Firstly,

 

I have to apologize.

 

Last year, I saw support for Active sky reduce and I got a little concerned. I then tried opus after a reccommendation.

 

Sure, I had issues with it, but I was happy to hope that bug fixes would fix things.

 

A friend of mine just today, told me to try out SP2, the clouds and overcast conditions have been greatly improved.

 

I was getting issue after issue with opus, so I came back.. Wow, I shouldn't have left. Things look amazing guys, and even though I was a massive fan of 2012 pre SP1. Opus has now gone from my PC..

 

 

Thank you for all your hard work, and I am sorry for ever doubting you

 

Alex

SP2 is beta or final?

 

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I have been using the SP2 Beta for a while now and It is great. I haven't tried OPUS, and I was thinking about purchasing it, but since I installed the SP2 betas I no longer see any reason to purchase OPUS.

SP2 is beta or final?

 

Enviado desde mi GT-I9300 usando Tapatalk 2

 

The Beta build 4755

I used to fly with DWC and Prevent Cloud Redraws (I find cloud popping to be really annoying) and was getting reasonable weather, with thunderstorms in the distance, changing conditions and such, but one day I flew under identical (and somewhat boring) broken clouds for an entire 30nm flight then after landing the weather report had clear skies at the destination. After that I started experimenting with Smooth Cloud Transitions.

 

After doing a few tweaks, it was a whole new world. Varied and interesting weather everywhere, while having weather that matched the weather stations when you got close. For example, on one series of flights I was seeing ground fog in the same area in each flight, 20 miles from the nearest weather reporting station, and not caused by additional stations generated by AS. Over the course of several flights on the same route on different days, I saw ground fog in several different places, sometimes there and sometimes not, and always in reasonable places. That was just one effect; multiply it by dozens of different effects over the entire route and you may be able to imagine what I was seeing. Suddenly the clouds didn't seem like they were mechanically generated.

 

Tweaking: I know some people don't like to have a lot of options to figure out, but it's essential to be able to fix things you aren't happy with. For example, I was seeing a lot of stratus clouds mixed with the cumulus and it didn't look very good. I turned stratus cloud occurrence down to 5% and that went away, while still depicting stratus clouds when it was appropriate. It's better to have an option and not need it than to need an option and not have it.

 

I did register FSUIPC to get the wind and barometer smoothing options, and it was well worth it, probably better than AS was doing internally in DWC. I never liked seeing the altimeter jump by 10 feet every second when the barometer changed, and I was able to set it in FSUIPC so it changed so slowly that the altimeter never jumped, but still changed to reflect current conditions. I could tweak wind smoothing even farther if I was having problems at higher altitudes, but at 20,000 feet it still works fine at my default setting.

 

One change that's been made in the beta is that even with DWC, the FlightWatch radio reports conditions on the ground at the weather station rather than winds at your current altitude and location. This was quite a surprise when I first discovered it. It makes flying more interesting, and the only time the barometer setting from the station will match your altimeter is when you're near the station, which is appropriate.

 

The newest cloud textures in the beta are much improved.

 

I guess we should thank the OpusFSX people for spurring new development in both REX and Active Sky.

 

Hook

 

[...]

 

I did register FSUIPC to get the wind and barometer smoothing options, and it was well worth it, probably better than AS was doing internally in DWC. I never liked seeing the altimeter jump by 10 feet every second when the barometer changed, and I was able to set it in FSUIPC so it changed so slowly that the altimeter never jumped, but still changed to reflect current conditions. I could tweak wind smoothing even farther if I was having problems at higher altitudes, but at 20,000 feet it still works fine at my default setting.

 

 

[...]

I guess we should thank the OpusFSX people for spurring new development in both REX and Active Sky.

 

Hook

 

You mention a lot of tweaks that you did with the effects, but not what you changed .

 

Could you also direct me to the fsuipc tweak to slowly change altitude

 

Alex

My tweaked AS2012 config file is posted on the Hifi Bug Reports forums in the thread "Cloud depiction in DWC mode - Possible hard transitions with prevent cloud redraws on"

 

Just replace DWC with Smooth in the file, or set it in AS2012 after it's running. The other settings in there work for either/both DWC and Smooth Cloud Transitions.

 

In FSUIPC under Clouds, etc, check "Smooth pressure by this value" and set it to 5. I have winds set to 5 degrees/knots per second. If you're flying at FL300, a lower value might work better.

 

Hook

I guess we should thank the OpusFSX people for spurring new development in both REX and Active Sky.

 

 

That is so true, Hook. WHen I first heard of Opus and all the hype, I let Damian know and his comment was basically, competition is a good thing. Opus went back to what we did years ago and as we grew with the requests of customers, we moved on to different types of depiction. The comments re Opus pointed out that there is a whole new generation of users who still like the basic eye candy theme approach. Thus we incorporated the "type of flying" setting in SP2.

 

I still have not found anything that can match AS2012 in accuracy and flexibility.

 

It's a good time for the end user.

 

Vic

After that I started experimenting with Smooth Cloud Transitions.

 

I tried that too, but I have problems with wind aloft not matching the actual winds at all, while they are ok with DWC. Didn't you experience those problems?

Thanks.

I have problems with wind aloft not matching the actual winds at all, while they are ok with DWC. Didn't you experience those problems?

 

I've had problems with winds "boxing the compass" even with DWC, it just takes longer to make a full circle.

 

A recent flight I made at 20,000 feet reported about 12 knots of tailwind the whole way. During the flight I had headwinds. The reports are only exact at 18000 and 24000, with a possible hard transition halfway between at 21000 which I try to avoid. The reports *should* be exact at all altitudes reported on the WX Report screen, and the hard transitions halfway between have always been a bit of a problem. For example, they're reported at 3000 and 6000, and if you want to fly at 4500 you may need to be 100 feet above or below that altitude.

 

On that flight I also flew into thunderstorms that didn't exist when I took off. Such is the nature of real world weather. Winds aloft changing, and I now have a headwind when I expected a tailwind? Good thing I allowed for such things when doing my fuel planning, huh? I'm not saying that the winds aloft aren't a bit too random, just that I don't expect conditions to remain identical throughout an entire 2 to 4 hour flight, and I'm not dismayed when I get unexpected wind shifts at altitude, even frequently.

 

Note that I'm also flying with NO GPS and no reference to a long range map. I plot a great circle route and turn one or two degrees every hour. When I get close to my destination, I pick up an NDB at 37.5 miles, 75 miles or 112.5 miles depending on the transmitter power and adjust my course accordingly. I've flown between San Francisco and Hawaii this way (about 9 hours each way), and still reached my destination (but was using VOR 195 mile range on those flights, could have used NDB and it would still have worked).

 

I don't fly airlilners, so I don't know what's happening at FL300. I've only recently started flying a propliner at FL200, and before that since the aircraft were unpressurized I'd seldom get much above 9000 to 12500.

 

If you're experiencing anomalies, it's best to report them on the Hifi forums, and maybe open a trouble ticket.

 

Hook

The reports *should* be exact at all altitudes reported on the WX Report screen, and the hard transitions halfway between have always been a bit of a problem. For example, they're reported at 3000 and 6000, and if you want to fly at 4500 you may need to be 100 feet above or below that altitude.

 

This is strange behavior. I would expect AS would linearly vary the wind parameters as you transition from one alt to the other. You say it has a hard break instead?

 

Clark

This is strange behavior. I would expect AS would linearly vary the wind parameters as you transition from one alt to the other. You say it has a hard break instead?

 

Unfortunately, yes, but it doesn't happen all the time. I'd expect it to be varied linearly too. I haven't seen it lately, so they may have fixed this in one of the new patches.

 

Edit: I usually just think of it as wind shear, and avoid it when I find it.

 

Hook

You mention a lot of tweaks that you did with the effects, but not what you changed .

 

So, don't keep us in suspense. What did you think of the changes?

 

Hook