Dark and Ominous Weather Help

[Davoos15]

Whenever I put the clouds on overcast (8/8) it seems that they do not cover the whole sky. When it's stormy in real life, it's darker, almost between night and day. Is there a way to get the clouds to actually cover the whole sky and make it loook really like it's a storm? And, will the runway lights be on if it is dark, but not night? Thanks

[CAFedm]

With the default weather, I found that extending visibility to max shows dark clouds best. Any reduced visibility (haze) blends everything together and softens the look of clouds, as does preciptation. Make sure the cloud cover in weather settings is set to high, otherwise only patches of cloud appear (even when overcast). Setting the ceiling lower also creates a better effect. Last item, lights on during daytime, the only occasion that I have seen this is in areas such as the Northern Arctic, in early spring or late fall, and which is not dependent upon weather.

On a tangent, but something that came to memory, were the clouds in FS2002. They did suck when flying through them, however some of the addon thunderstorm effects looked awesome from the ground...all greenish and ripped-looking - oddly I haven't come across any convincingly good-looking storm clouds for either FS9 or FSX as yet (and do have Active Sky...) :-?

[Xyn_Air]

Just to reiterate for emphasis what CAF said:

1) In FSX, go to your settings tab.
2) In the Display settings area, select customize.
3) In the Settings - Display dialog box, select the Weather tab.
4) In the Weather tab:
 a) Move the Cloud draw distance slider to full (110mi/176km);
 b) Under Cloud detail;
   i) Select Detailed clouds;
   ii) Move the Cloud coverage density slider to full (Maximum).

This should give you fairly accurate cloud cover in FSX using the default weather graphics.  You shouldn't have to worry anymore about unrealistically patchy cloud cover, for example, clear sky above but with rain or snow coming down.

Best of luck,
Darrin

[Davoos15]

i'll try it it out. thanks

[Deviant]

I was having a similar problem with sky graphics.  You may want to look at this post:

http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2 ... 4545/11#11

I have not tried Active Sky because my system runs FSX very poorly and I believe Active Sky runs in the background while FSX is running.  However, Active Sky may work well for you.  I did purchase Flight Environment X (FEX) and I am very pleased with it.  I have noticed a dramatic improvement in sky graphics with FEX and think everyone should have it.  No matter what I tried with the default weather settings (including cloud draw distance) helped.  The difference between default sky graphics and graphics with FEX is unbelievable.

[Davoos15]

i have to buy it? and i messed with the settings. it looks better i think.

[a1]

If you want full 8/8 overcast you could always set up 2 layers of clouds at 8/8. That method always works for me.