I am very disappointed with the FS visual representation of the live weather. 

About XP these are only for the moment a visual promise on photo.That they don't hesitate to show us a Timelapse live weather video with the performances above a big city with the Ultra settings . it is not enough to have only an incredible weather. A good simulator must be balanced in each compartment.

For me the only realistic representation of clouds is DCS

10 hours ago, Noel said:

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.

 

1) These clouds represent no improvement over what MSFS has forced on us with SU7. I’m pretty sure it’s just puffs of various dimensions. That they are volumetric and better lit is a huge jump over XP11’s clouds, but there’s no evidence that I can see here of an improvement over what MSFS is already not doing so well in SU7. My concern before buying XP12 would be that their legacy philosophy of using puffs for all clouds is just being repeated with, erm, better quality puffs.

2) My understanding is MSFS’s clouds are representing what Meteoblue gives it, and Meteoblue generates dynamic forecasts from local and global conditions. I’m not sure you’re asking for anything different to what’s already being offered…?

24 minutes ago, scotchegg said:

1) These clouds represent no improvement over what MSFS has forced on us with SU7. I’m pretty sure it’s just puffs of various dimensions. That they are volumetric and better lit is a huge jump over XP11’s clouds, but there’s no evidence that I can see here of an improvement over what MSFS is already not doing so well in SU7. My concern before buying XP12 would be that their legacy philosophy of using puffs for all clouds is just being repeated with, erm, better quality puffs.

2) My understanding is MSFS’s clouds are representing what Meteoblue gives it, and Meteoblue generates dynamic forecasts from local and global conditions. I’m not sure you’re asking for anything different to what’s already being offered…?

XP 12 might have good looking clouds, shame the rest of it looks like word not allowed. 

9 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

XP 12 might have good looking clouds, shame the rest of it looks like word not allowed. 

All that was previewed is tech branches, there is no full build of x-plane 12 yet with all the features together, so you might see clouds+lighting while the rest is still x-plane 11.

Hold your conclusions.

11 hours ago, Noel said:

Janov...

You mean Jean Luc (RXP) I suppose?

Is MSFS 2020 a flight simulator or a weather simulator?  Let's keep the main thing the main thing.

Roy

Who is janov? And does he/she have first hand experience of xplane 12 ? Is he a beta tester ? Do we know how xplane 12's default weather engine generate clouds ? Do we have videos or details on this ? Janov apparently came to a conclusion by just LOOKING at that screenshot that xplane 12's weather engine and clouds depiction is better than msfs ? You have to be kidding me right ?? I can post 100's of better looking pics of msfs. Pointless topic.

Edited January 11, 20224 yr by Baber20

There is nothing that MSFS 2020 can learn from XPlane.

 

11 hours ago, blueshark747 said:

I actually do miss my FSX REX clouds!

They looked amazing in VR!

Guess you missed Pacman and pong back over 40 years ago. MSFS and whatever XP12 comes out will be next level as far as clouds..

Edit I see how many fake folks come here a trash MSFS clouds  with no idea how to improve them yet I see many RWP and longtime flightsimmers on youtube and Twitch rave about MSFS clouds go figure?

Edited January 11, 20224 yr by jbdbow1970

48 minutes ago, Roy Warren said:

Is MSFS 2020 a flight simulator or a weather simulator?  Let's keep the main thing the main thing.

Roy

Well some of us like to use live weather to simulate are real flight, so if the weather's subpar then the simulator loses some of its appeal.

Swings and roundabouts!

1 hour ago, Roy Warren said:

Is MSFS 2020 a flight simulator or a weather simulator?  Let's keep the main thing the main thing.

Roy

What do airplanes fly in?

53 minutes ago, Roy Warren said:

Is MSFS 2020 a flight simulator or a weather simulator?  Let's keep the main thing the main thing.

Roy

Imho a flight simulator without weather is like a boat simulator without water. The weather makes the sim a sim and is, again imho, a vital and very important part of the main thing. To each his own but to me flying with weather presets or no weather at all is utterly boring and dull.

Of course there is a difference between a good weather system and the visual depiction of it and this topic is more about the visual part. Imho MSFS looks great as it is. I've never seen better skies in any of my flight sims (although I only have flown civil flight sims for the last 2 decades or so). The idea of having to fly with a limited range of flat cloud sprites like in other sims... no, thank you! I love how MSFS shows me awesome skies all the way to the horizon. There's always room for improvement of course but I am certainly not disappointed with what I've got now!

Meanwhile i am riding my dead horse through the wild west.

Excuse me, but how are the OP or the user who was referred to coming to the conclusion that those clouds are an accurate dynamically generated product of an underlying weather phenomenon based on a screenshot? The video in the linked thread is also just showing visuals with no other information whatsoever. Where is this and the talk about the method being better than MSFS coming from?

1 hour ago, Ricardo41 said:

There is nothing that MSFS 2020 can learn from XPlane.

 

There's always something to learn, both ways.