So, taxing out from KSLC I noticed that the atmosphere leading up the mountains was thick and foggy but it was a clear day. Looked great but I figured I just never noticed before. Mind you, I flew into KSLC last week and I'm sure it didn't look like that. Anyway. The climb out with the Great Salt lake, sun coming down, and the atmosphere was emotionally touching. A WOW! escaped my lips.

I Climbed up to FL350 and walked away from the computer. When I came back and it was dark. I looked out the Fenix A321 windows and POW!!! The city night lighting is MONUMENTAL. It's beautiful. So much so I actually had to task switch to see if I had loaded FS 2024. The sepia crappy fighting has been updated - roads are more prominent, the city lights are much more variable, so instead of a sepia blob it looks really believable. The effect with clouds is jaw dropping as I flew over Chicago.

Wow, thanks Asobo. FS 2024 is paying dividends - for FS 2020 at least!

 

 

 

 

 

Was there server side update?

17 minutes ago, B777ER said:

Was there server side update?

Had to be. Flying into JFK tonight was surreal. Atmospherics (maybe) and Night Lighting (100% sure). Funny thing is that last time I flew FS 2024 at night it was the same crappy light masks as 2020 so I wonder if that was updated too?

 

3 hours ago, Mike T said:

So, taxing out from KSLC I noticed that the atmosphere leading up the mountains was thick and foggy but it was a clear day. Looked great but I figured I just never noticed before. Mind you, I flew into KSLC last week and I'm sure it didn't look like that. Anyway. The climb out with the Great Salt lake, sun coming down, and the atmosphere was emotionally touching. A WOW! escaped my lips.

I Climbed up to FL350 and walked away from the computer. When I came back and it was dark. I looked out the Fenix A321 windows and POW!!! The city night lighting is MONUMENTAL. It's beautiful. So much so I actually had to task switch to see if I had loaded FS 2024. The sepia crappy fighting has been updated - roads are more prominent, the city lights are much more variable, so instead of a sepia blob it looks really believable. The effect with clouds is jaw dropping as I flew over Chicago.

Wow, thanks Asobo. FS 2024 is paying dividends - for FS 2020 at least!

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting. See if I got this right, so, MSFS 2020 got an update treatment too? Just curious if there was also a "downloading files" event when you started the sim.

45 minutes ago, History said:

 

Interesting. See if I got this right, so, MSFS 2020 got an update treatment too? Just curious if there was also a "downloading files" event when you started the sim.

Nope, got into the sim as usual, no updates. I wasn't expecting anything, and there were no notices. When I got into the sim it was one of those "wait...what?" moments. 

Yes, you're right. I don't think 2020 has ever looked quitre so good. Not just the landscapes but the cloudscpaes and lighting. It's like its back to pre SU5 almost.

No idea why though. I guess server side updates could be something. But hey whatever....go 2020! lol it's just as well as I have really not been able to get 2024 working for me yet.

I've noticed the same thing today. Arriving in Amsterdam, the clouds seemed incredible to me. It's true that I use Rex Atmos but even so I've never seen them so realistic.

Edited December 21, 20241 yr by luis70

9 hours ago, Mike T said:

So, taxing out from KSLC I noticed that the atmosphere leading up the mountains was thick and foggy but it was a clear day. Looked great but I figured I just never noticed before. Mind you, I flew into KSLC last week and I'm sure it didn't look like that. Anyway. The climb out with the Great Salt lake, sun coming down, and the atmosphere was emotionally touching. A WOW! escaped my lips.

 

I have noticed much improved graphics as well. The terrain no longer looks blurry from high altitude which makes me wonder if there’s been an update.

At high altitude MSFS 2020 used to look depressing, not anymore.  Would they do an update and not advertise it?

Probably tuned the server settings in time for the holidays, allowed for higher bandwidth allocation and stream capability for each user to make it look its best when it sees a big influx of new users. 

21 minutes ago, Sethos said:

Probably tuned the server settings in time for the holidays, allowed for higher bandwidth allocation and stream capability for each user to make it look its best when it sees a big influx of new users. 

So that means it’s  temporary and it could default back to marginal visuals, depending on server’s capabilities?

6 minutes ago, Huascar said:

So that means it’s  temporary and it could default back to marginal visuals, depending on server’s capabilities?

I mean, with the stipulation that what I said is purely speculation and guesswork but continuing that path, I would absolutely assume it be dialled back in a few weeks. Right now it would serve a purpose in presenting both simulators at their very best to an influx of new holiday users but in the bigger picture, I don't think the cost per user in bandwidth is economically viable long-term once it goes back to normal. The servers are absolutely capable of serving better looking terrain, it's just a question of cost. 

But it's food for thought, check back in January and see if this scenery upgrade is still present. 

 

Interesting perspective. I was not aware of the fact that Asobo was able to adjust the resolution of the sim by adjusting the bandwidth/access to their server as needed. I was not aware of a costly access neither.

42 minutes ago, Sethos said:

The servers are absolutely capable of serving better looking terrain, it's just a question of cost. 

This would mean they did the 2024 release server disaster on purpose or at least negligence.

5 minutes ago, Fiorentoni said:

This would mean they did the 2024 release server disaster on purpose or at least negligence.

Not really. The bandwidth of a server has nothing to do with servers accepting incoming connections and maintaining them. There's multiple layers of servers handling different aspects of a user connection and some operations in that process are more server intensive than others. A lot of game launches will see the login servers get crippled due to user influx, user-induced DDoS due to the login and user authentication process being a lot more limited than just feeding raw bandwidth. This literally happens to every single major server-bound release in this day and age because it's difficult and sometimes not feasible to guard against a huge, sudden and temporary influx of users. Sometimes also due to a server-side setting causing a much larger performance impact than intended in the process. 

Anything that has to do with servers is never as simple as "just start more, just increase bandwidth". You can have a stadium that can hold 150,000 people but if they all come at once and wants to be let inside at once, the capacity of the stadium doesn't mean much.