Ok, thanks for the heads up.

 

Just like you having 'true" turbulence that will affect your flight path in combination with the local weather effects at certain airports are the major things that could have me go with this engine instead of Opus.

 

Let's hope then these issues you mention will be quickly sorted.

Would have been interesting to have Bernd comment on this, especially the absence of dynamic weather updates and the weather being about an hour old.

Maximus...you might want to wait until the next update comes out. Right now FSGRW's auto updates are not working porperly (my weather tends to be static and does not automatically update on its own). You can manually update of course.

 

Another issue to consider is that the weather data it's using seems to always be at least an hour or more old.

 

The only reason to NOT use Opus is IF you want turbulence in your weather which will effect your plane (which opus does not provide). It's the only reason I've stopped using Opus for now. Flying without any turbulence, especially light turb, is just not realistic in my neck of the woods.

 

FSGRW has the turb, but its also got a few issues right now which hopefully Bernd will be able to get figured out soon.

I hope Bernd can reply directly, but this question has been asked before in other forums.

 

The METAR and wx servers that feed all known weather engines don't update every 5 minutes or 15 minutes, it is usually 30 minutes to one hour (someone correct me if I am wrong, but I was advised of this when tweaking my AS2012 settings and it makes sense).

 

FSGRW loads all that weather into its own server, applies what Bernd calls the largest amount of GRIB data available at this moment, and then injects the picture to the simulator. This process takes a while. I noticed that it could be 5 minutes until the weather update process completes, but I got no wind shifts, no cloud popping, nothing to actually say it had happened. All I noticed was that the time of the metar changed, and it just says what date and time stamp the metar data currently is as used on the server.

 

It was really hard for me to see that the weather had changed dynamically, because of this factor....no major visual changes, everything is done slowly and smoothly. Very interesting indeed.

That is very interesting indeed, thanks for sharing your exprience!

 

What you say here might indicate there is no problem with the dynamic updates nor the age of the data only that everything happens so smoothly you won't notice it....really cool!

 

I read everything there is to read about FSGRW over at the FSGRW site but can't remember I read anything specific about this so would be very nice if the developer (Bernd) could shed some light on this.

One of the things I changed to ensure that my arrival metar is updated was to decrease the distance radius I the settings... I guess that the default value is 140nm to sort the AI well so they're not landing in the opposite runways, but as I don't use AI I decreased that distance to something like 80 or 90nm.

I do a specific 145nm flight often and with the default configuration I could see that the weather was not updating the arrival, but now I don't have that issue anymore! :-)

 

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk 2

 

 

 

 

As 90% of my flights are airline flights Opus didn't seem to be for me.

May I ask why?

One of the things I changed to ensure that my arrival metar is updated was to decrease the distance radius I the settings... I guess that the default value is 140nm to sort the AI well so they're not landing in the opposite runways, but as I don't use AI I decreased that distance to something like 80 or 90nm.

I do a specific 145nm flight often and with the default configuration I could see that the weather was not updating the arrival, but now I don't have that issue anymore! :-)

 

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk 2

 

That's a great tip, thanks for sharing!

 

I'll keep that in mind should I decide to buy FS Global Real Weather.

Quick update for ya guys....auto updates ARE working as long as you set the FSGRW weather distance slider accordingly to how long your flight will be. I had mine set to 120 in FSGRW but I was doing alot of 80-90 mile flights and never got any updates.

 

Today I flew a round trip flight (165nm each way)...and when I returned the metar data had indeed been updated...albeit still about 90 minutes old. It always uses the previous hours data (even though the ATIS and FSGRW UI would have you believe it's the most current, it is NOT) 

The only reason to NOT use Opus is IF you want turbulence in your weather which will effect your plane (which opus does not provide). It's the only reason I've stopped using Opus for now. Flying without any turbulence, especially light turb, is just not realistic in my neck of the woods.

Though opus did this with the bump aircraft option

nope...doesnt have any effect on your aircraft (other than visuals).

 

The Opus guy doesn't seem to know or understand that in moderate to heavy turb a light GA plane can really be thrown around like a leaf on the wind sometimes.

I can only speak as a user of Opus and must admit that I enjoy their camera effects which can't be argued against as a nice bonus for Opus users!

nope...doesnt have any effect on your aircraft (other than visuals).

 

The Opus guy doesn't seem to know or understand that in moderate to heavy turb a light GA plane can really be thrown around like a leaf on the wind sometimes.

Stephen @ Opus is a real world pilot, I think his knowledge of turbulence would exceed yours  by a large margin.

 

Turbulence in Opus is the most realistic in any weather addon I have used, and of course if your settings are not correct, you won't experience it.

Been flying for 13 years here...and an FAA licensed adx for nearly 11...I think I know what turbulence is and how an aircraft reacts to it, please.

 

I will say nothing personal about the author of Opus as I do not know him personally. All I know is that I support his software Opus, and I have used it for almost a year now...it has no turbulence as Ive tested his cam system. If thats what he calls turbulence well then there's nothing more positive I can say about it, sorry.

Hi,

Ideal Flight's Weather Engine creates 3D air currents that affect the flight of the aircraft. Presently IF Weather only works from its own internal offline global weather simulation and does not import TAFs and METARs from weather reports (Real World Weather) although that's on the agenda.

Regards

Steve

How does fsgwr do on a low ceiling approach, is real like Opus, or can you see the runway through the clouds?

 

I think it can, but this is very subjective. Here are a couple of screenshots from the flight I just did.

 

It was from EDDV to EGFF (FSGRW, REX, ...). The enroute weather was forcasted to be cloudy until reaching UK mainland. There were supposed to be patches of "clear skyes" along the way, until reaching EGFF which should be nasty. Overcast at 200ft and limited surface visibility.

 

As this sounded like a challenge for FSX, I decided to take screenshots along the way. I hope you enjoy!

 

#1) Over the ocean:

 

 

#2) TOD:

 

 

#3) Flying through a patch of clear skyes:

 

 

#4) Ugly weather approaching:

 

 

#5) Above the weather, getting ready to flythe approach

 

 

#6) GS captured (in total IMC)

 

 

#7) Almost at MDA (lights ahead!):

 

 

#8) Runway in sight. Landing!

 

Thanks a lot for these great screenshots!

 

Seems like FSGRW depicts low overcast conditions just as good as Opus does.