1 hour ago, Noel said:

This is urban legend.  Weather now in 2024 is vastly better and the stuck on pre-SU5 verges on a hallucination, propagated by saying this over and over.

Weather in MSFS 2024 is very good, but my eyes do not see what I saw pre SU5.  

48 minutes ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

Weather in MSFS 2024 is very good, but my eyes do not see what I saw pre SU5.  

Yes, it is very good and is absolutely superior to what Round One was.  It's just this myth has become legend.  It's largely myth created by the convergence of two factors:  1, MSFS 2020's launch weather was new and innovative and impressive compared to what came before it.  That left a deep impression; 2, when SU5's changes came there was a significant downgrade for sure and with it significant disappointment by users.  This accentuated the sense people had of how good Round One was...compared to Round Two (SU5).  FF to today and 2024's cloud depiction is miles ahead of where it started it's just that many people's memory of Round One is influenced by repeating this myth ad nauseum.  IOW, Urban Legend, in very large part.

I wish I could post what I just experienced.  After now almost 5 years of  MSFS I just landed in Dublin in the lovely Fenix in Aer Lingus colors.  Lots of ultra smooth AI traffic (FSLTL).  Landed with incredible lighting on amazing multilayer clouds just incredible.  Razor sharp everything and here's the catch to finish it off:  despite seeing 5-8 moving AI planes in my FOV during landing and taxi not a single stutter anywhere, and despite sweeping turns during taxi, just nothing except exquisite smoothness at a frame rate of 88FPS-fg +/-4 FPS or so.  Mind blown yet again just freaking amazing.  Zero question:  MSFS 2024 is now running better than 2020 ever did even w/o respect for the increased polygon counts.  Not kidding:  perfection has arrived here.  You need the hardware for sure, but that's the way it should be IMO.  My recipe seems to involve:

• RTSS front edge sync is my limiter of choice set at 60, but opened up fully unlocked if any FG associated artifacts are at issue.  This means I will hit an assigned key to unlock RTSS sometime around 5 miles out or so from TO or landing because that is where the lion's share of artifacts occur.  
• Gsync is presumably helping when the unlocked rate fluctuates.
• I'm in Win 11 23H2, though no way to go back if you've gone to 24H2 unless you have a copy cloned.
• Essentially all Ultra, except Off-Screen Terrain Pre-Caching is DISABLED in usercfg.opt
• The NVCP reg hack that enables sharpening, set at default of 50
• TAA with Render Scale of 130.  This makes the GPU become the max unlocked rate limiter so while up in the air locked at 60FPS-fg the GPU load is still only around 60-70% and up in the air is where detail and sharpness matter more.   This means it can handle cloud depiction where certain types of depiction can drastically impact GPU use.
• TLOD fixed at 200 for most flights in complex airliners like the one I just finished from LOWW>EIDW.  OLOD 100.  I've had trouble with DynamicLOD and haven't yet installed AutoFPS but plan to.  That is to bring up the unlocked rate at the worst of the worst airports where the unlocked rate can dip to even 58FPS-fg, but even then it's still staying smooth, stutter-free and this is new.  NV DLSS FG has improved in some meaningful ways now that the 2nd screen judder is gone and an unlocked rate w/ high FPS essentially solves all FG related artifacting.  
• I don't use PG as its downside has not offset its upside for me.

So here, SU3 has been nothing short of spectacular, in terms of performance, visuals, etc.  Pop-in taxiway signs are addressed by a cheap well liked add-on in the MP, though I didn't notice them but rarely prior to the add-on install.

Edited September 6, 2025Sep 6 by Noel

20 hours ago, Mace said:

ding ding ding we have a winner after 4 pages of posts.   OP ought to change the thread title, it doesn't seem accurate.

Ok at least we're paying attention 😅🤣

OP needs to change the title because its not accurate.

 

I think MS/Asobo should improve weather overall including the radar. It works well enough but really most if not all of my payware planes show nasty weather up ahead its decent enough to declare different airports or avoiding it for a bit before landing. 

Edited September 6, 2025Sep 6 by Sonosusto

5 hours ago, jarmstro said:

It's always puzzled me why professional airline pilots would want to come home after a long shift and fire up a £100 gaming simulator on their PC? And then complain because the weather radar isn't exactly like their experience at work? One would think it might be more healthy for them if they could forget about work for a while and play with something else?

Maybe they're a bit bored flying the same bus on the same route day in and day out from one boring urban landscape to another 700 miles away? 

Maybe they want to have FUN with their skills and fly an older or bigger aircraft on a more challenging route over the Andes? Or maybe shuttle a bizjet into short fields from their home town to favorite travel destination? 

Maybe this fun is ruined by a completely unrealistic weather simulation compared to what they see and HAVE to work with in their day job?

11 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

Maybe they want to have FUN with their skills and fly an older or bigger aircraft on a more challenging route over the Andes?

Do Lima > Cuzco!  Awesome approach!

48 minutes ago, Noel said:

Do Lima > Cuzco!  Awesome approach!

Time to fire up that freeware Fokker F27 then 😁

5 hours ago, Noel said:

Pop-in taxiway signs are addressed by a cheap well liked add-on in the MP, though I didn't notice them but rarely prior to the add-on install.

So wait, there is an addon that stops the pop-in sign (and parked airplanes?) at the airport?

If so, what is this addon?

9 hours ago, Noel said:

2024's cloud depiction is miles ahead of where it started it's just that many people's memory of Round One is influenced by repeating this myth ad nauseum.  IOW, Urban Legend, in very large part.

Myths don’t have screenshots, of which there are many on the official forums. Yes, the clouds are better than SU5, but they’re still not a patch on what they were at launch of 2020. The only thing that’s better is lighting / colouring, which is pretty good now, particular at sunrise/set.

1 hour ago, scotchegg said:

Myths don’t have screenshots, of which there are many on the official forums. Yes, the clouds are better than SU5, but they’re still not a patch on what they were at launch of 2020. The only thing that’s better is lighting / colouring, which is pretty good now, particular at sunrise/set.

Go ahead and link your most impressive example.  I agree they're different, and I have a screenshot or two of some of the most impressive cloud depiction I saw early on.  But in no way does the entire presentation of "weather" in Round One compare favorably to what we have now.  What I see now is far closer to what I see in the RW.  Maybe certain types of cloud depiction in Round One looked more detailed but the total representation didn't hold a candle to what I'm seeing now.

5 hours ago, Noel said:

Go ahead and link your most impressive example

Live Weather "Storm Front" - Community Content Hangar / World Photographer & Screenshots - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

Loving MSFS2020 weather & scenery - Community Content Hangar / World Photographer & Screenshots - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

Sunset above Mont Blanc - Community Content Hangar / World Photographer & Screenshots - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

Crazy clouds around Niagara Falls right now! - Community Content Hangar / World Photographer & Screenshots - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

Some awesome screenshots I've taken ;) - Community Content Hangar / World Photographer & Screenshots - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

Clouds over Pittsburgh, PA - Community Content Hangar / World Photographer & Screenshots - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

Diverse screenshots - Community Content Hangar / World Photographer & Screenshots - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

My Biggest WoW factor yet - Community Content Hangar / World Photographer & Screenshots - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

From Iceland to Faroe Islands (Real Airline Pilot Stunned by MSFS Live Weather) - Community Content Hangar / World Photographer & Screenshots - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

Edinburgh to Heathrow - A320 - so immersive! - Community Content Hangar / World Photographer & Screenshots - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

I mean, I could go on, but all you need to do is scroll down to the first year of the screenshots forum on the official site. 

There is no doubt that the weather at the launch of MSFS was looking absolutely aswesome. And it has massively degraded after SU5. There has been enough discussions about that in the official MSFS-forum.

But the main reason was that while looking absolutely fantastic, the « live weather » was nowhere like it was supposed to be in real. The weather-conditions at airports where fully wrong and often the winds in the complete opposite direction. And the pressure and temperature like fantasy-numbers compared to what the metar was telling.

Because of that a lot of users pressured Asobo to improve it. That’s why they blended the metar-data into their weather-model. This resulted in way more acurate weather-conditions at airports (solving the problem when flying on Vatsim) but at the same time, the large-scale weather-depiction and variety of clouds got degraded (simply because a metar is limitee, doesn’t include informations about the kind of clouds and had to be mixed with the grid-forecast). There is no solution how to perfectly solve that and the best they could achieve, is what we see today. It’s a compromise beetween acuracy and visuals. That’s why the weather will never look as good as it was pre SU5 as long as we want acurate local weather-conditions.

8 hours ago, Noel said:

Go ahead and link your most impressive example.  I agree they're different, and I have a screenshot or two of some of the most impressive cloud depiction I saw early on.  But in no way does the entire presentation of "weather" in Round One compare favorably to what we have now.  What I see now is far closer to what I see in the RW.  Maybe certain types of cloud depiction in Round One looked more detailed but the total representation didn't hold a candle to what I'm seeing now.

I have to disagree.  Pre SU5 fronts looked real because every cloud type in a real front was represented.  Distant cirrus lowering gradually to stratus then cumulus and rain.  I do not see that now.  As I keep saying, MSFS weather is great, just not as great as it was.

11 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

I have to disagree.  Pre SU5 fronts looked real because every cloud type in a real front was represented.  Distant cirrus lowering gradually to stratus then cumulus and rain.  I do not see that now.  As I keep saying, MSFS weather is great, just not as great as it was.

Sure, as long as you ignore the fugly volcanic ash clouds that thankfully are largely gone now.  I have to disagree that 'every cloud type in a real front' was represented.  Maybe in a rare, by accident occurrence that might have been the case but I'll stand by my original statement:  largely, myth.  What I see now is vastly closer to reality.  

19 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

Distant cirrus lowering gradually to stratus then cumulus and rain. 

you described a typical warmfront. they do not have CU. So in that case the MSFS rendition was inaccurate.
remember that warmfront is basically an inversion the way it is skewed. Promoting horizontally extensive clouds (such as various types of stratus), not vertical. The convective energy is simply not there.

(unless we talk about occluded fronts, but those are a different animal)

3 hours ago, SAS443 said:

you described a typical warmfront. they do not have CU. So in that case the MSFS rendition was inaccurate.
 

Warm fronts can definitely have convection embedded in the Ns, triggered by the released latent heat during condensation in the ascending warm humid air mass. However, even pre-SU5 MSFS2020 wasn't perfect and had a tendency to overuse convective clouds to resemble Ns.