Volumetric clouds?

[Stearmandriver 2,333]

13 hours ago, Dominique_K said:

If MSFS would give us the in-game data from departure, en route by layers and arrival, synchronize Atis and windsocks to them,  we could prepare our flights all right without the need to insert METAR in the engine.

Couple issues with this.  First, it ignores the fact that many people want to use real-world tools for flight planning and execution during a sim flight; things like Foreflight or the Jeppesen app.  These things only report real-world weather, and weather data is deeply integrated into how they are used.  It basically only works if the sim is injecting accurate real-world weather.  (This has been possible in previous sims btw, and so it would be - and initially was - a significant step backwards if it weren't possible with MSFS.)

Secondly, there's the online network simming.  It's very difficult to have a realistic flight on a setup like Vatsim if all the controllers and other pilots on all the other sims are using real-world weather (so it's roughly the same), and you're on there with MSFS needing a different runway, or a CAT III approach when everyone else is accepting visuals etc.  It works best if everyone can use the same weather, and the only baseline that makes sense is real-world weather. 

So METAR incorporation really is needed, for this sim to have the same functionality of previous sims.  It would seem a shame to cripple functionality in the name of "prettiness."

[WestAir 2,530]

I'm absolutely in the "we need 2 options" boat. Personally, I really really want MSFS to have the single most robust and expansive weather engine ever made. I want the winds to roll across mountains and dynamically create lenticular clouds. I want to to watch fronts collide and form clouds from the rising air and I want to see rain hit my glider from below while flying overhead.

Very little of that is possible using hard constraints from a ground station that can only see one layer of clouds. METAR weather eliminates the possibility of a fluid and hyper realistic weather simulation. There's no level of smoothing that will allow for a dynamic and fluid simulation of weather to flourish.

VATSIM users absolutely deserve hard constraint METAR's and reliable winds, and users like me want physics-based dynamic weather. The only way we both can be happy is with a toggle switch. ASOBO cannot please us both with a one size fits all.

 

Edited December 31, 2021 by WestAir

[Stearmandriver 2,333]

Fully on board with a user selection of those two options. I'm just not as sure that they can't be successfully combined.  METARs are really only good for 5 miles around an airport, so most of the world's weather will still be controlled by the model.  I think there probably is a level of smoothing that can blend the METARs in. 

[filou 2,769]

9 hours ago, Noel said:

Performance if anything has improved in some regards now. 

Clouds from a distance can look quite decent, but the closer you get the worse they look to the point of even generating crude graphical artifacts when flying thru them under certain lighting conditions they are absolute visual showstoppers if ever there was one.  They are not 3D matrices but instead are made by using slices or ribbons, and very few of them to boot, superimposed on each other to generate volume--and it really shows.  It may overall be a performance friendly but it's just destroyed the quality that was there at launch and for a few SU's since.  And I always felt the originals just need a bit more tuning as they were decent already.  But now, I'm hoping they are essentially a placeholder for something visually commensurate with the rest of MSFS.

Here are some shots showing some of this laying of ribbons or slices--somehow they have to fundamentally change this architecture it would seem unless the method they are using allows for radical change in how they are constructed.  I can't imagine why you wouldn't want to use 3D matrices so that from any angles you would never see these quasi-discreet ribbons.  Plus, there are so few of them it really shows poorly from certain angles and lighting.

This one just reminds me of a certain almost blurriness or out of focus quality to clouds in the distance.  I understand clouds aren't discreet objects with clear borders but again these just to me look out of focus or blurry:

Your photos look like the same scenario for each of my flights.And I would also add as I continue to watch them that they also have a huge work to do on ambient light and colors.We are very far from reality. I can't take any more of the dazzling white horizon.

It has become very ugly overall.

[GSalden 4,704]

Just took off from Amsterdam to Hamburg. Looks quiet accurate.

 

[Ixoye 1,841]

8 minutes ago, GSalden said:

Just took off from Amsterdam to Hamburg. Looks quiet accurate.

 

My God, you have the coolest Sim 👍

Edited December 31, 2021 by Ixoye

[GSalden 4,704]

Thanks 😊 

But just now when descending I saw the ugliest clouds I have ever seen looking out the left window :

[Noel 4,564]

2 hours ago, GSalden said:

Thanks 😊 

But just now when descending I saw the ugliest clouds I have ever seen looking out the left window :

Did you consume mushrooms before this one Gerard? 

[Noel 4,564]

12 hours ago, WestAir said:

I really really want MSFS to have the single most robust and expansive weather engine ever made.

Can you do this within performance constraints is an important question.  I 1000% agree with your wishes because a good 1/3 of flight simulation is the weather engine and cloud depiction, for me.

[SubtotalGuide 133]

I suggest everyone owning the sim to find a copy of the release version to experience just how good the clouds were back then. Such a shame.

[Ixoye 1,841]

1 hour ago, Noel said:

Did you consume mushrooms before this one Gerard? 

Or some "Orange Sunshine" 🤪

[Tuskin38 6,645]

Just took off from EHEH, looks great (these are on high)

1 hour ago, SubtotalGuide said:

I suggest everyone owning the sim to find a copy of the release version to experience just how good the clouds were back then. Such a shame.

Impossible. It would force you to update.

[GSalden 4,704]

3 hours ago, Noel said:

Did you consume mushrooms before this one Gerard? 

No, I had the clouds covered with carpet 😏 as Asobo had forgotten to include textures … 

[Tuskin38 6,645]

Some more screenshots

https://imgur.com/a/hOT99bB

These are all Live Weather. Eastern Germany and Western Poland.

Edited December 31, 2021 by Tuskin38

[KERNEL32 510]

29 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

Some more screenshots

https://imgur.com/a/hOT99bB

These are all Live Weather. Eastern Germany and Western Poland.

Yes those look... BAD! Is that Ultra setting - and was performance just as bad as OP topic? What I mean by "bad" is that there are "holes to heaven" everywhere, as you fly up and over them there's no continuity, just blobs everywhere - hard to explain but they really changed something and the clouds just don't look "right" anymore.

Edited December 31, 2021 by KERNEL32