john82088 Posted August 27, 2013 Report Posted August 27, 2013 This is shaping up to be an excellent fall for x-plane - Amazing clouds, Saab, and then real scenery of Northern California!!!!
Tom Knudsen Posted August 28, 2013 Report Posted August 28, 2013 You crack me up John! I may come out as a negative person but inside i am all fuzzy, kinda like a teddybear Purhaps my downfall is that I tend to expect realism when it comes to flight simulation, but that's just what 15 years will do to a geek 2
JohnMAXX Posted August 28, 2013 Author Report Posted August 28, 2013 Hahaha I know that comment was all in fun 1
JazAero Posted August 29, 2013 Report Posted August 29, 2013 I just saw this for the 1st time and was wondering , what is driving your cloud creation? Are you emulating thermals that end up generating cumulus clouds? Or Are you just drawing clouds based on the generated weather pattern? I'm asking because after all as we all know cloud movement and rotation is driven directly by the wind and air currents so how much of that is here? ThanksJim
JohnMAXX Posted August 29, 2013 Author Report Posted August 29, 2013 (edited) Thermals have no effect on cloud generation, also the cloud rotation is a static effect. But wind speed determines the shape of the cloud systems, as the wind speed increases the clouds will elongate into a realistic pattern just as in real life. We decided to tie into the default weather engine since I didnt see a need to reinvent the wheel here..... I have a control in the UI to adjust the cloud rotation, since this is a static effect I wanted the user to have some control over this. Not everyone is going to like it Also users will be able to drop their own sky colors into the plugin, I did this for Tom K since he is never happy (but seriously he is the reason why I added that feature) There are already a bunch of nice sky colors out there and this is a subjective topic.... Here is an early look at the UI: Edited August 29, 2013 by JohnMAXX 6
Mario Donick Posted August 29, 2013 Report Posted August 29, 2013 It's good to see this control panel -- makes everything really "real" (i.e. working, maybe soon to be released)? 1
JohnMAXX Posted August 29, 2013 Author Report Posted August 29, 2013 Something as complicated as this is going to require some help from LR. With that said the basic integration is complete but not a viable product until we have the ability to tweak performance.Also we made strides with hdr but more time needs to be dedicated to clean this up...Overall we are confident that we will have a fantastic add on. But I cannot out a timeframe on it.... 1
Hueyman Posted August 29, 2013 Report Posted August 29, 2013 It sounds really nice ! And Khamsin should be proud you choose his product on your logo ;-) 1
JohnMAXX Posted August 29, 2013 Author Report Posted August 29, 2013 Ive used it in the past and he mentioned it before..... 1
luckyluca Posted August 29, 2013 Report Posted August 29, 2013 it looks great, you need to find now a clever way to extend local weather up to the horizon.if you do that you sorted one of te biggest issues with this sim
wotaskd Posted September 5, 2013 Report Posted September 5, 2013 Amazing, John. Take your time, I'll be there with the credit card when you are done Questions - do the ACF's strobe lights interact with the clouds at night (lighting them up)? Also, have you worked out a way to provide smoother weather transitions than X-Plane's as updated METARs are downloaded? I don't know if it relates to your comment about how scattered clouds disappear suddenly.Congratulations!
JohnMAXX Posted September 5, 2013 Author Report Posted September 5, 2013 Amazing, John. Take your time, I'll be there with the credit card when you are done Questions - do the ACF's strobe lights interact with the clouds at night (lighting them up)? Also, have you worked out a way to provide smoother weather transitions than X-Plane's as updated METARs are downloaded? I don't know if it relates to your comment about how scattered clouds disappear suddenly.Congratulations!No currently we have no plans for strobes to interact with the cloud puffs. Additionally during testing the default weather engine will cause the clouds to disappear, we developed a transition to help with that problem, which only happens with real world weather selected. But to combat this problem there is another free plugin out there: http://x-plane.joanpc.com/plugins/xpgfs-noaa-weather In testing SkyMAXX with this plugin I havent seen the abrupt transitions typical to the default weather engine....... 1
john82088 Posted September 5, 2013 Report Posted September 5, 2013 Do you know if this plugin will work on Vatsim?
JohnMAXX Posted September 5, 2013 Author Report Posted September 5, 2013 Do you know if this plugin will work on Vatsim?It should if VATSIM is tied into the default weather. ..
JohnMAXX Posted September 15, 2013 Author Report Posted September 15, 2013 Things are moving along, here is a nice SS for you to ponder: 3
Mario Donick Posted September 15, 2013 Report Posted September 15, 2013 Hmmm... I'm not sure if I like this particular screenshot. It is very colorful and with lots of contrasts ... It somehow reminds me of FSX clouds and of video games. (Sorry to say that, but that's my honest opinion. You've shown more realistic shots earlier, though.) 1
JohnMAXX Posted September 15, 2013 Author Report Posted September 15, 2013 Hmmm... I'm not sure if I like this particular screenshot. It is very colorful and with lots of contrasts ... It somehow reminds me of FSX clouds and of video games. (Sorry to say that, but that's my honest opinion. You've shown more realistic shots earlier, though.)There are quite a bit of controls in the UI that make a big impact on the overall look and performance of SkyMAXX Pro, for instance in this shot I increased the minimum and maximum size of the cloud puffs, used a lower contrast sky color and set the visibility CAVOK (inside the weather dialog). Is this more of what you are looking for?..... 12
JohnMAXX Posted September 15, 2013 Author Report Posted September 15, 2013 Much better, yes! And thats why we gave you control via a UI Personally I think it is a very subjective topic, scenery that is, some people may like the first SS some may like the last. We are trying to have everything in between
Hueyman Posted September 15, 2013 Report Posted September 15, 2013 Yeah you can't satisfy everyone that's why your UI is really smart I think ! And really great shotS by the way, can't believe my X-Plane will look like that when it's out ;-) 1
cfrankling Posted September 16, 2013 Report Posted September 16, 2013 And thats why we gave you control via a UI Personally I think it is a very subjective topic, scenery that is, some people may like the first SS some may like the last. We are trying to have everything in between From what you have shown us here, you have done a great job. Keep up the good work, looking forward to its release.
Colin S Posted September 16, 2013 Report Posted September 16, 2013 Ever time I log onto X-Pilot I come straight here in hopes that there will be another screenshot. If I buy this addon I may be tempted to actually fly in X-Plane rather than simply design scenery for it.
Colin S Posted September 16, 2013 Report Posted September 16, 2013 Hey John - What can you tell me about the water in this picture?
JohnMAXX Posted September 16, 2013 Author Report Posted September 16, 2013 Hey John - What can you tell me about the water in this picture? Its a trick in the sky colors... 1
Recommended Posts