I still cant get a solid ceiling in FS9. I have tried 2D and 3D in various configurations. I always get the IFR hole right around my aircraft. Or worse I will be in the clouds with the hole and when I climb above them I can see through them at all distances.I can kind of get a work around by setting a low visibility, but then its to low of a vis to do a non precison approach. Is it Video Card related? It did the exact same thing on my older machine. The sim looks and runs great, but with this issue I cant really use it for real world approach practice.P4 2.4Ghz512MBGeForce 4 128mb Ti 4400

The best "fudge" for this is to max cloud settings, but reduce the draw distance so your fps aren't overwhelmed. Setting a thin full coverage layer of cirrus right above the main cloud deck may help make it appear a bit more opaque.One thought I've had is perhaps changing the cirrus texture somewhat, so it's fully opaque when full coverage is selected. Maybe this will give Chris, our resident cloud guru, some ideas...-John

Taken from the sims own Learning Centre files:Note: Rendering solid overcast conditions in Flight Simulator requires a lot of video processing power. If your computer does not have sufficient power, Flight Simulator will automatically create less-than-solid overcast layers. You can adjust weather visuals on the Weather tab of the Display Settings dialog box; higher settings may result in decreased simulator performance. If you're practicing IFR approaches and the clouds do not form a solid overcast layer, try setting a low visibility layer at ground level.andCloud DetailCloud detail adjusts both the type and density of coverage of cloud layers. Flight Simulator creates simple clouds in 2-D, which requires less computing power to create, and detailed clouds in more-realistic 3-D. Because 3-D clouds require more computing power, Flight Simulator will determine how much of the sky will be covered by an overcast layer based on your computer's configuration. For example, if your computer is equipped with high-end graphics hardware, and you set an 8/8 cloud layer in the User-defined Weather dialog box, you will see a solid overcast layer in the simulator. On a less-powerful computer, Flight Simulator might draw a 6/8 cloud layer, even if you set the cloud layer to 8/8. To override these adjustments for slower computers, you can use the Cloud coverage density slider to force an 8/8 layer to look solid by moving the slider to 100 percent. However, high settings may result in decreased simulator performance.No fix required, just an understanding of what the sliders do and a little light reading. Good luck! Allcott

I have tweaked and still do not have a solid overcast. I had read the bit from MS the first week the sim was out (and tried most of the fix attempts), but so far nothing will create a solid overcast. Not in 2D not in 3D not with sliders maxed with multiple overcast layers set to 8/8.Even worse. When I set visibility to 1/4. I can still see through to the ground when flying above all clouds say at FL 180. It works well when in the clouds, but once on top i can see right through them.Will keep trying.

Hi, clouds draw distant to 100%, clouds percentage to 100% , expect fps hit because of the clouds draw distant to 100.For manual setting, You can set cumulus overcast with a layers of 15 000 feet. This picture below, from above the clouds with the minist zoom available in fs, (which normaly we don`t use at all) almost not noticable the ground, if you are flying in the 2d panel, you should not notice the hole at all, if you don`t use the minest zoom level, the probability to see these hole will be almost not there. There is others things you can do is to use 2 layers of overcast, reducing the visibility also is another idea etc.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/37358.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/37359.jpgIn active sky 2.0 this issue have been fixed, for futur you may see a fix for the overcast in fs sky world 2004 at the final release.ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

I go to advanced weather settings & set the "base altitude" of visibility somewhere around decision height. With that setting I can't see any of the runway until I break out of the clouds, or just a faint hint of the strobes, when I'm almost on the runway. Visibility is set at 1/2 mile, but you can see farther once breaking out.Athlon1900XP/Geforce3Ti500L.Adamson

Here is a new image. I have the cloud draw sliders set to max there are two 8/8 overcast layers (one stratus & one cirrus). Visibility from 500' - 3000' is set to 1/4 mile.Things look pretty good in the clouds, but when I get on top this is what I get.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/37366.jpg

I just tried it again with the 3D clouds on and they have to be at max density. That does give a pretty good ceiling from above.However the frame rate hit is too substantial to bother. I know my machine is not top end, but it should be a solid performer. I think FS9 is great, but if getting a solid cloud deck requires such a high-end machine then I consider the software design to be flawed. It may be a great weather engine, but in needs serious disclaimers attached to it.I only use flight sim to practice approaches for real world flying. The reality is that 99% of time I want a solid cloud deck to practice in and it looks like Im going to have to go back to FS2002 for that.

Its a pitty that in a flightsimulator at least all sorts of weather with the most important feature of them, called clouds, are hard to use properly.FS should do better..Johan----http://www.people.zeelandnet.nl/johdUnofficial PSS WebsiteCURRENTLY MY SERVER IS DOWN FOR A FEW WEEKS!

I really enjoy FS9. Unfortunately what I really need it to do it cant do well unless I have a top end machine. Im not about to go upgrading a P4 2.4Ghz machine so I can get a solid ceiling with good frame rates. I might get some more memory, but my friend has a P4 2.8 with a Gig of Ram and he runs into the same issues with both 2D & 3D clouds.Its too bad they could not have left in some simple settings that allow you to great bare bomes weather conditions. I realize they created a pretty cool weather emulation program, but if the majority of users cant really run it all that well its not so handy. For example why the hec cant I get a solid cloud deck with 2D clouds?I will say that besides this issue the sim is fantastic. I really enjoy the quality of the simulation. Its just not a useful training tool for me. I will keep 2002 for training. 2004 for goofing around.

>if your computer is equipped with high-end graphics hardware, and you >set an 8/8 cloud layer in the User-defined Weather dialog box, you will >see a solid overcast layer in the simulator.I wonder what high-end graphics hardware would be required for FS 2004 to perform in the manner described above.I have: Pentium 4 - 2.8Ghz1024MB SDRAM128MB ATI Radeon 9800G PRO160GB HarddriveWindows XP HomeAnd when I set 8/8 cloud layer - overcast, I can still see the ground, which includes runway lights etc. which sort of takes away the fun of shooting ILS, VFR and NDB approaches.Regards,DonaldS

perhaps by the time FS10 is out there will be affordable hardware to run FS9 well!