These screenshots were collected by me during my VFR World Tour which started on 19th August 2020.
The last time I saw these well-made clouds was August 2021.
Since then, nothing more.
This topic was born to honor their memory.
Stay in peace.
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Hello @BidImpala169680,
Please do not post more than 10 images per post. If you have more than 10, please create a new post. This helps prevent lag on slower connections and mobile devices. 
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sounds good, thanks
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R.I.P those great clouds. And also the real air traffic, that never was. (But we paid for)
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They look superb, presumably though, they don’t fit into an Xbox.
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The sim is still capable of rendering clouds like that, if METAR injection doesn’t interfere with it. That’s the problem!
I took these shots today, with SU9 weather over some cloud systems over Canada, Russia and Bosnia. Looks pretty good to me:
These are unedited, by the way. There is clearly some post processing (colors, sharpening) going on in many if not all of the screenshots of the original post, which doesn’t make for a great baseline for comparisons.
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so they are all great, I have “thousands” (since the alpha) and have already posted some - but it is unfortunately a visual “descent”. (for some, since SU5 approximately and since SU7 totally, hurts partly).
This one in particular caught my eye - as I’ve noticed since the first flight in the SU7 that (small) clouds cast little or no shadows over the water - presumably because the density of the clouds has been significantly reduced (total mistake).
But I’m not in the beta this time - I’m waiting for the update and I’m basically hopeful that we’ll see them again one day.
Nice shots !
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And some more clouds from today, over Valdez, Alaska. I think in the right conditions the clouds look as great as ever. If they are indeed improved in SU10 (haven’t tried it): Even better!
The issue, as mentioned before, is when sudden transitions happen, or when generic cloud sets for METAR stations replace the big picture provided by Meteoblue. You can see a little bit of that in the video, with clouds suddenly morphing a bit. Of course those transitions can be much worse than that and really still need to be improved a lot!
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Unfortunately Asobo simply killed the stunning visuals of clouds in SU5 for the sake of Xbox performance.Clouds never became as beautiful as pre-SU5 era.I hope in the ongoing developments we get them back.
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I would be, the clouds in the bottom two pics, especially the bottom one, are awful.
Yes and the LOD distances, and texture quality, and lighting. Pretty much everything was downgraded.
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Ah, I remember them well! The lack of layers and variety in live weather clouds now is quite noticeable (I used to think the complaints were overstated, but I’ve changed my mind - live weather is real dull a lot of the time).
The fundamental problem is the concept that in ‘live’ weather all players should see and experience the same weather - this was the underlying reason behind the SU5 change (so xbox players would see the same as PC users) . It would be nice though if people who want the live weather, but have no interest in ‘multiplayer’, could have the option of ‘beyond ultra’ cloud rendering (as was done with terrain LOD). We can only hope SU10 will restore some of what was lost.
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Yup so sad how far this game has fallen since release. Super depressing. It would have been better to just release the game with ■■■■■■ clouds in the first place…
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The problem is that it’s not just the diversity - the clouds themselves look good in parts - but it’s simply the impression - the very large, closed cloud fronts are completely missing. Before SU5 (and in the versions we are not allowed to talk about) you often flew through the clouds for minutes without seeing the ground or piercing the cloud - you felt like you were in a cloud and felt “small”. At night you couldn’t see through the clouds the lights at all, the fog (represented by these deep 3D clouds) was much more “alive” and improved (nothing to do with the VISIBILITY, I know). You constantly saw something different in the sky etc. etc. etc. Now it’s all more “generic” and almost always looks the same no matter where. (for me anyway) ! We don’t need to talk about the reasons for the possible change here, we all know anyway (but I wouldn’t have needed them, or you would have needed them but it could have been solved quite differently and without “destroying” the “substance”.) - the first thing I praised in the ALPHA with a big article was the weather and the appearance. I’m not in BETA now, so I’ll wait for SU10 and hope that it will be improved. The strange thing is, it is partly claimed on the part of Asobo not to have implemented a METAR for the clouds - but then where does the change come from. Even the morning weather change (before 8 AM) has not really been confirmed (despite videos and postings) - I just find it a bit strange…
and so on…
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my motivation to fly has gone since they downgraded clouds quality and weather in general, i wanna cry
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It’s the live weather he is talking!
They are all there in manual weather, nothing have been removed. They changed the live real weather depiction trying to improve the live weather metar\meteo blue, not the clouds formation or visual.
These always appeared since release in certain time of the day, clouds thickness and scatter amount, there was always ugly yelloish\black\volcanish clouds here and here.
I see it from a non-technical point of view and as an end-user. I simply compare the screenshots, videos, etc. from pre-su5 with the current release.There is definitely a downgrade in the visual aspect of the sim. No need to say that much has been upgraded/fixed, but the visual aspect is not what I paid for. I know that it has always been solely about game business and not love of aviation!
Maybe if we ask Asobo/Microsoft , they can bring the visual quality back or even release two versions.one for Xbox and one for PC.
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