Changing the number of real-world weather clouds

[RobertRent 17]

Is there a way to change the number of clouds that are displayed by real-world weather?The situation is this: At my home airport, the number of clouds displayed by FS2004 real-world weather is much greater than the number of clouds that actually exist. In particular, when the real-world weather is such that FS2004 ATIS reports 'few' clouds, FS2004 shows dozens and dozens of clouds in the sky but, when I look out of the window I see only three or four clouds in the entire sky.Question: Is there a way to configure the FS2004 real-world weather to make it show fewer clouds when the cloud cover is reported as 'few'?Thanks,Robert

[JSkorna 137]

Robert,Someone will correct me if I am wrong, but I think under Options/Settings/Display/Weather there is a slider called Cloud Coverage or something like that. I can't check right now; running FS02.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Support

[RobertRent 17]

Jim,Thanks for your reply.I checked, and the only available slider was one that delt with how rapidly the weather changes. This could be a consequece of having selected real-weather.Might there be a .cfg file variable that controls the number of clouds?Thanks,Robert

[Guest Ken_Salter]

You are looking in the wrong place.Look under Settings->Display->Weather:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/32369.jpghttp://saltydogfly2.avsim.net/images/avsim_sig.jpg"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."

[RobertRent 17]

Ken,Thank you for noticing that I was looking for Jim's suggested weather setting in the wrong place. I was indeed looking in "'optionssettingsweather" instead of in "optionssettingsDISPLAYweather".I changed the "Detailed Cloud Coverage Density" slider to its minimum setting and it made the clouds appear much more realistic for my area of the country. Thanks go to both you and Jim.I must add, though, that none of the weather sliders appear to actually change the number of clouds in the sky. The "Detailed Cloud Coverage Density" slider seems to only change the size of each cloud, and the "3D Cloud Percenatage" slider only changes how each cloud is rendered.If anyone ever finds out how to control the 'number' of clouds in the sky for a given weather condition, I would appreciate hearing.Thanks,Robert

[JSkorna 137]

Robert,In FS02 under OptionsSettingsWeatherAdvanced you can adjust the cloud coverage from 18 to 88. Once again I can't check, but I'm pretty sure it is there. Look there and see if there is anything you can use! Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Support

[John_Cillis 2,406]

You received pretty good answers from everyone... Just to add--I think part of the issue is what defines "1/8ths" coverage. Obviously, that's everything up to and including 1/8ths of the sky being covered w/clouds--a fair number of clouds. Problem is, real weather doesn't report clouds (as far as I know) in a value less than 1/8ths. I know exactly where your coming from--right now in Phoenix we have two or three t-storm cells spaced about 30-40 miles apart meandering in my direction. No way to really get real weather to duplicate that, I imagine. It would be nice if the sim (or next sim) offer a "widely scattered" option in addition to the 1/8-7/8's coverage and overcast levels.-John

[RobertRent 17]

Yeah, I know. I feel rather honored to have had my post answered by such esteemed Avsim

[JSkorna 137]

Robert,I'm glad I could help!! JimActiveSky Support