Hopefully I won't get a holiday for posting an XP-12 image in the MSFS forum and since I'm an MSFS user exclusively hopefully it won't be an issue!  I know there are other threads on clouds/weather but to me this topic is huge, so we start a new one here.

Janov makes a critical point when he posts this aledged image from XP12 cloud depiction.  The idea of having clouds spawn from weather dynamics is such a critically relavent issue and I hope that Janov is correct in his impression on this:

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/610131-competition-is-good/?do=findComment&comment=4662847

I hope the rumor that Asobo still has major advances in store for clouds and weather, and if not they hopefully are following XP12.  Right now what we have is passible, but fundamentally very poor and artificial in terms of that idea, of having cloud generation come dynamically from conditions.  i would wonder if this is really possible because to me is seems like an incredible amount of data would be required to pulls this off.

 

Edited January 11, 20224 yr by Noel

I'm not sure I fully understand the intent of your post, but I agree that those clouds could use some improvement.

6 minutes ago, MDFlier said:

I'm not sure I fully understand the intent of your post, but I agree that those clouds could use some improvement.

The intent is to make others aware what XP-12 apparently is doing as they introduce volumetric clouds into that sim, and that if Janov's intepretation of what is happening is correct, that this is something worth supporting--for example by posting it on the MSFS forum.   As an avid simmer I'm always interested in hearing about breakthru technologies because it proves it's possible to do, even if my sim MSFS isn't quite there yet.  The idea of having clouds derive from very local weather dynamics, to create for example the types of cloud formations that form as a result of local weather dynamics is something others here have pointed out is absolutely lacking in the current weather and cloud depiction in MSFS.  There is a real mismatch between what we see as clouds and what types of cloud formations we would see in the same place in the real world.  Apparently XP-12's implementation of volumetric clouds offers much more accurate cloud variety and morphology that what we see now in MSFS which is somewhat arbitrary and not  tied well to local weather generation dynamics.  

Edited January 11, 20224 yr by Noel

I know this is the way to go (with particle cloud generation from weather), but sometimes, if you think back to the days of Rex and the cloud packs, even the bitmapped clouds looked better from a distance, sometimes at least. 

And they weren't too bad to pass through as long as you could ignore the bitmaps rotating as you went past!   

But I would love to see a bit of high level cirrus, just like those cloud packs provided, so hopefully they are working on it, and reducing the pixilation, which is also present in Xplane judging by the picture.

I think maybe it is the environmental lighting that shows off the clouds in these sims rather than the cloud generation method in itself.

Edited January 11, 20224 yr by bobcat999

30 minutes ago, MDFlier said:

I'm not sure I fully understand the intent of your post, but I agree that those clouds could use some improvement.

Click Bait, that was the intent. 

Actually the OP clouds appear to be like what I often see in MSFS.  Part of what influences is the light from the sun's angle.  So I am lacking a point for further discussion.

Edited January 11, 20224 yr by fppilot

21 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

52 minutes ago, MDFlier said:

I'm not sure I fully understand the intent of your post, but I agree that those clouds could use some improvement.

Click Bait, that was the intent. 

I certainly do not mind at all XPlane 12 images being shared if the intention is to show advances in technology that could benefit MSFS.  The clouds in MSFS, although an advance over the billboard clouds previously, are in a mess at the moment - sometimes great but often awful.  If Laminer Research have found a way to locally generate clouds from atmospheric conditions, this is only good for the future of any flight sim - imagine the care needed in flight planning!

Although some here have a strange religious like attachment to one simulator, I will continue to be excited by any flight sim!

1 hour ago, bobcat999 said:

I know this is the way to go (with particle cloud generation from weather), but sometimes, if you think back to the days of Rex and the cloud packs, even the bitmapped clouds looked better from a distance, sometimes at least. 

And they weren't too bad to pass through as long as you could ignore the bitmaps rotating as you went past!   

But I would love to see a bit of high level cirrus, just like those cloud packs provided, so hopefully they are working on it, and reducing the pixilation, which is also present in Xplane judging by the picture.

I think maybe it is the environmental lighting that shows off the clouds in these sims rather than the cloud generation method in itself.

I actually do miss my FSX REX clouds!

They looked amazing in VR!

Edited January 11, 20224 yr by blueshark747

NEITHER! Asobo needs to HIRE whomever programmed Red Dead Redemption II clouds - 'nuf said!

 

Edited January 11, 20224 yr by KERNEL32

3 hours ago, Noel said:

 so we start a new one here.

Are we really doing this again?

Does anyone know what update Asobo plans to revamp the weather engine with new cloud types / depictions? I know the team was really enthusiastic about an upcoming weather change, but did they ever say which update it was planned for?

Well good.. But I'm still waiting they come with the possibility to use 2 screens. Weather, I can use presets for most conditions, there are some good freeware or payware.
I don't really care to have the real weather preset, I've that already enough in my real life. So, for me, 2 screens usage is way more important and opens some nice doors
but curiosely they don't speak a lot about it.

I don’t think that Asobo is looking at other sims to get ideas from.

They have their ToDo list which they follow….

4 hours ago, KERNEL32 said:

NEITHER! Asobo needs to HIRE whomever programmed Red Dead Redemption II clouds - 'nuf said!

 

The skies in RDR2 blew me away when playing that game. But they can't be transplanted into something like MSFS. It's easier to create more impressive skies when they are "half-baked" -- meaning they aren't volumetric clouds simulated dynamically from atmospherics models in a global weather system, based on streamed weather data, with wind simulation, etc. (and is the OP suggesting MSFS doesn't do that, but XP12 does?)

The skies in RDR2 are still just animations, per se. Randomly variable ones. Not simulating wind or any other atmospherics. You wouldn't be able to stick an aeroplane model in that world and fly through those clouds.

 

Edited January 11, 20224 yr by March Hare

27 minutes ago, GSalden said:

I don’t think that Asobo is looking at other sims to get ideas from.

They have their ToDo list which they follow….

...backwards!

 

 

🤪