In fs9 why can't an airplane fly inside a cloud?

[Guest ristretto]

Can someone explain why in fs9 a plane can't fly inside a cloud? When an airplane approaches a cloud, the cloud turns into a sheet of paper. With fs9 pretty good weather engine I don't understand what's so hard about making it possible for a plane to fly inside a cloud. FS10 most likely won't have this issue.

[Guest Cindy_Zoonan]

Clouds are not true volumes in FS9. That's why we can't get cloud shadows on the ground, and why clouds seem to 'pop-in' and 'pop-out' of view, even when the 'percent 3-d clouds' option is set to 100.I hope the next installation of FS will have volumes instead of 2-D planar bitmapped pictures of clouds. As beautiful and convincing as the weather depiction is in FS9 right now, not having volumetric clouds really sucks the living, breathing life out of a simmer.

[Dark Moment 0]

Can someone explain why in fs9 a plane can't fly inside a cloud?>>>>>>>>>>>>I remember FS2000 being like that, but FS9 certainly isn't ... not for me, anyway. I'm frequently flying in cloud. I've no answer as to what this entails in your graphics settings, I'm afraid, and I actually have my clouds sliders fairly low ... but I rarely see 'sheet' clouds. Sorry I can't help further, just wanted you to know.Mark "Dark Moment" BeaumontVP Fleet, DC-3 AirwaysTeam Member, MAAM-SIM[a href=http://www.swiremariners.com/cathayhk.html" target="_blank]http://www.paxship.com/maamlogo2.jpg[/a]

[Cruachan 705]

I'm with Mark on this one.While I do occasionally see flat clouds which rotate around me as I pass them, in general the 3D effect is very convincing. I have a 2 year old grandson who is rapidly becoming a FlightSim aficionado (I kid you not!) and he thinks it's great every time Papa takes him through the clouds :)I suggest you try posting in the ActiveSky Support forum here at Avsim. Chris Willis is usually very willing to help out with advice and explanations on matters such as this. He understands the technicalities much better than most of us.Mike

[Guest aca_dia]

I think the whole transparent overcast thing really bites. Even with ASV and everything cranked on a good system when I am down at approach altitudes I can always see the ground when I am in the clouds. The only way I can fake it is if I set the visibility below

[OwenHewitt 0]

For more insight on this topic by one of the ACES team members, Jason Waskey, head over to his blog:http://blogs.technet.com/pixelpoke/archive.../08/414035.aspxBest,Owen

[spilok 1,132]

I don't have this problem. With ASV I am in clouds frequently, and when I'm in the right kind of cloud for the true weather, I DON'T SEE THE GROUND! It's truly realistic, and you need a decent system to handle it. Good clouds will sacrifice some frames, but with my system, I still seem to be "studder free". Cross my fingers and knock on wood.Running a Dell 2.8 gig with 1024 RAM and a 6800 NVidia 256 GT OC card. The new drivers work well, and the clouds pose no problem. Haven't seen "sheets" of clouds since I got ASV.

[Guest bobsk8]

Same hear with ASV, it looks pretty much to me , the way it does flying a real aircraft.

[Guest aca_dia]

Odd as I am running ASV on a P4 3.2 2GB & 6800GT 256MB. I have never ever not been able to see the ground when in the clouds down at low levels unless the visibility is super low. Again I am talking about normal approach procedure altitudes (usually lower than 3000' agl). Cloud sliders are all at max. With ASV and enhanced overcast I can get on top much better than before, but that has no impact on what I see from inside a cloud deck. I would love to see a screen from in the clouds from around 2000

[LAdamson 240]

>I would love to see a screen from in the clouds from around>2000

[Guest aca_dia]

Yeah I can get the effect if I drop visablity down to under 1/2, but then again I dont even need to have any clouds at all at that point!

[LAdamson 240]

>Yeah I can get the effect if I drop visablity down to under>1/2, but then again I dont even need to have any clouds at all>at that point!But...........I want visibility above the cloud deck, as well as underneath; which is the purpose of clouds. While flying in the clouds, I see nothing but clouds, which is the point of the original post ...... I think.L.Adamson

[Guest aca_dia]

I guess I want the opposite. I want a low overcast that I can break out of just above minimums and have several miles of visibility. Pretty common conditions in the real world and what I would like to simulate for practice non-precision approaches. Not a big deal for me, but I do find it to be a weakness for FS9.

[Guest av84fun]

<>In my experience as a RW instrument rated pilot, having several miles viz with a ceiling at minimums is not common at all. Very rare actually.Regards,Jim

[Guest Bottle]

Have a fly with Oleg Maddox's "Forgotten Battles" series (with the ACE and Pacific Fighters addons and patches). In that you can fly through clouds and they cast shadows on the ground. However, the clouds are very generic and nowhere near as realistic looking as FS9.