Hey all!I am in the process of refining my gameplay experience with FSX and am currently utilizing ASA for my weather generation. My question pertains to the "Visibility" settings under "Options" in the ASA interface. To cut to the chase, what should I set my "Maximum Surface Visibility" and "Maximum Upper Visibility" too?I am still in the process of trying to figure out what the best settings are, in general for the interface and I am starting with these visibilty settings. In the past, I just installed AS and tweaked a few things here/there but never really took the time to set it up properly.Any help would be greatly appreciated!Thanks for your time.

This is strictly IMHO, your mileage will vary. Visibility is largely a matter of personal taste. In today's world surface visibility seldom exceeds 30 miles on the east coast of the United States and in some areas may only be 5-10 miles at times. There are exceptional days of course, but the days of surface visibility in excess of 60-75 miles sadly are gone due to pollution and the resultant smog. I keep my surface vis set at 30 miles.Upper level vis might be a little more, 40-50 miles? Again a matter of taste. Try a variety of settings and find a combination that is most pleasing and/or realistic to your eye.

I report the weather over London from City airport every half hour as part of my job. I know that London is more polluted than elsewhere, but the vis is usually about 10 - 20 km, so 5 - 10 nm (roughly speaking).I set my vis in ASA at 12 miles for surface and 40 for high altitude.If it is a lovely clear crisp autumn day I will change it to 150 for a flight or two, then go back to something lower.

Thanks for the replies!I was in my backyard looking at the mountains and I noticed about the 2-3rd row of mountains were hazy (bright sunny day, no clouds, about 12 noon, 104 degrees). Interestingly, those mountains are only about 15 miles away. I always figured a clear day equaled 50+ miles...wow was I wrong. Also, it seems like lowering the visibilty to ranges similar to you both yields a more realistic horizon...it sort of blends and has the hazy look to it. Lowering settings is increasing realism, who would have thought! :)

I use 30 for low level and 50 for high altitude. Anything more is, in my experience in the real world, extremely rare.Yes, I have flown over Eastern Colorado in winter, and seen the Rockies from 90 miles away at only about 2000 feet AGL, actually pretty much down to ground level we saw the mountains from 90 miles away. But that is a dry climate, clean clear cold airmass. In 90% of the world you will not have those conditions, and the above-mentioned 30 miles seems to work for me, for most parts of the world I have ever seen.

I wish we got 30 miles in the UK.I had a look at work yesterday, and the VIS sensor on our Automated PAMOS system was had a maximum of 21km at surface level over the last week.This is about 12 miles.I think people do overestimate what vis levels are prevalent in the Western World. I would assume that with industrialisation taking place else where, that it is similar there too.NeilC

Good topic.I changed my settings to 45 upper and 30 on the surface and it looks very realistic now, thanks for that. :( With a change as well to my local suppresion range to 200nm, I haven't experienced any more cloud popping.Early days yet though i'm off to Stansted from Biaritz now to see if this has worked out my problem.

Hi, My experience some many years ago on N. Atlantic crossings flying for TWA at FL 330 was that, on many occasions, the FL vis was 100+ as we could see the Northern Lights from Gander. That may have changed; I'll ask my son in Jan when he begins the awful task of flying a Delta 767 to Europe.Jack S.