We all know that Microsoft initially partnered with Meteoblue. https://www.meteoblue.com/en/blog/article/show/39819_meteoblue+weather+in+new+Microsoft+Flight+Simulator2020

METARs are public and free instead, aren't they?

Watch this video now... the explanation of how complex and elaborate were the weather representation and clouds depiction before SU7 and you can easily realize that what was sold to us in 2020 is no longer there.

This can apply to future mandatory updates and other features too; in other words we are at the mercy of MS/Asobo and whatever they decide to do with the sim.

We paid in advance for something that is continuously changing (not always for the better), but on the other hand we are using their online services with a one-time purchase when a sustainable business model would have suggested a subscription based one.

What's your opinion on all this? Are you happy with this modern approach in videogaming or would you prefer something maybe less grandiose but 100% "owned"?

 

19 minutes ago, MrFuzzy said:

We all know that Microsoft initially partnered with Meteoblue. https://www.meteoblue.com/en/blog/article/show/39819_meteoblue+weather+in+new+Microsoft+Flight+Simulator2020

METARs are public and free instead, aren't they?

 

Are you assuming Metar has replaced the weather system?

 

 

Access to METAR data is "free", but Meteoblue feeds "Forecast / Model" data whch is payed, and usually expensive.

Meteoblue offers various base models. I don't know which model or  models are being used for MFS, but they ( MS / ASOBO ) have to pay for it. Shouldn't be a big deal for a company like MS, but it is certainy not free.

I believe the problem is not on how much MS has to pay for weather forecast but rather on the operational costs of maintaining it coherent in the server and client sides of the simulator, and also some lack of knowledge on how to deal with that information, which is in itself very rich, as tools like Active Sky can make evident.

The biggest problem for me is that the ASOBO team appears not to have experts in this or other aviation areas, and that causes a few problems when trying to deal with stuff they don't have much clues about... Stuff ike assuming cloud bases reported in METAR being MSL instead of AGL, I wonder how they interpret the reported winds... or their experiments to model geopotential height variation with Temperature, and so on...

This doesn't mean ( and that's why I am editing this post of mine ! ) I don't acknowledge their remarkable development support and investment ! Hey, MFS is still astounding in many aspects, and for sure a gema-changer that is pushing other platforms to adapt to the new levels of detail, namely in terms of scenery.

Edited January 7, 20224 yr by Anatoli-Kagari9

5 minutes ago, Anatoli-Kagari9 said:

The biggest problem for me is that the ASOBO team doesn't really have experts in this or other aviation areas and that causes a few problems when trying to deal with stuff they don't really understand very well

You know this how?

Correct me if i am wrong. But wasn't it "the angry mob" who demanded METAR implementation for MSFS? 

Now we got METAR implementation and the angry mob is still unhappy. 

 

Some people really need to get their **** together and stop yelling at the devs for new features and what not every freaking time.

Get a life man.

14 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

You know this how?

Pretty obvious from some of the weather errors. Of course they may have their experts and have decided to ignore them.

1 hour ago, Ricardo41 said:

You know this how?

I don't know officially OFC, but I infer from what I've seen implemented...

Edited January 7, 20224 yr by Anatoli-Kagari9
removed useless comment

50 minutes ago, ThomseN_inc said:

Correct me if i am wrong. But wasn't it "the angry mob" who demanded METAR implementation for MSFS? 

Now we got METAR implementation and the angry mob is still unhappy. 

 

Some people really need to get their **** together and stop yelling at the devs for new features and what not every freaking time.

Get a life man.

Probably the same mob that now is saying that a subscription would have been more logical than a one-time purchase. I've read this in a few threads now. Jeez, if this was a rock concert, the band would have quit by now.

13 minutes ago, orchestra_nl said:

Probably the same mob that now is saying that a subscription would have been more logical than a one-time purchase. I've read this in a few threads now. Jeez, if this was a rock concert, the band would have quit by now.

True. Just for the sake of it i'd love to see Asobo abandon MSFS and tell the mob to see what the constant whining got them. If i worked as a Dev i wouldn't have much joy putting my time into work for such a greedy bunch of users.

7 minutes ago, ThomseN_inc said:

True. Just for the sake of it i'd love to see Asobo abandon MSFS and tell the mob to see what the constant whining got them. If i worked as a Dev i wouldn't have much joy putting my time into work for such a greedy bunch of users.

Wow!

Another thread starting with reasoning and questioning and degrading into insults.

Who's the mob then?

Just wait... They self identify.

10 minutes ago, MrFuzzy said:

Wow!

Another thread starting with reasoning and questioning and degrading into insults.

Who's the mob then?

Calm down. It was a whole bunch of people constantly demanding METAR implementation. And now that we got it, people still complain. Maybe just wait for the Sim do develop and the Devs to do their thing? Jeez

I actually do wonder, how long MS is planning to provide all these online features for free. Multiplayer, live traffic, live weather, scenery data. Checking my MSFS data consumption: this is a lot of data/traffic (having offline cache deactivated) for quite a lot of users.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the online services become a payed service at some time in the future.

('Excrement'storm ahead)

Edited January 7, 20224 yr by Watsi

We can all see that with each update, some things are fixed and often others are broken, only to be fixed later, often breaking something else.
The are at least two possibilities.
The first is that this is a fiendishly complex simulation and the developers are discovering that some features are unexpectedly linked, resulting in unexpected consequences.
The second could be that there is no master copy of this simulator, but several developer copies and so each time a developer uploads an update, that copy may or may not include all of the previous fixes. This would also account for the recurrence of previously fixed features being broken once again.

One thing is reasonably certain, there will never be a copy of this simulator that will satisfy the myriad wants, desires and specialities of the entire user base, because that user base is so varied.

The vast majority of us enjoy it for what it is, we do not expect it to be perfect and we sigh when old problems reoccur and carry on flying in the hope and expectation that they will eventually all be fixed in one copy of the simulator.

Others, it seems cannot tolerate imperfections in what is still a product in its infancy and post complaints on forums where, apart from attacting negative replies, they are quite likely to be not even seen by anyone who is in a position to do anything about them.

Edited January 7, 20224 yr by Reader

11 minutes ago, Watsi said:

I actually do wonder, how long MS is planning to provide all these online features for free. Multiplayer, live traffic, live weather, scenery data. Checking my MSFS data consumption: this is a lot of data/traffic (having offline cache deactivated) for quite a lot of users.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the online services become a payed service at some time in the future.

(word not allowedstorm ahead)

Interesting view @Watsi.

I wouldn't mind paying - depending on the outcome....

I tested yesterday's update, and I did get consistent METAR at a few airfields I tried, yet there is still a problem with the merge between, for instance, the METAR winds and the model data...

A good example is how the wind progresses in altitude, and situations like having, say ..."04032G48KT 350V070" and then, as you climb past, say, 3000' your wind drops to 5 knot ....or there's a strange discontinuity in the Temperature...

They still have to work the METAR / Model merge - but I agree this is a complex area, specially when the sim cares to properly model the associated visuals. It's not simple at all !!!

Edited January 7, 20224 yr by Anatoli-Kagari9