MS/Asobo: I so hope you dedicate the lion's share of the...

[Purr 125]

On 1/9/2024 at 9:19 PM, JBDB-MD80 said:

Study the aircraft first with the flight model and physics and worry about scenery last.

I get what you mean here but flight model and physics are directly related to airflow and this weather. Airplane and weather are never distinct once the wheels leave the ground. So for me both need to be developed further. I’m confident this will be the case in 2024. 
 

Edited January 12 by Purr

[Max Kraus 339]

Clouds look ok to me. I have always seen the pixellation there and really just let it slide. Sometimes you get some jawdropping stuff out there.

PS can we try and avoid clickbait post titles? It's really annoying, no offence though.

[RobJC 2,069]

I can think of a lot of better places to use that performance. AI traffic for one. ATC for another. Clouds like great to me. 

[Noel 4,504]

11 hours ago, flyhalf said:

PS can we try and avoid clickbait post titles? It's really annoying, no offence though

WAS NOT clickbait my friend I truly would love to see clouds more than a couple of steps BETTER than we had pre-SU5, but apparently few others care, which I can't relate to.  Anytime you're NEAR clouds, they look like garbage in large part.  Better than anything else in sim world currently I agree and often great in the distance but the closer you get the weaker they look.   And with all the headroom coming in 2024 from multithreading optimization, better and better hardware, it was be sad to see this giant component ignored.   I really cannot believe there isn't big support for a SLIDER to give user control over this, to access all of that nice high end hardware but alas, apparently few care.  

[ryanbatc 12,859]

I just want opaque clouds.  Even thin stratus layers are totally non see through irl.  In the sim you never really hit cloud bases...just areas of reduced visibility.  I can look out the window and look down and almost always see the ground in MSFS even though I'm in the middle of a cloud layer.  There's gotta be a way to code something "if user in cloud layer, render visibility 0" or something!

Sure, once in a while there are truly thin wispy low clouds, but most of them you cannot see through.  I want to go into the clouds and not be able to see down until I come out of the bases.

[MarkW 1,493]

Can the mods start insisting on proper titles?  There seem to be so many clickbait titles posted now its a bit annoying.  The topic is interesting though.

Edited January 12 by MarkW

[Noel 4,504]

50 minutes ago, ryanbatc said:

I just want opaque clouds.  Even thin stratus layers are totally non see through irl.  In the sim you never really hit cloud bases...just areas of reduced visibility.  I can look out the window and look down and almost always see the ground in MSFS even though I'm in the middle of a cloud layer.  There's gotta be a way to code something "if user in cloud layer, render visibility 0" or something!

Sure, once in a while there are truly thin wispy low clouds, but most of them you cannot see through.  I want to go into the clouds and not be able to see down until I come out of the bases.

Yep, but not here as everyone apparently loves the flat see-thru plates called clouds.  The clamoring over what happened to cloud depiction post SU5, with various theories that this was done to accommodate Xbox's small VRAM footprint and other processing shortcomings, seems to have all but vanished now.   I've read several comments in the past several months suggesting cloud depiction has improved some, and I agree it has though I'm hard pressed to explain exactly how.  My sense is people have just gotten used to low resolution, thin, poorly distinct cloud morphologies or the lack thereof.   But come on now:  it's 3.4 years since the first attempt at depiction debuted, which nearly everyone believes was superior at some level than we have now 3.4y later.  And you're all good leaving it as is?  Weird....

I do apologize for the title I understand and don't like "click-bait" myself, but that was accidental on my part.

[MrBitstFlyer 3,875]

On 1/10/2024 at 7:01 AM, scotchegg said:

I felt like that on release of MSFS, and right up to the carnage that was visited on the clouds with SU5/7.

100% agree.  Clouds were MUCH better before.

[MrBitstFlyer 3,875]

24 minutes ago, Noel said:

Yep, but not here as everyone apparently loves the flat see-thru plates called clouds.  The clamoring over what happened to cloud depiction post SU5, with various theories that this was done to accommodate Xbox's small VRAM footprint and other processing shortcomings, seems to have all but vanished now.   I've read several comments in the past several months suggesting cloud depiction has improved some, and I agree it has though I'm hard pressed to explain exactly how.  My sense is people have just gotten used to low resolution, thin, poorly distinct cloud morphologies or the lack thereof.   But come on now:  it's 3.4 years since the first attempt at depiction debuted, which nearly everyone believes was superior at some level than we have now 3.4y later.  And you're all good leaving it as is?  Weird....

I do apologize for the title I understand and don't like "click-bait" myself, but that was accidental on my part.

Absolutely agree.  Personally I use xEnviro2020 because the clouds generated by that mod are superior to default live weather.  Sure, you have to have a global weather model, but cloud depiction is worth it in my eyes.

I don't have that feeling of wonder at default live weather clouds anymore, but quite often with xEnviro2020 I have that jaw dropping experience at how amazing the sky looks.

Edited January 12 by MrBitstFlyer

[ryanbatc 12,859]

I think their overall metar and area depiction is improved.  But what  we get now are usually just cloud puffs...  puffs all around in live weather... kinda like the OP's screenshots.

If you still use static weather it can look extremely realistic.  Maybe there's not enough data in live weather to make a thick cloud...  

[Noel 4,504]

31 minutes ago, ryanbatc said:

If you still use static weather it can look extremely realistic.  Maybe there's not enough data in live weather to make a thick cloud...  

Ahh, but the magic of software, kinda like your RTX frame generator producing intermediate frames out of thin air.  

[MrBitstFlyer 3,875]

33 minutes ago, ryanbatc said:

I think their overall metar and area depiction is improved.  But what  we get now are usually just cloud puffs...  puffs all around in live weather... kinda like the OP's screenshots.

If you still use static weather it can look extremely realistic.  Maybe there's not enough data in live weather to make a thick cloud...  

Default live weather is where the problem resides.  xEnviro2020 clouds at times are incredible - I often just pause the sim and observe the sky!

[Krakin 5,774]

If they just fix opacity, I will be a very happy camper. I am tired of seeing stars through clouds that should be blocking them from view.

[Noel 4,504]

Here's what I mean.  You can't tell me anyone likes this!  And the next section of this flight, nearfield, was 3x worse!  They are so crude, so out of focus.  Now just imagine an algorithm (controlled by that SLIDER) that increases density/opacity/quality the closer you are to the cloud, up to the capabilities of YOUR hardware and setup.  All clouds behind and beyond your nearfield, out of view behind the clouds next to you, are low density budget clouds like we have now at point blank range.  I'm sure it's costly performance-wise, which is why I'd love to see a bunch of that headroom to address this.   

For the newly initiated:  Cloud DynamicLOD 🤞

Edited January 12 by Noel

[ryanbatc 12,859]

Here I am b*tching about the clouds and just now on my northern MN flight the general forward look into clouds looks pretty dang opaque (and very realistic!)...some of the outer areas are just too transparent still...but looks better.  So the engine is clearly capable of doing it... perhaps it's missing some cloud structure data in certain areas?

One can sort of see through them from above but from the cockpit they're pretty darn good - LIVE WEATHER

sf50dlh5 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

sf50dlh6 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

This one looks real...like I've flown this area irl (in a vision jet haha) and it looked like this I swear

sf50dlh7 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

Edited January 12 by ryanbatc