Hi all. So I was testing the live weather for the current winter weather happening in the north east (usa) and it loads with winter weather. Really bad visibility as one would expect but the overall brightness was really dark. Loaded in at 9am EST and comparing to real life it was almost like night in game anyone else experience this as well ?
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Do you have any screenshot? I think it should be a requirement in this forum when you ask something if someone else is having similar issue to provide screenshot so we can actually see what you’re seeing.
I will post one later.
A lot of lighting depends on cloud cover as well.
If there’s overcast clouds in the sim, it’s going to be very dark.
Im in the snow storm right now, lol, and it was dark throughout the day. I’d say, from your description, the sim is pretty accurate
It was over cast here in PA as well but it not dark.
I get what you’re saying, and I agree. I think it is a general issue with the clouds at the moment. Even stratiform clouds suffer from this. But, they are always a really gray hue. This darkens the sky unnecessarily. Before sunset today, I loaded up at IAD (I live right next to it irl). In real life, we definitely had overcast clouds with snowfall. Looking out my window it was still somewhat bright outside. Residual light does make it through the thick overcast layers and brighten our surrounding. It went from white to blue and gradually to darkness. In the sim, however, at the same time under live weather and live time, it was pitch dark at the surface. Overcast clouds, snowfall was accurate, but the lighting was not. If I was to disable live weather and set it to clear skies, then you could see that the sun was still somewhat up, but setting. Typical sunset colors/brightness.
The issue seems to be that certain overcast types in the sim are completely blocking out any light from above. The clouds shouldn’t be dark when the sun is up, even if 100% overcast. I’ve also noticed that in sim during daytime snow conditions. In real life, an overcast stratiform layer (especially with snow) seems brighter to many eyes than clear skies, due to how white it all is. In the sim, however, it always looks dreary and gray.
I agree that the cloud brightness, and how shadows are calculated, needs to be tweaked a bit- not just in snowy weather but in all weather. They’re also too saturated with color. That being said, I’m happy to have something like this rather than X-plane or P3D weather. I just hope the overall cloudscape improves over time in the sim.
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Here is what it looks like at 0908 EST, northeast USA with Live Weather:
And here is what it looks like using the Unreal Weather METAR addon:
Looking out my windows, there is light snow, and an overcast between 600-1000 feet.
In my opinion, the simulation of the dynamic range of brightness can be well overdone (especially in overcast conditions as you note). It needs some adjusting - better yet a way for us to adjust it to the way we like.
I find this quite a drawback in VR. Started a thread asking for some means of adjustment - but doesn’t seem to be getting much interest.
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I’m in the middle of the storm now in Atlantic Canada.
It is 10:40AM local time, and your upper pic is almost exactly what I am seeing out my window.
I am looking out my window in New Jersey while I type this. The top picture is accurate.
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Yes I have noticed the same thing. Cloudy daytime lighting is too dark when I compare out of my window.
This morning I flew from Nantucket where it was foggy to Northern Maine where the storm was dropping heavy snow. The live weather looked pretty accurate:
KACK
At Altitude
Descent
Approach
KLRG
hi loaded columbus ohio airport every green with real time and live weather .i live here thre is alot snow .i dont how it looks like summer
hi i loaded kcmh in columbus ohio but the weather is not real with the live weather set , there is not snow on the ground . i live here there is a lot snow . tree are green like summer
Was finally able to grab a screen shot. Now this is accurate that its overcast and all, it just seems that the overall brightness on a typical overcast day isnt actually this dark.
The northern parts of the world in the winter time is quite dim especially in rain or overcast. In real world your eyes adjust to the dimness, but the sim goes by numeric value, it can’t dilate its pupils…
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Not for me. I loaded into KJFK on Monday when I KNEW it was really coming down and there was zero falling snow. Snow on ground but that’s. Was extremely lame.
I just had a short hop from KDSM to KCID using Live Weather and boy was I impressed. It was so accurate, I should’ve gone missed but continued past minimums with Working Title’s Citation mod which took me down to the runway. Funny thing was, I would check to see if Unreal Weather was accurate, and it wasn’t at all. Usually it’s spot on. Keep in mind this was my first and only flight on MSFS today, so I can’t speak to if Live Weather would work on the second flight.
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