Hi everyone,Just a quick update... SP2 is officially in beta now! So far the reports on wind smoothing (or wind shift reduction) as well as visibility graduation and fog layer simulation has been very positive.Just to set some expectations and to answer a common question we are getting: SP2 does not completely eliminate wind shifts, but aims to reduce them significantly. In testing, we haven't sorted the actual data yet but I would estimate a realized 80% reduction in frequency and intensity of shifts.Visibility graduation is a feature that some may remember from the ASv6 for FS9 product, which gradually clears your visibility as you climb. In doing this, the FS haze layer is eliminated (which many have complained about so this is the most exciting part) and fog/mist is simulated instead with fog layer generation (essentially low stratus cloud layers) when reported visibility is 3SM or less.Anyhow, we've been working on these improvements for a long time now and are pleased to be getting very close to releasing them. I'll paste the revision log here for all to see. Assuming no major problems we'll be releasing this puppy within a few days!Best,-DamianSP2 (B1102):Enhancements:- Added new Units type selectors in the Wx Config screen so Visibility can be displayed and entered as SM or Meters, and Pressure can be displayed and entered as Inches or Millibars.- New Wind Smoothing feature (optional) has been implemented that reduces the intensity and frequency of wind shifts using various depiction and data control techniques. This feature may cause a performance hit and will alter winds directional data (including surface winds) in order to maintain consistency and prevent shifts as much as possible during level flight at high altitudes. Smoothing takes priority of accuracy to actual data, but actual data has a large influence. Use of a flight plan is recommended for more accurate depiction and smoothing at your planned cruise altitude. If using other add-ons that provide any wind smoothing functionality, be wary of over-stressing the simulation and SimConnect interface. Using ASX wind smoothing alone should provide the best performance. Note that shifts during climbs and descents are reduced but occur at can higher frequency than at level flight due to unavoidable FS altitude-based interpolation control.- New Visibility Graduation feature (optional) has been implemented which eliminates the FS haze layer depiction and transitions visibility both horizontally and vertically according to internal ASX manipulation. When climbing, visibility will gradually clear to the

Excellent update, thank you so much! Got a quick question for you. Will there be a need for a dual release? I.e., for those still using FSX SP1 and another for FSX SP2?Thanks!Ken LeMay

Hi Ken,No.. we are building against the SP1 Simconnect .DLL which is included in FSX SP2 so we're covered there with a single release.Best,

Hi all,Those experiencing this hidden popup dialog problem: Thanks for the input here... We've made some changes to try and solve this, and would like to give it a test on a system that is experiencing it with B1083. If you'd like to test, please write me at damianc AT hifisim.com and I'll shoot off a build to you.Best,

Wow, um....I have a question and it's not meant to be anything but respectful to a great product,yours, all versions of which I have owned or currently own. But this wind shift thing is an evil that just turns me off to flight simming in general. I must say even that most aviation products are not thrown off their autopilots by it and the plane just jukes and jumps and adjusts but...um....let's face it.... to be "as real is gets" is harmed by the fantasy of passengers in my airliners throwing up buckets and suing my airline for a poor experience. I would too but that's just fantasy. In reality, I hate watching the winds jump around just because simconnect has harmed a wonderful products' ability to deal with wind shifts properly AND EASILY and not have to do whatever it is you are doing which seems very unreasonable to me.I guess my question is to you, is Simconnect so....um....combative and elusive that you guys feel you'll never get a real handle on how to handle these wind shifts past 80%? To me that signals that you are "patching" the problem only and good for you, but simconnect is foever going to be a menace to your efforts. Randy Jura, KPDX

>Just to set some expectations and to answer a common question>we are getting: SP2 does not completely eliminate wind shifts,>but aims to reduce them significantly. In testing, we haven't>sorted the actual data yet but I would estimate a realized 80%>reduction in frequency and intensity of shifts.>Thanks Damian for recalibrating expectations on wind smoothing. Its a difficult pill to swallow as a great deal of realism for many of us involves proper winds aloft implementation. IMHO, you guys shouldn

Looks pretty good Damian. Looking forward to SP2.Question: Do you have folks utilizing the Level-D 767 and PMDG 747 for FSX in your beta crowd? I ask because I think a decent precentage of your high-altitude customers use these varients and it these folks that will give you some good feedback of the beta SP2 enviornment.

Hi Ryan,The FS weather implementation has never been perfect and SimConnect did open a new can of worms (and came with a few new limitations) but as always we try to do what we can do improve things. A big portion of AS technology has always been devoted to fixing or limiting the severity of "issues" both in the internal weather rendering system of FS and in the interfaces that allow us to manipulate weather.I know that ACES are well aware of the shortcomings in this department and are doing their best to jugle a huge amount of different priorties and improve things as much as possible. In the past they've listened to our input and done much to fix problems we've found or provide new functionality that we and other developers have requested. I'm sure things will only get better as we move into the future.You raise an interesting point about the real problem that wind shifts create for a large portion of sim enthusiasts (mid to long haul airliner flights). Just one big shift during cruise can cause the autopilot to not be able to recover, especially when the shift results in huge tailwind shear lowering airspeed to stall condition. I can say that this is the main improvement with ASX SP2 wind smoothing, and cruise flight shifts are really much improved. The majority of those "20% glitches" are experienced during climb or descent through the lower altitudes. While I haven't experienced any shift in cruise with SP2 that leads to a stall condition (while experiencing it regularly with pre-SP2 in certain areas), they can occur. For this low-frequency situtation there is a new trick that we are working on that may be able to assist the aircraft out of the unrecoverable situtation, ultimately allowing the flight to continue normally and unassisted. Not sure if this will make it in B2 or not but there's a decent chance. Either way, as always, we will continue to improve things. We've probably spent a good 1000 man hours over the past 2 years researching and improving things (albeit slowly) in the wind shift department. Finally after all this time, with SP2 we have made significant progress. Continued research and improvements here have been and will always be a big priority, as are all issues raised by our customers. Thanks for your feedback, please keep it coming!Best,

Now THAT was a good reply, thank you Damian, I'm encouraged.Randy Jura, KPDX

Really looking forward to the patch, thanks for all the hard work. But one question...>- New Wind Smoothing feature (optional) has been implemented>that reduces the intensity and frequency of wind shifts using>various depiction and data control techniques. This feature>may cause a performance hitJust how much of a performance hit are we looking at?

Hi,We have one beta tester having a performance issue we believe not related at all to the wind smoothing. This will of course be ironed out before release.Other than that we have no reports of performance degradation despite the increased load imposed on the simconnect interface.Best,

Hi Al,Yes we do! And things are looking good :)Best,

Just a note that the popup problem was solved... special thanks to Mr. Johnson for his assistance!Best,

We appreciate it! Thanks much. erv