sundog

You're quite the sleuth! SilverLining (the engine SkyMaxx is built upon) has had "volumetric" clouds since 2010, and the very first version of SkyMaxx Pro even used them. We do use X-Plane as a testbed for SilverLining, which is sold as a separate product to various military and civilian flight simulation companies. Can't comment yet on whether we might be bringing them back to SkyMaxx Pro soon.

I'm afraid not, but that's an even better idea; it would allow for more flexibility.

Hey, you might want to post this at the FSGRW forum (https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/fsgrw/) - we're only the authors of Real Weather Connector here.

It is absolutely plausible that xOrganizer is at fault here. If it were trying to move files that we had open, I could see that causing the sorts of problems you are seeing.

It does sound as though something is leaking or fragmenting memory over time. We have tested SkyMaxx Pro to ensure it does not leak, but its clouds can make memory tighter than it would be otherwise - meaning something else leaking memory will have more of an effect when SkyMaxx Pro is active. Disabling and re-enabling it allows your system to rearrange memory in a more efficient manner. Do you have any other add-ons installed? It is possible that Gizmo is behind it, but it could be any other add-on as well.

My guess would be that some other add-on that's installed is changing X-Plane's working directory behind its back, or somehow overwriting our files. SkyMaxx Pro only reads those image files; they are not written or moved, so I don't see how they could be getting deleted by us. Do you have anything installed other than SMP, RWC, and ASXP that might be causing this? Another possibility is disk corruption.

That's an awesome setup! Next time I'm under the hood in MaxxFX I'll see how hard it would be.

No; it's been delivered to the publisher but it's out of my hands at this point.

I set up my graphics settings to match yours, and the "solid" stratiform cloud still appeared correctly here. I'm cautiously optimistic our next release will fix this for you.

The short answer is no, but it's an interesting idea...

Thanks, the metar.rwx allowed me to understand what you're seeing. So this does come down to the cloud base height being lower than the size of a single cloud puff, resulting in the puffs intersecting the terrain. "Solid procedural" for overcast would allow for more precise positioning. The problem is you're reporting that it looks like a "white card", when for this scene it should look like the attached image. Perhaps a screenshot of your X-Plane graphics settings would help me understand why it's not looking as it should be. (Or, it may just be that there was a bug I've fixed locally since 4.9.6 was released that I forgot about fixing!)

Make sure cloud shadows are not enabled, and try setting the cloud/terrain blending setting to 0. That will speed things up further. As Cameron said, lowering the draw distance will have the biggest impact.

I do remember testing out custom weather areas when we were testing ASXP integration; as long as you have a recent version of ASXP it should work. Honest to god though, if you're not using the solid or broken procedural overcast settings in SkyMaxx Pro, we do not render fog effects at all. I'm really puzzled at what you're seeing there. It's hard to tell from your screenshot if that is really a fog effect or just looking at the particles that make up a cloud from the inside - but it looks like fog to me. If I'm wrong though, it could just be that the cloud really is on the ground and we've pushed it down because we think the METAR is indicating fog. Would you have the actual METAR code used for that scene? It would be helpful to have something concrete to dig into.

The new rendering pipeline in X-Plane that's used for VR and for Vulkan is also the cause of cloud shadows affecting the cockpit. All I can suggest for now is to reduce the intensity of the cloud shadows in the SMP configuration so their imperfections are less noticeable, while still getting a hint of them on the terrain.

If you're using "turbulent HD," then SkyMaxx Pro isn't actually controlling the fog at all. You're seeing X-Plane's built in fog effects there. However, another part of the issue is that there is some debate over whether the "cloud base" should represent the lowest altitude at which any cloud puffs from the layer appear, or the altitude at which the cloud becomes fully opaque as you fly through it. There can be a difference of several hundred meters between the two.

I think what you are seeing is our representation of "scud" - there is an area above and below the stated cloud altitudes for overcast clouds where the effect fades in and out. You might try changing your overcast representation setting to see if you can get results closer to what you want. "Solid procedural" and "broken procedural" have this scud effect, but the other choices do not.

Try changing your "overcast representation" in SkyMaxx Pro to anything other than solid or broken procedural.

@rawdmon I did some more testing in VR for our upcoming release, and I think the cloud shadows are still a frame or two behind the motion of the camera. There may be some buffering going on under the hood and I'm not sure it's something we can work around. Just want to set expectations; cloud shadows will work in VR, but their motion may be slightly off when quickly moving your head.

Try changing the sky color set in SkyMaxx Pro from Hosek-Wilkie to Default (or anything else). Then restart X-Plane.

Alright, I think I have a fix coded up here. The underlying issue is that X-Plane tells us when we're drawing different eyes in VR, but it doesn't tell us when we're drawing different screens on a multi-monitor display. This led to the shadow map intended for one monitor getting used on other ones where it doesn't match up. I figured out a workaround, though. Our next release should have this fixed.

Disabling cloud shadows in the SMP configuration is of course an option for now. I'll try testing on two monitors here and see what happens. EDIT: Yup, I got it to happen. Looking into it.

Well it might be helpful to know your graphics settings (HDR on/off, Vulkan on/off, AA on/off) As a test I've gone into cockpit view and looked out the side window, and waggled the wings in my current development build here. Shadows seems rock solid to me. Tried with HDR on and off.

What he's seeing looks more pronounced than the known issue in VR. It's as though the shadows are directly tied to his view angle, whereas the other issue is a result of the shadows being a frame or two behind (I think) I don't know when the next release will go out... we have a release candidate built, but further testing / packaging / distribution is out of my hands. I will test this more today though to be sure.

No, I haven't seen that. Is that a third party plane, or do you have any other add-ons that might be manipulating the view somehow? Our next release does handle cloud shadows a little bit differently, so there's a chance it will help once it is released.

OK. Pretty sure leaving your overcast set to anything other than solid or broken procedural will work around whatever is going on for now.