Opus weather was in Historic Mode

[HighTowers 1,434]

Opus weather has always been spot on for me, but last few days its been sketchy. Yesterday I couldnt climb past 20k because the temperature was +59! Its usually pretty darn close

 

Today my METARs are off. Been to places with low overcast and im getting scatterd cloud at best. When its OC Opus does a great job of a thick OC. Version is 3.02.1

 

I know its not FSX. I loaded up another weather engine yesterday when I had the screwy temps and it popped back to normal. 

 

Perhaps the weather servers are not communicating properly? Anyone else getting this?

 

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

YAH I think I have seen this also hmmm

[Opus Software 84]

The LWE cannot control the ambient temps, nothing can, it can only set targets that FSX has to follow. Your targets are listed in the Opus weather report windows and the OpusWeatherReport.txt file. Nothing has changed in the beta to affect those but you should refer to the reports and list them and the METARs as described in our SimForums if you think you have a weather anomaly.

 

Never start or restart Opus after the flight has started as this may cause FSX to ignore the targets. Other Addons can also interfere with FSX and prevent adherence to the targets. But without any supporting information such as the reports and METARs there is nothing more that can be done other than reassure you that nothing has changed in the software to affect the weather.

 

Did you specify your destination ICAO code and intended cruise altitude ?

Did you check the Opus Local, Lower, and Upper reports before flight to ensure all weather was loaded included expected ambient upper wind and temp targets ?

 

You should get into the habit of checking these and the destination weather report before and during flight to monitor the situation, both the ambient targets being set and the sims current ambient conditions (how well its following and matching the targets). Also since nothing has really changed in the software you should ask what had changed during the flight, did you have any upper weather data, was there a problem with GRIB, were the METARs loading from NOAA OK or were they out of date METARs from the VATSIM server etc. you will find the day and time codes for the METARs also shown on the Opus weather reports.

 

Stephen

 

High ambient temps (SATs and TATs) is a notorious problem in FSX when it fails to meet its targeted upper temps. As I said above, no software can control these, only set targets for FSX to follow. Use the recommended Adjust Settings Automatically and Adjust Sim Friendly options and always specify your destination and cruise altitude. You need a cruise alt of at least 6000 feet before GRIB data is loaded and used. Also use and monitor the Opus weather reports, that's what they are for amoungst other things, and please provide DATA as requested in the SimForums (Reporting Weather Anomalies), so instead of taking your word for what you believe should have been the weather we can actually see the METARs the LWE was working with !

 

Stephen

[HighTowers 1,434]

 

 

so instead of taking your word for what you believe should have been the weather we can actually see the METARs the LWE was working with !

 

No need to get all huffy about it. There is no just believing when you compare a METAR. Guess I'll start taking pictures with the METAR report from OPUS.  Just that when it says overcast, it should be overcast and not a few scattered clouds.  Now normally this is not the case as it does a great job in providing exactly that usually. Been running OPUS for about 1/2 year now and its always been pretty darn good which is why I thought it unusual to behave like this. The winds were correct on the metars however. 

 

As for the temperature, its seems to have been resolved. The reason I questioned an issue reading weather from the servers is these combo of things happen that are not normal. My temperatures are not a problem any more and you have done a great job to try and keep them accurate. Just that one day all day any flight, the temps were extremely high. 

 

Yes the destination ICAO is entered all weather is checked for upper and lower. I actually look forward to the enroute flight plan being implemented so we can get the avg winds to expect aloft. 

[Jarkko 59]

Hello Dave,

 

Could you tell what were your origin, destination and cruise altitude.

 

If you happen to remember the location along your route (and the altitude) where this happened, these might also help.

 

Why am I asking? I once had a similar situation. I took of an airport that was high up (at 6000ft IIRC) and took off into an area, where there were no weather stations near by.

 

This caused a similar situation to the one you mentioned. This was already fixed and hasn't happened to me since.

 

Does this sound anything like your flight?

[HighTowers 1,434]

Hello Dave,

 

Could you tell what were your origin, destination and cruise altitude.

 

If you happen to remember the location along your route (and the altitude) where this happened, these might also help.

 

Why am I asking? I once had a similar situation. I took of an airport that was high up (at 6000ft IIRC) and took off into an area, where there were no weather stations near by.

 

This caused a similar situation to the one you mentioned. This was already fixed and hasn't happened to me since.

 

Does this sound anything like your flight?

Last flight was SEA - JFK.  Winds and temps are fine. The weather at destination reported by opus was off from real world metar and I was flying real time. So when I landed, I started hopping around to see if it was just JFK. To my surprise I was getting different sky conditions then what was reported. Particularly the overcast conditions which turned out to be scattered or broken clouds. This was after letting it settle a bit and then reloading the weather a couple times. 

 

I have to emphasize again that this is not normal for opus. Its usually spot on which is why I brought i up asking if anyone else was getting it. So I closed it all down and restarted and I got the same things. 

Ive played around with some options but none are making a difference. Just thought its not reading the metar properly for whatever reason. Havnt tried today. 

[HighTowers 1,434]

Finally got around to taking some pictures. Hopped around the continent where there is supposed to be weather. Pictures are taken after settling for a few minutes and updating live dynamic weather again.   My Opus weather used to be pretty darn close, but recently its not. So either I have to redo it altogether, or other people are having this and its reading weather improperly. On these ones it should be overcast, and clearly its not. 

Also when flying, if there does happen to be overcast and raining, and I fly thru and out of it to clear blue sky , its still raining from above with no clouds above me. I will get around to posting this in the simflight forum as well for the weather anomalies reports or whatever you have to do. 

 

 

[russianspd 10]

If you notice on the OPUS reports window it says HISTORIC at the very top. This means any weather you use isn't live weather and is archived. I think you must have ticked Historic weather by accident. How far back your weather is I don't know. I think Stephen made it so you could go back up to 36 hours.

 

User error.

[HighTowers 1,434]

If you notice on the OPUS reports window it says HISTORIC at the very top. This means any weather you use isn't live weather and is archived. I think you must have ticked Historic weather by accident. How far back your weather is I don't know. I think Stephen made it so you could go back up to 36 hours.

 

User error.

What does historic have to do with accuracy. The time was back 2 hours from my local time. Whether its exact local time to the airport or going back a few hours still has relevant weather data. If the METAR shows overcast then its overcast, be it 24 hours ago or present. 

[russianspd 10]

Depends. Do you want the accuracy of what the weather is now or the accuracy of what the weather X amount of hours ago was? From your pictures OPUS is using weather that is not in sync with CURRENT time. And your orgiginal gripe was that your METARS weren't matching up to the real world. But in your last post you claim that whether or not historic weather is on or off that the weather doesn't change much and should be the same up to 24 hours.

 

I'll let someone else answer this..........

[Opus Software 84]

Obviously for it to look overcast at 22,000 feet and fill the sky it would have to be solid overcast over an area of about 100 miles in every direction for you to see that above you. The weather report is showing the weather in a single 10 mile cell, the weather may be overcast in that cell but it doesn't mean adjacent cells would also be overcast. You would have to examine the weather in the surrounding 100 weather cells to get an overall picture of what the cloud cover at 20,000 feet would look like from your vantage point.

 

A low overcast at 2,000 or 5,000 feet would nearly fill the sky in all directions but even then you may have to examie all the weather cells in a 20 to 30 mile radius to get the true picture.

 

You should also note an overcast means 90% or more cloud coverage.

 

Stephen

[Opus Software 84]

 

 

its still raining from above with no clouds above me

 

FSX has never correctly related the position of the cloud textures with the depiction of rain. It is just one of those FSX bugs that won't get fixed.

[xsever 0]

HighTowers,

 

I have been noticing the same lately! The metar matches 100% with VATSIM for the departure airport, but does not for the destination airport.

 

As you will see from the screenshots, OPUSFSX Spy window shows the correct metar data for CYZF (Yellowknife) and I crossed checked it with NavCanada as I am a pilot in real life too.

 

For some reason, OPUS isn't forcing the winds update in FSX as you can see in the second screenshots. The winds are totally off. The altimeter, the temperature, and the conditions are correct however. 

 

However, I can see OPUS updating the clouds and the presssure and all that but not the winds at the destination. They have been off for the past couple of weeks.

 

Let me know how I can be of further help.

 

Thank you,

 

 

[Opus Software 84]

You cannot force anything in FSX, just inject the weather and FSX does the rest. I have changed the Destination and Alternate weather refreshes and update procedures in the next beta to try and coax FSX into showing correct weather at the Destination from a greater distance. But its mostly down to FSX. Of course the LWE updates ALL the weather, not just this bit or that bit, you can't do otherwise in FSX. But FSX is limited as to how accurately it stores weather at greater distances, due to being a memory limited 32-bit program where most memory is given over to displays.

 

Also don't get confused in pre 3.03.4 versions by the wind stabilisation. Until the stabilised winds are recovered, the stabilised or Static wind must be injected into FSX to stop it going into melt down. Beta version 3.03.4 tries to work around this. Beta 3.03.5 goes even further and will be posted soon. But it is never a case of just telling FSX what the surface wind is at a station 100 miles away and FSX obeys, it really obeys due to its inability to store accurate weather over great distances.

 

Always make sure you specify your Destination, the LWE cannot do anything for you if you don't, and please stop thinking FSX is completely faultless, a perfect piece of software that can store the exact weather Opus, or any other Wx engine, injects over great distances. The LWE has to work very hard to ensure you have correct surface winds at your Destination, and it always injects ALL the weather without fail.

 

Try beta 3.03.5 when it is posted and use the Opus weather reports. They always show you the exact weather that has been injected into FSX, and if you are using previous versions, remember the effect of using Stabilised surface winds, that's why the 'Static XXX/XX XXC' message is displayed in the report windows, to remind you that stabilised winds are in use. You will find the latest betas are trying hard to coax FSX as much as possible with regard to surface winds.

 

Stephen

[xsever 0]

You cannot force anything in FSX, just inject the weather and FSX does the rest. I have changed the Destination and Alternate weather refreshes and update procedures in the next beta to try and coax FSX into showing correct weather at the Destination from a greater distance. But its mostly down to FSX. Of course the LWE updates ALL the weather, not just this bit or that bit, you can't do otherwise in FSX. But FSX is limited as to how accurately it stores weather at greater distances, due to being a memory limited 32-bit program where most memory is given over to displays.

 

Also don't get confused in pre 3.03.4 versions by the wind stabilisation. Until the stabilised winds are recovered, the stabilised or Static wind must be injected into FSX to stop it going into melt down. Beta version 3.03.4 tries to work around this. Beta 3.03.5 goes even further and will be posted soon. But it is never a case of just telling FSX what the surface wind is at a station 100 miles away and FSX obeys, it really obeys due to its inability to store accurate weather over great distances.

 

Always make sure you specify your Destination, the LWE cannot do anything for you if you don't, and please stop thinking FSX is completely faultless, a perfect piece of software that can store the exact weather Opus, or any other Wx engine, injects over great distances. The LWE has to work very hard to ensure you have correct surface winds at your Destination, and it always injects ALL the weather without fail.

 

Try beta 3.03.5 when it is posted and use the Opus weather reports. They always show you the exact weather that has been injected into FSX, and if you are using previous versions, remember the effect of using Stabilised surface winds, that's why the 'Static XXX/XX XXC' message is displayed in the report windows, to remind you that stabilised winds are in use. You will find the latest betas are trying hard to coax FSX as much as possible with regard to surface winds.

 

Stephen

 

 

Thank you for the great explanation Stephen. I will proceed based on your input.

 

However, I am very aware that FSX is not faultless (no joke ). The only reason I brought this up is because for the back couple of months, OPUS had been 100% PERFECT! Winds at destination ALWAYS matched. Only lately things started deviating and here I am giving feedback.

 

Thanks again for your help and looking forward to the new version.