Good question. The Live Weather Engine does not need to know your destination because it always downloads all METAR reports from every met station within it's (or your) current weather horizon. At present this is a 480km x 480km rectangular area centred on your aircraft's present lat/long position. In the future, we will be extending this horizon out to construct detailed weather for a 960km x 960km region. In both cases you don't have to worry, the detailed weather extends further than the eye can see and will include any destination or alternate you desire once you get within 240km of the airfield (or 480km after the upgrade). This is why you can 'see' the varied weather en route, all around you and especially the weather up ahead. Just like the real world.

 

Regards

Stephen

Impressive!

Regarding winds aloft. I would like to refer you to post number 11 onwards on the first page of this topic. The topic continues on for quite some posts but I think I have explained the postion quite clearly.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

 

Good question. The Live Weather Engine does not need to know your destination because it always downloads all METAR reports from every met station within it's (or your) current weather horizon. At present this is a 480km x 480km rectangular area centred on your aircraft's present lat/long position. In the future, we will be extending this horizon out to construct detailed weather for a 960km x 960km region. In both cases you don't have to worry, the detailed weather extends further than the eye can see and will include any destination or alternate you desire once you get within 240km of the airfield (or 480km after the upgrade). This is why you can 'see' the varied weather en route, all around you and especially the weather up ahead. Just like the real world.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

Excellent! How about the winds aloft question? I can get winds aloft data from my java tool in the US, but rely on my AS2012 flight plan read out to give me winds aloft data outside the US.

Regarding winds aloft. I would like to refer you to post number 11 onwards on the first page of this topic. The topic continues on for quite some posts but I think I have explained the postion quite clearly.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

Yup, read those posts, my question is will I be able to input my flight plan and get the winds aloft and temperature data from each waypoint in a "print out" form such as AS2012 does? I understand live winds aloft data isn't available yet. This one is a go/no-go for me. Need some way to retrieve winds aloft and temp data.

I understand that winds aloft data is not live yet, but when it becomes live, will be be able to retrieve that data to input in our CDU's based on the waypoints of our flight plan?

 

I am afraid you will have to wait for our winds aloft upgrade. We have no fixed plans at present, such a feature would have to be brought to our attention nearer the time. But at present we haven't considered the winds aloft problem too deeply. If you have read my previous posts you will understand that such a feature comes at a great cost i.e. you loose the real world varied weather patterns and have to force FSX to use global weather. However, I do have some interesting ideas regarding this matter and how we will be able to implement true winds aloft without all the adverse effects. I don't want to say too much on this matter at present because I don't want to give the game away and let other developers know how we can overcome this flaw in FSX.

 

Regards

Stephen

Ok, thanks for all the answers. Guess I'll just wait and see what future updates bring.

Hi there -- does the OPUS weather engine eliminate these sudden weather changes I see with active sky and rex? I find it really annoying when I'm flying through fog and all of sudden it changes to completely clear weather.

The OpusFSX weather engine employs pressure (QNH), wind speed, wind direction, and surface visibility smoothing between weather updates. We have mostly eliminated all erratic changes except in certain special circumstances (I.e. after crossing METAR sparse zones such as desert, seas, and oceans). We have a planned upgrade to double the size of the weather horizon, at present the Dynamic Weather region covers an area 480km x 480km, this coverage will be doubled specifically to provide a large look ahead 'over the horizon' peek at the distant weather, well beyond the visible horizon. This change is intended to help in METAR sparse regions. We have also planned another upgrade to the weather interpolation algorithm - the software that fills in all the weather between the gaps in The METAR coverage. All this will help stabilise the weather even further. Hope that all makes sense. OpusFSX is a package that is continually developed, enhanced and upgraded. It's not perfect, no software is, but it's certainly a long way ahead of the alternatives (my opinion). FYI - we tried cloud smoothing earlier but FSX didn't like it (frame rates) so we improved the interpolation algorithm instead. A few more tweaks and we should be there. But if you are flying in METAR rich areas (e.g. USA) then everything is fairly stable already, and will be even better soon.

 

Regards

Stephen

However, I do have some interesting ideas regarding this matter and how we will be able to implement true winds aloft without all the adverse effects. I don't want to say too much on this matter at present because I don't want to give the game away and let other developers know how we can overcome this flaw in FSX.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

This is very exciting to hear. I wish/hope you move this idea to the forefront. This combined with what your wx engine is doing now will truly make it a leader in the 3rd party weather category.

Hmmmm....seems as if this program is a bit of a wash...at least when the weather engine comes into play. I followed the instructions in the Live Weather PDF and it didn't seem like I was getting any real weather. I enabled live weather and loaded the dynamic weather theme in FSX, but still no change. I was in KJAX which has 4 miles of vis and rain, yet the skies were blue with a few clouds about. I then decided to load a static theme to see if I could re-start the dynamic portion and got a CTD when selecting the clear weather theme. Seems like a refund will soon be in order. :mad:

 

*******Restart FSX******

 

Ok, restarted FSX and the opus server, the weather displayed correctly at KJAX....however....stutter city! My FPS are stable at 40 (locked at 40) yet I'm getting nothing but stutters. I then closed OpusFSX, loaded AS2012 (still in sim) and the weather looks EXACTLY the same and now the stutters are gone.

 

 

So there's my feedback....

Hmmmm....seems as if this program is a bit of a wash...at least when the weather engine comes into play. I followed the instructions in the Live Weather PDF and it didn't seem like I was getting any real weather. I enabled live weather and loaded the dynamic weather theme in FSX, but still no change. I was in KJAX which has 4 miles of vis and rain, yet the skies were blue with a few clouds about. I then decided to load a static theme to see if I could re-start the dynamic portion and got a CTD when selecting the clear weather theme. Seems like a refund will soon be in order. :mad:

 

*******Restart FSX******

 

Ok, restarted FSX and the opus server, the weather displayed correctly at KJAX....however....stutter city! My FPS are stable at 40 (locked at 40) yet I'm getting nothing but stutters. I then closed OpusFSX, loaded AS2012 (still in sim) and the weather looks EXACTLY the same and now the stutters are gone.

 

 

So there's my feedback....

 

Have absolutely no idea what you are doing. What do you mean you loaded the dynamic weather theme into FSX, you don't have to do anything. It builds and loads itself. Have you set the configuration and selected FSX and also identified your FSX installation folder.

 

OpusFSX should have NO measurable effect on the frame rates. If you loaded AS and it looked the same then you were not even looking at any weather generated by OpusFSX otherwise it would have changed. Read the Getting Started guide. Set OpusFSX up and configure it correctly, enable Live Weather etc. use the Spy to monitor the generation of the weather and follow it through to loading. The spy will also show you if it is connecting to FSX. What you are seeing is NOT OpusFSX weather I can guarantee that.

 

You have not set the program up nor are you getting any OpusFSX weather.

 

No one else is having ANY problems so what does that tell you.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

Update ...

 

This problem was resolved and proved to be down to the the set up of JBZs system. OpusFSX was generating perfect weather once configured. The stuttering only manifested itself when the aircraft was in motion and was purely down to the poor performance of JBZs system, especially with a frame rate target of 40 set. The computer system could not cope with the inclement weather and this setting resulting in a non-smooth 'stuttering' display when the aircraft was in motion. Setting the target rate to mid 20s or Unlimited (our recommendation in the Getting Started guide) corrected the stuttering problem.

 

Stephen

Please do not insult my intelligence.....

 

OpusFSX is setup exactly as the manual describes with the FSX folder location set. When you say you don't have to do anything, I was just going once again with the manual. I wasn't seeing any weather the first time I tried it, so I did exactly as the manual states here:

 

You can force a weather update by either opening the Weather dialog and clicking on OK, or by selecting 'Load Dynamic Weather Theme' via the OpusFSI option in the simulator's Add-on menu. Alternatively if you want to revert to a static weather theme, select 'Load Static Weather Theme' from the Add-on menu.

 

I went to the FSX addon menu and selected Load Dynamic Weather Theme...with no change. I then used the same addon menu to select load static weather theme and selected clear skies. The clear skies loaded, I then got a CTD.

 

The second time, OpusFSX loaded the weather correctly on its own, however, I had nothing but stutters. As I said above, there was no impact to my frames, but I had stutters. I closed OpusFSX, loaded AS2012, the weather cleared then loaded which looked as it should per the METAR and I saw no difference between AS2012 weather and the OpusFSX weather....other than AS2012 weather gave me no stutters.

 

Maybe you misunderstood my post, and I'm glad others aren't having issues, but every system is different. OpusFSX causes stutters on MY system.

Do you have all the necessary requirements. FSUIPC4 plus SimConnect OK.

 

Before you start just jumping in and expecting weather to load. Please go through the Getting Started guide. First carefully configure the FSXSERVER.EXE program. Run FSX in windowed mode then run OpusFSX, immediately open the Spy window and make sure it is connecting to FSX and there are no reported errors. If you have enabled Live Weather already and FSX is at an airport then you should see the METARs downloaded over the Internet and the Dynamic Weather created and finally updated. All this is reported to you in the Spy window. If you cannot get this far then something is wrong with your configuration. What options have you enabled? Do you have an Internet connection? Are there any errors reported in the Spy window? Have you followed the Getting Started guide? Do you have SimConnect? Etc. use the guide and use the Spy window to get things connecting and working. Hundreds of other people have been very successful at doing this with no real problems. So there must be something wrong with your setting up or your system configuration.

 

First get it connecting then I will help you to trace the problem and get the weather generated and loaded. I repeat you have NOT seen any weather updates by OpusFSX up to now and all extensive tests show NO measurable effect on frame rates, no stuttering, no CTD, so there must be something simple wrong.

 

Don't give up so easy, it will only take a few moments to isolate what is happening.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

Please start off with checking the spy window when you se the METARs loading then wait. It takes a little time for the weather to be downloaded and constructed. Best start off with the Spy monitoring the situation.

 

Regards

Stephen

*facepalm*

 

I don't think you understood my post.....so I'll just let it be.

What program's are you running on the server?

 

Is it just the OpusFSX FSXSERVER.EXE program and FSX?

 

Also what config options have you enabled?

 

OpusFSX does not cause stutters, are you running both client and server program's on your server PC, that would put FSX into a frozen mode and the two might conflict.

 

I need you to use the Spy window and check it is connecting to FSX etc. if you won't even monitor what is going on I cannot help you isolate the problem. This will not take very long.

 

Stephen