What happened to cumulus / cumulonimbus clouds? SU7 UPDATE Now too many?

Thank you for clarifying, I’ll take a deeper look asap!

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Absolutely! Very important point!

Dear Asobo Team:

Another important factor of having Cumulus/Cumulonimbus and Towering Cumulonimbus is that these clouds, when done right (with appropriate thickness and opaque), bring so much realism, immersion, and challenge to flying. They have more definitive edges than any other cloud type, which gives us the immersion and sense of speed when going in and out of the clouds. These clouds create challenge because when going in and out of them it can disorientate you (ever been on a passenger flight descending through some thick cumulus?). And at night with strobes on can be disorientating as well. These clouds also normally create quite a bumpy ride through them as well, known for the turbulence when going through them. My instructor always used to say avoid 'em if you can! But that isn’t always possible, especially if flying the larger passenger or freight aircraft.

We are getting glimpses of these clouds in the sim once in a while but they aren’t quite right (see all posts above). I know towering cumulus are capable because I’ve experienced them before some of the updates - and even now can experience them if using the add on REX Weather force.

I know that these types of clouds typically occur in warm, humid climates or when storms are building… and that is fine! In the late Spring, Summer and Early Fall this can be just about anywhere if conditions are right.

Thank you!

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There might be some temporary issues with the Cumulus, but we haven’t had any Cirrus clouds since day one.

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So is this a problem since 26th June with the live weather data or a general problem?

The last weeks thunderstorms were just overcast cloud layer, like in the other sims like X-Plane 11. During Alpha, there were CBs and heavy cloud formations.

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Yes, but we want to see big and well defined Cu or Cb… like obu1271’s first sreenshot.

Indeed, we never see any Ci or Cs, nor Cc either.
Like this ones (we can see how high the clouds are) :

And, concerning ths Cu and Cb, their shapes are well defined, and it’s easy to see their enormous size. We can see the volume, the three-dimensional aspect, and even the distance from which they are located :

Really hope you will take that into account. Thank you very much!

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Clouds south of Dallas using live weather:

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Cool! Yes, I had seen that, finally, Cu and Cb were possible and well done. That’s great!
But I still have a hard time finding Ci, Cs or Cc clouds…
In general, clouds in msfs are too much and too often “cottony”.
But I have to admit that I spit in the soup a bit!

But there is one thing that really bothers me: it’s the blue colour of the sky (and, consequently, of the water in the seas and oceans). Indeed, this blue (like the image you posted) is often much too dull, too bland.
I’m crossing my fingers that Asobo will do something about this, an essential point I think!

Takeon on July 7th at KRBW. Looks like pretty convincing storm clouds to me…

One thing to remember as well as the “live” weather system that this game has is not actually live. Its based off Meteoblue’s forecast model and Asobo’s continued naming of this feature as “live” weather is walking a VERY dangerous line. But this is something that can be discussed elsewhere.

That being said, when I compared what I was seeing in sim to what I was seeing from Meteoblue’s forecast it matched it perfectly. Clouds matched in thickness and type to Meteoblue’s reports.

While I agree those clouds might be more supportive to real world-like cumulus clouds, I’ve seen them too in MSFS and those “melt” away quickly if approaching them, like a lava lamp. There is just not enough “convection” going on in the simulated clouds, not enough height and “mass” to them, and they melt away too fast, like a liquid to cotton candy.

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Clouds have been dumbed significantly due to Xbox launch. Clouds look aweful compared to immediately after launch of MSFS a year ago.
No realistic towering cumulus or cumulonimbus anymore :frowning: :roll_eyes:

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Some cloud screenshots from the past 2 weeks.

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Many thanks for voicing so well, a truly vital part of flight sim immersion! Realistic clouds, especially towering cumulous, are absolutely essential. And, sorely lacking in this otherwise ground-breaking flight simulator.

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Those are all great shots and good examples of some towering cumulus and pretty mean storms. However I am convinced that these depictions are part of a very large weather “system” such as a front, or large line of thunderstorms that stretch hundreds of miles.

Tall cumulonimbus thunderstorm clouds can be more isolated in nature, however in real life they are still very tall and can contain quite a punch as far as severity of weather, i.e. high winds, gusts, turbulence (up/down drafts), and of course rain and lightning. It seems that the sim CAN depict isolated thunderstorms, but the clouds are usually only from a few hundred to maybe a thousand feet tall.

And the “calm before the storm” cumulus and towering cumulonimbus clouds (that aren’t storms quite yet but “growing” are not to be seen in the sim either…

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These clouds are an absolute visual highlight of the new flight sim.

You can tell its monsoon season in the western US.


image
image

If they fix the clouds they need to un-nerf the thunderstorm turbulence.

What is the point of them looking realistic if you can fly through them like it was a spring shower.

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True. A small GA aircraft can’t dare to go anywhere near thunderatorm clouds in real life.

I remember seeing this topic and kept thinking that things were going slowly towards the right direction. But, here we are today after SU7 update. The whole live weather system is completely broken and a mess! There is no cloud variety whatsoever. Even stratus cloud layers are completely gone. Tested flying around the world and I could only spot cumulus in different quantities (BUT they don’t look right at all, they reach the ground due to wrong cloud base altitudes, they are very transparent and anemic, the cloud noise is a complete mess etc). So where do we go from here on?

Asobo should really try and test the weather/cloud formation engine, while seeing and comparing the generated weather to the ones that exist in real life. I mean, the sim should be able to generate in live weather mode : Cumulus clouds of every subcategory and possible size, believable Stratus clouds with their own variety of densities as they range from stratocumulus to cirrostratus, cirrus clouds with different shader patterns since they are extremely variable and depend on layer humidity and wind speeds.!

A list of most well know cloud formations. Even an 75-80 % of these in the sim would make it complete weatherwise. With an intelligent yet believable visibility system, it would be a dreamlike experience for every simmer. NOAA link with details on every cloud formation : NWS JetStream - NWS Cloud Chart

So, in the links below is what we currently have in the sim. It’s obvious that Live Weather is broken and can’t even generate half the variety we had before the last update. It is the same cumulus copy and paste all over again, just different density and clusters. I haven’t found completely overcast skies yet, since stratus clouds are non-existent. That is definitely not how the sky /weather system works.

Links to forum threads covering the current serious weather engine issues :

And these on cloud “volcanic” visuals / coloration issues.

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