Sorry to post here again... but something is seriously wrong with opusFSX weather.

 

In Casper, Wyoming, 12:19 PM when I look outside, there are scattered low clouds, and NO high cirrus clouds.

 

When I load up the sim with opus, all the weather loads is HIGH cirrus clouds! And there arn't even any cirrus clouds!!!

 

I loaded REXE+, and they got it exactly right. What is going on?

Scarlett,

 

You shouldn't rely on what you see outside. OpusFSX isn't some kind of magical webcam that scans the sky above your roof. Opus, like any other weather engine, depends on METAR reports. The nearest for your place should be KPCR. The latest METAR information is : KCPR 221853Z 29013G17KT 10SM CLR 06/M13 A3024 RMK AO2 SLP230 T00561133 $

 

Which in plain English (or sort of) means :

METAR KCPR 22nd @ 1853Z, wind from 290 at 13, gusting to 17 KT, visibility 10 statute miles, sky clear below 12,000, temperature 6, dewpoint -13, altimeter 30.24 inches, remarks: automated report w/precipitation discriminator, sea level pressure 1023 Mb, temp 5.6 dewpoint -13.3, $

 

So no information about scattered clouds.

Scarlett,

 

You shouldn't rely on what you see outside. OpusFSX isn't some kind of magical webcam that scans the sky above your roof. Opus, like any other weather engine, depends on METAR reports. The nearest for your place should be KPCR. The latest METAR information is : KCPR 221853Z 29013G17KT 10SM CLR 06/M13 A3024 RMK AO2 SLP230 T00561133 $

 

Which in plain English or sort of translates into :

METAR KCPR 22nd @ 1853Z, wind from 290 at 13, gusting to 17 KT, visibility 10 statute miles, sky clear below 12,000, temperature 6, dewpoint -13, altimeter 30.24 inches, remarks: automated report w/precipitation discriminator, sea level pressure 1023 Mb, temp 5.6 dewpoint -13.3, $

 

So no information about scattered clouds.

 

Why did REX get the weather right than? Different METAR report locations?

Why did REX get the weather right than? Different METAR report locations?

 

Can you try switching the weather source in Opus (Weather Download Options) to VATSIM and try again? Perhaps REX gets its weather from a different source?

Why did REX get the weather right than? Different METAR report locations?

 

Or a different way of interpreting the information it got out of the METAR report and rendering it in FSX ?

Cirrus in OpusFSX is a Random Generation, no metar will show you Cirrus Clouds, so the developer have to choose whether to include them or not, OpusFSX has Random Cirrus Clouds that you can specify at which altitude they show up, or you can actually disable them, then you will never see Cirrus Clouds Again.

It depends on what time you updated the METAR in both packages. What is your weather update time, we have a default of 30 mins. If you want to test something you can force a weather update via the FSX OpusFSX add-ons menu.

 

Cheryl

Cirrus is at the users discretion, you turn it on and off in the Weather dialog.

 

But, please people don't look out of your window to compare, the software does not have the same view. Its view is constructed entirely from the current METAR reports which can be submitted every 30 minutes, hourly or even at a slower rate for some sites. So you must always check against the ACTUAL METAR downloaded at the time. You will find this conveniently located in the OpusWeather.txt file, or why not just set your site as an alternate and check the weather report that way.

 

But once again, when we develop software to check your weather via your webcam we will certainly make a song and dance about it. For now just go on the downloaded METAR ... that is the most recent ACTUAL weather reported at that location, not as up to date as the view out of your window perhaps, but the only information that is accessible.

 

And yes, of course cirrus clouds are NOT specified in METARs.

 

Regards

Stephen

Regarding Cirrus cloud generation it has been mentioned before that you either get it or you don't. There's no data available to accurately record locations of cirrus clouds and therefore they are not treated in FS as another cloud layer. They are only randomly generated throughout your sim. I found that when using cirrus clouds being active they would constantly be there when in fact based off of my true experiences that there would be none there at all.

If you enable cirrus in the weather dialog you will get cirrus and vice versa. It is not random but controlled by our LWE, but no engine has control over the appearance, that depends on your bitmap texture, but we do control the altitude, the limits of which you can set in the dialog, the LWE then calculates a random altitude between this range.

 

Regards

Stephen

Sorry to post here again... but something is seriously wrong with opusFSX weather.

 

In Casper, Wyoming, 12:19 PM when I look outside, there are scattered low clouds, and NO high cirrus clouds.

 

When I load up the sim with opus, all the weather loads is HIGH cirrus clouds! And there arn't even any cirrus clouds!!!

 

I loaded REXE+, and they got it exactly right. What is going on?

 

You have discovered an unfortunate truth that affects all weather engines, no matter what method they use to depict the weather. What you see is only as good as the METARs available. The METARs can be out of date, for example. Or incomplete, or don't cover the area you're interested in.

 

The fact that REXE+ got it closer than Opus is just the luck of the draw. Other weather engines, but not Opus, will randomly inject few or scattered cloud layers when none are reported. In this case, REXE+ accidentally got it right. Opus will not do this, by design.

 

The question is no longer "Is the weather exact?" or even "Is the weather accurate?", but "Does the weather match the available METARs?" Then you ask "Are the METARs close to what I see out my window?" They often aren't for whatever reason.

 

Since you can't get truly accurate weather, you have to judge by other criteria. "Is this weather reasonable?" Does the weather change appropriately as you fly to new locations? Can you see weather systems in the distance, and fly to them? Does the weather transition between different states appropriately as you fly?

 

Not everyone gets all these right either. Ideally there would be no sudden shifts in the clouds, no jumps in the barometric pressure, no instant wind shifts. There are ways to deal with all of these and some weather programs do a better job than others... but not necessarily all of these factors at the same time. You could, for example, have either excellent wind and baro smoothing but incorrect or shifting clouds, or excellent clouds but no smoothing of wind/baro/temp changes.

 

So how do you choose which weather program is right for you? It boils down to which one has weather depiction that's more attractive to you, which one surprises you least, and which one gets the things that are important to you right while possibly sacrificing other things you don't care that much about.

 

In the end, forget about the REAL weather and just go fly. If you don't like what you experience, try changing options, and if that doesn't work, try a different weather program. If you don't mind the cost, try all the weather engines. If cost is a problem, at least experiment with option settings; they aren't that difficult.

 

And try to enjoy your flight simming experience.

 

Larry Hookins

In the end, forget about the REAL weather and just go fly. If you don't like what you experience, try changing options, and if that doesn't work, try a different weather program. If you don't mind the cost, try all the weather engines. If cost is a problem, at least experiment with option settings; they aren't that difficult.

 

Larry

 

That's a good summary of the weather deal. A guy of the Active Sky forum said you will win the lottery before you get the weather right. Use whatever you like the best because nothing is ever going to be right.

 

Michael Cubine

But once again, when we develop software to check your weather via your webcam we will certainly make a song and dance about it. For now just go on the downloaded METAR ... that is the most recent ACTUAL weather reported at that location, not as up to date as the view out of your window perhaps, but the only information that is accessible

 

Lol

Also keep in mind Rex interpolates weather. What this means is if your at a field it does not have Metar information for, it will take the weather at two different weather sites and through magical wizardry come up with a theoretical weather scenario to fill the gaps, What this also means is even though KPCR metar showed clear below 12k REX weather still interpolated and threw some clouds in there. Sometimes REX guess right sometimes it guesses wrong

 

However this logic is flawed, because if your flying from one area to the next your going to see weird results like clouds popping up out of nowhere radical wind shifts and unexpected visibility changes. why? Because REX has to first delete a weather station and download the new station then interpolate the dead space between the two stations, think of a two circles that do not overlap

 

Opus will take RAW METAR data and depict it in an accurate way within FSX, no matter where you are it constantly updates metar information from every station in a 300 mile radius. So what you have is overlapping zones and no funky random weather changes

In other words, REX and Opus are doing exactly the same thing, with the same results, except that REX clears the weather first and Opus doesn't. Does the newest version of REX still clear the weather?

 

Both programs use the same METAR information. The area between METARs has to be interpolated, and both programs do this. There's no such thing as "two circles that do not overlap" in one and "overlapping zones" in the other. The circles/zones are identical in both.

 

Opus cloud depiction is indeed better than the previous version of REX. I understand REXE+ has improved on this. I suppose REX users can thank Opus for spurring the new development.

 

if your flying from one area to the next your going to see weird results like clouds popping up out of nowhere radical wind shifts and unexpected visibility changes.

 

The same thing happens in Opus when a METAR changes.

 

Larry Hookins