Unrealistic multi layered rain on windows/windshield

Bug Reporting Hub Install, Performance & Graphics
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1

Are you on Xbox, Steam or Microsoft Store version?
Store version.

Are you using Developer Mode or made changes in it?
No.

Brief description of the issue:
There is a very slow, almost static rain layer on top of the proper animated rain that kills the immersion. It is especially disturbing in VR as it feels like there is two layers without the same parralax, so two windows.
This is completely unrealistic as well.
A very good depiction of rain can be found in Euro Truck Simulator 2 if Asobo wants to sometime have a look. :slight_smile:

Provide Screenshot(s)/video(s) of the issue encountered:

Detailed steps to reproduce the issue encountered:

  1. Start a flight with rain enabled.
  2. Look through the window/windshield.
  3. Observe the 2nd slow/static rain layer.

Build Version # when you first started experiencing this issue:
No idea, maybe it was there since the beginning.

2

Same problem here and it’s not like that earlier.

Video link: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2022 04 01 11 50 08 - YouTube

2 Likes
3

And for some inexplicable reason windshield rain effects seem to just not be of any importance to majority (according to the number of votes each and every similar topic gets)…

When the question regarding rain, rain effects on windows and the windshield wipers was finally asked in a live Q&A back in February, mr.Neumann said how the studio is in the process of assembling a team of designers that will specially deal with this and similar effects - the answer that instantly got me cheered up…

…had it not been for the answer on the follow up question about when could we expect those rain, windshield and windshield wipers elements - which was “Oh! Well a little bit later, dunno exactly now, humm, I think later this year, humm or the next year probably…hmmyeah…yeah something like that…”.

Well…great… :disappointed:

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4

And the rain defies gravity… Like, why when my plane is not moving does it move upward on my windshield?
Same goes for the windows, rain moves backward when the plane is static…

5

It is just how the whole effect is designed to work (for now).
You create a 3D model, then you sort out the windshield texture according to the rules for the windshield material creation, some work with the vertex paint and what goes in each PBR channel (dust, scratches, etc.) and how you orient all of it - and then the engine uses all of that during runtime and creates the effects.
It is very simple in nature…here is a brief excerpt on windshield creation from the SDK:

image
image1178×524 81.3 KB

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6

Very interesting, thanks!

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7

Hi,

the rain is always running upwards on the windshield while parking at the gate. This might look correct in case of a front-mounted propeller plane, but really breaks the immersion on all other aircraft with the engines mounted on the wings or on jets.

Please make the flow of the droplets vice versa from the upper end of the windshield to the lower, while parking at the ramp or standing ad the end of the runway, and on airplanes without front prop.
Thank you so much :slight_smile:

:wave: Thank you using the Bug section, using templates provided will greatly help the team reproducing the issue and ease the process of fixing it.

Are you using Developer Mode or made changes in it?

No

Have you disabled/removed all your mods and addons?

Of course I use mods :slight_smile: tons of finest selection mods, in fact the 1TB NVMe dedicated to FS20 is full - but this problem is not mod-related and also happens with an empty community folder after updating.

Brief description of the issue:

The raindrops are running upwards against gravity on the windshield instead of vice versa…

Provide Screenshot(s)/video(s) of the issue encountered:

Here in this video the problem can be observed for a long time while the plane is parking at the gate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7Iy-KUGHZ4

Provide coordinates (DevMode > Options > Display position)

It´s everywhere when it rains - right on the windshield in front of the camera.

Provide time & date of the observed Weather issue

I observe this every time when it rains.

Detailed steps to reproduce the issue encountered:

Rain. Looking at the windshield.
Even with the slightest breeze or when parking with engines off it is raining upwards :smiley:
You can easily test how fast the windspeed must be to have the raindrops flow upwards on the windshield (and sideways on the sidewindow):
The car must be washed and waxed, and spray some water on the windshield before leaving the wash box.
Afterwards 60-70km/h of driving speed (~39 knots, 43mph) is necessary to make the droplets move on the glass. And there is not such a strong storm on the airport gates where the turnaround-aircraft are parking to have constantly flow the rain upwards on the windshield …

PC specs and/or peripheral set up if relevant:

The PC has nothing to do with the rain effect, but if you ask so nicely: It´s a tremendous powerful Ryzen 5 in a MSI Gaming Edge WiFi board. Edgy!
(And if you think “hm a Ryzen Zen 1 - how average!” - you should know that before selling the graphics card that computer was so powerful that it demanded a goat sacrifice every week - it took me a while to get it out of this bad habit and convince it that it is not some Mayan god no matter how big that Corsair Obsidian case is, and it should be satisfied with ripple-free and vegan Corsair RMx PSU highly expensive 220V electric bill sacrifices.)

Build Version # when you first started experiencing this issue:

Don´t know… It´s the most actual build with all patches.

The weather effects and the rain looks so gorgeous and comfy while sitting inside the cockpit that this little flaw should be fixed to make the weather effects perfect looking.

Have a wonderful week :smiley:

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Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?

yes

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:

Today I experienced the exact same issue using the base DA40.

If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:

9

Has there been any updates to this issue?

10

This should have been voted more! I hope there will be improvements on this.

11

I’m one of those people. There are a lot of imperfect things in this simgame that don’t bother me in the least.

12

But it is one of important things, the way water interacts with the surface that you directly use to look outside the aircraft, man, it is SUCH an important detail immersion-wise.

When building training simulator devices, it is among the elements that I take special care of to the point that I’ve designed separate technology and standards just for windows/windshield.

Nowadays, I have my full proprietary solution ready (patent pending) when either designing and building from scratch or as an offer for modular upgrade to the existing FSTD to improve the capability signature and overall, the higher qualification certificate (FQC) fully according to the new Blended Learning approach (EASA/FAA NPA-2020-15).

Rain effects make the simulator dramatically more realistic!

13

Are you comparing FS2020 running on an Xbox or a ‘minimum spec’ PC to dedicated and far more expensive training simulator devices? What sort of computer runs the programs and the displays in the latter?

Realism has its costs, and this simgame is limited by the need to run on systems without enough computing power to achieve perfectly immersive realism.

Then again, I admit I don’t know how capable an Xbox or a ‘minimum spec’ PC is when it comes to handling terrain, objects, lighting, instrumentation, flight dynamics, weather physics, traffic, and all the other things they have to compute. Perhaps the simgame simply reaches its limit with things like the hydrodynamics of individual raindrops as they interact with solid objects like a windshield.

Software is always limited by hardware, and hardware is always limited by budget.
But perhaps the current hardware is fully capable of handling the dizzying array of computational wishlist items I read about here. If so, then I’m all for more realistic raindrops.