Thank you, I appreciate your help.

I have installed SMP V5.0.5 but I haven’t had a chance to try it out, but I remembered to disable “Never change visible weather” in RWC.

Am I correct in my understanding that for users to revert exactly back to standard SMP V4, all users must do is switch off volumetric?

I’d miss landing lights during night ops, so to me it’s an important feature of SMP.

Thanks,

Fabio

[sundog]

26 minutes ago, Fab10 said:

Thank you, I appreciate your help.

I have installed SMP V5.0.5 but I haven’t had a chance to try it out, but I remembered to disable “Never change visible weather” in RWC.

Am I correct in my understanding that for users to revert exactly back to standard SMP V4, all users must do is switch off volumetric?

I’d miss landing lights during night ops, so to me it’s an important feature of SMP.

Thanks,

Fabio

Yes, if you change the overcast and cumulus representation settings to something other than volumetric you'll basically be back at 4.9.6 plus a few small bug fixes.

[Fab10]

Thank you, I appreciate your help. 

BTW, please don’t think that because I’m looking at non volumetric features, it means that I don’t like what I see; far from it, SMP is still my go-to cloud product. 

[sundog]

1 minute ago, Fab10 said:

Thank you, I appreciate your help. 

BTW, please don’t think that because I’m looking at non volumetric features, it means that I don’t like what I see; far from it, SMP is still my go-to cloud product. 

Oh not at all. I fully understand that volumetric isn't everyone's cup of tea, and the non-volumetric clouds are still something we're proud of.