Flying around Hoy in the Orkneys this evening and for the first time since buying the flight sim in March, I abandoned a flight midway through. I just couldn’t watch the green/pink tint on the clouds anymore. (See this youtube of the flight, especially from 5:40).
Clouds used be the thing I loved about the sim, especially as you flew through them at 1500 feet catching glimpses of the land below. Now that beautiful graphic has turned so so ugly. I’m trying to be optimistic about WU6, but it’s hard. Bought a high end PC for the sim, and SU5 pushed me to make my first other game purchases.
Yes, although I think it has something to do with HDR optimizations. The whole sim now looks different… things are illuminated by Sun even in overcast conditions, sky is overxposed when looking at instruments and the clouds, sky and water have coloured edges. It didn’t look like that prior to SU5.
There have been some changes to the lighting in 1.18.15.0 HF2 that made the issue less noticeable, but if you take a close look in the “Random Screenshot Megathread 3” you can see it in many, if not most of the pictures.
Here’s a good example for the still cartoonish/painting-like look of the clouds:
Here’s a prime example for the color banding (in the upper half of the picture), also seen in many pictures all over the forum:
Another example for color banding would be the last two pictures in this posting, please notice especially the purple fringes in the sky.
Here’s my assessment:
I guess there have been changes to let the sim look more “dramatic”, to make it “pop”. These changes may include the colorspace or LUTs used within the sim. I assume that because users have confirmed my observation of purple/greenish/turquoise color fringes around clouds, a pink glow at the horizon that wasn’t present pre-SU5 and a difference in sunset colors, now trending in the shrill orange direction.
At least on my SDR (8-bit colordepth) monitor this has the adverse effect of purple fringes around clouds (esp. in the upper mid section of the pic):
As I mentioned, as usual there are many that see the issues, while others deny they exist, That’s why I chose pictures from other users to demonstrate that - once you see it - it is widespread! I have no difficulties finding many more examples posted after SU5, but I didn’t notice those in other threads with screenshots before said update.
I have reported the issue to Zendesk, #120181
Thanks for caring!
@OlieTsubasa443
Hiya, thanks for your input. Yes the issue persists for me even after the hotfix. I installed the hotfix on the 6th of August and the video I posted above and again here was taken on 12 August. For me the issue is very much about green/red tinting of clouds and in the video it is very evident, and looks especially bad from 5:40.
Some are pre-HF2, some are post-HF2, and the issues are visible in both: Banding and color fringes, mostly of the purple variant. Color gradients look rasterized.
I have to admit, after going over some video footage I shot shortly after release, and earlier this year, the clouds now look no where near as good as they did back then.
There are certain cloud types that look worse than others, though.
Nothing wrong with this. I’m an IR pilot. This is exactly what a diffuse cirro type cloud looks like at close proximity. For example, have you flown ontop of a warm frontal system? There’s frequently a diffuse undefined layer of cirrostratus as the highest layer of cloud around 30,000 ft or higher associated with extra tropical depressions.
Not all clouds are well defined, especially glaciated high clouds.
This too. They’ve really screwed up the graphics like anything. On another note, even on TAA the not-so-distant scenery has a moving grain on it. With SU5, they really took one step forward and two steps back.
I’ve found only certain cloud formations have this smudged look, typically seen on live weather. They seem to appear as those thin, flat clouds. Stratus? Cumulus look fine though.
