The weather started off badly from the start...

16 hours ago, KERNEL32 said:

This opened all of the complaints to bring in METAR, but doing this.

Gee whiz, you mean the 'public shouting at Asobo' didn't turn out to be the best move by Asobo? 🤣🤣🤣 

16 hours ago, KERNEL32 said:

What we were missing was a METAR reporting system in-game that would give us the conditions that the game was experiencing at the airports

Great idea, reverse engineer a METAR for MSFS.  I wonder how feasible that is?

16 hours ago, KERNEL32 said:

I doubted myself some time after all the changes, "have I just gotten used to the clouds and lighting engine?" But after 3,300+ hours in the sim, I can say without a doubt, that from release up to around SU5 we had much better clouds, lighting and cloud variety/immersion.

I think most everyone noticed the changes coming out of those SU's.  But there is no need to believe it's either/or, it can be both, and most assuredly it is.  Clearly, that you actually considered the idea you may have just gotten used to the clouds makes a couple of points:

• The change was NOT so dramatic that you were immediately struck w/ the differences
• You rightly consider we tend to accommodate/habituate to what we are exposed to over and over and over, which was the basis of that initial thought you had.

A lot of SUBJECTIVITY goes into this.  When I made a major point in a thread here that I hoped Asobo would dedicate the lion's share  (that's different than 'a good part' 😉) of newly accessible resources from their purported revamp of multithreading for the 2024 release towards amping up cloud resolution and depiction quality, here are some of the responses, and this thread was posted THIS YEAR:

Some quotes:

"I’ve been flying simulations for somewhere around  40+ years.  I’ve had them all I figure. Never, NEVER have I seen cloud depictions like the current depictions in the current release of MSFS."

"Unpopular Opinion, but I would take a reduction in cloud visuals if it meant an increase in weather realism...."

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

"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."  

"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."

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

My sense is in some ways overall weather since the changes coming from SU5/7 have improved some and I think many others here would agree and I say that from reading posts about this.  That being said, I'm certain all of us want to see substantially better cloud and weather depiction.  When I dared to suggest the obsession with high frame rates was part of the reason we have what we have for cloud depiction I was scorned out of the thread.

 

 

Edited May 10, 20242 yr by Noel

On 5/6/2024 at 1:51 PM, JRBarrett said:

I’m not sure why the header of the article says “June 2019”, because the alpha did not start until late in 2019. Prior to that time, only Asobo/Microsoft employees had access to MSFS.

None of the photos were from the alpha, or they would have had the user name embedded at multiple locations in the screen capture. That was a limitation of the alpha that wasn’t removed until the sim was released in August 2020.

One thing the sim definitely could do prior to SU7 (and does not do anymore) was depict “real” cumulonimbus as shown in the 4th photo. I saw something similar when departing KABQ. An isolated and very realistic cumulonimbus cell over the Jemez mountains north of the city. That would have been in early 2021.

I was on the first Alpha and that was at the end of 2019...  The user name wasn't on the first alpha if I remember correct, but done due to leaking screenshots later...

Just now, virtualstuff said:

I was on the first Alpha and that was at the end of 2019...  The user name wasn't on the first alpha if I remember correct, but done due to leaking screenshots later...

Which makes me wonder how the MSFS 2024 Alpha/beta will be handled, or even if there'll be one.

2 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

Which makes me wonder how the MSFS 2024 Alpha/beta will be handled, or even if there'll be one.

My guess is we won't see an alpha, but straight into the beta.

46 minutes ago, Noel said:

I think most everyone noticed the changes coming out of those SU's.  But there is no need to believe it's either/or, it can be both, and most assuredly it is.  Clearly, that you actually considered the idea you may have just gotten used to the clouds makes a couple of points:

• The change was NOT so dramatic that you were immediately struck w/ the differences

I think a reminder of how BAD SU7 really was is due:

 

Edited May 10, 20242 yr by Tom_L

8 minutes ago, Tom_L said:

I think a reminder of how BAD SU7 really was is due:

Yeah but...why was it KERNAL32 actually considered he'd maybe just gotten use to clouds?  Was he just blind or had memory troubles?

5 minutes ago, Noel said:

Was he just blind or had memory troubles?

I think he made it clear that he found absolute deterioration as a result. It is certainly not a mistake to question your own perception from time to time. I agree that today's live weather is a matter of taste. It is very accurate, at least in terms of cloud placement, although the cloud type leaves a lot to be desired. And I won't go into visibilty outside of rain, CB, TS, lightning...  . But I thought it was important to point out that the notion SU7 might not have been that big of a deterioration is ridiculous.

I was an alpha tester and day-one customer for the MSFS. Here are some screenshots from late-2020 to early-2021.

I wouldn't comment on their move of adjusting/nerfing (or whatever you call it) in the visuals in an attempt to reduce the burden on the hardware since I didn't do benchmarks to compare the differences in performances between SUs. The hardware changed as well, We've had faster CPUs (13th Intel, 5800X3D & 7800X3D from AMD) for MSFS and frame-gen from the 40-series graphics card.

 

 

 

Edited May 22, 20242 yr by 21grams
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