One specific area where I believe there is potential for further improvement is the rendering of cloud shadows on the ground. Here are some detailed suggestions on how this feature could be enhanced:
1.Dynamic Shadow Resolution
Higher Detail at Lower Altitudes : Increasing the resolution of cloud shadows when viewed from lower altitudes would greatly enhance the visual experience during takeoffs, landings, and low-altitude flights.
Flight Simulator 2024 Trailer :
It should look more like this :
- Realistic Shadow Movement
Time of Day Effects : Adjusting the sharpness and length of shadows based on the time of day and the position of the sun could further enhance the immersion, specially during sunsets.
- Enhanced Interaction with Terrain
Water Reflection : Implementing cloud shadows that interact with water bodies, creating realistic reflections and detailled shadows on the water’s surface, would add another layer of depth to the simulation.
Enhancing the detail and behavior of cloud shadows on the ground can significantly contribute to the overall realism and immersion of the Flight Simulator experience. I believe these improvements would be greatly appreciated by the community. Hope they make it possible !
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Voted! Hoping they will listen to our requests…
Good spot! Hopefully this will be improved. Voted!
I know those look a bit off, but the real world screenshots you provided, looks very computationally expensive to render. I have no graphics programming experience, but from following game tech and game tech YouTube channels, that’s the feeling I am getting. May be with Ray traced shadows.
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It doesn’t have to be perfectly identical, just as long as they improve a little bit, because they are bad like that
Sure… Voted already. I just meant to share the challenge of implementing this. But sure as a future looking setting, or for 4090 owners.
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the solution is ray tracing… I hope they put it in soon!
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The problem with that is it places even more load on the CPU and GPU and VRAM. And we have Xbox series X and series S.
Sure it can happen, but I am not really holding my breath for it. I was analysing the trailer, and the a330 shot looked like may have some ray traced reflections, but I may be wrong and they may have been screen space reflections anyway.
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obviously with a suitable setting on on off and other parameters let’s not forget that the new GPUs with more rt cores will be released soon… for sure the shadows will no longer be grainy and neither will the clouds… finally the grain will disappear…
MSFS is already a huge load on CPU and GPU resources. I don’t think ray tracing is worth the trade off.
I hardly ever use ray tracing even though my 3080 can handle it just fine. I prefer higher and more consistent framerates over lighting effects.
GPU isn’t the problem with ray tracing in this game, at least msfs 2020. It’s the CPU and VRAM that may become the barrier for most setups.
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I agree, clouds as a whole require a major overhaul! MSFS 2024 so far does not seem to have adressed this.
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Would be nice to have, provided it can be turned off.
I’d also like to see MSFS 2024 making use of multiple GPUs to reduce the burden on just one GPU
I have a machine with dual Radeon W6800X Duos, 4 GPUs with 128GB VRAM total. Would be lovely to have a way to distribute the load across them all instead of 1 GPU working hard and the rest having a holiday.
SLI died with the 40 series. A 4090 can pull 600w.
You’ll need your own power substation if you had more than one of them.
To reiterate: Xbox limitations have no impact on the potential for higher-end PC users. (Or so I’ve been told.)
To be bluntly honest: Of course it does. Microsobo has to balance the code to run on both platforms. They try their best to make the sim usable for Xbox S, whilst simultaneously offering graphics options to satisfy more powerful PC’s. They do a decent job, but limitations in the base code are limitations.
Nothing like seeing clouds in the distance and getting a sense of their altitude due to shadows on the terrain. It adds immensely to the immersion. What I would also like to see are tall buildings in the distance (beyond the LOD limits). Think of it as mipmaps, but for buildings. In the far distance, you will only see select buildings taller than a specific height and with a certain density chosen by an algorithm (AI maybe?). You will be able identify cities from great distances, at altitude, due to a cluster of skyscrapers etc.
