Flight Simulator’s volumetric clouds are stunning in new images, and in motion

I’ve known, in a kind of vague intellectual way, that the new Microsoft Flight Simulator will have beautiful volumetric clouds. After all, the last game in the series had them. However, these were not truly real to me until today, when I saw screenshots, then gifs, of the latest from the studio behind Flight Simulator. 

I was hit with the concrete reality that such fluffy glories will soon exist upon my screen. These are screenshots from the game's alpha, and are encouragingly taken at a variety of resolutions. Behold, the most beautiful clouds I have ever seen in a videogame. 

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I mean honestly. These aren’t the only things going on in the atmosphere, though. I obviously immediately sought out gifs of this stuff in motion because, like you, I cannot get enough of this game in motion. I beseech thee again, behold. 

You can check out all the latest images from Flight Simulator’s closed alpha at their website. If you’re not caught up on the latest, check out our rundown of everything there is to know about Flight Simulator’s new incarnation, like how it will use real world air traffic data to populate the simulation. Microsoft Flight Simulator is due to release in 2020 and is developed by Asobo Studio.