Clouds in beta 9 and 10

[chris k]

I got the joke =)

- CK.

[larjeet]

you just had to read the fine print :lol:

[larjeet]

10.03 RC1 is here and we have clouds back yeeehaa

Edited January 10, 2012 by larjeet

[Simmo W]

Maybe I'm spoilt with beta7 or something is wrong with my update- I updated my DEMO version and don't like the flat, cirrus looking cumulus clouds. It's like I've lost a third of the beauty of xplane 10. Am I wrong? Show me a pic of some dark, brooding, varied clouds. I couldn't get one.

[Muskoka]

Simon.... edit: happy birthday, here's a shot from RC1, clouds at 40. Below the cloud deck they look fine, get above and the same crap is there. Why couldn't he just leave them the way they were in Beta 7, they were beautiful, and fully adjustable for everyone's needs.

Glen

Edited January 10, 2012 by Muskoka

[ksgy]

...and the clouds totally different looking from top or bottom. From bottom itt looks like a cirrus-stratus mix. From top, they look like cumulus.

Wish they put the 3 slider back to rendering settings.

[rover]

Yes, I tried to avoid the update but couldn't resist. Now my frame rate is less then half.

have a good day,

[Baber20]

Now that is really weird. My frame rates went down aswell after the latest update.

Edited January 10, 2012 by Baber20

[larjeet]

Actually I really like this update Lets face it we are in the begining of XP10 lots of time to improve

[Muskoka]

The update did nothing for the clouds when flying at higher altitudes, they still can look pretty bad. As far as improving over time I agree, but there was nothing wrong with the clouds at any altitude in Beta 7 and earlier, so we have to date taken a step backwards. Are the updates not supposed to improve things?? See my earlier screen shot for reference. What's with the double images. Others are seeing the same things.

Glen

Edit: As long as your below / even / or slightly above the clouds they look fantastic. Fly at 30,000 or above and they look rather poor.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Muskoka

[Baber20]

RC1 destroyed my frame rates. With b7 and even in beta 10 i was getting 26fps with cumulus overcast, visibility mvfr and cloud sliders to 40%. Now with the same settings I am getting 21 fps. I am dead sure this has something to do with opaqueness of the clouds. In beta 7 I figured out that if I push my opaqueness cloud slider to 100%, I was getting an fps boost ranging from 4 to 5 in overcast clouds. Maybe the clouds in RC1 aren't that opaque anymore and we can't set the opaqueness because that option is gone.

[Simmo W]

I think you are onto something, as that is what I was doing too and am not happy with the worsened fps and look now.

[larjeet]

Every new flight sim has its bugs FS9 had memory hole problems FSX had the blurries

[Andydigital]

Yes RC1 runs like crap even on my 4.6Ghz i7 and GTX580, in fact its never run this bad and I have tried every build of XPX to date. Up until the last couple of betas I've had HDR on at all times and had some fantasic looking cloud scapes, now I have to turn HDR off and lower the useless single cloud slider to 21%. The single cloud slider they have left us with seems broken too, move it to 20% and the cloud level drops massively like you moved it to 5%, move it to 22% and it reacts like you moved it to 50+%.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Andydigital

[Muskoka]

Every new flight sim has its bugs FS9 had memory hole problems FSX had the blurries

And XPX DIDN'T have a problem (bug) until he messed with the cloud settings. It sure does now, fits right in with FS9, FSX in the bug department. Put it back the way it was in Beta 7 and move forward, and hopefully onto something else. Leave the clouds alone. Don't try to fix something that isn't broken, and the clouds settings were not broken. It worked great in Beta 7, it's doesn't work very well now.

Glen

[ksgy]

Has anyone sent a bugfix/request to Austin, including link to this topic?

[Muskoka]

I sent a bug report yesterday, no link to the topic though, just screen shots.

Glen

[larjeet]

Just think of it this way i with FSX and other microsoft sims If there where problems you would have to wait forever if ever for a service pack to come out and they where far and few between . With Xplane you have a bug reporting system for a simulator that is constantly evolving . Why not send Ben or Austin suggestions for an advanced cloud option . That way you could run the default settings or switch to advanced mode to get your precious sliders back . I can see were cloud settings for an average user could lead to all sorts of headaches when customers set their settings to high for their system . Lets face it the majority of users don,t run multy core High end PCs with the latest highend graphics cards .

[Muskoka]

get your precious sliders back

First off, you don't need to be rude. No one has been rude to you.

Why not send Ben or Austin suggestions for an advanced cloud option .

There was, it was 3 sliders and they were taken away.

Lets face it the majority of users don,t run multy core High end PCs with the latest highend graphics cards .

That's fine, with the 3 slider cloud system they had the option of turning down certain settings until they achieved something that worked for them. That option no longer exists, it actually does, it's one slider that doesn't work as well as the old system.

I can see were cloud settings for an average user could lead to all sorts of headaches when customers set their settings to high for their system

So the masses get to suffer, because a few can't set their system up properly. You have to be kidding, I hope.

Since the change to a single slider, the atmospheric visuals have taken a beating when at altitude. Hopefully he can sort it out, or perhaps put things back the way they were, nobody had a problem with the clouds then. Lots of users do now. I don't understand why this is so hard for some to comprehend. It wasn't broke, why mess with it.

Glen

Edit: Be honest here, can you tell me you don't see something wrong in this screen shot. Well it didn't look like that before he changed the cloud slider system. Why should we accept it? I won't, and will continue to comment on it until it's fixed. I paid for the program, I expect a little more. Not stuff taken away.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Muskoka

[larjeet]

First off I did not mean to be rude but the way you guys are going on about the sliders I figured they must be very precious to you . As far as the default advanced settings I would compare this to the system used in MS flight where they have a setting to switch back and forth betwen detailed and simple clouds . this way people who just want to fly VFR with a few clouds probably would not need adjustments and if they did want to and screwed things up they could always reset them to default . As far as your clouds look from above thats how they looked from below so hes got it partly fixed so submit your bug reports and wait till RC2 comes out . But it does not hurt to give constructive critisism instead of just bashing Xplane10

[OlaHaldor]

I fly mostly VFR - trust me - those three sliders were golden. The one slider is making the sim dumber than it needs to. Of course, there's users who doesn't want to or might adjust, or understands what settings do what and how much loss (or gain) of performance this will give, but I'm certain the majority liked having three sliders instead of one.

I had different settings for all of them to have a populated sky with the number and size of clouds I felt was OK for a mix of performance and visual eye candy.

[Muskoka]

I don't think Xplane10 took it personal. I do though, I paid for the program.

As far as your clouds look from above thats how they looked from below so hes got it partly fixed so submit your bug reports and wait till RC2 comes out

Not quite, this is how they have always looked from below, never had a problem there. As far as partly fixed, nothing was partly fixed. There was nothing wrong with it before, now there is. That's not fixing a problem, that's creating one. This really isn't tough to understand, I don't understand why you're making it so. It's not right and needs to be fixed. The bug reports have been filed. If you don't have something constructive to add to this conversation, why do you keep responding. Many users have a problem with the clouds, if you like them the way they are that's fine, we don't and are going to continue to discuss it until it's fixed.

Here's a below cloud deck shot, it's always looked great, and performed great, if one knows how to set-up their system. From 30,000ft they look terrible.

Glen

[Muskoka]

I fly mostly VFR - trust me - those three sliders were golden. The one slider is making the sim dumber than it needs to. Of course, there's users who doesn't want to or might adjust, or understands what settings do what and how much loss (or gain) of performance this will give, but I'm certain the majority liked having three sliders instead of one.

I had different settings for all of them to have a populated sky with the number and size of clouds I felt was OK for a mix of performance and visual eye candy.

Thank you....that's sums it up nicely, although I fly mostly IFR at high altitudes.

Glen

[Longranger]

Not quite, this is how they have always looked from below, never had a problem there. As far as partly fixed, nothing was partly fixed. There was nothing wrong with it before, now there is.

I think I can guess what the basic problem behind it is:

The three sliders were needed since nobody knew which settings might work best, so they simply put three sliders up so that anyone could set it for their ow3n purposes. But in the long run this is senseless. Parts of these settings can be done automatically according to the situation. You would only need a single slider that determines who much horsepower the computer should put into the clouds. With such an automatic in place, these three sliders would no longer work. I think the only problem is that the new automatic still has a few smaller problems.

But the fundamtal problem progbably is: there are no longer three sliders, since the background has changed. Even if they would give you the three sliders back, they wouldn't work anyway. So you simply have to wait for improvements in the automatic settings.

The main problem behind it simply is: At the moment ecerything is on the beta branch, but we are no longer in a situation where so many basic bugs are solved but where they try to optimize the code.We simply need a separate beta branch as fast as possibel.

[GrahamH]

In all versions of 10.xx for me, clouds of all kinds have drastically killed my fps. With clear skies, I usually sit at high twenties, maybe thirties in frames per second, but as sson as I add any clouds, it plummets into low teens, and sometimes single digits. I've tried tweaking the rendering options but its always the same.