Cirrus clouds and version 2.0

[Tom Knudsen]

Hi John

 

First off all, with best intentions this report is feedback and personal opinions and should  be regarded as positive rather than negative.

Second, thank you for this update and all your hard work!

 

 

So I downloaded and installed the new version 2.0 of SkyMaxx Pro. Been using this for a while now and was generally content with the package.

For some reason the cup ran over on this version and I felt like uninstalling it all to never again use it. But rather than act in fury and anger I wanted to

try and advocate it and hopefully get some support/action going.

 

First som positive feedback

 

I just simply love the cloud shadows, I do believe this adds a realism to our simulator that I for one would not continue without.

I love the Hazy Day low contrast theme but with 2.0 also found new possible replacements. However still wishing for the "preview" thumbnail in GUI to be free of rebooting just to check theme.

 

Well thats about it I am affraid to say, with some tweaking I did manage to get some use of the clouds and I must admit it is way better than default, så cudos on that too.

Then there are the rest and top of my murder list is the "cirrus" clouds

 

Let me say this first, I do hope this is HDR core feature issu and not SMP

 

Anyway, here goes the things I do not like

 

1. Cloud reflections

- Still dvelling about weither it's good nor bad. I do not even know how it looks in real life either, so this I leave for now.

 

2. God rays

- Horrible but works and perticular small areas and situation, however with the settings turned to about 5-7% ish..

Defend? Well it seems they shine way through the clouds and ends up more like x-ray beems rather than sunrays. Not sure if it is intended that way or even reflects true runrays, but

what ever it is, it does not favour in my mind still.

 

Ps. Also please see picture of error further down

 

3. Lens flare

- Good idea for picture taking, horrible for flying and hardly realistic, but then again it is viewing the airplane outside midair too

-Cudos on leaving an option to disable on this.

 

4. Overcast quality

- What the heck is that all about, do we really need it? Do it even have a function as I never seen any difference, but it's there nevertheless.

 

5. Puff rotation speed

- Again, what the heck is up with this shit, cannot see even a slightest realism in this option rather than it takes up space and should be replaced.

 

6. Now the Cirrus ¤#"#¤# clouds thingy..

 

Let me say this, o'my'god I really hate this (general speaking in xp) and before blaming SMP or anybody els, let me say I am not entierly sure who's to blame.

But this has to go period! Cirrus clouds does not even look realistic and here is first picture proof

 

 

Tell me, does it look real?

 

I do not know what makes the clouds look like this, but it iron it selves out into white bleeched iccy things but I suspect that HDR or Art Controlmay may have something to do with it

 

With HD

 

With out HD

 

 

I tried to eliminate the cirrus clouds in SMP settings, even tried to exclude and delete files within, but the shit remains.

Kinda wonder if I need to remove the alphas all togeather.

 

 

I am jumping a bit, since this cirrus thingy makes me wanna puke, litterary.

Found an issue with the godrays turned on

 

Settings

 

Error1 without HD

Error2 with HD

 

 

So finally my positive rant is over for now, now comes the pro constructive questions

 

1. Could we do something about the cirrus clouds, how about and option to disable those in SMP

2. Could you take a look at the bug with textures?

 

PS..

Not sure if this is SMP, but the moon is displaced on high noon days

 

Over to you John

 

 

 

 

[Mario Donick]

 

4. Overcast quality

- What the heck is that all about, do we really need it? Do it even have a function as I never seen any difference, but it's there nevertheless.

 

Overcast quality affects how good or bad the overcast looks like. "Bad quality" is like a flat infinite grey rectangle on the sky, but the saviour of my frame rate, so a very important setting for me. Maybe you don't notice the difference if you have a fast computer. Higher settings are real clouds, naturally looking way better.

 

 

5. Puff rotation speed

- Again, what the heck is up with this shit, cannot see even a slightest realism in this option rather than it takes up space and should be replaced.

 

Clouds are rotating. This setting is for how fast they rotate. If you don't like rotating clouds at all, set it to 0. Many other like the rotations.

 

 

 

Not sure if this is SMP, but the moon is displaced on high noon days

 

 

X-Plane does not have realistic moon phases and positons. (See this thread at the .org: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showtopic=77490 )

[Tom Knudsen]

 

X-Plane does not have realistic moon phases and positons.

 

Thanks, that would explain it

 

 

Clouds are rotating. This setting is for how fast they rotate. If you don't like rotating clouds at all, set it to 0

 

A Newtonian physics thing. "Momentum is preserved by all bodies in motion." The molecules in a gas cloud move linearly in random directions until a force is applied [like gravity]. Once influenced by gravity, their momentum shifts from linear to angular momentum [i.e., their trajectory becomes curved]. Whether or not they escape is purely depends on their initial momentum and the strength of the force acting upon them. The ones that lack enough energy to escape are doomed to spiral inward. Example on this is a wall cloud, whether it is as a rotating cloud or just spiral inwards we cannot say, but there is no law or fact the states a cloud is rotating like seen in SMP. 

 

Please feel free to show me references otherwise.

 

Keep also in mind that I cannot say or do anything to make things go away in SMP, only the creators can do so, but I can offer my opinion and hope that some would agree or even better some would reconize an issue and fix it.

The option is always to remove the package, but that option is not yet an issue.

[JohnMAXX]

Also Tom you should explore the cirrus quality setting.

 

And your most recent reply just made milk come out of my nose....you are trying to match wits with an unwilling participant....

 

I am not really concerned much with your thoughts on anything....

[Mario Donick]

A Newtonian physics thing. "Momentum is preserved by all bodies in motion." The molecules in a gas cloud move linearly in random directions until a force is applied [like gravity]. Once influenced by gravity, their momentum shifts from linear to angular momentum [i.e., their trajectory becomes curved]. Whether or not they escape is purely depends on their initial momentum and the strength of the force acting upon them. The ones that lack enough energy to escape are doomed to spiral inward. Example on this is a wall cloud, whether it is as a rotating cloud or just spiral inwards we cannot say, but there is no law or fact the states a cloud is rotating like seen in SMP. 

 

As I said, why not simply switch it off with the existing setting? If you make the devs to remove the option from SkyMaxx, you force your own personal expectations (i.e. realism) upon all other users...

Edited August 9, 2014 by Mario Donick

[Cameron]

Tom,

 

I know you tend to almost *always* be "constructively" negative in most things you post about anything, but did you really just create a topic filled with rant about a UI for a weather plugin? More to the point...about the UI giving freedom of choice to users to choose what they do or do not want to see, or do/do not want to impact their perhaps lower end system?

 

Anyways, I think the rest of the posts throughout this forum and others shed the more realistic light and expectations on this product...exceedingly good. While your opinion counts, I'm really not sure what to say to you.

[Tom Knudsen]

Also Tom you should explore the cirrus quality setting.

And your most recent reply just made milk come out of my nose....you are trying to match wits with an unwilling participant....

I am not really concerned much with your thoughts on anything....

Hehe, milk out the nose, clearly achieved my purpose then ))

@Cameron Think about a cozy teddybear while thinking about me, i am harmless but passioned

Edited August 9, 2014 by Tom Knudsen

[Tom Knudsen]

So what about those cirrus clouds?

[sundog]

Put your cirrus preferences back to what they were by default - texture set 1, medium quality or better. We offer lower-resolution cirrus textures for customers who are low on VRAM, and it looks like you selected one of them.

[Tom Knudsen]

Tried them all, but got ten times better when i uninstalled skymaxx pro, however now the other clouds got bad. So ipurhaps i should try to use the cumulus clouds from smp an tweak it that way, seem all is in one folder anyway

[sundog]

Here's what the default, medium resolution cirrus clouds in SkyMaxx Pro look like. I guess people can judge for themselves. (Image credit: Wycliffe Barrett)

 

[ONDR4.cz]

In Tom's defence, sometimes I'm seeing those low res, pixelated cirrus clouds as well, even though I have them set to the highest resolution available. I don't know what triggers it though, but is seems to happen mostly with real life weather activated.

[sundog]

There are rare cases (specifically if the weather tries to send us more than one cirrus layer) where we'll subsitute a cirrocumulus layer for one of them so you don't see two of the same clouds on top of each other. That cirrocumulus cloud might be what you're seeing. I only see one layer in Tom's screenshots however, so not sure it's the same thing.

[Tom Knudsen]

Is this with or without real terra haze

[JohnMAXX]

Both work together just fine Tom....

[Tom Knudsen]

Hmm even though my tweaks are in it, i have not used it. Had my own scripts running. This I have to check

[Tom Knudsen]

Installing Real Terra Haze seems to have solve it, so there must have been a bug somewhere..

 

 

og

 

 

 

[Teddit]

As an avid X Plane user I could not resist adding my two cents:

 

I find it strange that people who contribute tirelessly at trying to make X Plane better, being put under a constant barrage of comments about how they haven't 'raised the bar' enough from persons whom I never see any further contribution from nor any real constructive criticism.

 

This team puts their tireless efforts into their work, some of it being: "ahead of the pack", "working in unchartered waters", "pushing the void", etc, etc....

There is a very thin line between constructive criticism and being down right rude and obnoxious and in particular you should be careful when you are going to comment about a person's livelihood on open forums.

 

 I would encourage you to rather present your case in a more professional manner (ie. an email to the designers, expressing your disappointment with some of your own design suggestions), rather then spraying it on the internet.

 

Because Tom you may think that you're being funny, witty, above them, informative, smart, intellectual, whatever.

You should really be beside them, assisting them, bettering them with positive reinforcement, doing your bit to help them.

 

I hope you read between the lines of this post.   Because if you don't, just uninstall SMP, uninstall X Plane, turn off your PC/MAC and go outside and do something positive then just smash someones hard work.

For all  you know you will be a better person anyway.

 

@ Sky Max Pro Team, keep pushing the void, being ahead of the pack in X Plane.  You guys are awesome at what you are attempting to achieve.

 

Peace!

 

 

[Tom Knudsen]

Think you confuse this thread with the RANT thread.. With that in mind I suggest we stick to topic

[chris k]

But what about the POLs tom? What about the POLs? You haven't discussed the POLs yet.