Live Weather is not separate from date that is selected

Bug Reporting Hub Weather & Live Weather
, ,
1

Even before the 2024 release I was worried about the announced 24hr historical weather.

Let me make clear, I think this a great feature that many people will use and enjoy, it just requires careful implementation.

The time used in the sim needs to be able to be separated from the weather, for example, say its is 1900z and one sets the sim to be at 1200z, one needs the option to be able to keep current live weather i.e. 1900z weather, as well as the option for using the historical i.e. 1200z weather.

The reasons for this are fairly obvious.

Many of us work and so can only sim in the evenings, it would be quite dull if we always flew using real time in our own locations, as it would always be evening/night in the sim. Many of us, therefore, change the time in the sim, to daytime, (personally, I find a flight I wish to do and then set the sim time to match the real world schedule).

However, we also need to be able to fly with current live weather, as not doing so would cause issues, with, for example:

Simbrief flight planning where fuel calculations will be incorrect.

VATSIM, where we might be for example, on differing pressures from current live weather, causing issues with separation from other aircraft.

There might be a completely different wind direction at the departure or destination airport meaning we would need to use different runways.

Aircraft will have different Groundspeed with the same Indicated Airspeed which will make spacing from controllers at busy airports a total nightmare.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see what kind of problems would be incurred if the live weather was tied to sim time. There may of course be many other issues with other features some people may use should the time and weather be tied together, and I list here only flight planning and online flying with ATC.

I am not in the slightest suggesting this is a bad new feature or shouldn’t be included in MSFS 2024 or ported into 2020, merely that it needs careful implementation and the option for the time and weather to be decoupled as it is currently in 2020.

45 Likes
2

I agree! I didn’t realise how inconvenient this would be. On VATSIM, I usually use Live Weather but set the time to daytime so I’m not always flying at night. This change would make that much harder to do

17 Likes
3

Wholeheartedly support this.

6 Likes
4

It’s an issue for ATC addons as well, since MSFS doesn’t allow them to read much weather data from the sim, so they rely on external weather sources.

In the meantime ActiveSky may get a sales boost lol

4 Likes
5

This should be on top. What an incredible dumb decision. Totally not thought out like many new features in the sim like the walk-around mode. Does Asobo/MS have any idea what developers are doing with THEIR simulator and what their wishes are?

9 Likes
6

Voted, 100% agree. In general historical weather is excellent to have now, but it absolutely has to be optional or separated from the time slider for all the reasons you mentioned. I usually adjust the time for the majority of the flights I do so now it’s a tradeoff between being able to accurately plan flights or being stuck in the darkness every day (especially in Alaska).

4 Likes
7

If the 2024 flight planner can do fuel planning based on the historical weather of a time you choose, that would at least alleviate that for internal sim use (not for external things like VATSIM)…but does the flight planner handle that? (I’ve only been playing career mode and haven’t tested it.)

8

I agree 100%. This is much needed

1 Like
9

100% agree with OP.

Seen several streamers complaining about “wrong weather” as many uses real weather sources to set baro and choose runway, but if they have changed the time to daylight it will be out of sync with the wx sources.

Live weather should be infact live aka latest available weather report regardless of timesetting in the sim.
Historic real weather should be a setting on its own, desynced from live weather.

As it is now, you can see the change happening, establish yourself at lets say 6000ft, if you change time to a period in the day with different weather, you will see wind/temp/altitude bounce around as it changes weather first to a preset(?) and than back to the relevant wx for the time. In my mind, this is a bug or design error, when you have live weather selected, weather should just stay the same…

Thank you to OP for giving this some attention.

4 Likes
10

The sad thing is I raised this as a potential issue well before the sim released, and of course it was absolutely ignored.

4 Likes
11

Using the template below will greatly help the team reproduce the issue and ease the process of fixing it. Before posting, search for an existing report. If you are not sure it’s a bug, please first report in User Support Hub.

2 tags are required - add them in the tag section next to the title above:

Feel free to delete this quote section after adding your appropriate tags.

:white_check_mark: SIM INFORMATION

This is vital information for our test team, please do not skip it or your issue may not be able to be reproduced or fixed.

  • Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 or 2024:
    2024

  • Version Build Number (Where do I locate that?):
    1.1.7.0

  • Game Platform (Exampe: Steam, Xbox, MS Store):
    MS Store

:white_check_mark: ISSUE DESCRIPTION

  1. Description of the issue:
    Live weather seems to be stuck to date/time, so when changing the time of day, the weather follows with the historical data. This won’t work with Simbrief, Navigraph, Vatsim, etc, as they pull current weather data and people will expect to see those conditions displayed in the sim regardless of the time of day they are flying.

  2. Did you remove all your community mods/add-ons? If yes, are you still experiencing the issue?
    Yes

  3. Provide specific location or coordinates ([PC Only] DevMode > Options > Display position):
    KACK Runway 24

  4. Provide time and date of the observed weather issue:
    Thursday, November 21, 2024 at multiple times of the day.

:white_check_mark: FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

How often does this occur for you? (Example: Just once, every time on sim load, intermittently)
Every time

:white_check_mark: REPRODUCTION STEPS

Please list clear steps you took in order to help our test team reproduce the same issue.

  1. Load an aircraft at any airport that has experienced noticeable changes in weather throughout the day.
  2. Make sure live weather is active.
  3. Change the time of day and observe the shift in weather conditions.

:white_check_mark: YOUR SETTINGS

If the issue still occurs with no mods and add-ons, please continue to report your issue. If not, please move this post to the User Support Hub.

  1. What peripherals are you using, if relevant:
    Not relevant

  2. [PC Only] Are you using Developer Mode or have you made any changes to it?
    No

  3. [PC, MSFS 2020 Only] Are you using DX11 or DX12?
    N/A

  4. [PC Only] What GPU (Graphics Card) do you use?
    RTX 4070ti Super

  5. [PC Only] What other relevant PC specs can you share?
    Not relevant

:white_check_mark: MEDIA

Please add a screenshot or video of the issue occurring.

[END OF FIRST USER REPORT]

:loudspeaker: For anyone who wants to contribute on this issue, Click on the button below to use this template:

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?
•

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:
•

If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:
•

10 Likes
12

100% in support of this request. It’s essential to fly on online networks.

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?
Yes. The behaviour is as described.

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:
•

If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:
•

2 Likes
13

100% in support of this request. It’s essential to fly on online networks.

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?
Yes. The behaviour is as described.

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:
•

If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:
•

3 Likes
14

This is 100 percent a requirement. Having these functions tied together is ludicrous and serves no purpose other than frustrating the user.

4 Likes
15

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?
• Yes, true issue on Vatsim if weather significantly changed during the day. As I mainly fly during after work I have to change the time to do daylight flying. Calculated fuel, ground speed etc. then does not match what is expected others on the network.

1 Like
16

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?
• Yes

Essential to fly on Vatsim and to fly with realistic weather conditions even if you do not intend to fly in the dark all winter long. Live weather should be live, call it historic weather if it is not live, like all addons do.

2 Likes
17

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?
Yes

When flying in online networks such as Vatsim, it is essential to separate the time from the weather.

1 Like
18

Please bring back an option to separate live weather from the time.
Historical weather is a great addition, but not useful for online flying.

1 Like
19

Live weather must be completely separated from the selected date and time. Otherwise people who only have time for flightsimming in the evening do always have to fly in darkness if they want to fly online. For the online networks and a lot of other services, it’s important that everyone has the same (and live) weather.

3 Likes
20

“Live Weather” changing with the time is a no go for flying on online networks.

2 Likes