One of the great Features of FLY is the volumetric clouds. I realize this is based on an entirely different engine..however, why can we not have 3d volumetric clouds in FS2002? Can someone explain it. Is there ever going to be a work around? Chris from FSW has done the best that I have seen, however, they are still 2d and when you hit the angle right or fly through them, it isn't very realistic, but they do look great from farther away.

You answered your own question...DIFFERENT 3D ENGINES. Until the 3D engine used by FS2002 is enhanced by MS to allow for 3D, volumetric clouds, they are not going to be possible. You cannot tell FS to display something that the engine is incapable of doing. You would have to go back to the 3D engine and add that capability. Since MS isn't going to give you the source code for the 3D engine (unlike some 1st person shooters), I doubt anyone will be able to decompile the engine and add it on themselves. Even if they could, it would need to be optomized with the other features of the 3D engine so as to not bring frame rates to a crawl.At least those are my thoughts. Any programmers out there want to shed a little more info on the ability to add capabilities to 3D engines without having the source code?

CFS3, due out in October, is set to introduce 3D clouds, and initial reviews give them high marks--so FS 2004 should be a huge step forward when it comes to rendering the clouds and atmospheric effects.

If nothing else it give you something to look forward to!? After all if MS gave us everything we wanted in 1 version why would we buy the next one. :-lol