3 hours ago, FrankSalo said:

maybe Asobo could consider asking the Hifi and Rex teams to contribute towards making the engine better and adding extensive features. It would be a win for Asobo, The devs and us consumers. 

No it wouldn't. I never bought anything in my life from Rex that wasn't delayed in its initial release or delayed -- sometimes for years -- in being updated to work properly. The current weather engine in MSFS is already spectacular, far better than anything previously released by HiFi or Rex.

4 hours ago, David Mills said:

The current weather engine in MSFS is already spectacular, far better than anything previously released by HiFi (...)

I really hate to derail this thread but this is categorically false. ASN has far, far better depiction than MSFS. Obviously, graphics plays a key role in making MSFS look great, but it lacks the meat and potatoes.

When MSFS has Cirrus, Stratus, correct temps at high altitudes, vertical winds, microbursts, etc etc then it will be a better engine, but as of this date, it is not.

45 minutes ago, WestAir said:

I really hate to derail this thread but this is categorically false. ASN has far, far better depiction than MSFS. Obviously, graphics plays a key role in making MSFS look great, but it lacks the meat and potatoes.

When MSFS has Cirrus, Stratus, correct temps at high altitudes, vertical winds, microbursts, etc etc then it will be a better engine, but as of this date, it is not.

Totally agree. And the original live weather system was way better than this current system we got.

So after months of the VR snapshots not being updated they've decided to just ignore them altogether, I've long thought this but have now come to the conclusion that they don't give a duck about VR.

Ignorance, nothing more nothing less.

On 4/1/2022 at 12:37 AM, WestAir said:

I really hate to derail this thread but this is categorically false. ASN has far, far better depiction than MSFS. Obviously, graphics plays a key role in making MSFS look great, but it lacks the meat and potatoes.

When MSFS has Cirrus, Stratus, correct temps at high altitudes, vertical winds, microbursts, etc etc then it will be a better engine, but as of this date, it is not.

While ASN had decades to evolve, it never made it past 2D sprites arranged according to their perception of cloud depiction and that only needed to be rendered out to a very limited radius.  When they needed to fabricate a new Cirrus cloud--build it and insert it into their engine. The rendering engines are so vastly different it's a whole different problem now and it remains to be seen how far Asobo can take this engine.  Hiring those folks to work on MSFS weather makes no sense unless they are fully facile w/ the specific tools Asobo is employing w/ MeteoBlue and METAR data, and I don't know why they would be.  Asobo has stated they are working on cloud morphology but it's a way different task and as I say it remains to be seen where they can take it and whether or not this type of engine can create the kind of fine detail seen using the 2D sprites model.  But already there are depictions that are indeed vastly superior to what I saw w/ ASN for years, and I see this frequently.  If Asobo was completely done w/ developing cloud depiction I'd be disappointed, but I don't see that as the case and expect major improvements coming down the pike in this regard.

 

1 hour ago, Noel said:

<snip>

Yes, at times the engine looks absolutely gorgeous, and my comment never refuted that. Dave said MSFS has better weather. In every metric short of visual beauty, that is incorrect. We're all aware that MSFS will soon be the best weather simulation ever made. But right now it's not. There's no shame or vitriol in admitting that.

 

Edited April 2, 20224 yr by WestAir

20 hours ago, WestAir said:

Dave said MSFS has better weather. In every metric short of visual beauty, that is incorrect.

It's just an opinion--unless we are going to settle on defining what constitutes 'better weather.'  I appreciate and agree with what you're saying re several elements of better weather but if I were given the op to have ASN to its limited radius versus what we have today in MSFS, I'd stick with what we have now, though I'm not entirely happy with it, of course.   I'm still not certain how MSFS weather depiction will shake out in terms of cloud detail/morph.  There are folks already responding to what LR has shown w/ their volumetric cloud modeling who are saying, 'No!  Go back to XP11 (2D sprite based)!'  I think it's much more difficult to get the detail and perhaps various cloud morphology you can do w/ 2D v 3D and at the same time get the kind of performance everyone is looking for.  I'm hoping this is a domain where highest end hardware will be provided some controls to improve cloud density etc that lesser machines won't be able to process.  

Well said, Noel!

In some ways this discussion reminds me of one over on the Rabid Dog forum re another sim where the Rabid Dogs argue that certain scenery elements are more accurate when done by an 'artist', more detailed over what MSFS renders and that this is all that matters.  What they look for and see, is the trees, and less so the forest.  Even w/ the occasional issues w/ photogrammetry, or funky cloud depictions in certain lighting or what have you, it is the entire immersion that is so compelling in MSFS that it's relative easy to ignore some detail in favor of the gestalt.  I always have the impression I'm getting a pretty good look at what's really there no matter where I am in MSFS.  I think this comes from subtlties in lighting and coloration that comes from satellite imagery and PG and is very hard to get 'perfect' by an 'artist'.  Same same for clouds and weather--nowhere in ASN have I seen some of the increbily compelling weather renderings when MSFS is at its best for weather currently, and there is a fair amount of that already!