Why did the weather depiction change?

[AnkH 2,288]

I agree, @lwt1971 People forget that back in that time, forums were full of people complaining that MSFS does not run well on their potato because it is a well known problem that most are unable to use those strange things called "settings" and only know "ultra". People complaining as soon as the game does not provide 60+ FPS on 4K using "all ultra". But then accepting the consequences? Of course not...

Not only MSFS suffering from this, basically every game that does not run everything on "ultra" with 60+ FPS on 4K after release will have the same sh*storm going on, mostly from people using mediocre hardware of course. Always the same story. 

[Noel 4,572]

To follow up on the awesomely realistic taxi and TO out of nearly clear skies at KDEN a little while ago we did our descent to approach to KSHR in stormy weather and were presented with this.  The landing was awesome!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately compression degrades this image but it's easy to see the low cloud resolution but even so just contrast this w/ the 2D sprite based clouds in P3D of old and try to imagine just how much more processing intensive this is compared to the old model.  Good Lord! I keep my frames locked at 45 despite the fact wide open was 64 or so here because rather sadly I've found Nvidia Frame Generation to be a colossal loser for me, for reasons I still can't come to terms with.  Maybe it's my screen, or something else in the new and old builds but IQ suffers too much now that I'm completely spoiled w/ Render Scale 150 and TAA and AMD Fidelity at 200.

Another shameless plug for Self Loading Cargo:  if you need something to keep your head in the game this is highly recommended.

[Tom_L 558]

3 hours ago, JRBarrett said:

I have never seen clouds in MSFS look as “real” as many of those screen shots - especially the last one in the series.

I have! These are mine, definitely not photoshopped (yes, the storm had a greenish hue to the sky) and show what happened to cloud rendering and especially  the lighting. I also clearly remember many "Wow"-moments back then and many screenshots where I had to look twice to determine that it was indeed MSFS and not a real photo. These days i recognize MSFS at first glance, and "Wow" moments come from everything else but the way the sky looks. While I agree that we sometimes tend to think of the past as better than it actually was, we also tend to settle for mediocrity too easily even though we know there could be better.

[Noel 4,572]

4 minutes ago, Tom_L said:

we sometimes tend to think of the past as better than it actually was

Wholeheartedly agree...

[Baber20 1,496]

Not only clouds but shading, global illumination, LOD, lighting, pretty much everything got downgraded after su5. Been using the SIM since tech alpha 1. I know what we had and what we lost on the way. They xboned us.

You would get these crazy realistic weather patterns and every flight was screenshot worthy. But su7 destroyed that. Now its just Cumulus and more Cumulus.

[Noel 4,572]

13 minutes ago, Baber20 said:

You would get these crazy realistic weather patterns and every flight was screenshot worthy. But su7 destroyed that. Now its just Cumulus and more Cumulus.

Did you save any of that 'screenshot worthy'?  I was there from Day 1 after release, and no, every flight was not screen worthy then any more than now.  I think people were so gobsmacked then they've mostly just gotten used to it now so the thrill of new is gone.   Do you think this was screenshot worthy, from my flight an hour ago?  I certainly do and I think people do this:  tend to think of the past as better than it actually was....

Don't get me wrong I see what's missing in cloud depiction and have posted many times about this.  Note the reactions of people to my post about this:

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/641142-msasobo-i-so-hope-you-dedicate-the-lions-share-of-the/?do=findComment&comment=5052724

 

 

Edited May 6 by Noel

[HiFlyer 9,409]

4 minutes ago, Noel said:

Do you think this was screenshot worthy, from my flight an hour ago?  I certainly do and I think people do this:  tend to think of the past as better than it actually was....

Its years after release and I still go "Wow", on a regular basis.

[h2egc 39]

Yeah the WOW factor is still alive.... I'm always finding the WOW things... for years we all bitched about the graphics... but now everybody wants more.

Head to your nearest airport and rent a plane... 

[Noel 4,572]

2 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

Its years after release and I still go "Wow", on a regular basis.

Me2.  I think considering the mandate to make MSFS run on PotatoPC and Xbox MS/Asobo has done an astounding job of getting to where it is now.   Really looking forward to what they can do w/ apparently greatly enhanced multithreading coming soon.  I don't appreciate what role that might play in cloud rendering as I don't understand the processing involved with getting greater voxel density.  As a very nice side effect of having RTX4090 putting render scaling at 150 has eliminated the pixelated appearance one would get pre and post SU5/7 when the edges of clouds close up were affected under certain lighting.

[Redge 252]

I also agree that I get that "wow" factor very often still these days. Whenever I've been away from MSFS for a week or two (which is unfortunately happening more often at the moment) as soon as I jump back in, I can't believe how great the visuals are. The dusk/night lighting and some of the weather as well - in its current form.

But I also agree with those who say that the weather looked better before. It's a fact that the cloud variety and draw distances have been reduced since launch. Some reasons were for performance, and others for the METAR fudge (which has improved a lot lately). But I still do miss the stratus-esque skies that we used to have and the visual beauty (if not complete accuracy!) of the pure Meteoblue weather model...

[Noel 4,572]

30 minutes ago, Baber20 said:

They xboned us

Nope, they made MSFS sustainable.  My cup's always 90% full and I feel for those whose cup is half or more empty.

[HiFlyer 9,409]

12 minutes ago, Noel said:

I don't appreciate what role that might play in cloud rendering as I don't understand the processing involved with getting greater voxel density.

Back when I was lobbying for "true" 3D clouds in X-plane (Remember SunDog/Silver Lining?) I looked at several weather engines, played with the demos, and eventually purchased Skymaxx, which was considered a "wow" not that long ago but which is now a definite also-ran compared to the default MSFS clouds that we have (apparently) become too jaded to appreciate like we once did....

But I still remember how slow and limited some of those engines could be. I think we forget where we came from.

Oh, well....

 

Edited May 6 by HiFlyer

[Tom_L 558]

24 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

compared to the default MSFS clouds that we have (apparently) become too jaded to appreciate like we once did....

There's that terrible killer argument again: "But it is still better than the competition".
I think those who are more likely to be "jaded" are those who refuse to accept the fact that there are worlds between the visuals of the release version and today and accept that without criticism.
On the other hand, if those who didn't like the release version had thought that way, SU7 might never have existed. Maybe an argument for “jadedness”?

Edited May 6 by Tom_L

[Tuskin38 6,704]

2 hours ago, Noel said:

This statement seems to ignore the idea cloud resolution was reduced across the entire range from Low to Ultra cloud settings.

No that's why I'm confused why they did across all platforms.

Edit: Right, it was answered bottom of page 2. People wanted better performance.

Edited May 6 by Tuskin38

[MarcG 3,059]

Whichever way you look at it Asobo made some blunders along the way, like every single game developer they're not perfect and they're entitled to learn from those mistakes and hopefully that learning will come with MSFS2024. It's just a shame that they continually need the public to shout at them before the realise "what's wrong" - see recent Q&A regarding DX12 textures for a prime example of them not understanding their user base.
Fact is SU5 cloud graphical quality was reduced, fact is SU7 changed the weather & cloud depiction and not for the better (at that period in time), fact is this subject has been brought up countless times and I still get dragged into it because I remember the past whilst others pretend it never happened ☺️