Hire HiFi Sim Damian to fix the weather in the sim for good!

I think the sim got the behaviour more correct at release than now. Now we can notice sudden changes of weather. Circles around airports. To have a 100% accurate to real world simulation of weather i think we expect too much. Because no computer in the world can handle that simulation to be spot on accurate. If we had that simulation every single forecast would be 100% accurate allready. Simulate weather is a really complex thing to do. Forecasts may be more accurate in the future but never perfect. Some (including me) liked the weather system they had at release more than this new system. I accept that you liking the new more. But i hope Asobo take notice of all the feedback they get.

I think we will need to accept limitations of weather in a flight simulator because it will always have limitations. Then those limitations we all have different opinions of what we accept. Depends how we as users are using the sim i bet.

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That was the problem - the behavior wasnā€™t correct. It just looked better. There are major limitations that will prevent it from behaving correctly unless it has a full-on overhaul (and I expect that is in the core sim engine).

Thatā€™s the real crux of the problem.

As is this, in combination with the above. Unfortunately, to execute a flight, especially in IFR, avoiding embedded hazards like ice, thunderstorms, etc that canā€™t be seen through other clouds, we have to have some sort of way to either plan to avoid them or pick around them using onboard radar, etc. Having them be way off as they were (and still are, to a lesser effect) eschews a major part of aviation.

Yet, the visuals could still be better, as they once were.

Totally agree :slight_smile:

Not so much. Let the tile popping in, the low LOD, the microstutters get fixed first.

Iā€™ll not argue that Live Weather doesnā€™t need improvement.
But this doesnā€™t look like ā€œnothing but puffy white cumulus cloudsā€ to me.
The video doesnā€™t do it justice. These clouds looked amazing in 4K HDR10.

Along with ai traffic and ATC. Weather should be way down the list, for now. Itā€™s fine as it is.

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(Live) Weather is not fine.

  • No cloud variety (all still types of cumulus)
  • Cloud density gives semi transparent clouds
  • In-cloud turbulence doesnā€™t exist
  • Low visibility doesnā€™t match irl conditions
  • Thunderstorms remain rare
  • Snow/ice coverage still not close to irl conditions
  • Wind speed at ground level is 50% of reported

In a flight sim, weather is a crucial element. It needs as much dev attention as any other critical part of the flying experience.

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Different folks have different needs and wants. I personally couldnā€™t care less about most of the things on your list. But I can accept that the current state of live weather might disappoint you and others who value perfection.

I just want it to look cool.

Sunset1

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Interesting how a few years back you were in agreement. Was there a weather update along the way? I donā€™t think so because the exact same live weather issues still persist to this day.

You can barely see anything. Live weather looks so bad that they had to hide the flaws behind huge clouds and rain.

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Itā€™s like youā€™ve never been in heavy overcast skies IRL.
I think it looks amazing.

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To me this looks amazing and it was amazing flying thereā€¦
Edit: too bad it was with ActiveSky. :stuck_out_tongue:

You should have seen portland yesterday. Omg!

Several posts removed.

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Because things have changed since a few years past. Since then some things have broken and not been fixed like Tiles Popping In, Low LOD, Microstutters. Yes, weather does need improvement, but I can set my own static weather, but I cannot make the tiles show properly, nor improve LOD or seem to fix the microstutters. I too hope the weather someday is as real as it gets, but feel other issues are more pressing.

I think most of the users were happy with the new approach ā€œMeteoblueā€. It were one seemless atmosphere. The issue were the forecasts were not that accurate to METAR all the time or not injected at correct times and stuff like that. Thats why the implementation of the METAR data. I think what we actually wanted is more accurate forecasted data into the sim that worked exactly the same visually as before.

If Hifi use exactly the same data as we have now we would have exactly same inaccuracies as before right? Or does Hifi have access to more data?

I think most of the users compare what they see in the sim with what they see on a METAR. I think most users are fine as long as it matches the METAR 100%. Thats why most of the users find HiFI superior. Because thats what they are doing. Set the weather exactly what a METAR says. Am i correct?

Why would HiFi fix the weather for good? I think it may make it better for those that wants the weather over airports match METAR 100%. Not better for those that wants a seemless global weather system.

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Itā€™s my guess that the majority of people who use MSFS just want clear skies with the choice to select rain, clouds, and thunderstorms. And yes, as a disclaimer I admit I donā€™t know how many people are like that but Iā€™m sure the average user who doesnā€™t post on these boards gets into their plane, sees clouds, and says ā€˜cool, cloudsā€™ then flies on.

Iā€™m all for changes to make the sim better - I mean who would argue against better weather simulation in a flight sim? Iā€™m just guessing that most people out there donā€™t care that much, and that will reduce the chances of major changes happening. In other words, the chances of MSAsobo doing something outside the box may be slim.

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Unfortunately I have to agree with your assumption, because they are consistent with my observations among my acquaintances.
Most of them fall into two categories:

  1. As you said: it is enough to have some clouds in the sky.
  2. they donā€™t care about the sky at all, and mostly want no clouds in the sky, because they start the program because of the sight of the ground. Any cloud or storm/fog that obscures the sun and obstructs the view makes them nervous. So they fly with a ā€œclear skyā€ or ā€œfew cloudsā€ preset at most.

This is exactly why Asobo should cooperate with HiFi.
While HiFi could concentrate on the weather to the delight of the minority, Asobo would take care of the ā€œmore importantā€ stuff to the great satisfaction of the masses.

Win-win situation.

Iā€™m extremely honored to be mentioned/suggested like this.

Of course, they may not be interested, but Iā€™d love to work with MS/Asobo, at any levelā€¦ to help do whatever I can to collaboratively innovate and improve the weather experience for those who appreciate high-fidelity featuresā€¦ and also those who want the ā€œawesomeā€ things about weather that may be more visual or experience-based rather than just ā€œrealisticā€ for weather/aviation enthusiasts. That would be like a dream come true for me to be able to work with them and help further develop the brilliant weather system they have made with MSFS2020/24.

To those who might be interested, Iā€™d like to share a little background and thoughts regarding all this:

Iā€™ve been advocating for 3rd-party weather setting and general weather extensibility for a long time now. Thatā€™s been my history, making wx add-ons for MSFS for the past 25 years, working as a product manager and developer for many variations of Active Sky, along-side many amazing great programmers and graphics artists whoā€™ve contributed significantly to what weā€™ve been able to achieve. Weā€™ve also been very lucky to have dedicated team members in support, admin and several other areas over the years. They all significantly helped us become the leader in weather add-ons for many years, enabling us all to do what we love and create new aviation weather features and experiences.

Since MSFS2020 and the lack of weather SDK, we initially decided to not develop an Active Sky for the new MSFS until such a time that comprehensive (and supported) weather-setting ability was available. It was initially sounding like this was coming, but it was eventually dropped and made ā€œNot Plannedā€ status. This was a big blow to us, being the first time we would not have weather extensibility in a major desktop flight simulator platform in over 20 years. It blind-sided us, quite frankly, and was very consequential, being that our entire resources, investments and IP were wrapped up in weather simulation and would not be able to be used to create any related products and achieve any add-on sales for the leader in the desktop flight simulation market.

Since then, weā€™ve been working hard to support our existing customers on other platforms, continuing developing there, and also advocating for a change of decision regarding MSFS2020 wx SDK, as well as trying to find the best way to bring Active Sky features to MSFS2020 regardless of the lack of SDK. Unfortunately, due to the market shift and growing lack of demand for non-MFSS2020 add-ons, we were forced, several years ago, to let our primary development and other supporting staff go so they could pursue other projects and proper compensation. Charitably, Dave Opper was willing to continue helping with customer support for nearly zero compensation, enabling me to keep maintaining HiFi DataNet and existing products, adapt products to newer platform versions, and even add a few new features. Kostas Terzides also charitably worked to integrate with P3D6 and XP12 which were a significant efforts and yielded him almost zero compensation. We all gave it the best we could for as long as we could.

Paying for a sophisticated cloud/network system that is HiFi DataNet, with negative profits, I was also forced to work without compensation over the past couple of years. Every financial resource drained, loans taken, debt accrued, but fortunately all of HiFi products within the previous 10 years stayed online. Unfortunately, I had to shed some older products (AS2012, ASE) and remove server support from them last year, and it was looking like we would possibly have to shut everything down in the coming months. I moved our most recent products to NOAA download primarily, vs. HiFi DataNet, reducing cloud costs significantly and stretching things out a few more months so we could keep things online.

Thanks to the growing encouragement of Active Sky supporters, as well as continued progress with UI-mod based weather setting prototypes (and some significant personal challenges becoming overcome), ASFS became a reality and was finally released last month. It has modestly sold to enough customers to enable me to keep developing AS (and continuing development and support on the other platforms as well) for at least a while.

Recently, this ā€œHire Damianā€ wishlist item came up and as mentioned I am very honored and grateful. Discussion of this has been mostly positive but there are a few very negative and insulting attacks made against me, HiFi and Active Sky around the net in regards to this. I think most of this comes from misunderstanding. Despite that, I wanted to clear the air about a few things and provide my thoughts, so thanks for that opportunity.

Iā€™ve never considered AS to be any competition or detriment to any sim developer including MS/Asobo, but some have unfortunately pitted us against each other, resulting in defensive reactions which I think explain the negativity. I completely respect and believe I am very aligned with MS/Asoboā€™s work and their vision for weather moving forward. My efforts have always been to extend and build upon, not to replace or compete. I hope I have shown that through the years I can do that, just like many developers can and have.

To re-iterate, Iā€™d be extremely honored, and it would be a real dream come true to be able to work with MS/Asobo at any level to further weather development. Whether that be from some kind of potential employment, partnership, new 3rd-party weather extensibility, or ANYTHING, Iā€™m extremely interested and willing to explore it all in the name of weather innovation, cooperation and mutual respect.

Of course, MS/Asobo may not be interested in working with me, and if so, thatā€™s fully their prerogative and of course they absolutely donā€™t ā€œneed meā€ in any way to continue making awesome new weather innovations. They have incredible weather developers and designers who have knocked it out of the park, and Iā€™m sure they will continue to do so regardless of who they work with or partner with.

For now, Iā€™m fully committed to improving ASFS for the current MSFS2020 and making it integrate with MSFS2024 when it comes around. Beyond that, Iā€™m open to exploring anything/everything with MS/Asobo and/or anyone else who might want to work with me.

Thanks to everyone who supports my efforts and my continued ability to work on weather simulation. Thanks to all Active Sky customers and supporters. Thanks to the new ASFS users. Thanks to past developers and staff whoā€™ve selflessly sacrificed so much effort and time for HiFi and our users. Thanks to MS/Asobo for making and continuing the MS franchise, MSFS2020, and MSFS2024, and giving the community some incredible experiences, and giving many developers like me opportunities to continue development. I cannot thank you enough!

-Damian Clark / HiFi

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This weather related?

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Not really. It is more about the rendering and how clouds (which is what the ā€œhazeā€ seems to look like) interact with certain materials used for buildings like glass.