But it is not only the accuracy that is the problem, as we have all noticed it will not always be like IRL, the basic problem is the appearance when it fits (of course not always, it sporadically looks good too), sometimes these METAR bubbles look good but consist only of the same clouds, in between they are interpolated or whatever and sometimes generic clouds are displayed. There are neither “thick” cloud layers or cloud fronts consisting of one part. Anyone who has made several flights will notice this. METAR bubbles with cumulus clouds that are pushed together and clear up again and possibly underlaid with this fog, often looks good but happens again and again. This is how the weather as a whole is now displayed. You can also see something on the loading screens that you can no longer see with Live Weather.
The low-lying cumulus clouds look good, of course they also occur - but it is almost the same every time.
But as I said, we repeat ourselves all the time, only as I mentioned above, I don’t know if that helps at all.
I have to say that now even the P3D V5 with the new hotfix is ahead (partly in the appearance, but it’s a different programme and doesn’t really belong here).
It’s always going to be the issue sadly when you bring a STATIC source such as METAR and try to blend it into a dynamic weather system that we have with Meteoblue.
I hope we continue to see things improve. Over the past couple of weeks, it definitely has improved, the depiction, cloud types and accuracy have improved from the mess we had at release of SU7. But there’s still a long way to go.
The shapes and type and coverage here for example is a big improvement over what we was seeing at SU7 release:
That’s comparing to SU7 though. I still believe overall, we had a better, more dynamic and more fluid true to life weather depiction before METAR integration was added in SU7.
I have just said the same elsewhere.
I don’t know if something has changed server side, but the skies have looked more realistic to me today, I don’t know about accurate, but certainly more realistic.
Pretty sure these would have been TCU in the very recent past. Maybe just luck.
I’m not really surprised we have a very active participation from Brits on here, the UK famously has the most changeable weather worldwide. I grew up on the Isle of Man and believe me there the weather could completely change in a few minutes yet alone hours. Just how exactly are Asobo supposed to predict that?
Most of us aren’t saying it has to be 100% accurate…
Most not but I wonder about one or two.
Weather is notoriously difficult to predict and that’s especially true when incoming data is as ridiculously sparse as Metar… I’ve never seen it mention cloud types even once.
Exactly that is why the METAR system is a bad idea. Have it do the winds which doesn’t ruin the visuals and is blended in nicely so people can still fly VATSIM and get the correct runways. But have the clouds and skies coming from Metoblue producing a lovely realistic looking sky. And people who care about flight planning and knowing the weather can just check the Meteoblue forecast.
I am not sure, but it seems that the METAR weather is active around 5SM from the METAR, then between 2 METARs, there is a generic scattered cloud cover.
That is what I see, 5SM inside, suddenly visibility reduces, clouds increase/decrease. 5SM out, clear skies, with generic placed cotton clouds.
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100% accurracy = static weather for 30 minutes until next METAR report.
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Not 100% accuracy = globally fluid/dynamic forecasts
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METAR blended with forecast = a random not believable mess we can see now in the sim.
If i could choose i would choose number 2.
Yes agreed …
Asobo listened to all “shouters” that demanded METAR based weather and see what happens now.
The dynamic version had its downsides but looked way more realistic.
Now when i fly at FL350 … with clear skies above europe …. I see a almost perfect ROUND radius with fog ( disk ) … because at the center of that disk there is a metar station in a foggy valley that is reporting morning fog in the VALLEY. Outside the valley ( few km ) its completely clear in real life … but the round disk is dozens of miles wide.
Also the old system did not model that 100% correct ( impossible to be that accurate i understand ) but going from “less realistic” to “ fully rubbish” is not good.
The old system with some tweaks ( SLOWLY transition from the METAR loaded at startup location to the more general dynamic setting at higher altitude for example … BUT SLOW AND GRADUAL) .
It should be as realistic as possible … but people should also understand that a 100% accurate aircraft and 100% accurate weather is not 100% possible for €129 euros on a home PC or XBOX.
But again the old was way better then the new in my opinion
Maybe better blending between the METAR, and forecasted weather would improve things?
I’m glad those abrupt changes, where clouds or ground for instantly appeared, were removed with the SU7 patch. Perhaps the abrupt transitions now require their attention.
Before we didn’t have any transissions at all. I liked that. If a cloud front with rain wanted to go over the airport it could do that without a METAR suddenly blocked that rain to go over the airport because it says no rain and high visibility. I know it’s not more accurate but it’s more believable and realistic. I know it’s hard to predict but the solution is not to make it more accurate with METAR. It needs better forecast-tools to make it smooth & accurate and i think meteoblue will improve that in the future.
And Asobo needs to make sure the data meteoblue provides is injected correct in the sim and provide us with tools to be able to plan our flights using that forecasted weather that also match the weather we see in the sim. That is really important to not make us complain about it’s not matching/is accurate.
There is still a real lack of lightning (and therefore Thunder) in live weather. I’ve tried so many stormy areas, the forecast in the flight planning screen will show thunderstorms but they aren’t there.
I wonder whether this is not being noticed because storms are not so common in the Northern Hemisphere and the majority of players are based and flying there. Even Ozzie storms aren’t appearing, aside from one screenshot I’ve seen.
During the SU7 beta there was a couple of times some of us were able to find storm clouds that actually had lightning, but they were very difficult to find. Often you’d have to sit there for a long time before you’d see a flash of lightning.
I think we’re before there was lighting overdone and in places it shouldn’t be now we’ve gone the other way and it’s pretty non-existent even in storm locations.
I completed a short flight an hour ago from EGHA to EGBP. All the airfields in the vicinity reported OVC at 3500ft, Metroblue should the overcast layer and clearly outside my window its been OVC all day here, but in the SIM nothing clear skies.
It is so hit and miss at the moment here in the UK with Live Weather.
Conversely after the release of the Kodiak, I have been flying in PNG a lot and there are hardly any airfields there that produce METAR’s and I have seen some wonderful cloud formations/depictions at all altitudes, including OVC like I used to see in the UK.
I don’t know, I don’t see the diversity or the accuracy at the moment (as often noted, so and so not possible 1:1 to IRL), especially it seems like users have different experiences - I’m going to completely reinstall my MSFS to prevent a “faulty” update from producing these “errors” - but you can see how it used to look that’s what I mean !
I don’t know how long you’ve been using MSFS, but after 1.5 years it should be clear that Asobo doesn’t test the updates before they go online! We are the testers!
The list of after-patch bugs that “should have caught your eye the first time you started” is endless.
And some have never been fixed…so I would be wary of possible false optimism.
I agree. I have used it since the day it released and my experience has been that either features are removed or changed completely without options to turn them back or change back to the feature i had at release. Improvements in weather i have seen none since release except the fix of 225@3kts.
I think it’s hard to make a wish for a feature here because if they implement that new thing we may not have options to go back because some voted on that feature.
I have none optimism left. I only come here to make my opinion heard that may balance the METAR need out a bit.