washed out clouds

[Dune]

I think I would discover what's the problem, but I have not, so far. So here's a question; I need to do some dark, brooding (v2) clouds, but somehow they get washed out (washed out clouds.jpg). Even with thicker cloud and changes in lighting they are still uniformly grey below. At first I though it was the atmo at 2 and 2000m high, but decreasing that didn't help much (test 2.jpg). The water does help (or not) to bleach the undersides due to reflection, but we have to keep that. Even decreasing color to 50% albedo, or light propagating mix to allmost zero, or increasing dark power is not very helpful.
Any advice is much appreciated!

EDIT: just reading... I may have to get more extreme in settings...

[bobbystahr]

Not a clue, have run into this without solving it either...watching for an answer as well.

[Dune]

Just found that GI in clouds is the culprit. Lowered it to 0.1 and clouds get dark. Why didn't I think of that earlier

[Hannes]

Good, that you found a way, but did you try to use V3 clouds with the same density shader instead of V2 clouds? I guess, they may look even better.

[Dune]

I don't want to increase render time too much, as it is meant to be animated. But you're right of course; v3 will look better.

[bobbystahr]

Just found that GI in clouds is the culprit. Lowered it to 0.1 and clouds get dark. Why didn't I think of that earlier

D'oh...bookmarked in my mind now...heh heh, it's often the simplest solution that evades us eh!