5 hours ago, lwt1971 said:

Maybe I'm misremembering but did you post this previously as an example from 2024? Not sure if that's a typo above and "2020" should read "2024". Either way, looks good to me 🙂 
 

Yes, should be 2024 😵‍💫

So these clouds in the screenshot look a bit more like ST clouds. That means this cloud type is finally also available in MSFS 2024 (in addition to the cirrus)? Can't remember seeing these flattish looking clouds in 2020

9 hours ago, Fiorentoni said:

MSFS 2020 default only has mountain waves, which is basically only relevant to aircraft flying *over* mountains (and not e.g. to aircraft on final approach *between* two mountains)

Mountain waves can extend quite a distance from the leeward side, posing issues with turbulence and icing far away from its origin, that's the whole point of the mountain wave warnings on the SWC maps.

Every pilot knows mechanical turbulence is violent around mountains, but the waves can and will travel quite a distance , causing issues to unsuspecting pilots who are not flying *over* a mountain.

 

Edited November 29, 20241 yr by SAS443

9 hours ago, jcomm said:

Weather graphically looks better than in FS 2020, that's for sure.

I also believe consistency regarding the merge of weather data from their Meteoblue feed also got better - at least the few flights I have made gave me the sensation that the aloft (forecast) and the aerodrome (observation) blend better now, and when transitioning between the levels of forecast and observation, wind, for instance, looks like matching way better than it did before.

Regarding weather effects under bad weather situations I still find:

- Effects of shear and turbulence still shake/wobble aircraft, specially the lighter ones, in a way that I don't think is realistic. They "wobble" like mad under circumstances that are far from justifying such an effect, with oscillations that still make them look as if they "don't hame mass", and even if shear could act so strongly in real life, by their nature, most aircraft don't behave like that - theres a lot more of inertia and other factors intervenning;

- Effects of crossing dangerous ( IRL ) convective clouds, namely up/down drafts and turbulence, at least in the tests I performed, look tame to me. IRL it would be critic to even just get near such cloud formations, and I can not only do that but actually cross them in the regions where the weather radar "paints" the worst activity, without any consequences;

- They have apparently redesigned their "thermal" model, but the result, very clear if you enable "thermal visualization", is far from realistic. Has nothing to do with RW thermals ... A shame because otherwise FS 2024 offers a true to real environment / scenery that could be used by RW glider pilots to train and get familiarized with different aspects of soaring...

There's another aspect that may or not be directly related to weather modelling, namely the simulation of shear and x-wind effects on phases of flight like takeoff and landing. 

I can notice improvements in this area, but I really don't know if they're from the side of the flight dynamics / ground physic model or due to any fine tunning in weather parameters, or both ? 

I saw V1's comparison video, and he did his best to make the various tests the best that is possible, but I would like to be able to switch to Dev Mode and try to visualize the weather variables "on the fly" just to check if there's still some "trick", like the one ASOBO introduced at a given stage of FS 2020 updates  by reducing the normal component of the wind, while not touching the axial one, in the few last meters before touchdown and then in contact with the ground to.

My tests so far make me think this is not the case in FS 2024 because I have been testing with the default GA under various x-wind / turbulent scenarios and I got the impression that the normal component was there without being "modulated". I also believe that FS 2024 at least tries to model the drag effect and associated "veering" and reduction of intensity in the wind as you get near the surface, as well as the influence from nearby obstacles, which makes it a very SPECIAL and detailed simulator !!!

Did similar tests and reached very much the same results!

1 hour ago, Fiorentoni said:

So these clouds in the screenshot look a bit more like ST clouds. That means this cloud type is finally also available in MSFS 2024 (in addition to the cirrus)? Can't remember seeing these flattish looking clouds in 2020

Stratus clouds are very good in 2024.  I used to use Rex Weatherforce in 2020 to get decent stratus. 2024 is far better than 2020 for clouds - and much more besides.

44 minutes ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

Stratus clouds are very good in 2024.  I used to use Rex Weatherforce in 2020 to get decent stratus. 2024 is far better than 2020 for clouds - and much more besides.

That's great to hear. I'll keep ASFS for the turbulence effects (cloud turb above all), but will use MSFS 2024 weather then

1 hour ago, SAS443 said:

Mountain waves can extend quite a distance from the leeward side, posing issues with turbulence and icing far away from its origin, that's the whole point of the mountain wave warnings on the SWC maps.

Every pilot knows mechanical turbulence is violent around mountains, but the waves can and will travel quite a distance , causing issues to unsuspecting pilots who are not flying *over* a mountain.

 

I can not recall that I have experienced this in MSFS 2020. Once clear of the mountains beneath, turbulence was gone in no time. Is this different in MSFS 2024?

9 hours ago, Fiorentoni said:

I can not recall that I have experienced this in MSFS 2020. Once clear of the mountains beneath, turbulence was gone in no time. Is this different in MSFS 2024?

There have to be certain conditions prevailing for mountain waves to form and travel far distances (windspeed/direction, atmospheric stability etc) and I honestly doubt that Asobo has modelled this complex phenomenon?

Turbulence around mountains sure, we have that in MSFS,  but as pointed out previously, that's not equal to mountain waves.

 

I think were on the right track....

 

Edited November 30, 20241 yr by rick celik

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm experiencing something similar to cloud turbulence with GA airplanes.

Regarding soaring weather, maybe ASOBO could get inspired by such simple explanations of "thermals" like:

Thermaling Advanced - Animations and Examples

and we could get something more in the line of what Condorsoaring has been doing since around 18 yrs ...

Have seen the comments regarding "wave" above in the thread... Well, I'd love to see that modelled one day... What we have now, and some buggy and meanwhile fixed along the development of FS 2020 "mountain effects" are far from being "wave"...

But, well, maybe we shouldn't expect that much from a general purpose simulator. I will be satisfied with better / more convincing convective cloud turbulence and shear effects 🙂 Ah! and the visibility settings - we still don't have a precise way of mapping visibility reported for instance in a METAR into the sim 😕

2 hours ago, Claudius_ said:

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm experiencing something similar to cloud turbulence with GA airplanes.

Could be other forms of turbulence happening while you are in a cloud. I‘m pretty sure there‘s no cloud turbulence in 2024

Might be worth getting RealTurb for that. From the product page:

“In-Cloud turbulence is another feature, which analyzes cloud density when flying into clouds, to provide dynamic turbulence effects. In this way, a certain cloud density is required for the effects to be present in the first place, allowing also for dynamic effects strength, again based on the cloud density.”

15 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

Might be worth getting RealTurb for that. From the product page:

“In-Cloud turbulence is another feature, which analyzes cloud density when flying into clouds, to provide dynamic turbulence effects. In this way, a certain cloud density is required for the effects to be present in the first place, allowing also for dynamic effects strength, again based on the cloud density.”

I had it for FS 2020. Have to check if it's available now for FS 2024...

1 hour ago, jcomm said:

I had it for FS 2020. Have to check if it's available now for FS 2024...

Seems to work quite well. Definitely more pronounced turbulence in clouds vs default. Also it has mechanical turb modelled. I haven't tested it much though.