This is how a mesoscale convective system can look like from a distance:
Lightning definitely needs some work. Not only the cloud-to-ground strikes themselves, but cloud-to-cloud or intracloud flashes as well. Right now it looks like all the lightning strikes are extremely long lasting. Some C-G strikes definitely are like that, but there are plenty of low amplitude strikes that last only a fraction of a second.
There’s also the issue with lightning emanating from few hunder feet vertically thick stratus clouds.
I guess one of the issue with lightning is performance, perhaps they can’t render >100 km distant lightning strikes otherwise the graphics card would melt lol. Maybe that could be solved by making the strikes shorter in duration.
As you can see, the lightening effects are painfully unrealistic. The lightening flashes currently in MSFS are too slow, too monotonous, and uninspiring.
Here’s how real lightening looks
As you can see, the flashes vary in brightness, location in the clouds, and frequency (sometimes the flashes repeat, like strobe lights).
Having this kind of lightning depicted in MSFS would make night IFR flying in weather much more frightening, just like IRL.
Here’s a cool website which has a real time map of lightning flashes of several major places across the globe. It’d be cool if Asobo could somehow integrate its data into the sim to drive lightning effects to closer match to reality.
I wonder how a sush topic collects only 70 votes
Lightining effects in MSFS are so horrible, a full rework is needed to increase immersion… for now it looks like an automatic speed camera flash !! Please vote !!!
I haven’t seen lightning in a very long time.
According to the devs, the lightning has been fixed, but instead of reducing the frequency by implementing higher-quality algoritms (i.e. CAPE, Lifted index, pseudo-TEMPs etc.), it seems the lightning almost completely disappeared.
Some say it can still be seen in Meteoblue-only parts of the world where METARs are unavailable.
From the few videos I’ve seen of SU10, the depiction of lightning seems to have improved slightly, but it still is far off from looking like real lightning.
When you fly through thunderstorms, it should look and feel like you’re flying through thunderstorms, not like an alleyway with a flickering lights.
Bringing this topic back up to hopefully get the attention of devs.
Actually, it doesn’t even look like that. speed camera flashes, I believe are fast, quick, instant,
The lightning in MSFS, does this weird “fade in” and and “fade out”. Looks really weird. But looks nothing like real lightning.
Change the world map to view precipitation and go to areas with heavy precipitation. Though sometimes it will show up with any level of precipitation. It’s most rare in the US.
Please vote!!! Needs an overhaul - lighting is so unrealistic momentarily in the sim. Needs much more attention to detail and the glitches in clouds and on ground when lighting is visible.
Please devs fix it and make the thunderstorms and lighting much more reslistic and better.
Yes, I have not seen lightning for quite a while.
When the sim first came out, there was a lot of lighting action. I really liked flying in storms with the flashes and thunder.
Some people complained that it was too much so now we have almost none.
