Spinning clouds and Landscape shadow problems

[Drizzle]

First of all, it is possible that these resurrected problems could be due to my use of Oculus DK2 -- but I doubt it. (That's all I use now that I'm an addict, so I can't easily check to see if the problem disappears without it... The monitor I used for flying pre-Rift has been repurposed.)

With that out of the way, I'm wondering if I'm the only one experiencing the old problems again that we used to have in earlier V2.x versions where the clouds would spin as you approach them, and with blocky shadows appearing (and moving) randomly in depressions in the landscape texture.

This was resolved in the later V2 offerings -- V2.5 at least, possibly V2.4 But to have it back with V3.0 has been discouraging. I kept my mouth shut hoping that V3.1 would resolve these issues, but alas, it hasn't.

Anyone know of a fix? IS it due to my use of the Rift? Or was the glitch just restored when we graduated to V3.x?

Thanks in advance...
Drizzle

[Wills]

I too see rotating clouds when panning in spot view, but it's been like that since 2.X I believe. The effect used to be much worse as clouds would rotate away from the cockpit when in the VC (which doesn't happen in 3.x). I did lots of testing back in the 2.3/2.4 days on this.

The clouds rotating in spot view doesn't bother me as much as the rotating ground shadows that they cast which just looks weird.

[Mike LM]

Try removing all of your generated files and let Prepar3D rebuild them from a new start-up.

[Drizzle]

Thanks Mike. Can you be a bit more specific as to what "all generated files" means? I've got too much time invested in my install to wipe out stuff I can't do without, and risk needing to start over...

[Mike LM]

Depending on which add-ons you have, some of the files in these directories may have been modified. If you want to preserve the ones you currently have, make a backup copy.

All of the generated files

• %PROGRAMDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3
  %LOCALAPPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3
  %APPDATA%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3
  %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Prepar3D v3 Files

[Drizzle]

Thank you. :-) I'll give that a try!

Drizzle

[Drizzle]

Well, after as much trial and error as I think I dare risk, the clouds are still spinning as much as ever. I guess I'm in over my depth here...

For V2.4 or V2.5, there was a patch specifically offered to end this very problem. Is that patch possibly compatible with V3.1? And might it be worth trying? That worked well. But this 'dizzying' problem isn't going away after giving considerable attention to the above offerings...

Drizzle

[Drizzle]

I too see rotating clouds when panning in spot view, but it's been like that since 2.X I believe. The effect used to be much worse as clouds would rotate away from the cockpit when in the VC (which doesn't happen in 3.x).

However, that's PRECISELY what's happening to me in V3.1. I am using Oculus, so I really don't have much ability to leave the VC. But in VC, clouds are spinning dizzyingly out of my way as draw near them, and perform quite the ballet of pirouettes above and beneath me as I pass by... It's not the end of the world, and perhaps it is associated in some way with the Rift (DK2), which I would hope might be resolved with the upcoming release of the full-consumer version -- but as this problem is pushing me back a step from my objective of achieving as realistic a flying experience as I can get until perhaps someday affording a real airplane, this is something I'd like to resolve, if possible.

[Mike LM]

Which add-ons are you using? Try disabling/uninstalling them and let us know if your clouds are still spinning in vanilla Prepar3D.

[alexplgr]

The same problem here

[Drizzle]

I use everything ORBX has released to V3.1, REX Texture Direct, and Active Sky Next. At this point, while I do want to resolve this issue, I'd need to feel a pretty high degree of confidence that the pain of uninstalling and reinstalling these items would indeed fix the problem to be willing to start down that path. That takes hours of time, effort and headaches, and usually weeks of tweaking afterward to get everything dialed back in again. Unless I'm nearly certain that would fix this, I think I'd prefer to live with the dizzying clouds for a while...

FWIW, I had all of these addons installed on V2.5, and it worked fine with them after the aforementioned patch was applied...

Thanks again for your attention. Please let me know how strongly you feel that uninstall/reinstall project would be to resolve this.

Cheers,
Drizzle

[gjpollitt]

I resolved the rotating cloud issue in 3.1 for my install by editing the cloud.fx file and changing the

float blendDistance=3000 to =500.

I found this fix elsewhere, can't remember where. It solved the rotating clouds using TrackIR. Whenever I passed a cloud and looked to the left or right it would rotate to keep facing me. Since changing the above line I haven't seen it since.

[Drizzle]

Thanks! I'll give that a try...

Drizzle

[Drizzle]

Well, it's not a complete fix (clouds still spin when I pass near them), but it seems much better than before, and makes other overall experience more enjoyable. Thanks for suggesting that!

Drizzle

[Christopher Low]

....and with blocky shadows appearing (and moving) randomly in depressions in the landscape texture.

This one puzzles me, considering that I have terrain shadows switched OFF....