New Clouds!!! :D

[Shuffler]

A general and incorrect statement.  I have a top of the line machine and last night when the clouds suddenly appeared over TT island, my frame rates dropped by 15 FPS in the clouds.  It didn't effect me as it only brought down my FPS to 60FPS but there was still a significant drop of FPS.  Got the FPS I lost back by disabling bump mapping for the clouds.

ack-ack

You rarely add anything significant to the game without affecting frame rate a bit. The clouds are not game ending. Folks can turn down the grahics a bit more.This game does not require a top of the line machine. It can actually run on machines that are far below any top o the line rig. The question now is...... who has the oldest slowest rig that still plays AH.... and when will he/she upgrade so that HT can make improvementsin the game.

[peterg2]

What's the minimum spec's to play the sim these days with clouds? Sounds like a work in progress. Are the clouds of IL2 quality? I never have a problem with IL2.

[Bruv119]

What do the clouds look like with bump mapping off? Just like before?

the only difference with my ati card was that they appeared more whiter / opaque. 

With them on more like a dark grey rain cloud.   I took off yesterday when the sun was low and got a feeling that it was about to rain.   

+1 to small pockets of rain and some droplets running down the windshield 

HT is it possible to turn them on away from TT?   For me that area when busy slowed the frame rates down anyways.   Would like to compare it at a normal fight.

[Kev367th]

Many, many, moons ago, in an MA far, far away......

One Saturday morning HT was playing with the weather.....FOG!

Used to be a map where the clouds were on the deck on a few high alt bases.

[Chilli]

I have yet to see any clouds 

Yesterday morning, Messiah and I were stalking a couple of High Ponies over TT island when the curtain dropped    I absolutely love it!  The sky was thick as cotton candy!  I was forced to fly my plane almost solely by instruments.  Unfortunately, Rooks decided to knock out HQ at the same time so the only indication of other pilots was over range and channel vox.  I finally, decided to dive out of them, after hearing reports of enemy sightings again.  It was a hoot!    I think I finally succumbed to the relentless influx of new fighters to our location.  I believe I got a couple of kills, but honestly, it was just that much fun that it really didn't matter.   

Also, the new horizon looks amazing. 

[kvuo75]

Many, many, moons ago, in an MA far, far away......

One Saturday morning HT was playing with the weather.....FOG!

Used to be a map where the clouds were on the deck on a few high alt bases.

the ports on smpizza still have fog.

[TDeacon]

Were the clouds up on this last Sunday?  I recall that during "sunrise" and "sunset" periods (defined as being about 30% of the time) the clouds I was seeing at that time seemed to retain the light, such that the ground sky contrast viewed from GVs was unbearable (during said "sunrise" and "sunset" periods).  This was in the GV-bowl area on the central island of ndisles. 

MH

[Lab Rat 3947]

a big +1   
I took a huge FPS hit but immersion factor with the clouds was incredible.   

[Chalenge]

At one point on TT tonight the clouds were overhead (I was in a tank) and as two missions approached the middle (rook/knit) I could hear people mentioning frame rate hits.

The clouds looked great but from my perspective they didnt hurt performance.

[Ninthmessiah]

Guys, upgrade your gear so we can have the clouds back. 

[DEECONX]

Some wicked clouds last night over 68. I think I went through the biggest one yet. Felt like an eternity flying through. So thick I was strictly gauges as to whether I was going up down, left or right. 

[Saxman]

Almost had a sweet bounce of a 110 out of the clouds between 68 and 69 last night, but we weren't QUITE both in the right spot at the right time to pull it off.

[Torquila]

Hey HT, the problem with the clouds might be the fact that they have no LOD at all (video memory issues).

[Wizer]

The are still active in the 10,7 sector.

Some players went from about 30 fps to less the 10. This is unacceptable, and I have no idea why they would impact someone so drastically, so I wish to find out why before turning them back on.

HiTech

Maybe they exaggerated their frame rate drop.

[715]

Wow!!  Flew through my first clouds today.  Really well done HT.  They are a huge improvement on the old cloud system.  I sure hope you figure out what causes some people to lose a lot of fps; I'd hate to have to go back to the old assorted flat plate clouds again. 

However, I don't envy you the task of figuring out how to get AH to perform well on wildly different computer/software configurations that people use.  It must be a nightmare.  I know that oddities can crop up: on my system if I turn on Local Water Reflection I lose 4 fps, if I turn on Bump Map Buildings I lose 1 fps, but if I turn them both on I lose 27 fps!