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I bought ASN and quickly tested it. It really seems to be a huge improvement to FSX simming enviroment. But there's one thing I cannot get right. And it's overcast.

 

I took off this morning with overcast 200ft + fog conditions. Runway visibiilty was low and it looked really pleasing. And soon after lift off I was in total grayness. But as soon as I got above the cloud layer, I started to see the ground through holes in the clouds very clearly. Not very realistic and definately not anything to be called overcast.

 

Have I missed something? I have maximum cloud coverage set in FSX and haze layer is disabled as it is ASN's default setting. I am using textures from AS2012 and have FSUIPC installed (all wheater effects turned off).

 

Or is it just something impossible to overcome with FSX? Nothing to do to cover holes in the clouds or hide the ground behind some fake fog layer?

 

 

Best,

Kati H


AMD Ryzen 5800x3d | 32GB DDR4 @ 3200MHz | RTX 3080 | 3440x1440

 

 

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Hi Kati,

 

Can you be more specific (time/place/metar)? One easy advice here is to check the "Enhance IMC" option (which is off by default for performance reasons). But depending on the metar, there may be fog with reported broken clouds, so we have to also take this into account.

 

Thanks,

 

Kostas Terzides

ASN developer


Kostas Terzides

 

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Hi Kostas,

 

Sure.. The weather was 120812Z 21006KT 1500 BR FG OVC002 03/03 Q1012 RMK ADVANCED INTERPOLATION at EFHK. It can be reproduced with historical weather.

 

I found that installed textures matter. My first flight was done using AS2012 wx influenced set, that was from another time and place. I restored default FSX textures and it looked much more overcast. There were gaps in the clouds but they were nearly as visible. But things got bad again when I flew further away where there were no clouds beneath. I decended and hit the magical fog layer from out of nowhere! So I think the main issue is the fog layer.

 

Another question would then be, what texture set would be good a compromise to get decent overcast and still cloud looking clouds... Another AS2012 texture set I tried was not much better than the first one what comes to overcastiness.

 

I took another test flight at somewhere in Canada. Overcast clouds (default) and mountains.. It was amazing to fly through the clouds. First ground disappeared gradually and very slowly. Then after wandering a good while in a thick gray matter (piston engine Cessna)... Was I imaging it, or did it really happen? ...the gray matter seemed to slowly lighten up when getting higher and higher... And then suddenly those beautifiul FTX Global enchanced mountain tips like islands in endless cotton sea... Wow!

You're guys so near to perfection that there must be an answer! :)

 

Best,

Kati H


AMD Ryzen 5800x3d | 32GB DDR4 @ 3200MHz | RTX 3080 | 3440x1440

 

 

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Depend on the texture used, you might get different result. For texture it's probably the stratus only, try to use these 01 Cinema, 07 Drift, 12 Shell, 24 SP2 Compact, stick with one stratus set, if you are using wx influenced, they will get changed again, they must be disabled on the wx influenced to get constant stratus sets.

 

Please notes As2012 was not working like ASN, We are working on the second phase for ASN separately which will unlock many feature and bring ASN to his highest level on depiction and graphically merged together.


Kind Regards
Chris Willis

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Hi Kati,

Just to make sure we are on the same page here, I tried using historical at EFHK at 0812Z and here are my results (this is with Enhanced IMC checked):

First, here is a detail view of the clouds on ASN map :
nyid.png

Then here's the overcast as seen from the cockpit:
jbps.png


And finally look at this one:
jj3a.png



The last one shows the issue we got by having to replace the default ugly haze layer of fsx with stratus clouds. The cloud sprites an fsx 3d cloud consists of are rotated in a different way depending on the view angle. So in this case, when the view angle is down (or up), then the sprites are rendered in a completely different way leaving significant gaps. This leads to this issue. In addition, the further away we go from the equator (for example at extreme latitudes as in the north or south pole), the more "squeezed" the cloud sprites are.

So (up until P3D volumetric fog came up), all that could be done by weather add-ons is to use workarounds to achieve this effect as realistic as possible given the restrictions given by fsx cloud rendering (and how ugly the default fsx haze layer is). Of course, textures are significant in this (some of them leave more gaps and some less), but it's the actual sprite position/rotation that affects this.

So, I think ASN's overcast depiction is the best possible given the current limitations of fsx cloud rendering (in fact one of the few things we haven't been able to bypass in ASN weather depiction). Thanks!

Kostas Terzides
ASN developer


Kostas Terzides

 

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Hi Chris and Kostas,

 

Thank you for the proper explanation. Screenshots looks about to the same than mine with default clouds. I am going to try "01 Cinema, 07 Drift, 12 Shell, 24 SP2 Compact" cloud set that Chris recommended. 

 

Anyway l'm looking forward to next phase of ASN hoping you can fix the fog issue. Moving to P3D v2 is an option too. I just don't get the benefit from it now with my poor graphics card that is the weakest link in my system. But some day... 

 

 

Cheers,

Kati


AMD Ryzen 5800x3d | 32GB DDR4 @ 3200MHz | RTX 3080 | 3440x1440

 

 

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For texture it's probably the stratus only, try to use these 01 Cinema, 07 Drift, 12 Shell, 24 SP2 Compact, stick with one stratus set.

 

Chris, now I don't have the computer in front of me, but I don't remember, is there a way in AS2012 to select only one stratus?

Thanks.


James Goggi

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Hi Chris and Kostas,

 

Thank you for the proper explanation. Screenshots looks about to the same than mine with default clouds. I am going to try "01 Cinema, 07 Drift, 12 Shell, 24 SP2 Compact" cloud set that Chris recommended. 

 

Cheers,

Kati

 

Kati - Any status update with those AS2012 cloud types?

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Kati - Any status update with those AS2012 cloud types?

 

Hi Greg,

 

I tried at least 01 Cinema,12 Shell and 24 SP2 Compact and all got a lot better overcast than I had originally. For a comparison I selected 17 SP2 Casual and with that I had a lot of gaps between clouds. But no cloud set gave me 100% overcast even with Enhance Overcast option checked.

 

Anyway, overcast is not the real issue here. It is the faulty fog/haze/visibility layer, that just disappears when climbing up and appears when decending. That is really bugging me when there is not overcast conditions or even no clouds at all. That topic is also discussed in this thread:

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/429484-asn-invisible-haze-layer/

 

Go and see: LSZH Zurich with historical weather @ 18th Dec 2013 1220 UTC

Metar: @POS 181220Z 27003KT 230V340 6000 NSC 02/M00 Q1024 NOSIG

 

Kati H


AMD Ryzen 5800x3d | 32GB DDR4 @ 3200MHz | RTX 3080 | 3440x1440

 

 

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I have long troubled over the issue of overcasts with much communication with Damian in the past but this new program really does the trick IF you make one small change, Kati.  The change I made in my arrival and departure airports (not concerned with enroute since I fly the tubeliners above most weather) is to make the second layer (using enhanced clouds) as cumulus instead of stratus!  That plugs the holes and it looks solid above, within, and below!  I do that even when conditions indicate stable conditions.  I just don't put any turbulence in the cumulus layer in that case.  Also, I find that "light" turbulence setting is more realistic for fair weather cumulus clouds.  The "moderate" setting is good for storm clouds else a bit over the top.

 

Oh yes, and I agree with you.  In ASN, the FSX default clouds seem to appear much more realistic so I have returned all my textures back to default.

 

Craig

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