... to me I mean.  One of the consistently expressed positives are changes in clouds and lighting, but TBH I see some good, and a fair amount of not good, compared to its predecessor.  I do appreciate what's missing:  much less volcanic ash clouds.  And with regard to lighting there is more variety of color at dusk/dawn versus the often pink-red in 2020.  And there are somewhat better cloud morphologies though sometimes hard to grasp because of the low resolution involved.  I see so much in terms of cloud cover as being made up of clusters of cotton balls and that looks often unnatural to me. I welcome other image posts of your favorite sunsets, weather in general etc.  I have to assume I'm in part just not experienced enough yet to see what's there in 2024.  OTOH, I've seen this same general rendition of sunset elsewhere.  The various sharpening algorithms I use don't have any real impact on any of this so I have to assume this must be similar to what others see in large part, save the variations of desktop colors setup, contrast, HDR or no, etc.

From KRNO do KSBA: 

And these out of 2020:

Honestly the real time weather engine of MSFS franchise is not yet capable of render a believable and authentic skyscape. There is a time (MSFS 2020 pre-SU7) when the overall atmosphere representation used to be pretty decent in live weather. These ugly ash clouds unfortunately began to populate the skies with the interpolation of METAR reports with Meteoblue data. 

IMHO MSFS is still lacking proper weather engine rework and dedication from Asobo. MSFS 2024 improved some aspects of the cloud generation but most of the time you will only see cumuliform clouds and maybe some generic cirrus formation. 

 

@MrBitstFlyer has posted quite a few videos and photos of the clouds in MSFS 2024. You can search his posts to see them. Here is a just a quick search of his posts with an example, but he has other videos and photos of the cloud improvements in MSFS 2024.

Here is another quick example with EdwardThePilot's stream:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2392387049?t=10h02m49s

In general, the clouds in MSFS 2024 are better than MSFS 2020 because:

1. They changed the way light passes through the clouds
2. I believe because of 1., it has led to the reduction of the volcanic ash type clouds in MSFS 2024
3. Also because of 1., the clouds during sunset and sunrise, and with specific angles of the sun, look better in MSFS 2024
4. The new cirrus clouds in live weather

Otherwise, aside from the points above, it's similar cloud technology from MSFS 2020.  Under certain circumstances and certain lighting angles, the sky in MSFS 2024 can look the same as MSFS 2020 because it's effectively MSFS 2020 clouds but with better lighting passing through the clouds and the possibility of cirrus clouds in live weather. For example, if there are no cirrus clouds in live weather, and it's not sunset or sunrise, and there are no "volcanic ash type clouds" in MSFS 2020, the clouds in MSFS 2024 can look pretty close to MSFS 2020.

They just made improvements on the MSFS 2020 clouds, and MSFS 2020 clouds were already the best for a flight sim before MSFS 2024 came out.

Edited March 6, 20251 yr by abrams_tank

2 hours ago, abrams_tank said:

MSFS 2020 clouds were already the best for a flight sim before MSFS 2024 came out.

There's that word again lmao. The rest of your post was very informative and neutral. I enjoyed reading it 😎

4 hours ago, abrams_tank said:

it's similar cloud technology from MSFS 2020

This might be because there are particular established techniques for volumetric cloud rendering, discussed in industry papers, that give good results within the performance allowance of contemporary technology. I think there needs to be a leap in home computer technology to see any larger step towards better realism.

3 hours ago, March Hare said:

This might be because there are particular established techniques for volumetric cloud rendering, discussed in industry papers, that give good results within the performance allowance of contemporary technology. I think there needs to be a leap in home computer technology to see any larger step towards better realism.

I've always maintained that idea, that we're just not yet able to do much better.  Right now, today, I'd take 2020 over 2024 in terms of weather and even lighting which of course is why the puzzle with so many positive comments about the changes that came with 2024.  Right now, flying KDEN KRNO in 2020 I find this much more plausible because these clouds are not made of almost uniform 'cotton balls' that overcast or denser layers are rendered as in 2024 so far:

Here's what I am referring to and this was not a one-off, or from using certain graphic configurations it's just what it is.  This is obviously post-sunset so dark and uniform in color but it's easy to see this uniform cotton ball structure in many scenarios in 2024:

Edited March 6, 20251 yr by Noel

Why are you over sharpening the cloud textures like that? 

10 minutes ago, St Mawgan said:

Why are you over sharpening the cloud textures like that? 

Because it makes no difference to the basic cotton ball structure in layers in 2024.  Both sims are setup identically and as in the first images of 2024 clouds are even more lacking in definition, blurrier as it were.  I say no difference because I've tested by turning off all sharpeners and it's just a blurrier mess.

Edited March 6, 20251 yr by Noel

Well, clouds are kind of supposed to be a bit blurry but over sharpened like that they look really bad! For most, and I include myself in that, the lighting, clouds and weather in general look so much better in MSFS2024 so, whatever it is you are doing with yours, it's not working. 

7 minutes ago, St Mawgan said:

Well, clouds are kind of supposed to be a bit blurry but over sharpened like that they look really bad! For most, and I include myself in that, the lighting, clouds and weather in general look so much better in MSFS2024 so, whatever it is you are doing with yours, it's not working. 

As I've said I've tested with sharpeners off and it's no better, only worse.  Also, all images posted here are sharpened to offset the degradation coming from compression so maybe that is what you are seeing.  Next time up take a few shots and show me "so much better".  Take your time and show me something that really shows off 'so much better'.  Oh I see some scenarios that do look better or at least as good, but way too many look worse to me and again, one last time:  I can turn off the tools used and it's truly no better.

So if you aren't happy with 2024 then just go back to 2020 and stop torturing yourself. And no, I have neither the inclination nor the time to take screenshots to show you what my weather looks like. I know it's better than in the previous sim, there is nothing to prove and no reason to prove it. I have a strong suspicion you are more a tweaker than a flyer and you may enjoy that journey but if you do want to fly, just pick the sim which works for you. Simple. 

29 minutes ago, St Mawgan said:

So if you aren't happy with 2024 then just go back to 2020 and stop torturing yourself. And no, I have neither the inclination nor the time to take screenshots to show you what my weather looks like. I know it's better than in the previous sim, there is nothing to prove and no reason to prove it. I have a strong suspicion you are more a tweaker than a flyer and you may enjoy that journey but if you do want to fly, just pick the sim which works for you. Simple. 

Oh, okay time to respond with type every few minutes to try to reduce this down to 'over-sharpening', I wish, but you don't have time to take a choice screenshot or two?  I would imagine with all of the cloud/lighting accolades it should not take long to bring up very convincing images.  And goofier still, would like to reframe the discussion from cloud/lighting to 'Noel tweaks more than flies' which is even goofier than reducing this down to sharpening.

Edited March 6, 20251 yr by Noel

1 minute ago, Noel said:

Oh, okay time to respond with type every few minutes to try to reduce this down to 'over-sharpening', I wish, but you don't have time to take a choice screenshot or two?  I would imagine with all of the cloud/lighting accolades it should not take long to bring up very convincing images. 

OK, I was bored when I came in here, I'm twice as bored now. There are 1001 images and videos of clouds in MSFS2024. The fact that yours don't look like you think they should would imply you have already seen quite a lot of them. If you want to post a few unprocessed, unsharpened image of clouds feel free but if your opening argument is going to be, hey everyone, look at these images I've heavily edited to show you how bad they look, then you have already lost 99% of us. I'm out. 

Instead of posting a simple image or two of something you feel great about you twist the reality of what is happening.  Your 'heavily edited' was just like your 'Noel's a tweaker, not a flyer' goofy rationale.  In reality a super modest offset of image compression by minor sharpening as I said such that the image might look closer to what my screen looks like, uncompressed so other could see this.  And then you're right in there with the "Us" comment.   Yes, definitely get out of this thread unless you can actually contribute something useful.

I for one have not been convinced to make the move just because 2024 depicts stones and rocks with more definition, and the so call "better lighting and clouds" is not enough, besides, the definition of "better" is highly subjective.

If you ask me, 2024 should have been released as an expansion and not a new sim.

Edited March 6, 20251 yr by CarlosF