Howdy Gang,I've been doing a LOT of flying and experimenting with AS2004 since getting it on "opening day" ;-) and think I've hit on a few settings that my alleviate some of the issues here. It might be worth a shot if you are seeing sudden cloud changes and vis through an undercast, and even if you aren't, these settings might add a little atmosphere (80. Now as some of you have noticed, when you have this set, and max visibility, you can see beyond the edges of the clouds and often see clear air beyond, and you get this ugly line on the horizon. I really think this is an FS thing to a large degree, but whatever. What I did was go into the FSUIPC module and set the restricted visibility (not graduated vis) options to: Clear=8000, Cloudy=2500, Ovcst=1500 and Precip=1000. Other than that, and some random turbulence, I left FSUIPC set to the minimum wx as recommended by AS. Now, in AS2004, I'm still playing with the Global Write on and off options. I do a lot of my flying in remote areas so I think it's best left on. I sometimes use online and sometimes offline, but if I have the online option on, I DEselect the TAF processing. I also make sure I have the dynamic wx function in FS9 to NONE. Anyway, regardless of my settings in AS2004, I find with the above settings in FS9 and FSUIPC, any sudden transistions I do get (and I do get them from time to time) are not noticed, or not nearly so much noticed because of the "haze" introduced by FSUIPC. I also don't get that hard line at the horizon because of this same setting. The over/undercasts are much more solid looking, yet (I feel) more realistic in appearance. It seems to enhance the "enhanced overcast" option in AS2004.Now I realize that overcasts are supposed to be enhanced in AS2004, transistions are supposed to be much smoother, etc. To be honest, for the most part I find that they are. There is still the odd jump, and I am not convinced there is any real way of getting this aspect totally smoothed out. Damian would have to have the source code to FS9 in order to make the enhancements work 100% of the time, and I'm pretty sure MS isn't going to cough them up to him or anyone else. I really believe that AS2004 is doing a VERY good job with what it says it is supposed to do, and it's definitely worth the outlay for it. However, obviously some results will vary a bit system by system, and with a myriad of settings that one can tweak, sometimes we tweak ourselves back to nothing, so to speak :-). Read the manual, set AS2004 up as listed in the manual, BUT add in the FS9 and FSUIPC settings I mentioned above and see if it doesn't start working better for you in the air. Those FSUIPC settings seem to work very nicely with AS2004, so there's no harm in trying them. One last thing - as a former RW commercial pilot and a professionally trained Bioclimatologist (Biologist + Climatologist), I can categorically state that there are few things in this world as dynamic and unpredictable as weather! What the METAR is giving you, may not be what you get even as you pull the wheels up! I once sat on a lake after a VERY hairy landing in almost zero vis (I was flying the bush and in a 185 on floats), with the fog and rain right on the treetops, while listening to a station 20 miles away saying that there may be "occasional showers". Make sure when you see wx you aren't expecting in FS9, that the TAF hasn't kicked in, and even if it hasn't, enjoy the pure fickleness of the weather that you can sometimes get :-). That indeed CAN be "as real as it gets" ;-). Hope this helps someone out there.

Thanks for this informative post.

Great post Glenn, I plan on trying out some of your suggestions. Curious though, why'd you deselect TAF processing?

Well, I only deselect TAF processing IF I'm using online weather. Online weather is continuously updated as it is, and I'm assuming that the next METAR comes onto the system before you ever get to the TAF times. However, if there is any processing of the TAF as you get close to the next METAR update, and if the TAF isn't correct (i.e. it's presently heavily overcast but they expect clearing by the next hour, the TAF will reflect that), then you will see the clearing start to take place, then as the next METAR is issued the wx might "pop" back to the heavy overcast condition again. Now Damian or Jim might correct me on how this works, but as it stands now, especially as most TAF's are for several hours into the future, but just in case, this might alleviate some of the "popping up" of clouds and whatnot. If you are using offline wx of course, there are no METAR updates, so naturally the only "morphing" of the weather is going to take place by TAF processing, thus if I'm not getting METAR updates, I will have the TAF processing turned on.I'm glad this post helped. Let us know if you find it works well for you - this is still a bit experimental of course :-).

I'm gonna try it without the TAF processing. I sometimes get the 'popup' wx as well. Went into New Orleans last night, almost clear as a bell, then once I got lined up, about 20nm out, got fog and overcast out of nowhere. Didn't check to see what the metar was reporting, but it came up pretty quickly. That might've been why.Thanks for the suggestions,

Great and useful post!I'll try with these settings.My only problem is the "quickly" changes in weather conditions even if I turn on the "transition smoothing" and "wind smoothing" :-rollMany thanks and happy new year!Bye, Max

Thanks, and you're most welcome. I too get some quick transitions at times, but shorten your update time a bit, if you are in an area that has a lot of reporting stations then turn off the TAF processing and maybe the Transition Smoothing (you might be getting a very gradual transition then a sudden change as the new area kicks in), and see if that doesn't help a bit. The key is to experiment. As I said before, this program (I believe) works extremely well, but one has to sometimes sit back and try and visualize what is happening, and what has priority over what. Once that is done, then things start to fall into place a bit, and then we'll all have outstanding wx on all our flights. Keep at it - just like it took time to get FS9 working, this one will take a bit as well, and then it will be VERY good :-). Good luck!

Hi Glenn,Like others here, many thanks for your post, I will certainly try your settings.I normally fly on line and always use AS2 in on line mode so I will certainly try disabling TAF.

Thanks for your comments. Yeah, it's still all experimental, but if you are getting fairly rapid updates (such as short distances between stations and you're using online wx) probably the TAF would never actually kick in. But if the distances are a bit further apart and the met guys aren't on with their predictions (not that that would EVER happen :-)), then you might start getting a wx change based on the TAF, then all of a sudden get a METAR update (either getting to the next station or a new report comes out) and the change back to what you had might be a tad abrupt. Anyway, the vis thing in FSUIPC seems to take the edge off a number of changes that Damian may have little or no control over. As I said, don't be afraid to experiment and see what you come up with. I'm always changing my options based on the flight I'm about to do, with TAF, online and Global Writes being the most-oft changed. I've had several very nice flights in a row now, despite sporadic wx stations that can have widely varying weather. As I said, AS2 works (at least on my system), one just has to find the right options for the occasion. That can be the biggest trick, but once you do, it's really superb! Glad I could help a bit :-)