Unlocking the potential of the Clouds

[IckyATLAS]

I wanted to convey that the Clouds as they are today in this sim are pretty good after all many things have improved.

I use 4K display and clouds are in Ultra mode. Here are some pictures which are just direct screen copy jpeg.

You will see that there is no more the artifact of the shining halo around planes with cloud background, and when the planes enter in a thick cloud they vanish progressively and there are no artifacts. On thinner clouds they will be partly visible but it is all pretty realistic without some artifacts of the past where some elements of the plane remained perfectly visible even if the plane was in the midst of a thick cloud. See some additional explanations on the bottom of the post.

 

Here some pictures:

 

Planes start entering the cloud. The Leader in front is more dim than the farthest back wingman. Transition is smooth.

 

here the planes are inside a thick cloud and you barely can see them. An instant later they vanished. Note also that sunlight is also dimmed a lot in a thick cloud. It is 13:00 hours so the sun is on top.

 

Here you see the planes with cloud background and no artifacts. Only the sun shining on the propeller arc.

 

Same here

 

Some other pictures for the fun

 

 

 

 

Some hints for the editor. I use the 03_heavy_08 with no Haze. 03_heavy_08 is a special case where the clouds are built on two layers.

You can play with the Level and Height parameter. This means that you define the base of the clouds and then you can stretch upside the two layers. The minimum between the two layers seem to be 1000 and the maximum 2000. So if you have a base at 2000 then you have a height of 2000 then the clouds will top at 4000.

Now The settings of all my pictures are 1000 Level and a Height of 2000 which means my clouds top at 3000 and this choice is related to my needs. 

 

You are limited to two layers and you cannot have different patches like a cloudy zone and a non cloudy one, multiple layers and clouds developing across layers. But not bad still and you can fly between clouds and have fun. Do not forget that you can go low to a minimum of 500 meters for the cloud base level.  In mountains you can create pretty nice environment to fly in.

Have fun.