Hello fellow Simmers, I have the Beta 142 version installed and recently I have started to notice that I seem to be gettig a lot of what I call grey out skies. I have to go to weather and select clear all to clear it. Once this is done it is fine up until a certain point and then it haunts me again. Any ideas as to what might be going on? The transitions from comletely grey and overcast to clear seem to be very abrupt. Any ideas as to what might be causing this to happen?RegardsPaul

Hi Paul,I think a few others have seen this and Damian is aware. Let's wait for him to come along.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

Hi Paul,Can you post your as2004.ini?Also a screen-shot of the sim in this condition would be helpful if you can post one. Thanks!

Hello,Thank you for your reply. Please see attatched a photo and a copy of my CFG//AS2004.5 configuration file Build 142[General]WindowPosX = 5160WindowPosY = 5205DefaultWeatherFolder = S:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator 9ModulesActiveSky2004SuppressionCeiling = 4000SurfaceWindLimit = 10CloudLayerLimit = 5LocalSuppressionRange = 100MinimumVisibility = 0MaximumVisibility = 100LastPlanFolder = C:Documents and SettingsPaul SouthanMy DocumentsFlight Simulator FilesIncreasedWake = TrueDisableWindsAloft = FalseForceTstormsWithCB = TrueAutoConvertPlanFiles = TrueForceDestinationWeatherZone = TruePreventIcing = FalseOnlineUpdates = TrueExtendedDestinationWindsForce = FalseGlobalWrites = TrueDepictFS9HazeLayer = TrueDisableDirectWindControl = FalseVoicePlayback = TrueLocalSuppression = TrueStartupSound = FalseDisableGroundUpdates = FalseUseProxyServer = FalseFogLayerGeneration = TrueUpdateSuppression = TrueOvercastEnhancement = TrueIgnoreFSReadyStatus = FalseFSUIPCWindSmoothing = TrueLimitSurfaceWinds = FalseLimitCloudLayers = FalseAutoGlobalWriteToggle = TrueRainWithTS = TrueDisableUpperLayerGeneration = FalseVisibilitySmoothing = TrueDisableMessages = TrueAutoTimeZoneDetection = TrueUpdateInterval = 10VATSIMData = TrueZuluConversion = 12AloftPredictability = 100WindDriftRate = 0TAFProcessing = TrueEnforceVisibilityLimits = FalseWakeTurb = TrueStartPaused = FalseUseSystemTime = TrueDisableCAVOKClouds = FalseProxyAddress = NONE

Hi all!Looks like that is the problem I have as well...When there is no visibility value in the METAR I get an absolute minimum visibility, so everything is greyed out - "you can't see the hand in fron tof your face". But since there is a CAVOK in the METAR this shouldn't happen...Here the METAR:EDQM 181850Z 22001KT CAVOK 12/09 Q1018I now tried to reconstruct that situation by d/l the weather from the archive but then it doesn't happen...It's not only this airport since I already had that phenomenon in EDDN, EDDM and some other airports I fly regularely - I found an older pic of that similar situation but then with rain showers in the TAF:EDDN 191000Z 191812 29005KT 9999 BKN035 PROB30 TEMPO 1012 29015G25KT SHRA SCT020CBand this METAR:EDDN 191150Z 29010KT 9999 BKN023 BKN050 13/07 Q1006 NOSIGBut if I remember it correctly there was an autogenerated METAR then and it showed no visibility... something like that:EDDN 192006Z 29010KT 13/07 Q1006 RMK DYNAMIC TAF ELEMENTBut definitly no CAT II/III Situation...But as I said I can't reconstruct those Situations from the archive...GreetzMicha

I thought it might just be me but I am stil experiencing strange behaviour relating to what I have termed 'grey-out' which is what you seem to have in your picture. I am also experiencing sudden burst and breakthroughs into 'grey out'areas at altitude. I am no expert on metars and so I couldn't tell you exactly what they were at the time but I do recall looking at one which basically said broken not overcast, and yet I had 'grey out?Hope the team can work on this for us. Otherwise fanatstic product you are definately getting there!regardsPaul

Hi All,Not sure about this one. I can't reproduce it and I don't know what your settings are.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

But I now managed to reproduce it:It's the weather from June 19th, 2004 and it looks like the SHRA or just the RA is important in combination with the missing visibility...I think last night in EDQM i heard some rain as well but since I couldn't see anything in the night and "fog" i can't tell for sure...GreetzMichahttp://www.krausemicha.de/uploads/franconian.gifMichael KrauseOnline-Pilot: FRV095 - "Franconian"Online-Controlling: EDDN, Munich-FIRVATSIM/SAG EDMM-Mentor

Hi,In your latest METAR there is no reported visibility so AS sets things at zero.The latest METAR I got was this:EDDN 191420Z 29005KT 9999 SCT040 BKN120 17/10 Q1018 NOSIGAnd that is what I saw in FS. I am not sure if this is a data problem or something else! Is your VATSIM option On or Off?Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

Yeah - but where does this come from? VATSIM-weather was turned off for that test and you can see I'm in offline mode - it's in this case archived weather from the 19th of JUNE!! 2004 - but I got the same zero-visibility-problem yesterday so whatever problem there is it is not solved.Since it is an dynamic TAF element the problem seems to origin somewhere there... In an normal METAR with noch visibility part there is CAVOK or something like that.Thanks for the help!GreetzMichahttp://www.krausemicha.de/uploads/franconian.gifMichael KrauseOnline-Pilot: FRV095 - "Franconian"Online-Controlling: EDDN, Munich-FIRVATSIM/SAG EDMM-Mentor

Hi,1. Why are you seeing gray out conditions? Because the METAR contains no visibility data.2. Where does what come from??3. Both days there was no visibility value in the METAR that you showed me. In the METAR, I used there was a value and it was processed correctly. If the station does not send complete data, what would you wish for AS to do? Set vis to unlimited and not draw the clouds? The same situation would be true if the winds data was missing. In FS04 winds would be reported as 000at00.4. Here is the latest METAR, and it too includes a visibility value:EDDN 192150Z 09002KT 9999 FEW030 BKN080 12/10 Q10205. At this point I have no idea why on June 19th there was no visibility data for one station.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

The problem is - there was ALWAYS visibility data in the METAR since CAVOK is one as well. But the weather on the screen is a DYNAMIC TAF ELEMENT so it is created by AS. So not the incoming data from the METARs and TAFs in incorrect (both contain visibility) but there must be a bug in the TAF processing. That's what I want to tell so the developers can have a look at that.The solution not to get this effect is simple - turning of TAF processing - but what if I want to leave it on... ;)GreetzMichahttp://www.krausemicha.de/uploads/franconian.gifMichael KrauseOnline-Pilot: FRV095 - "Franconian"Online-Controlling: EDDN, Munich-FIRVATSIM/SAG EDMM-Mentor

And it just happened again:http://www.krausemicha.de/uploads/as2004gray02.jpgNow I fetched the real METAR below so you can see there is an visibility readout of 9999 in it but the dynamic TAF element has none... (it just showes FS disconneted because I closed FS seconds before I took the shot)(sorry, but i have accidentally overwritten the other pic so it shows this new shot as well..)GreetzMichahttp://www.krausemicha.de/uploads/franconian.gifMichael KrauseOnline-Pilot: FRV095 - "Franconian"Online-Controlling: EDDN, Munich-FIRVATSIM/SAG EDMM-Mentor

Hi,I don't get why you are getting a TAF in the METAR window. I just went to EDDN. Pic one shows with TAF off. Pic two shows with TAF On and what it looked like in FS. Please post your AS2004.ini. You may have a corruption somewhere also.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

Hi All,According to the reports in this thread it appears that when CAVOK or a visibility value is missing that AS is setting 0. This is incorrect. Actually it should set default "10SM" in this case. Something must be wrong and I will take a look. TAF processing does not copy the initial TAF surface observation data. It only copies the elements, thus why the VIS is not making it to the METAR. This is normal, the failure to default to 10SM is not.There is another issue where even when vis is reported the skies can go hazy. This is different. It may have something to do with nearby stations having actual low vis or something else entirely. I will look into both these issues. The next beta build is coming soon with the pending fixes in this and a few other areas...Thanks all!