In an online military sim like Arma, all clients sync with each other on the trajectory of bullets, bombs, etc. When it works without desync happening, all these projectiles moving about are synchronised just fine. The server receives the information from each client and then broadcasts it to everyone. This can work even if the server is just the PC of one of the players. Obviously, good Internet connectivity for all players is important.

So I think it’s technically possible to have the clouds in the same positions. But it will all depend on numbers. For Arma, hundreds of objects are being synchronised every second. But if all the clouds out to 600 km draw distance have to be synchronised, that might be a problem. Furthermore, cloud position is one thing, but if the nuances of cloud shape have to be replicated (remember they are dynamically forming and dissolving), I suspect this will be too much. Perhaps at best they may be able to synchronise cloud position and approximate dimensions up to a radius from the players that the connection can manage.

If the data that drives the cloud creation is the same for a group of users then I would say that the cloudscape will also be the same.

They told us the clouds are formed from temperature, dewpoint and winds and so if these data are the same then the code to generate the clouds should generate the same clouds on two different users systems.  There might be randomness thrown into the equations though.

But same data run through same equations should mean same clouds.

They confirmed in the weather video that clouds are put at the same location in the sim as their real world counterpart based on satellite imagery. Like it was mentioned above, they also said clouds form realistically depending on the prevailing conditions. While the actual shape of clouds may be randomized, I think even cloud colorization (dark rain clouds vs. happy little chunks of fluff) would largely be the same. I think you'll actually be able to fly in multiplayer and talk about that cloud formation in front of both aircraft with both players seeing mostly the same.

12 hours ago, 188AHC said:

That was not sarcastic. There was no implication of same space indicated. The topic said "To all". That implies anyone on line at the same time. And watch your mouth. No sarcasm was advanced, 

Wow, when did avsim become the crotchety, get off my lawn corner of flight sim? Oh wait, it's always been that way... 

Condorsoaring, IL-2 and War Thunder all show the same cloulds to the various clients.

At the moment If the same weather string, with clouds, is injected by the standard method, to a number of FSX and P3D systems, and the viewers are relatively within the same area, then each machine shows the same cloud in the same place. Could mean the answer is yes.

 

..assuming same settings and same time.

Games and simulators use pseudo-randoms. The algorithm generates a sequence of values that looks and appears random in use but is repeatable. A sequence may be generated from a number of seeds, and that then produces a continuous sequence of pseudo-randoms that are repeated when the same seeds are used  These techniques are in use with procedurally generated graphics.

The satellite images don't actually have a snapshot of individual clouds on the go. So they are procedurally generated in accordance with the satellite images of density and weather types are applied.

I'm going to bet it won't, unless all of that is being handled server-side (which I doubt).  Basic placement of clouds will probably be the same, but there's also probably an element of randomization to the size or shape of clouds generated by the sim.  Even a dedicated server would struggle to send out not only the position of clouds, but the exact dimensions of all of them - especially stretching for hundreds of KMs to the horizon.

More likely, local machines receive detailed meteorological/atmospheric data from Azure on whatever area you're in, and then the local machine procedurally generates the in-sim weather from there.

A row of machines with the same settings in the sim, starting at the same time and the same viewer location, would show the same cloud in the same place as it does with FSX and P3D. The seeds of the pseudo-randoms being the same, the procedure generates the same clouds.

The same mechanisms are in use in the new sim. They have a globally evolving weather pattern from live data. From that the simplified weather strings are formed for the viewer depending on the location and time. The strings are fed to the simulation and the remaining detail procedurally generated. The seeds being the same for the same time and place, generate the same view.

Edited November 26, 20196 yr by SteveW

In real life we have the operator at weather station A makes a note of the cloud wind temperature and so on. Then we have the operator at weather station B, makes a note of cloud wind and temp there. All that goes into the pot with the satellite views and an evolving global weather pattern is formed.

When we stand near weather station A in the simulation, that weather station location has received its weather data and that weather is generated around that point the same in each PC. Weather station B also. As we fly toward weather station B the weather merges from A into weather around B.