Certainly, clouds are supposed to have shadows
But that’s just the thing:
(My post copied from a similar thread)
I think the clouds in SU5 before the hotfix were very promising, it’s the first time they were actually starting to look White, instead of grey/brown-ish ash in terms of brightness…
But it seems to have been achieved by both brightening the clouds and also increasing the exposure for the whole scene, not only the clouds, causing many complaints. So with the latest hotfix, Asobo went back from white to dull grey/brown clouds.
Bring back the increased brightness, but for clouds only, not overexposing the rest of the scene!
Clouds seen from above under direct sunlight are usually the brightest parts in a scene both for cameras and the human eye, but currently in the sim these are grey and also in the yellow tint of the color spectrum, making it resemble volcanic ash in some ways…
Here’s a photoshop adjustment using Curves & Hue/Saturation to bring the clouds closer to what I believe look much more realistic, compared to both photos and real life flying.
First, post hotfix clouds
Second, same image “photoshopped” to increase whiteness and reduce brown tint.
Use your keyboard arrow keys to go back and forth and you’ll see the point I’m trying to make.
That’s just the thing; As I said before, there WAS an individual brightening to the clouds. Otherwise, I’d have no troubles slapping on some reshade, upping the brightness and contrast a little, and putting myself effectively back in the look of SU5. It doesn’t pan out that way.
The brightness of the ground below overcast, the genuine white in the clouds in sunlight, the more balanced shadowing, all of that is specific to the clouds and their rendering back in SU5, and when the terrain lighting changes got reverted, the clouds were the collateral damage that came with it; They reverted EVERY change.
That’s a very good point, you’re definitely right about that.
I just tried “photoshopping” the whole scene without masking the clouds, and couldn’t achieve what pre-hotfix SU5 looked like.
It’s also hard to change something a majority of users have become “used to”.
Even when it’s a change improving realism in an area the majority of users have little to none real world experience from… Suddenly it “feels” wrong because its not what they’ve grown used to in the sim, therefore: “Change it back Asobo, it was fine before”, even though the changes were improving realism.
Yep, exactly, and that’s what has me so worried; So much of a fit was thrown on the forums that I’m afraid the devs may not try to improve the clouds in that way again.
It’s a huge shame, because for all the hooplah here and about regarding, “oversaturated, fortnite clouds”, the SU5 clouds, and IMO lighting scenario in general, looked more like what I’ve seen in Flight Training the past 7 months, than the sim ever has.
[Old 2016 Photo]
In short the cloud colours in MSFS are simply incorrect.
It seems still that CB’s and other vertically dense clouds are being rendered with dark textures even when directly lit by the sun.
This is completely wrong.
Here is an example.
-X3.jpg)
As you can see all the clouds behind the 787 are varying in shades of grey with the denser ones being dark grey.
The sun when illuminating clouds from above are brilliant white.
They have never been grey unless the cloud itself is in shadow.
Having flown all over the world and photographed thousands of spectacular cloud formations the single biggest issue with MSFS weather depiction is the clour palette used by the lighting engine for clouds.
We have all heard them described as “volcanic” in appearance and this is true but it appears Asbob are not listening to anyone trying to fix this HUGE issue.
As you can see here us flying past a 40000’ hi cell it is brilliant white and again the regions hidden from direct sunlight are light grey.
Again note in this the firectly lit parts of the cloud are white and the regions hidden from direct sunlight are light to medium grey.
This is a perfect example of all grey clouds and when you will see them when the sun is obscured by higher clouds.
Right now it seems like clouds are being lit in proportion to their vertical size ie taller clouds are being lit grey through to an almost colcanic ash dark grey in the case of large CB’s etc.
Here is another example of when clouds should be all over grey note they are never the harsh single monotonal ash grey being used and even grey clouds have lighter edges where exposed to more light even if its indirect.
Im not sure where the idea that cloud tops when directly lit are grey through to almost black but its completely incorrect.
As we manouvre around these huge storms you can clearly see how the directly lit parts ie tops are bright white with the only grey parts being those hidden from the sun by other parts of the clouds.
Again another example of how lit clouds are white not grey which is only in regions of non diretly lit segments of the cloud formation.
As you can see the colouring on real clouds is nothing what soever like what MSFS is depicting them and extremely unrealistic.
This has been reaised numerous times but appears to be falling on deaf ears as there has been no feedback to any of the posts coming from real world pilots highlighting what is a MAJOR realism issue.
We all want to see spectacular but sunsets and clouds that look more like they are from Jupiter are not needed as having flown all over our planet and seen some of the most incredible sights just making it look like our own planet is spectacular enough.
They’ve been talking about improving weather for almost 2 years. We’re still waiting for signs of the future of clouds in the sim. Personally, I do not like the way they look at all. Yes, they are better than previous sims, but that still doesn’t mean they’re good.
It’s getting to the point that I’d rather have them make ALL the clouds a simple off-white color than to simulate flying over Mount St. Helens.
The clouds in FS post somewhere back in the day are blanking ugly as all get out.
I cannot understand why they need the orange/brown mask over everything and feel the need to way overdue the shadows.
On top of that I still cannot figure out why this supposed ‘super-awesome-never been seen before’ weather molding allows me to see thru clouds 100’s to 1000’s of feet thick.
The only thing that has worked as advertised from day one in FS is the marketing dept. 
my dream is to see those kind of clouds in FS
Does anyone know if Asobo has acknowledged and/or knows when they will fix the volcanic gray cloud syndrome? This is my biggest pet peeve with live weather. Looks so fake.
Over DFW today.
There have been multiple real world pilots post about the cloud color issue and been met by complete silence from Asobo.
I encourage everyone to speak up and add some pressure on to get Asobo to fix what is a visual issue that really only real pilots can provide evidence of.
With a fault fixing issue system based off voting this means people dont know whats wrong to start with and all they see is spectacular skies and they think “Oh that must be what it really looks like”.
I think this highlights a fix system which prioritizes issues not based on reality but perceptions itself a separate issue.
The clouds need fixing.
The main problem is not the fact that the yellow color occurs at a certain time of the day, but its intensity and lack of light attenuation, regardless of the thickness of the cloud layer. The color of the light changes throughout the day and in low sun it is actually yellow or even orange. This is known as the color temperature. So the clouds are not always bright white. Evidently the problem is too uniform and diffuse yellow color, not taking into account the suppression inside the clouds and not taking into account the shadow from other clouds. The sun is still visible even through a thick layer of clouds and it is not possible to simulate a navy blue or gray overcast evening. There’s always that nasty sandstorm-like orange glow, no matter how thick the overcast layer is.
Asobo/Microsoft have been hiring all these people to work different elements of Flight Simulator…
What we need REALLY bad is a dedicated TEAM to address the WEATHER ONLY and get the weather graphics in the sim to look like the photos above (but also FEEL like you’re flying in an environment as well - instead of feeling like we’re flying in a google earth simulator!) If Asobo did this, OMG I don’t think I would ever leave home!
I am wondering the same
MS Asobo, to me your live weather is working so much better… but we’ve got to get these clouds fixed. Yes, DFW/Dallas has severe thunderstorms right now, no it’s not a volcanic eruption. I just wish you’d make the clouds more white and if it’s stormy, then a better gray/dark blue.
There is so much wrong in those photos, not just the color, the clouds altitude, shapes…even in a severely thunderstorm the clouds should gave different shapes and height, anvils etc…to me the weather is not working at all.
Well I guess I’m not getting that specific/detailed. I just want the ■■■■ clouds to look real.
OMG lol … but unfortunately so true. I shut down the sim last night in disgust the clouds are laughable. I need a break, need to go outside or something for about 6 months.
Same here, closing the sim after 10-15 minutes when I am seeing those unbeleivable clouds…that is 95% of the cases.
