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CumulusX Clouds


Guest Mulder

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Guest Mulder

Hi all,

This would probably be a Q for Peter - but anyone - chip in if you know how:

In the previous version of CumulusX, one could remove the build in CumulusX clouds and replace them with the very small almost invisible FSX birds. I've made ends meat as a commercial pilot for a great many years and have been flying gliders in my almost not exscisting spare time too. So my vision is OK, and i find it amusing to look for these almost invisible FSX birds. Another thing is - although if feel ashamed to say so - together with FEX clouds, the CumulusX clods don't look so great - YET. I'm sure that Peter will make them eatable some day. And THANKS SO MUCH Peter for a FANTASTIC job done on CumulusX.

I hope that you all will enjoy a fantastic soaring season - simulated or real.

Best to all of you glider lovers

Mulder Denmark

CFII, Air Taxi Jockey AND Glider pilot :blink:

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Hi Mulder,

thanks for your comments. I'm sad to say, that it is currently not possible to have the FSX birds to show the CumulusX! thermals, as they are only available as a sort of scenery objects, rather than the more featured AI objects, which are CumulusX! clouds now. It does not mean, that it is impossible to have clouds with birds, but the have to be created newly. I'll put a medium to low priority mark on my to do list.

The main reason for the inferior look of the CumulusX! clouds in comparison to FEX, ASX, and even the built-in clouds, comes from the fact that the nice clouds are created by a special "clouds graphics engine" in FSX, while CumulusX! has to use the object graphics engine for that purpose. I would be happy, if I could use the clouds graphics, but I can't because this does not give you any control over the lateral positions of individual clouds. It only allows you to create "templates" of extended cloud systems. The individual placement is done by FSX' sky engine and connot be affected in detail programmatically.

If somebody knows a trick how to make better looking clouds with the object graphics sytem I will be happy to integrate it in CumulusX!.

best regards,

Peter

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Hi Peter

Is it possible to copy the section of code from the cloud graphics engine which describes the cloud and then splice it into the object graphics engine?

Jeff

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Guest Mulder

Hi Peter,

As for my comments - thank you yourself - they are more than deserved. You should not worry yourself about the birds at all - FORGET them - they are not important. Use your valuable time on more mature matters. But please tell me; is it possible to remove the "clouds" completely? - would it affect the inner workings of your wonderfull program?

Best from Mulder

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Hodge:

I'm afraid that this is not possible. Clouds can be made with the help of the cloud rollout of GMAX, which is probably what is used by FEX, ASX, and so on tools. It generates a template for a cloud system which is taken over by the sim and rendered fully or in parts, when the sim needs to display clouds in the sky. A typical size of such a template is 16x16 km, but you can't tell the sim anything about where to place it, and which parts to render. This is entirely up to the METAR configuration, and there is no way to use this engine for own purposes, other then explained here.

Mulder:

you should e able to remove the clouds by deleting the folder .\simobjects\misc\CumulusXClouds, or maybe, by renaming the file "aircraft.cfg" in this folder. It should dnot have relevant effects on the sim, since I think I have captured any error message (which will be produced internally, because of the missing object references). Nevertheless, I'm considering to deal with the shadow problem in a next version, or a hotfix, which means you may choose between the present cloud library, and a library that will not have any shadows at all, like in the previous versions.

best regards,

Peter

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Guest Mulder

Thanks Peter,

You suggest editing the "aircraft.cfg. Don't you mean the "sim.cfg"? I any case, I'll let you know how it works :blink:

Best from Mulder

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Hi Mulder,

being back from my business trip and able to try out I have to admit, that this was not a good idea. I'm afraid that I was a a bit too quick.

As a matter of fact, CumulusX! will not run properly anymore, if it tries to show a clouds, but does not find the appropriate cloud model.

I will have to consider this anyway, because there might be occasions where this is going to happen because of other unexepected reasons.

best regards,

Peter

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Hi Peter,

To please Mulder, is it possible to make an alternative "cloudX.bgl", that shows nothing (or in fact a fully transparant picture).

Bert

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Hi Bert,

good idea.

Mulder you may try replacing the original file sim.cfg by the attached version. This makes effectively all CumulusX! clouds disappear persistently.

best regards,

Peter

That worked , thanks

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Good quick fix for that situation you guys! I haven't had a whole lot of time lately to enjoy FSX/CumulusX! and it's new features. Hopefully by the end of next week I will get that much needed time.

Scott

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Guest Mulder

Hi Peter and Bert,

Sometimes, the simple solutions are hard to come by. But thanks to the both of you - it's a very acceptable solution - for the moment :lol:

Best from Mulder

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If somebody knows a trick how to make better looking clouds with the object graphics sytem I will be happy to integrate it in CumulusX!.

best regards,

Peter

Hi Peter

I'm not really into scenery design so excuse me if I'm talking nonsense :blink: , but would it be possible to use clouds created as an fx_effect in CumulusX! ?

I have had a quick try , modifying the default forest fire fx and placed it as a scenery BGL to see what happens ,the screenie shows the result, they are dynamic and even grow quite realistically. This is just a first attempt, I'm sure someone who actually knows what he is doing could produce some very effective clouds! As for the F/R hit if large numbers are present I don't know .

If it is possible ,and you fancy looking into it I have included the bgl,fx and xml files in the zip . Four will appear over and in front of the runway at Lasham (EGHL) , it takes a minute or so for them to develop .

Cheers

Dave R

post-24947-1246133861_thumb.jpg

cloud.zip

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Guy's,

I once used both Cumulus X and sim_probe but, for the life of me the clouds did not look right and sim_probe seemed to be a nightmare in setting up? I don't know if there are/is an easy way to set both up but, would appreciate some advice.

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Sometimes you can find the answers you need by searching the forums, but I would definitely re-read the installation instructions for both and come back with your results with what did and did not work. It may be as simple as running FSX as administrator (as I was found out lately with a reinstall of FSX/Acceleration on a new hard drive). I couldn't for the life of me get CumulusX! to auto-load.

Anyway, come back with any questions, and I'm sure we can get you hooked up.

Scott

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