Bravo Asobo!..graphics and environmentals have been outstanding lately!
These squalls between Kansas City and St Louis today were spectacular. I think they have been working on the weather engine.
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Which livery are you using for the TBM?
Just one I did. I think it’s only 1 file in the texture folder.
pm me if you want it.
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I just wish they would get the metars, the wind sock, and the in-cockpit wind indicators all coordinated. I have also seen a few METAR apps which are always way off from all the of the previous. I don’t think the creators of the app get their weather source from the same place where Asobo does. I think I remember hearing Asobo say they use Meteoblue? Right now for me, the only way I can guess the wind is from the wind sock which I believe is accurate. If I try to use the ATC, it nearly always clears me to a tailwind takeoff - the wrong runway. Most of the time, the in-cockpit wind indicators are correct with the wind sock. And then if I use REX Weather Force, this complicates things even more.
And I do agree, the weather aspects you mentioned here do seem to be much-improved. I know they are working hard to fix everything. The sim is much better that it was under a year ago.
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I wish I could see squalls without the thunder and lightning.
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When MSFS first released, I was flying in Minnesota, USA and had a morning with beautiful cumulus clouds, at the correct THICKNESS (bottom to top), with scattered showers in the area. It was AWESOME! Then after some updates I never saw that again.
For rain to fall like the screenshots above, I would guess nature would need cloud thickness of AT LEAST 4,000-5,000 feet. I’m talking from bottom of cloud to top. The stronger the storms, the thicker those clouds would be. To expect lightning, I think from bottom to top at least 15,000 feet and up.
IMO, those clouds posted in screenshots above are ugly, not correct height/thickness to create enough convection to rain like that, and NOTHING like the clouds when MSFS released… I wish I would have saved my screenshots because the clouds used to be awesome. My only guess is Asobo took the guts out of clouds to make performance better. 
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I totally agree. When I first bought the sim before the first update and before they added lightning, I was flying around my home airport and I could see the weather outside, and the sim was simulating passing squalls exactly like what was happening. Obviously, not the exact same cells, but, the effect as I did touch and goes at the airport was the same as I was experiencing at home. Just like you say, passing rain squalls with clearing in between and clouds passing through. I was blown away. And, like you, I haven’t experienced that since the first update. They added lightning and somehow rain got buggered compared to what it was.
I wonder if it’s because they don’t want to give up lightning, but, somehow lightning is tied to rain in the code, so, when they reduced lightning, they also reduced the rain effect? I dunno, just a guess.
So, ATC clearing you to the tailwind, is, as far as I’m concerned and believe, a bug in ATC. I’ve experienced exactly what you’re saying. Whereas I could swear for a while that ATIS used to choose the correct runway for the wind, lately, it seems to either just choose its favorite runway, or, worse, the opposite direction than it should, as you suggested.
ATIS in general for me has been pretty spot on for the actual ATIS (within a half hour) when I check it at the airport I’m about to take off at. The wind it reported, however, always bugged me as it seemed like they were taking the gust and ignoring the wind. But then @N6722C pointed out it was just that the units were wrong, they were reporting the wind in feet/sec. Which then made total sense, because when landing in a cross-wind, it never felt like the wind was as strong as they were reporting.
But, yes, I’ve also come across situations where I’ll check ATIS 5 to 10 minutes out, and, by the time I get to the airport, the winds have reversed and the weather is different. As if they use an old stored ATIS (yesterday?) when you’re not near the airport, but, as you approach the airport, they get a more up to date ATIS.
Yeah, given there is zero communication between MSFS and REX, that is probably going to screw things up in that regard. Especially if you choose the weather from REX.
Two different issues I think, ATC we know is fualty and Asobo explained several times that they have a small team working on a brand new ATC system, until then probably they wont touch the current one to correct ATIS, runways, etc.
Regarding clouds, I think they have been scaled down due performance, a shame but I hope once DX12 is released they are able to bring them back in full splendor!
Opening to weather 3rd parties is not planned as they explained, maybe this will change one day BUT and is a big BUT for me, the way MSFS depicts weather is notthing even close to REX and the likes, REX just injects metars and then the old fashioned interpolation which is totally unrealistic. They just inject what the metar says, few clouds draw randomly and a lot of simmers are happy as it matches exactly what it says on the metar… this is sooo far away from real life…. What MSFS is trying to do (and I know, is hard but is getting better) is to depict fronts, this data is complex and thats why it requires a massive provider like meteoblue (other one could weather channel and the likes), this means that they not randomnly put clouds based on metar but draws fronts. Whilst is not representing exactly the metar their movement and the real challenge navigating it is much closer from real life. I have never been able to fly around a front in xplane, FSX, Rex, ActiveSky and the the list goes on. This is the future of weather depiction and for that you need a LOT of data…and that data costs money.
When I prepare for my flights in real life I check the FRONTS map, their movement, size and if there are CBs around. Then I may check the TAF for the metars, actual metars are just not my priority as is the weather now, and I usually plan at least one hour before my flight. For actual weather I always get it from the airport tower or similar facility when I am actually sat on my plane or if there is some sort of ATIS just at that point. When I am approaching the airfield I ask for weather conditions or ATIS if present just to get winds and QNH/QFE (altimerter for US). So, in a nutshell, metars depiction is the past, fronts depiction is the future, lets enjoy the transition.
If we put this with awesome weather effects you get the greatest weather simulator in the world, and I expect Asobo aiming for that.
Happy flying
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I took off this morning with correct barometer and temperature with Live Weather compared to real world numbers and then as I climbed out I dropped 50F in 1000’ of climb. This weather integration is a mess.
EXACTLY!
Given that the weather in the game is going to be a bit different from actual weather (which I am fine with), I’d LOVE the ability to do weather based flight planning in game on the in game weather, with the ability to click on an area of the map and get the various types of weather maps showing what you just described, as well as current in game radar/map loops of fronts and rain, with predictions even. Given their weather is close to actual, they could siphon off of actual predictions. That would be so cool.
Personally, I have no interest in 3rd party weather. That’s what MeteoBlue is, and I believe they’ll ultimately be up to the task.
Yes. What we have is a bunch of pieces that need to be integrated. I believe they have the will and capability to do that.
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I agree. If they can’t coordinate the (allegedly) live weather, it makes any weather maps and charts useless. I dont know the truth behind this, but I also hear that the sim injects weather randomly. It takes the general area and gives a random representation of approximately what should be occurring, rather than what is exactly occurring. If this is correct, would this not possibly cause all people flying multiplayer to all receive different weather at the same airport? I think this is called “non-persistent/persistent” weather. If I fly into a cloud, you see me fly into the same cloud on your sim.
Ooh, I hadn’t thought about this. But I think you can’t use “Live Weather” with “Online Pilots Only”/Multiplayer. Maybe this is why?
I think you’re right this is what they do on the very local level. It would be absolutely impossible in this day and age to inject the actual weather happening right now. The best they can do is inject base variables like base wind direction (not actual very varied winds as they blow around surface objects, etc), pressure, humidity, etc. And then use MeteoBlue’s algorithms to mix it up and make it semi-realistic.
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