I think msfs does a pretty good job at low level clouds. The problem starts with mid to high level clouds. Then there is the overall dramatic size of the clouds that completely distorts the depth and height when flying at high altitudes or even when you are at ground. It gives you wrong perception of scale. But I agree with @abrams_tank. I prefer msfs 2024 clouds to xp12s. Very rarely you get a realistic cloudscape in xp12. Its mostly stretched stratus clouds everywhere with some very weird shapes.

In msfs, devs need to start with proper simulation of haze due to humidity and pollution that affects visibility. This will instantly increase the immersion and will give the atmosphere 'depth' that its lacking. Secondly they need to get rid of metar bubbles. 

I'd love someone to explain how 2020 SU5 clouds were downgraded for the sake of Xbox. 

10 hours ago, Tuskin38 said:

too many people complained that the weather at the airports didn't match IRL, that's why they added METAR

There must be a way to keep this and provide more cloude types (depicted in a convincing way) at the same time. Close to METAR weather is obviously still very important. I certainly wouldn't want to see it sacrificed again. 

Live weather makes the sim come alive but trying to simulate and replicate every possible cloud formation is next to impossible from a visual standpoint.  The part of the weather system that still feels off is the wind.  At times a small amount of wind particularly from the side on landing can push the plane so much.  While I’ve never flown a 320 in real life, I’ve flown a 172 for over 600 real world hours.  Crosswinds are rough in a 172 but, to me, cross winds in a 320 feel like they have the same impact while landing as they do in the 172 and that just does not seem correct.  Maybe it is- but I do think the sim can improve on wind effect.

Edited April 6Apr 6 by jspilot

8 hours ago, Baber20 said:

Very rarely you get a realistic cloudscape in xp12

I agree with your MSFS comments, but this one is laughable.  I could post hundreds of realistic XP12 cloudscapes, but poor @Krakin would suffer a medical issue.

Let's be clear...

1) MSFS doesn't do stratified clouds, being it stratocumulus or cirrus anywhere decently - Xp12 does a better job;

2) MSFS effects of flying through any clouds, particularly convective clouds, are so throttled that it doesn't create any problem for sim pilots to get near them or even cross them. Also no hail precipitation inside and bellow the base of some of those clouds - Xp12 does a better job;

3) MSFS hasn't yet implemented a credible mechanism of representing visibility limits as reported on METAR. While MSFS 2024 goes, IMO, a bit more in that direction than MSFS 2020, truth is, most reported runway visual ranges aren't correctly portrayed in MSFS - Xp12 does a much better job:

OTOH, MSFS has opted for an interesting alternative way of representing "air currents" affected by surface heat and / or nearby orography. We can't directly set "turbulence" in a scale, using a slider or options in the weather menus because it is calculated on the fly using a rather ingenious method. In this particular aspect, MSFS does a more interesting job than Xp12, BUT!, thermals, for instance, one of my preferred weather phenomena when I go flying my glider IRL, are very very poorly simulated in MSFS, and using them to stay aloft, climb, and so on requires adopting completely counter-intuitive techniques, so, I can't say it's better or worst compared to Xp12 - it's different and could be promising if I was able to glimpse any will to update it in the near future, before the MSFS 2024 servers are closed sometime one day in the future and we are already playing the next version of the sim 🙂

Edited April 6Apr 6 by jcomm

The weather in MFS isn't scary—that's the reality—neither while flying nor when landing. You have to role-play and do what you would in real life, but in the simulator, there's really no need for that.

There’s a lot of work to be done, but honestly, I have serious doubts that they’re actually willing to do anything. I imagine a day with realistic bad weather isn’t very pleasant for more casual players, because honestly, after many years of promises, it’s hard to understand why so many things remain the same.

1 hour ago, Aglos77 said:

The weather in MFS isn't scary

Depends on the aircraft you're flying.

Edited April 6Apr 6 by Tuskin38

5 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

I agree with your MSFS comments, but this one is laughable.  I could post hundreds of realistic XP12 cloudscapes, but poor @Krakin would suffer a medical issue.

I dont know man but live weather in xp12 is mostly riddled with cloud transparency issues and minecraft looking clouds. I mean if you want, I can share some 'laughable' screenshots of 'realistic' cloudscapes that you talk about. No matter how bad the cloudscapes sometimes look in msfs 2024, you would never see anything as wierd as in xp12.

2 hours ago, Aglos77 said:

I imagine a day with realistic bad weather isn’t very pleasant for more casual players, because honestly, after many years of promises, it’s hard to understand why so many things remain the same.

If your assertion is that because of "casual players" Asobo is intentionally not making the weather scary then that'd be incorrect... if that was were truly the case then why are smaller/GA aircraft experiencing bad weather realistically?
 

Quote

With every patch and every update, there are always improvements, but for me, the weather and physics are the main components of the simulation; I suppose others value different things.

Of course simmers value a lot of different things (as would be common given such a huge user base for MSFS), but it'd be safe to say a majority of us simmers and Asobo obviously value weather and physics as main components of simulation... hence the considerable improvements to physics and flight/ground dynamics in 2024 over 2020, and avionics, and a bunch of other things. You know, the things the "casual player" wouldn't really care about. Just because they haven't improved weather as much as they could *yet*, doesn't therefore mean these silly tropes are true. Especially since they've already said live weather is due for re-work later in 2024.
 

Edited April 6Apr 6 by lwt1971

• Fixed an issue with visibility causing fog to no longer appear

This just dropped in SU5 beta

2 hours ago, lwt1971 said:

Si su afirmación es que debido a los "jugadores casuales" Asobo intencionalmente no está haciendo que el clima deje miedo, entonces eso sería incorrecto ... si ese fuera realmente el caso, entonces ¿por qué los aviones más pequeños / GA experimentan mal tiempo de manera realista?

Por supuesto, los cocines a fuego lento valoran muchas cosas diferentes (como sería común dada una base de usuarios tan grande para MSFS), pero sería seguro decir que la mayoría de nosotros cocinamos a fuego lento y Asobo obviamente valoramos el clima y la física como los principales componentes de la simulación ... de ahí las considerables mejoras en la física y la dinámica de vuelo / tierra en 2024 durante 2020, y la aviónica, y un montón de otras cosas. Sabes, las cosas que realmente no le importarían al "jugador casual". El hecho de que no hayan mejorado el clima tanto como podrían *todavía *, por lo tanto no significa que estos tropos tontos sean ciertos. Especialmente porque ya han dicho que el clima en vivo se debe volver a trabajar más adelante en 2024.

I suppose we’re using different builds of 2024 because I only fly GA in MFS, and to be honest, flying straight into a storm front has no effect on my cessna in real-time weather. 🤔

Edited April 6Apr 6 by Aglos77

Turbulence in the sim is non existent let alone at all close to realistic.  Until that’s done with any level of accuracy, it’s going to be difficult to make it important to divert around any weather. 

1 hour ago, Krakin said:

• Fixed an issue with visibility causing fog to no longer appear

This just dropped in SU5 beta

Nice. Been waiting for this fix.

3 hours ago, lwt1971 said:

If your assertion is that because of "casual players" Asobo is intentionally not making the weather scary then that'd be incorrect... if that was were truly the case then why are smaller/GA aircraft experiencing bad weather realistically?

No idea why Asobo does weather the way they do, but I do have two issues with the argument you're trying to make here. 

First, is the contention that smaller/GA aircraft implies a more casual simmer and that's just not the case.  There are many predominantly GA folks here who are anything but casual about their simming - myself included - and many who fly tubes who do it in a very casual manner.  The serious = airliners, casual = GA binary simply doesn't exist.

And second, the contention that smaller/GA aircraft are experiencing bad weather realistically.  Oh, how I wish it were so!  Appropriate consequences in bad weather like realistic outcomes when flying in icing conditions and/or thunderstorm penetration don't exist for any of us.

 

Scott