I only fly Airliners (NGX,Level-D, 747) is there any one here who maybe flies the same aircraft? And maybe they can share their OPUS and or FSUIPC settings?

 

I must say I currently own REX, ASE, AS2012 and FEX and I am willing to spend another 50 bucks in hopes of a good weather simulation.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Edgar

All I can say that it is well worth the cost of a slab of beer (comparatively speaking) with many more subsequent hours of enjoyment and "hey, that's cool!" remarks to come.

On the other hand, winds aloft are an issue (not rendered yet) although it seems that a version with the Aloft data (GRIB sourced) is just around the corner, in which case I think I will be retiring AS for good.

Plus you get instant weather injections (no stuttering or green message bars), the Camera functions (I simply love the DHM effects) and support that is second to none.

 

Microsoft may have pulled the plug on flight simming but with developers like this, seemingly able to produce magic with FSX, I think our hobby is assured a long, healthy life.

Okay,

 

Today I submitted a tickect through Flight1 for a refund since I did not like the way the weather was changing from looking good to completly different. I only fly jetliners and I asked for some help before from any one running this software with similar planes. Only one person responded!!! I guess I'll just wait till the product is a bit more settled with the community.

 

It would be nice if the developers posted some type of options guide for people with planes like the NGX so that you could get the best results possible.

 

Sincerely

 

Edgar

Hi Edgar

 

We are coming out with an update for weather smoothing between METAR updates soon.

 

We have described the settings for high flyers in our Live Weather pdf. Some systems suffer more than others, aircraft sims also vary in suseptability.

 

We've been doing a great deal of testing to try and get to grips with these wind shifts at higher altitudes. We have now identified three distinct wind calculation errors within FSX, so when we refer to the FSX winds aloft bug we really mean bugs.

 

This has clarified a few things and made us realise no amount of tweaking or user options will be able to both eradicate the problem and still give you anything resembling true surface winds when you land. We have therefore come to the conclusion that it is time for simplification and that is what we are working on now.

 

The normal 'Lower' Wind Smoothing will still be used (default 15 + 15) for normal operation, that should prevent problems for people flying low and slow and still give a very good chance of keeping to the true surface winds when you land.

 

A new 'Upper' Wind Stabilisation option will be provided in the form of a simple checkbox, a configurable Recovery Altitude (RA, default 19000 feet) setting, and a Max Allowed Wind Deviation (default 15 degrees) setting. These options will be for high and fast jet and airliner flyers. By high I mean above 19000 feet.

 

We are now concentrating on the recovery process in an attempt to maximise the chance of recovering the surface winds when you descend below the RA. The recovery will be based on a calculated safe surface wind deviation in addition to the user's configured Max Allowed Wind Deviation. If either test passes the LWE will attempt to recover the surface winds. After recovery the normal 'Lower' Wind Smoothing will be applied throughout your descent.

 

These changes and checks are going to take a little time so please be patient. Each test has to be conducted at three or four different locations around the globe which all takes time.

 

In the meantime, if you are experiencing wind shifts we recommned un-ticking the current 'Relax Surface Wind Smoothing' option, and if that fails, just set your TA and RA to something reasonably low like 15000 and 13000, or even 0.

 

Anyway you can follow our development progress on our Flight1 forum topics Comimg Soon and Announcements.

 

Hope you will be back to using OpusFSX in the not too distant future.

 

Regards

Cheryl

Cheryl,

 

Thank you so much for the response. Opusfsx is definitely a program with a big future, I love the weather in the low altitudes but as I got closer to my cruising altitude it was not horizon to horizon and the sudden cloud change killed the realism it was providing at the low altitudes. I can only imagine the amount of work you guys have put into Opus WOW!!!

I will definitely buy it again if you can replicate the horizon to horizon weather at the jetliners cruising altitudes. My flight last night was from KLAX to KSFO around 4PM VTU5 RZS J501 BSR BSR2 was my flight plan cruising at 36000. The weather at LAX was great very realistic the troubles started at around 20000. The weather would look great and then it would change completely and it was not horizon to horizon as you could see gaps in-between (The cloud cover would disappear and then reappear). I would love to see any fellow NGX pilot provide a list of the options used on his system while using OPUSFSX.

 

Any ways, thanks gain.

 

Sincerely

 

Edgar

Hi Edgar

 

We generate the weather for 300 miles around the aircraft so check your Cloud Draw Distance in FSX, that is the problem, it should be something like 110 miles or more if you are flying at high altitudes. If you are flying lower for VFR flights then 80 miles will do.

 

Regards

Cheryl

Opus Team,

 

 

So yesterday while staring out my office window at work I could not wait to go home and fly my NGX. The weather was perfect, Low visibility and rain! I live about 60 miles north of LAX.

 

Got home installed the latest Opus beta and fired fsx, the weather was perfect at LAX just like it was outside, I took off and started my climb. Everything was perfect till about 30000 feet, where the low cloud cover could be seen as a patch. I know you have recommended increasing the cloud coverage to 110 miles but the problem with that is. I run a 30" DELL ultra-sharp monitor and by increasing the coverage I take a hit on performance.

 

I played with a lot of settings last night, decreased AI traffic from 100% to 80%. This weekend I will experiment more at different locations but I must say I loved the weather into my approach to SFO. It was probably the best low cloud cover I have seen in fsx. Another thing I like about Opus is the simplicity of the program 18Mb??? No textures but that’s okay. I love the fact that you just click a few boxes and that’s it. I use REX (I love REX they are a great company) for the textures and run them at 4096. I've been using AS for the longest time and I am almost convinced it will be uninstalled if the SP2 does not make any real improvements.

 

Cheryl do you guys fly any jetliners by any chance? If so what settings do you use in FSX and OPUS?

 

Should I try lower cloud resolutions? Any ways I will keep trying hoping to find a happy medium.

 

Sincerely

 

Edgar

Hi Edgar

 

Yes the cloud draw distance does have a hit on FSX performance but it is the only way to get the realistic weather you want to see. You will have to experiment with FSX performance tweaking and follow the recommendations in our Getting Started guide. The recommended settings for high flyers are in our Live Weather pdf, it depends on whether you suffer from wind shifts or not. We will be releasing a new beta soon which simplifies VFR and IFR settings.

 

Regards

Cheryl

 

Hi Edgar

 

I think the biggest hit on your systems performance is coming from your 80% AI traffic, a known frame rate killer. Try knocking it down to something like 30%. I also prefer lower res cloud textures. I also use the 30 inch Dell Ultrasharp monitor but with much lower AI traffic settings (cloud draw 110 miles, AI traffic 32% and much less GA, virtually no boats). I do think the 110 miles is important, 80 miles is ok for those preferring to fly low and slow.

 

We don't see the need to provide cloud textures, there are plenty of excellent options already available, including the free HDEv2, and the superb FEX which really come alive with OpusFSX, and of course the excellent REX and AS options.

 

We mostly fly SF260 for low and slow, and the superb PMDG 737NGX for high level.

 

We are very pleased to hear you are enjoying the LWE, we have some very interesting upgrades big and small in the pipeline ... I'm really looking forward to doing the weather smoothing some of the ideas we have are quite exciting. Of course, the development will be continuous and on going, good luck with your flying, 2.40 beta out soon with alternate weather server options (Vatsim, IVAO, etc.), a historic data option supporting normal updates for any period within the last 24 hours, an option for you to specify your destination (with auto weather updates as you approach and priority given to its METAR), better surface wind recovery if you need to use wind stabilisation (for the high flyers), etc.

 

Regards

Stephen

Stephen and Cheryl,

Thank you for the prompt responses, I use Ultimate Traffic 2 for my AI with no GA at all. I will try to see if setting the cloud coverage somewhere in between can be a happy medium for me. I will also try with lower texture resolutions. My performance is not really bad I got no stutters but I can see a small drop in FPS. I did not experience any S turns but my flights were short, I will do some longer flights this weekend with my Level D 767.

Sincerely

Edgar

Hi Edgar

 

Another trick you could try is to select a sky texture that is quite light on the horizon, not deep blue but fading nicely to blend in with the clouds. Let us know how you get on and I may include a Max Visibility at Altitude option. If you set that to 96km or say 80km then the clouds would just fade away into the sky without needing the 110 mile draw distance. The 96km will currently be set as the limit if the general (average) surface vis in the region is quite low, so you may have noticed some improvement to your distant clouds when flying in murky conditions. Let us know how you get on though, not too familiar with Ultimate Traffic 2 but if we can help we will.

 

Regards

Stephen

Another trick you could try is to select a sky texture that is quite light on the horizon, not deep blue but fading nicely to blend in with the clouds.

 

If anyone finds that 'perfect' sky texture, let me know! I haven't found it yet (but only searched for it using REX 2: maybe I should give FEX a try). Up to now every sky textures stays clearly visible at the horizon: no clouds blending in as well as I want.