[Fineus]

Hey all,

I'm looking for a simulator that lets me fly through / around / over clouds. Preferably with controllable weather conditions but that's not essential.

No doubt a variety of flight sims cater to this. I'm not looking for a particularly "simulator" feel - arcade style would do just fine. Any suggestions?

[Thaeris]

Free: YS Flight Sim

http://www.ysflight.com/

...This is moddable - if you need help, I'll do as much as I can.

Not Free (but damn worth it): X-Plane

http://www.x-plane.com/

...Heck, if you've got an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can get a version of X-Plane for that, too!

Cheaper and GOGable: Il-2

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/il_2_sturmovik_1946

...Well, all of these are moddable, but X-Plane is by far the easiest for that. Hope this helps. 

[Thaeris]

Did any of these suggestions help, Kal?

[ShadowGorrath]

Lock On: Modern Air Combat?

Or Tom Clancy's HAWX, if you don't mind the no-mission-editor/lack-of-good-plot for good graphics/scenery/planes.

Though neither of these two are free.

[Thaeris]

HAWX

 

That's not a flight sim - that's a joke. Go for Lock-On or something else of good quality. Ace Combat and the like are not what you want when you're looking for a simulator.

[Starman01]

Battlestations Pacific has some nice cloud effects inflight. You can fly around or through them

[ShadowGorrath]

HAWX

 

That's not a flight sim - that's a joke. Go for Lock-On or something else of good quality. Ace Combat and the like are not what you want when you're looking for a simulator.

I forgot to mention that it's an arcadey game

[Retsof]

Or there's always MS Flight Simulator.  Mabey get an old version off amazon or something if you want it cheap.

[redsniper]

What, pray tell, brought this on? I'm curious.

[jdjtcagle]

What, pray tell, brought this on? I'm curious.

It is a very "specific" request. 

[IceFire]

I love flying through the storm clouds or sometimes just the puffy light clouds... usually in a jet fighter in IL-2 1946.  The YP-80 is my favourite for sight seeing around some of the newer maps. The weather modeling isn't perfect but the sensation of flight is incredible!

[Pred the Penguin]

HAWX

 

That's not a flight sim - that's a joke. Go for Lock-On or something else of good quality. Ace Combat and the like are not what you want when you're looking for a simulator.

I forgot to mention that it's an arcadey game

You forgot to mention that it sucks. Much better going with Ace Combat.

[NGTM-1R]

You forgot to mention that it sucks. Much better going with Ace Combat.

You didn't just say Ace Combat is a flight sim. I know you didn't.

[ShadowGorrath]

I didn't forgot to mention that. Besides, it works on PC, unlike Ace Combat.

[Pred the Penguin]

I guess that's one thing going for HAWX.

[Herra Tohtori]

I love flying through the storm clouds or sometimes just the puffy light clouds... usually in a jet fighter in IL-2 1946.  The YP-80 is my favourite for sight seeing around some of the newer maps. The weather modeling isn't perfect but the sensation of flight is incredible!

The F-86 is quite nice for that as well. The late versions can do supercruise!  

Or the Sea Fury, Spitfire Mk.XIV, late FW-190 Doras and Ta-152's, or MiG-15. They're nice fast planes too.

[Dilmah G]

You forgot to mention that it sucks. Much better going with Ace Combat.

You didn't just say Ace Combat is a flight sim. I know you didn't.

Pred should be shot.

MS Flight Simulator, all, the ****ing, way. 

[Commander Zane]

I love flying through the storm clouds or sometimes just the puffy light clouds... usually in a jet fighter in IL-2 1946.  The YP-80 is my favourite for sight seeing around some of the newer maps. The weather modeling isn't perfect but the sensation of flight is incredible!

The F-86 is quite nice for that as well. The late versions can do supercruise! 

Wut.

[lostllama]

If you choose MS Flight Simulator X, you might be interested in the Active Sky weather add-on (see link below). There might be other similar such add-ons available too.

http://www2.hifisim.com/node/4

@Herra: Where may I ask did you get the Sabre from for Il-2? I used to really like a sim called MiG Alley by Rowan Software, but unfortunately I fear that I might have lost the CD.

[Herra Tohtori]

The F-86 is quite nice for that as well. The late versions can do supercruise!  

Wut.

Yes, that's what I thought.

In my experiment, I tried to keep it straight and level at 23000-24000 ft (isn't that easy to maintain zero vertical speed at those speeds without autopilot...) at full sustained power without engine overheat, which is about 95% power setting. It started shaking like mad past 450 or so MPH indicated air speed, and eventually accelerated up to about 560 MPH IAS. But it holds together and you don't start losing parts, just don't turn too fast or you'll lose a wing very fast. Ground speed at that point was above 1300 km/h, which to that altitude assuming normal tropospheric temperature translates to Mach 1.1564, so I would say it can supercruise.

Mind you the original F-86 was a transonic fighter, and while I think it could breach the sound barrier in a dive it couldn't reach it in straight and level flight in reality. On the other hand, in a ten-degree nose-down power dive from the apparent service ceiling of around 13000 metres this thing can reach true air speed of up to 1600 km/h without breaking apart.

Didn't really bother measuring sustained maximum speed at sea level.

My guess is that the flight model has a little lapsus in the maximum speed, possibly caused by someone read the TAS MPH from performance statistics and applied them as IAS, or something, but it's insanely fast nevertheless.


Also, the Sabre (among other goodies) comes with Ultrapack mod.