Archived from groups: alt.games.microsoft.flight-sim (More info?)
A week and a half ago my FS9 installation developed a nasty hiccup and
crash, which was cured finally by a fresh reinstall. THAT was painful,
as I had a lot of add-ons (some payware, a lot of freeware). As some
suggested, I took the opportunity to clean out things that I didn't
use, and the result is a leaner and smoother sim. A week and a half
later, I've decided that the nasty hiccup really was a blessing.
From here on, I decide, I'm going to be a lot pickier about what I
install...
From here on = for about a week. I have been more selective, but last
night I did buy something I'd been eyeing for awhile before I had my
big meltdown, Peter Wilding's Flight Environment (FE). I had been
worried about framerates, since I use the 64x64 cloudsets in ActiveSky,
and Wilding's clouds only come in two sizes: 512x512 and 256x256. Then
I read Wilding talk about alpha channels here http://tinyurl.com/8uys3
and decided maybe this could be for me after all.
I did a couple of flights last night, and one long flight this
afternoon from Denver to Los Angeles. Lots of clouds in the LA basin
when I arrived, but the sim was still surprisingly smooth. Maybe it's
all subjective, but I'm getting much better looking clouds now, with
framerates that are no worse (and may even be better) than what I had
with the smaller textures I was using previously. Color me grateful.
I'm almost to my question. I logged back onto VATSIM briefly this
evening in order to move my plane from KLAX to Santa Monica (six miles
north) in anticipation of tomorrow's VFR fly-in.* Framerates were good,
so I figured "Why not play with the weather sliders" before I take off?
I turned up the 3d percentage (to 60 or 70%) and turned down the
density (from high to medium). Wow! Amazing skies (I am using Active
Sky, too) and framerates still acceptable. Screenshots:
http://tinyurl.com/e3xnu
Now, maybe it was all just a happy convergence that will never recur.
But I'm curious now: what exactly does the cloud density slider do? If
I turn it down, do clouds cover less area? Or do they just thin out?
* We're flying up the coast from Santa Monica to Half Moon Bay, which
is just the over the hill from San Francisco. Details here if you're
interested -- flight starts at 1700 Pacific Standard Time (0100 zulu)
and will take about two hours at 180 knots. Suggest that you come half
an hour early, just so we can get organized before we all take off.
_________________________________________________________
Posted via the -Web to Usenet- forums at http://forums.simradar.com
Visit www.simradar.com and try our Flight Simulation Search Engine!
A week and a half ago my FS9 installation developed a nasty hiccup and
crash, which was cured finally by a fresh reinstall. THAT was painful,
as I had a lot of add-ons (some payware, a lot of freeware). As some
suggested, I took the opportunity to clean out things that I didn't
use, and the result is a leaner and smoother sim. A week and a half
later, I've decided that the nasty hiccup really was a blessing.
From here on, I decide, I'm going to be a lot pickier about what I
install...
From here on = for about a week. I have been more selective, but last
night I did buy something I'd been eyeing for awhile before I had my
big meltdown, Peter Wilding's Flight Environment (FE). I had been
worried about framerates, since I use the 64x64 cloudsets in ActiveSky,
and Wilding's clouds only come in two sizes: 512x512 and 256x256. Then
I read Wilding talk about alpha channels here http://tinyurl.com/8uys3
and decided maybe this could be for me after all.
I did a couple of flights last night, and one long flight this
afternoon from Denver to Los Angeles. Lots of clouds in the LA basin
when I arrived, but the sim was still surprisingly smooth. Maybe it's
all subjective, but I'm getting much better looking clouds now, with
framerates that are no worse (and may even be better) than what I had
with the smaller textures I was using previously. Color me grateful.
I'm almost to my question. I logged back onto VATSIM briefly this
evening in order to move my plane from KLAX to Santa Monica (six miles
north) in anticipation of tomorrow's VFR fly-in.* Framerates were good,
so I figured "Why not play with the weather sliders" before I take off?
I turned up the 3d percentage (to 60 or 70%) and turned down the
density (from high to medium). Wow! Amazing skies (I am using Active
Sky, too) and framerates still acceptable. Screenshots:
http://tinyurl.com/e3xnu
Now, maybe it was all just a happy convergence that will never recur.
But I'm curious now: what exactly does the cloud density slider do? If
I turn it down, do clouds cover less area? Or do they just thin out?
* We're flying up the coast from Santa Monica to Half Moon Bay, which
is just the over the hill from San Francisco. Details here if you're
interested -- flight starts at 1700 Pacific Standard Time (0100 zulu)
and will take about two hours at 180 knots. Suggest that you come half
an hour early, just so we can get organized before we all take off.
_________________________________________________________
Posted via the -Web to Usenet- forums at http://forums.simradar.com
Visit www.simradar.com and try our Flight Simulation Search Engine!
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