MSFS Weather Engine

[UAL4life 246]

9 hours ago, Falconjet112 said:

I'm a meteorologist and GA pilot. Cloud depiction has definitely deteriorated since SU7... absolutely no doubt. We had incredible cloud layers and types which were incredibly realistic. Now we don't... comparatively.

I still can't believe that proper depiction of atmospheric visibility (aerosol density) is not a higher priority for people. Live weather mode still does not utilise any aerosol data from meteoblue. The result is an atmosphere where visibility throughout the atmosphere never changes. It's too clean and clear. 

More proof that in many ways MSFS was immensely better at release than it is now. Very frustrating. 

[Cpt_Piett 4,848]

24 minutes ago, Flic1 said:

I still wonder about the visibility...too bad no questions were asked about visibility generation in Live WX.  It still seems to be unlimited most of the time unless inside clouds/fog or rain.  The hazy summer air in many places can be a challenge to fly in some days with only 5-6 mile visibility but it seems they are still unable to produce this. 

Yes I think there's some limitations in terms of aerosol depiction. Which is a bit strange - would think that sort of data is easy to obtain from Meteoblue?

EDIT: When reduced visibility occurs in terms of haze, it's the all of a sudden "bam!" appearance and it disappears as quickly. Hopefully they can do something about this. 

Edited August 19, 2022 by Cpt_Piett

[Noel 4,565]

1 hour ago, Krakin said:

You have a time stamp for that?

"That" = my interpretation of some vague commentary....  IOW, nothing I heard was directly related to cloud depiction, but absolutely they are trying to get everything possible out of the [rather limited] memory in Xbox.  

About Xbox and its memory.  It starts around 50:50 or so where Martial states "most of the issues we're having with Xbox are linked to memory"...."it's mostly a matter of optimization of the memory"..."we have different systems that try to reduce the cost to the sim if we get very close the end of the memory..."  I understand this was in response to black screens on Xbox, but I'm reading between the lines.  Match this context with other comments that Windows and Xbox [must, per their current approach] run on identical code.  Perhaps they will implement methods of being able to exploit far more memory to improve things for systems that can manage it--and I think they will.  Why?  Because hardware performance, memory, etc continue to improve year over year, and it's a long project as we're now at year 2 of 10.

There is no question in my mind cloud depiction in particular has deteriorated in significant ways and there is no reason the PC side is the primary driver of this.  After the degradation was initiated there has been some improvement as we've also seen, but it's still a significantly long ways, cloud depiction in particular in Live Weather (don't use presets), from where it was initially.  I feel for Asobo needing to make this work well be excellent on the Xbox while also being well aware of how much more memory and processing power exists in modern high-end PCs to play with. 

 

 

[Krakin 5,872]

@Noel Well that's a bit of a stretch...

[Noel 4,565]

5 hours ago, Krakin said:

@Noel Well that's a bit of a stretch...

Stretch compared to what other theory to explain the degradation in cloud depiction? 

[icewater5 181]

I dont work in IT and dont really know what i am talking about tbh, lol. But i thought memory/memory error/leakeage is a software code issue and therefore do not see a connection to processing power.. So i wonder that the difference between x-box and pcs is how the existing code works with different display monitors refresh rates/resolution settings and the like. 

[Tom_L 558]

13 hours ago, UAL4life said:

Very frustrating. 

What bothers me most (apart from not preparing thoroughly for questions well known beforehand) is that - assumed that despite of their demonstrated lack of knowledge the essence of what they said is accurate - the clouds are coming from Meteoblue after there has been some blending of METAR data and recomputing of their weather model. That would mean that the puffs of smoke that resemble clouds since SU7 are the result of changes made in the dataset provided by Meteoblue. It is not clear if Meteoblue is working on refining these data in order to achieve a cloud depiction we have seen before SU7, but the statement that nothing has been done in regards to the clouds in recent updates - apart from the revised layering to be introduced with SU10 - is not reassuring.

[Alti 68]

Hi, is there any link on MSFS Support so we can "upvote" for the visibility problem?
i also get ALWASY unlimited visibility. thats really bad for me.

thanks

[Falconjet112 40]

34 minutes ago, Alti said:

Hi, is there any link on MSFS Support so we can "upvote" for the visibility problem?
i also get ALWASY unlimited visibility. thats really bad for me.

thanks

Exactly! Upper visibility neve changes. I simply cannot believe more people don't see this as an issue! 

I posted in the SU10 beta forum regarding live weather visibility options which would please everyone. However moderator locked it. I don't think Asobo are interested. 

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/aerosol-density-visibility-in-live-weather/530001

Live Weather does not simulate changes in aerosol density/visibility

As a real world pilot and meteorologist, I have noticed that both SU9 and SU10 beta and indeed previous SU’s do not simulate changes to aerosol density/visibility during Live Weather. Aerosol density is always 1. This is really unfortunate as it is highly unrealistic to expect visibility to be almost limitless all of the time. Frequently, humidity and aerosol particles are present in the lower atmosphere limiting visibility.

The simulated depiction of aerosols in the atmosphere is excellent with regards to preset weather or custom weather.

Please Asobo, I’m literally begging you to implement aerosol density/visibility changes during Live Weather mode. Every other weather parameter (cloud cover, winds and temperature) throughout the atmosphere is simulated except visibility.

Your reservations for proper visibility simulation in Live weather mode may stem from the fact that some people may prefer to fly and see the wonderful scenery from horizon to horizon. This is understandable. However, from a proper simulation of the atmosphere and the serious simmer, changes in visibility is crucial. I for one dislike endless visibility as it’s very rare, especially here in Europe.

Therefore may I suggest a way forward…

Either, simulate proper visibility using data from meteoblue (carrying the risk of annoying those simmers who prefer endless visibility)

or (this one pleases everyone)

Provide a choice (perhaps a slider) to switch on or off proper visibility simulation in Live weather Mode

or

if simulation of visibility is not possible using data from Meteoblue, then provide a slider (just like the one for custom weather) for the user to set an aerosol density in Live Weather mode or at least allow an alternative means of adjusting the aerosol density/visibility, perhaps via the Flightsimulator.CFG file

Thanks for taking the time to read through this. I hope you understand my wishes.

Many thanks!

Edited August 20, 2022 by Falconjet112

[Franz007 595]

14 hours ago, UAL4life said:

More proof that in many ways MSFS was immensely better at release than it is now. Very frustrating. 

Perhaps talking about the appearance of that weather only yes. But i remember that at the start the local weather at airports were just COMPLETELY wrong and unrealistic when using "Live weather". It was just nowhere near the real state: pressure and winds were completely wrong. And cloud coverage too. The datas were sometimes outdated by 24h or not being actualised at all. It was absolutely unusable for me who likes to fly with "live weather". So this wasn't at all a good state from my point of view. I even switched back to my previous sim when i saw the huge mess with the wrong weather during the first months.

Edited August 20, 2022 by Franz007

[Falconjet112 40]

It's not just me regarding visibility issues in live weather:

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/always-great-visibility/533100

[jcomm 6,027]

1 hour ago, Falconjet112 said:

It's not just me regarding visibility issues in live weather:

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/always-great-visibility/533100

Will try to evaluate this with more attention.

Thanks for the link !

P.S.: Just now...

METAR VABB 201000Z 25010G20KT 2500 HZ FEW012 SCT018 FEW025TCU BKN090 29/26 Q1006 NOSIG

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JzJxKAJM2xgDMFFpIDfZuFkfXIRQ40C3/view?usp=sharing,

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WZGSHtqzudn2nFlhxq_1FIFPyaa9hDZj/view?usp=sharing,

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fm9Tbe07jp2Q89vyoqD93oE0SqbQHCtf/view?usp=sharing,

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sG-zELBfTc6XI0MaeCKNk0mjJhsVimOi/view?usp=sharing

Edited August 20, 2022 by jcomm

[Alti 68]

1 hour ago, Falconjet112 said:

Exactly! Upper visibility neve changes. I simply cannot believe more people don't see this as an issue! 

I posted in the SU10 beta forum regarding live weather visibility options which would please everyone. However moderator locked it. I don't think Asobo are interested. 

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/aerosol-density-visibility-in-live-weather/530001
 

voted...

[MrBitstFlyer 3,899]

2 hours ago, Falconjet112 said:

Exactly! Upper visibility neve changes. I simply cannot believe more people don't see this as an issue! 

One of the main reasons I use Rex WeatherForce.

[lwt1971 7,468]

9 hours ago, Noel said:

Stretch compared to what other theory to explain the degradation in cloud depiction? 

The clouds degradation in live weather started with METAR integration, so I'd say that's the main issue here. But they're improving this over multiple SU releases with SU10 particularly being a great step forward.