@DROGUSA @BlitzMeerkat
Have a read through here. As you can clearly see, improvements are being made daily…
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/clouds-still-at-ground-level-everywhere/479407
Most definitely they are, I have been enjoying the Beta and have been really happy with the direction they are going
Yes, go outside and take a look. You don’t push weather that is for sure.
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Just took a flight over Niagara Falls in the lastest public beta (ok, not the weather for VFR, but I had to test 
- see self: Cumulus clouds with gaps, sun is shining through “overcast” and fog, completely orange sunset colors.
Maybe (and I hope you are right) they are working on it, but still it’s not right.
and when you go outside and stand on the tarmac in Niagara falls, what does it look like?
Compared to what?
Hey, are you joking? Do you assume that a foggy winter overcast sunset looks like that in Niagara Falls?
I’d have shown you the overcast in Dresden, Germany where I live - if I could. There was a huge gap in live weather over Europe. And yesterday I didn’t take a screenshot over Dresden - would have looked much like the above.
I don’t want to deny that there are improvements, but I take the freedom to call wrong what’s wrong.
My point is, I don’t assume anything. I can’t see what the weather is or the sky colour in Niagara Falls right now and so I have no data to suggest it is “wrong”.
I live in Northern BC. It is possible to have low cloud, fog and snow with a late afternoon sunset that looks just like that. The upshot is, without a RL comparison it is impossible to determine what is right and what is wrong.
This is the basis of testing…
OK, so I just loaded up Dresden (seems there is some live weather) and set the time to some hours earlier to show you the colorful helloween sunset sky. I can assure you it never looked like that here over the last 6 weeks. We sure had some days where the sun was visible for some hours, but neither these sunset colors (always ± neutral grey) nor these dramatic cumuli.
Yet, you can reproduce these colors in MSFS simply by choosing sunset time. Thus, there seem to be no rules to determine the actual light scattering characteristics of the atmosphere, but just “hey, let’s have some nice sunset colors” like in old FSX times. I filed a ticket on that topic one year ago… Don’t get me wrong - MSFS is lightyears better than FSX, but there are some immersion breakers that should be removed.
“Today’s meeting we will decide if we want to get yelled at for doing live weather, or get yelled at for not doing live weather”.
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Hey guys, no need to be sarcastic.
If I’d like to just bash Asobo I wouldn’t have taken the time to beta test. And @ willisxdc: I did read the release notes and try to answer each of the testing questions (which are often quite generic - for thorough testing there could be better defined test cases). But as I have no VR gear, I can’t test many of these. And while they are improving the weather simulation, it may be good to tell them what still is not fixed.
Live weather is a basic feature of any decent flight sim (even FlightGear has a nice simulation of live weather and atmospheric scattering), so they should get it right some day. As much as I like the great scenery engine - weather is the most important aspect (besides flight physics) of a sim. It surely was a great approach to use MeteoBlue’s worldwide weather model based on atmospherical physics. And I fully understand the difficulties marrying this with the METARs which are known to have their problems.
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Yes, that is how I read it initially to understand what you said as well, but the statement after says -
and I read it as it is calculating each layer still independently so OVC is OVC at that altitude.
I believe the bigger issue tied to the lower level clouds I hope they fix in the beta. I do believe we need to think through a consistent way of testing and reporting to bucket the issues the way the dev team is thinking through them.
Maybe they should just do super random weather. One 5-minute period it is live potluck weather and the next 5-minute period it is users’ choice, randomized every 60 seconds. NO, I guess not. That would never work either. The users would be complaining that the user choice weather didn’t have enough choices.
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They will never win, so I think they have done an admirable job already.
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Hats Off to them.
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Now get to work on fixing all of the flaws existing since birth and leave the Marketplace to mellow a bit.
In this post and your two before, there are some sweeping generalisations that may be true in your part of the world but are not true in mine. Not even close.
I’m not going to pick apart every point you made as it is too tiring and I do it as a day job and have done so as a meteorologist for 30+ years.
@BlitzMeerkat
I agree the color pallet chosen for the low angle sun diffusion effects are out of whack. To be honest the purple sunsets have been an issue since day one. On the other hand, I really don’t equate colour choices as part of the weather system. The clouds look amazing in this latest iteration albeit the low overcast still needs work.
I think we could have another thread dedicated to natural coloration of the sim’s sky representations as that really is a separate issue from the proper cloud formation displays. Let’s try to keep this thread focused on the weather engine though.
I have reviewed my previous posts in this thread. Tiring or not, it is only fair to point out my specific errors, rather than simply stating that my generalizations are, “not even close”. I am not a meteorologist. Never claimed to be. After a few years of flying at a number of different locations around the world I have, however, put my life in the hands of the meteorologists more than a few times and think I have learned a few things over the years.
I am not above continuing to learn. Having a 30 year met vet critique my understanding of how aviation forecasting and reporting works would be welcome. If my interpretations are so completely flawed, I wouldn’t want to perpetuate false assumptions.
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It’s a flight sim for everyone not a weather simulator for retired pilots and the spectacular sunsets are a big selling point because nobody and I mean nobody enjoys drabness. Saying all that I do wish they would take it a little easier with the russet tones … but not too much please.
Also when making complaints of this nature people should check their PC or monitor isn’t displaying night mode.
@BlitzMeerkat - I agree with you concerning the overly simple cloud lighting model. That is something I really hope to see improved in the future. Whether it be the yellow ashy cloud colors or the orangish (always orangish) shadow sides of large cumulus at sunset or the fact that the cloud puffs that make up a cumulus cloud always have darker centers than edges whether they are seen towards or away from the sun – or the fact that haze is too uniformly bright… all these things should be looked at so that we can have realistic flying weather - not just clouds but the lighting/coloration to make it look realistic as it should.
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@DensestSnail693 @mbraortns @BlitzMeerkat
I did find a WishList post where we can vote on this issue, post some screenshots and discuss our concerns.
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