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This does happen in the real cockpit as well - and I consider it realistic. As is the solution: Be careful! We will definitely not disable yoke input because it is a real and important feature of the real aircraft: You can override your autopilot with flightcontrol inputs most of the time. Cheers, Jan

This is already the case for v5 voxel clouds. Ambient light and how it scatters within the cloud based on the sun or moon position are factored in. Yes, they will remain the same.

Captains, It is with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement that I get the opportunity to announce SkyMaxx Pro v5 to you today! Version 4.0 was our longest major version run, and it's time to turn the page to Chapter 5. A release date is at the bottom of this post. We have wanted to bring what v5 has in it for years, but it just wasn't feasible till now. With that said, SkyMaxx Pro v5 brings GPU ray-casted clouds. Internally, we attempted GPU ray-casted clouds many versions ago, but the performance was just not there. However, they will now be the fastest clouds we offer (you read that right...faster than v4!), and they also feature the most complex, realistic lighting effects of any cumulus cloud layer offered (you will still have the option to run v4 style particle-based clouds). It is now possible to draw volumetric cloud formations to the horizon with v5. These are true 3D, voxel-based clouds with physically-based cloud growth. 3D textures do consume a fair amount of video memory, but modern video cards generally can handle the load without a problem. Technology has finally caught up with this approach, and thus SkyMaxx Pro v5 is here. These new volumetric clouds use a novel approach to split the computational load of lighting between the GPU and CPU in an optimal manner, resulting in framerates we never thought possible for true 3D voxel clouds. We’ve also come up with some clever ways to minimize the complexity of the shaders without introducing visible banding or slicing effects in the process. Our approach also minimizes texture lookups within the cloud shaders, which is also key to maintaining fast performance. Volumetric, ray-casted clouds are especially valuable in VR setups, where the rotation of particle billboards can be very distracting while flying near a cloud. Volumetric clouds do away with billboards entirely, leading to a smooth experience as you approach and fly through them. And the per-fragment lighting, including full Henyey-Greenstein phase effects, leads to stunning details both outside of the clouds and within – especially at dawn and dusk. So, to re-cap, SkyMaxx Pro v5 brings: GPU ray-casted clouds The fastest performing clouds we have offered The most complex, realistic lighting effects of any cumulus cloud layer offered in the SkyMaxx Pro series It is now possible to draw complex volumetric cloud formations to the horizon with v5 True 3D, voxel-based clouds with physically-based cloud growth No more rotating clouds, where the rotation of particle billboards can be very distracting while flying near a cloud (especially in VR) Virtually unlimited layers are still possible with Real Weather Connector in use With SkyMaxx Pro v5 we will be introducing an updated version of Real Weather Connector to go with it. This update will be free of charge to existing Real Weather Connector users. Some previews. Be sure to click on the image for full size! Clicking them once more in the popup will allow you to view the image in original size form. I have elected to do a series of flights with real world weather, and am including a series from each of these flights... Flight 1: KACV - KSFO An easy flight down the coast, and while KACV was overcast (as it usually is), the weather did start to break around Santa Rosa, CA. This provided a nice variety of clouds on the way down to San Francisco. I really enjoy how the sunlight interacts with the clouds, especially ascending up through the layers. Between the new per-pixel lighting and the lack of billboard rotation, flying through these is a really nice experience! For reference, cruising altitude in these shots is 36,000ft. Important for those who used to complain about feeling like SkyMaxx Pro v4 was not acceptable at high altitudes. Flight 2: KSFO - KFAT This flight I decided to fly into the Central Valley of California. There were some weather fronts in and out of various areas of the flight, and they were pretty cool to fly through! Having Real Weather Connector installed allows me to see the distant layers and fronts I'll be flying over, and makes for some scenic cloud boundary lines. Not much else to add, so enjoy! Flight 3: Random Shots I am including these images because I just liked the perspectives they provided. Slightly different than what I've shown here, some nice mountain blending included. I just liked them, so why not? Low Light For good measure I wanted to provide some evening and morning pictures. These show a little bit of the per-pixel lighting playing with the clouds from the direction of the sun. While more subtle in these shots, there are moments where this can be more pronounced and spectacular! It's especially cool in sim, and where the sun is lower (rising or setting). Intensity changes based on sun angle. The first picture is the sun rising, the second is setting. Though the sun is behind the mountains, you can see how clouds closest to the mountains are lit brighter than the others. IMPORTANT INFORMATION Information on upgrade eligibility: SkyMaxx Pro v5 will be a paid upgrade for all current SkyMaxx Pro v4 owners. Those of you who qualify will receive a 50% off ($19.95 instead of $39.95) upgrade discount which will be valid for 60 days from the time SkyMaxx Pro v5 goes on sale. After this, the product will go to full price for all customers. We do not make exceptions to this, so if you want the promotional pricing, you need to get in on it while the 60 day window is in effect! Information on release: SkyMaxx Pro v5 will be released next week on Friday, January 22nd, 2021 @ 12PM Eastern (USA - New York Time)! Vulkan & Open GL: We will support both Vulkan & Open GL. There will not be a separate cost for these products. What about Metal? Mac users will be able to run SkyMaxx Pro v5 in OpenGL, as has also been the case with v4. When it comes to Metal, we have no viable option to bring custom cloud rendering. Laminar has looked at this previously, and the bridge we need to allow this is just not made available by Apple. Additionally, Laminar Research is not yet prepared to open up an API for Metal. As such, we can only offer OpenGL use until this changes (if at all). If it's any consolation, every screenshot above was taken on a Mac, and I am happy with the performance. SkyMaxx Pro v5 is enough to make me not fly in Metal, which says something (as much as it pains me to wish we had Metal support). Thanks to everyone for their continued support in this amazing product! See you in the skies...next week!

hi, try to increase the texture resolution to the maximum level on graphics options on X-Plane...solved for me!!

Thanks for understanding! I think sometimes a friendly no is better than a politically correct - "ok, we will see what we can do" - and then never do anything .

Hi excellent news, as a v4 owner I'll get this for sure. Currently using default though because of better fps in VR. V5 hopefully will take the lead. One question, what about weather transitions between metars? Will it be smooth? What I hate about default xp clouds is the complete sky redraw. Tx.

fantastic piece of news, when I fly XP11 I always use SMP4 with RWC and Activesky, on the odd occasion it may be a little slow but my system is 3 years old.......I have tried them all and still come back to SMP as this to me usually looks great and especially lately performs very well.... can't wait for release and also feel the upgrade cost is good to....

I totally respect that you feel differently and wish you nothing but the best in your flight sim adventures!

Hi there!, I see that you're in a part of the world where it's currently past sunset. Technology is a fun thing, and these days manufacturers of phones and computer operating systems now have the night shift where blue light is removed and a yellow hue comes in. This got me the other day. Be sure to turn off any night shift mode on your operating system or phone, and view again. These clouds are very...white.

Hi @Honey56, This is a pretty extreme comparison. If $19.95 USD is going to cause you a life or death situation, you should probably re-evaluate flight simming. I'm sorry that you're in tough times. I do hope things improve for you in 2021. On our side, SkyMaxx Pro v4 has been on the market for 4 years. In that time there have been many updates; all free. At some point, just like X-Plane 11 going to X-Plane 12 will be, new transitions must be made to keep development flowing. This is common in software (heck, even cars!). We are happy to offer you the 50% discount and feel this is a more than fair price discount for your past support. All the best!

Not when using the new volumetric option for overcast clouds. You can always switch this back to one of the other options if that feature is important to you. The reason is kind of technical, but it boils down to there not being a good way to do this without really affecting performance - it's a tradeoff that's not worth it in our opinion.

As Cameron said we're not taking anything away. As always, SkyMaxx Pro will represent cirrus, cumulonimbus, towering cumulus, stratiform, and cumulus clouds. Users of FSGRW may also see the occasional cirrocumulus as well. The new "volumetric" clouds are only an option for cumulus and overcast cloud types, but we have tuned them to look consistent with the other particle-based clouds when they appear together.

Voxel based clouds but faster than ever - here we can see real professionals at work. Awesome news. :-)

Hi @marco.auer, Thanks for the kind words. ASXP has integration with SkyMaxx Pro, but Real Weather Connector is required to get that working. Once Real Weather Connector is installed you will find a new menu option in SkyMaxx Pro for Real Weather, and then a checkbox to select ASXP. Hope this helps!

When you set cloud shadows all the way up, you are telling SkyMaxx Pro that you want cloud shadows to completely block all light from the sun. So, if a cloud shadow falls over your cockpit, it will go black. Set it to a more realistic setting, like the default of 0.5. That said, I know that the shadows don't affect the terrain as strongly as it should - this is a limitation of X-Plane's HDR pipeline that prevents us from totally blacking out the terrain. Disabling HDR will give you darker shadows if that's the look you're aiming for.

Holds / VNAV are in our current sights. What kind of progress we make remains to be seen, but we are actively focusing on it now. -tkyler