when Asobo decides to start talking in the devs about the evolutions and the improvement of the weather we will all be happy… nobody talks about future projects or new technologies and regarding… we are very behind… every week on xplane an update on the weather and cloud improvement comes out… I don’t understand…
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Just to keep the topic alive… every now and then I see screenshots on xplane 12 discord… Asobo surprise us with a new engine more incredible than xplane 12… look at the light beams… surely they also have room for improvement… but they are on point regarding the weather…
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I mean obviously cuz they are beta testing things you’d tend to have visual weirdness 
That cloud looks like a rectangular prism. The top of the cloud is way to straight, for it to look naturally formed. I know that a rectangular prism cloud is possible in real life, but it’s very, very, rare. I have seen other XP clouds like this, where it’s unrealistic and looks man made.
These clouds just don’t look good. The lighting and shading look off to me, with respect to the background. But this is my opinion.
Looking at so many XP 12.2 photos, I think XP 12.2 has lightning and shading problems as well, that make the clouds look unrealistic. That’s not to say MSFS 2024’s lightning and shading for clouds is perfect, but IMO, the lighting and shading overall in MSFS 2024 clouds is just better than XP 12.2 - key word is “overall.”
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I’d take those over those puffy clouds you often see in Asobo live weather in either sim. For the most part we have lost variety, but tools like Active Sky can often bring that back.
Really MS should hire or purchase the Active Sky devs, and make them the WT-like team for weather.
There are all sorts of weird cloud formations in real life. For example, have a look at this page:
https://www.boredpanda.com/strange-clouds/
The top of the two images may have been an attempt to make something like this one on that page.
Never, ever seen anything even close to this in MSFS. I applaud Laminar’s attempts to include more variety in their cloud formations.
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MS has decided to go to bed with Navblue. so we have to live with that.
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Been watching a few xp12 streams.
One thing I noticed was the xp12 WX was way off the irl WX.
Among them was BB711 into KEWR. Irl metar SCT/7000. In-game he had OVC/3000. Got him to verify live-WX was on.
Also checked some live cams from the area, and xp12 was way off. The OVC layer looked good though😉, although the colors seem very bland in OVC.
At the same time Msfs was spot on with the WX in KBOS, not too far away.
So maybe Msfs at least is able to integrate a more correct depiction of the irl-WX.
Msfs needs to fix related hazards with clouds though. In CBs, TCUs etc: no turbulence, no up-/downdrafts, no iceing…
Cmon Asobo - give us a reason to avoid bad WX!
Sigh…
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In a single instance. Repeat that test multiple times to get a better picture.
Active Sky fixes some of that. I’ve regularly seen 2000fpm updrafts in clouds, and tubulence both in clouds, and CAT.
For icing that’s really on Asobo. It seem like we can’t affect the icing accumulation rate, but we can affect its impact on aerodynamics. Those from the early days of 2020 may remember how quickly icing used to occur. It was a real hazard back then. Some complained, it got nerfed, and it’s little more than an inconvenience now.
Yeah. Been watching a few xp12 streams, and the accuracy of the WX seems a bit random to me.
Not sure what systems they use represent live-WX.
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METAR source I believe. They don’t have a partner creating global weather interpolation or forecast as far as I know. But try flying through clouds in XP12, and see what happens when you ice up. You won’t be sitting there thinking “Oh, I appear to have lost some airspeed due to parasitic drag, and additional mass on the wings.” You’ll have gained a lot of airspeed as you will be nose down to the ground.
The beginnings of the icing nerf.
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metar is only valid around airports and not higher than FL100. relying on Metar only will not do, sure they have other sources.
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METAR “blended with another data source.”
Their approach sounds very similar to Asobo’s. But they’re letting their art department run with it and it’s producing some very dramatic visual effects (good on them!). Whether it behaves realistically isn’t something I can discern from looking at static pictures.
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By “puffy,” you are referring to the Cumulus clouds in MSFS, right? The cumulus clouds in MSFS look good, and I will say, among any flight simulator, the cumulus clouds in MSFS look the most accurate compared to real life.
If you mean that MSFS 2024 needs more variety of clouds, I can agree to that.
I know there are all sorts of very weird cloud formations in real life. But the very straight edge at the top of the cloud in the XP 12.2 photo is just wrong:
While it’s possible in real life to have a rectangular prism and a straight edge on the top side of the cloud, it would be extremely rare. I think that’s just poor coding on Laminar’s side, to end up with a cloud like that.
Look, let’s not defend what is probably poor coding. We are already criticizing the MSFS 2024 clouds in this thread, we should be able to criticize the XP 12.2 clouds as well.
Like I wouldn’t want anybody on the MSFS development team reading this thread, thinking, “yeah, we need straight edges and rectangular prisms in our clouds!” That would be the wrong message to send to the MSFS team.
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Puffy where both Rex, and Active Sky would show banks of cloud.
Maybe not as much as you think. Google has a ton of images with flat topped clouds. Maybe their cameras are wrong? I wasn’t there so can’t say but I do have eyes.
Why not? You are judging it as “poor coding” but neither of use know that for sure as neither of us are on their dev. team. You are just as ignorant to the facts as I.
What we shouldn’t do is ignore other sources based on prior prejudices, and be more open minded as to what else is going on out there, and pick, and choose what is better while discarding what is worse.
I say this also in my humble opinion as I’m sure you do to, unless you are coming from some position of authority?
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More context and perspective is needed to determine whether the clouds depicted in the XP shots are close to being accurate. The flat top of convective clouds has to do with the air parcel reaching the equilibrium level, the top of the layer of instability. This can range in altitude, depending on latitude, time of year, and other environmental conditions. It’s not unusual for low-topped cumulonimbus given the right conditions. And maybe the anvil hasn’t had time to spread downwind, etc. This versus the obvious pics of well-developed supercells and their characteristic anvil tops. We don’t have enough info to make a proper comparison.
I’d also be curious to know whether the cloud formations in XP are generated and propagated using wind effect (both intensity and direction) as it changes throughout multiple vertical layers, as is common in real life.
But without seeing what XP generated from different angles, maybe more close-up, and animated, it’s hard to know whether it’s accurate. I really dislike the arguments that develop based on a single, static picture. I want to see how it behaves.
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@gadwin777 I can only speak for myself, but I believe finding the weaknesses in each weather engine and proving that one is better than the other is not the goal here. Rather, we’re looking to point out the strengths of each and see if there’s a way both aspects can be incorporated into MSFS, because the only thing we’re chasing here is to make it even better than it already is. No one will ever create a weather program that mimics real life perfectly, and that’s not what we’re looking for. 
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Time lapse shows of clouds affected by wind would be useful. I’ve never really played around with that before. I know MSFS will move clouds around, and I did have a play around with that once on a mountain top, manually adjusting the direction of the wind, and its strength, to push clouds out of the way of an image I was trying to take.
Agreed.
One thing I have taken more time out to do is when flying with Active Sky, and see something that looks particularly impressive is to switch to Passive so I can see how it look with Asobo native weather. It’s often nothing like it, but that is more likely down to how ASFS actually works. I try to make sure I am nearby an airport when I do so, where possible.
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I disagree with that. It’s to point out the strengths and weaknesses of both, so that the MSFS developers can get the right information, to improve MSFS, especially MSFS 2024.
The problem with this thread lately, some people are claiming that XP 12.2 clouds are the “best thing since sliced bread.” That is false. XP 12.2 clouds are still blurry, they have weird shapes, and the lighting/shadows are often weird as well.
What this thread seems to have come to a consensus lately is that there is a variety in the XP 12.2 clouds that don’t exist in MSFS 2024 live weather, which I agree with. But some of the comments in this thread, saying how XP 12.2 clouds are “so real” and MSFS 2024 doesn’t even come close to that, is IMO, hyperbole.
Let’s point out the specifics of both, including criticisms of both. IMO, to provide better information for any MSFS developers that read this, they need an “all rounded” discussion. Not a lopsided discussion that praises XP 12.2 clouds and criticizes MSFS clouds.
It should be a discussion that praises MSFS clouds, praises XP 12.2 clouds, criticizes MSFS clouds, and criticizes XP 12.2 clouds. That is an all rounded discussion, IMO, and the type of discussion that would benefit the MSFS team the most.
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Ya, wind and other natural convective development. If the storm looks like a brick and just moves straight across the screen for 40 miles, I’m going to have questions. I get that at some point we’re going to have to accept tradeoffs, but we don’t even know what’s being traded-off - it’s all very tempested. I imagine there’s opportunity for improvement using a little from A, a little from B, but we don’t even really have a handle on what decisions are being made and where the particular holdup is.
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