3 hours ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

That video is amazing, and the music is half decent too. Dash Berlin with flightsim. Never would have thought it. 

Don’t believe that’s Dash. Sounds like Oceans by Hillsong. 
 

 

Edited September 23, 20223 yr by btacon

If the cloud structure is the same, then the mode of cloud layering and ceiling height has had a significant effect on the realism, especially when the sun shines through.

4 minutes ago, Doering said:

If the cloud structure is the same, then the mode of cloud layering and ceiling height has had a significant effect on the realism, especially when the sun shines through.

Yup, somehow the direct and indirect effects of these specific improvements below have definitely had an impact for the better in overall depiction of clouds/fog/etc when using live weather in SU10. It's definitely not placebo.

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/release-release-notes-1-27-21-0-sim-update-10/543606
- We implemented a new cloud layer system that will provide more vertical precision at low altitudes to better reflect the various cloud altitudes and thickness close to the ground.
- Added interpolation out of METAR data when getting away from the METAR data (distance, altitude or time)
 

The cloud pixelation is almost completely gone now. I would like to see some better cumulus though.

I'm the ultimate skeptic, and I don't think it's placebo either.
Today, I have had the best clouds I've ever seen in the game on several flights.

Clouds while taking off from KMYL (just north of Boise)

It also looked better during most of my previous flight, less pixelated, more realistic, and just better definition up close and far away.

Edited September 23, 20223 yr by Alpine Scenery

More samplings

 

8 hours ago, Silicus said:

While I agree the clouds have improved in SU10, they are still missing most of the major cloud types.

 

High clouds	Cirrus
	Cirrostratus
	Cirrocumulus
Middle clouds	Altostratus
	Altocumulus
Low clouds	Stratus
	Stratocumulus
	Nimbostratus
Clouds with vertical development	Cumulus
	Cumulonimbus

Most clouds are based on cumulus clouds in the sim or haze/fog type of implentation. 

For example: Altostratus are missing, at least I haven't seen them after SU10. I am happy to be proven wrong.

From my understanding, based on the technology and computing we have today for home PC computers, it's not possible to do every type of cloud because some clouds are very resource intensive to render (ie. nobody want to fly MSFS at 1 FPS 🤣). So I think the first step for Asobo is to add back all the cloud types that MSFS can render, to live weather.  After Asobo has added back all the cloud types to live weather that the MSFS engine is capable of rendering, we can then press Asobo to add other new cloud types to live weather.  But at that point, Asobo will probably have to pick and choose which new cloud types to add to live weather that the MSFS engine cannot currently render - they will have to add the new cloud types based on the practicality of the computational power of home PCs at that time.

Edited September 23, 20223 yr by abrams_tank

7 hours ago, scotchegg said:

Ditto, better than before, but still missing a lot, still defaulting to steamy puffs too often (even at low altitude which they said was fixed in SU10), and overall still usually not as convincing as what we had pre-SU5.

Having said that, if I was coming to MSFS fresh from last-gen sims, I’d still think they were the best thing since sliced bread, so I guess we should always remember how far we’ve come!

I think MSFS clouds are the best for a flight simulator now with DCS World probably coming in second.  You have to consider that MSFS clouds in live weather also have to be consistent with what METAR or Meteoblue says the weather is, which adds an extra layer of complexity to MSFS that DCS World doesn't have to deal with (from my understanding, live weather is a feature being requested in DCS World at the moment, despite there being a 3rd party script that some people use for live weather in DCS World).

Since MSFS's main competition right now is XP 12, I find XP 12's clouds to be very, very blurry, like somebody force a pair of random glasses on you that don't even remotely match your vision. Also, the shape of XP 12's clouds are very weird and LR needs to work much more on the cloud shapes.  However, while I might seem critical of LR, the truth is, doing nice volumetric clouds that don't tank your FPS is actually, very, very hard. In fact, I think this quote from Ben Supnik from Laminar Research can shed some light on the difficulty of making good volumetric clouds without tanking the FPS:

Quote

Clouds – we are working on the shaping and quality of clouds, improving resolution, fixing artifacts, and improving performance. Clouds are probably the single most expensive part of the renderer, so they are a constant tug-of-war between quality and speed.

I think that quote, especially the part that I bolded, captures the difficulty of making nice volumetric clouds that don't tank the FPS.  Since I come from a software development background myself, I can definitely understand Ben Supnik and LR's struggles with keeping the FPS high and also showing very nice volumetric clouds - it's not easy, and it's actually, very, very hard.  

Heh, if more people here at Avsim came from a software development background, you would realize the difficulties that Asobo, LR, LM, Eagle Dynamics, etc, go through to get us everything we want and maybe appreciate their work more 🤣

Edited September 23, 20223 yr by abrams_tank

7 hours ago, btacon said:

Don’t believe that’s Dash. Sounds like Oceans by Hillsong. 
 

 

The one in the flightsim video is actually oceans - Shalom Margaret (Lofi remix). 
 

The one I was thinking of which is almost the same as that lofi remix is oceans - (Rowald steyn lofi chill mix) Dash Berlin. 

I'll join in the cloud chorus - I was flying around Singapore, with real weather, and enjoyed the best sunset I've ever seen in any simulator. Like an eejit, I didn't get a screenshot, however. Well done Asobo - with all the other visual improvements, this sim is a joy.

56 minutes ago, Paul K said:

I'll join in the cloud chorus - I was flying around Singapore, with real weather, and enjoyed the best sunset I've ever seen in any simulator. Like an eejit, I didn't get a screenshot, however. Well done Asobo - with all the other visual improvements, this sim is a joy.

Ahh cool!  Take a screenshot of the clouds next time and post it here 👍

although it seems to be a big improvement i still see too little CIRRUS

And on these rare occasions I do see them, they're wannabee CIRRUS made of transparant slices. Have yet to see anything convincing like they show in the splashscreen (with the giraffe)

I also get the feeling that i see high clouds in ASIA more often than EUROPE, could that be true?

 

Edited September 23, 20223 yr by avhpilot

13 hours ago, KERNEL32 said:

Placebo, Seb himself said no changes have been made to the clouds since SU7. Cloud layers in SU10 have been improved, but nothing has changed with the cloud structures or types. I thought the same when I started testing SU10 but eventually it sank it that they were the same old clouds.

 

Exactly! Though, what they need to do is revert back to pre SU7 or let 3rd party developers take a whack at it. But they won’t do either and I’ll always miss the atmosphere I had on release. 

Edited September 23, 20223 yr by UAL4life

15 hours ago, Silicus said:

While I agree the clouds have improved in SU10, they are still missing most of the major cloud types.

 

High clouds	Cirrus
	Cirrostratus
	Cirrocumulus
Middle clouds	Altostratus
	Altocumulus
Low clouds	Stratus
	Stratocumulus
	Nimbostratus
Clouds with vertical development	Cumulus
	Cumulonimbus

Most clouds are based on cumulus clouds in the sim or haze/fog type of implentation. 

For example: Altostratus are missing, at least I haven't seen them after SU10. I am happy to be proven wrong.

In Active Sky 16, if you cranked up the cloud layers more than about 3, the FPS took a nose dive. That is probably why they don't have 8 layers of clouds, because people would complain about poor performance. 

10 minutes ago, UAL4life said:

Exactly! Though, what they need to do is revert back to pre SU7 or let 3rd party developers take a whack at it. But they won’t do either and I’ll always miss the atmosphere I had on release. 

That early build atmosphere you preferred is long gone and only a memory now....😞