Selected the single engine 'Virus' aircraft after a post recommending it.  Departed from a random airfield in Alaska.  

I was on the runway in fog - mid afternoon but dark and dank.  Took off and immediately lost site of the ground, but no worries as the Garmin showed the way.  I decided to climb until I left the clouds. At about 500ft I cleared the fog and a wonderful view of the water was ahead with mountains either side.  However, huge banks of clouds at different brightness towered above.  I climbed into the cloud until reaching 13,000ft.  All the way up I had varying levels of turbulence and of course the windows started to ice. At 13,000ft the sky gradually brightened and I left the cloud into blue sky.  The tops of the cloud varied in height but what really was amazing was how bright the tops were!  I flew through in and out of the towering tops until on top at 16,000ft.  Cirrus high above and wonderful towering cloud heads.  I was able to fly around the clouds and clip the edges.  It was like flying in a mountainous area where I was able to look down into canyons of dark cloud, but could look up to the incredibly bright tops.

The scene was just like those documentary clips where an aircraft flies around the cloud.  So realistic!

I read various forum posts today with much negativity about different coloured scenery tiles, scenery not as good as downloaded ortho, complaints about flight models etc.  Valid points no doubt, but the overall experience I just had gave me goose bumps, a mouth wide open and plenty of muttered obscenities under my breath.  The flight was stunning, the aircraft flew well and the quality of lighting and clouds I have never experienced before.  The overall experience was amazing and really shows where this simulator could go.

Yep, there's no doubt that the lighting and clouds are the feather in Flight Simulator's cap. The bar has definitely been raised in terms of visuals - I just hope the rest of the sim will be updated to a similar standard.

I think the trees and buildings are the biggest improvement, but lighting isn't bad. Clouds have merit, but have a lot of issues at times, they look good some of the time. The lighting does look really nice over the water at times.

Also, almost every green field or golf course looks really good. My biggest complaint in the SIM is they held back the higher resolution ortho, not even allowing us the option to download it (when we all know Bing has much higher res available than what they are providing).

 

Edited August 25, 20205 yr by SceneryFX

25 minutes ago, SceneryFX said:

I think the trees and buildings are the biggest improvement, but lighting isn't bad. Clouds have merit, but have a lot of issues at times, they look good some of the time. The lighting does look really nice over the water at times.

Also, almost every green field or golf course looks really good. My biggest complaint in the SIM is they held back the higher resolution ortho, not even allowing us the option to download it (when we all know Bing has much higher res available than what they are providing).

 

Flying over the UK now at 2,500ft and I can see individual cows and sheep - can even see multi colours on them!  The ground is far better looking than supplied in any flight simulator I have seen - I love Orbx products (I have most of them), but Flight Simulator ground and terrain is better.  This simulator is such a leap forward I just cant understand the depth of negativity from some.  Of course there are issues as there is in any software, but surely the jump in realism outweighs them?

It is amazing, i love the lighting and clouds so much. I just cant seem to fly anything other than the c152 or c172. I have such a hard time in any other aircraft. Guess Ill just need to suck it up and fly them until I get used to them. 

I just followed your example with a flight in live weather over alaska. Nice experience!

@MrBitstFlyer

Hear you all the way! Despite all the minor stuff (major to some) there is so much to explore with the detail in the graphics and weather, sometimes words can’t really define certain aspects that you are experiencing. I still haven’t loaded any other plane except the Cessna 172 flying in and out of the airports in Southern Ontario (my neck of the woods).