The cloud shadows are very wasjed out and very faint.

Any way to make them appear more present ?

 

Edited May 5, 20251 yr by GSalden

It's basically a crappy lighting model in the sim ... BUT ... you can modify it *slightly* with Reshade. Seeing as clouds are generally in the "Gain" section of the the Lift/Gamma/Gain profiles, you can tweak overall lighting and contrast just for that section. Of course , it will also affect any bright/white highlights on the aicraft as well - but you can achieve a balance.

It's not perfect and it *is* a kludge, but that's all I can think of - apart from maybe using some additional weather program (ActiveSky, REX etc.) that might possibly do a better job of it.

Here's a comparison:

The default MSFS 2024 image (with fairly bleached out clouds):

The same view but with a relatively subtle Reshade filter/profile applid:

The filter can be tweaked to give the clouds more drama, but then the terrain tends to go too dark/contrasty. It's a balancing act.

Sadly, during bright daylight, those shadows look a bit off in the sim. I'm using nvidia filters to achieve something similar to what our colleagues above posted, maybe even a bit more saturated.

Cheers,

Pete

On 5/5/2025 at 6:04 AM, GSalden said:

The cloud shadows are very wasjed out and very faint.

Any way to make them appear more present ?

funny you posted this, i was just thinking about cloud shadows earlier

Are you using HDR or SDR? I feel like the lighting in general in 2024 has really been optimized with HDR in mind, unlike 2020 where HDR made very little difference. It looks like the pics are taken with your phone though, so maybe you are on HDR? Here are a few snaps I made (from my phone as well as HDR doesn't translate well to SDR), and while the first is a bit washed out you can still make out the shadows:

 

The only solution is FS2020. Flying above the cloud layer in FS2024 is just completely artificial and makes the immersion take a big hit. Add to that the colors of the Bing map which for me is totally unbalanced. I won't talk about the rest it would take too much time and the u2 Beta version won't change anything.

If you have a certain open-mindedness and you decide to leave your meadow for a little while, go take a look at the X-Plane discord. It shares a hundred shots per day with several concerning the brightness and the color above the clouds showing you in the greatest simplicity the acute resemblance of one above the cloud layer in its reality.

My 2024 setup includes a relatively inexpensive Dell HDR monitor and the cloud shadows look quite realistic on it. I have no way of documenting that because conversion of an HDR image back into SDR would require a remapping of the intensities which kind of defeats the purpose of providing an image. BTW, using a cell phone to take a picture of the screen probably doesn't help because that image still needs to be displayed from onto the viewers screen and there's no way to ensure that the browser depiction would be accurate.

With regard to the issue raised by the OP about somehow darkening the shadows, this can, of course, be done with the various tools like ReShade, Nvidia filters, etc., but such manipulation will impact all pixels in the image with similar luminosity. I'm guessing that this isn't what is desired, however. These scenes do look richer and more natural in HDR than in SDR, however, no doubt because the natural scene has a high dynamic range. No matter how one manipulates an SDR image, it's not going to look like it's an HDR scene.

3 hours ago, jrw4 said:

My 2024 setup includes a relatively inexpensive Dell HDR monitor and the cloud shadows look quite realistic on it. I have no way of documenting that because conversion of an HDR image back into SDR would require a remapping of the intensities which kind of defeats the purpose of providing an image. BTW, using a cell phone to take a picture of the screen probably doesn't help because that image still needs to be displayed from onto the viewers screen and there's no way to ensure that the browser depiction would be accurate.

With regard to the issue raised by the OP about somehow darkening the shadows, this can, of course, be done with the various tools like ReShade, Nvidia filters, etc., but such manipulation will impact all pixels in the image with similar luminosity. I'm guessing that this isn't what is desired, however. These scenes do look richer and more natural in HDR than in SDR, however, no doubt because the natural scene has a high dynamic range. No matter how one manipulates an SDR image, it's not going to look like it's an HDR scene.

Make us a video. You have no idea how excited I am. We could also wear sunglasses or a small umbrella in the corner of the screen to enjoy the clouds of FS2024.

1 hour ago, filou said:

Make us a video.

I would love to, but the same restriction applies to the depiction of HDR videos on SDR screens. Any attempt to display those videos would result in the need to remap the HDR images into SDR and that would yield the same problem. That's a shame because I would love to see those umbrellas!

4 hours ago, filou said:

We could also wear sunglasses or a small umbrella in the corner of the screen to enjoy the clouds of FS2024.

I'm guessing this is a bit tongue in cheek, but when my room is on the darker side, I need to squint my eyes when something very bright appears on the screen. HDR monitors can get uncomfortably bright. I did a bit of searching, and 1000 nits (found on the nicer HDR monitors) is about 3500 lumens, the same brightness as an HID car headlight. Now, that is 1000 nits per pixel, the entire monitor can't get that bright at once due to power limitations (my monitor has a barely audible fan inside that keeps the panel cool). And obviously the headlight has mirrors and reflectors to focus the light. But suffice to say... it's bright!

For anyone who hasn't experienced HDR, I recommend going to a nice AV shop (the kind with the darkened listening/screening rooms, not the big box electronics stores where they just plop the TVs on a shelf). Have the salesperson give a demo of HDR vs SDR on one of their nicer setups. I've said it before, but I still think HDR is the largest visual upgrade since HD. I'd pick an HDR 1440p monitor over an SDR 4k monitor any day. I'd give up my ultrawide rather than lose HDR support. Someone else here mentioned they prefer their HDR ultrawide over their VR headset.

I know this thread is about clouds, but when I forget to switch my monitor from SDR to HDR mode, I immediately notice how drab the sky and lighting looks.

Over water you can see shadows. Very faint again but better than on land.

Of course, it's ironic: what more do you need to achieve natural cloud cover and eliminate that immersion-spoiling white soup? Since FS24's release, I haven't seen a single plausible cloud layer, no photo on social media that stands out and offers us this magical representation. Show me your best cloud layers, make me dream! I'll even let you steal other people's shots.

On 5/5/2025 at 6:04 AM, GSalden said:

 

The cloud shadows are very wasjed out and very faint.

 

Did a flight into LOWI this morning and while on the ground, the cloud-on-ground shadows were very good. Maybe it’s an issue while at altitude.