If you are browsing this forum and wondering if XP12 weather is for you - here are some images of an approaching weather front at Shoreham airport in the UK (EGKA).

The first image show a satellite view of South UK. Brighton (Location of Shoreham) is on the south coast, right at the point between the clouds and clear sky to the East.  XP12 default weather has absolutely nailed the clouds and late evening sun!

Here is the view looking East from Shoreham showing clear skies with the front overhead.

The view to the north shows cirrus and stratus - even sloping down towards the front as IRL!

Finally looking to the West at the approaching front. Clouds lowering into the distance. Various bands of cirrus and stratus, with hints of lower cumulus type clouds.

Superb screenshots - very impressed with everything really! In all my years of flight sim fun I never expected that the level of fidelity of clouds would reach this level. As you show completely accurate (within reason). The other impressive thing the balance of lighting, shadows - remarkable really.  I do not really know how they have done this but it is simply brilliant! 

Basically you can throw away any sky, cloud enhancers etc as you no longer need addons to correct basic limitations in the sim. 

Edited July 13, 2025Jul 13 by coastaldriver

Perfect!

 

The first time I had to do a triple take.  

The only thing that gave them away as sim screenshots was the tab on the lower left edge.

And not only the clouds and weather - in the second screenshot you see chem...contrails (i.e. traffic) "far away".

5 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

East.  XP12 default weather has absolutely nailed the clouds and late evening sun!

 

generally speaking it rains on me in the sim about 5 to 10 minutes before it rains outside, disgraceful use of time travel technology.

7 hours ago, coastaldriver said:

The other impressive thing the balance of lighting, shadows - remarkable really

Yes, the lighting balance is remarkable.  I did not edit these screenshots in any way APART from using HazeAdjust LUA script to lower the haze (I lowered the 'single' setting, not 'turbidity').  Default XP12 completely blows the sky out, hiding these wonderful skies.

Looking out to the west IRL the sky was as clear as in my screenshots.  I really appreciate the haze in XP12 because it adds more realism, it is just overdone in many cases.

I just ran a similar test down here in Hawke’s Bay New Zealand, on a truly stunning sunset. I certainly didn’t expect it to be so incredibly well-replicated when I fired up XP12! Amazing. Sadly, the sun sets rapidly here, so it didn’t last long – and I missed a screenshot opportunity. Maybe tomorrow…

Expecting this to be comparison with real life, I was searching for the screenshots.

Then I realized those were not real life pictures, but  actually taken in sim! Very well captured, thank you.

Indeed!  Weather rendering, sky colours and ighting, and some effects too, are getting really great in Xp12!!!

7 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

Default XP12 completely blows the sky out, hiding these wonderful skies.

But why is this? Why do we need to mess about with third party stuff. This isn’t default. 
 

My XP doesn’t look like this out of the box and I’m tired of messing with stuff. If this is how it’s supposed to look, why don’t the devs make it the default? 
 

without that, this is just another “I modded XP and now it looks amazing” story. 
 

2 hours ago, JonathanC said:

why don’t the devs make it the default? 

The devs are working on this. There is currently a shortcoming in X-Plane in calculating visibility, in a nutshell it often is calculated to be too low.

In more detail: The visibility below 10 statute miles is mostly governed by METAR data, so if an airport reports "5 miles vis" - that is what you get in X-Plane.

But if the airport reports "10sm or more" (that is the maximum that METARs will report), the question is: HOW MUCH more than 10sm? There is no data on visibility contained in the dataset that X-Plane downloads from the NOAA - so it has to make up a value. Visibility in the real world is governed by relative humidity and floating particles and can be vastly different at airport levels and just a few hundred feet above them, so this is not trivial.

LR is on it, but instead of a quick fix, they are going for a profound and sound solution...so it can take a bit.

If you think the view is too hazy (it often is "just" 15 statute miles), you have the option to revert to manually set weather and you can bump up the visibilty to 100sm with the visibility slider as a stopgap measure for now.

1 hour ago, JonathanC said:

But why is this?

No idea WHY it is, but the haze is often overdone to real conditions, especially when looking towards the sun - the sky can be blown out hiding both the ground and clouds. IRL this of course can happen where it can be to look towards the bright sky, but XP12 does overplay this.

 

2 hours ago, JonathanC said:

Why do we need to mess about with third party stuff.

 

You don't NEED to mess around with third party stuff. If you like to fly a completely default sim, then do so.  I like to fly in conditions I see with my own eyes.  Sometimes the haze drops visibility to a couple of miles.  Other days the visibility is out to the horizon. Default XP12 is often too hazy over the UK, which affects my immersion and pleasure in XP12.

HazeAdjust is a free script, is easy to install and configure, so I use it.

 

2 hours ago, JonathanC said:

This isn’t default.

So what?  It is how I want my sim to look.

 

2 hours ago, JonathanC said:

My XP doesn’t look like this out of the box and I’m tired of messing with stuff.

Nothing wrong with that, just use XP12 as it comes out the box.  If it looks good to you great!

 

2 hours ago, JonathanC said:

If this is how it’s supposed to look, why don’t the devs make it the default? 
 

The DEVS create the sim they want to, and they have done a remarkable job!  Personally I find the haze often overdone in XP12.  If you don't agree, you have nothing to worry about.  I do not like the overdone haze effects so choose to tone it down a little.  In my screenshots above, I turned down the haze more to reflect what I saw with my own eyes.

Here is the same scene with and without using HazeAdjust.  IRL the without is way overdone from reality as I see it.

With

Without

If real world conditions are more like the second image, I will set default XP12 conditions.

8 minutes ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

Here is the same scene with and without using HazeAdjust.  IRL the without is way overdone from reality as I see it.

Have you got a picture of the settings you’re using in haze adjust please? 

I find the weather on the whole is excellent. Haze is a touch overdone at times but fine.

Retired pilot who flies with real world weather selected.

I also have msfs2020/24 installed but if i was to select only one flight sim for my computer it would be XP12. I am looking forward to when the new weather radar makes its arrival to interact with this great weather. Here's hoping for a touch better real world depiction of the ground that is easy to install. I generally fly above 10,000' so once you get up there it's fine.

These pics by the author of this thread are fantastic.