I know that for a while there has been some discussions about the rendering of clouds in the current and previous versions of Prepar3D. One of those was about the "popcorn clouds" that were showing up with regularity for some simmers. I found them in real life as well.

 

A few weeks ago I was flying home from KSFO to RJSS via RJTT after a weeks worth of business meetings and some sightseeing. The ANA Boeing 777-300ER took off like a dream and before we knew it we were nearing our climb altitude. All the while I was looking out my window and as we turned and headed over the Pacific Ocean saw what I recognized as "popcorn clouds." I've posted some pictures below. I know that the reason we saw these in Prepar3D seems to have been a little code related, but they don't seem to far off from the real thing.

 

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=EAB6972A327EC5F2!157542&authkey=!ANxk86d17t3F4Ho&v=3&ithint=photo%2cjpg

 

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=EAB6972A327EC5F2!157544&authkey=!ACVYuMB96V-t8F8&v=3&ithint=photo%2cjpg

(Sorry, The link used for sharing over one drive doesn't seem to give me a URL that the forum CMS can use to show images.)​

 

 

Here you go Derek

 

Here you go Derek

Thanks!

Finally! A LOT of posters complain that they are unrealistic and NEVER happen IRL. Through the years, I've seen them many times but never had a picture. Maybe now some will stop complaining.

 

No, if the show up in the middle of a tstorm, well.......

 

 

Vic

Pretty common along the gulf coast (FLA to TX), so it's interesting to see these above cold pacific waters.  I've heard it called a marine layer, on shore moisture (humidity, ugh!) that is only 3-5,000 thick forms a surface on the top of it and the clouds are like surface scum floating at the temperature boundary. Fall and summer late afternoons, it's a warning sign to the VFR pilot that the marine layer is getting ready to go from hazy to solid opaque fog.

Look at the uniformity of those little beauties..... I should imagine that a Cloud Dev would sell his Granny to be able to reproduce that effect in a Flight Sim. Hehehehe.

Finally! A LOT of posters complain that they are unrealistic and NEVER happen IRL.

 

Yes, you are right, a LOT of simmers have noticed this. Of course it's silly to say that it would never happen in real life, but the way clouds are rendered has changed, or mishandled and don't look nearly as good as in FSX. Having said that they do look great close in, but the further out the more the popcorn look becomes noticable. They also have a weird color cast, especially at the base. Again, much different than FSX, and not for the better.

I stopped complaining about clouds after many such observations. I caught myself thinking "hey... Those clouds look like Rex clouds!" more than once too often... So now I just appreciate all the effort to make clouds and weather as realistic as possible.

but the way clouds are rendered has changed, or mishandled and don't look nearly as good as in FSX.

Understood. THAT is a whole different issue. :smile: I think the dev's are getting better and better with their products and clouds are looking better than ever.

 

Vic