Clouds and EnvironmentSys

[atoll1]

Does anyone know which line(s) in the environmentsys.ini file control how far clouds are rendered from your plane to the horizon?

 

(When flying at 22,000 ft or more, the clouds look somewhat wimpy when spread just a little around you.)

[Aintry]

I believe the line you're looking for is [sky]>SkyDistance. I have the value set at 140000. I forget what the stock value is; I think it's somewhere around 70000.

[atoll1]

I believe the line you're looking for is [sky]>SkyDistance. I have the value set at 140000. I forget what the stock value is; I think it's somewhere around 70000.

 

I wonder if it'll really slow the computer down to increase it, plus I wonder if there's a way to stretch it further out to the horizon.

Thank you - I'll try that line. And yes, the default for that line is SkyDistance=70000.

[Aintry]

If changing 'SkyDistance' slowed my computer down, the decrease wasn't noticeable, and I ended up with a much "bigger-looking" sky.

 

What might slow your computer down is if you really ramp up the various 'MaxClouds' settings to compensate for the decrease in cloud density. I limited increases to somewhere in the neighborhood of 25% above default values and didn't notice a significant performance hit.

[Lexx_Luthor]

* edit * I was wrong!!

 

Tristan, SkyDistance works with New Fluff Clouds !! I never knew this. I have much experiments to do now. Thanks for sharing this tip.

 

The only problem I may have is I don't like the tall horizon band, but maybe it will work with a reduced SkyPanelHeight. Off to experiment.

Edited September 12, 2006 by Lexx_Luthor

[Aintry]

Hey, Lexx --

 

I've done some experiments with SkyPanelHeight, both with stock panels and with Polak's panels. I've had fairly good results fiddling around with SPH, especially when employing Polak's panels, though I've decided to stick with the default SPH for the time being.

Edited September 12, 2006 by Tristan

[Lexx_Luthor]

Yes, its working great. I can extend my SkyDistance and Fluffy Cloud render distance with no limit except for framerates, and get back my horizon band by the increasing the SkyPanelHeight, using the same multiple of increase for both.

 

Thanks again.

[atoll1]

Yes, its working great. I can extend my SkyDistance and Fluffy Cloud render distance with no limit except for framerates, and get back my horizon band by the increasing the SkyPanelHeight, using the same multiple of increase for both.

 

Thanks again.

 

 

ok, fellow simmers - thanks for your discussion thread, but I feel silly not being quite able to follow the discussion (e.g., not sure what sky panel height is/does?). Is fluffy clouds the same as 3D clouds? I tried changing skydistance at 36000, and even 136000, both did not slow down my computer, but at the same time, I saw no difference in the clouds around my plane. I was hoping that there would be more 3D clouds spreading from my plane to the horizon. Any help/advice is certainly appreciated.

[Lexx_Luthor]

Try a sky distance of 100000.0 ... (100 thousand)

 

That puts the horizon band so far away, the sky is a solid blank blue. Fix this by putting sky panel height to 15000.0 , this raises the sky horizon so high, you can see it again even though its farther away because of sky distance.

[atoll1]

Try a sky distance of 100000.0 ... (100 thousand)

 

That puts the horizon band so far away, the sky is a solid blank blue. Fix this by putting sky panel height to 15000.0 , this raises the sky horizon so high, you can see it again even though its farther away because of sky distance.

 

 

Played around with the numbers based off discussion here and it's working toward where I like it - thanks!

[+Fubar512]

 

 

 

 

Very nice, Tristan. Sky distance should be balanced to each terrain's environment, though. In this case, I wanted to blend in haze and horizon effects to recreate the skies over SEA.

 

 

 

You can create an enviroment.ini for each terrain, place it an individual terrain folder, and add a reference to it in the terrain's ini file, like so:

 

 

 

[Terrain]

TerrainFullName=VietnamSEA

 

EnvironmentFile=SEA_Environment.ini