Lightning Question

[DCS17]

I wonder if I am the only person who doesn't really like the lightning effects in SkyMaxx Pro?

The rest of it is fantastic and I wouldn't be without it.

 

BUT the frequency of the lightning is just too much for me, and it looks a bit tacky to my eyes as well - too thick and long lasting.

Personal taste of course !

So I'm wondering if there is any way to disable it, or to reduce its frequency/appearence?

 

I've had a quick look in the Silver Lining plugin folders, and only find a couple of shader files lightning.glsl

I have no programming knowledge so dont want to tinker too much !!!

 

I thus turn to the collective wisdom of the team to see if anyone has any ideas?

 

 

Thanks

[sundog]

Yes, there is a way to change this - but rather than tell you how to hack our configuration file (that would open up a Pandora's box of support problems), there is an upcoming update that I could slip a change into quite easily.

 

First though, I'd like to hear from others. As you said it's a matter of personal taste; real thunderstorms vary widely on their lightning frequency, and if it's too infrequent you'll rarely see it.

[Viper04]

i will check lightining tonight.

 

honestly, i don't noticed difference from default engine until now

[jettojig]

Hi John, I wouldn't mind being able to alter/turn down/remove lightning too! I've seen a few occurences where I've had otherwise clear days with a single lightning cloud just floating around... looks weird and makes little sense. It would also be nice to turn it off in areas where it is rare, like the UK of Scandinavia.

[trevg]

Even to be able to tone the frequency down would be nice.

Mostly get it rolling around the hills and seldom actually see the fork lighting itself.

Sheet lighting is the most we get during a storm.

 

That would highlight the clouds very nicely. 

[jettojig]

Oooh, yeah!

[sundog]

OK folks, I've halved the frequency of lightning strikes, and made the bolts themselves a bit thinner, in beta 4 of SkyMaxx Pro 2.1.1. This has been handed off to our beta testers, and we hope to release within the next few weeks.

 

jiggyb2 - make sure you're using SkyMaxx Pro 2.1 if you aren't already; those weird "lone thunderheads" shouldn't happen so much in that version.

 

Thanks for your feedback!

[jettojig]

Hm, I definitely have 2.1 installed, not sure what's going on there. Hopefully it'll be fixed later!

[DCS17]

Thanks for this.

I shall look forward to 2.1.1 when ready.

 

Happy New Year

[wotaskd]

I have noticed the very thick lonely bolts as well with 2.1. I wonder if RTH is partially to blame for making them so particularly visible.

Thanks Frank! SkyMaxx Pro is - no doubt - one of the best things that have happened to XP in years!

[Tom Knudsen]

Found that Sky Maxx went from good to worse, so i went back to 1.2. Now it is perfect both in eyecandy and performance, next I am gonna find a way to implement cloud shadows

[JohnMAXX]

Tom,

 

You can revert 2.1 back to V1 very easily which will perform better than V1 itself with the improvements made during updates..........

[JohnMAXX]

Oh and what the heck does that have to do with lightning? 

[Tom Knudsen]

Had the same problem as topic argued, gone when reverted back to 1.2

[DCS17]

Thanks for 2.1.1

Much improved lightning.