Realistic Clouds

[rowdyb00t]

12 minutes ago, Beebop said:

❓

Where can I find this setting?  I don't see it in the Gpresets file although there is a "shadows_dynamic=1,false,true".

What does that setting do and what does the 'false,true' reference to?

 

 

 I think the “true/false” makes the shadow animated? Same goes with the other post effects I suppose. 

Edited February 12, 2021 by rowdyb00t

[Beebop]

Oh.  THAT Dynamic Resolution factor.  ?

(how embarrassing)

[Stonehouse]

Using the mod and trying to get back to seeing clouds like your pics. An example of what I'm talking about. If you compare them to your pics the difference is very evident. Somewhere over the last few months I seem to have buggered something up but not sure what.

 

Edited February 12, 2021 by No457_Stonehouse

[two-five]

@rowdyb00t hey firstly, thanks a million for this. Your clouds are such a huge upgrade over base. Should be stock imo.

 

Anyway just wondering should 3d overcast used in addition to one of the existing version or is it standalone?

 

And lastly what's the best way to tweak for performance, i'm on a 3080 + G2 in 60hz mode I have clouds set to high using the non vr version of your mod. Using clouds high just pushes me over the edge into reprojection. Is there any setting in the configs that will allow me to maybe dial quality back a touch without going so far as to switch to the VR version.

 

Again, thanks you so much, skimming through heavy clouds on summers moring in Kuban, is sensational.

[rowdyb00t]

1 hour ago, No457_Stonehouse said:

Using the mod and trying to get back to seeing clouds like your pics. An example of what I'm talking about. If you compare them to your pics the difference is very evident. Somewhere over the last few months I seem to have buggered something up but not sure what.

 

  Oh boy they look kinda chunky  .  
Try this, 

gpreset:  remove it and install an unedited one.

Make sure your clouds are set to high. Try setting the dynamic resolution factor to full. 
 

Looking at your pics shows me it’s on extreme. Go back to your startup.cfg and change the max_cloud_quality back to 2 and save. 

 

1 hour ago, Penguin said:

@rowdyb00t hey firstly, thanks a million for this. Your clouds are such a huge upgrade over base. Should be stock imo.

 

Anyway just wondering should 3d overcast used in addition to one of the existing version or is it standalone?

 

And lastly what's the best way to tweak for performance, i'm on a 3080 + G2 in 60hz mode I have clouds set to high using the non vr version of your mod. Using clouds high just pushes me over the edge into reprojection. Is there any setting in the configs that will allow me to maybe dial quality back a touch without going so far as to switch to the VR version.

 

Again, thanks you so much, skimming through heavy clouds on summers moring in Kuban, is sensational.

 

   Hello penguin,

   The 3D overcast is an add on. I made it this way so it could easily be added or removed. 
   Messing around the other day I found that medium cloud quality was not so bad and the performance boost doubled. Try that out. Then if you want to advance the graphics from there, go into your gpreset.cfg found in Luascripts folder. Depending on which graphic setting you use, like Ultra for instance would be preset:4. Change the cloud_samples in your preset to 256. Go back to the game and check it out. If you can handle more then go back and try 512.

 

[two-five]

@rowdyb00t

nice one man, i'll try that.

I had gone the opposite of route keeping clouds on high and dropping samples. I need to get to grips with gpreset.cfg properly I had it function completely backward until last night. Thanks again.

Edited February 12, 2021 by Penguin

[nozzil]

5 hours ago, No457_Stonehouse said:

Using the mod and trying to get back to seeing clouds like your pics. An example of what I'm talking about. If you compare them to your pics the difference is very evident. Somewhere over the last few months I seem to have buggered something up but not sure what.

 

@No457_Stonehouse

Did you get to the bottom of this issue?  I'm seeing exactly the same 'plasticky' effect on the cumulonimbus and 3D overcast clouds.  I've tried all of the suggestions above but am unable to get rid of the effect.

@rowdyb00t

This is what I'm seeing at the moment with the V14 Clouds, gpreset, Cumulonimbus 2 and 3D overcast mods applied.  I've tried adjusting the settings as you've suggested above but still getting the 'plasticky' appearance to the cloud tops and edges.  Any further suggestions appreciated.  Still enjoying the mod hugely, so thanks again.

 

[Stonehouse]

Different time zones, my last post was just prior to heading off to bed for the night. Planning to keep looking at the issue today, will post up here if I get anywhere with it.

[rowdyb00t]

46 minutes ago, No457_Stonehouse said:

Different time zones, my last post was just prior to heading off to bed for the night. Planning to keep looking at the issue today, will post up here if I get anywhere with it.

   Sounds good hopefully you get this resolved. Messing with the gpreset from experience can really get things out of whack. 
   How long have you been using the mod? 

[Stonehouse]

Since your first version, thought it was a huge improvement all along. I think I may have found it but it may make you scratch your head a bit. I tend to run quite a few mods so at first I thought it might be load order but that didn't really seem to help although I think I will now continue to have the clouds mod as last one to load just to be safe. The thing I did notice was that increasing cloud samples to 512 made things much worse. The clouds became very hand painted looking and plastic toffee looking, quite surreal. So figuring what the hell I went the opposite direction and backed cloud samples off to 96. The difference was immediate. I then tried 64. Pic is the result. Perhaps the devs choosing 64 as the stock value had more to it than we thought. I think what has occurred is that I corrected the location I was loading gpresets into about a month or so ago  and that therefore suddenly gpresets was taking effect but then haven't had time to really fly much and so it is not until lately I have noticed the issue.  I'm wondering where the sweet spot is for my rig in terms of look and onset of shimmering so will keep on playing around a bit.

 

Being careful to not stuff things up again lol ?

 

Thank you to all the people who offered suggestions.

 

Edited February 12, 2021 by No457_Stonehouse

[rowdyb00t]

@No457_Stonehouse

   Great to hear that your back to where you like it. However somethings still odd here. When I raise the samples in my whole configuration, it doesn’t make them look like what you had. Did you change the max_cloud_quality back to 2 in the startup.cfg? Some how it should be at 2 and not 3 for high. Anyway just a thought. 

[Stonehouse]

Yes did that as well via notepad++ and it seems to have stuck. For me changing the cloud samples is a major factor. I tried 32 but the shimmering is not nice. So at present I have ultra with clouds high, max cloud quality 2, cloud samples 64 and just going to try some different weather arrangements and see what it looks like. Maybe I'm clashing with nvidia settings? I don't know and will have to experiment although trying to do that will take some time I guess as it's a bit like pulling on a piece of string and not knowing what's at the other end. So really at the moment my gpresets is nearly stock except for pushing the forest distance out some and reducing saturation a little.

[rowdyb00t]

7 minutes ago, No457_Stonehouse said:

Yes did that as well via notepad++ and it seems to have stuck. For me changing the cloud samples is a major factor. I tried 32 but the shimmering is not nice. So at present I have ultra with clouds high, max cloud quality 2, cloud samples 64 and just going to try some different weather arrangements and see what it looks like. Maybe I'm clashing with nvidia settings? I don't know and will have to experiment although trying to do that will take some time I guess as it's a bit like pulling on a piece of string and not knowing what's at the other end. So really at the moment my gpresets is nearly stock except for pushing the forest distance out some and reducing saturation a little.

   Same for me on the gpresets. Forest distance max is 7 and my saturation is at 0.80. It’s funny, I’ve spent hours messing with the nvidia settings and game graphic options to find the perfect sweet spot for VR. So far I think I got it until I get a 3090 to replace the 2080ti. Then it will be back to square one. 

[Indigene]

Thank you kindly for the clouds mod. It's wonderful to see some cumulonimbus instead of flat, truncated clouds. I went into the Editor and tried out the different weather configurations, now there's a wider variety.

 

I'll try out the Cumulonimbus 2 today. Awesome work, keep it going! ?

[two-five]

Just an odd thing that I noticed playing around with settings and I think I someone else mentioned this in the thread as well. But all other settings being equal with clouds set to high I have noticeable improvement in performance than medium.

[jokerBR]

11 hours ago, No457_Stonehouse said:

Yes did that as well via notepad++ and it seems to have stuck. For me changing the cloud samples is a major factor. I tried 32 but the shimmering is not nice. So at present I have ultra with clouds high, max cloud quality 2, cloud samples 64 and just going to try some different weather arrangements and see what it looks like. Maybe I'm clashing with nvidia settings? I don't know and will have to experiment although trying to do that will take some time I guess as it's a bit like pulling on a piece of string and not knowing what's at the other end. So really at the moment my gpresets is nearly stock except for pushing the forest distance out some and reducing saturation a little.

Very interesting experiment, will try it too, as sometimes I also get the "plastic clouds". I'm at 128 on gpreset, if I recall correctly.

[Indigene]

I think I'm really lovin' the Cumulonimbus 2! Spectacular views, and they're thick enough to get disoriented if you're not paying attention to your instruments. I love clouds and these're lookin' wonderful, thank you again. ?☁️⛅⛈️

[rowdyb00t]

5 hours ago, jokerBR said:

Very interesting experiment, will try it too, as sometimes I also get the "plastic clouds". I'm at 128 on gpreset, if I recall correctly.

 
  I’m not sure what changed or perhaps it wasn’t noticeable enough but I never realized that 128 samples was causing the “plastic look”. I noticed this last night in some heavy clouds. So I changed the samples back to 64 and voila, much better . Anybody else? I’m beginning to think that the gpreset download should be eliminated? Or changed back to stock?

[two-five]

For me the boiling at the edge of clouds is much less noticeable with higher samples, but the clouds look more believable overall when they're lower.

[Mysticpuma]

Rowdy, can I ask a small favour? 

 

Could you fly any aircraft through your clouds that look amazing and save a track of it then share it here?

 

My thought is that if everyone who has your mod then plays the file it should show the clouds the same way (or very close) to the way you see them. 

 

Players who have issues can then at least know what they should be seeing compared to what they are seeing, for instance what is the best height for the clouds and spawn height aircraft to see these? 

 

I am now on v14 and still don't think mine look like yours. 

 

A simple track where you fly at the perfect height for the clouds and spawn for the aircraft would simplify the fault finding? 

 

Cheers, Mysticpuma 

[rowdyb00t]

16 minutes ago, Mysticpuma said:

Rowdy, can I ask a small favour? 

 

Could you fly any aircraft through your clouds that look amazing and save a track of it then share it here?

 

My thought is that if everyone who has your mod then plays the file it should show the clouds the same way (or very close) to the way you see them. 

 

Players who have issues can then at least know what they should be seeing compared to what they are seeing, for instance what is the best height for the clouds and spawn height aircraft to see these? 

 

I am now on v14 and still don't think mine look like yours. 

 

A simple track where you fly at the perfect height for the clouds and spawn for the aircraft would simplify the fault finding? 

 

Cheers, Mysticpuma 

   Sure thing. I can leave a track but when ever someone downloads the track and replays it, won’t it replay with their graphic settings? Possibly I could post all my graphic settings and leave a vid? In game, nVidia and gpresets. 

[too-cool]

1 hour ago, rowdyb00t said:

   Sure thing. I can leave a track but when ever someone downloads the track and replays it, won’t it replay with their graphic settings? Possibly I could post all my graphic settings and leave a vid? In game, nVidia and gpresets. 

What mission ie; (quick mission/settings) did you use? Plus what are your graphic setting you using.

[Mysticpuma]

13 hours ago, rowdyb00t said:

   Sure thing. I can leave a track but when ever someone downloads the track and replays it, won’t it replay with their graphic settings? Possibly I could post all my graphic settings and leave a vid? In game, nVidia and gpresets. 

Yes that would be a great way of fault finding ?

[BlitzFromBehind]

Love the work but for somereason grey sky doesn't work. the clouds change but not the sky...

[rowdyb00t]

1 hour ago, BlitzFromBehind said:

Love the work but for somereason grey sky doesn't work. the clouds change but not the sky...

  There are only a few grey skydomes. Summer has 3 out of 10 in Heavy and 3 out of 10 in Overcast. Same goes for winter. 
If your using the QMB, there’s a chance you might not see anything for at least 10 try’s. It randomly picks the preset. 

[rowdyb00t]

16 hours ago, too-cool said:

What mission ie; (quick mission/settings) did you use? Plus what are your graphic setting you using.

 

 

Here' a vid with these settings. ( For some reason, a couple of the clouds were boiling ) 

 

 

 

And here is another with the gpresets set to 96.

 

 

 

Both vids the clouds are at Heavy. 

Hopefully this will help with some questions. I fly almost 99% in VR 

 

Specs:  MSI B550 Tomahawk

              32gb Corsair Vengeance Ram

              Ryzen 7 5800X watercooled

              RTX 2080 TI

              2tb hard drive, 250gb sdd

            HTC VIVE PRO ( Gear VR lens mod )

            PHILIPS 27'' 4K monitor

 

Just to clarify, I use Balanced setting. You can use whatever you prefer though. 

           

Edited February 14, 2021 by rowdyb00t

[BlitzFromBehind]

It was a quick mission on kuban with heavy clouds, 1430 and cloud alt 1t 1000m but if there's only a few skydomes in grey that explains it! Thanks for the thorough explanation and now i can troubleshoot future problems by myself without pestering you! Oh and i run everything maxed out with dynamicresolution scaling at full

Edited February 14, 2021 by BlitzFromBehind

[Mysticpuma]

On 2/14/2021 at 1:20 PM, rowdyb00t said:

 

 

Here' a vid with these settings. ( For some reason, a couple of the clouds were boiling ) 

 

 

 

And here is another with the gpresets set to 96.

 

 

 

Both vids the clouds are at Heavy. 

Hopefully this will help with some questions. I fly almost 99% in VR 

 

Specs:  MSI B550 Tomahawk

              32gb Corsair Vengeance Ram

              Ryzen 7 5800X watercooled

              RTX 2080 TI

              2tb hard drive, 250gb sdd

            HTC VIVE PRO ( Gear VR lens mod )

            PHILIPS 27'' 4K monitor

 

Just to clarify, I use Balanced setting. You can use whatever you prefer though. 

           

 

Hi Rowdy, are you able to post them as a text file so they can be copied and pasted?  Please?

[rowdyb00t]

12 minutes ago, Mysticpuma said:

 

Hi Rowdy, are you able to post them as a text file so they can be copied and pasted?  Please?

   I can later if you’d like. I don’t know when I’ll be home. I plowing snow for the next 20 hours or so. 

[jokerBR]

I just removed the gpreset mod and so far no plastic clouds to be seen yet. Clouds look nice without it (ultra settings, with high clouds), so I think I'll stick with vanilla for a while and see how it goes. 

[PA_Willy]

With this mod, using GPreset, I got plastic clouds too. High clouds on settings, but, with mod correctly loaded, I can't see clouds like yours in my sim.

Anything is broken in any place.

EDIT: Watching your videos Im sure that your antialiasing configuration is not working either. 

Edited February 15, 2021 by PA_Willy

[nozzil]

@jokerBR

Are you completely vanilla for clouds or using V14 (cululonimbus(2)?) but without the gpreset file?  If you are using V14 without the gpreset file, what are your other in game graphics settings, ie FXAA or MSAA, HDR, Sharpening etc? I'm using V14 and cumulonimbus2 without gpreset, Ultra and High cloud options but still see some 'plasticky' clouds, particularly with the higher cumulonimbus clouds.  I'm pretty certain I didn't have this issue before V14, but I've gone back and tried V13 and 12 and the issue remains so it might just be that I was so impressed by the general look of the clouds that I didn't look too closely!  To be fair, the mod still looks amazing and I think it adds a huge degree of emersion so I'll stop looking too closely at the clouds close up and just crack on with straffing trains!

[rowdyb00t]

To be honest the extreme clouds are plasticy as well. I could probably go through everything and turn the noise amp down some more but that will make the clouds look duller. It’s kinda give and take with the detail vs the cloud noise. If I add more noise and detail they look tremendous but they KILL the frame rates.
   Anyway I don’t really have any issue. I’m not sure what is going on with some of the issues you guys are having. I’ll check back in later. Gotta plow snow

[Taxman]

9 minutes ago, rowdyb00t said:

 Anyway I don’t really have any issue. I’m not sure what is going on with some of the issues you guys are having. I’ll check back in later. Gotta plow snow

Good luck.  We only have 3 in. here with about 1/3 in. of an ice coating.   Not going any where for awhile.

[jokerBR]

2 hours ago, nozzil said:

@jokerBR

Are you completely vanilla for clouds or using V14 (cululonimbus(2)?) but without the gpreset file?  If you are using V14 without the gpreset file, what are your other in game graphics settings, ie FXAA or MSAA, HDR, Sharpening etc? I'm using V14 and cumulonimbus2 without gpreset, Ultra and High cloud options but still see some 'plasticky' clouds, particularly with the higher cumulonimbus clouds.  I'm pretty certain I didn't have this issue before V14, but I've gone back and tried V13 and 12 and the issue remains so it might just be that I was so impressed by the general look of the clouds that I didn't look too closely!  To be fair, the mod still looks amazing and I think it adds a huge degree of emersion so I'll stop looking too closely at the clouds close up and just crack on with straffing trains!

I was referring to vanilla regarding gpreset. I'm using the same config of yours (ultra, clouds high, V14_greysky+cumulo2, no gpreset). I have to play a little bit more. So far, I haven't spotted plastic clouds, but this doesn't mean that they are totally gone. I remember seeing them in the past only at a few cloud edges, while others didn't show the effect. If I don't spot anything weird after a week worth of gaming, then I'll call it solved.
As for other settings, my startup.cfg graphic section is below, and on nVidia panel I reverted everything to default, except for pre-rendered frames=2, vsync on, aniso x16 e texture filtering quality = High Qual.

 

[KEY = graphics]
    3dhud = 0
    adapter = 0
    bloom_enable = 0
    canopy_ref = 1
    desktop_center = 1
    detail_rt_res = 1024
    draw_distance = 1.00000
    far_blocks = 1
    fps_counter = 0
    fps_limit = 60
    full_height = 1080
    full_width = 2560
    fullscreen = 1
    gamma = 0.80000
    grass_distance = 100.00000
    hdr_enable = 1
    land_anisotropy = 2
    land_detail = 2
    land_tex_lods = 3
    max_cache_res = 1
    max_clouds_quality = 2
    mgpu_compatible = 0
    mirrors = 3
    msaa = 1
    multisampling = 2
    or_ca = 0.00000
    or_enable = 0
    post_sharpen = 0
    preset = 3
    prop_blur_max_rpm_for_vr = 155
    rescale_target = 1.00000
    shadows_quality = 3
    ssao_enable = 1
    vsync = 0
    win_height = 1080
    win_width = 2560
[END]
 

[rowdyb00t]

1 hour ago, Taxman said:

Good luck.  We only have 3 in. here with about 1/3 in. of an ice coating.   Not going any where for awhile.

 6” to 10” they say. Gonna be a long night!

[jokerBR]

Update: saw the "plastic effect" again while using average weather (without gpreset). Seems to me to be a somewhat random phenomena, maybe tied to a specific cloud file or something else. It doesn't *always* appear. Anyway, don't know if it's luck or just placebo, but it seems to be rare without gpreset. Couldn't observe (yet?) on heavy/overcast.

[rowdyb00t]

You guys got me rethinking the clouds. Problem is that it may impact FPS some, but I haven't tested this yet. I can add detail and reduce the noise. They are kinda the same though in terms of how "detailed" the clouds look. I'll have to find a good balance. Probably going to take a while. I'm adjusting the contrast and sharpness as well, making a more fluffy appearance. Here's an example.

 

ORIGINALLY

 

ENHANCED

 

ORIGINALLY

 

ENHANCED

[rowdyb00t]

 

AND Winter...

 

ORIGINALLY

 

ENHANCED

 

 

 

 

Tested it some and not much of a performance difference.

[blue_max]

2 hours ago, rowdyb00t said:

 

AND Winter...

 

ORIGINALLY

 

 

ENHANCED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tested it some and not much of a performance difference.

 

 

 

Hi Rowdyb00t, it looks nice, and overall I would say it's an improvement, but sometimes it's a bit too much and it just looks like floof. I highlighted the bit where I liked it least. Overall it looks to me to work better with heavy clouds than very light clouds.