SkyMaxx Pro 2.0 Clouds at night

[SkyCaptainA320]

Is it a X-plane limitation why clouds in general cannot look darker, almost impossible to see at nights when there is little to no lights source? The clouds are easily seen at nights which isn't very realistic in most cases.

Edited August 13, 2014 by SkyCaptainA320

[FloB]

No X-Plane Limitation in general. If you darken your skycolor sets (the two boxes at the bottom of the skycolor.png) you will get pitch black clouds at night. I tuned all my skycolors, using GIMP.

Unfortunately it doesn't work for Skymaxx as far as I know. If Skymaxx or X-Plane is to blame for this - I don't know.

 

Regards

Flo

Edited August 13, 2014 by FloB

[SkyCaptainA320]

Oh ok. Maybe the developers of skymaxx pro 2.0 can attempt this too like you did. Im not a pro like you at editing png's but I willl look into this on my own. 

[Daikan]

The annoying bright clouds at night are definitely a downside compared to the current built-in clouds (10.30b8) for which additional tweaks exist, like for example the excellent Night light transition and white clouds LUA script. Unfortunately, these tweaks don't work with the SMP clouds...

 

For that reason I'm often reverting back to the default clouds when I plan to go on night flights - even though running the SMP (un)installer repeatedly becomes a PITA rather quickly...

[marcc]

It's not necessary to uninstall SMP to get the default clouds back, is it?

 

Because I disabled SMP with the Plugin Admin and instantly got the default clouds back.

Just for some testing, as I like the SMP clouds way more, day and night!

 

 

Unnecessary complaints, annoying and a PITA.

Edited August 20, 2014 by marcc

[JohnMAXX]

Yeah I touched on this in another thread as you can see in marcc's post our clouds are plenty dark at night, but this also depends on location and time of year.

SilverLining simulates the angle of the sun so in certain situations, as in real life, clouds will be slightly illuminated.

[SkyCaptainA320]

The annoying bright clouds at night are definitely a downside compared to the current built-in clouds (10.30b8) for which additional tweaks exist, like for example the excellent Night light transition and white clouds LUA script. Unfortunately, these tweaks don't work with the SMP clouds...

 

For that reason I'm often reverting back to the default clouds when I plan to go on night flights - even though running the SMP (un)installer repeatedly becomes a PITA rather quickly...

Yeah dude, I agree, The developers say they are comfortable with it which is sad. 

Edited August 20, 2014 by SkyCaptainA320

[JohnMAXX]

Im dumbfounded.....literally

Screenshot above shows dark clouds.....I wonder if there is an underlying problem....

Post some screen shots along with a location so I can test it out....

[Ben Russell]

Compare the Histograms from the above images.

 

SkyMAXX:

 

Default X-Plane:

 

 

Default X-Plane is demonstrably brighter.

 

 

Maybe it's the puffiness giving the illusion that SkyMAXX is lighter... X-Plane just gives you a uniform smear of .. well... crap.

Edited August 20, 2014 by Ben Russell

[SkyCaptainA320]

Hey, well yes. I am seeing what you are seeing. They are darker, slightly darker than the default in my opinion. So far I have not seen them any darker than this. Don't mean to be a bother but I know clouds are darker in reality even with city light sources. 

[Ben Russell]

Reality isn't subject to rendering on a computer display.

 

Trying to cram the color space of "reality" into a computer display is literally like looking at the world through a drinking straw. Trade offs must be made.

Edited August 20, 2014 by Ben Russell

[Daikan]

Those screenshots show exactly what I would call "bright clouds at night". To me (and many others) BOTH default and SMP are unrealistic in this respect as the night clouds seem modeled as if they were illuminated from terrestrial light pollution (like over big cities).

 

BUT: The good thing with the default clouds is that they can be tweaked to be even darker - hence my reference to the LUA script. It's only with that script that the default clouds look correct to me.

[JohnMAXX]

Right LUA will walk your dog too....

[FloB]

Try to adjust your gamma (monitor and x-plane), contrast and brightness. I managed to get dark skymaxx clouds without ruining the overall image quality.

 

Flo

[roroma]

I was outside earlier tonight and the clouds were "whitish" even though the sky was pitch black. Day and night SMPv2 clouds are highly realistic. 

[FloB]

What if I tell you that clouds were all black here yesterday? Let's face it: Cloud colors and clouds are far more complex than anything we will ever see in a flightsim. Nonetheless Skymaxx does a good job with a very small FPS hit - if you get the settings right.

 

Flo

[roroma]

Yeah, it really depends on location.

[SkyCaptainA320]

Does the sky colors have anything to do with the darkness of the cloud at sunset?

Edited August 23, 2014 by SkyCaptainA320

[sundog]

Not directly, but your eye is very sensitive to contrast. So, brighter sky colors will make the clouds seem less bright.