Thanks Daniel, I do apologise for my reaction, but of course there will be no apology for the erroneous proclamation that was made. But I am sorry about my reaction, I should have known better.

 

Consider me well and truly bashed. You will hear no more from me.

 

Stephen

Firstly, this is the proclamation I was referring to,

 

Also metardata is very rare in Europe. There are so many areas with zero Metar and therefore only some clouds appear, mainly around the aircraft where areas in greater distance are nearly cloudless (became more cloudy as the aircraft reaches this areas, despite cloud draw distance is set to 100 miles).

 

Which is totally absurd. So just read my replies, they are numerous. The 0 METARs he was referring to had nothing to do with METAR coverage, there were probably hundreds of METARs downloaded. Once again it was a statement in the Local Weather report window, informing him that there were no local met stations, none with 5 miles or so of his location.

 

But I accept you wish to protect such unfounded, erroneous, and silly proclamations, that's your right. But I have the right to state my opinion. No support was ASKED for, if it had then it would have been given. I receive hundreds if emails each day and respond to all of them, and do the same for almost as many queries and posts, on both our official and unofficial support forums.

 

Stephen

 

Stephen:

 

Wow...I'm shocked to see someone with your talent rolling around in the mud with a customer, right or wrong. The true measure of us all is not how we act during the best of times, but the character we show during the worst of times. You're bigger than this...let it go. Nothing good will come of it.

Thank Daniel, I do apologise for my reaction, but of course there will be no apology for the erroneous proclamation that was made. But I am sorry about my reaction, I should have known better.

 

Consider me well and truly bashed. You will hear no more from me.

 

Stephen

 

Hey, it was an honest and emotional response towards a statement you felt was unfair. I totally understand. It's just that it tends to cause wake turbulence. ^_^

I am so blown away by Opus FSX that I had to climb to the mountain top and yell it for all to hear. Very seldom does a FS addon live up to all the hype and very seldom does an FS addon come around that is a must have so when it does it is a big event. Well as a skeptic I have to say that Opus must be seen to be believed!

 

I purchased Opus and figured at the very worse I'd simply get my money back if it is no better (or worse) than AS 2012. After installing it, I am met with a simple program, no bakers list of check boxes, nerd nobs, sliders, options, and weather modes. When OPUS launches its almost comical compared to other weather programs because its totally unassuming and I was almost upset that someone would change $45 for THIS?

 

First flight from KEWR to KSFO not expecting much from Opus and pretty p'eed off that I'm going to have to call Flight 1 for a refund after being ripped off from this tiny little program. I'm sure most iPhone apps have more lines of code!

 

Anyway...KEWR is socked in with IFR, 1 1/2 miles vis and fog...ceilings around 800 feet Opus depicted this weather just fine as does AS 2012, so far, nothing that I didn't expect but all the hype is certainly not deserved. Cleared for takeoff on RWY 22R I rotated at 150 kts and turned my attention to the gear handle to bring the gear up. By the time I looked by out the windshield we seamlessly disappeared into the clouds. No ground, no other clouds, no barely visible buildings if you look down. You want to fly IFR? Okay, now you're IFR! Flying the instruments I turned to the west towards COATE my first waypoint as I climbed to 11000 under ATC control in 100% cloud cover.

 

No sign of breaking out of the muck we continued climbing and at about 15000 we broke through the first layer of muck. When I say broke though, I don't mean that it disappeared, I mean we climbed through it, to be met with another layer at about 18000. In wing view it was stunning to see us actually break out of the clouds and start climbing away from it just like in real life, then approach the second layer of clouds and disappear into that too. The second layer was only broken so when I popped out through that there were multiple layers on top of the first overcast layer which was still there. Finally climbing above the clouds at about FL 220, it was obvious that the whole region is socked in....today was no day for sightseeing.

 

As I crossed the Delaware Water Gap into PA I could see the end of the clouds about 75 miles ahead. Finally getting into some broken clouds down below I looked back to see the IFR weather I left behind. There was no doubt that if I lost my instruments I'd be in BIG trouble because that weather would be still there if I had to return to KEWR or any of the surrounding airports. FINALLY overcast means overcast and fog acts like fog!

 

I'm at FL 320 now over western PA and looking down below at a SOLID overcast layer down below. No tweaking, no check boxes, no trial and error. The weather acts like weather, what you see out of your window is what you're going to have to fly through. It doesn't dissolve or thin out once you get into it. VFR only FS pilots better start practicing your instrument procedures or you will find yourself in the side of a mountain!

 

Sorry for rambling on. I have to conclude with this assessment. As a loyal Activesky customer for years, I have to say it is night and day Opus is not just an evolution in FS weather, it is a revolution. If you already have a weather program and are thinking what's the big deal? Think of Opus weather as the PMDG of weather. Add REX Overdrive high def 4096x4096 clouds to the mix and prepare to be blown away.

 

So yep, I was a big skeptic. Today I learned that OPUS is probably one of THE most important programs to be released for FSX. When it comes to Opus less is really more and the developer found the magic bullet when it comes to FSX weather. Bravo.

 

Hi

 

Have you tried the new AS2012 SP2 updates - fantastic! I also have OPUS but the AS updates puts AS back in front - fantastic!!

 

Bob

Hi

 

Have you tried the new AS2012 SP2 updates - fantastic! I also have OPUS but the AS updates puts AS back in front - fantastic!!

 

Bob

 

I think now is not a good time.....maybe be a bit more respectful :ph34r:

Original post, with edits:

 

The 0 METARs means there are no met stations in your current weather cell, that is within 5 to 10 miles of you. You really do not know anything do you.

 

Also check the Upper Atmosphere weather report window, that will tell you what the GRIB forecast data (temps and winds) is for all the upper levels. Display any of the Local,Destination, and Alternate weather report windows and you will also see the current ambient temp and wind along with the GRIB forecasted targets. If I were you I would make sure I know what I'm talking about before voicing an opinion. 0 METARs implies does not mean there were no METARs found in Europe ... That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time Check your OpusWeather.txt file and you will see the hundreds of METARs downloaded to construct your last weather map for the 600 x 600 mile map area.

 

Hook

This is the main FSX forum not an Opus dedicated one. If you don't want differing opinions on products this probably isn't the place to put it. Regardless is the developer has a meltdown or not.

 

Stephen:

 

Wow...I'm shocked to see someone with your talent rolling around in the mud with a customer, right or wrong. The true measure of us all is not how we act during the best of times, but the character we show during the worst of times. You're bigger than this...let it go. Nothing good will come of it.

 

I agree with you totally, I made another mistake here and took the statement personally. Cheryl is usually the cool headed one and doesn't let any post or comment get to her. But what more can I say, no matter what was proclaimed I'm the one that's going to get the bashing for overreacting. I should have known better. Of course the original statements are completely silly and unfounded. I have apologised probably three times now, but at the time I was furious that such a ludicrous statement should be made. I should have just ignored it considering the amount of time I've had to spend trying to apologise to everyone.

 

Regards

Stephen

Of course the original statements are completely silly and unfounded.

 

<sigh>

 

Your Honor, the defendant shows no remorse.

 

Hook

Your Honor, the defendant shows no remorse.

 

Why won't you leave it at that, mr prosecutor

Stephen,

I like opus. Its doing very well and has nice potential in the future. But your response and the tone of it is not a very business support response. A business does not talk in this way even if you know your right. There's a better way to explain it in a better tone. Just some friendly advice for someone who's been in the customer service business for quite a while.

 

 

 

 

 

Hey, it was an honest and emotional response towards a statement you felt was unfair. I totally understand. It's just that it tends to cause wake turbulence. ^_^

 

Hi Daniel

 

Your right there, very heavy wake turbulence.

 

Regards

Stephen :-)

 

Stephen,

I like opus. Its doing very well and has nice potential in the future. But your response and the tone of it is not a very business support response. A business does not talk in this way even if you know your right. There's a better way to explain it in a better tone. Just some friendly advice for someone who's been in the customer service business for quite a while.

 

Hi Dave

 

Your right, I've just about been told the same from Cheryl. Thanks for the advise, I should have consulted you before I put my foot in it.

 

Regards

Stephen :-)

Hi

 

Have you tried the new AS2012 SP2 updates - fantastic! I also have OPUS but the AS updates puts AS back in front - fantastic!!

 

Bob

I think what you mean to say is after years and years of blaming FSX, the phase of the moon, other developers, cats with spots, everyone else's computer and on and on and on they fixed a problem that after what.... a few months these guys solved with out complaint. Me thinks that AS is back in front may be a bit over the top. LOL!! Right or wrong...competition is good. Use it as a positive thing not to put down OPUS who is working very hard to make their product and our hobby better. Please

The ol saying stands....

It takes years to get a customer, and only minutes to lose them.

 

If emotional about it, just walk away and return later. I speak from personal experience. lol

That is absolutely true. The c:\Opus Software Flight1 licence folder is extremely small so doesn't really matter at all, and this folder is needed where it is for licensing purposes. Furthermore the OpusFSX folder can be placed on any drive, it also has a small footprint and the fact that it has to be allocated its own OpusFSX folder is of really little importance, but is extremely useful for those networking systems. If you don't think this is so then try setting up the network with everything in Program Files, or better still try it with Windows 8.

 

It may be slightly annoying but is very useful to many people.

 

Regards

Stephen :-)

 

Stephen,

 

I understand there's permissions issues and stuff with using Program Files or Program Files (x86) (we deal with it every day at PMDG support too), but why should this preclude us from installing the program to a folder that's still outside those two protected locations? I have FSX itself alone on my D:\ drive in the D:\FSX folder, which is a dedicated SSD just for FSX and then I put FS related utilities and whatnot that don't require installation directly into the FSX folder on my E:\ drive (a 1TB mechanical HD) in a folder called "E:\FS Stuff". There should be no difference between installing there vs. the root of the drive in terms of security/permissions as that's a custom folder I created, not a UAC protected Windows location.

 

As someone who likes to keep my computer well organized, I really do not like being forced to install things in the root folder of my drives when that's not what I want - I know I'm not alone in trying to keep to this convention. It has nothing to do with file size or anything like that and everything to do with not wanting to see a bunch of disorganized cluttered folder stuff in the root when I open up my drives in Explorer.

 

========

 

Aside from the above annoyance, I'm pretty impressed with the actual weather depiction - particularly the IMC stuff. I picked a spot in Ohio last night that looked socked in on the real-world weather sites and that's exactly how it looked in the sim. You guys have done a really good job with the whole going in and out of "the soup" effect - very convincing!