TRUE SKY and EA Have we all misunderstood this enhancement!

[BendyFlyer]

I was working through some older posts on other forums about TRUE SKY in P3D it seems this enhancement is not what we think and your ability to make it really do a true sky has been overlooked and misunderstood. It seems that there is a specific config file in P3D for True Sky - the essences of this is that the parameters for cloud display can be modified according to your video card capacity and that the default settings are very limp indeed. In essence TRUE SKY has all the cloud types you want inbuilt and how they display (height volume speed fade in fade out etc) are all capable of being set via this config file. So once you understand this and apply it it really does mean you do not need a sky addon such as REX or Active Sky - the capacity and display was already in the sim all the time.

It is a little complicated so here is a link to a YouTube video that explains the whole thing - the presenter is spot on - changed my sim completely with these changes and by the way you can modify these settings once you get a handle on how True Sky actually works. Very impressive now!


P3D TOP TIPS 2020 | HOW TO | TRUESKY GUIDE V5.1 | CLOUDPORN | WATCH CAREFULLY - YouTube

It is long and at times hard to see the settings but the mystery of True Sky and how it works is revealed. As the gent says watch carefully your capacity to overload your video card is significant if you have a low end GPU thats all. 45 minutes well spent working through this and actually now understanding what True Sky is - TRUE SKY.

LM are very quiet about this feature it really is a major change to simulation and skies. Basically no more add in flat textures but it the program in P3D as I understand it is using light and shade and the 3D capacity to create cloud and weather, even the rain is different now in sim and yes Thunderstorms boom and crash as well!

And I removed REX no longer required! Weather engine is the freeware connection program provided by P3DWX (FSXWX). I you do not have this here is the link:
FSXWX

[BendyFlyer]

This is a quick screenshot of the cloud now with default fair weather set but all the changes to EA and True Sky made. I will do more as I explore real weather injection and various weather and cloud situations.

[BendyFlyer]

Real Weather today at YMHB (Hobart Tasmania) Metar reporting wind27017/G28 kts vis 9999 light rain showers, scattered 4800 ft and broken 5500 ft. The xwind on take off was as reported and overall picture is correct.



Now in the cruise at F270 heading north.



There is still a little blocking of cloud masses - need to work on the adjustment that makes this happen. But overall with this weather todaypretty good!

[YoYo]

According my experiance with EA=on, if you have Active Sky P3D tick in "Simulator Depiction" - enable detailed EA clouds. It give extra details on clouds, much better than on default, direct from P3Dv5 .

[spatialpro]

To be clear, you're [also] talking about 3D volumetric clouds here, as used in P3D5?

[BendyFlyer]

My understanding is that neither REX or ACTIVESKY are able to manipulate the P3D volumetric True Sky clouds but are still substituting textures or their own cloud models. EA is managing the light effects. True Sky is a proprietary software licensed to LM and there are parts of that you cannot change because they are locked by LM for those license reasons (The light at dawn dusk is the main issue). The suggestions from the video are about getting to understand how True Sky works and how the dynamics of its configuration are then changed by alterations in the cloudvolume config file - such as how high how far etc how much change and that is applied to all the cloud types plus a Global setting for it all.

WIP to see what works best for you. I guess I was hoping that others would try and see how it goes as they change things.

[BendyFlyer]

This is west of Tokyo at or above F350 after climbing out through heavy broken cloud in layers.





It gets very blocky again, looking down on the cloud only, if you go to say F480.

I am not seeing any performance issues, stuttering or lag with basically all settings at max or ultra high.

[YoYo]

According my experiance with EA=on, if you have Active Sky P3D tick in "Simulator Depiction" - enable detailed EA clouds. It give extra details on clouds, much better than on default, direct from P3Dv5 .

Btw. Today's picture .



I really like those effects from Active Sky.

[gray eagle]

I was working through some older posts on other forums about TRUE SKY in P3D it seems this enhancement is not what we think and your ability to make it really do a true


P3D TOP TIPS 2020 | HOW TO | TRUESKY GUIDE V5.1 | CLOUDPORN | WATCH CAREFULLY - YouTube

It :
FSXWX

I followed the link and it looks like a lofty idea but I am afraid of gumming up my sim and HD with left over bits if I decide to revert to original state.
I did read the uninstall procedures. A little bit of change this and copy that involved and leaves me wondering if I would be satisfied with it and if not
how to make sure that all the installed bits are eliminated. But I am glad you think well of it. There use to be a weather program where the exe for it
would find P3D and produce actual cloud conditions in my area.

[BendyFlyer]

Gray Eagle that would be the freeware weather program P3DWX the links above. The only glitch with it is you have to have you sim time synchronised with the PC time otherwise it will not connect - that is a P3D thing, real time weather at real time is I guess the thinking there.

My post was to try to get others to explore the hidden capacity of True Sky. I have looked at a lot of True Sky stuff in other places (It is marketed for developers and is quite expensive to purchase (1000s) but it was clear to me and others that LM have set the parameters quite low to allow for base line processors - it is all carried by the Video Card or GPU and not the CPU. Meteorologically they have the categories correct Cirrus, Stratus, Cumulus and Cumulonimbus - they are the four main clouds types what varies after that is what level they are at. The surprise was that for each cloud type there are over 10 parameters that can be set to vary the thickness, spread, wispyness, level at which it forms and breaks up (whoorliness I think is the term they use) the distance it spreads or the distance it can be seen. The issue was not that it will not do it but if you have a low end video card then it is going to crash thats all. I have all the settings now maxed on my NVIDIA RTX 2070 Super with 8GB and it performs without stutter, glitches or other indications of the graphics being overloaded. I have tried it with high density scenery, high complexity addons and simple stuff. The only time I got a slight glitch was at Tokyo but I have addon city scenery there which is like NY remarkedly dense and detailed.

I have no magic set of settings for everbody - it is a case of try and see how it goes. If you make a copy of the original cloud volume config file first you can easily revert to the base setup without issues. Nothing has to be changed in the P3D config either.

I think we are really only at the beginning with this enhancement and yes it is probably monitor dependant as well, I have a 4k HD monitor. My view is not to disparage addons such as Active Sky or REX I have them myself but I guess the real sky look we all crave was there all along is my simple view we just have to learn how to tweak it to get it to perform thats all. My only gripe is with LM for not really providing a HOWTO or guide about this and EA for users they really tell you not much at all.

Anyway I hope others will give it a go and post some results - so far I am very impressed with what is in the box and how it works!

[BendyFlyer]

YSTW (Tamowrth NSW) broken cloud at 500 ft agl and ovc above to 9300 ft, this morning - real wx injected.

On the climb out to west solid cloud all the way




In the cruise at A100.




These skies are a very close representation of IF flight in heavy cloud. My only gripe at moment is lighting effects on ground and in air are a little bright - something else to explore.

[BendyFlyer]

Conitnued with a long IF flight Tamworth to LIghtning Ridge. Then when you think this is pretty good - weird effects like this. Looking up



Then back to normal and the light rain is light rain bairly perceptible - that is ok. Wind is accurate on ground and in the air.

[BendyFlyer]

Well for anybody interested few more changes but overall is good. Key is that True Sky is best viewed from ground on a shallow angle or at same level, those anomalies of looking down or vertically up are not changeable at moment. The following is a direct copy of the cloud volume config settings I am now using. You will see at the beginning of the file the explanation of the terminology and parameters. The file is in user/users/appdata/roaming/Lockheed Martin/P3DV5 and is called Volumetric Clouds.cfg. Make a copy of your original first then replace it with these - give it a go nothing to lose.

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
//
// Variable Descriptions
//
// max_density_gm3 - Grams per cubic meter.
// distribution_base_layer - Start of the transition from the cloud base to the upper cloud (0 to 1).
// distribution_transition - The transition from the cloud base to the upper cloud (0 to 1).
// worley_noise - How much Worley (cell) noise to apply in cloud generation.
// worley_scale - Scale of the Worley noise. Will be locked to an integer if clouds are wrapping.
// diffusivity - How much the edges of clouds should be diffused.
// persistence - The fractal persistence for generating the clouds.
// octaves - The number of noise octaves used to generate the clouds.
// upper_density - The proportion of cloud density retained in the upper layer, above the distribution_transition.
// simulation - If 1.0, cloud volume is simulated. If 0.0, it is generated by fractal.
// cloud_width_km - Scalar applied to cloud height to calculate width
// cloudiness - Scalar applied to cloud density UI setting
// base_noise_factor - What proportion of noise is applied at the cloudbase, between 0 and 1.0.
// edge_worley_noise - The strength of the fractal worley edge noise.
// fractal_amplitude - The strength of the fractal edge effect.
// edge_sharpness - The sharpness to be applied in rendering a the boundary.
// churn - The strength of the cloud edge churning effect - larger values for more turbulent clouds.
//
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Global]
render_grid_x_km_low = 0.1
render_grid_x_km_med = 0.1
render_grid_x_km_high = 0.2
render_grid_x_km_ultra = 0.5
render_grid_z_km_low = 1.3
render_grid_z_km_med = 1.3
render_grid_z_km_high = 1.3
render_grid_z_km_ultra = 1.3
cloud_resolution_low = 512
cloud_resolution_med = 768
cloud_resolution_high = 1024
cloud_resolution_ultra = 1024
max_cloud_distance_km_low = 200
max_cloud_distance_km_med = 250
max_cloud_distance_km_high = 300
max_cloud_distance_km_ultra = 350
num_slices_low = 255
num_slices_med = 255
num_slices_high = 255
num_slices_ultra = 255
cloud_shadow_strength = 0.5
cloud_shadow_range_km_low = 50.0
cloud_shadow_range_km_med = 150.0
cloud_shadow_range_km_high = 200.0
cloud_shadow_range_km_ultra = 250.0
cloud_shadow_texture_size_low = 256
cloud_shadow_texture_size_med = 512
cloud_shadow_texture_size_high = 1024
cloud_shadow_texture_size_ultra = 1024
crepuscular_ray_strength = 0.5
edge_noise_wavelength_km = 2.7
worley_texture_size = 64
cell_noise_wavelength_km = 1.7
max_fractal_amplitude_km = 3
cloud_threshold_distance_km = 0.2


[Cumulonimbus]
max_density_gm3 = 1.0
distribution_base_layer = 0.45
distribution_transition = 0.30
worley_noise = 0.9
worley_scale = 5.0
diffusivity = 1.5
persistence = 0.63
octaves = 4.0
upper_density = 0.35
simulation = 1.0
cloud_width_km = 60
cloudiness = 1.00
base_noise_factor = 0.25
edge_worley_noise = 0.15
fractal_amplitude = 2.0
edge_sharpness = 3.0
churn = 2.0


[Cirrus]
max_density_gm3 = 0.05
distribution_base_layer = 0.05
distribution_transition = 0.95
worley_noise = 0.55
worley_scale = 1.0
diffusivity = 0.95
persistence = 0.95
octaves = 3.0
upper_density = 0.95
simulation = 0.0
cloud_width_km = 30
cloudiness = 0.1
base_noise_factor = 0.95
edge_worley_noise = 0.0
fractal_amplitude = 1.5
edge_sharpness = 0.05
churn = 0.2


[Stratus]
max_density_gm3 = 1.0
distribution_base_layer = 0.2
distribution_transition = 0.5
worley_noise = 0.15
worley_scale = 3.0
diffusivity = 0.95
persistence = 0.05
octaves = 3.0
upper_density = 0.05
simulation = 0.0
cloud_width_km = 100
cloudiness = 0.15
base_noise_factor = 0.1
edge_worley_noise = 0.05
fractal_amplitude = 1.0
edge_sharpness = 0.1
churn = 1.0


[Cumulus]
max_density_gm3 = 1.0
distribution_base_layer = 0.25
distribution_transition = 0.25
worley_noise = 0.9
worley_scale = 4.0
diffusivity = 0.9
persistence = 0.63
octaves = 3.0
upper_density = 0.25
simulation = 0.0
cloud_width_km = 100
cloudiness = 0.15
base_noise_factor = 0.25
edge_worley_noise = 0.15
fractal_amplitude = 2.0
edge_sharpness = 2.7
churn = 1.0

[BendyFlyer]

You can now see the change in the cloud - this is early morning in the Coral Sea area. Fair weather cumulus.

[BendyFlyer]

These are my sim settings for light etc.





Mileage of course will vary but I now find with these settings cockpit seems not so dark anymore and the light and colour is better balanced between outside and inside. But of course P3D does light very differently so that and the shadows shift quickly depending on the sun angle and the angle your looking at. Volumetric fog is unnecessary it does it anyway with True Sky. I think Godrays OFF stops a lot of that glare and haze and the the shadows I have minimised because if you have them high you get a feathering effect happen on the shadows as they change rapidly - besides good luck seeing any real shadows from an aeroplane for real on the ground except those cast by large objects such as mountains etc.

[BendyFlyer]

Two shots of tropical CU buildups in the Guam area today with the True Sky mods.

[BendyFlyer]

Nothing wrong with this cloud presentation - looks real to me.

[BendyFlyer]

Another test shot. This is real time weather via P3DWX on climb out of Port Stanley Airport in the Falklands. Broken Cloud in layers. I have now installed ENVSHADE to get a bit more control of the shading of EA.

[BendyFlyer]

Three screens - mid morning from South Georgia in Antartica heading back to Ushuaia in Patagonia. Shader working better as is the lighting and clouds.

[BendyFlyer]

Well I will leave this alone for now. I am more than satisfied that the tweak for True Sky produces a realistic dynamic sky environment and that the addition of ENVSHADE has also helped with the dynamic lighting controls.

A last screenshot - moonlight reflections on the ramp at Port Stanley. I do not recall moonlight and moon shadows ever in FSX.

[BendyFlyer]

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.

[BendyFlyer]

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]

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!

Awesome images!

[YoYo]

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!

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.

[wombat666]

You've got me started now Mike.
At this stage I've copied your True Sky tweaks into P3Dv5 and kicked off with a couple of fair weather efforts followed a few complete cover flights.