EA v NO EA in P3D

[BendyFlyer]

Having installed REX for the clouds and skies - Another forum suggested turning off EA with REX. This led me to do some interesting trials in different conditions so I thought I might put up some comparison screenshots for consideration. I am not really sure about EA now. Cockpit shadowing is still fine but the overall picture to my mind is a lot cleaner and brighter. Anyway you can really see the difference. I chose daytime and then dusk and two different aircraft. REX weather engine was not active so this is the default sky scene at the default startup airport in P3D.

Mid afternoon light

With EA


Then EA turned off.

[BendyFlyer]

Now at dusk

EA ON


EA OFF

[BendyFlyer]

And the view at dusk from the cockpit.

EA On


EA Off

[BendyFlyer]

To my eyes NO EA gives a much brighter look or less muddy is the best way to describe it during the day. The clouds change and become more defined and cirrus is now visible which it is not with EA on. Note the change in the colourisation of the sky as well. A light washed out blue with EA on and a darker shade blue with NO EA. The effect in the cockpit seems to be the same brighter and more clear with EA off and darker and muddier with EA on.

At dusk the change in the background is more remarkable, same time different lighting effect results. The cloud colourisation went from a yellow to a pink and the overall light or visibility picked up considerably with no EA- absolutely no change to the time setting between the two. The EA on is very dark by comparison. The other thing is with EA on there are no stars becoming visible in the sky whereas with EA off they now appear as you would expect at this time of day.

If you look at the same time shots from the cockpit you will see that distinctive yellow sky with EA on and note the overall field visibility is reduced, there is cirrus there but it is hard to tell if it is because it just looks like more cumulus cloud. The EA off shot you now get a pinker look, the cirrus is clear and the cloud shapes and shadowing is now more distinct as well. I also noted with EA off you get more sunlight reflection off the buildings and trees which is natural but with EA on you do not it is just dark apart from the visible lighting which does not change for either setting. Overall with EA on it gives the impression of being about half an hour later in the day yet the time setting was not changed between the two. There is definitely an angular difference to the way light and shadow is being shown on screen.

Now these are probably REX's cloud models coming into play here as well but the issue is that the cloud now has a more natural appearance and most importantly is darker on the bottom of the cloud and lighter at the top which is the way it should look in real life. The EA cloud forms are more patchy, less distinct in shape and noticeably fewer by cloud amount yet there was no change to the loaded weather setting, light cloud and fair weather.

What does it all mean? I am not sure given the improved light factor with EA off that EA is all that it is cracked up to be it makes everything look muddy or dirtier and you can see the overall ambience changes on the models as a result. I guess one has to choose which one prefers and at the moment it seems EA off in the go!

This is all done with an NVIDIA card and a HDR monitor. I guess if people wonder what is the difference this seems to illustrate it. Anyway as a long time ABC TV show presenter used to like to say - 'That's your blooming lot for today".

[mooringj]

BendyFlyer,
Thanks for your screenshots. They confirm that it wasn't just my setup (I don't have a HDR monitor) I disliked the overall color of EA, it was like there was a dirty smog all over the place, starting just outside the airplane.
I have been looking on some forums whether were more people complaining but in the end I stopped using v5 and waited for something to improve becaise teh default nonEA clouds aren't that good. I started liking v5 only after I found the beta of the REX software. And now I have the released version.

Regards,

Jan

[rohan]

EA = ? ? ?

[YoYo]

Personally I fly only with non EA. Dont like this "light" (and sometimes it's too dark) and too many problems still. Also, better FPS I have in non EA mode.

[BendyFlyer]

EA = ? ? ?

ENHANCED ATMOSPHERICS (EA) P3DV5's or LM's last innovation into the sim. It provides a feature capability called GODE RAYS - so light is supposedly split in beams. It was combined with another software innovation from the gaming graphics world called True Sky. Both had great potential and as stand alone in a more static or a more slow moving computer environment (games for example) they work fine but in the sim everything from the land to the sky and everything in between is constantly being change due to the dynamics of motion. Both demanded a fairly high end GPU to make work. But as Yo Yo and others have said it did not work out that way and as you can see with EA OFF the clarity and illumination factor of the sim improves significantly but there is a downside as well you lose a bit of the depth of colour in the VC and outside that gives objects a more solid look. However now we have new weather engines working with the sim now, REX is but one, it appears to make the environment look worse than it is or darker!.

[BendyFlyer]

Just thought I would put these in as well. This is a flying boat on water (estuarine - actually Shannon Ireland) at noon.

EA ON


EA OFF


A this northern latitude and time of day the sky colour is about the same but the clouds are noticeably different as is the haze which is reduced. Clouds are more properly defined not looking bits of floating cotton wool and the water and reflections are quite different as you can see not as dark more reflective. Interesting that the blue water textures seem to be more reflected in the aircrafts hull colouring yet with EA it looks grey and dirty which was not the case for this aircraft they always had a quite white-silver hull and wing colour.

[rohan]

Thanks for the elaboration, and for making this thread in the first place. Is EA a feature of P3Dv5 only, or is it also in P3Dv4 ?

[YoYo]

Thanks for the elaboration, and for making this thread in the first place. Is EA a feature of P3Dv5 only, or is it also in P3Dv4 ?

Only in P3Dv4 and his DX12.

[BendyFlyer]

I did note that with EA the textures which are white or bluish become more enhanced so black is not so black more a grey black and grey becomes a greyish blue and the blues much bluer - interesting might be a HDR balance issue. It is also apparent to me that for this version of the sim and more modern monitors you do have to spend a lot of time changing colour balances and hues etc that I ever did with FSX - a lot of work and trial and error. Had it all sorted I thought with no REX and EA on (lost count of times I tried to brighten up interiors) now back to the same to get no EA looking right. Tip - you have to get it sorted for your system there are so many different monitors around all slightly different it seems there is no one size fix that fits all. Any thought on the blue issue would be appreciated!

[YoYo]

Having installed REX for the clouds and skies.....

Do You use Active Sky P3D also?

I fly without EA because I fly in VR 99% mostly (and EA had bad impact for performance) BUT Today I tried EA from long time and it works nice, with good FPS, not like before. Maybe I will change my mind about it .... but I noticed clouds problem. I use real weather and in metar I saw overcast, but with EA I have clear sky (???).
I remember there were such problems with that. Wasnt it solved till now? ASP3D its a very important software for me.

[BendyFlyer]

YoYo - no REX only. I have discovered that with my monitor - I had the brightness wound up significantly with EA on and now it is wound back to a more normal and neutral setting it is a lot better now. Young eyes may see it differently.
I would use real time weather probably 90% of the time - just take the weather as it comes - old habit prefer it more realistic like that. Big or small aeroplanes!

[BendyFlyer]

Ok now this test is a little more dramatic in outcome. Using the default airport and aircraft in the sim. REX WX engine on and the first EA on. Basically a thick broken cloud cover and hazy and tops started to clear about F120.

The first shot shows how the sky and clouds looked with EA - that blocky cloud outcome is very evident. Then I paused the sim, turned off EA and let REX do its stuff without EA. So the aircraft has not moved only the sky and cloud generation has changed without EA.

EA ON


EA OFF



I think it is pretty obvious which is the more realistic sky! Best test yet. REX generates a very realistic broken sky (not overcast like the EA one) and good cloud definition and high level cloud which was absent with EA on.