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v0.6.0

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@tomwhoca tomwhoca released this 03 Nov 20:07
· 8 commits to main since this release
v0.6.0
fe37664

Presets for your settings in the EFB app, fly-through clouds, the once-a-second stutter fixed, and installer fixes.

Presets

The EFB app has a fifth tab, Presets: it saves all your settings (every value in tunables.ini, also the ones the app doesn't show) under a name, and loads them again.

  • The active preset is shown at the top. Once you change a setting it says (unsaved changes), and Save changes writes them into that preset.
  • Your settings are never lost by loading: while they aren't saved in a preset, Load asks first (a second tap discards them). Replacing or deleting a preset also takes a second tap.
  • Default is the mod's own settings, renewed at every install. It can be loaded but not changed.
  • Import from a file opens a Windows file window in front of the sim (Downloads at first): pick a preset someone shared, and it's added to the list under its file's name, never over one of yours. In VR, the window is on your desktop monitor.
  • A preset without some settings (one from an older version, say) names them when you load it, and asks whether to fill them in with the mod's defaults or with your current values. They're added to the preset, so it asks only once.
  • Presets are .ini files in %LOCALAPPDATA%\AtmosphereMod\presets, in the same format as tunables.ini. Installing a new version adds its new settings to your presets, as to tunables.ini.

Fly-through clouds

  • Visibility inside clouds (Clouds tab): MSFS's clouds are so thin inside that you see for hundreds of metres in them. Around your aircraft the mod gives liquid clouds a real cloud's density, so the wingtips fade into the cloud. Clouds seen from farther away keep their look. 10 m by default; 0 is the sim's own.
  • Structure inside clouds: patches of denser and thinner cloud that you fly through, each shaded by the cloud toward the sun. 10 % by default.
  • Turn off other in-cloud effects: add-ons that simulate flying through clouds, such as TriTriSim GFX's wing fade effect or CloudSurf (flightsim.to), will most likely conflict with the mod's denser clouds. Turn them off; to keep theirs instead, Visibility inside clouds at 0 turns Fly-through clouds off.

Performance

  • The once-a-second stutter is gone (#11): the thunderstorm code ran every time MSFS rebuilt its weather, for the whole weather map. It now runs only where a storm cell is near, with the same result on screen.
  • Better performance in cloudy views: the colour tint on distant clouds is cheaper to draw.

EFB app

  • Laid out for all tablet sizes and orientations, with larger text; on narrow tablets each setting's name goes above its slider.
  • Only the current airport's METAR is shown, at the top. The mod's version is shown at the bottom.

Installer

  • A linked EFB package (a symbolic link or junction in the Community folder, as add-on linkers make) no longer stops the installer: only the link is removed, the folder it points to stays (#8, #10).
  • The Community folder now comes from the settings of the sim the mod is installed into, so a leftover MS Store install no longer takes the EFB app elsewhere (#14).
  • Install AtmosphereMod.cmd says to unzip the whole zip first when it can't find the installer next to it (#12).

Changed defaults

  • Solid clouds is now 0.5 by default (was 2).
  • Your settings stay as they are: the installer keeps your tunables.ini, so an existing install keeps its Solid clouds value. To get the new defaults, load Default on the Presets tab (save your own settings as a preset first), or move the slider. The new settings (Visibility and Structure inside clouds) are added with their defaults.

Known issues

  • Fewer thunderstorm clouds in some places (#16): with the mod on, one user saw much less convective cloud at an airport reporting thunderstorms (WMKK, TSRA). This is being investigated.
  • Flickering aircraft outline inside dense cloud: a wing's edge against the fogged background can flicker by a pixel or two. MSFS draws its clouds at a reduced resolution and rebuilds the full picture over several frames, which doesn't match the anti-aliased edge exactly; the dense fog makes it visible. Visibility inside clouds at 0 (the sim's own) avoids it.
  • Performance in cloud-heavy views: most of the mod's cost is in the clouds, in every step the sim's cloud renderer takes through a cloud. It's highest looking across wide cloud layers, and small in light cloud (#13). Ctrl+Shift+F9 switches back to the sim's own at once, to compare.

Installing

  1. Install ReShade 6.8 or newer, the build with full add-on support, for MSFS 2024, and start the sim once with it. With OptiShade, its own ReShade takes this place.
  2. Close the sim, download AtmosphereMod-0.6.0.zip below, unzip it anywhere (not into the Community folder) and double-click Install AtmosphereMod.cmd. Updating: run it over your existing install; your settings and presets are kept.
  3. Start the sim.

See the README for details, the settings and the known limitations.

Use at your own risk. AtmosphereMod has been developed and tested on a single PC. On other hardware or drivers it may not work, may show graphical errors, may crash the sim or may cost performance. Ctrl+Shift+F9 switches back to stock at once, and the uninstaller removes everything it installed.

SHA-256 of AtmosphereMod-0.6.0.zip: ed2f73fa0bac11b75c96f6f539c5d046bcf85b2b9105cab88df5b423995e7f4f

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