Ahh yeah, it is sad. Its the lighting as well, not just the clouds, just so much more alive.
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Wow that’s a shame. That looks better than what we have now. Rip.
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People may disagree with me and that’s fine.
I believe the title of this thread and the underlying premise is misleading.
If we go back, there was only one cloud type when MSFS launched - cumulus. Now we have so many clouds, especially cirrus, which was non-existent back then. So, forgive me, but I’m not entirely sure what you mean by “pretty much zero improvements to clouds.”
As I recall, there was an entire update, primarily for weather. Remember when they added the convection/heating/turbulence model? As a real-world pilot, I think it’s very accurate. Some people weren’t used to that and then asked for a way to reduce it.
The wind model was initially quite strange; most notably, the depiction of gusts was “dumbed down” initially, then updated. Now, we have mechanical displacement, airspeed fluctuations, etc.
Then we had lightning everywhere and constantly. That was fixed.
Then they introduced something like a CFD (computational fluid dynamics) model to certain aircraft. Granted it’s only an approximation of local flow, but it’s definitely an improvement, even if it results in interesting and sometimes questionable flying qualities.
In the end, you can say that
… but I’m not sure I agree.
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Hi,
I purchased Active Sky this week and it’s amazing to see the variation in cloud types, however I find it extremely disappointing that I have to purchase a third party application in order to see clouds that were in the game prior to an older Sim Update.
Having watched many videos and seen countless screenshots from around the time of release, it’s very clear the clouds have taken a monumental step backwards and I cannot fathom how the lead developers don’t see let alone acknowledge this, it’s poor management.
Of course their angle now is “the weather is better in MSFS 2024”, but it should not be this way. They’ve clearly made big errors in game design with the clouds, on both a graphical sense with the reduction in quality and the reduction in visuals of cloud types.
These design regressions have happened throughout the games life in various areas, I just hope the next game does not go through the same dramatic downgrades as this one has.
Thanks
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I understand the frustration, but we ‘must’ purchase a 3rd party product for nearly every facet of this game that we want to get the fullest ‘simulation’ part of the experience from!
Aircraft.. 
Ground Services..
Airports ..
Clouds / weather ..
Navigation / Airport charts..
ATC …
ETC ETC ETC
The only thing we are lucky enough not to have to buy are ground texture replacements like Orbx and REX used to flog on the other platforms!
Also, the price of the addons are generally cheaper than what we had to buy in the past due to the large market XBOX has brought into this ‘market segment’ 
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There is no third party application / preset generator that can provide the same clouds and lighting prior to Sim Update 5. Let alone localized weather.
All the presets out now would have looked much better with that early graphics fidelity.
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this is what’s possible when a sim gives almost full control of parameters of clouds, atmosphere etc.
i managed this with minimal effort with a third party tool in x-plane.
I hope Asobo reconsiders letting us do things like this in the future with FS24 or later.
We the userbase can provide amazing addons and mods to elevate everyones experience.
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Excellent demonstration. Can you detail the changes you made to the cloud rendering in the “OTHER” sim?
I would be really happy if i got the option to choose the pre su7 weather again. I may have a different opinion of what is realistic but i really found the pre su7 weather much more realistic. I really liked that more varied weathersystem. I know some will tell me i’m completely wrong by saying that. To bad that Asobo made the decision to not implement the option when they released su7. That option would have made us not argue against each others opinions and have a nice flight experience united 
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saw this today as well in screenshots discord of the other sim, just a couple cirrus clouds can change the entire vibe of a sim.
i wish we had this.
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very true +1
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We need this BADLY!! also Live weather isnt even correct half the time either. Just flew over my home town and it looked nothing compared to real life. just need a big weather overhaul in general.
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To be fair, that’s data collation and interpretation so nothing the sim can really do about it.
It still does have something to do with the sim because that is all it is, a program that executes lines of codes and reads as well as interprets that data. It is up to Asobo to make changes to that and find better ways to interpret the data.
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Is that representative of the default sim? A sky like that could lift ones spirits quite a bit.
yes that shot is fully stock default with no addons.
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Sadly clouds look exactly the same on the latest 2024 trailer.
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Yep it seems as expected all of the hype for 2024 is sat around ground visuals with little to no apparent change in the weather / atmosphere.
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right sadly…
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yeah this made me sad ngl, but still a long way till november.
fingers crossed Asobo does something.
else i will be incredibly dissapointed.
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