737NG Driver takes a look at the graphical progress MSFS has made post SU14.

 

I'm not sure what the changes to clouds did but I'm often very impressed by them lately. They're definitely the best in the business. Of course, Asobo has more work to do and I do hope they can squeeze the cloud opacity fix into SU15. 

Edited December 11, 20232 yr by Krakin

1 hour ago, Krakin said:

737NG Driver takes a look at the graphical progress MSFS has made post SU14.

 

I'm not sure what the changes to clouds did but I'm often very impressed by them lately. They're definitely the best in the business. Of course, Asobo has more work to do and I do hope they can squeeze the cloud opacity fix into SU15. 

MSFS has the best clouds, by far!  The weakness of MSFS clouds in live weather is that it doesn't generate as many cloud variations as it could. Using manual weather, the MSFS engine is capable of generating more variations of clouds.  So hopefully for MSFS 2024, there are more cloud variations.

But the clouds MSFS can generate are simply the best for a flight simulator. There is no comparison. The clouds have great definition (they are not blurry), and they look very realistic.

And 737 NG Drive is right, MSFS is simply so beautiful. Even the lighting is by far the best, and the lighting is why some photos of MSFS are hard to distinguish from a real photo. Nice video find @krakin!

Edited December 11, 20232 yr by abrams_tank

6 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

But the clouds MSFS can generate are simply the best for a flight simulator.

They are very good, however, xEnviro still produces better looking clouds with more cloud types in live weather.

Of course there are negatives with xEnviro, but you have a choice if the number of cloud types is important to you

2 minutes ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

They are very good, however, xEnviro still produces better looking clouds with more cloud types in live weather.

Of course there are negatives with xEnviro, but you have a choice if the number of cloud types is important to you

Let's just say we agree to disagree. I have seen the xEnviro videos on Youtube, the clouds look weird. The shading/shadows are weird, the cloud shapes look weird, etc. It's just not for me. If you like it, great. MSFS clouds are still the best clouds for a flight simulator for me, and that even includes DCS clouds when I last checked DCS. MSFS just needs more cloud variation in live weather.

Us simmers are a hard-to-please bunch.. and amidst both our fair and unfair criticisms of MSFS, we take for granted just how much fidelity we now get in the default base sim, from scenery and world depiction, to avionics, to aircraft, etc etc.. rightfully acknowledged by 737 NG Driver above and he's not one to be all rosy. We know MSFS 2024 will once again raise the bar for world visuals and I'd assume the default fleet would be at the very least the same as they are now, but hopefully even more deeply simulated in the hands of Working Title, Seb, Andrey Solomykin and team. I'd certainly hope they update their default birds to make use of the v2024 FDE/physics improvements (outside of global improvements that all aircraft benefit from without changes), finer aircraft geometry definition, etc.

Worth also mentioning his review of the default SR22 which like the default CJ4, Citation, and 787 is a fine example of WT's great work.

 

Edited December 11, 20232 yr by lwt1971

eh clickbait.... and I thought this guy was a new A330driver?

2 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

They are very good, however, xEnviro still produces better looking clouds with more cloud types in live weather.

Of course there are negatives with xEnviro, but you have a choice if the number of cloud types is important to you

$70 for a few more cloud types,, LOL 🤪

Edited December 11, 20232 yr by Bobsk8

3 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

xEnviro still produces better looking clouds with more cloud types in live weather.

Stop the madness...🤣

51 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

$70 for a few more cloud types,, LOL 🤪

No, many more.

6 hours ago, Krakin said:

I'm not sure what the changes to clouds did but I'm often very impressed by them lately.

They have done nothing to the clouds, this is placebo. They have improved the obsolete weather data, cloud transition updates and various other things (see SU14 notes https://www.flightsimulator.com/sim-update-14/).

Just my opinion, which is not much, but Asobo still have a long way to go as far as the cloud visual realty/variations. Don't get me wrong though, I agree that the accuracy has seen marked improvements for sure. For example a cold front came through Florida yesterday and the rain was pretty much where and when it needed to be - however the clouds were "mehh". It just seems as if the live weather clouds cannot seem to make up their mind and always give us this "partly cloudy" type of wispy/transparent cloud puffs. Most of the time you can see right through them (above or below). Not sure why they cannot depict an overcast layer and specifically one that is fully opaque and either lower, middle or higher altitudes.

Now on the last dev update video, they confirmed that they will TRY to get the cloud density correct or at least better which was great news! For now though, it's mostly-partly cloudy transparent cumulus puffs for all!

https://youtu.be/n0Ugsjs-Os0?t=3012

 

I have a strong suspicion that this excellent video showcasing MSFS will be embedded within Asobo's next weekly blog. At least, I hope it will be. I thought 737NG Driver did an especially good job on this video.

I have to disagree with some of the comments here, whilst I love MSFS and am totally addicted to it, I think that the quality of the clouds are one of the biggest disappointments with it. In my opinion they are the wrong colour, too often look like cauliflower or volcanic ash clouds, and are low resolution up close.

1 hour ago, KERNEL32 said:

Most of the time you can see right through them (above or below). Not sure why they cannot depict an overcast layer and specifically one that is fully opaque and either lower, middle or higher altitudes.

That’s a big loss for me as well. Pre-SU5/7 the layers were beautifully done. Haven’t seen true / plausible layers since. 
 

There have been so many positive steps forward in the sim, but given the HUGE step back of the cloud rendition, on balance I’m not sure I feel the skies are better than where they were at the beginning.

1 hour ago, abennett said:

I have to disagree with some of the comments here

Hmm well i don't think any one has suggested that the clouds are perfect but even with their problems, I do think they're the best of the bunch.

5 hours ago, JBDB-MD80 said:

eh clickbait

The title is not clickbait.

5 hours ago, JBDB-MD80 said:

I thought this guy was a new A330driver?

You can't change your Youtube channel name easily. Plus keeping his old name is better for searching since most people would know him by that name.

  

3 hours ago, KERNEL32 said:

Most of the time you can see right through them

I have to disagree with this. Most of the times I see clouds I cannot see through them.

Edited December 12, 20232 yr by Tuskin38