Stephen, is the camera shake compatiable with track ir? As well, when you say aloft winds are simulated at this time, what excatly does that mean? Are the direction/speed consistent with real world data or faked?

Hi Eric

 

Not at present but soon will be.

 

We have requested the SDK from TrackIR and heard back from them saying the matter is in hand. I am going to contact them tomorrow to remind them. The software at our end is all ready and waiting, even the configuration option to enable the TrackIR interface, so as soon as we receive the SDK we will implement the TrackIR option. Of course, as soon as we have upgraded the software we will post the upgrade on our website, if necessary as a beta version.

 

Regards

Stephen

Hi Eric

 

Nice to hear from you' date=' quite some time has passed since you opened this topic. I only stumbled across it the other day so I thought I had better reply.

 

You can install OpusFSX on a drive of your choosing provided it is installed into an OpusFSX folder.

 

Regarding the winds aloft, these are simulated at present and a great deal of effort has gone into preventing any sudden wind shifts during weather updates. We do not use FSUIPC4 for any of our weather related processing, it is all done through our detailed Dynamic Weather Theme. Details of all the numerous benefits are described on our website etc. We do make some use of FSUIPC for some other minor functions and accessing the MCP/EFIS panel data for the non-PMDG aircraft.

 

Not sure if AS2012 has stopped the sudden wind shifts completely, some Avsim comments seem to indicate serious problems for everyone. This is to be expected because we have isolated some serious software problems within FSX/P3D relating to interpolating winds aloft and these must be taken into account.

 

Regards

 

Stephen[/quote']

 

For me AS2012 is working perfectly well. Never a sudden wind shifts. Not even with Ngx737. So certainly no serious problems for everyone. No need to bash a very good product.

Still looking for just one video showing your add on in action.

In the other thread, I find above all many replies from Stephen himself.

 

Jos

Stephen, thanks for track ir info. Can you speak to the second part of my previous post, " As well, when you say aloft winds are simulated at this time, what excatly does that mean? Are the direction/speed consistent with real world data or faked?". Thanks

I'm not bashing any product, the problems lie within FSX itself. No suddend wind shifts with our product either but that does not mean you can just do anything you please with FSX. These limitations must be accepted by 'everyone' - meaning ActiveSky, REX, and OpusFSX. Not 'everyone' aseveryone the user.

 

ActiveSky has excellent sky and cloud textures, so does REX, that is why I tell everyone to buy their products and use them. If you are happy with METAR updates then fine, carry on using them, and as far as replies are concerned perhaps you should read more. We will not be doing any videos showing weather but will be posting some pictures. What I have explained about the use of METAR updates within FSX is factual, I know, I personally have implemented engines using each method. All I'm interested in is developing software to overcome these limitations inside FSX so for those people who want that extra piece of realism can have it.

 

Regards

Stephen

Stephen, thanks for track ir info. Can you speak to the second part of my previous post, " As well, when you say aloft winds are simulated at this time, what excatly does that mean? Are the direction/speed consistent with real world data or faked?". Thanks

 

At present we set the winds aloft to lie within the comfort zone of FSX in both direction and wind speed, at the same time setting realistic speed targets. This present version does not download live winds aloft data which has been left for a future upgrade. After all, this is version 1 of our engine. You should bare in mind we don't set global weather so we have to tread very carefully when it comes to all wind changes. The bugs in FSX are mostly felt when the surface winds are very much localised and the weather can change from place to place. Under these circumstances FSX can become very erratic. We have another version that veers the winds towards known directions of trade winds, jet streams, polar winds etc. we cannot enable that at present until we have conducted some very lengthy tests involving tracing the winds aloft within FSX and monitoring it's behaviour. This all takes time and the software will be made available soon in future betas and releases. If we just set the weather globally then everything would be fine but then most of the benefits of our Dynamic Weather would be muted. We also have future plans that I have commented on in our forum pages to download live winds aloft, when this feature is available it will probably be a configurable option.

 

I hope that answers your query.

 

Regards

Stephen

It does Stephen. Thank you. I know timetables are a constantly moving target but any time frame on live wind aloft data implementation?

Stephen, thanks for track ir info. Can you speak to the second part of my previous post, " As well, when you say aloft winds are simulated at this time, what excatly does that mean? Are the direction/speed consistent with real world data or faked?". Thanks

 

Just checked the ActiveSky documentation, you can only have accurate winds aloft by using 'global weather mode' their quote not mine. It appears they have found the exact same problems as we have, they even mention shifts of up to 180 degrees, the same as we have found. As I have said, these problems affect EVERYONE and they are internal to FSX ... Take note Jos.

 

The problem can be masked by setting global weather, but then you are not going to enjoy realistic weather and enjoy flying into distant storms, or emerging out into calmer conditions. We may have to do something similar with our winds aloft. That is, give you the choice, either the same weather everywhere and enjoy live wind speeds and directions at FL360 or realistic variable, localised and changing weather patterns but use realistic wind speeds with non-live wind directions. Of course you already have the choice ..... You can use the OpusFSX Live Weather Engine for real live variable weather, or switch over to the ActiveSky engine and fly with the same weather everywhere with real live winds aloft. The best solutions are usually the simplest.

 

Regards

Stephen

It does Stephen. Thank you. I know timetables are a constantly moving target but any time frame on live wind aloft data implementation?

 

Our posts crossed :-)

 

See my last post ... as for time scales, it's very hard to say. If the only solution is global weather then perhaps it will be best to just select the engine that best suits your flight. If you are going to sit at FL360 for hours on end then use AS2012 (or ours when we implement the winds aloft option), if on the other hand you are only going to spend a relatively short time in the cruise then use the OpusFSX engine and enjoy the variable and realistic weather en route.

 

Timescales .... To be honest, probably several months seeing as we have many upgrades already planned. TrackIR, Live Traffic, SkyDemon, Live Camer Control with panning shots and video editing, remote weather engine, Live Weather Assistant, etc. :-)

 

Regards

Stephen

 

 

 

For me AS2012 is working perfectly well. Never a sudden wind shifts. Not even with Ngx737. So certainly no serious problems for everyone. No need to bash a very good product.

Still looking for just one video showing your add on in action.

In the other thread, I find above all many replies from Stephen himself.

 

Jos

 

Hi Jos

 

I hope all the above posts clarifies everything Jos. the winds aloft problem does affect you, you are just having to use 'global' weather to avoid the internal FSX bug. The problem has been masked by assuming the weather is the same everywhere in the world and never changes.

 

Once again I will state clearly we think packages such as REX and ActiveSky are excellent.

 

Regards

Stephen

I might get this, but only for the weather engine. I want to try the demo- I know the dynamic portion of the wx engine is partially disabled but will the static theme that is available give me a good taste of it the weather quality that will be available after purchase? I hope so. Downloading the demo now.. (yes I have REX textures installed already)

Unfortunately no. The static themes were created by me before the weather engine was developed. But I will see what I can do tomorrow. I might be able to generate a Dynamic Weather Theme for you to copy into the FSX folder and try. In fact we hadn't thought of that as a demo we might prepare a few themes generated by the engine and provide them as a demonstration.

 

Regards

Stephen

Just to add,

(some posts came in whilst I was away) I do like the sound of this weather engine! Personally I would rather fly through a simulated weather world that looks real than a "real weather world" that does not look real. If you get my drift. If I want to fly with real world weather then I will go and do it in the real world. If I want to simulate the experience of flying then that must be in a realistic looking and acting environment. Then again I'm usually only in the cruise for max 1 hour - its the going up and the going down bits that I like! I really hope this weather engine will provide a realistic experience!

Just to add,

(some posts came in whilst I was away) I do like the sound of this weather engine! Personally I would rather fly through a simulated weather world that looks real than a "real weather world" that does not look real. If you get my drift. If I want to fly with real world weather then I will go and do it in the real world. If I want to simulate the experience of flying then that must be in a realistic looking and acting environment. Then again I'm usually only in the cruise for max 1 hour - its the going up and the going down bits that I like! I really hope this weather engine will provide a realistic experience!

 

A man after my own heart, that is exactly what I think. Everyone that uses it seems to enjoy the experience, I certainly do as well. That experience will only improve over time as we continue to develop and improve the engine along with all the OpusFSX current, and future, features.

 

Regards

Stephen

I should point out though it is only the winds aloft that are simulated, we set a realistic wind aloft target for the upper atmosphere and FSX interpolates the winds at different altitudes.

 

All the other weather is as real as it gets and generated from the current METARs, no different from REX or ActiveSky. It is what we do with that live METAR data that is important. Others use the flawed METAR updates within FSX. We build a detailed Dynamic Weather Theme covering an area 480km x 480km centred on your airaft and instantly load the detailed theme into FSX. This theme defines all the surface conditions (winds, pressures, temperatures, dew points, visibility, etc.), and all the cloud layers (cloud types, bases, depths, precipitation, etc.), the theme also defines all the visibility layers based on the surface conditions and the regions general trend. It also highlights all mist and fog patches by topping them in a very thin layer of stratus, that way you can see them from above.

 

The Live Weather Engine also monitors your flight and determines the frequency an severity of any turbulence effects. The list of parameters is uses is quite extensive but will be added to over time as we add more and more intelligence to the engine. This data is used to generate the ultra-realistic camera shake effects based entirely on real-life captured 3D accelerometer data. Data captured on board 737 aircraft and light aircraft. We strive to improve the realism.

 

Regards

Stephen

Hi,

I thought you might be interested in some more visual information on the "Live Weather Engine" of the Opus Software addon for FSX and P3D, called OpusFSX Flight Simulator Interface.

I uploaded a 9 minuts video in YOU TUBE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PheIeOiC30&feature=plcp which should give you basicly an idea of the fantastic combination of the Live Weather Engine of Opus Software and the HD cloud Texture quality produced by REX Essential.

Please take into consideration that I'm NOT a professional video producer and I do not pretend to be an allround Sim Pilot.

You will notice that I'm just a happy Simmer with a very modest computer configuration (i5-760 2.8 GHz, slightly overclocked to 3.3 GHz and a NVIDEA 450GTS graphic card.

Salu2

Fernmil / GCLP

Joop