Just a theory.
I’m sure many here keep up with MSFS development and the various changes which occurred in the various sim updates. I myself am too slow to track which changes were introduced with each sim update.
But it seems to me that when the MSFS experience underwent the significant update where performance on my own system jumped from around 20 fps to averaging in the mid-50’s is about the time that the clouds and sky lost their stunning beauty.
Could it be that the developers decided to dumb down the quality of the sky in order to increase the sim’s performance? And, I don’t know, kind of try pulling a Darren Stevens switch on the community, hoping no one would notice? Like I said, just a theory. For old guys like me, or maybe others who may have gotten their Darren Stevens savvy from Nicolodeon.
EDIT: According to sources, su5 was the update in which MSFS greatly improved the simulator’s performance on computer hardware. My own setup is:
i9 10900
Rtx 2070s
2tb ssd
32gb ram
Dx11
2560x1440p
Frames locked at 30 fps
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It seems pretty obvious to me that this is why clouds were scaled down.
Folks like to say, “They dumbed it down for the XBOX!” but it is more nuanced than that. They dumbed it down, it seems to me, to give a performance boost to everyone without a top of the line PC and graphics card… and the game really was a slide show for most folks with medium or low spec computers.
And I cannot fathom they did this without knowing it would degrade the visuals for folks with top of the line systems, but it was BREAKING the game for everyone else.
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Not sure what you’re seeing, but I just did a live weather, real time flight from Nashville to Charlotte and the clouds were stunning. There was a beautiful stratus layer at 36k and the descent was a gorgeous sunset through the layers with awesome colors. Looking much better to me.
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What they did do though, was remove the ability to select the upper qualities that were available to those with very fast systems. So those people now do not have access to the ‘ultra’ setting they used to have access to.
That’s what the Low Medium High and Ultra is meant to be for. The UTLRA settings really should bring most systems to their knees right now IMO.
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Yet another pointless conspiracy theory thread. Where’s the hide button again…
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It is kind of hard to explain if you didn’t see it, or like me, you didn’t appreciate it before it was downgraded.
But this is an ongoing issue and Asobo tends to update us on their progress with every new Q&A and improvements will be incremental over several SUs.
Vanilla live weather to my eyes is still undeniably better than any other vanilla sim’s clouds but you get a sense of the missing fidelity when you play with some of the non-live weather presets which show a fuller, more layered, and varied cloudscape.
Live weather clouds were downgraded… and yet, if you fly VFR GA you are likely below them and it still looks great. It is really when you get above the first layer of clouds and notice there is very little variation above that first layer. This is improving and should continue to improve. But it is also a feature people used to have, and enjoyed, before it was removed to (by all appearances) improve frame rates on low grade, mid grade, and XBOX computers… where the beautiful live clouds were killing framerates.
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Ummm…what? If you’re saying the Ultra settings are no longer available, that is incorrect. I have what’s likely as powerful a rig as possible and I’m running everything on Ultra and getting a solid locked fps and flawless performance. Am I misunderstanding you?
I think you might be.
It is like they changed the whole cloud engine for live weather, and I think what is being expressed is, “Why didn’t they leave the high fidelity weather model in place as an ultra setting for those who could actually run it?”
And I suspect the answer is sadly, “Because they had to change the whole live weather engine for it to allow low, mid, and XBOX systems to run.”
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Yes you are… 
The ultra setting has been reduced, or potentially the texture/complexity of the cloud structures was reduced/simplified with SU5. That is evidenced by the halving almost of memory usage that the sim now uses.
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Yeah, I firmly believe that xbox has limited what this sim can now do, and especially now they are streaming it to other devices too.
It has brought many more people into this genre however, which is a great thing. I just wish they left the extreme settings intact for those that could take advantage of them. In a few years, we all will be able to anyway with faster systems coming each year.
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I still maintain it is more than just XBOX. The sim was a slideshow on my mid range computer, too, before SU5. Still is, but far less so.
In the realm of programming, which you know well, I suspect they bit off more than they could chew and realized late in development that the live clouds would need to be completely replaced to meet the release schedule for XBOX, and it was done across the board so we all shared the same weather.
Sometimes you realize late in development that thing you KNEW you could do in three months is now just impossible to accomplish in the timeframe you were given. Things sometimes are far harder to accomplish than they initially appear. Folks overpromise with the best of intentions, and then they have to walk their promise back to reality.
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Lol. You made me actually fire up the sim to check that Ultra hadn’t been removed. My own experience of flying daily since my days as one of the original pre release Alpha testers to today has been a steady increase in the fidelity of the cloud simulation. There have been short periods of grainy structures, but at IFR altitudes its getting much better lately.
I can understand how those of us with powerful rigs might not currently be able to realize the full potential of the live weather, but its still pretty ■■■■ good…to me anyway.
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Yup, don’t get me wrong, it’s still amazing! But that’s not what the OP’s thread is about.
I was tech alpha testing too and whilst I don’t believe there’s been a steady increase in fidelity (SU5 for me did noticeably jump its visual acuity back), there definitely has been an overall (although sometimes shaky) increase in performance, and stability! Which is definitely much more important.
No longer is my notebook trying to melt itself into a molten metal and plastic mess, and now it still does look amazing.
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Same as Parorng, I do NOT think this live weather looks bad. And I do think it is still best in class for a vanilla sim.
But it has undeniably been downgraded from what we used to have. And that fidelity made MSFS almost as beautiful above clouds as it is below them.
And I can understand why it bothers some folks. As it would be bothersome if ground textures saw a similar downgrade. Especially if they were working fine for YOU at the highest fidelity.
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@WellREDBarron couldn’t agree more with your observations—especially that the “dumbing down” was more about performance than simply Xbox. Also, I agree that a significant number of users simply could not experience the sim due to medium to low range systems.
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Yes, I believe this also just by the lowered toxicity of this forum of late. Just by this respectful conversation I’m hopeful this place and sim are on the right path. 6 months ago it was unbearable.
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Agreed, @WellREDBarron , and my speculation, or theory as stated in the original post, is asking the question, did developers downgrade the sky effects in order to achieve the significant jump in performance. I do not go so far as to cry “conspiracy,” but only to point out that we end users were not informed as to how the performance increase was achieved.
Neither do I suggest that we should have necessarily been filled in on all the ways the performance improvements were achieved. It simply seems to me that the easily noticeable visual downgrade in cloud textures occurred at the time of the performance upgrade.
What seems reasonable to speculate, is that it would be much less complicated than, say, rewrite code or modify the program at a foundational level. If so, it shouldn’t be all that secretive to simply tell the community, “We hear loud and clear the desire from our community to increase performance on computer systems. We can do it, at a cost of graphics; and we feel that the least costly place to take away graphic performance is in the area of cloud quality.” Which, evidently, has turned out to be a significant displeasure among immersive flight simmers.
But, I only offer this little theory for the purposes of easy discussion. Of course, someone is bound to get upset. 
It has always seemed to me to be exactly what it looks like.
An embarrassing situation where if Asobo was entirely transparent, they would have to admit the clouds were downgraded to meet the already pushed back deadline for XBOX release while allowing PC and console to share the same weather in the same online world.
And it would be politically toxic to admit that because SO many in the community would hear, “We dumbed it down for XBOX! Your sim is being dumbed down for a game console.” instead of, “Our clouds are breaking our game and we thought we would have it fixed by now. Why do you think the XBOX release got moved back from console launch in the first place?”
It is a terrible choice to have to make. Downgrade fidelity for some to open the game to all. But I understand. And I also understand why they cannot simply say that part out loud. They’re in a corner (and they helped paint themselves into it).
But I think everyone wants the best for the sim and I trust the weather will continue to improve.
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Well, one thing’s for sure. It felt good to be able to talk about this, and to find that there are other flight simmers out there who share this observation. Hats off to those of you who contributed some valuable insight into this discussion.
@Parorng
@WellREDBarron
@OctupleElm15084
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I have been running the sim with ultra clouds since day 1 and can’t see any differences. I think when people bought this sim there was a wow stage and now people are used to the graphics they are spotting things they did not before and consider it something introduced