2 hours ago, Krakin said:

The OP misunderstood what was happening and got corrected soooo why are we still talking about this? lol

Likely because ATIS/AWOS is still so screwed up.  No way to know what true conditions are there during approach and landing. So is that a function of the screwed up MSFS ATC?  Or a function of the MSFS weather?  In all honesty, until MS shut off live weather for FSX in 2010 or 2011, here in the USA I had a much better experience with both ATC and live weather.  And I am a stickler for accurate weather. (see my message footer)

1 hour ago, fppilot said:

Likely because ATIS/AWOS is still so screwed up.  No way to know what true conditions are there during approach and landing. So is that a function of the screwed up MSFS ATC?  Or a function of the MSFS weather?  In all honesty, until MS shut off live weather for FSX in 2010 or 2011, here in the USA I had a much better experience with both ATC and live weather.  And I am a stickler for accurate weather. (see my message footer)

I can't help but think that the old metar reporting system of octas,  cloud types and levels was a lot better than the current system of few, scattered, etc with no cloud types or levels. The older reporting would have made the sim weather so much more accurate with live weather being able to project this information into the sim. But, we now have to work with what we have got. From a pilots point of view,  octas was a much better system.  Being an ex ATC, I did thousands of met reports over the years, with direct input to the weather bureau every hour.

Edited March 29, 20233 yr by petejohno1

4 minutes ago, petejohno1 said:

Being an ex ATC, I did thousands of met reports over the years, with direct input to the weather bureau every hour.

I did thousands of those flight weather recordings when in the Air Force. Also did live weather recordings and forecast recordings for Army training and public access.  Was AF but stationed at an AAF at Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri.

Edited March 29, 20233 yr by fppilot

METARS, TAF is terminal weather reports/forecasts no way can depict weather other than similar with “weather depiction chart” which does over all terminal sketch but doesn’t really provide big picture on different altitudes.

If you happy with system of meetars and taf you won’t get correct weather picture in remote areas or large areas different altitudes .

One of my CFIs said weather man can be wrong 50% of the time and still keep his job lol

 

18 hours ago, honanhal said:

It frequently looks like a computer game, not real.

It never looked real, because it IS a computer game.  There is always going to be a fundamental difference.  Anyone who doesn't understand and accept this has not spent enough time outside ;).

I understand your complaints about the issues introduced with SU7, though I'd argue that they've been mostly corrected by now.  Even if there are still some differences, I find it hard to understand how it could be argued that less accurate weather - in software that claims to be a simulator - would be preferable as long as it's "pretty", which is of course subjective.  For simulation use, I'd consider accuracy to be a lot "prettier" than aesthetics.  You should see the weather depiction in real level D simulators; you wouldn't find it "pretty" at all.  But they are much better for it, at being simulators ;).

So the live weather is actually live?

Edited March 30, 20233 yr by MikeH99

Unfortunately for me the live weather in MSFS is woefully accurate as I head West into a 80 knot headwind verfied by Skyvector.  I really wish the MSFS weather was woefully inaccurate but unfortunately it is spot on.

sp

1 hour ago, petejohno1 said:

But, we now have to work with what we have got.

What we have got? Or what Asobo tied themselves up to in regard to contracts and license agreements?  We had more until 2010 or 2011 with FSX re live weather, and Active Sky knocked it out of the park with AS16.  Those approaches/technologies existed well before 2020 and were/are mostly ignored.  As a serious flight simulation community we have been "gamed"!  ATC/ATIS/AWOS and traffic as well.  It was all there to harvest during MSFS 2020 development.  Ignorance is bliss.

The significant breakthrough since release has been the excellent work of Working Title.  WT gor their foot through the door on yet another MSFS inadequacy and conventional wisdom says that success was possible due to lack of an equally restrictive contract or license agreement for avionics. I absolutely treasure what we as a community have gained from that.

Edited March 30, 20233 yr by fppilot

1 hour ago, Stearmandriver said:

.  You should see the weather depiction in real level D simulators; you wouldn't find it "pretty" at all.  But they are much better for it, at being simulators ;).

I’m pretty sure that most level D sims draw weather from presets of instructor panel. Which in turn pretty much achievable in most  ways in MSFS (minus instructor panel )

Talking about sims ATD, BTD, level D you name it . Yes they are  great and safe way to run emergency scenario, get proficient  and stay current. But I hope we all agree there is no substitute for real aircraft or actual flying experience . Also no comparison with real life emergency especially psychological effect of it when actual life at stakes 

1 hour ago, Sky_Pilot071 said:

Unfortunately for me the live weather in MSFS is woefully accurate as I head West into a 80 knot headwind verfied by Skyvector.  I really wish the MSFS weather was woefully inaccurate but unfortunately it is spot on.

sp

Winds maybe, cloud cover is neither accurate to METAR, nor to the data it is supposed to be coming from. So there is a problem somewhere.

To clarify, I don't expect the weather in sim to match the weather exactly at it is in the world. But I would expect it to match the data from which is supposed to be being generated, which at the moment it does not.

1 minute ago, abennett said:

Winds maybe, cloud cover is neither accurate to METAR, nor to the data it is supposed to be coming from. So there is a problem somewhere.

To clarify, I don't expect the weather in sim to match the weather exactly at it is in the world. But I would expect it to match the data from which is supposed to be being generated, which at the moment it does not.

From my standpoint the weather is spot on.  Your mileage may vary.  Key is to enjoy the sim we got.

sp

4 hours ago, Stearmandriver said:

It never looked real, because it IS a computer game.  There is always going to be a fundamental difference.  Anyone who doesn't understand and accept this has not spent enough time outside ;).

I understand your complaints about the issues introduced with SU7, though I'd argue that they've been mostly corrected by now.  Even if there are still some differences, I find it hard to understand how it could be argued that less accurate weather - in software that claims to be a simulator - would be preferable as long as it's "pretty", which is of course subjective.  For simulation use, I'd consider accuracy to be a lot "prettier" than aesthetics.  You should see the weather depiction in real level D simulators; you wouldn't find it "pretty" at all.  But they are much better for it, at being simulators ;).

Looked pretty real to me at release, and I've spent plenty of time outside.🙂 But my main point is that it looked much less artificial then than it does now, mostly because of the way the cloudscapes have become much more puffy cumulous centric (more like the legacy sims, in other words). I think that's pretty hard to deny if you look at screenshots side by side.

As I said earlier, I agree things have gotten massively better since SU7. And let me be clear: while I agree the pre-SU7 weather was prettier, that's not really my goal. My complaint with the post-SU7 weather isn't that it's uglier; it's that it doesn't look as real, so the illusion/immersion of the sim as a whole is weakened. I'd also argue that saying the post-SU7 clouds are more "accurate" is debatable, at best. Do they (generally) match the METAR conditions? Yes, almost by definition. That's precisely what the post-SU7 system is designed to do. But that's a pretty narrow criterion for "accurate clouds" -- and I'll note that ActiveSky in FSX or P3D met that bar as well. Was the AS-injected weather in FSX/P3D more "accurate" than MSFS release weather? And, whether you think the answer is yes or no, was it better?

Relatedly, that's why if I could snap my fingers and turn my MSFS into a level-D simulator, I wouldn't. I'm glad they exist, and they fill their role well, but it's very much not what I'm after in a home flight sim. I want a reasonable degree of fidelity to real-world flying because it immerses me in the illusion of flight. I want the clouds to look like real clouds, the landscape to look like the real landscape, because it immerses me in that illusion. Again, I understand that for some people that stuff is distinctly secondary or lower on their list of priorities. They want a simulated aircraft that always hits its real-world numbers, and weather that is "correct" insofar as it is explicitly depicted in the sim, whether or not it looks at all like what that weather would look like in the real world. I get it.

For me, what I'm ultimately after is verisimilitude, not perfect accuracy for its own sake. The live weather at release felt and looked more real. That's about the long and short of it for me!

James

16 hours ago, JRBarrett said:

What?? You most certainly do still get fronts and moving storm systems - which still come mainly from the MeteoBlue model. I did a flight last Sunday from Indianapolis to Fort Myers. The weather at IND was clear and sunny, and partly cloudy at RSW, but there was a narrow line of storms in the vicinity of Atlanta - and my FP route took me right over ATL. I could see the storm front clouds (in an east/west line) when about 100 miles north of ATL, and they got thicker and denser as I got closer. My only objection to the current system is that there is rarely any lightning anymore.

Honestly, I'm glad to hear it! Maybe it's as simple as I'm flying in the wrong places. I've flown a decent amount since SU7 but haven't really seen this that I can recall, but it was something I saw a lot pre-SU7.

Edited March 30, 20233 yr by honanhal
typo

I'm on to try the new thermals.... Have to give those a new try after having watched the last stream.