Are clouds the best ever now? I'm impressed.

[Sky_Pilot071 579]

Something that I noticed recently with the few clouds preset is some apparent cirrus like clouds way up there.  I'm assuming a server update was made but they look good at any rate.

sp 

[scotchegg 4,159]

2 hours ago, Sky_Pilot071 said:

Something that I noticed recently with the few clouds preset is some apparent cirrus like clouds way up there.  I'm assuming a server update was made but they look good at any rate.

sp 

I’ve noticed the same. Clearly still need work, but I’ve definitely seen more frequent cirrus-esque clouds at altitude that make me think things are being worked on.

[Cpt_Piett 4,511]

Probably a little while until MSFS clouds look like this:

[KERNEL32 496]

1 hour ago, Cpt_Piett said:

Probably a little while until MSFS clouds look like this:

 

Sad thing is, they had plausible cloud scenes as shown in your screenshot above at release... then they borked the clouds after like SU3. There used to be a more solid/opaque high level overcast and broken layer that looked fantastic (and had darker shade as appropriate for the scene - now it's just some light transparent puffs all over that are supposed to represent a high cloud layer?). Sure, it was not quite close to the photo you posted because they would need to increase the cloud resolution a bunch, but was not too bad at release.

Edited July 4, 2022 by KERNEL32

[Noel 4,484]

10 minutes ago, KERNEL32 said:

Sure, it was not quite close to the photo you posted because they would need to increase the cloud resolution a bunch, but wan not too bad at release.

The good news though is that it proves it can be better with their cloud depiction software.  Plus, there is considerable processing headroom to exploit in ever-increasing hardware capabillity.  So there is reason for hope we will see something better down the road.

[ryanbatc 12,772]

I believe the clouds were better in TA, and that unfortunately Asobo had to lower the quality a bit due to performance issues.  These pics are somewhere from SU5 or so - and they looked pretty good here.  Still if you get up close they don't look so hot.  TA versions up close were more detailed.

Untitled-21 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

srcruise by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

[Noel 4,484]

On 7/3/2022 at 8:36 PM, ryanbatc said:

Still if you get up close they don't look so hot.  TA versions up close were more detailed.

Weather/clouds from a distance largely look better to me, but up close they've taken a serious resolution hit.

[Keto Ketchup 240]

On 6/20/2022 at 3:06 PM, Silicus said:

There are the best in any flightsim ever, but there are only cumulus clouds represented in the sim right now or slight variations of them.

I was wondering about this! I thought perhaps live weather was still broken, because I never see the high, thin clouds that often are over my area. When it's just these clouds IRL, I get a clear blue sky..

Has this always been the case? I thought we had better clouds with more variety when the sim launched, but I could easily be confusing this sim with others (I haven't flown any sim in quite awhile).

[filou 2,741]

I really regret the clouds and the light engine. 

 

 

 

 Look at this render from the year 2020.And it's not in ultra

[Keto Ketchup 240]

13 hours ago, filou said:

 Look at this render from the year 2020.And it's not in ultra

Are you using ReShade or something? Your images look way more realistic than what I've got, kinda like they've been through software HDR processing. I was able to improve things somewhat by dialing back the saturation using NV control panel, but it doesn't "pop" like your screenshots.

[MrBitstFlyer 3,819]

14 hours ago, filou said:

I really regret the clouds and the light engine.

I didn't include the cloud pictures in the quote because they were just full of just cumulus again.

 

[ryanbatc 12,772]

On 7/5/2022 at 9:37 AM, Noel said:

Weather/clouds from a distance largely look better to me, but up close they've taken a serious resolution hit.

I agree

[HiFlyer 9,343]

On 7/3/2022 at 8:08 PM, Cpt_Piett said:

Probably a little while until MSFS clouds look like this:

If they ever do look exactly like this, and I then see a thread complaining about slowdowns in heavy clouds..... 😢

[filou 2,741]

3 hours ago, Keto Ketchup said:

Are you using ReShade or something? Your images look way more realistic than what I've got, kinda like they've been through software HDR processing. I was able to improve things somewhat by dialing back the saturation using NV control panel, but it doesn't "pop" like your screenshots.

For these shots not at all they are by default and date from the year 2020/2021. Today I use nvidia freestyle to try to find this balance but I can't even do it with.

I found the clouds and the light engine much more realistic before:

A few more examples:

 

 

[sightseer 895]

It seems to me that people complained about pixelation and so Asobo produced lower resolution clouds.  This combined with the addition of the 'density' variable to produce clouds that are generally more blobby and darker/muddier in their shadows.

I don't know that its possible to have high res clouds that will run well that also don't have apparent pixelation.

Edited July 6, 2022 by sightseer