the future of Clouds .

[Cobra8472]

I have used both Nimble and SilverLining, and unfortunately- both are poor for flightsim usage.

There are many whitepapers available on the implementation and coding of clouds based on the simulation of light scattering, seen implemented in Wings of Prey, Ace Combat 5, HAWX, Rise of Flight, etc etc..

Here is the most recent example I can remember seeing, but there are many many third party and proprietary examples of this stuff..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnvBF5Nu5gw

[PeterPanPan]

This looks pretty amazing for FSX, so it must be possible to pimp up clouds for the flight sim genre.

The developer says the clouds are "Hi-definition, ultra-realistic photo-real 3D clouds (stratus, wispy, cumulus and highly realistic rendering of cirrus clouds as seen in the real world).

http://www.aerosoft.de/_php_projekte...p?sp=fsx&p=rex

[Jotaele]

Originally Posted by Cobra8472

I have used both Nimble and SilverLining, and unfortunately- both are poor for flightsim usage.

There are many whitepapers available on the implementation and coding of clouds based on the simulation of light scattering, seen implemented in Wings of Prey, Ace Combat 5, HAWX, Rise of Flight, etc etc..

Here is the most recent example I can remember seeing, but there are many many third party and proprietary examples of this stuff..

Wow, that vid is outstanding.I think its a matter of time the flight sim will go in this direction.

Peter, rex its a great extension for FSX, it has raised the bitmap based clouds to its limits, based on photos .Im sure someone will make som mods for CloD soon , has the one that was made for il2, that becomes quickly in a must have. Anyway i cant talk about CloD until i saw the game ,only trying to share some thoughts and wishes but what i have seen in the videos are the tipical pluffy clouds that works great or bad depending from the camera angles or light conditions.

[Jotaele]

BTW, Cobra, what do you mean what you described like a poor usage?Do you mean graphically? ore process consuming? or implementation? I have read the yutube video descriptión and looks very promising.
trueSKY™ is a C++ library which generates weather system data and updates it in real time. trueSKY™ creates volumetric cloud data, and provides realtime access to that data via a lightweight API. The cloud system generates pure volumetric data, it is cross-platform and renderer-independent. The sample applications that come with the SDK show how realtime clouds can be rendered using the generated cloud data, in various graphics API's

[Cobra8472]

Originally Posted by Jotaele

BTW, Cobra, what do you mean what you described like a poor usage?Do you mean graphically? ore process consuming? or implementation? I have read the yutube video descriptión and looks very promising.
trueSKY™ is a C++ library which generates weather system data and updates it in real time. trueSKY™ creates volumetric cloud data, and provides realtime access to that data via a lightweight API. The cloud system generates pure volumetric data, it is cross-platform and renderer-independent. The sample applications that come with the SDK show how realtime clouds can be rendered using the generated cloud data, in various graphics API's

Both SilverLining and Nimble are simply not good looking enough for Flightsim usage. They are very easy to implement and use, but both are very lackluster for the area of utilization required of a Sim.

They are, however, good solutions for sky rendering for a ground-based game.

I have personally not used TrueSky, alas from what I can see it is a rather decent alternative. There are, as mentioned, many many examples of solutions like this, and creating your own is not too difficult due to the amount of research and public material available on the implementation.

[Jotaele]

Originally Posted by Cobra8472

Both SilverLining and Nimble are simply not good looking enough for Flightsim usage. They are very easy to implement and use, but both are very lackluster for the area of utilization required of a Sim.

They are, however, good solutions for sky rendering for a ground-based game.

I have personally not used TrueSky, alas from what I can see it is a rather decent alternative. There are, as mentioned, many many examples of solutions like this, and creating your own is not too difficult due to the amount of research and public material available on the implementation.

Thx for the answer!

[CRO_Adriatic]

Nice topic...

[Heliocon]

Second video looks bad, first one looks ok because of the advanced lighting features. I am going to say this again and I know I know... DX11

Why? Because volumetric clouds that interact with light and weather physics would only be possible using DX11 tech for both cpu and gpu reasons. (it would also run faster).

[Cobra8472]

Originally Posted by Heliocon

Second video looks bad, first one looks ok because of the advanced lighting features. I am going to say this again and I know I know... DX11

Why? Because volumetric clouds that interact with light and weather physics would only be possible using DX11 tech for both cpu and gpu reasons. (it would also run faster).

This is certainly NOT true.

An implementation of cloud rendering based on basic light scattering through clouds (or particles.. basically), is possible, and perfectly viable using DX9.
(and older versions too)
on a sidenote, I believe I have an old demo on my other PC from a whitepaper implementation from 2002, that looks amazing.

Again and again I see people overestimating the capabilities of DX11 or DX10 vs DX9.

It MUST be noted time and time again that while these DX iterations are more powerful, they do not drastically improve the amount of things that you can actually do on the GPU.