HighSkyTech started off their development update by informing forum users that they’d moved their servers to an area where they could service them even with the current strict global isolation guidelines. Putting aside the worldwide health crisis, things kicked into gear with the main theme of the update, new clouds.

These new clouds are voluminous, meaning that they have a volume (albeit not with noise rendering to the likes of xEnviro). According to HighSkyTech, “You can fly around them from two sides, fly into them, look at them from top to bottom without distortion and they will still look realistic.” The lighting of the clouds has also been revised, with the clouds illuminated in multiple different ways. This should translate to a more realistic appearance during all times of the day. The clouds are also now able to capture the light from both street lights and airplane lights during the night.

The cloud effects list for xAmbience Pro is as follows:

• A full-fledged effect of passing the cloud, with all the nuances. The entrance to the cloud, passage, flight in an unstable atmosphere (If we are talking about dense clouds) and so on.
• Virga (Visible precipitation that evaporates before reaching the ground)
• Physically based lighting effects
• Turbulence in the clouds
• Cloud Lighting Effects
• Rendering clouds to the horizon
• Simulation of rainfall effects in the clouds

Volumetric clouds have also been confirmed as a future goal for HighSkyTech. They’ve said it will be presented this year, and appear more as xAmbience Pro is developed. In an earlier forum post they also confirmed an aim for a release of xAmbience 1.10 this April.

On the topic of lights, cloud illumination at night by street lights, buildings, etc. will now only occur in busy metropolis areas. Areas that lack large amounts of light coverage will now be represented more realistically with darker clouds. Illumination of the clouds will occur if one of the following occurs:

• Strong haze
• Overcast
• Clouds are in close proximity to the ground

The lights.txt file has also been reworked for a more realistic appearance.

A new update system was also briefly touched on, with a new auto update system in the works. The developers hope to send out a new update every 5-7 days. An improved performance mode was also introduced, with promises of some pretty hefty frame rate gains. The team claims that a person getting 18-20FPS could see a jump up to 30-50FPS depending on the computer.

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Also mentioned was a revised terrain rendering system. Here’s its feature list:

• Tiles no longer disappear or disappear with height
• Loading tiles and objects does not affect FPS so much
• Developed a system of intelligent rendering (that is, in some places the terrain is drawn so as to provide a beautiful picture + good FPS)

Another addition to come in xAmbience Pro is a weather injector. The initial version of the Pro release will have real weather simulation included, with air currents in the clouds, custom turbulence, and more promised.

Threshold will notify you of new developments from HighSkyTech as they happen. Previous articles about them can be found here. Their original forum post can be found here. Thanks to Janis for the news tip over in the Threshold Discord server.