Hi Guys,This might be a noob question, but for the life of me I can't figure it out. Last night I was flying into Eagle CO and the visibility on the ground was 2 miles. However, flying into the terminal area, the runway lights shone through the cloud layer. It makes locating the airport far too easy! Does this have to do with cloud draw distance?Thanks in advance boysRegards

No it has to do with FSX's poor rendition of overcast layers and fog layers....I don't think anything can be done other than increase the cloud density slider

To make it work more realistically in default FSX I set the user weather visibility level from ground to 8K

To make it work more realistically in default FSX I set the user weather visibility level from ground to 8K

BK?Could someone explain this a little more clearly?Thanks for the help

Sorry, just realized that you said 8k. I'm a little confused with this one guys. Any help?Cheers!

8k = 8,000 ftGo into the weather settings, click user defined - >advanced settingsThere you can manually change the visibility for certain altitudes. For instance, the guy who suggested 0 to 8000 probably flies GA in that area, therefore you'll never get the annoying fog layer 100 ft Above Ground Level

Cheers, Thanks Mate.

This might give you an idea of what/how the visibility settings effect what you see (including those airport lights). If you have 2 mile visibility it does not mean your visibility will be effected UNLESS you are INSIDE the visibility LAYER. If you are OUTSIDE the visibility layer then you are not affected. I am posting pics to illustrate. So when you go to visibility tab in World\Weather\Advanced you may know how to adjust to get effect you want or need. Play with it. You can left click mouse on layer and drag it up (elevation wise). You can hover mouse on top or bottom line of layer and left click and drag those lines further apart or closer together. You don't need to set by entering numbers, in orther words. And if it says 'Please enter a number between -xxx and xxx, then just enter a minus number. You can change it with drag up of layer. You should spend a whole evening playing around with the clouds layers, the type of clouds and the visibility layer in relation to those clouds. In the HAZY pic the vis distance is 20 mi. If I made it 2 miles then I would be SOCKED IN and couldn't see anything and would need to use instruments.My setting are Cirrus, 16,000 to 24,000 ft (layer) and 3/8 Few for coverate. I don't add clouds until I want percipitation (rain or snow) and then put CLOUD base at airport elevation and tops at 8,000 ft (that's plenty), chosee rain or snow (moderate) and visibility layer to MATCH the cloud layer, with visibility distance to 5 to 10 miles. Have fun.CBNapamule

Sorry my advanced weather settings wrt visibility were not clear.I usually set vis at 30 miles from ground to 8000 ft, Cum cloud layer 4/8 from about 4000 t0 8000 and the thin whispy ones on top much higher 3/8 about 25000 to 35000.This is probably not real for all you experts but for me gives a very realistic skyscape with just default FSX weather. In fact it seems so good I dont understand the need for FEX REX or whatever. Each to their own . . .

Guys, Sorry for this, I don't know if it is inconvenient. I would like to use this thread to ask a question related to the issues discussed here that is in my mind, and I don't thing it is worth creating a new topic.It's about these visibility settings in layers on FSX weather.Yesterday I was flying into Gale

No it's not realistic at all. I know what you mean though. There's a thin white layer over the airport and you can see the trees and airport fence right? Then when you're just above ground you go "into the soup," and can't see anything until the approach lights lol?I *think* Active Sky X fixes this issue, not sure though.

I agree with 'rhha' and that is the way I have mine. Except I don't add the Cumulus layer as the clouds are not too good. But I have it exactly like that and I too like it. And I never go adjusting it either. Unless I want to 'play' with the clouds & visibility layers just for fun. I use default clouds.Bruno,You just flew INTO the VISIBILITY layer and the layer is probably set to 5 mi or less. Just flying into the visibility layer does nothing by itself. It's what you have the DISTANCE of visibility that makes the difference you saw. Move the slider to 20 miles and you'll get a little haze but not thick fog. So if you have the BASE elevation of visibility layer set to ground level, and at 2 miles distance for visibility, then you WILL fly into fog close to ground. Set the base of visibility to 4,000 ft, and tops to about 10,000 ft, and you should not get those surprises anymore.CBNapamule

I'm not at my FSX PC at the moment, but from memory, try setting the visibilty as you require i.e. 5 mile up to 1,500 ft AND set a cirus cloud layer to the same i.e. MSL to 1,500 ft at 8/8thsAfter that, set more visibilty and cloud layers as you wish.

Bruno,You just flew INTO the VISIBILITY layer and the layer is probably set to 5 mi or less. Just flying into the visibility layer does nothing by itself. It's what you have the DISTANCE of visibility that makes the difference you saw. Move the slider to 20 miles and you'll get a little haze but not thick fog. So if you have the BASE elevation of visibility layer set to ground level, and at 2 miles distance for visibility, then you WILL fly into fog close to ground. Set the base of visibility to 4,000 ft, and tops to about 10,000 ft, and you should not get those surprises anymore.CBNapamule

Except that it's impossible to get this right when selecting real weather. And who wants to set weather everytime you fly? I don't.

Except that it's impossible to get this right when selecting real weather. And who wants to set weather everytime you fly? I don't.

You're right. I don't customize my weather also. I use real-world weather, and in this case, I get surprised sometimes by sudden high-low visibility changes when descending.In fact, I don't even use the "real world weather" because of the realism factor. I just don't like to spend my time using creativity to set up weather. If there was a button called "Surprise-me!" instead of "real world weather" I would use it too, as long as it didn't make it snow in Brazil, hehehe...I wonder if REX or ASE weather engines correct this issue.