Active Sky faced difficulties in bringing the meteorological

[MrBitstFlyer 3,879]

20 minutes ago, Tom_L said:

However, the discussion should not omit the fact that - cirrus clouds aside - the cloud depiction from release until SU5 (changes in cloud rendering and lighting, SU7 - METAR integration - initially killed it entirely) was superior to all I have seen before (see screenshot).

Developers like MS/Asobo have done marvels with the clouds.  I was so disappointed with the clouds after SU5, but MSFS still does have some excellent skies. XP12 clouds were very poor at release, but have improved.   Your screenshot is very nice indeed, showing how good stratus type clouds can look.

Stratus cloud screenshot in XP12.  Great we have two developers pushing cloud technology forward now!

 

[MrBitstFlyer 3,879]

7 hours ago, Krakin said:

That does NOT look good

Well, its a first attempt at getting cirrus type clouds into a sim, so I welcome it.

[MrBitstFlyer 3,879]

6 hours ago, Ricardo41 said:

Looks terrible.

Give us a clue 🙂  An individual element in any screenshot can be criticised, but as a first attempt at dynamic cirrus clouds, I think the effort should be praised.  I would certain take them over nothing!

[Bobsk8 12,754]

I just fly every day, and the clouds look OK to me.. Go figure? 

[lwt1971 7,420]

1 hour ago, Tom_L said:

However, the discussion should not omit the fact that - cirrus clouds aside - the cloud depiction from release until SU5 (changes in cloud rendering and lighting, SU7 - METAR integration - initially killed it entirely) was superior to all I have seen before (see screenshot).

It lacked accuracy in terms of cloud height, visibilty and overall correspondance to real world METAR reports, but it was on the other hand largely plausible. You could even see convective clouds forming leewards over the islands in the caribbean, and they managed stratiform cloudscapes quite well. I fear that the "ingestion" (I put it in parenthesis because I have no clue about the actual process) of METAR data is somewhat incompatible with the overall weather simulation process. And it seems obvious to me that it takes the developers quite some time to get the hang of it.  And that's where the experience of the "known suspects" could probably make a difference, as they always had to "blend" local weather areas into a greater picture.

 

Absolutely agree... the MSFS weather and rendering engine is capable of rendering great clouds and a variety of, as seen <= SU5.  And yes I'd agree that it was/is superior to everything else I've seen before and see now, easily.  So for manual weather, I'd say we're already there..  for live weather, ever since the first iteration of METAR integration was when the problems started, but I do have to say Asobo have been improving it continually ever since SU6, but we're not there yet to <=SU5 levels for live weather. It would be great if they were to provide METAR integration as an option, but I also understand how that'd not be feasible for them. 

Edited March 11, 2023 by lwt1971

[lwt1971 7,420]

3 hours ago, KERNEL32 said:

This is the very reason why you never heard anything after this hype from Jorg below in the Dev Q&A back in June of 2021 - the x-box has "capped" the capabilities of improving any graphic elements (including clouds) in MSFS (If they improve PC but NOT x-box then xbox sales go down, so they are kind of stuck). HOPEFULLY I am very wrong, and please - I hope they prove me wrong 😉

 

Sorry, this is a silly conspiracy theory about XBox holding back the PC version and has no merit whatsoever. The visual fidelity in MSFS is vastly configurable and can be tuned up or down to one's liking on the PC side as per the user's liking. The XBox version has much less configuration for visual fidelity, and features even (like Lucky38i mentions above), and both the XBox-S and XBox-X versions of MSFS are in fact hardcoded to specific visual settings (i.e. LOD/resolution/etc) that MS/Asobo deems best to fit their particular hardware. One quick example, the ability to render scenes out-of-view is not possible in XBox so when looking back for example the rendering is going to happen on-demand and therefore "pop up". For PC users, we have this option in the visual fidelity advanced settings to turn on/off per our choosing ("Off Screen Terrain Pre-caching")
 

Edited March 11, 2023 by lwt1971

[jarmstro 2,405]

The clouds are fine. More of a worry is that my house is an industrial office block and that field hedges are rows of mature trees. Time flies and now we  have forgotten that just three years ago all this was a dream but now we are grumbling because MSFS isn't good enough? 😂 The clouds are OK and Hi-Fi should devote their energies to sorting out the hedges and my house!😂

Edited March 11, 2023 by jarmstro

[Noel 4,507]

Until voxel-based cloud depiction is given a significant bump in density it's a waste of development time.  It's like being first to market with an EV that has only 8 miles of range--just not useful until the basic issues (voxel density and battery range) are addressed.  This is the time to be patient on this issue not patronize develpers into thinking they will sell copies of attempts at addressing this fundamental basis of   It will come once access to high end GPUs is enabled better in MSFS.  As it is right now clouds and weather are more than sufficient to allow us to fly whatever we want in a huge variety of conditions I do it every day.  That weak image posted and endorsed by the XP people visiting this forum is about as inspiring as this photo.  My sense is this is why MS/A have not delivered various cloud morphologies there's just hardly any point. 

 

Edited March 11, 2023 by Noel

[MrBitstFlyer 3,879]

4 minutes ago, Noel said:

Until voxel-based cloud depiction is given a significant bump in density it's a waste of development time.  It's like being first to market with an EV that has only 8 miles of range--just not useful until the basic issues (voxel density and battery range) are addressed.  This is the time to be patient on this issue not patronize develpers into thinking they will sell copies of attempts at addressing this fundamental basis of   It will come once access to high end GPUs is enabled better in MSFS.  As it is right now clouds and weather are more than sufficient to allow us to fly whatever we want in a huge variety of conditions I do it every day.  That weak image posted and endorsed by the XP people visiting this forum is about as inspiring as this photo:

 

Technology is where it's at, so impressive.  Clouds could have more resolution sure, and they will.  Not long ago I was flying Flight Simulator with square blocks for clouds and I was amazed with the advance in technology.  It appears you will not be satisfied until clouds in the sim and reality match, but wouldn't it be better to enjoy each small advance?

[Noel 4,507]

9 minutes ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

It appears you will not be satisfied until clouds in the sim and reality match, but wouldn't it be better to enjoy each small advance?

Reality is the benchmark for all parts of the sim but we are a very long way away from that today.  I've made the comment there is a middle ground between what we have now in terms of resolution, and where it could be, also now, it's just not been done yet by MS/A.  I don't have interest in weak transitional attempts at trying to create detail and variety out of cotton. I'm patient, and what MSFS has already, is amply sufficient until resolution bumps up.  

[The Flight Level 2,114]

Very interesting read gents! I wonder sometimes if the degree of realism in a simulator will please everyone? We have some pretty hard core desires in this crowd. Personally, I am blown away from some of the screenshots I’ve seen since 2020 in this sim. I have also had several moments myself above the clouds and had to give myself a pinch due to the wow factor. We may not have all the cloud types optimized but they will arrive. 

[Bobsk8 12,754]

1 hour ago, Doering said:

Very interesting read gents! I wonder sometimes if the degree of realism in a simulator will please everyone? We have some pretty hard core desires in this crowd. Personally, I am blown away from some of the screenshots I’ve seen since 2020 in this sim. I have also had several moments myself above the clouds and had to give myself a pinch due to the wow factor. We may not have all the cloud types optimized but they will arrive. 

Yeah, next they will be complaining that there is no pollen in the spring.

[Severne 43]

Have bought AS for P3D and XP with more or less satisfacton,  but in MSFS there's no need for this!

[MrBitstFlyer 3,879]

17 minutes ago, Severne said:

Have bought AS for P3D and XP with more or less satisfacton,  but in MSFS there's no need for this!

No need for it in XP12 either, but its always good to have choices 🙂

[Daube 354]

10 hours ago, Severne said:

Have bought AS for P3D and XP with more or less satisfacton,  but in MSFS there's no need for this!

I guess you haven't read the topic... There is definitely need to products such as AS in MSFS, so that we could get real weather at any time. It has been explained many times here.