Weather Tests - Not for the middle or low end PC
 

Hi, here area a couple of missions so you get an idea of the weather.

Some of the abilities are still turned off. To give you an idea I get avg 40 fps o nfull everything with the mega storm.

Can't wait till new graphics patch is out and rain drops are included.

Fly through the storm and feel your plane struggle and choke in the winds.

Remember don't be a cry baby if your PC can't run this. Wait for new graphics engine.

Cumulus mission should run ok on middle end pcs just keep layers around 2.

Thanks Wolf. Even my machine had difficulty handling the larger weather formations. Renders OK, no stutters, but a lag in reading cockpit inputs like flaps, throttle changes etc. Oh, and there's no rain with the thunderstorm :( Lets hope the new patch improves fps enough that we can start to have some variable weather in online missions.

Probably a lot to ask, but any chance for a You Tube clip?

+1

And some pics please :D

+1 please!

Thanks Wolf :)

~S~

Weather example -Thunderstorm
Start with thunderstorm on starboard side & clear weather on port side. Note how canopy frosts over & engine dies trying to climb through the thunderstorm clouds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc36U...FKpnEmKSUS43hc

Weather example -Overcast with breaks
Breaks in cloud, easier on engine than thunderstorm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzuYo...FKpnEmKSUS43hc

I can only imagine that with the current particle rendering issues that this is just awful :(

That was quick, Salmo. Thanks.

I was expecting the clouds to be bigger. They're still nice looking, but I guess I was thinking of the big towering cumulus clouds. This would add another dimension to flying if and when they are appled.

Thanks again for taking the time to upload.

Ive tried them just now and while i thank you for making these, as you say the FPS hit is huge and the cotton ball clouds are not great.

Though it is nice to see overcast and big clouds.

Again thanks for letting me try them. :grin:

that looks ok. everithnig looks perfect, except the old cloud model.

question: is there rain?

You can fix that by using the carburator ("carburettor") heat, which has no key binding by default, so you have to do that first.

The carb heat will clear the ice from the air intake, you should hear the engine slow down a bit while you hold the carb heat key for a few seconds and then come back to life even in the thickest of clouds.

I didn't think merlins had carb heat - have you tried this in a Spit or Hurri?

Thanks for those Youtube clips, Salmo! I tried stacking clouds in FMB awhile ago but it killed my framerates when I flew it. Hopefully the recoding will overcome this.

In your trials, did you notice if the heavy clouds actually concealed the other plane? With the little puffballs we have now other aircraft show through very noticeably.

S!

Snapper

If there is a carburator, there is carburator heat. The heat comes from the engine. Without it, the engine chokes in the clouds.

Try it (bind it first)

Yes

I think I saw that in fmb option, you would select and place that, and then place individual thunder storm cells along a frontal line in the cumulus...I could be wrong on this, I did'nt attemp it.:grin:

While clouds are still an unsupported feature, i do love them:cool: and often build them into 'quieter' missions where fps drop isn't so much of an issue.The ability to place them is going to feature in mission building alot if/when the fps issue gets sorted.

One thing that does work with them is there is a slider in properties for the icing, looks like it should be called 'thermal intensity' in the garbled labeling. Setting this to 1 means you can fly thru clouds without falling out of the sky, something to play with? :razz:

S!

Sounds good bolox as now even a touch of a cloud means ice all over the place. Not all clouds are floating fridges :D

Sorry but there is no mention of carb heat in the Spit manuals I have. Not all carbs were fitted with a heat facility.

Where carb heat is an option, the manual usually refers to it in the startup procedure.

I don't believe carb icing was that much of a problem in reality as it would have been fitted to all front line fighters. Certainly under some conditions you'd experience icing but flying into cloud doesn't always = engine cutout.

S!

Most important would be dew point vs ambient temperature. The closer they are the bigger risk of icing.

Thanks for sharing this Wolf! :)

I never bothered working out the weather in FMB owing to the known issues, so it was really nice to see how it looks and works.

My frame rate naturally dropped hugely, but your missions gave a really good impression of what we can expect in the future.

Possibly even the very near future, who knows?!

Thanks again. ;)

S!

I tried with the radius of the clouds. Well except the evitable FPS hit nothing else changed. They do not show outside your hardcoded "detail range" in game. This might be one reason other flight sims/games have the haze so pronounced at horizon, to hide the limits in a meaningful way. Just my thoughts..

Hi guys, I am glad you all have had a look and see what is to be the tip of what is possible.

I have been out drinking "Work meetings" for the past couple of nights and did these missions in just a couple of minutes. I have the evening at home to myself tonight.

So before I get on ATAG server tonight, I will put in a variaty of missions with the other cloud types and post some pics and maybe a video "If I figure out how to record and post utube videos"

Stay tuned for 7pm Melbourne Australia time :D

************************updated with pics and new mission weather types on first page 7.26pm 23.02.2012************

When I get back home this weekend I'll give these missions a try. A few months ago I tried some realistic weather and I ended up with a framerate in the low teens. Was not impressed with the looks of it either. I was hoping for flying around towering cumulonimbus. It was more like a thick cottonball stratus layer from a thoudsand feet to 5000 feet. I liked the second video weather. If they can get that kind of cloud coverage with good framerates after the next patch I'll be a happy camper.

updated with pics and new mission weather types on first page

Thanks for the pics wolf, I can't wait for this to work.

Hopefully the next patch will make it useable on the ATAG server :D

why should the sim struggle with clouds when every other sim manages clouds that look 100 times better than this? I really question the coding in this game.

It's a bug that was introduced a few patches back, I expect it will be another thing sorted by the new graphics engine which is why it hasn't been fixed yet.

Dano mate, its not really a 'bug that was introduced a few patches ago' at all. :) The clouds have been crap and caused performance issues from day one (March last year when I bought the C.E. edition). The crapness was just somewhat 'amplified' by what seems to be the particle issues in the later patchs which also causes massive slowdowns with smoke for most people, but its always been a concern.

I fully expect the new graphics engine to resolve these issues a year on though, and have absolute faith that it will....Can't wait. :grin: Hope its tomorrow, but whats another few weeks or whatever. Of course it will be annouced as beta, but I'm confident given the reassurances by the devs that there should be quite massive improvement. :grin:

[QUOTE=Buckie;393254]why should the sim struggle with clouds when every other sim manages clouds that look 100 times better than this? I really question the coding in this game.[/QUOTE

It's not just cloud graphics but a whole weather system generator. Lots of stuff going on behind the curtains. Not sure if that is a smart thing with todays hardware but if they get it to work properly it could be brilliant. Weather related accidents killed more pilots in WWII than enemy action. It also altered targets and screwed up missions in progress. Realistic weather will make, transport, recon and other "non combat" missions more interesting. Be fun making a mision and putting in historic weather including high and low pressure areas and warm and cold fronts with the coresponding cloud formations. Probably 5 years away as far as hardware is considered but nice to know it could be done at some point.

You were right1 I found out how whimpy my PC was when I tried "overcast..."it looked great but away went my FPS!I think I must stick to Visua lFlight Conditions only!

No, they weren't. Just check the bug threads for instance....a great many people (myself included) had the 'flashing clouds' bugs amongst many other anomolies, they have always had a massively negative impact on FPS (even with just a few), and they have always been crap. Fact. :)

I stand corrected..., neither A2A spit or CoD spit reacts to carb heat command...I am amazed that such a simple and potentially life saving device was not implemented on Merlin engines...

Its just a jacket around an exhaust pipe that carries heat to the air intake to melt accumulated ice (that can snuff out the engine)...just a spring loaded trap.

The piper J-3 Cub, which was first flown in 1936, had a carburator heat control.

Odd

lol....Think you need to 'jog along' mate.....Back to Narnia and La-la land if you think the clouds never caused big performance issues previously....despite all evidence to the contrary (no offence) :grin: I already stated the particle thing just made matters worse, you must have missed it.

Nevermind though, thats enough 'the clouds were always fine' revisionism and untruth for one day, tis the past and I'm sure we all look forward to the imminent improvements. ;)

*Sigh* Since you are apparently not even bothering to read what I am actually writing or paying attention......

Heres a reminder though

"Dano mate, its not really a 'bug that was introduced a few patches ago' at all. The clouds have been crap and caused performance issues from day one (March last year when I bought the C.E. edition). The crapness was just somewhat 'amplified' by what seems to be the particle issues in the later patchs which also causes massive slowdowns with smoke for most people, but its always been a concern.

'Oh wait', I'm not agreeing with you at all or 'admitting' anything .....I'm saying its always been an issue pre particle fiasco, the patch just made matters worse. :)

I'm happy for you that clouds have always been 'fine' your end, thats great Dano. I have great rig and its never been 'fine', so I somewhat doubt your assertion. The 'evidence' is all there in numerous bug threads on this forum, and many others. Like I say though, nevermind.....and I'm glad you are happy with mediocrity.

Roll on patch! :)

Err, Yes, I read that. What of it? Apart from it not being true, lol. Neither is 'they were fine'.

Y'know what.....it doesn't matter man. :) You think they were 'fine' previously, and that one of the previous patches was the cause, I don't. It just made it worse. I'm a bit bemused how a GTX580 couldn't do the job as well as your 8800 at the time, and make the performance 'fine', but its a crazy world we live in Dano. Thats Ok and we can agree to disagree I suppose. :)

Cheers. :)

If ye say so mate, lol....Out. :grin:

Orville, I apologise mate, I've just re-read everything and must admit I misread your first reply and as such I'm in the wrong here. Sorry.

Hey, no worries Dano mate its fine.....and I appreciate that, thanks kindly.

Cheers. :)

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So you put in the effort to make them, I think you should get reports on how they do on differnt setups.
Well i've tried them.
Normaly I'm getting around 55 > 60 fps.
the worst it gets with The first three is 38 FPS.
Everything up to to and including the full overcast is ok minum FPS there is 25 averaging 32.
The thundercloud brought my set to it knees averaging 8 FPS.
Thanks for making these availble.

Niels

been trying this myself, the expected happened, performance coming down below 15FPS, 8-10FPS at worst, mostly 25-20FPS, sometimes above, but the uneven frame rate (and stutters) are the real issue, it oscillates so wildly at times the average frame rate means nothing.

that aside, some flickering clouds, their colour and lightning is too even causing some lack of depth perception (at least for my eye); clouds look good from a certain angle and not so great form another, but overall they will definitely add another dimension; this test revived the notion that something's been lacking. not that great aesthetically speaking, big performance hit, but great potential there.

noted that the engine drops power dearly through thick clouds, preventing from climb and sometimes even maintaining altitude, maybe too exaggerated? didn't try the carburetor heater though.

thanks for sharing the test! ;)
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q6600 2.4 oc 3.4 / GTX 570 1280MB / 4GB DDR2 800
SATA 3 / P5K-E Wi-Fi
Thrustmaster Flight Stick X

I dont have the problems you are describing.
Only the low FPS in Thundercloud mis.

Niels

the flickering issue is rare and only with a small cloud patch at at the margin of a big cloud bank; as for the visual aspect, i can't find any cloud formation on google images that resembles CLoD couds in terms of light & shadowing, CLoD's are a bit flat on that aspect...

As it turns out, the Spitfire's carburettor heat is done with warm radiator fluid, and is, in, effect, always on.

This means that chocking engines in clouds should not happen in a Spitfire.
I'll put this in the FM thread...

It is true... but I will not buy more official simulator games at first day that luthier or madox launch a sim, I will waitting more time...a long time... I will waitting to news graphics engines... I cant buy allways madox games launch a program the NASA machine...