eonite opened this issue on Nov 03, 2009 · 302 posts
eonite posted Sat, 07 November 2009 at 12:52 PM
Thank you folks!
blaineak and Rutra: I dont think making a compromize makes sense. In fact I hate to make compromizes :-) Using a fixed AP or a variable AP sounds like a detail but its a fundamentally different approach.
What cloud layers are concerned, if you want to change the AP you will have to adapt the height, thickness, scale, density and opacity of the clouds if you want to maintain a comparable level of realism realism. Of course you can leave the cloud layer as it is and just change the AP. I have no doubt that you might still get some nice results, but you have to keep in mind that the clouds will no longer be tuned to the atmosphere.
Example: Your AP is set to 1. You have a cloud layer that starts at an altitude of 800 meters and has a thickness of 300 meters. This is a realistic height and thickness for an AP setting of 1 (think real world dimensions).
Now, if you change your AP setting to 10, it will scale your atmosphere down by the factor of 10. So your clouds, even though you might not see a big difference in the preview, will be treated by Vue`s atmosphere as if they were at an altitude of 8000 meters with a thickness of 3000 meters.
No need to mention that this is a departure from realism.
So I had to decide on the AP setting when I started with the clouds project. And as you know by now I decided to stick with AP=1 to provide the most natural look possible. Those layers are intended for for those seeking "dramatic realism" as Rutra would say. Of course any kind of "Non-realistic drama" will also be possible ;-)
I hope this explains why I am recommending to use an AP setting of 1 for those cloud layers.
As a side note: I find that the scaling thing is the most confusing part of Vue, not only AP setting.
There are so many places where you can change the scaling that I tend to lose control (which can be fun to of course).
Not to mention that the various Vue mats for example are all scaled differently and if you check out the cloud layers provided by Vue you will see that some are
meant to be used for an AP setting of 1, while others are tweaked for an AP setting of 10.
For example cumulus clouds in one preset have an altitude of 100 meters, while the altitude in another cumulus preset is set to 1 km. ...and no mention about which AP setting is supposed to be used.
Judging from your reactions, it seems to me that many of you intend to upgrade to Vue 8 or have already done so.
Now I have an important question: Could you live with the fact that the clouds set (s) would be compatible with Vue 8 only? The reason I am asking this is