I wonder why this is, i’d love to discus this and get opinions of my fellow simmers.
We had many updates in other areas, but weather … arguably the most important thing in a flight sim (clouds depiction etc) is not being worked on.
I highly doubt this is a sim engine limitation, judging by the FS2024 trailer and some other previews i didn’t see any improvements either on this area.
My clouds normally look fantastic; however, with poor server speed / bandwidth, Cumulus clouds can look average.
I suggest you review your video card and FS settings.
There’s been loads of improvements to live weather over the years. Is it perfect? No, but its much better than when the sim first launched. I mean when the sim first launched live weather was next to non existent. They’re pretty open about the constraints of how the live weather system works and the quality of the data the sim gets. Obviously it can be pretty variable.
If you’re talking about the general look of clouds then I’m not sure I agree. The sim can look spectacular, though it has its limitations.
For everything else file under - things we hope FS2024 improves upon.
It surely CAN look amazing.
The problem is, more often than not, with Live Weather, it chooses not to.
You can get some spectacular visuals with static presets. But that’s it.
Enable Live Weather, and the sim produces little more than a scattered mess of semi-transparent cotton-puff “flakes” (can’t really call those “clouds”) - With infinite visibility everywhere except within the unacceptably self-evident circles around weather stations, where local METAR overwrites all other data.
There is no turbulence nor icing within clouds, even in areas of reported storms, Lightning does not seem to happen ever.
Maybe with presets, these thing can be brought about, but what value is that for a virtual airline or cross-country flying experience?
4 years in, and Asobo all but refuses to even talk about the subject.
That silence alone has already led to a very serious loss of consumer trust in them as capable developers.
Proper SDK access would completely remove the burden of perfection from them, but for reasons not entirely clear, they refuse to even contemplate this option.
Many speculate this SDK denial is due to contractual issues with MeteoBlue.
Yet at this point, if this is really the best weather depiction they are capable of delivering as a result of that partnership, I’d strongly suggest we’d all be better off without it.
Just let us have the SDK instead. There are very capable devs out there, who would thank you for letting them do this for you.
Oh i am fully maxed out @ 4K i have quite the beefy setup.
What I meant was in terms of the actual volumetrics and it’s shapes we have not seen improvements.
There have been some blending changes and metar changes but no improvements on it’s graphical tech.
It’s like we have only cumulus clouds atm being streched thin or thick.
On my machine I have seen a lot of real improvement the live weather and clouds.
OS Name Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
Version 10.0.22631 Build 22631
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core™ i7-9700K CPU @ 3.60GHz, 3600 Mhz, 8 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 3004, 7/9/2021
SMBIOS Version 3.2
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
BaseBoard Product PRIME Z390-P
BaseBoard Version Rev X.0x
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 32.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 31.9 GB
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Total Virtual Memory 33.9 GB
Available Virtual Memory 28.7 GB
Page File Space 2.00 GB
[Display]
DirectX version: 12.0
GPU processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
Driver version: 552.12
Driver Type: DCH
Direct3D feature level: 12_1
CUDA Cores: 7680
Resizable BAR Yes
Core clock: 2610 MHz
Memory data rate: 21.00 Gbps
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I personally think they look amazing on the Xbox X. I just wish there would be some turbulence when flying through them. Would add some immersion.
I think they are great, sometimes too great. That is to say they seem to jump from a few patches directly to overcasting without much in the middle, but overall not bad to me.
I can’t look at live weather lately. I’m using presets. The Live Weather can do rainy conditions quite nicely but really thats about all it can do. There used to be such a variety in the cloud layouts and most if not all of them looked good. SU5 and SU7 trashed all of it and its never really recovered. Im actually kind of afraid to see what Asobo’s idea of ‘good’ will be for 2024. Ill keep hoping though. In the meantime Ive got some nice preset situations to satisfy what I like to see – or at least get close – their lighting changes have made ‘somber day’ difficult without getting too much red in the cloud shadows. What the heck is red doing in a cloud shadow??? Widely scattered cumulus can look great though – just not in live weather – not in my opinion. So often they are just see through non descript areas of off color.
Concerning colors: I think its mostly due to cloud shadow shading and cloud types because the new lighting actually makes better cumulus in some situations. Its just not right for situations like these:
first - a real shot:
and then colors as they once were using a custom preset:
and finally, the current lighting April 2024:
Or remember what things used to look like back in 2020. The videos below are from August 2020, shortly after release.
https://youtu.be/3lZa7nnj490
https://youtu.be/weuvELJOhZ0
https://youtu.be/gjPU_7F8z8o
I agree.
Although having gained sufficient accuracy over the course of (too) many months since SU7 in terms of where clouds and weather phenomena in general (rain, snow, visibilty) are simulated, Live Weather still often lacks a plausible and convincing depiction, as cloud rendering is cumulus centric and neglects atmospheric conditions.
As an example, multilayered stratiform cloudscapes associated with warm fronts are inaccurately rendered with high reaching convective clouds in the sim.
Higher level clouds generally seem to be generic, and Cirrus clouds are missing entirely, although attempts with thin layers of convective clouds are honorable.
CB’s are not rendered convincingly (weak and shallow), Thunderstorms are either missing or they are depicted underwhelmingly and have no impact on the flight, as typical physical phenomena inside of clouds like turbulence, up- and downdrafts and icing are at least unsufficient.
That might even be an advantage, as a realistic weather radar is still missing in otherwise sophisticated addon planes, so there’s no chance of circumnavigating those threats, one of the few remaining challenges in an otherwise pretty digitized aviation environment.
I’m listing Wx radar here, because to my understanding the limiting factor is accessing live weather data and not so much programming a gauge.
Generally, clouds in Live Weather have a lower density than preset clouds, probably contributing to some of the above mentioned deficits (confirmed for cloud turbulence in the last Q&A).
I see an imbalance in the development of MSFS:
while Aircraft, Scenery and Core sim are covered with dedicated personnel and timelines, Atmosphere, Weather and Environment are treated as a minor matter and improvements happen incidentally.
Unfortunately, the number of users caring enough is limited (e.g. this thread: Can we have a weather Atmosphere and Environment update only please? hasn’t really gained traction)
But maybe the current atmospheric simulation has too many limitations to implement the numerous demands from the community.
I have a feeling - or call it hope - that the already confirmed rewrite of the atmosphere simulation (Q&A Nov’23 I think, with regards to the community wishlist item regarding ARPC values for sunset colors) may include some major changes.
The implementation of tornadoes for example only makes sense (imho) if they are based on real time data and get injected without much delay. Some half-baked solution like the lightning (probably based on CAPE values) in the current sim - or even worse ice coverage based on snow height - would disappoint me.
For the time being I think the discussion is obsolete, as we won’t see major changes in the atmospheric simulation with MSFS2020. For the successor there’s not enough information for a substantial discussion.
My hope is that
a) MSFS2024 will be a major step forward in terms of the simulation of atmospheric conditions and produces Live weather that is
b) MSFS2024 allows access to the relevant weather data - in the best case even for third parties - to implement features like full fledged weather radars.
c) shouldn’t that be the case, that more users would support related Bugreport- and Wishlist threads.
I only agree with you partly.
As you can read in other replies the sim has been improved over time.
Not every single update was a succes but the latest updates were great ( my personal opinion)
A few days ago I called my brother ( who lives at EHTE) and asked him to look at the local weather.
Cloud overcast, rain, windsock/speed, it was pretty much accurate.
Even the active runway (26) was in use.
Again: it’s not 100% like IRL at all times but I can live with the minor shortcomings.
Getting a PPL and staying current would cost a lot more.
Happy 
Any further weather improvements would most likely need more engine work, or a newer engine. I’m really really hopeful FS2024’s weather engine will again be a revolutionary jump in tech and fidelity (and control), along with the rest of FS2020’s limitations.
Only time will tell…
yeah something changed with presets, i used to make more beautiful weather patterns with it before.
the way clouds scatter and blend is VERY different now.
I can’t get the same results anymore as below.
but what’s probably more annoying is how the live weather doesn’t blend the clouds properly anymore, it used to be quite good.
Maybe the METAR blending changed this (i don’t know)
But I am going offtopic there sorry.
I’ve read several papers on volumetrics, it’s very much possible to add new clouds without the need for a new engine.
And I’m sure Asobo can improve the fidelity of the current clouds in FS2020 if they wanted to.
At the moment they just look like popcorn often or bath foam.
heck are a couple more shots, the system is capable of visualizing things.
with a couple tweaks here and there they can make live more convincing.
just add few variety of cloud types, add atmospheric density and adjust the raymarcher and noise + scattering.
The clouds DO look amazing in Live weather to me. It feels like IR with my PC !!
Just select an airfield where the world map of the sim shows clouds, then you
would experience clouds as IR. For me simulation of clouds is always stunning.
A monitor with high nit values for white color over a large proportion of the display area
is indispensible for an immersive feeling.
You write:
“4 years in, and Asobo all but refuses to even talk about the subject.
That silence alone has already led to a very serious loss of consumer trust in them as capable developers.”
A very undifferentiated verdict !
I wonder who the guys like you are.
Bye.
I agree with the OP. I saw the marketing videos of FS2020 before release. What we have now in Live Weather does not match. All winter long I looked for places where it was snowing so I could practice landings with the PMDG B737-700. Every singe time the clouds looked like summer time thunderstorms. There seems to be only 1 type of cloud used in Real Weather. I honestly don’t remember it being this way when MSFS2020 first came out. It seems things were “dumbed down” after release. Presets might look good. But Live weather clouds do not unless you are flying close to thunderstorms. I am going to wait a very long time before I even think about buying MSFS 2024. I just don’t think it will be the fix everyone thinks it will be for all the problems.
Sounds like there’s something seriously wrong with your sim, either that or the areas you’re choosing to fly have very little or even no METAR data for the sim to use.
I use live weather all the time here in the UK and across Europe and its usually great, from a purely visual point of view at least. I get fantastic cloud variety and its usually accurate. My only grumble is the snow issues, but at least things have improved there. Its much better than it was.
I honestly remember how bad and completely inaccurate live weather was when the sim was launched. It was next to non existant. I can never understand people on this forum who look with misty eyed nostalgia at the early days of FS2020 where everything was apparently better. It was a bug ridden mess and live weather was basic at best.
I wonder who the guys like you are.
We are the people trying to fly trips across LIVE weather.
Presets can look good, Live Weather cannot. The difference in quality is heartbreakingly massive.
Note that I don’t discount the possibility that we might be getting extremely mismatched results.
This might be a lot of why there is such a difference in player perception to the sim’s weather quality.
But from what observable evidence I have available, I can only conclude that:
If you’re just out for a Sunday flight ,where you takeoff and land back at the same place, you can stick with presets all day and enjoy the view. For those of us who’d prefer going places and doing it around whatever nature throws at us, there is much disappointment.
If anyone is getting honestly life-like cloudscapes while flying from A to B using Live Weather, and can do it reliably – Tell us HOW, because then something really IS wrong and Asobo has not told us anything about why this should happen, or what to do about it.
Are these shots with the current lighting? If so, how are you getting those blues in there? I’m on X Box right now and pretty much stuck with what Asobo provide and I can only hope they hire some cloud lovers to work on sky/cloud appearance.
