I'm starting a fresh topic because this might otherwise get lost in the mess of other weather-related debates.

So, I've had the rare opportunity to do some flights this morning. I noticed a micro-update via the Steam client before I loaded the sim, as indeed I have seen several other micro-updates since SU7.

I have been intermittently experiencing the issue with clear skies everywhere and extreme fog/haze across the landscape, or, once only, live weather active but an abrupt transition from clear skies and haze round the airport to clouds suddenly appearing upon departing the airport's airspace.

Now, this morning, I have live weather again, and this time it was visible from the ground at the airport (clouds included), there were no perceivable transitions in weather while flying away from the airport to the destination, and no excessive haze everywhere. Perhaps an occasional cloud that seemed to be touching the ground, but nothing like what it was.

I have tried this in my own location. Weather was fairly accurate. Tested in another location in the UK, and had the same improved experience. Set up a couple of short flights in the US, where the situation was notoriously bad, and there are no issues there either (in the same locations where there has been no live weather at all for me lately and only blankets of haze/fog)

Everywhere I have flown this morning: live weather finally active, haze only in some places instead of everywhere (and, where it was, not in any way excessive compared to how it has been), and no transitions between "airport/METAR weather" and weather further into the journey.

Something has changed/been fixed for me. I'm really interested to know if others experience the same improvements today (and if there is any difference between those with Steam and those with the MS Store version).

9.78 KB here on Steam. LOWI looks better than yesterday. Will test other locations.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

 

Edited November 30, 20214 yr by MrFuzzy

Micro updates on Steam generally have nothing to do with the game itself, it's just Steams way of updating piracy files or something. If you have a lot of steam games installed you'll notice it happens to those as well, so what you're seeing could well be a placebo because of this.

If you get a Steam update for the actually game then you'll get an update when you load it.

31 minutes ago, MarcG said:

Micro updates on Steam generally have nothing to do with the game itself, it's just Steams way of updating piracy files or something. If you have a lot of steam games installed you'll notice it happens to those as well, so what you're seeing could well be a placebo because of this.

If you get a Steam update for the actually game then you'll get an update when you load it.

I know that is often the case (at least with updates to the Steam client; I never get updates to the games unless there is an actual update to the game, and this was an update to MSFS not the Steam client).

This is absolutely not a placebo. There is a stark improvement to the weather this morning, and by that I mean, as I said, I actually have live weather again after days with none anywhere, and the abrupt weather transitions that I saw directly after SU7 (the one or two times live weather was working) are now gone.

So, not a placebo, and I'm just hoping this is a little fix that's sneaked through (for everyone who's been having these issues). And I hope it lasts!

Edited November 30, 20214 yr by March Hare

No updates since SU7 on the normal (non steam version) on my end....so it must be something steamy.

2 minutes ago, GEKtheReaper said:

No updates since SU7 on the normal (non steam version) on my end....so it must be something steamy.

But is there any improvement to weather, assuming you were having the same issues as other people? I still don't know if these issues with no live weather, abrupt transitions, etc., only affect some users...

This "update" visible on the Steam client end was so small it would have gone unnoticed if I hadn't had a game update for Ace Combat 7 to download. It's several K in size. It could even trigger a micro-update within the sim on the "checking for updates" page that doesn't warrant an in-sim notification or installation path confirmation. Who knows.

As I said, I just have my fingers crossed this improvement sticks. I guess I'll find out at the end of the day, which is when I usually fly.

18 minutes ago, March Hare said:

This is absolutely not a placebo

Thanks, this made me laugh 🤣 Well done. This thread is a case study for placebo.

Of course, the Steam MSFS update could be a complete coincide, but there might have been some fixes done by Asobo on the server side, if that's where the issues have originated.

I tested various locations and in general the visibility has improved when it's cloudy. The clouds look realistically at their usual altitude.

Touch wood...

14 minutes ago, Johnny Wyatt said:

Thanks, this made me laugh 🤣 Well done. This thread is a case study for placebo.

No it isn't. I know the stark difference between the issues I've been having and what I've seen this morning. I'm not talking about potentially imagined differences like "Is this cloud slightly less grainy today?"; I'm referring to blatantly obvious differences in how the live weather is working this morning (for me), and just the fact that it is after days of no live weather anywhere in the world.

It isn't to say I'll see the same improvements later today or tomorrow, of course, if the issues are in fact temperamental and/or server-side. I'm just interested to find out if others who had no live weather, and/or abrupt transitions between weather types from one location to the next, etc., now find those issues "resolved" this morning. If not, so be it.

Edited November 30, 20214 yr by March Hare

This would need to be tested over a number of days of course.  Hopefully this is the case though.    Maybe they can do it by  'backend' change anyway?

If there was an update, a simple communication on the official forums would not have gone amiss, just to let us know, for the removal of doubt.

I know there has been a thanksgiving holiday (does it include the following Monday as well?), so maybe we will hear something when they wake up in the US today - still a few hours away for west coast.

30 minutes ago, March Hare said:

But is there any improvement to weather, assuming you were having the same issues as other people? I still don't know if these issues with no live weather, abrupt transitions, etc., only affect some users...

This "update" visible on the Steam client end was so small it would have gone unnoticed if I hadn't had a game update for Ace Combat 7 to download. It's several K in size. It could even trigger a micro-update within the sim on the "checking for updates" page that doesn't warrant an in-sim notification or installation path confirmation. Who knows.

As I said, I just have my fingers crossed this improvement sticks. I guess I'll find out at the end of the day, which is when I usually fly.

You could be absolutely right. Because we don't now if the issues was on premise file (your downloaded Flightsim) related, or DATA (online source stored and maybe changed?) Related.

My impression is also, something has changed the assed days, without downloaded updates. 

So I assume, and it is really just an assumption, that something is changing in the data which we receive....and use....for weather. 

Marcus

8 minutes ago, bobcat999 said:

This would need to be tested over a number of days of course.  Hopefully this is the case though.    Maybe they can do it by  'backend' change anyway?

Absolutely. That's why I have everything crossed that what I'm seeing stays this way. And, yes, they can do it on the backend if the issue has been related to the data being fed into the sim from the servers, not a bug in the sim's code.

I did say, the other day, that I wondered if the live weather servers had been going offline while they were working on server-side fixes to the data, and that could be the case here. Maybe they have made data changes that have resolved some issues and the live weather server is back on this morning. It could be off again later if they have more tweaking to do.

 

The disappearing planes in MultiPlayer was fixed by a server side patch on Friday, so I guess they can do things with the weather as well without touching the clients.  

I've just fired up MSFS and there's no update for me, unless it's so small they don't even show it, but everything could be server side anyhow. MS store version.