No more live weather thunderstorms?

[superspud 450]

I find storms in general to be pathetically weedy. 

If you choose the storm preset you wake up to grey skies and rain on your windows, then you pan a bit and it's blazing sun and tweeting birdies just beyond. 

I want to see farmhouses flying past me. 

Edited May 24, 2023 by superspud

[SierraHotel 982]

2 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I remember a stat from many years ago that at any one time there are 2,200 thunderstorms in the world.

Is there any way to search for them in MSFS. There is in Active Sky of course but that’s for another sim.

https://badbadweather.com/

[B777ER 2,486]

Never seen lightning in the sim or thunder. Storms are currently not good.

[Afterburner 374]

And some people claim that MSFS' own live weather is good enough and that there is no need for 3rd party weather add-ons live Active Sky.

There is still a lot of potential for improvement. Just sayin'...

[ThomseN_inc 1,128]

Now we know what the upcoming surpise is. 🙂

[Jeeeno 314]

29 minutes ago, Afterburner said:

And some people claim that MSFS' own live weather is good enough and that there is no need for 3rd party weather add-ons live Active Sky.

There is still a lot of potential for improvement. Just sayin'...

There still lot of potential for improvement, that's for sure. However if Hifi takes us back to the FSX/P3D weather, I'll take 100 times MSFS weather with all its faults. 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,958]

2 hours ago, Jeeeno said:

There still lot of potential for improvement, that's for sure. However if Hifi takes us back to the FSX/P3D weather, I'll take 100 times MSFS weather with all its faults. 

Strange how you condemn them before a single line of code has been written. They can only work with what is made available to them. It’s up to Asobo to create a comprehensive SDK so Hi-Fi can produce high quality clouds just as they did for FSX and P3D. Can’t speak for XP as I’ve never owned it.

[fppilot 4,371]

3 hours ago, abrams_tank said:

The reason why Asobo "dumbed down" the lightning is because back in 2020/2021, a lot of users were complaining that lightning/thunder was everywhere. On a partly cloudy day, with some clouds around (but not a fully overcast day), there was lightning/thunder. Hence, there was lightning/thunder everywhere. It annoyed so many users that Asobo "dumbed down" the lightning/thunder.

Just like icing effects, Asobo could not get thunder and lightening right.  When it was present it was ridiculously overdone.  Three or four lightening bolts in five seconds kind of overdone.  And too often it was out of place in regard to location and even season (based on coverage).  They could not seem to find a reasonable/realistic balance.  Hopefully Hifi will come to the rescue, as they have previously.

This, looking east from KDEN last September 15th, is the only depiction of a something like a  cumulonimbus  I have ever seen in MSFS, and it could as easily be a nuclear blast or a cloud from a cooling tower.


Perhaps Hifi or REX will give us missing cloud types, and more realistic versions of some cloud types.
 

[Bobsk8 12,732]

Speaking of AS16, I can remember if you set more than 3 layers of clouds, the FPS went into the dumpster. I am happy with the weather in MSFS and good performance to boot. 

[Tom_L 533]

2 hours ago, Jeeeno said:

However if Hifi takes us back to the FSX/P3D weather, I'll take 100 times MSFS weather with all its faults. 

Apart from volumetric clouds to the horizon and slightly increased accuracy in regards to where clouds are rendered, I don't see a huge difference to the old P3D days since SU7 anymore.

Although we don't know the internals of Live weather generation, it is fair to assume that the broader approach from the release version - simulating weather on a larger scale based on forecast models - has been replaced by a smaller-scale, METAR centric weather synthesis. And that is basically what third parties have done for decades.
Add the excruciatingly slow progress of incremental "improvements" (fixes is probably a more appropriate term) for Live Weather after the SU7 desaster, I think the point MS/ASOBO certainly had initially with Live Weather being a unique asset has become obsolete. They simply don't seem to be able to deliver on their promises. Given the experience of third parties like REX and HifiSim, maybe they can, although I expect there to be a longer process as well.

I'm still in favor of an in-house approach, as I still have hopes that MS/ASOBO might be able to surprise us by exploiting the potential of the engine and their collaboration with Meteoblue, but in any case - being entirely optional - Addons won't harm what is already there. It's about options and choice.

[RandallR 446]

Though I haven't seen lightning and heard thunder in a couple of weeks, it was present in several flights (live weather) in New Zealand a few weeks ago.  I had to navigate around the strong cells - there was an occasional flash and some thunder.

[B777ER 2,486]

5 hours ago, ThomseN_inc said:

Now we know what the upcoming surpise is. 🙂

I would very much like to see a Weather & Atmospheric dedicated update.

[Damian Clark 1,261]

2 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Strange how you condemn them before a single line of code has been written. They can only work with what is made available to them. It’s up to Asobo to create a comprehensive SDK so Hi-Fi can produce high quality clouds just as they did for FSX and P3D. Can’t speak for XP as I’ve never owned it.

Thank goodness we are not allowed to integrate with FS2020 weather, HiFi would ruin everything, like they always have, right?  I mean it would be an absolute tragedy if they can participate at all, right?  Let's make sure the community comes together to fight against this absolute stain on the simulation world!  🤡

Edited May 24, 2023 by Damian Clark

[Damian Clark 1,261]

Actually,  this is a great example of something we could easily offer "alternate experiences" with compared to default weather, that I know a lot of people would appreciate, and we would really sincerely appreciate the opportunity to try.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,958]

@Damian Clark, thank God for a sense of humour eh? 😉