So, is it me, or did the clouds improve in Sim Update 5? I am watching ClearedTakeoff's stream right now on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/clearedtakeoff) and he thinks the clouds have improved in Sim Update 5.  I tend to agree with him, it seems the clouds have improved.  Maybe it's the lighting on the clouds now.  Something seems different in Sim Update 5.

Edit: People are saying the lighting is different in Sim Update 5 versus before.  So it's possible the lighting is also affecting the clouds.

Edited July 28, 20214 yr by abrams_tank

I don't know what to believe? Half the forum is moaning they look terrible now and they have colour banding. Other half say they are better. The only thing I can believe is that everyone has an opinion!

There are others that claim it has worsened... I cannot see any difference tbh.

My clouds seem far less realistic, but I think that has something to do with the fact that the sim is ridiculously bright now.  I am gradually improving it by adjusting my monitors brightness, contrast and colour balance. There are changes you can make to the usercfg, but I thought it would revert to default every time you shut the sim down or fired it up 

1 minute ago, cianpars said:

My clouds seem far less realistic, but I think that has something to do with the fact that the sim is ridiculously bright now.  I am gradually improving it by adjusting my monitors brightness, contrast and colour balance. There are changes you can make to the usercfg, but I thought it would revert to default every time you shut the sim down or fired it up 

Hmm, you may be right about the brightness.  During the day time, Sim Update 5 does seem a little brighter than before.  The lighting may in turn be affecting the clouds.

13 minutes ago, cianpars said:

My clouds seem far less realistic, but I think that has something to do with the fact that the sim is ridiculously bright now.  I am gradually improving it by adjusting my monitors brightness, contrast and colour balance. There are changes you can make to the usercfg, but I thought it would revert to default every time you shut the sim down or fired it up 

Make your usercfg read only and you won't have to change it every time. Making changes to that file has worked for me and everything now looks much better (and by that I mean the way it looked yesterday before the update). 

The lighting is way to intense now. And there is far too much bloom.

35 minutes ago, Fiorentoni said:

I cannot see any difference tbh.

Well, a lot of people are reporting in this thread that the lighting is different in Sim Update 5.  I need to do more testing myself of Sim Update 5, but from what I recall, the lighting was different when I set it to "Few Clouds."  If the lighting is different, it would affect the look of the clouds of course.

Edited July 28, 20214 yr by abrams_tank

41 minutes ago, cianpars said:

My clouds seem far less realistic, but I think that has something to do with the fact that the sim is ridiculously bright now.  I am gradually improving it by adjusting my monitors brightness, contrast and colour balance. There are changes you can make to the usercfg, but I thought it would revert to default every time you shut the sim down or fired it up 

Not if you set the file to read only afterwards

Edited July 28, 20214 yr by ckyliu

Difficult to say. Here some pic after the update:

Everything on ultra. The first pic looks weird if you pay attantion to detail IMHO.

Edited July 28, 20214 yr by 737_800

I do not see much difference after this tbh. As far clouds in the sim go. I find they will go from looking terrible to spectacular within the same flight. It seems to depend on altitude, type of clouds, time of day etc.. To me, the clouds when the sun is really low seem to nice, but high altitude in the middle of the day they will look blotchy and grainy. I think the varied reports are because are in different situations when they report on it. I think that perfectly realistic cloud rendering at all times and situations is complicated and still a work in progress. No doubt there always a trade off between a perfect render and performance. Rendering perfect clouds at 60 fps along with everything else is probably not easy. JMHO.

My brightness/bloom is waaay over done also. The whites are super blown out. Setting to storm and sunset, everything is just a super unrealistic orange too. 

8 hours ago, 737_800 said:

Difficult to say. Here some pic after the update:Everything on ultra. The first pic looks weird if you pay attantion to detail IMHO.

If you look at the underside of that upper right cloud in your 3rd pic you can see the pink and green tinting. This is new and bleh. I’m definitely not adjusting my monitors for any of this. They’re already color calibrated and set to an appropriate brightness for my room lighting.  Didn’t have an issue before SU5

It's one of things I noticed almost immediately because I'm a cloud fan, the clouds are not as good as before. Dunno if it's just the lighting, looks like they intentionally lowered the cloud quality.

The clouds were better before the update.