The Epic Clouds Guide
The Epic Clouds have a host of features that are not so obvious at first glance. Here are some of the things that create the synergy.
How to Explore the Epic Clouds Quickly
If you want to discover what the clouds can do for you quickly:
- Start a flight in a jet so you can quickly traverse distance and altitude
- Go to 15000 ft
- Choose a cloudscape
- Keep moving to ensure you are not inside a cloud when the cloudscape loads
- Set the time of day to sunrise, noon or sunset to get a feel for how the clouds respond
Some of the cloudscapes cast big shadows and leave large open areas. This type of contrast often increases the colour range for mountain peaks and fields exposed to the sun. Some of the clouds have drizzling mist and rain beneath them for a temporary change of mood.
How to Find a Weather Type
Enable the Correct Mode to See the List of Presets
In order to see the images for each preset in the weather preset list, select the ‘Flight Conditions’ button and then enable the ‘Preset’ option. If you leave the ‘Custom’ option selected you will not see the cloud images, only the text. Finally, select a cloud preset from the list.
The MSFS 2024 Flight Conditions Page
The MSFS 2020 Flight Conditions Symbols
Use the Preset Title & Icon to Identify a Preset Type
In the 2024 version the name of the preset is sorted alphanumerically in ascending order and there are no choices in sort order as there were with the 2020 presets collection.
Note: In order to adapt the Epic Clouds to the MSFS 2024 marketplace, installation options needed to be removed. This means it is no longer possible choose to sort by cloud name or cloud cover. Similarly the choice between displaying Fahrenheit or Celsius temperatures has been replaced by a word describing the temperature. See below for a list of the temperature ranges.
The Details
There Are Two Prefix Types
The Epic Clouds come with two prefixes: FEC (Floyds Epic Clouds) and FEW (Floyds Epic Weather).
The FEC presets focus on cloud types with other features such as temperature, pressure, and precipitation playing a supporting role.
The FEW presets focus on weather features such as thermals, precipitation, fog etc, in which case the cloud visualisation is a secondary consideration. The FEW type will be sorted to the bottom of the presets list.
The FEC Image, Icon and Description
The first element is the name tag (eg: FEC). The second element is the cloud cover ratio (eg: 3’8). This will be the primary way of selecting an item from the list. You can gain more information by also taking into account the temperature, the preset image, description and weather icon.
The cloud image in the dropdown list of presets is a screenshot from the cloud preset. The weather icon depicts the amount cloud cover and precipitation you can expect. Snow is depicted as dots, rain is depicted as lines.
The description will either be the name of a specific real-world cloud type or else a description of the overall mood or appearance of the preset.
Cloud Cover Units Explained
The second element of an FEC preset title represents cloud cover in oktas where 1 okta represents 1/8th of the sky. For example 4’8 means that half of the sky will be covered in cloud. A setting of X’8 means the sky is obscured by low level cloud, mist or fog.
Cirrus Clouds Break the Rule
Unfortunately, Cirrus clouds must also be taken into account when a cloud cover reading is taken. This can be misleading because full cloud cover due to Cirrus clouds can still result in a bright day. For example, a setting like ‘FEC 8’8 MILD – Cirrus’ with full cloud cover could be bright and clear.
Temperature in Words
The MSFS marketplace does not support installation variations, and some changes were necessary to make a single download possible to suit that environment:
- The temperature options C & F are replaced by temperature ranges using short English words as descriptors.
- The sort order will be in cloud cover order only (oktas)
There isn’t an official list of aviation biased words that match temperature ranges globally. However, similar words and ranges are being used in USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand. All of the English speaking international variations start from 0c / 32f and use a 5c / 9f step size between the bands.
| Icy | 0c or less | 32f or less |
| Chill | 0c to 5c | 32f to 41f |
| Cold | 5c to 10c | 41f to 50f |
| Cool | 10c to 15c | 50f to 59f |
| Mild | 15c to 20c | 59f to 68f |
| Warm | 20c to 25c | 68f to 77f |
| Hot | 25c or more | 77f or more |
The advantage of this list is that the two temperature scales are represented by whole numbers. This does create one more temperature category than is necessary in my opinion but it’s easier to live with this compromise than a peculiar Fahrenheit step size.