Low visibility

[Alvega 2,119]

Hi,

 

I bought Opus yesterday and today made a flight to test a low visibility landing.

Before starting the flight i confirmed that the arrival airport had low visibility (0.1 miles), i couldn't see almost anything. So, i went to the departure airport and started the flight. As i was descending to land, i was inside a very nice overcast layer and couldn't see a thing, but when i was more or less 300ft AGL it cleaned up and i could see all the runway when i landed. No low visibility at all.

I made this screenshot where we can see the low clouds, but no low visibility as the metar says. Only after pressing the weather update button on the FSX Opus menu i had low visibility again, unfortunately this was after landing.

 

http://img688.images...01nov150246.jpg

 

I'm using the default options in the configurator (only "disable mist effect" ticked, other options unticked). I searched the manual trying to find out how "Disable mist effect" and "Disable fog effect" work, but couldn't find anything on it.

 

Am i doing something wrong or should i tick or untick other options to get the low visibility all the way to the runway?

 

Thanks.

[Opus Software 84]

Hi Alvega

 

It should handle the low vis without problem but if you had Ignore Reduced Visibility enabled for say zero feet then this would have overridden the METAR once you decended below the low overcast layer at 100 feet.

 

Otherwise in the current version the weather report can be out slightly out (North West) from your current position which might have an effect on the vis, the new beta coming out in the next few days should take care of this.

 

You need the Low Overcast effect enabled (as per the default setting).

 

The mist and fog effects place a thin layer of cloud on the mist/fog layer so that it is visible from above.

 

Regards

Cheryl

[Alvega 2,119]

Hi Cheryl,

 

 

This is what i get by default and what i had at the time:

 

 

 

 

What exactly is the difference (visualy) between "Disable fog effect" and "Disable mist effect"?

 

Thanks.

[Opus Software 84]

Hi Alvega

 

We use slightly different effects to top mist and fog banks. The effects top the mist or fog with a layer of thin stratus cloud and to differentiate we use a solid thicker overcast effect for fog and a broken coverage for misty areas. That we you can see the effects when airborne because FSX of course cannot render the visibility layers correctly so it need a helping hand.

 

These effects do not alter the reduced vis reported in the METARs they just make the areas visible from above. The Disable options allow you to turn these 'pseudo' cloud layers off if you prefer not to see them.

 

You should check out our Flight1 Announcements forum for news of the forthcoming Beta 2.50.0. This beta also improves the accuracy of the destination weather, details in the forum. The above Weather dialog is also quite different but you still have the same disable options.

 

Regards

Stephen

[Alvega 2,119]

Hi Stephen,

 

Regarding the problem of the visibility that i shouldn't have on the runway, I understand that i have the correct options ticked in the weather menu but that is a bug in Opus that will be fixed with this next beta version. Right?

 

Also, do you recomend the "disable mist effect" ticked, or unticked like "disable fog effect"?

 

Thanks and regards.

[Opus Software 84]

Sorry, its not a bug in Opus, thousand will testify to that. There are many reasons why FSX did not load the vis layer or take notice of it. You may simply have been close to the insertion point for that weather and the fog was to the north west, or FSX may simply have failed to load it. Try checking out the Flight1 forum, screenshots, and other videos, you will see plenty of examples of the use of low vis.

 

The new beta does allow you to specify a destination and two alternate airfields, the LWE then does its utmost to ensure the exact METAR conditions are loaded into the surrounding area for those stations, performing automatic weather insertions to force FSX to behave itself.

 

My statement still stands, in a nutshell ... FSX is held together with very taught elastic bands, just waiting to snap at the first opportunity.

 

There are plenty of bugs, but most of them are on the other side of SimConnect.

 

Regards

Stephen

[Alvega 2,119]

Ok, i'll do other tests to check if the problem persists.

And what about the mist effect part: do you recomend the "disable mist effect" ticked, or unticked like "disable fog effect"?

 

Thanks.

[Opus Software 84]

Personally I disable my mist effect but its up to you try enabling it see how it looks with plenty of misty areas, then disable it and reload the weather and see what you prefer. At the end of the day, FSX just sucks at rendering visibility layers so a lot is trial and error.

 

We are playing with the vis layering at the moment including seeing how we can force FSX to produce certain effects. We are always trying to see what we can trick FSX into rendering.

 

Also try using different cloud textures, I don't like the really HD stuff, I think they can sometimes look too crisp, and I don't like 4096 anything, but its all down to personal taste. But its approaching winter, so I should imagine we will continue to tweak and probe FSX to see if we can improve those winter foggy scenes, you never know.

 

Regards

Stephen

[Alvega 2,119]

Do i have to restart FSX after enabling the mist effect or i can do it inflight and just update the weather to see the changes?

 

Thanks.

[russianspd 10]

I would venture to say you could just re launch opus.

[Opus Software 84]

I haven't tried it but I would have thought a weather reload would do it after enabling the mist effect inflight.

 

Cheryl