BendyFlyer
Charter Member
Just thought I would put this shot here to illustrate how True Sky flattens out the contrails at alitude - same as in the real world.
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TRUE SKY and EA Have we all misunderstood this enhancement!
- Thread starter BendyFlyer
- Start date
BendyFlyer
Charter Member
Sometimes you have to wait for the real weather to see some aspects of True Sky. This is sunset out of Ponta Delgado (Azores today). Real Wx . Buildups and Thunderstorms all over!
jmig
SOH-CM-2024
Awesome images!Sometimes you have to wait for the real weather to see some aspects of True Sky. This is sunset out of Ponta Delgado (Azores today). Real Wx . Buildups and Thunderstorms all over!
YoYo
SOH-CM-2023
I use Envshade for v5 (https://www.togaprojects.com/envshade), with this dusk and down looks even better (will do s-shoot). Personally for me EA=ON looks like lighting in MSFS but with P3D we have a lot more (and more advanced) addons
. I don't understand why so many people are sitting there. Even there, the camera annoys me.
BendyFlyer
Charter Member
Like those Wombat. The more you try it with real time weather inputs in different places the more impressive it becomes. Right now as I type I have it set for my locale and real time and weather - i look out the window and I look at the sim and it is the same! Because of this we are really going to see very different skies and cloud unless we are all in the same place at the same time!
I have found that I get the most interesting outcomes by using the real time weather engine P3DWX which is compatible with EA and True Sky and the weather change rate set to maximum or fastest so it keeps up with the weather reports that are being logged into NOAA and the WMO every half hour - the dynamics then are quite stunning.
I do use the ENVSHADE for V5 to tone down the EA effect here and there! It appears to me that this is a game changer for the sim graphics but True Sky is quite complex as is the way EA is working - I find all sorts of amazing visual outcomes that were never evident before in FSX for example. Things such as moving the camera view can have a dramatic effect, the way the sun is actually postively directional, scattering etc. EA even gives you proper moonlight and moonlight shadows at night which was a bit of a surprise too. It is also properly adjusting light for the latitude your at and time of the year which is also impressive.
The best part is that it came with the sim - getting to understand it better (it is quite complex) I use no more cloud or sky addons anymore. The run around the Azores last night with fading light, thunderstorms and wind shear all over the place was just too spooky for words - sufficiently realistic to get me in a cold sweat too, this was very realistic bad weather flying in poor light ( I was saved by dinner being ready LOL).
The high altitude gridding is still a minor irritant but that is a matter of angular displacement and perspective - they just need to reduce or squeeze the grid allocation and it will be good but it is only an issue in the vertical plane looking down or up that is directly above you or directly below all other angles it dissappears.
I have found that I get the most interesting outcomes by using the real time weather engine P3DWX which is compatible with EA and True Sky and the weather change rate set to maximum or fastest so it keeps up with the weather reports that are being logged into NOAA and the WMO every half hour - the dynamics then are quite stunning.
I do use the ENVSHADE for V5 to tone down the EA effect here and there! It appears to me that this is a game changer for the sim graphics but True Sky is quite complex as is the way EA is working - I find all sorts of amazing visual outcomes that were never evident before in FSX for example. Things such as moving the camera view can have a dramatic effect, the way the sun is actually postively directional, scattering etc. EA even gives you proper moonlight and moonlight shadows at night which was a bit of a surprise too. It is also properly adjusting light for the latitude your at and time of the year which is also impressive.
The best part is that it came with the sim - getting to understand it better (it is quite complex) I use no more cloud or sky addons anymore. The run around the Azores last night with fading light, thunderstorms and wind shear all over the place was just too spooky for words - sufficiently realistic to get me in a cold sweat too, this was very realistic bad weather flying in poor light ( I was saved by dinner being ready LOL).
The high altitude gridding is still a minor irritant but that is a matter of angular displacement and perspective - they just need to reduce or squeeze the grid allocation and it will be good but it is only an issue in the vertical plane looking down or up that is directly above you or directly below all other angles it dissappears.
BendyFlyer
Charter Member
I have linked this video before I think - it was up on the LM site. This started me down the exploration route of really getting to know this program, how it worked and make it work for me (and others). Watch not just the waves which are spectacular but the sky behind changing and the precipitation. Looks like a Hurricane to me! True Sky and the NVIDIA wave motion feature - stunning!
Prepar3D V5 Ocean Swell - YouTube
Prepar3D V5 Ocean Swell - YouTube
BendyFlyer
Charter Member
This is probably a redundant thread now with P3DV5.2 released. ENVSHADE and REX alas into the bin no longer required. You now can now also alter and control all the cloud and light shaders via the inbuilt GUI menus.
BendyFlyer
Charter Member
Bumping this one again. It seems with volumetric cloud control changes to EA and dynamic lighting things have change considerably with True Sky but there is still room improvement - Considerable discussion at AVSIM about this with accredited beta testers and others involved about the implementation. A mod to the volumetric cloud config has produced much better use of the new sim settings . So for those interested here is GSaldens cloud volume config mod for you to try - I give it a big tick! Tidy's up a lot of areas. Again we are still not at the end of what True Sky, EA and this sim is capable of:
View attachment VolumetricClouds.rar
View attachment VolumetricClouds.rar
BendyFlyer
Charter Member
Yep looks good. There are also some shader tweaks now being discussed using ENVSHADE which seem to refine things even more. Lot of folk still chasing art clouds as I call it and whingeing about hazey skies not sure what some simmers think is real but I have to say with EA+TRUESKY+SHADER changes that have been made - it is pretty close to the mark 95% of the time for me. With real time weather driving it the issue is not the program but the type and level of metar reports. There is a lot of ignorance about what is actually reported and the criteria for met reports, like CAVOK which only means vis greater than 9999 and no cloud in the airport area below 5000 ft not clear skies and sunshine, you can be CAVOK and have solid overcast at 6000 ft (that would be in the remarks of a metar) but no weather engine can ever pick that up!
wombat666
Administrator
There are some odd ideas out there from people who possibly don't look at 'the Weather' IRL Mike.
Just based on the conditions down here overlooking the Southern Ocean I must say a perfectly clear cloudless day is a rarity, and around Port Phillip and Westernport there is always a faint haze.
And even on a clear day with the lightest of wind that haze persists, it comes off the water surface.
I'm happy tweaking my atmospherics......
Just based on the conditions down here overlooking the Southern Ocean I must say a perfectly clear cloudless day is a rarity, and around Port Phillip and Westernport there is always a faint haze.
And even on a clear day with the lightest of wind that haze persists, it comes off the water surface.
I'm happy tweaking my atmospherics......
Snurdley
Charter Member
I love EA and thanks for the insight. I love how it replicates the blue rayleigh scattering of distant terrain, however I've noticed much reduced visibility with the 5.1 update, and 5.2 didn't change that. I'm a keen observer of atmospherics, and this seems a bit overdone and not what I've seen in the past.
BendyFlyer
Charter Member
Snurdley you can tweak these issues - it is not really hard. ENVSHADE is the best way to do it as it gives you control over the shaders in P3D without resorting to line by line file changes. By the way ENVSHADE is cheap $10 is all it costs. There is a programmer (Over at AVSIM) who is working with the developers who gives us updates and quite techincal explanations of how and EA and the Shaders work and how you can manipulate the underlying config settings to alter colour, light etc. Well worth a read!
I do have an updated cloud volumes config that has been done by others I will post it when I get a chance not many changes just some slight tweaks!
I do have an updated cloud volumes config that has been done by others I will post it when I get a chance not many changes just some slight tweaks!
BendyFlyer
Charter Member
Update 5.2 with hf1 ea and true sky
The last HF for 5.2 has finally fixed the cloud volume, haze and lighting issues. It seems that with the standard LM shaders, volumetric clouds config and EA etc that LM have nailed it. I have reverted to the standard settings and configurations provided by LM with the only exception of limiting the cloud draw distance to 80 nm (via the Control/Settings Panel). It is still probably tweakable via ENVSHADE but I cannot see the need at the moment.!
Latest shots this is sunset at Broome WA
And on top at F240 with P3DWX driving the weather engine.
The last HF for 5.2 has finally fixed the cloud volume, haze and lighting issues. It seems that with the standard LM shaders, volumetric clouds config and EA etc that LM have nailed it. I have reverted to the standard settings and configurations provided by LM with the only exception of limiting the cloud draw distance to 80 nm (via the Control/Settings Panel). It is still probably tweakable via ENVSHADE but I cannot see the need at the moment.!
Latest shots this is sunset at Broome WA
And on top at F240 with P3DWX driving the weather engine.
BendyFlyer
Charter Member
Standard cloud settings from LM - real time weather generated by AS. This is Port Jackson Harbour Port Moresby area this morning. This is to my eye a very good rendition of an early morning tropical sky and clouds.
Bunkiester
SOH-CM-2023
Hopefully Bendy will see this soon - but regarding your question about modifying the ini - I've been using the file he posted in post #29 above with the latest version of P3D; without it I was getting pretty ugly results, but using his modified file has produced the best looking weather visuals I've ever had. I've used both FSGRW and Acitive Sky P3D as the weather engine - AS has worked best.
Hopefully the expert will chime in here when he sees this thread
Hopefully the expert will chime in here when he sees this thread