When a user starts a flight sim session wanting real time and real weather, my understanding is that the sim looks at current weather and time and loads that into the sim to start the session.
What I am asking for would be more a cloud based world that never starts (once up and online) or stops and the user joins that world. The idea is that as more features in areas of weather, AI and environments are developed, improved and added to the sim, the community has the ability with the help of AI and cloud based tech, to jump in and out of a persistent world than starting and stopping one on the user side.
Added features in this persistent world would be catered fully to realism for ultimate pilot training and learning. With the wealth of data from weather sources, marine traffic sources, Buoy report, NOTAMs, air traffic etc…a persistent world would offer a true real world once and for all.
As an example, all navaids could be configured to be working or offline. As a pilot in the real world one can find in many places (skyvector, GarminPilot, Fore Flight) NOTAMs of navaids that are out of service are scheduled for being temporarily offline. Using that data would be put into this new world. Airports that have runway or taxiway closures via NOTAMs would also be seen as such as 3d models would be placed on the runway or taxiway during the times stated. These models would be things like the lighted X for runways and red and white barriers.
Weather would be a continuing thing and so if reports state airports got X amount of snow or rain in inches then a formula would be created to best determine how long snow or rain would visual be seen even after the front has passed. Start a flight shortly after a heavy rain went by and the ground is still wet. Frost conditions over night and the windscreen is covered in frost for that morning flight. Snow would accumulate, melt and be plowable all factored off of temps, time etc.
With a persistent world, weather radar and satellite info that can be seen and used would replace a bulk of the weather we see in the sim in more developed areas. So if flying in the USA, Europe or places like that, a user would see the same storm fronts and amount of precipitation that user who use EFB apps see in their weather overlays.
Once weather like that is created, then aircraft developers could start to offer triggers to keep the plane easily flyable. Like engine heaters, plane covers, defrosters or the ability to hangar the plane.
The bulk of the idea is to use the power of AI to have the user come into the virtual world that is continuously being updated based off of all the available data sources instead of bringing the world to the user for just a snapshot start with the added ability to offer accurate AI/ATC that is aware of NOTAMs and navaids that are operational or offline based on NOTAMs.