With the recent changes to live weather introduced in SU7 (specifically the addition of METAR clouds and visibility) and the problems Asobo is attempting to address, I felt this topic needed a dedicated thread for discussion.
Question for the community:
What aspects of live weather are the most important that MSFS needs to get as accurate as possible to sufficiently fly on VATSIM and other similar online networks? I’m curious specifically about the visual aspects (clouds, visibility, precipitation) and the non-visual aspects (winds, temperature, pressure). Inversely, which aspects would be acceptable to allow a certain level of inaccuracy, but still be suitable for online flying?
I’ll start off by saying that, like many people here, I’ve never flown on VATSIM. I do however have real world piloting experience and have been simming for over 25 years. Each one of us has a different level of experience and familiarity with aviation weather. My take is based on my particular way of flying along with what I know generally about ATC operations.
From conversations I’ve read in this and other forums over the years, I’m assuming that the majority of flights on VATSIM are IFR. If that’s the case, are most flights planned with a SID, STAR and instrument approach? If these assumptions are accurate, it seems to me that the non-visual aspects of weather would be the most important to get correct in terms of accuracy and the visual aspects less important.
For example, wind speed and direction would be important so pilots are vectored into the proper runways for takeoff and landing and are properly separated by controllers. Pressure and temperature are important so that pilots are generally at the correct altitudes across the board and a general idea is had about what to expect for aircraft performance. With that being said, if most flights are IFR and will be using some sort of instrument approach and departure, is it okay to allow for some level of deviation/inaccuracy for the visual aspects of weather like cloud coverage, precip and visibility?
Again, this is just my take as a non-VATSIM simmer. I’m sure there are key points I’m just not aware of. I have no idea the kind of instructions controllers on VATSIM make with regards to the influence of weather in flight operations. I also don’t know what percentage of flights on VATSIM are VFR, if there’s any at all. That’s the reason I opened this thread…to hopefully shed a little light on this topic and maybe help Asobo determine where their efforts should be directed to with improving the weather simulation and the implementation of METAR data.
I can’t answer your question directly but I can say that as someone who has been using VATSIM for a bit over 5,000 hours and use Active Sky in XP and P3D what I really, really think MSFS needs is the weather engine to be open to third-parties. HiFi said they’re exploring options but this was last December. I also have REX Sky Force for P3D but it’s nowhere near as good as Active Sky from HiFi.
Having said that are the issues with the weather in MSFS that big of a problem? Nah, not really. I’ve heard a number of people that don’t even use real world weather (and to of lesser importance time). The biggest concerns are with ground speeds and a controllers ability to maintain separation.
I actively fly on VATSIM in P3D, XP and MSFS and when you look at the big picture the weather in MSFS isn’t that big of a burden but is immersion killing when it’s way off and because of this I really hope to see HiFi bring Active Sky to MSFS some day as I really enjoy it in P3D and XP.
I think it’s safe to assume that will never happen. The weather system and it’s functionality is treated like some of the highest level secrets of the CIA and they consider it one of the crown jewels of the sim. Every time that’s been brought up, it’s been shut down immediately.
Is my assumption correct that most flights on VATSIM are IFR? Do you always plan your flights with SIDs, STARs and instrument approaches?
It’s the meta however with the advent of MSFS it’s shifted a bit and a lot more are flying under VFR. Personally I enjoy flying under VFR most of the time.
Sometimes. I even fly non-RNAV SIDs and STARs in the Cessna 152, haha.
The most critical thing surely has to be wind direction/speed. The controllers will always try to get you departing/landing in what SHOULD be the correct runway with regards to winds. To be honest, I doubt they’d be willing to make an exception just because your sim depicts the exact opposite.
I have hundreds of hours in VATSIM on FSX, but mext to none with MFS as I just can’t trust this sim to get most things right (and I don’t mean just the weather).
im a Vatsim Pilot
Weather is very important for any flights on network.
No difference between IFR and VFR but its more important for VFR because of rules of VMC and IMC (Visual/Instrument Meteorogical Conditions)
But further IFR has rules for departure and arriving (like Minumums on approach), low clouds can result in Low Visibility Procedures (ILS CAT II/III).
Vatsim uses real weather and the simulator should be as nearest as possible compared to live weather to have the nearest conditions inside of sim… (Wind is very important for example)
I fly the TBM 930 (MSFS) all the time on Vatsim. Almost all the time IFR and using SIDs and STARs.
Never really had a problem with the weather. There were times when you had to set the barometer manually to what the controller tells you cause MSFS was stuck on 2992 when you just pressed the B key.
I also had an instance or two where the controller asked me if I could accept the visual approach and I had to reply “unable” cause I was stuck in the clouds. I would not call these things serious.
All in all flying on Vatsim is more fun than using the Sim ATC. For one it raises your awareness level tremendously
The weather that controllers give you on VATSIM sometimes lags behind (Active Sky can at times be more up to date). There was one time that a controller was giving me weather that was over 12 hours old and they even told me about the issue. I’ve had controllers give me altimeter settings that were old yet I have an up to date one from Active Sky. Pull up a METAR with .wx (the airport ICAO code) on the client and note the time stamp of the report. At times it will be older than what you can find with a simple Google search or referral to Active Sky.
Have you flown on VATSIM with live weather at all? If so, when was the last time you tried? I’m curious if it was before the forecast hour was fixed earlier this year.
Pilots on VATSIM can be using many different weather engines, is that correct? They can be using the native engine for the sim they’re using, a third party add-on like Active Sky, or does VATSIM have it’s own weather injector?
I have been flying on VATSIM since 2018, both VFR and IFR with GA aircraft only. I started with X-Plane 10 and used Squawkbox as the client to connect to VATSIM. I do know that Squawkbox would load up the current weather as soon as I connected to VATSIM. It did not matter what weather I had selected in the sim, (other than the time of day) the real-world weather would load.
However, when using X-plane 11 with X-pilot as my client, I could select any weather that I wanted, and it did not change when X-Pilot connected to VATSIM.
I have noticed the same with MSFS with V-Pilot. There is no change in weather.
However, I have used MSFS VFR and IFR with the default real-world weather and it’s very close to what VATSIM depicts. Close enough for me that it’s not an issue.
As an off-topic side note. I’ve had good sucess with MSFS recently by running both MSFS and V-Pilot as: Run as administrator. (Even though I have administrator privileges on my PC) I have no clue as to why, but no more CTD’s and less disconnects from MS servers.
I’m a long time Vatsim user (2006!) and I think the weather in MSFS is not too bad. I do find that sometimes the visuals are totally overdone in MSFS I presume to make it more exciting. I could do without that.
I’m not talking about the current temp bugs as I reckon they’ll be fixed.
Activesky can be set to read it’s metars from the Vatsim system, then it does it’s thing using that data.
The OP is correct in stating that pressure, winds etc are the most important factor but the “visual” aspects could be a little closer to reality and maybe less gamey! (don’t kill me)
What MSFS has done is bring more VFR traffic to Vatsim as it’s far and away the best VFR style sim I’ve ever seen, that is a good thing!
I do if I’m on Vatsim… that seems obvious to me. If the Controllers and the Pilots are using the same reference then I don’t mind if it’s a bit out from RL
Interesting, I’m always on VATSIM (been using it since 2009) and don’t have this enabled in P3D nor XP. It’s hardly ever a problem. I would absolutely love Active Sky for MSFS.
I just actually read what it says on your screenshot, “Use Vatsim weather for the significant stations of the User Flightplan”
Never noticed that before. I guess I should be loading my plan into AS in that case…
It’s probably been doing nothing except in my mind!
That’s good to know. I don’t fly on VATSIM (P2ATC user) and have never really encountered drastically different weather with MSFS live weather for flight planning and ATC purposes.
Was there ever a situation where you had to request different instructions from VATSIM due to MSFS live weather inaccuracies?
