I thought perhaps it was the regional wildfire smoke being picked up, but that is not the case.  This was around Pisa Italy, and I switched to Clear Skies from Live, w/ aerosols down to the lowest setting and this is what it looks like.  IMO one ought to be able to dial it completely out as desired, whereas I can appreciate Live Weather should be as close to reality as able.  If enough agree here I can put it on a votable wish list item:

 

I think this is a realistic view. What would you like to see?   Identify a seperate tree a 50 miles??

I don't think this is going to change much until they roll out the weather improvements next year (or is it late this year?).  It sound like we might be getting better visibility depiction.  I miss being able to have the reduced visibility from summer haze, etc.  Overall the MSFS world has way too much visibility everywhere. 

37 minutes ago, hansb57 said:

 What would you like to see?   Identify a seperate tree a 50 miles??

Goodness, what I was asking was for the ability to clear haze per desire, for whatever reasons:  "IMO one ought to be able to dial it completely out as desired, whereas I can appreciate Live Weather should be as close to reality as able."

And there are absolutely areas of the world, very dry desert for example miles aways from moisture and smoke where the air is indeed much clear. 

I'm all for a slider to max out visibility or make it zero if the user wants

Having said that, I agree with Eric/Flic that MSFS has, overall, way too much visibility.

I've flown in deserts and over Greenland where I saw my most-distant objects at about 100 nm distant, but those were rare conditions...usually its 60nm tops.  Most flight sim users over-estimate vis.

Fires are burning all over the planet.

Regards

bs

5 hours ago, Noel said:

I thought perhaps it was the regional wildfire smoke being picked up, but that is not the case.  This was around Pisa Italy, and I switched to Clear Skies from Live, w/ aerosols down to the lowest setting and this is what it looks like.  IMO one ought to be able to dial it completely out as desired, whereas I can appreciate Live Weather should be as close to reality as able.  If enough agree here I can put it on a votable wish list item:

 

Haze in the summer time is what you get in real life.

Fair weather and clear skies may get get you 50 mi visibility in winter when the temperature is 25 degrees and dew point is around zero, but it will probably be 10 mi at most in the summer when the temperature is 95 degrees and the dew point is 75 degrees.

I’ve flown in the summer in “clear” skies, when it was almost IMC due to haze. 

Edited August 13, 20214 yr by neil0311

2 hours ago, Mace said:

I'm all for a slider to max out visibility or make it zero if the user wants

Having said that, I agree with Eric/Flic that MSFS has, overall, way too much visibility.

I've flown in deserts and over Greenland where I saw my most-distant objects at about 100 nm distant, but those were rare conditions...usually its 60nm tops.  Most flight sim users over-estimate vis.

That's what I'm after, some local control just for fun, AND realistic according to actual conditions.  I may be wrong but it seems there is a fixed minimum visibility that does not allow for local control.  Moreover, not even those rare conditions you refer to.  I hope I'm wrong, but when I chose clear skies and dial aerosols to 1, it seems like aero out to be virually none, to approximate those rare conditions.  That is all I ask, and most certainly it is a look up in a table that can be adjusted easily by the developer.

5 hours ago, Noel said:

That's what I'm after, some local control just for fun, AND realistic according to actual conditions.  I may be wrong but it seems there is a fixed minimum visibility that does not allow for local control.  Moreover, not even those rare conditions you refer to.  I hope I'm wrong, but when I chose clear skies and dial aerosols to 1, it seems like aero out to be virually none, to approximate those rare conditions.  That is all I ask, and most certainly it is a look up in a table that can be adjusted easily by the developer.

Some want boats, rockets, go into space, cars, want to drive busses around, complain about scenery at street level, want unlimited visibilty AND want maximum realism. There are even people who want to see a Bonzai tree at 50 miles out.

I'm ok with all that as long as it doesnt distract Asobo from improving a flight sim.

 

12 hours ago, Noel said:

Goodness, what I was asking was for the ability to clear haze per desire, for whatever reasons

I was recently flying there too (during one of my "Along the Mediterranean Sea hopping"-flights). During these flight I could see from the location of the aircraft to Corsica, likewise Corsica was also visible from the Nice area. Also looking across the Adria is possible, e.g. from Ancona to the Croatian mountains.

So I am not sure, whether haze could be minimized further. Having personally experienced in real live, that on an extremely clear day Corsica was visible from the hillside at Monaco, I feel the sim models the low haze weather very nice.

My sense is one of the frequently heard complaints post SU5 was that colors had become 'washed out'.   I think that is directly related to increasing aerosol effects in the sim.  I do not see the deep blue skies nearly as much and that I believe relates to how haze is implemented.  Here are some real world photos of deep blue skies from on high.  The problem I see is that the entire world is restricted now to the very bland, overly hazed appearance I get everywhere now regardless of where I'm flying.  The consistency of it does not seem realistic to me, the range of variance in haze levels is too small to reflect reality well IMO.

 

The problem as I see it is that their haze and lighting of both haze and clouds are overly simplified and they will be until the 'huge weather engine changes' that Jorg talked about are implemented.  Lets hope they go in a good direction.

The thing about stuff in the air is that it does indeed get lit up by sunlight but it also tends to block light when it gets thicker.  Theres the issue of where the light source is.  A low density cloud that looks very bright when the sun is behind it relative to you will appear darker and blue grey if you look down on it from above.  Haze does this as well and thats what I see as wrong with the current lighting model.  It insists that all haze is bright and equally bright from horizon down towards areas you see below you.

Real thick haze can self shadow just like a cloud.

I wanted to post pictures from a school science experiment I found online once that showed pictures from a GoPro being carried by a weather balloon.  If you look around enough you'll see that the view changes greatly with weather.  You can see quite far with good visibility.  Even in areas where humidity is high you can see for quite a ways.  heres a picture taken from an unknown altitude just north of Mobile Alabama and you can see Fort Morgan which is 33 miles away as the crow flies.  Note how the decreased visibility is bluish (like a cloud shadow) and how things don't get blurry but rather the contrast drops and I wish/hope Asobo start working more with contrast adjustments instead of blurriness.

 

Most people have been up in a plane and most have an "opinion" on what is realistic. What is needed is a slider so everyone can adjust the haze to their personal liking!

20 minutes ago, Pugilist2 said:

What is needed is a slider so everyone can adjust the haze to their personal liking!

What kind of slider would you suggest that would allow for low visibility to one side of you near a thunderstorm or rain cloud but still have good visibility everywhere else?

Should this slider adjust thickness of haze? color of haze? distance depth of haze?

What we need is an improved weather model and I'm confident it will come but it will take time.

That sort of haze is what I was seeing in the not-too-distant distance round here, a few days ago, with everything fading the further it was away from us -- from the view of a car window at (obviously) ground level. Is this not the normal effect of atmospherics? I genuinely don't know with this as I've never actually flown anywhere (fear of flying).