I bought OPUS few weeks ago, and finally got the time to test it yesterday. I'm amazed how fast weather is loaded. I'm probably an ex AS2012 user, if these problems will be solved.

I first read both pdf files (getting started and live weather), then tested it with VFR flight from EDDM to LOWI. First I noticed that the visibility was far greater than 32km (20mi) that was checked in weather options. The visibility was at least 80-90km, I could see the alps from EDDM taxiway, not cool. Also, I didn't noticed any visibility smoothing, because at 3000-4000 feet was a sudden change of visibility to 160km or unlimited. I forgot to check weather report to check visibility reports, sadly.

I will test it again tonight. AS2012 has good visibility engine, 10-20km at surface, then will gradually go up to 100km at 30000 feet, just the way I like it. I know that OPUS has best low visibility engine, but I'm confused why it didn't injected visibility parameters at all?

Does OPUS have visibility smoothing at all?

 

Since I'm flying mostly an airliners, how OPUS will behave? I saw few options for winds aloft, and I know that I must enter a destination ICAO, but I want to know how OPUS will work comparing to AS2012, which is quite good, but very hard on the system and it has very slow weather downloading and injecting.

 

Thanks in advance!

The visibility layering in Opus is very good indeed. Firstly you should know FSX does not allow for visibility smoothing, it only supports fixed visibility levels and jumps from one level set to the next. You cannot instruct FSX to set just any vis level it simply is not possible. If you try then FSX just selects the nearest set level. Check your weather settings and set all defaults. Make sure you have not ticked the Ignore Reduced Visibility option and set the default vis level, or better still let Opus set it for you by clicking on default. You should see it set to either 32km or 48km. The surface vis will then be determined entirely by the METAR reports and the default used when no vis restriction is reported. The Opus LWE intelligently sets multiple coordinated visibility layers up from the surface right across the internal weather map (now covering an area of some 800 by 800 miles), these layers utilise ALL possible graduated levels available within FSX, every single level to give the finest graduation. Just make sure you have not overridden the layering with your options.

 

Stephen

 

P.S. the max visibility used in the LWE is 128km. It is also possible to get a greater improvement between adjacent vis layers at inversion layers.

Thank you for your response.

 

So maybe vis restriction is not reported on EDDM, it is a possibility. I will try VFR once again tonight with default options.

By the way, AS2012 has vis smoothing, I'm quite sure of that. I never saw any sudden change of visibility between layers, the change is smooth as it can be in reality. Also AS2012 has an option to adjust maximum upper level visibility, unit is 1 mile. I tested it, it does change visibility by 1 mile.

FSX can only render certain vis levels and has many small increments at lower vis levels but fewer as you increase the vis. That's a fact, You can only get FSX to render these fixed levels. That's how it works. Make sure you turn off the Ignore option and set a reasonable max vis setting, say 32km (20 miles). The steps between vis layers will depend on many factors including cloud bases across the map, surface visibility, inversion layers, etc. don't expect ultra smooth transitions at higher vis levels they don't exist within FSX, and expect larger increments as you cross inversion layers, that's what its like in the RW.

 

By the way our vis smoothing smooths the surface visibility changes at non METAR weather cells to create a smooth as possible weather map. But you can still only render the 16 possible levels accommodated within the FSX software. If any engine sets 28km vis, FSX renders it as 32km which is one of its fixed levels.

 

Stephen

 

My advice would be to set all defaults first, then tick the Adjust Settings Automatically, Adjust Sim Friendly GRIB, then specify your Destination and intended Max Cruise Altitude. The LWE will then set all the options for you except the Cloud Smoothing, which is up to the individual. Also get into the habit of using the Opus Weatger Reports which will provide a wealth of information and provide perfect long range ATIS. For up to 400 miles away if you are running the latest Beta 2.94.x.

 

Stephen

 

P.S. At low vis levels the level increment can be quite small. As I said there are many small increments at the low vis levels but once you reach 8km they increase more rapidly in larger jumps. 16km, 32km, 48km, 64km, 80km, 96km, and finally 128km.

Thanks for an explanation, appreciated.

 

Yes, I didn't enabled ignore reduced visibility and max surface vis is set to 32km.

I also noticed that maximum visibility is reached at ~10 000 feet, which is quite lower than in reality I think.

Unless the LWE has reduced the max vis target due to conditions, It is normally achieved at much higher altitudes FL280 or more. But if the limit is enforced then you can achieve max vis at lower altitudes, normally around 18000 feet. It is also possible for an intermediate vis layer to extend quite high before the full max is achieved. But the LWE may not allow the full 128km in certain circumstances, at any altitude. The vis layering and maximums are not fixed and depend on many factors based on the general weather patterns over the entire map area. I am not going to go into it too deeply though but it is possible for the LWE to reduce the upper layer to much less than 128.

 

Stephen

 

P.S. I have a few thousand hours spent touring around Europe flying under 12000 feet in the RW and have encountered just about every visibility scenario you can imagine, including the occasional gin clear vis at much lower altitudes, and many times with exceptional vis below 10000 feet.

 

Under most circumstances you will find the LWE sets the max vis layer at altitudes higher than 14000 feet, but on occasions when the max vis is limited by the conditions there will not be that many allowed layers left available for FSX to render so the upper vis layer may commence at a lower altitude level. But just about all conditions are possible in the RW, ranging from very good to very poor vis. Inversion layers can also trap the poor vis in the lower atmospheric level leaving pretty good to even exceptional vis at higher all levels. One thing should be noted though, is FSXs inability to render any lower vis layers below it, the vertical visibility rendering is very limited.

I have just flown from EDDM specifying my Cruise Altitude as 8000 feet. In the current poor conditions the LWE reduced the upper visibility limit to just 80km (50 miles) with visibility layers at approximately 10000, 19000, and 29000 feet. Giving 48km (30 mile) vis at about FL100, 64km (40 mile) vis at FL190, and 80km vis at about FL290. This was using a Default Surface Visibility of 32km (20 miles). Reduced Max Upper Vis Limit and Ignore Reduced Surface Vis options unticked.

 

Stephen

Will check it again now, thanks.

Hi

 

If you wish to take part in testing then please download and install the latest 2.93.x beta and read the Announcements topic in our official SimForum support forum for details of the current beta dev cycle. You will also find details of the procedure for reporting any suspected weather anomalies on our support forum, these procedures allow us to recreate the same or similar weather.

 

Stephen :-)