Looking great Bob, thank you for your hard work in continuing to at least try to reduce the cloud flicker\popping
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
I had to take a break for a week or two, but hopefully I will be back up and running shortly. I continue to make small discoveries that I hope will improve the final product, but I can't make any guarantees. For some clouds, it seems you will experience some popping or flashing at certain altitudes or flying conditions, no matter what I do. My job is to try and limit those conditions as much as possible, but I am afraid I cannot eliminate them entirely.
Thank you for your patience!
“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
A brief update: I am (slowly) working my way through all the weather files and replacing many of the old cloud files with my new and improved cloud files. Usually, this is straight-forward, but occasionally, I run into problems. For example, in the process of replacing many of the old haze cloud files with the newer ones, I discovered that while the new files significantly reduced cloud flashing while flying in an easterly or westerly direction, this was not the case when flying in a northerly or southerly direction! (WOFF QC defaults to flying from east to west). Arrgghhh! Fortunately, I think I have managed to fix the situation, although there may still be some residual cloud flashing in some circumstances.
On the bright side, I have managed to add one or two more weather types! See BB Grey Altocumulus Clouds below:
“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
Bob, there is no bright side when it comes to clouds and fog. Glad you’re still kickin’. You’ve been quiet lately. Head in the clouds, I guess.
"Take the cylinder out of my kidneys, The connecting rod out of my brain, my brain, From out of my arse take the camshaft, And assemble the engine again."
Yes, I am quite proud of them myself. They also look good as fog clouds down low, except that they flash horribly at low altitudes, so I won't be using them low.
Sorry for the delay in responding. It has been a rough last day or two. As I type this, I am going on not having slept for the last 30 hours. My 92 year-old father is in hospital with pancreatitis and diverticulitis, which is causing him severe pain and not allowing him to sleep. Due to Covid, there are no hospital beds available, so he has been in the ER for the last day or so. I am going to try and get a few hours of sleep and head back over there tonight.
“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
I'm sorry to hear that from your father! I hope for you and your familiy that all these things will be fine again. Don't forget to take care of yourself. Try to sleep!
This hasn’t been a good time to get sick, but who has a choice in these matters. Keeping fingers crossed for your father. Get some rest and take care.
"Take the cylinder out of my kidneys, The connecting rod out of my brain, my brain, From out of my arse take the camshaft, And assemble the engine again."
@BB, Hope you’re dad starts feeling better soon mate, and hopefully you’ll be able to grab a few hours kip, it’s #%&*$# at the moment pal regarding hospitals/ covid etc..Over here in Blighty you struggle to even get a face to face doctors appointment. My thoughts are with you stay strong, stay safe mate.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
Looks lovely Bob, but I could be biased. I’m a nature loving person by nature.
"Take the cylinder out of my kidneys, The connecting rod out of my brain, my brain, From out of my arse take the camshaft, And assemble the engine again."
Hello BB, great shots I've been following your progress for some time and I'm most curious. While the cosmetic aspects are apparent (and very good work, might I add) I'm primarily interested in the performance benefit (as regards the so-called "popping" in and out of clouds/textures).
Can you elaborate on how successful you believe you've been thus far in trying to improve that, and how much you think is possible going forward?
The cloud popping is one of the few niggles remaining for me, and I'd give practically anything to see it eliminated - though, if I understand your comments, it's likely impossible to eliminate altogether.
What's your assessment currently? And is more improvement likely still?
Again, great work that is admired and appreciated.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
Joined: Mar 2011 Posts: 938VonS
WWI Flight Sims on a Mac
VonS
WWI Flight Sims on a Mac
Member
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 938
Fine work BB - nice seeing those classic, ominous clouds from the WOFF UE era (courtesy of your previous cloud packages) being made ready for BH&H2. I'm thoroughly enjoying your ver. 2.9.2 cloud pack in my FrankenWOFF 4.18. Recommended for stock WOFF PE, instead, is ver. 3.0 of your pack (ver. 3.0 gives the odd rainy-sunshine day when used with the WOFF 4.18 exe, but ver. 2.9.2 fixes the problem).
Cheers all and happy flying even in rain (but do watch for joint and glue weaknesses in the wings ), Von S
~ For my various FM/AI/FPS/DM Mods. for First Eagles 2, WoFF, RoF & WoTR, and tips for FlightGear, recommended is to check over my CombatAce profile (https://combatace.com/profile/86760-vons/) and to click on the "About Me" tab while there. ~
Work continues apace on OCM 4.0 My father has been out of the hospital for a couple of weeks now, but requires almost round the clock care. Physically, he is doing okay, but his cognitive decline continues. Although he has done pretty well for a 92-year-old, it is still sad to see a former college professor who used to enjoy reading and talking about history, philosophy, science, politics, and sports become a shell of his former self. Fortunately, I still live near him and visit him every few days, but it does tend to cut into my work on the cloud mod. It does help keep my mind off of things, though, so that is a positive.
kknowsbear, I wouldn't still be working on the OCM if I didn't think further improvement was possible! The short answer to your question is that I think I have made significant progress this time around in reducing and eliminating various forms of cloud popping, although you are correct that it is probably impossible to get rid of it altogether. There are just too many variables involved and almost an infinite variety of different cloud conditions.
The longer answer to your question is that my work on the clouds in WOFF has gone through various stages. With OCM 1.0 and 2.0, I was mainly interested in adding additional cloud types (now up to more than 80 additional). At that point, I wasn't thinking about cloud popping at all and I didn't understand anything about the cloud .dds files or cloud files. With OCM 3.0, I began to fiddle around with cloud files, but I didn't completely understand how they worked, which may have inadvertently led to an increase in cloud popping. With OCM 4.0, I began to understand that the CFS3 cloud files are basically "borked," so I set about on a complete overhaul of most of the existing cloud files in the game (located in the WOFF weather/clouds folder). At least now they will be "borked" in my own way!
For anyone who is interested, I can describe in more detail how many of these files are messed up, but that is likely another long post!
One last bit of good news: I think I stumbled upon the reason at least one of the combined light and dark cloud files was producing severe flashing of some dark clouds. This file should be fixed in OCM 4.0. So, yes, I am (slowly) making progress!
Last edited by BuckeyeBob; 10/06/2101:50 AM. Reason: misc
“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
Glad you continue to enjoy version 2.9.2 of the mod. Do you have any theories why version 3.0 sometimes produces rainy, clear days and 2.9.2 does not? I have been so busy with version 4.0 that I haven't had much time to consider why 3.0 has this problem.
“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
I've been following your progress for some time and I'm most curious. While the cosmetic aspects are apparent (and very good work, might I add) I'm primarily interested in the performance benefit (as regards the so-called "popping" in and out of clouds/textures).
),
