Sim now seems incapable of rendering overcast consistently or accurately using live weather

Thank you for the fast reply! Wasn’t this “bug logged” before? I had the issue again yesterday, but I’m not in the Beta.

This was moved from bug-logged to feedback-logged as the internal bug was closed after Sim Update 10. I will create a new report for this based on your repro steps and photos provided.

Well i think this bug cannot be until the whole METAR issue is corrected too, since you need the propper clouds to have some overcast skies. Right now we just get puffs of clouds how are they gonna make out of them an overcast? If you get it then you will get the vulcanic explosion…the whole weather system it’s broken in my opinion…not to mention that storm systems are gone too…again usually overcast are composed of multiple layers of clouds, how many do we get now? 1 or 2 out of 60??

5 Likes

Ok thanks for the explanation. We won’t lose the 237 votes will we, if you make a new report? I’m not in the beta but this is most definitely still happening in the current public version of the sim.

Thanks
Andy

2 Likes

No the votes will stay the same for this!

1 Like

QED:

I don’t know if it is fair, as these are fairly small airfields, and I have seen indeed some near overcast recently, however:

After more than one year since SU7 reports in this thread and in METAR keeps disrupting the weather/ bugged weather/Cumulus/CB clouds only/no medium to high cloud coverage have established that Live weather has gained (some) accuracy, but at the cost of

  • being entirely cumulus centric
  • a generic look, at first glance identifiable as a gaming environment
  • consisting mostly of one single cloud layer, perhaps added by some high “fluffs”
  • missing or not convincing high overcast
  • producing clouds with seemingly lower density than presets
  • lost variety in cloud depiction
  • no plausible storm depiction, including thunder and lightning
  • less convincing low overcast
  • less convincing convective cloudscapes
  • discernable METAR areas

If these observations are to be considered a bug is irrelevant.
They are shortcomings in a system that has proven to be more capable.

As flying happens in the atmosphere, a prerequisite for any serious flight simulator is getting atmospheric conditions right. Placing cloudpuffs at the reported altitude is simply not enough.

After SIM, WORLD and AIRCRAFT updates I think it is time to concentrate on the atmospheric simulation and improve it with a WAU (Weather and Atmosphere Update) . Throw in cirrus clouds, aerosol density, seasons and accurate snow coverage while you’re at it! (don’t get me started on the weather radar thingy…)

24 Likes

Thanks for the screenshots. Definitely proves the issue still exists. Sim is incapable rendering overcast with 8/8 coverage. Cheers.

2 Likes

Do you know why it has been moved from Bug/Weather section to the Wishlit section ?, I think it should have stayed in Bug/Weather section.

2 Likes

I had pretty good overcast weather this morning in London, but it took a good minute for it to appear.

Nocloud shown at EGLC initially:

But I did just have a live traffic departure seconds after this shot was taken, so that was good to see.

Then about a minute later this appeared, with the KLM, and a newer KLC departure:

so this was moved and gonna stay on the wishlist? wanting proper overcast in live weather is a wish when it worked well once? what is going on that live weather must remain neglected?

10 Likes

I’ve had several nice low altitude overcasts and I really appreciate those but higher level overcast still seems to be an issue.

4 Likes

Higher level overcast is basically missing or is made up of see through cumulus clouds. It needs major work. Even when a metar reports broken or overcast at the airport above 20,000 feet it doesn’t render the clouds correctly. Sometimes it’s clear or a bunch of see through cumulus clouds. Looks very unrealistic.

6 Likes

I totally agree…it’s time for an update to the weather and atmosphere like you stated.

5 Likes

Keeping this topic alive, and sad to see it has reverted to feeback logged as opposed to bug logged.

I don’t know who at Asobo believes this to be the correct depiction of overcast and thought it ok to remove the bug-logged status. Clearly the sim is still not producing an overcast layers correctly and consistently - and for the avoidance of doubt the definition of overcast is 8/8ths sky coverage so there should be no sky showing. The sim was perfectly capable of doing this pre-su7.

Now we get this:


This is the thing that has spoiled this sim the most for me. I don’t care if we never get another world update or new aircraft - just give us back the Pre-su7 weather.

12 Likes

Also I think this topic has been originally created in the Weather/Bug section and was moved to the Wishlist one, don’t know why.

1 Like

@AndyXPO @DementedCorn327,
This was moved in error. It has been put back into Bug Reports and #bug-logged tag added back. :+1:

2 Likes

The clouds come from Meteoblue, not METAR, and they do not always match. The in-game METAR string is not the proper source for testing… Unless you are saying that you would like Asobo to start using METAR for clouds instead of Meteoblue… The reality is, we do not have proper tools for testing the live weather data that Asobo receives from Meteoblue. and not even the Meteoblue website cuts it due to the potential differences between forecast data (that can be up to 12 hours old) and nowcast data. We need access to the raw data.

The clouds didn’t come from METAR before SU7 either. So if we had the in-game METAR string that we have now, you would have gotten similar inconsistent results if you had used it for testing the clouds.

The live weather cloud depiction definitely need to be improved, but I think complaining when the clouds don’t match METAR is incentivizing Asobo to go down a path that most people here probably don’t actually want.

3 Likes

Agreed, although showcasing deficiencies in Live Weather rendering is beneficial with regards to raising awareness, even if it is not comprehensive.
There have been lengthy discussions in other threads about what to demand from the developers with regards to Live Weather. And the conclusion I have drawn from it is:

There’s no clear consensus in the community, as requests range from “I want pre-SU7 weather back” to “get rid of METARl” and everything in between and beyond.
Most of these discussions deal with technical details we actually don’t know - including the scope of data being delivered from Meteoblue.

The focus should be on WHAT is desired and not HOW it should be done, meaning with regards to this thread the request should be:
We want

  • accurate
  • visually appealing
  • meteorologically and physically plausible

cloudscapes in the sim.
The actual implementation is meaningless for users if the results largely meet these criteria.

3 Likes

I’ve had pretty convincing overcast on some recent flights. Next time I see it I will try to remember to post to this thread.

This thread is for people who are not satisfied with the current depiction of overcast.
If you are, then great, but please don’t try and belittle our point of view with “it looks ok to me” posts. Go and post in the “my clouds look great” section instead. By saying your clouds look good - to you - you are adding nothing constructive to this discussion. Thanks.