Hi all, I am considering purchasing this as it seems to address a lot of the shortcomings that are annoying me with AS2012 at the moment namely flashing during updates and the resultant stuttering as metars are slowly loaded in.

 

I just wanted to know if there are any visual issues when Opus loads new weather into the sim periodically i.e. clouds changing positions or disappearing suddenly as this is a problem with AS2012 that annoys me. It kills the immersion factor (the suppression and range features in the Standard Mode of AS2012 don't seem to work for me). If the weather presented by Opus is smooth and consistent I will very likely buy.

Hi Kannwar

 

Before somebody gets roud to answering your questions I thought I should clarify a few things for you.

 

Firstly, no weather engine can actually position the clouds, this is done entirely by the simulator based on certain criteria. So when you update the weather, even if the cloud layer has not changed, the clouds will be repostioned by FSX/P3D. Of course, with our LWE the view remains very much the same unless the actual METARs have changed in which case the new cloud formations will be shown.

 

All I can say is that if there is little change to the downloaded METAR reports then the view renmains very consistent. However, the LWE treats the METAR reports as gospel so any reported change is reflected in the weather you see. Here is an extract from one of our posts concernig METAR updates ...

 

METAR Updates ...

 

METARs of course do change periodically, most airports will issue updated METARs half hourly at 20 past and 50 minutes past the hour. However, METARs are also issued at airports any time there is a significant change, that includes changing visibility and cloud layers. Or should I say especially any changes to cloud coverage and visibility. Other METARs are mostly reported hourly.

 

Hence, these reports will often contain different cloud coverage data (very usual since the cloud coverage does change frequently). During a weather update, any change in METAR will be reflected in the generated weather. Broken clouds may turn into few clouds, few to broken, clouds may disappear or appear where there were none before etc.

 

The LWE treats all METARs as gospel and generates the weather and clouds accordingly, so don't be too alarmed if after an update your cloud coverage thickens, diminishes, vanishes, or new cloud suddenly appears. So far all the METARS I have seen accurately reflect what is seen out of the window.

 

Also bear in mind the version 2.20 LWE interpolates the weather, radiating outward from every met station within the weather grid. If a met station reports broken cloud coverage, that coverage will radiate outward. If during a later update the met station is reporting just few clouds then the thick broken cloud will be replaced instantly with few clouds.

 

Regards

Stephen

Hi Kannwar

 

Before somebody gets roud to answering your questions I thought I should clarify a few things for you.

 

Firstly, no weather engine can actually position the clouds, this is done entirely by the simulator based on certain criteria. So when you update the weather, even if the cloud layer has not changed, the clouds will be repostioned by FSX/P3D. Of course, with our LWE the view remains very much the same unless the actual METARs have changed in which case the new cloud formations will be shown.

 

All I can say is that if there is little change to the downloaded METAR reports then the view renmains very consistent. However, the LWE treats the METAR reports as gospel so any reported change is reflected in the weather you see. Here is an extract from one of our posts concernig METAR updates ...

 

METAR Updates ...

 

METARs of course do change periodically, most airports will issue updated METARs half hourly at 20 past and 50 minutes past the hour. However, METARs are also issued at airports any time there is a significant change, that includes changing visibility and cloud layers. Or should I say especially any changes to cloud coverage and visibility. Other METARs are mostly reported hourly.

 

Hence, these reports will often contain different cloud coverage data (very usual since the cloud coverage does change frequently). During a weather update, any change in METAR will be reflected in the generated weather. Broken clouds may turn into few clouds, few to broken, clouds may disappear or appear where there were none before etc.

 

The LWE treats all METARs as gospel and generates the weather and clouds accordingly, so don't be too alarmed if after an update your cloud coverage thickens, diminishes, vanishes, or new cloud suddenly appears. So far all the METARS I have seen accurately reflect what is seen out of the window.

 

Also bear in mind the version 2.20 LWE interpolates the weather, radiating outward from every met station within the weather grid. If a met station reports broken cloud coverage, that coverage will radiate outward. If during a later update the met station is reporting just few clouds then the thick broken cloud will be replaced instantly with few clouds.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

Thanks Stephen for your in depth answer I can certainly see how this poses a challenge since the real-world doesn't capture granular minute-by-minute data on atmospheric changes.

 

I'm still very much interested in this software but was wondering if there were any room in the future for some of the following features. I know you guys are probably aiming at a certain kind of program with the Opus system so not sure if these suggestions are within those design goals or not but here goes:

 

- Historic weather data. This won't be so important for some but for me it is because while I do most of my FSX flying in the UK, I happen to live in New Zealand which is on the other side of the world. If I were to use real-time weather when I fly this means I would be seeing night-time weather conditions even with my sim-time set to day which probably won't be very realistic given how different the atmospheric conditions can be. This is one feature AS2012 has that I find quite nifty.

 

- As far as the cloud changes/appearances/disappearances go, would it be possible to have an option that prevents the update of weather cells that are within view of the aircraft? That way, real-time updates to weather beyond the visibility range could happily occur but you won't see them. Also, since the maximum visibility in Opus appears to be quite low compared to the area that weather is being loaded in around the plane, this could work quite well with your system as far as providing some seamless transitions over short distances goes. Some people might not like to fly like this but if the option was there it would be great for simmers like me (if there are any) that don't want to see sudden shifts in cloud patterns. AS2012 has a feature that is supposed to do this but it doesn't darn well work =(.

 

Again these are just questions about possible future features/suggestions to what already is clearly a very good product with awesome potential.

 

Thanks very much for your time!

Hi Kannwar

 

We already have the means to load and use historic weather using our METAR import facility, I am flying in Florida using yesterday's weather right now. However, at present we do not have the facility to download historic data, only download and save current data for later use.

 

We have provided two means to save current data for later use. Firstly, you can do what I am doing now and import a saved file containing all the METARs. Alternatively, you can save the current weather grid as a static theme.

 

We will be looking into downloading historic weather data at some later stage.

 

As for your second request I think you will find an upgrade is already being discussed that will satisfy your needs but in a different way. The upgrade being considered will allow the user to disable weather updates until there is a specified amount of change (light, moderate, or severe) within a specified range in multiples of 16km.

 

Regards

Stephen

Please refer to our Conditional Weather Updates topic in our Flight1 forum. This future upgrade allows the user to disable weather updates until there is a specified level of change within the user specified range of the aircraft's location.

 

Regards

Stephen

Even the conditional weather updates you're considering don't quite answer the mail (from my perspective). The "wrongness" here is that METARs effectively quantize the weather into pretty coarse samples -- twice an hour (or a bit more often if the weather near an airport is changing quickly) -- but the pilot experience in the real world is continuous. The weather doesn't abruptly change. You don't ever transition instantly from flying over broken clouds to solid IMC in real life. Instead, conditions start to gradually degrade. Visibility gets worse ahead of the airplane, winds and turbulence increase, perhaps precipitation and/or icing start to occur -- but it never happens instantaneously. A really awesome weather engine would allow the pilot to have this experience, perhaps by delaying the depicted weather by 30 minutes so that the weather engine always has a two sample points -- the report from an hour ago and the report from 30 minutes ago -- and then injects weather that changes at a rate commensurate with the rate-of-change in the 60-minute-old through 30-minute-old METAR. And there is nothing magical about 30 minutes -- delay the weather by one METAR report of any interval and inject gradual weather changes over the period between the last two METARs.

Sorry but FSX and Prepar3D do not work that way, never have and never will. I think you should look for a different simulator. You cannot control the weather to such a degree, it is impossible in FSX/P3D. We have taken FSX to its limits so we know.

 

Stephen

Extract of a recent post on our Flight1 Condtional Weather Updates topic ...

 

People are mostly concerned with the weather changing in their immediate vicinity, the changes occurring 60 to 80 miles away are of no great concern to them because these changes are far less noticeable. Also the visibility is set to reflect the real conditions reported in the METARs, we do give users some control or set their personal preferences but we advise users to stick to the realistic settings.

 

I should also point out, it is impossible to update the distant weather leaving the nearby weather and cloud formations unchanged. Each time you update the weather in FSX/P3D the simulator repositions the clouds, it does this even if the cloud layers have not changed. Hence, we are considering conditional updates - if there is no update, then the visible clouds remain as they are.

 

Unfortunately, where the clouds are positioned and what bitmap texture images are used to depict them is ALL down to the simulator and completely out of the control of any software package.

 

If it were humanly possible to paint the individual clouds then we would already be doing it and the weather would be made to reflect real life with no clouds disappearing or appearing out of thin air.

 

Bottom line ... if we could have done it then we most certainly already would have done it !!!

 

Regards

Stephen

Extract of a recent post on our Flight1 Condtional Weather Updates topic ...

 

People are mostly concerned with the weather changing in their immediate vicinity, the changes occurring 60 to 80 miles away are of no great concern to them because these changes are far less noticeable. Also the visibility is set to reflect the real conditions reported in the METARs, we do give users some control or set their personal preferences but we advise users to stick to the realistic settings.

 

I should also point out, it is impossible to update the distant weather leaving the nearby weather and cloud formations unchanged. Each time you update the weather in FSX/P3D the simulator repositions the clouds, it does this even if the cloud layers have not changed. Hence, we are considering conditional updates - if there is no update, then the visible clouds remain as they are.

 

Unfortunately, where the clouds are positioned and what bitmap texture images are used to depict them is ALL down to the simulator and completely out of the control of any software package.

 

If it were humanly possible to paint the individual clouds then we would already be doing it and the weather would be made to reflect real life with no clouds disappearing or appearing out of thin air.

 

Bottom line ... if we could have done it then we most certainly already would have done it !!!

 

Regards

Stephen

 

Stephen thank you for the information. Out of interest, how much weather is it possible to load into FS at once? Reason I ask is that REX Essential seems to be able to load a large area (the highest setting is World) of weather into FSX which means that once it is loaded (which takes quite a while depending on how high your setting is) you can turn off the weather engine and just fly with the weather that it has injected. Although this means the weather is static it works well as there are no cloud shifts or sudden changes as you are flying and such a large radius of weather is injected that it isn't necessary to have updates running in the background - the reason I don't use REX-E at the moment is that it doesn't handle visibility well at all whereas AS2012 (and Opus from what I'm reading) handles it brilliantly.

 

Perhaps this is the simplest solution for those of us that want to avoid these sudden shifts?

Please consult our web page which describes why this is a totally flawed method and describes the problems faced with ALL forms of direct METAR update.

 

Basically the weather you get will not match the real world, nor will the clouds remain there for you to fly around, through and return to. FSX morphs the weather as soon as you start loading the METARs and continues to do so ... the bottom line ... with any form of direct METAR updates, ALL the clouds are transient !!!

 

When I say transient, I mean transient. The clouds will evaporate before your eyes before you even reach them, or they will disappear completely once you are past them. With direct METAR updates all the weather is nothing but a very transient illusion !

 

Our method is the ONLY method that is going to give you real detailed and consistent weather patterns, including cloud formations.

 

Unchanging weather is simple with our LWE. Please refer to our Flight1 'Using the Live Weather Engine' post for some suggestions.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

Basically if you want consistent and stable weather that you can fly to, fly around, and even return to, then our LWE method of updating is the ONLY method that gives you this. We rejected METAR updates as being completely useless that's why we chose our method of updating. Its new, its unique, and it works. :rolleyes:

 

NO other method will give you detailed and localised weather patterns, show distant weather fronts, distant storms. That is why people are using it, that is precisely what we are bringing to the table.

 

 

"this is just amazing! The weather all around you is there! And it stays there - when you fly towards it - then you're over it - and when you're past it! I have never experienced that, with any other weather addon!"

AVSIM #116

 

 

Regards

Stephen

Some other testimonials ...

 

1.

just a quick post to say how impressed I am with the OPUS weather engine. I'm a long time user of active sky products and also own REX essentials. I've now done a few flights using OPUS and think the weather depiction is in a different league, it feels so real the way you fly into weather you can see coming as opposed to it just appearing in front of you (and vanishing as you pass!)

 

2.

I bought the software and I must say I'm impressed. I only had the time to explore some of the weather engine features. I took a few screenshots so you can see what kind of weatherscapes to expect. All shots taken in stock Prepar3D with cloud coverage density set to max and 90 miles distance. Cloud textures and skies are from Pablo Diaz's HDE V2.0 freeware addon, updated for FSX by Danny Glover (no, not the actor B) ).

 

The weather today above....

 

Heathrow

Batsfjord (Norway)

Vagar

Bergen

Innsbruck

Paris

 

See that overcast area in the background of the Paris shot ? Here it comes when flying towards it and no sudden cloud popups out of nowhere :

 

Paris2

 

 

3.

I have been flying the 2.20.0 - 7 Sept 12 beta on multi trips via vatsim today and I have to say I am very happy with what I am seeing. I have matched airport and inroute weather and it is right on. I am on a 3-24"screen visual HD I-7 ATI Eyefinity system and things couldn't look better. I got the camera movement down to an art. I swear when this NGX touchs down, I need a seat beat!

 

All I can say is damn fine work. Keep it up! Every morning now I am checking to see if there is something new....like clock work. Thank you for a better weather engine. I am using REXE 4096 and together they are a team!

 

Just a taste of what makes our LWE a little bit special. :good:

 

Stephen

Additional comment ...

 

'Loading the worlds weather', many thanks that really amused us here LOL.

 

You should be aware that FSX and P3D severely smooths out all weather beyond it's immediate horizon, that is outward from about 90km ! The further away you load the weather the greater the amount of smoothing. All you will end up with is a smoothed out globalised mush; you might as well just load a static weather theme, at least the clouds should stay put and not evaporate in front of your eyes.

 

I really must get back to work.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

P.S.

 

Our weather grid is 992km x 992km. So it gives you detailed and varied weather from horizon to horizon.

Additional comment ...

 

'Loading the worlds weather', many thanks that really amused us here LOL.

 

You should be aware that FSX and P3D severely smooths out all weather beyond it's immediate horizon, that is outward from about 90km ! The further away you load the weather the greater the amount of smoothing. All you will end up with is a smoothed out globalised mush; you might as well just load a static weather theme, at least the clouds should stay put and not evaporate in front of your eyes.

 

I really must get back to work.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

P.S.

 

Our weather grid is 992km x 992km. So it gives you detailed and varied weather from horizon to horizon.

 

Cheers Stephen I'll definitely check over that thread at Flight 1. As I am not a developer I obviously am ignorant of how these different systems work so thanks for having the patience to give us the info.

Just didn't want you to think loading detailed world-wide weather is possible, well it's possible but it doesn't really achieve anything (my opinion). But direct METAR loading has its drawbacks and they are inherent within FSX/P3D, there is nothing you can do to avoid them. From your point of view the most disappointing aspect would be the transient FSX clouds.

 

Have a look at our 'Using the Weather Engine' and if there is any other points you are not certain about just ask and I will try to answer.

 

We are still developing and improving our LWE, trying to squeeze the last drop of realism out of FSX. We would love to do more but must operate within the limitations of FSX. Unfortunately, there are many annoying limitations.

 

Regards

Stephen