OPUS Weather Engine....feedback?

[Fatback 84]

Kannwar, actually, what Stephen from Opus said was:

 

"When you run OpusFSX it requests data (events) from your FSX which might just push your FSX too far. Never come across this before but I do know that if you have to lower your frame rates to mid 20s then FSX is struggling.

 

This was certainly not "asking" people to set fps to 25. Nowhere in the documentation or on the various Avsim posts relating to Opus is this suggested. Can you point us to where you found it?

[kannwar 47]

Apparently it is recommended in their getting started guide which he mentioned somewhere in this thread.

[Dicko 3]

I wish to discredit this product by saying that asking people to set 25fps is a disgrace

?

[Opus Software 84]

We regularly measure the impact OpusFSX has on FSX. The latest report ... OpusFSX has barely any measurable impact on FSX at all, a max 1 FPS was assumed because it was virtually impossible to measure, the change was so slight, and that's official.

 

We do not push FSX to far, our software is designed that way and I am not telling you how we do it. We've been doing similar real time stuff since 1985 on all sorts of systems ... we know how.

 

We recommend 'Unlimited' target frame rates (read the docs) and if needed drop your CLIENT systems to the 20s if they CANNOT cope (they are usually far less powerful machines). Blimey, its all in the docs. Most people have there targets set to Unlimited everywhere, some drop there client machines to 60, others using very old and slow machines as client computers have to lower the clients to mid 20s otherwise FSX cannot cope with the screen AND the position updates AND the rain effects etc. You know how poorly FSX can run on old and slower machines equipped with very little RAM and slow HDDs.

 

I've just noticed, you are actually reading one of our post scripts which explains another user's problem fix and taking that as gospel ... WOW.T

 

That person's machine could not cope with a target setting of 40fps, his setting not ours, he was already using a setting of 40fps. He got the stutters indicating he had pushed his low performance system too far. FSX could not cope with the bad weather and supplying any info via SimConnect, no matter what. When he set the fps lower the screen stutters were gone, diagnosing the problem we recommended he set it at Unlimited which he did. We were trying to help someone find out what was wrong with his very low performing system (not the OpusFSX software) but his system, that could not cope even though he had previously set 40fps and was flying a simple trike! ... At the same airport, sitting in a Trike in the same weather at the same time I had 120 to 140 fps on my screen, for whatever reason his system was struggling to cope.

 

Regards

Stephen

[Opus Software 84]

Here is the extract from our Getting Started guide, regarding your FSX settings ....

 

Customize

 

Graphics ...

 

Set the 'Target frame rate' on the server and all client PCs to UNLIMITED.

 

A word of caution, if you set your target frame rate too high on either the FSXSERVER or FSXCLIENT systems then you may experience problems with the snow and rain effects. That is, you may see some snow and rain falling vertically whilst moving. This is an FSX problem and the only solution we've found so far is to restrict the machine's frame rate. If this is a problem then a setting of 20fps to 60fps should result in a smooth operation. On slower systems, or systems with slow hard disk drives, you may also notice the occasional screen flicker. Once again lowering the target frame rate should help.

 

I hope that will dispel any false myths and rumours. :rolleyes:

 

If everyone reads the Getting Started guide then there would be no problems.

 

Please, please stop these silly comments and don't jump to conclusion, we are all very nice people you know.

 

Regards

Stephen

[kannwar 47]

Here is the extract from our Getting Started guide, regarding your FSX settings ....

 

Customize

 

Graphics ...

 

Set the 'Target frame rate' on the server and all client PCs to UNLIMITED.

 

A word of caution, if you set your target frame rate too high on either the FSXSERVER or FSXCLIENT systems then you may experience problems with the snow and rain effects. That is, you may see some snow and rain falling vertically whilst moving. This is an FSX problem and the only solution we've found so far is to restrict the machine's frame rate. If this is a problem then a setting of 20fps to 60fps should result in a smooth operation. On slower systems, or systems with slow hard disk drives, you may also notice the occasional screen flicker. Once again lowering the target frame rate should help.

 

I hope that will dispel any false myths and rumours. :rolleyes:

 

If everyone reads the Getting Started guide then there would be no problems.

 

Please, please stop these silly comments and don't jump to conclusion, we are all very nice people you know.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

Thank you for clearing this up Stephen. I'm not sure how well setting fps to Unlimited is going to go down for a lot of people however as many high-end users (myself included) find that setting Unlimited fps causes MORE stutters because of the wild fluctuations in fps that occur. Most tweak guides these days recommend 30 which seems like a safe bet for all but the slowest machines.

[Opus Software 84]

Hi Kannwar

 

Our Getting Started guide only gives recommendations, not hard and fast rules. Our software does not care what the fps target is so people can use whatever setting suits there system.

 

The only time when the actual fps matters is in the depiction and rendering of the DHM effects. These are all based on real-life captured accelerometer data that was sampled at 20ms resolution. The FSX system needs a reasonable achievable frame rate in order to show these effects and depict them accurately. One simple rule of thumb is if you can use the Smooth Head Movement option on our AHM without a great deal of stutter then you can depict the DHM effects well enough. That's only a rule of thumb.

 

I hope this clears things up and puts this topic to bed. In short you can set whatever frame rate target you wish, the OpusFSX software does not rely on it at all, but take note of the above comment. The DHM effects are after all a replay of actual real aircraft movements. You wouldn't expect to watch a move on a projector that could only render 10fps now would you. :rolleyes:

 

Regards

Stephen

[tipitout 5]

A question for Stephen concerning the weather engine.

 

Can OpusFSX use historical weather? I currently use AS2012, and when I start a flight with the FSX clock set in the past (which can be anything from minutes to years) AS2012 will automatically download the correct weather for that time, date and location.

 

Will OpusFSX do the same, or will it simply show me the current weather?

 

Much of what I have read about OpusFSX sounds very promising, but this is a very important feature for me.

[Opus Software 84]

A question for Stephen concerning the weather engine.

 

Can OpusFSX use historical weather? I currently use AS2012, and when I start a flight with the FSX clock set in the past (which can be anything from minutes to years) AS2012 will automatically download the correct weather for that time, date and location.

 

Will OpusFSX do the same, or will it simply show me the current weather?

 

Much of what I have read about OpusFSX sounds very promising, but this is a very important feature for me.

 

Hi Phillip

 

Basically you have three options within OpusFSX.

 

In normal operation the Live Weather Engine (LWE) downloads the latest (current) met data and uses that to produce a weather map (grid) and from that build the Dynamic Weather to load into FSX/P3D. It does not matter what date or time you set within FSX, you always get the current weather.

 

The second option allows you to save and restore a previously encountered weather scenario as a static theme. First, if you find interesting 'live' weather you can use the 'Save Current Dynamic Weather Theme' to name and save the current weather. This theme can then be loaded at any time in the future as a static theme or weather scenario. For example, you can save your favourite storms etc. When you load the saved theme it is not specific to any one location so you can recal that stormy weather and load it at any location. Dynamic Weather covers an area of 480km x 480km (300 x 300 miles) centred on your current location.

 

The third option is to create a simple text file and either type in a global METAR statement (using the 'GLOB' station ID), or paste in some other area specific METAR reports. You can then use the 'Import METAR Data From File' option within the Weather dialog to load the METAR data in, construct the weather grid and finally create and load the resulting Dynamic Weather.

 

I hope this answers your question. Of course if you have a package that can create METAR reports from some past event then you can use option three to load them into OpusFSX. Many people just use websites such as xcweather.co.uk or its equivalent windmapper.com in the States to find interesting weather, if it proves really interesting then just save it as a weather scenario (theme) for later use and enjoyment. Remember the weather generated by OpusFSX is detailed and varied so you will get to see and experience the 'wider' meteorological picture when you fly.

 

Please check out our Flight1 forum topic announcing our 'soon to be released' upgraded Live Weather Engine. A new development we have started to enhance the LWE even further. Enjoy your flying Philip, whether it be with AS2012 or OpusFSX, or perhaps even both (not at the same time of course), then you can enjoy all benefits and different forms of weather, historic, true winds aloft (we will also be adding this option in the future), and the realistic live and varied weather only produced by the OpusFSX LWE.

 

Regards

Stephen

[bluepilot76 0]

Well I bought it! One flight later I like it! but mainly looking forward to trying my next flight.

 

Firstly I should mention the demo. I tried various "themes" and thought the interface was simple and the weather looked good. There was a strange affect on my Dino T45 GosHawk though> the flight dynamics became completely crazy, such that I was still climbing at 480knots when I ran out of fuel at 120000 feet. Never been that high in a flight simulator before and it was pretty cool, could see the whole of Scotland laid out like a map. But I digress! To be fair I dont know what messed up the flight dynamics of the Goshawk, I have been trying a lot new settings recently trying to get DX10 to work, so maybe it was something to do with that.

 

So I bought it anyway as it did not seem expensive for what it claims. Installation was fairly straight forward. The instructions are slightly confusing to me who is a standalone, but it is actually VERY simple to get it running. Just a complete breath of fresh air after all of the confusing settings in ASA and REX (to a lesser extent)

 

So according to the instructions, you go to the select a flight screen, start the server, start the flight, ALT to the top menu and scroll along to the end, "enable live weather"

I then went back to the desktop to see what was happening. There is a terminal window you can open and in there you can see how the program has looked up all the local Metars and gridded the data around your aircraft. Brilliant!

 

The METAR for Inverness was a fairly simple one last night, but the weather matched it. No fuss! I flew up to 10000feet towards Wick, the METARS in real life were varying little on this route and neither was the weather in the sim. Perfect! All seemed smooth, All looked realistic, I never saw any weather jumps or flickers. The clouds were realistically "Scattered" with bases as per the METAR, around 3500, with a bit of FEW below that, and the tops were up to something like 9000 feet. Something along those lines. Pleasant enough to fly through in the Lancair. Frames were set to locked at 30 with half refresh rate and everything was silky.

 

As someone that gets very frustrated by millions of FSX weather options it was a relief to just get in and go and experience realistic weather from the start to the end. It was just a very simple flight but it has left me looking forward to my next one. Hopefully there will be a nice weather front across the UK somewhere so I can see how it looks.

 

So, in summary, Ive got a good feeling about this and am looking forward to flying some more.

[Opus Software 84]

Hi Bluepilot76

 

Thanks for the kind comments. I use OpusFSX myself so I have to abide by the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) philosophy :rolleyes: , joking aside, the only options needed are the ones like; Do you want to see cirrus clouds (since they are not defined within METARS; Do you want to use the fog or mist effects (because FSX cannot render them); Do you want to ignore reduced visibilities < 6000 metres (except for fog, mist, and precipitation effects, because some flyers like to see their scenery); Wha default surface visibility do you want to use when the METARs report OK (how real do you want it to be or do you want to admire your scenery).

 

I'm afraid we will probably have use one or two more settings in the future to overcome the FSX winds aloft bug.

 

Happy flying.

 

Scotland is a very beautiful place any time of the year, and that's coming from an Englishman :biggrin:

 

Regards

Stephen

 

Edited ...

 

You might be intereted to know, we are just about to post beta version 2.11.3 on our website (more contol over turbulence effects, more menacing nimbus clouds) , and we are already working on the upgraded LWE which is aimed at improving the stability and consistency of the weather even when crossing METAR sparse areas.

[fritzreinhart 0]

G'day,

 

I'm very interested in the weather engine, but I'm not at all sure if I can just run it on a single machine. I don't know zip about "servers" and "clients" or how you go about setting such a system up. Is it possible to just install the program on a single machine and run it like any other program? Sorry to be thick, but there you are.

 

Cheers,

Fritz

[OmniAtlas 93]

I want to try (buy) your software, any idea when TrackIR will be implemented, or can I just continue to use EZCA and disable head bobbing until it is implemented? Thanks.

[Opus Software 84]

Hi Fritz

 

Yes you can, just run it on a single (standalone) FSX/P3D machine. You just run the FSXSERVER.EXE program on your system and don't configure any Live View Client Computers within its configuration dialog when you first set it up (I.e. leave this field set to 0). Close the program, run FSX then restart our FSXSERVER.EXE program and away you go.

 

If you have ANY problems or are unsure of things after purchase just post me a question or better still send me an email. Worst case, I'm always at the other end of a phone line.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

I want to try (buy) your software, any idea when TrackIR will be implemented, or can I just continue to use EZCA and disable head bobbing until it is implemented? Thanks.

 

We have the TrackIR SDK in our possession (thanks TrackIR) and hopefully I will be able to make a start on it this weekend or later today. The upgrade should take no more then a couple of days, perhaps just one. But (there's always a but) it all depends how busy I am or how tied up I am in other things. It should be finished next week at the latest, that's all I can say for sure.

 

Don't forget to try out the AHM, I will still use this in preference to TrackIR when flying the PMDG 737NGX, and most probably use my TrackIR when flying the SF260.

 

Just about to post 2.11.3 today, if you like turbulence (intelligent of course, not just on or the same strength all the time), and like you nimbus clouds, then you will like 2.11.3.

 

Regards

Stephen

[fritzreinhart 0]

i Fritz

 

Yes you can, just run it on a single (standalone) FSX/P3D machine. You just run the FSXSERVER.EXE program on your system and don't configure any Live View Client Computers within its configuration dialog when you first set it up (I.e. leave this field set to 0). Close the program, run FSX then restart our FSXSERVER.EXE program and away you go.

 

If you have ANY problems or are unsure of things after purchase just post me a question or better still send me an email. Worst case, I'm always at the other end of a phone line.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

OK, thanks much, Stephen. I'm not terribly interested in the camera effects for the moment, so is it possible to set those to "zero", or something like that? (Forgot to ask before, oops.)

 

Cheers,

Fritz