We can only hope they worked out a new deal with meteoblue for MSFS2024 but I’m not holding my breath on it
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And PMDG seemed to have acquiesced to that by implementing the WXR in their upcoming 777, regardless of limitations. I think it’s getting to the point that other devs will have no choice but to cave in and implement WXR as is, until at least MSFS24 finally addresses it, lest others complain about a lack of WXR in what is supposed to be a feature-complete aircraft. That or they’ll have to go external with it, even if it’s not ideal, particularly if it means having to release the product outside of the Marketplace.
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I was extremely disappointed by the re-hashed answer given in the March livestream. Yes - I understand that MS cannot just provide an API to “stream” the Meteoblue raw data to third parties, BUT.
MS receive the raw data. They then process that and inject that abstracted view into the sim to generate the clouds and rain which is rendered for us. Why can that rendering data not be exposed from the sim (NOT the raw Meteoblue data) through an API to allow aircraft devs to generate a 3D model of the clouds and areas of precipitation?
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We need to push harder on the issue. The more they notice, the more they’ll take heed.
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The key thing people are requesting Asobo is that they have READ access to this data so they can implement terrain and weather radar correctly.
I think there have been perhaps misunderstanding from Microsoft and Asobo that people are asking for WRITE privileges when 3rd party Devs are only requesting READ data and API
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No, the issue is people could theoretically write a ‘scraper’ that would automate loading weather data for uses outside of the sim which likely makes it difficult to get it approved by Meteoblue.
But why would anyone want to write a ‘scraper’ to harvest MB data? That’s not what devs want. They want access to data that’s already in the sim so then they can create their own bitmaps and also be able to do tilt and gain adjustments, as well as be able to detect hail and lightning for Honeywell RDR-4000 simulations.
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I’m fairly certain that is exactly what one of the developers said was the concern on the last stream. Obviously the devs who want to integrate weather radar have no desire to use it for other purposes, but if you an expose an API to developers you are going to expose data that in theory could be used for other purposes as well.
The concern here is not that the addon developers are going to misuse it, but that other developers could build scrapers to harvest the data for other uses.
If you look at this from Metoblue’s perspective, they have nothing to gain by allowing Microsoft to expose their data in ways where it could be misused.
To be clear I’m not defending anyone but simply trying to relay my understanding of what is happening here and why it isn’t necessarily simple to implement something like this.
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Given how little of Meteoblue data MSFS actually utilizes, that users are anyway always unhappy and have called upon for sub-par fixes, and that this kind of weather forecast is basically a commodity nowadays, MS should implement their own on Azure. This way they could tailor it for MSFS, and also serve historical weather.
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This is exactly the way to go for MS/Asobo, if they were, in fact, interested in this topic.
We all heard Sebastian telling us stories over and over and over about “updrafts and downdrafts” in clouds that they were simulating–I’ve never experienced this in the sim. Realism is just not their priority. The weather depiction looks nice, that’s good enough. Same with the unrealistic cross-wind behaviour of planes during landing. Or the ground friction model that’s weird since day one of the Alpha: You don’t see it, literally, hence no priority.
Coming back to the issue at hand: The sim depicts light, moderate or heavy rain, based on data provided by MB. It’d be extremely easy to expose the 3D information of where the sim depicts precipitation (or turbulence for that matter) around the plane to an API–without any MB data being transmitted.
Sorry for being bitter about that, but if there was a will, a way would’ve been found day 2 after release four years ago.
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The day MSFS 2024 comes out I’m not going to buy it even if it looks great and I know that my money means nothing to MSFS, Microsoft, Azure and Asobo and that without my money they won’t become poorer but it seems to me that this “simulator” It lacks a lot of realism, with crosswinds on takeoff, landing, more physics in airplanes, terrain, airports, etc. Who in their 5 senses in real life gets on a plane without a weather radar, without TCAS, or terrain radar, currently it is not possible or at least on my airline if something of those tools is missing they leave the plane on the ground until is not implemented/fixed, all the Asobo guys have the potential to make this “simulator” one of the best but the permissions, policies, rules on the part of the Microsoft monopoly are terrifying.
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We need a useful weather radar, please!!!
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“As unreal as it will ever get.”
I fixed it for you.
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Let’s wait for Active Sky FS that it offers us with the radar and meteorology topics but I don’t have too many hopes since the Asobo API is limited thanks to the monopoly of Microsoft and METEOBLUE
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It’s clear that wx radar will come with the weather engine improvements and/or API restrictions removed.
Keep the pressure on getting METAR accurate weather and visibility, full custom weather controls, and WX Radar will not be far behind.
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I don’t know…maybe the only solution is to make the default Wx RDR a realistic one and let 3rd parties just use it so that the raw data is not expoused. Perhaps make some optional functions in the background that can be turned on or off to better match different Wx RDRs models.
The current restrictions and lockdown of the weather system and API are a massive limiting factor for sim immersion and realism. Default clouds are too transparent and lack density, atmosphere lacks depth/haze so you can virtually see the curve of the earth in the horizon. I think this area should be a main focus for Asobo going forward after 2024 release, as virtually every other aspect except the clouds and weather seem to have improved, while the clouds, with the exception of the addition of cirrus clouds, look basically the same.
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The Asobo engine has tremendous amounts of potential, but it all just doesn’t seem to be used. They seem to be focusing on other areas like the aviation activities, which granted, are highly requested, and for that they should be commended, but still, there needs to be a call to arms to finally do something about the sim overall weather depiction, which I would say lags behind other new gen competing simulators today. They have 500 people, SO many resources, this should all be somewhat doable.
I really love Asobo, they listen to the community and have their hearts in the right place, weather depiction is hard, but still, in this day and age, it should definitively be fully doable for them to give clouds, atmospherics and weather an overhaul when other simulators, with much smaller teams and fewer resources manage to excel at this today.
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There is hope https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/weather-radar-in-the-future/656401/2
The only problem outstanding now is to allow for the projections to be modified to suit different systems and NDs, especially those on Airbuses, and to implement different modes.
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Yes mr microsoft. Make that please +1