Dear Asobo,
Is there a way to control the speed of ice accumulation in MSFS 2024 for our aircraft? currently it takes too long for this to occur, specially for windshield ice.
Here is a picture in real life of a Phenom at FL430 with windshield heaters off..
Although the structural de-ice is fine, this is how the windows should look like on similar atmospheric conditions in MSFS, in order to get a similar value, the icing conditions in MSFS have to reach a value of 1.0 (despite windshield material set with all alpha values at 255 on the verts), which is too late, by then the aircraft is basically a block of ice..
Similarly we need a way to control how fast icing appears in wings, etc.
I have searched everywhere in the documentation, the only thing I found was the icing_scalar in flight sim.cfg, but this is just to tell the system how to react to icing conditions, not to control the icing accumulation time on the frame.
Any ideas what we could do as developers to improve this? is it possible to simulate our own icing accumulation? using animation materials or something? so we set the icing material, the alphas, etc. and just call the animation ourselves? or alternatively, put our own template in model behaviours to show icing faster?
Best,
Raul
Not sure I follow. If you have your ice for the windshield setup with your alpha so the ice is at the level you need at 1.0 then at 0.5 it may look like the image you shared. So this way the pilot can turn on the deice prior to full ice effect. So i never noticed any issues with the windshield.
But I also may have not understood your point here. We also need the ability to have ice for nacelle and other parts that are independent from the structural system which works well.
The sim has different rates for icing based on the condition of the weather. So for example if you create a ice condition and then put the test slider on 1.0 it will stay 1.0. Then based on if you change the temperature and you leave a cloud will change the rate that the ice melts without your de ice system on and this shows it has different rates. I have notice this slider move very fast and very slow. Give it as test!
I know that, but 1.0 is too late to get icing like this on windshields, is not realistic.. by the time the system is registering 1.0, is an artic blast.. and it takes over 3 hours to reach to 1.0 in many occasions, I tested before posting this, flying in clouds for 2 hours at -20 SAT, windshield off, and it never reached to even 0.6 in the icing level.
IRL I would have had that windhsield totally frozen in about 30 minutes.. in hence my point raising this, we need a better way to represent icing formation for our products.
R.
Check the Debug → Weather window:
There are 3 levels of icing accumulation rate, watch this debug window and change OAT while in the cloud to see the impact of temperature. If it is too cold! the accumulation rate drops again, that is why I think it looks slow to you. If you set SEVERE icing conditions (somewhere between -7 to -15 C) you will reach 1.0 icing very fast.
I’m not too familiar with materials but can’t you set your ice material to be fully visible in less than 1.0 icing ? That way you can get iced window as fast as you want.
Correct, that;s the problem.. the material is not fully visible unless 1.0
Which I think, is too late haha.
R.
