Cameron

Hey @Jakob Ludwig Can you tell me if you selected retail or beta Gizmo? Have you tried beta if not?

Hi @RobH, Thanks for the feedback. Can you clarify when it started tanking in this way? 5.0.5, or prior? My hunch is that we're seeing some major performance hit with the code implemented to occlude mountains being seen through clouds at certain levels. The hit wasn't large on my end, but it's becoming evident this may not be working out. Originally we were reserved to thinking being able to even occlude the mountains was not going to be possible with what Laminar provides us and how volumetric clouds work in the depth buffer. Once we saw more reports of it crop up, we started discussing how to tackle this, that there had to be a way, and discovered there was a potential path forward but it would be a multi-month re-write for a projection method we hadn't thought of. Later that day, @sundog came up with a way to make it work that we were happy with, but that happiness is not working out I think. For the most part, I think your observations on what's causing a performance hit or not are mostly conditional. How ray-casting works, certain scenarios cause different hits, all the way down to how low cloud levels are/distance from your aircraft. Appreciate you taking the time to write!

Hi @Cam, With regards to support tickets, please note the contact page info: I mention this only to answer the lack of reply received. As for your CTD issue, please go ahead and attach your Log.txt file and a screenshot of your X-Plane rendering settings.

It sounds like memory puking, but I'll let @sundog respond.

Be sure to give the new 5.0.5 a go.

5.0.4 introduced a method to work around mountains showing through clouds, like seen here: In order to achieve this, a performance hit is unavoidable, though I am slightly puzzled why some see it harder than we did. It cost me about 3-4 fps.

Hello All, This will serve as a formal forum announcement that we have released the version 5.0.5 update for SkyMaxx Pro. All customers who have purchased SkyMaxx Pro v5 up till now have been sent an e-mail by X-Aviation with complete instructions on how to obtain your update. We have made this a very simple process! For those that purchase SkyMaxx Pro v5 from today forward, your purchased download will already be updated to version 5.0.5 for you. What if I didn't get the update e-mail? If you did not receive your update e-mail don't fret! X-Aviation has updated our system to allow all customers to update with ease, regardless of whether you received an e-mail for the update! Here's what to do: 1. Login to your X-Aviation account here: https://www.x-aviation.com/catalog/account_history.php 2. Find your original SkyMaxx Pro v5 download and re-download the file. It will download as the latest version! The following is a list of additions/fixes included: What's New / Changed: Removed 500 meter lower bound of volumetric cloud layer altitudes with Real Weather Connector Implemented soft cloud / terrain blending with volumetric clouds Fixed regression in how volumetric clouds are drawn on configurations where depth buffer reads are not supported (notably MacOS with MSAA enabled) As always, thanks for purchasing from X-Aviation!

Not really. Perhaps from a VR perspective if you need it super high. Otherwise, I seem to do just fine running ORBX HD NORCAL, objects to medium, ORBX airports mixed in, and something like the IXEG 737. 35-40 fps on my 5700xt is absolutely acceptable and reasonable to me. But, of course, I can't tell you you're opinion is wrong either. I can only counter with mine.

Essentially, yes. @sundog can further clarify that. Ya, you're in-between a rock and a hard place! That FPS requirement is probably not realistic on ray casting with a 1080.

Well, simply because your GPU is already working hard enough to process volumetric ray casting. Adding in another element to have that fill rate issue is just compounding on top of it. It's a balance. The GPU ray-casted clouds are the fastest processing clouds we've ever developed. But, they also will work your GPU hard. If you already have settings that are reasonable to you, mixed with numerous add-ons, it may suddenly become unreasonable with the ray casting. On the flip side, if you're more or less like myself who only had minimal add-ons (save for some orothos and maybe ORBX, plus reasonable GPU settings), then you can notice less an impact and the improvements discussed. Finding the balance can be difficult. And, as we get more feedback we'll try to work through that on our end too. We are somewhat at the cusp of GPU's really being able to handle this stuff too. For instance, we've had the ability to do this for years, but hardware just wasn't there. The 1x series of Nvidia cards are especially at the lower end of that spectrum, as is probably my 5700xt, but even I can get it to acceptable numbers.

@benjaprud, I can absolutely get on board with your constructive criticism, and I'm even happy to hear it. Being honest and providing the feedback is key and totally acceptable, so please do outline your issues as they come. We listen best we can! What I can't get on board with is the desire to argue, such as shown above by someone else. It's just not going to happen with me.

You may find our refund policy here: https://www.x-aviation.com/catalog/refund_policy.php I refuse to engage in a "he said, she said" argument with you. Therefore, I'm not responding to the rest (trust me, it's better that way).

Landing lights do not work on volumetric clouds. The 5.0.5 update should resolve your concerns on cloud bases.

I'm not going to argue with you. All I said was essentially, "we think so but don't know because we were never able to reproduce it."

@Jonnti46 I think this comes down to your own misunderstanding. No one here thought to talk about any cloud settings other than volumetric because they are what's new to speak of. All other options are simply SkyMaxx 4 billboards, and you shouldn't expect a change. Performance will vary by your GPU and rendering settings. The vague response you received was because I truly didn't know. Actual users ended up answering you in detail above.

For those that really want it, a new installer has been placed on the server with a proper windows plugin that says 5.0.4 when installed.

Call it grainy if you want, but my explanation still stands. What you see is not out of the ordinary. For now, this is just how it is with volumetric clouds. More detail = BIG performance his.

I was just about to ask if you were running the latest.

Are you using OpenGL? As the menu states, not available in Vulkan.

Doesn't look grainy. I see the lateral lines. This is a performance trade-off. But, these images make me think perhaps RWC 1.2 is not active. Using it causes much less of this. If you are doing manual weather with Automatic mode in RWC you can get more artifacts like this.

Good catch. But, the files are correct, so no worries! We'll fix that on our end, but the functionality of the plugin should be unchanged. @sundog

This has now been resolved in the released 5.0.4 update.

This has now been resolved in the released 5.0.4 update.

Hello All, This will serve as a formal forum announcement that we have released the version 5.0.4 update for SkyMaxx Pro. All customers who have purchased SkyMaxx Pro v5 up till now have been sent an e-mail by X-Aviation with complete instructions on how to obtain your update. We have made this a very simple process! For those that purchase SkyMaxx Pro v5 from today forward, your purchased download will already be updated to version 5.0.4 for you. What if I didn't get the update e-mail? If you did not receive your update e-mail don't fret! X-Aviation has updated our system to allow all customers to update with ease, regardless of whether you received an e-mail for the update! Here's what to do: 1. Login to your X-Aviation account here: https://www.x-aviation.com/catalog/account_history.php 2. Find your original SkyMaxx Pro v5 download and re-download the file. It will download as the latest version! The following is a list of additions/fixes included: What's New / Changed: Fix "ghost shadows" caused by window resolutions changing Fix cloud / terrain blending for non-volumetric clouds Fix draw order issues between terrain and volumetric clouds - like mountains being seen through clouds (on MacOS, this fix only works if MSAA is not active.) No longer remove or move volumetric cloud layers to avoid intersections As always, thanks for purchasing from X-Aviation!

Indeed, if you have the proper settings in Real Weather Connector enabled and real weather running in the sim or 3rd party source, the clouds will render better.