Visibility Depiction Incorrect within a METAR area - VV, RVR, and Low-Vis Conditions Not Reflected in Sim correctly or at all

Bug Reporting Hub Weather & Live Weather
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ISSUE DESCRIPTION

Description of the issue:
Visibility depiction in the simulator is consistently inaccurate and does not reflect real-world METAR conditions.

  • Vertical visibility (VV) values have no visual effect - even with reports like VV001, the sim shows clear visuals well above the expected 200 ft ceiling.

  • Reported visibility (e.g. 2000 m or less) is not represented correctly - the simulator usually displays much higher actual visibility.

  • RVR (Runway Visual Range) values are not implemented or have no impact, even though these were at least partially functional in MSFS 2020.

  • Overall, low-visibility conditions (fog, mist, haze) appear far too clear, breaking immersion and realism, especially for IFR operations.

Weather:
Any location with limited visibility or vertical visibility reported (e.g. VV002, RVR600, 9999, etc.) in foggy conditions.

FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

Occurs every time in low-visibility or fog conditions when the METAR reports visibility less than 5000 m or includes VV/RVR data.

REPRODUCTION STEPS

  1. Load into any airport with poor visibility conditions.

  2. Compare the in-sim visibility to the actual METAR data.

  3. Observe that the simulator renders far clearer conditions than reported.

  4. Note that vertical visibility and RVR values have no effect.

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Can replicate:
Spawning at ESNQ with live weather (just moving to day time to see external visibility).
Reported visibility in Metar is 1800m, into the sim 2650m:

Screenshot (1673)
Screenshot (1673)1920×946 153 KB

Screenshot (1675)
Screenshot (1675)1918×1023 162 KB

Spawning at BIEG with live weather (just moving to day time to see external visibility).
Reported visibility in Metar is 500m, into the sim 6120m:

Screenshot (1676)
Screenshot (1676)1914×915 114 KB

Screenshot (1677)
Screenshot (1677)1912×1019 156 KB

Note: visibility on the 2nd screenshot at BIEG seems to be far less than the 6120m reported in the weather debug window but more than the reported 500m in the Metar.

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Can a moderator please explain why is this still not flagged as bug logged, thanks!

4

Probably because it only has eight votes.
Unless that number changes drastically, I doubt it will be high on any fix list.

Bear in mind that the last item on the published bug list this month is position 120, and that issue has 58 votes.
That doesn’t mean it won’t get looked into, but it may give some indication as to what you are up against.

1 Like