After much thinking, tweaking, testing and cursing I have reached the state I'm happy to launch this free weather add on to the rest of the community. Main Features of Open Clouds No missing weather: I've tried to find the most update data from around the world. It's now unusual to fly in an area where there is no weather.Fog fix Fog in FSX has an annoying habit of appearing and disapperaing instantly. I've overcome this by applying a layer of cloud over any fog so it always remains visible. Limited visibility FSX rarely sets the visibility correctly which means you see much further into the distance then is normal. This is made worse as clouds and scenery are not ploted as you get further out. This fix has been carefuly tweaked to solve both of these issues. High cloudAerodrome weather information rarely includes information on high level clouds so its rare to see them when flying with real weather. I've added some in to make it more realistic.More information and download from here. (No registration is required)http://www.fsopen.co.uk/software/openclouds/This is how fsx can look running with Open Clouds running.

great workA friend of mine get an error message: Exception received - 14 weather invalid metar receivedAny ideas?

Thanks Tested it, looks great but now I want to revert back to my old REX real worl settings and it does not allow me to do that.I unticked the weather selection boxes etc.. even pushed the buton for FSX Real weather to try and get rid of your settings and it loaded Rain that is correct as we have been loaded REX air metars 30 minutes ago and it was raining where we flew. With FSX actual weather it also shows raining. Now after the openclouds my weather is stuck on your settings... It looks great but I do not want to see the clear weather now. I want to revert back to REX real world weather.I even uninstalled the opencloud packageIt keep on giving me your weather metar and keep on overwritting REX real world weather.How do I remove this settings so that I can have my REX real world weather back..Thanks

great workA friend of mine get an error message: Exception received - 14 weather invalid metar receivedAny ideas?

Was it just the one error message? Metars are sent in one bunch when you first start up, and unless you serverly delay the time it takes to load you can't work out which Metar gave the error.It will be one of two things.1. The weather station doesn't exist (I put some in by hand so possible miss key on my part)2. I've sent some rubbish to fsx, possibly due to an unusual real Metar that I haven't handled.If it's one error message then you've just lost weather at one station out of maybe 500, you might not even go near it. Can you tell me whereabouts your friend was flying when he got the message and I can check out the stations in that area.

Thanks Tested it, looks great but now I want to revert back to my old REX real worl settings and it does not allow me to do that.I unticked the weather selection boxes etc.. Loaded FSX weather.Has been loaded REX air metars 30 minutes ago and it was raining where we flew. With FSX actual weather it also shows raining. Now after the openclouds my weather is stuck on your settings... It looks great but I do not want to see the clear weather now. I want to revert back to REX real world weather.I even uninstalled the opencloud packageIt keep on giving me your weather metar and keep on overwritting REX real world weather.How do I remove this settings so that I can have my REX real world weather back..Thanks

If Open Clouds is not running it does not (and cannot) change anything. It dosn't make any changes to FSX files.Perhaps the weather has actually changed at the airport?

Darrington in Washington,FSX real weather give a lot of rain. REX WASYS weather program show RAIN and cloud, but in FSX your settings keep on being displayed. Even when REX say in FSX it is loading the weather, the weather from opencloud keep on apearig and that is sunshine with limited visibility with a few high clouds.REX and FSX real weather show the same.. but FSX stay the same as after I loaded opencloud. So yes it is stuck somewhereNO the weather did NOT change in 30 Minutes

Restarted machine. Loaded FSX again and REX and now I get Overcast at darrington, very low cloud at Seattle and Rain at Portland and all these are in line with What Real Weather says so all systems fine againSorry for the trouble. This machine is a bit old and crappy and is most probably the driver behind the machine that is even more crappier..For others, Check out the utility. It really is amazing.. dont get side tracked by my stupid mistake here. I can honestly recommend it. It for sure makes a huge difference..!! This is genuine good looking piece of software..!

Is this software capable of running across a network via widefs?

Is this software capable of running across a network via widefs?

Not sure, what is it you are trying to achieve?

Widefs is a utility that enables MSFS addons to connect to FSX or FS9 from a different PC, so Im just wondering if I could install this on a different PC on my network and have it connect to FSX

I just installed it on my second PC fired up widefs and it connected no problems at all, so I guess that answers that question

I hate to blitz you with questions but does it update weather in intervals? I see an option to use the FSX standard which updates every 15min but what about the openclouds weather how often will it update?

I hate to blitz you with questions but does it update weather in intervals? I see an option to use the FSX standard which updates every 15min but what about the openclouds weather how often will it update?

Good news on WideFS, it really doesnt take much CPU time so not much benefit in using it.Which sort of goes onto your next question, every 10 minutes. And it's more or less asleep during that time.But, if you move position with the map or menu system then it will do an update.

Hey Dave I made an error it does not work with widefs, my second PC was already configured for Simconnect thats why it was making the connection across the network just wanted to clear that up. The depiction this thing is giving in Overcast area's is quite remarkable, Im really impressed so far, reading on your website there was an update to pilot assistant to include high altitude wind data is this in the Open Cloud weather engine right now? I just want to know if this weather engine will provide somewhat accurate aloft winds and temps? Thanks by the way for this great piece of software.

Hey Dave I made an error it does not work with widefs, my second PC was already configured for Simconnect thats why it was making the connection across the network just wanted to clear that up. The depiction this thing is giving in Overcast area's is quite remarkable, Im really impressed so far, reading on your website there was an update to pilot assistant to include high altitude wind data is this in the Open Cloud weather engine right now? I just want to know if this weather engine will provide somewhat accurate aloft winds and temps? Thanks by the way for this great piece of software.

I'm only using simconnect calls so that makes sense. This app really uses little cpu time so I can't see any point making it work with WideFS.Yes this now has high altitude winds and data in it. I know fsx standard weather has had big problems with wind shifts mid flight with high altitude winds and I had the same problems when I started. My data is now pretty accurate and this seems to have helped but I could do with some real feedback from users on this. I've got some thoughts on how I might tackle violent changes but I'm just hoping (and I mean hope!) that I've somehow fixed the windshifts by providing better data!

I'm only using simconnect calls so that makes sense. This app really uses little cpu time so I can't see any point making it work with WideFS.Yes this now has high altitude winds and data in it. I know fsx standard weather has had big problems with wind shifts mid flight with high altitude winds and I had the same problems when I started. My data is now pretty accurate and this seems to have helped but I could do with some real feedback from users on this. I've got some thoughts on how I might tackle violent changes but I'm just hoping (and I mean hope!) that I've somehow fixed the windshifts by providing better data!

Yes it has very little impact at all, I just installed it on my main rig now, even though it does work perfectly across the network incase others are wondering, Im going to do some flights now with my PMDG MD11 and see if I see any of those wind shifts, I do have fsuipc and have used it in combination Active Sky to help with those erratic wind shifts. I'll see how open clouds performs at higher altitudes.