FS9 version of FS Global Real Weather released.

[Appliance 51]

Version 1.7 of this weather program was released yesterday and now supports FS2004.

 

After downloading and trying the evaluation program I have ended up purchasing.

 

First impressions are positive, obviously, however much testing remains before I will say whether it surpasses AS 6.5 let alone anything else. :rolleyes:

[WingZ 547]

Be interested to hear... I've just splashed out on ASE, and the jury's still out.

[geoffco 0]

Version 1.7 of this weather program was released yesterday and now supports FS2004.

 

After downloading and trying the evaluation program I have ended up purchasing.

 

First impressions are positive, obviously, however much testing remains before I will say whether it surpasses AS 6.5 let alone anything else. :rolleyes:

 

 

Very interesting add-on... I have had a quick play with the evaluation version and I have seen good points and bad points...

 

Good:

• Weather depiction of clouds, temperature and wind seem to be very good. It is ahead of ASE here I think.
• Clouds are displayed nicely 'into the distance' and I didn't see any 'popping'.
• Interface is simple and I was able to get it working on my two-machine wideFS setup really quickly.

 

Bad:

• Visibility switch on climb is very sharp, and at higher altitudes there is no vis smoothing. I can do this from FSUIPC though.
• The basic sky texture that the program came with looked very good at low altitude, but it is just too washed out and light at higher alts. From the product site screenshots I was hoping that there would be a nice transition with altitude to the sky colour, but perhaps that is an FSX thing or they did their screenshots with different sky textures...
• Also, I don't like that they installed a sky texture in setup without saying so (or did I just miss it?)
• I might miss a couple of options available in ASE, namely the visibility and icing options and also the wake turbulence effect (this was pretty good, but only when turned down quite low).

 

I think this could be a 'winner' once I've set the visibility to work better with FSUIPC and found a good 'all round' sky theme in REX. I have a feeling that using REX 'WX influenced' could sets and this WX engine could yield really nice results...

 

PS. Any users, what more does one get when the product is registered? Assume you just get the ability to refresh the weather every 5 mins...

 

Geoff

[Appliance 51]

Geoff in general I agree with most of your observations after I have flown just a couple of flights.

 

I would reinforce their manual instructions to turn off all wind and cloud options in FSUIPC.

 

Frankly I did not notice the injection (by steath) of any texture file however I have installed Rex clouds and sky textures since FS Global Real Weather was installed.

 

From perusal of the feature list it would appear icing is included, a non-optional inclusion, as in real life.

 

Wake turbulence has not been mentioned AFAIK and certainly I have not experienced it yet. Quite possibly (?) the trade off is the increasing inclusion of specific weather phenomena ... see video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=W08vvkI1caA

 

One important thing, to me at least, is that the updating of weather (said by the developers to occur at approx 5 minute intervals has largely gone unnoticed.

 

I'll add further observations once more experience gained.

 

Forgot to point out I have absolutely NO involvement with Pilots, nor the developer, other than as an interested customer.

Edited May 22, 2013 by Appliance

[geoffco 0]

I wrote to the developer about the wake turbulence idea and they seemed keen to have a look at the idea. Also, they are looking for solutions to the rapid visibility change...

 

One other thing I have noticed is that the clouds are static - ie they do not move at all, regardless of the wind conditions... I would prefer them to move, but I guess this is the secret behind the seamless updates!

 

As for the icing, unlike in real life, some developers have failed to equip their aircraft with fully working anti-ice and pitot heaters... I'll just have to be careful about that (as in real life)

 

Geoff

[geoffco 0]

A small update about the clouds not moving: I have discovered why this is happening and it is really odd: For each cloud layer, there is a 'slice' of air where the wind is set to zero. This surely is a bug, and it causes some nasty spikes in airspeed - not cool if the autopilot is in a 'pitch to hold aispeed' mode!

 

Appliance, do you see the same or is my sim doing strange stuff (always worth checking)?

 

Geoff

[Appliance 51]

 Geoff I have not flown since update build 002 was released yesterday.

 

Intrigued with your observations I downloaded weather relating to KTCC Tocumcari since it was one of several airports identified by the FILTER as having wind gusts to 40 knots.

 

Default Cessna, 11.15 am local sim time. After weather transfer, rain and lowest level of cloud base definitely moving at 22 kts. Second and third layers appeared stationery even though wind in sim was said to be 17 kts and 27 kts . Odd.

 

To summarise: Sim is reacting appropriately to predicted winds at all levels however clouds only move at lowest level/layer.

 

More investigation required.

[Appliance 51]

Further ...

 

Same location. This time Dynamic weather downloaded. One cloud layer only (few, 300 feet), visibility 3.2 miles, wind 160/24-39 kts.

 

Slewed up. Noticed at around 4,600 ft 0 kts in a 100 ft band with variable speed winds 250 feet either side from otherwise steady at 22 kts. 

 

Interesting ...

[kiwiflyer45 123]

It seems to me that this could be a significant enhancement to FS9.5, and the fact that it is apparently being actively supported makes it even more appealing.... Has anyone else been using it and have observations? My credit card is quivering in anticipation....

Cheers

Ian

[BerndPodhradsky 5]

Hi everyone!

 

As I am developer of the tool, let me just add a few things:

 

.) Clouds moving with the wind will be back in Build #003, it was accidentally "deleted" in one of the last updates.

.) Icing is included and is calculated from real weather data sources (as is Clear Air Turbulence, Cloud Turbulence etc).

.) Many local weather effects will be added - if you have suggestions, please drop a note to fsgrw@fly2pilots.com

.) Visibility smoothing for FS9 will be introduced in either Build #003 or the update thereafter; in fact I'm working on it in this very moment .

 

I have just created a support forum (in English as well as for german speaking users) at http://fsgrw.freeforums.org.

 

Thank you for all the feedback and if you experience some issues or have other questions or suggestions feel free to contact me (fsgrw@fly2pilots.com or the support forum) .

 

Bernd

[Appliance 51]

Thank you Bernd and welcome to the AVSIM forums.

 

Truth be told I was drawn to purchase your program since it was obvious you supported it very well under FSX and I assumed you would do likewise in FS9.

 

See you in your support forum.

[Appliance 51]

Build 003 has been released and, as foreshadowed by Bernd, cures the lack of moving clouds. Several other fixes have been introduced however the major remaining disadvantage, visibility smoothing, will apparently have to wait for future updates.

 

By the way a slider has been introduced which allows one to choose between accurate weather depiction or something lesser which may nevertheless appeal to those seeking a more 'beautiful' result.

 

I'm of a mind that this program will be' the go' about the same time as PFPX is released. The flight across the Atlantic by PMDG MD11 or 747, Level D 767, PSS 777 or AirSimmer A320 will be as realistic as the state-of-the-art allows in FS9.

[psolk 3,048]

Make sure you don't miss this!

 

Crossgrade Offer for users of ASE and FS 2004

If you own ASE (or any other FS 2004 compatible payware weather engine) purchased before May 19th 2013, you can crossgrade to FS Global Real Weather for just EUR 29,99 (save EUR 10,00)! E-Mail the invoice / receipt of ASE to crossASE@fly2pilots.com and you will get a personal coupon code to be used during the purchase of FS Global Real Weather via return email. You should get this code very quickly, but definitely within 12 hours. Please also check your spam folders! Offer good until June 5th 2013.

Note: You will - of course - keep the license for ASE and be able to continue to use it (ie. using texture packages with FS Global Real Weather).

[MeneMene 1]

1) Does this offer historical/past weather, as in activesky, or is it limited to real-time?

2) Does this offer wind/temp forecasts given a flight plan?

 

Looks really tempting if these two are true...

 

thanks

[Appliance 51]

 

 

1) Does this offer historical/past weather, as in activesky, or is it limited to real-time?
2) Does this offer wind/temp forecasts given a flight plan?

 

1. Qualified yes. At the moment their servers will keep historical data for several days only. Of course you have the option to download and save weather files to your storage solution. This can be loaded at any time of your choosing in the future.

 

2. Yes. The program contains its own (basic) flight planner however it also allows importation of flight plans too.

 

Dynamic weather is a facility whereby you fly ... it follows and downloads appropriate weather from nearest stations. You can jump to another location in another country and correct weather will be downloaded.

 

Note: An option also exists which will reset (restart) AI traffic so that they will then use the correct runways given the latest weather conditions. Neat.

 

Why not download the free evaluation program and try it for yourself?