SkyMaxx Pro 2 will have cloud shadows!

[sundog]

Again it's important to remember that SkyMaxx Pro is a weather renderer, not a weather injector / engine / whatever you want to call it. We take advantage of whatever weather information and hooks X-Plane's SDK makes available to us, and represent it as best we can. The stuff you're talking about does mostly hinge on Laminar or other third parties providing new or better data to us to render. You can be sure we'll stay on top of it though.

[asheft]

Awesome news! Will they be enabled no matter the shadow setting, or will a certain shadow setting be required to display these?

[sundog]

SkyMaxx Pro 2's shadow settings are completely independent from X-Plane's built-in settings - it uses its own shadow system for clouds. There is a checkbox to enable them, and a slider to adjust their intensity, within the Skymaxx Pro configuration screen. So, you can adjust X-Plane's shadows however you wish and tweak the cloud shadows on their own.

[sundog]

Here's a much nicer screenshot one of our beta testers, Emma Bentley, took of SkyMaxx Pro 2.0 beta 8. We're still tweaking the appearance of the clouds for beta 9, but I think it's shaping up pretty nicely.

 

[TurbineSeaplane]

Here's a much nicer screenshot one of our beta testers, Emma Bentley, took of SkyMaxx Pro 2.0 beta 8. We're still tweaking the appearance of the clouds for beta 9, but I think it's shaping up pretty nicely.

 

Looking superb!!

[scotchegg]

Will this be a free update?

[TurbineSeaplane]

Will this be a free update?

 

Let me be the first to say "I hope not!!""

This is tons of work I'm sure and I want these guys to get paid for their efforts here!

 

X-plane BADLY needs as much 3rd party dev support as it can get and that requires a thriving ecosystem where money can actually be made....

[marcelobus]

Awesome!

[CaptCWGAllen]

Fantastic -- will happily pay for such a great upgrade.

[MercuryMat]

This will be a nice update to the 270' FOV gliding sim I'm building at my AeroClub. I hope the x-plane weather injector will be also fixed in future so thermals and ridge winds will be correctly rendered in the atmosphere. Any chance to have such features in a "plugin form"???

Sent from Mad iPad's Tapatalk

[Ben Russell]

This will be a nice update to the 270' FOV gliding sim I'm building at my AeroClub. I hope the x-plane weather injector will be also fixed in future so thermals and ridge winds will be correctly rendered in the atmosphere. Any chance to have such features in a "plugin form"???

Sent from Mad iPad's Tapatalk

 

There is a user messing around with Python to improve thermals behaviour. It is NOT a complete weather injector. It's only aiming to make thermals more interesting.

 

Interest is extremely low.

 

More info here:

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showtopic=78035&hl= 

[MercuryMat]

Thanks for the link. I think x-plane will be perfect to train also glider pilots, it requires only a little effort to enhance the weather engine at the level of condor soaring...sad that nobody was thinking about that...

Sent from Mad iPad's Tapatalk

[sparkie66]

gliding is a niche market within a niche market i think. 

 

BTW i think thermaling can never be trained in a desktop sim, as it requires  A LOT of seat of the pants feeling. The important part to train can already be done, which is the pattern and landing. 

 

I also tried condor soaring, but it's too easy to thermal. (and graphics are really retro btw) In most real thermals with a bit of wind you can get maybe 1 or 2 fairly constant circles in w/o moving the controls too much, then you have to tinker again to stay in the best lift.

 

For training thermalling I therefore prefer the real thing , much better graphics too.

[Ben Russell]

Thanks for the link. I think x-plane will be perfect to train also glider pilots, it requires only a little effort to enhance the weather engine at the level of condor soaring...sad that nobody was thinking about that...

Sent from Mad iPad's Tapatalk

 

"Easier said than done."

 

Combined that with the fact that we have only just been granted the ability to apply forces reliably to the flight model to actually affect flight performance with new features in the 10.30 beta and your statement is naive.

[User42]

Personally I think it should be a free update. I have already paid and perhaps unlike some, am not easily parted from my money. Don't get me wrong, I love SMP but would be less than appreciative of being gouged for more money to get the finally finished product.

[TurbineSeaplane]

Personally I think it should be a free update. I have already paid and perhaps unlike some, am not easily parted from my money. Don't get me wrong, I love SMP but would be less than appreciative of being gouged for more money to get the finally finished product.

Couldn't disagree more.

Tons of work here on new features, thus the entirely new version number (2).

 

This sort of attitude is precisely what will keep people from developing for X-Plane.

Software isn't "pay once and get updates forever".

[User42]

Couldn't disagree more.

Tons of work here on new features, thus the entirely new version number (2).

 

This sort of attitude is precisely what will keep people from developing for X-Plane.

Software isn't "pay once and get updates forever".

 

Where you see entirely new features I see features that were lacking in the original whatever the reasons. I don't doubt that work has gone in or expect updates forever but I do expect value for money from the products I pay for as a consumer. Each to their own opinion with regard to value, if the consumers requirement for value cannot be met by the publisher then sales are lost and they survive or not on that basis and that basis alone. I support publishers as much as the next guy with the money it takes my time to earn but I'm not running a charity. Developers will develop if there is money to be made, my particular attitude will have no bearing on their decisions I imagine. You and I simply have differing ideas about value.

[TurbineSeaplane]

Where you see entirely new features I see features that were lacking in the original whatever the reasons.

 

This comment basically makes the rest of your post moot.

You shouldn't have bought it in the first place if it didn't have features you were "expecting".

If you were unsure, wait for a review or post around here and ask.

[Cameron]

Guys,

 

We're not going to let this topic dwindle into a speculative thread of paid vs non-paid. 

 

I will say that I'm very proud of Frank and John for the efforts that have always been made since product release to address customer concerns, and with that, I firmly feel they have done their part to justify whichever type of release chosen.

 

That said, we'll have more details about V2 soon, including whether it's paid or not. Please leave the debate out and focus on what's being presented to you in the thread from Frank for now.

[alexcolka]

Can we expect complete thick 3d overcast layers in version 2? That would be great. Thanks.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk

[WarpeD]

Free, no.  But users who bought 1.0 hoping they would make good on adding clouds should be entitled to an upgrade rate, even if only for a limited time.  This isn't an inexpensive little $10 app that we paid for less than a year ago.  Early adoption is deserving of consideration, since that level of interest is what validated continued development.

[captain420]

Wow, this is amazing! Any ideas on when release will be? X-Plane is definitely my #1 sim now. I haven't touched P3D at all for a very long time. Looks like I can now depart away with FSX and P3D for good.

[Hopkinsstevea]

I would gladly pay extra for it ,you do after all get what you pay for and these guys don't work for nothing.

[sundog]

Can we expect complete thick 3d overcast layers in version 2?

 

Right now there is still an issue in X-Plane that prevents us from doing totally opaque overcast layers with thickness - the visibility effects from X-Plane don't quite match up with the altitudes published to us through the SDK. That's why SkyMaxx Pro today represents these types of clouds either with really dense cumulus clouds or an infinitely thin stratus cloud depending on your "overcast quailty" settings, and disables X-Plane's white-out effect when you are near these types of clouds to prevent the inconsistency.

 

But, there is reason to hope - on the X-Plane developer blog, Ben Supnik recently commented that this is slated to be fixed within the 10.30 run at some point. If this is resolved, it's literally a one-line-of-code change within SkyMaxx Pro to take advantage of it.

 

It's anyone's guess as to whether SkyMaxx Pro 2.0 will ship before or after X-Plane 10.30. But if a later release of X-Plane lets us improve our representation of overcast conditions further, history has shown that we won't hesitate to release another update to SkyMaxx Pro to make it even better.

 

Meanwhile, stay tuned for more details on the new features in SkyMaxx Pro 2.0. If the reactions of our beta testers is any measure, I think you guys are going to love it.

[alexcolka]

Thank you very much Sundog for that detailed explanation about this. As I will only speak for myself, I then consider wiser to wait for the final 10.30 version so you and the team may add that overcast function properly. There's no rush at all. Keep up the good work and thanks again.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk