So I broke down and bought FS9 a few months ago. I've spent way too much time customizing than flying. You know, doing this "flight sim thing" is like having a model train layout. It's never really done, is it?Decided to fly around a bit, and set the weather to "overcast."Am I nuts? Why can't this super duper sim give me overcast?I remember all the broad positive pronouncements that FS9's clouds were great. Yeah, they are, but they are incomplete.And if there is a bug that prevents overcast, than why a year after FS9 was released hasn't Microsoft offered a fix?That's arrogance, folks!Rick MKE; Hot and Humid

>That's arrogance, folks!I don't think so. Maybe incompetance, maybe programming error, maybe deliberate act to save system resources, maybe simple oversight or maybe yet a known limitation but definitely not arrogance.If you "study" visibility in FS9 it has its own problems. Weather is a very difficult area to do right - can you at least aknowledge that ?And if you search under "overcast" there has been volumes written about it including some more/less satisfactory work-arounds. Michael J.http://www.reality-xp.com/community/nr/rsc/rxp-higher.jpg

The good folks at Active Sky provide an alternitive to the default scheme. Check them out, you might be impressed... http://www.hifisim.com/Best Wishes,[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4]http://www.rawbw.com/~bdoolin/shinault/Animation1.gifCaution! Not a real pilot, but do play one on TV ;-)AMD 64 3200+ | ASUS KV8 DELUXE | GFORCE 5700 ULTRA @535/1000 | Maxtor 6Y080M0 SATA 80 GIG | 512 DDR 400 | Windows Xp Pro | Windows Xp Pro 64 |

I also have a freeware solution in the library here. It's not perfect--it causes issues with vis layers for one, but if you like flying in the overcast, you can use my rather small "fix". Just backup the textures involved so you can switch back to the normal textures when you're not flying in overcast.I'm sorry to say I don't think this is a bug, but more a limitation of the 3-d cloud engine. The 3-d clouds are objects which even at their most dense settings, don't mesh together perfectly. Although they don't look solid, in a sense they are and you can't blend them together to get true overcast.FS2002 used a 2-d cloud effect similar to my "fix" above.I would not call Microsoft "arrogant" on this one. At most, it's an unintended consequence of the improvements made. I'd rather have it than the old clouds in FS2002 that lost their shape as soon as you rose a certain distance above them.-John

OK, perhaps you all are right. "Arrogance" is too harsh a term. I'll just exonerate Microsoft from this one. Next time I'll look closer. And sorry for implicating my own laziness. I didn't realize there are volumes of posts with regard to the sim's inability to do an overcast weather scenario. Thanks for informing me of the alternatives. Rick MKE

I think that you agree that the new weather engine in FS2004 is a quantum leap compared to FS2002 (which uses the same engine like FS2000 with updated textures). I made a flight today with my own weather settings and the sight was just breathtaking realistic. So it's a small drawback that totally closed overcast layers aren't possible. But it is great they didn't put in a 2d-layer like in FS2002 because it looks unrealistic and ugly.cheers, claudio