I think AS2012 is graphically excellent and I hate to moan about such a good product but it has given me, today, a disappointing depiction of the weather in my area.I am about 10 miles from Coventry airport UK, EGBE where all day today we have had total cloud cover, which I would say is technically "broken" but most people would refer to as "overcast". The wind direction & speed (265 @ 7kts) are probably correct but the cloud coverage, reported as "scattered", is definitely not.I have FSX set for maximum cloud coverage.It tends to spoil the effect of realism when I look out the window and see the real sky, all grey and then look at the virtual depiction and see clumps of cloud with large areas of blue sky in between.I tried this in both DWC and Standard and got the same result. ASE also gave the same result. Perhaps I won't bother with accuracy and just take whatever weather is thrown at me.Iain Smith

I think AS2012 is graphically excellent and I hate to moan about such a good product but it has given me, today, a disappointing depiction of the weather in my area.I am about 10 miles from Coventry airport UK, EGBE where all day today we have had total cloud cover, which I would say is technically "broken" but most people would refer to as "overcast". The wind direction & speed (265 @ 7kts) are probably correct but the cloud coverage, reported as "scattered", is definitely not.I have FSX set for maximum cloud coverage.It tends to spoil the effect of realism when I look out the window and see the real sky, all grey and then look at the virtual depiction and see clumps of cloud with large areas of blue sky in between.I tried this in both DWC and Standard and got the same result. ASE also gave the same result. Perhaps I won't bother with accuracy and just take whatever weather is thrown at me.Iain Smith

What did the metar say?DJ

What is the METAR from NOAA?

Iain...try here, third post down http://forum.avsim.net/topic/356996-great-improvement-over-ase-if-only-there-can-be-true-overcast/

The METAR did say scattered clouds so AS was depicting correctly as far as that goes. I suppose this shows up the weakness of using automated weather stations because "scattered" the clouds were definitely not today and I know from TV weather reports for this region that the Coventry area had exactly the same conditions as here.EDIT: I currently have five cloud layers set. Presumably more layers would help fill in the gaps and look a bit better but does this hit frame rate hard?Iain Smith

Iain...try here, third post down http://forum.avsim.n...-true-overcast/

Thanks Chris but this was not just a few holes in the cloud, the depiction, in line with the METAR, was showing clumps of cloud with large areas of blue sky in between.Iain Smith

The METAR did say scattered clouds so AS was depicting correctly as far as that goes. I suppose this shows up the weakness of using automated weather stations because "scattered" the clouds were definitely not today and I know from TV weather reports for this region that the Coventry area had exactly the same conditions as here.EDIT: I currently have five cloud layers set. Presumably more layers would help fill in the gaps and look a bit better but does this hit frame rate hard?Iain Smith

What the metar reports is what you get... you might try more layers and see if it hits your framerates; try a different number and if you don't like it change it back - it's easy.DJ

Adjusting the layers slider is not going to automatically provide more cloud layers. The layers are still going to depend on the number of layers of clouds reported from the data.

This is what I have got during my last flight. KDTW (10 o'clock) METAR VIS 1/2 SM OVS 002 and I am flying in almost clear sky. On landing I saw the RW from about 5 miles and it was light haze, if it was haze at all. Before takeoff and after landing (I did several flights around KDTW) I saw the horizon clearly. Aslo weather was changing very fast and clouds were building faster than I could blink. REX transitions and load weather very very smooth. So far I am not comfortable flying with AS 2012 because I cannot figure out what is going wrong or what I am doing wrong. All settings based on manual + other folks suggestions.

This is what I have got during my last flight. KDTW (10 o'clock) METAR VIS 1/2 SM OVS 002 and I am flying in almost clear sky. On landing I saw the RW from about 5 miles and it was light haze, if it was haze at all. Before takeoff and after landing (I did several flights around KDTW) I saw the horizon clearly.

huh. i just loaded up at kdtw and sorta seeing the same thing. the areas of clouds in the distance look pretty much like what i'd expect but there seems to be a 'hole' above kdtw and kyip despite them both reporting OVC 003 in the as weather map.cheers,-andy crosby

huh. i just loaded up at kdtw and sorta seeing the same thing. the areas of clouds in the distance look pretty much like what i'd expect but there seems to be a 'hole' above kdtw and kyip despite them both reporting OVC 003 in the as weather map.cheers,-andy crosby

Well, it should be reasonable explanations of that miracle. Personally me, I am not comfortable to have a payware and fly in clear skies. I can use FSX weather engine instead for free. I hope some one will help us to figure out what the heck was that. I updated FSX.CFG file in clouds and made it 12 instead of 8 and then back to 8, still the same thing.

just as a further curiousty, i exited active sky. then i went to set custom weather - i just left it at the settings that it showed in the dialog which appeared to match the kdtw metar with an overcast layer at 300. immediately the result looks like it should (see screenshot)i think something odd is happening here since i have seen a mostly full overcast over an aiport in at least one flight recently with as2012. not really sure what's up.cheers-andy crosby

and just as one more followup, in the same flight, reloading as2012, the 'hole' re-appeared right over kdtw and slightly to the east (looking westish in this shot tho.) curious.anyway cheers-andy crosby

and just as one more followup, in the same flight, reloading as2012, the 'hole' re-appeared right over kdtw and slightly to the east (looking westish in this shot tho.) curious.anyway cheers-andy crosby

Thanks for posting. Let's see if other folks will find any solutions.

The overcast "hole" phenomena is common is ASE and evidently in AS2012, too.It is very disappointing and frustrating not to get good, thick overcasts...and especially so on IFR approaches.If AS2012 has not solved this common problem, then why should I upgrade?