JohnMAXX

We can't wait to get it out the door ; )

Well Im glad you settled on SkyMAXX instead of hoping for another texture pack.....

Going to fire up the vinyl cutter and applu "Maxx-XP to a piece for stainless and hang it behind the desk

No need to apologize, again I wanted a broad spectrum of looks for SMP.....

No I dont think Ill go that route...but I will try and be as descriptive as possible....We mostly decided to add that in the UI for users to add other sky colors from other developers....

Its a trick in the sky colors...

And thats why we gave you control via a UI Personally I think it is a very subjective topic, scenery that is, some people may like the first SS some may like the last. We are trying to have everything in between

There are quite a bit of controls in the UI that make a big impact on the overall look and performance of SkyMAXX Pro, for instance in this shot I increased the minimum and maximum size of the cloud puffs, used a lower contrast sky color and set the visibility CAVOK (inside the weather dialog). Is this more of what you are looking for?.....

Things are moving along, here is a nice SS for you to ponder:

Working on it! lol

Wow this is going to be the most detail AC for XP.....no bull

UrbanMAXX in all its glory!!!!!

A window into my life, here is my HQ upgrade........Not finished yet but almost there:

It should if VATSIM is tied into the default weather. ..

Im a bit upset looking at the images, I haven't seen any that include Flight Attendants serving peanuts to virtual customers. Additionally Id like to see passengers regionalized based on the geographic location of the aircraft..... Just messing, this look fantastic so far!

No currently we have no plans for strobes to interact with the cloud puffs. Additionally during testing the default weather engine will cause the clouds to disappear, we developed a transition to help with that problem, which only happens with real world weather selected. But to combat this problem there is another free plugin out there: http://x-plane.joanpc.com/plugins/xpgfs-noaa-weather In testing SkyMAXX with this plugin I havent seen the abrupt transitions typical to the default weather engine.......

I know its a pipe dream but now if we could have this on a global scale 0_O

Ive used it in the past and he mentioned it before.....

Something as complicated as this is going to require some help from LR. With that said the basic integration is complete but not a viable product until we have the ability to tweak performance. Also we made strides with hdr but more time needs to be dedicated to clean this up... Overall we are confident that we will have a fantastic add on. But I cannot out a timeframe on it....

Thermals have no effect on cloud generation, also the cloud rotation is a static effect. But wind speed determines the shape of the cloud systems, as the wind speed increases the clouds will elongate into a realistic pattern just as in real life. We decided to tie into the default weather engine since I didnt see a need to reinvent the wheel here..... I have a control in the UI to adjust the cloud rotation, since this is a static effect I wanted the user to have some control over this. Not everyone is going to like it Also users will be able to drop their own sky colors into the plugin, I did this for Tom K since he is never happy (but seriously he is the reason why I added that feature) There are already a bunch of nice sky colors out there and this is a subjective topic.... Here is an early look at the UI:

Hahaha I know that comment was all in fun

Good point! Id hate to see him happy that tells me something is very wrong in the world......

You are one of the most negative people I have ever encountered........LOL well anyway the UI will have the option of turning off the cloud rotation....

I really don't want to misrepresent the product and I honestly stand 100% behind it and its beauty.......Dave captured it nicely in the video starting at 00:48: The scene with the windsock is the most accurate depiction of how these clouds operate.....

I will say that this system will not be able to reproduce those sharp edges, problem is using 3D procedurally drawn clouds instead of billboards. But I think we have a more realistic approach over default and 3D is a better option for realism while flying. Now that's not to say the future updates wont bring more detail but the product, right now, will hold up better then other simulators in my opinion. The benefit of using procedurally drawn 3D clouds is it allows for a "snowflake effect" no two clouds systems look exactly alike additionally it gives the user the ability to fly realistically through clouds as if in a real environment. Billboards tend to repeat and look unrealistic. I think the future is in this approach and similar to how Outerra does ground terrain..... Oh another good point using this approach, cloud systems will morph depending on wind speed and direction. Again you will have to see this in action to understand how dynamic and alive this looks while flying