Accurate FSX Destination Weather Up To 240km Away !

[Opus Software 84]

Thank you for the kind comments.

 

Stephen :-)

[Opus Software 84]

OpusFSX Beta Version 3.03.6 is now available for download on our website.

 

We have corrected a problem with the Destination weather checks. The previous beta 3.03.5 posting would update the weather every 16km unless the Spy window was open, sorry about that.

[jordanal 70]

I played around with 3.03.4 just the other day and was impressed.  Now with extended destination surface updates, this is going to have a tremendous positive affect on Radar Contact approach decisions as well as cease all those head-on AI conflicts on final.

 

Excellent work Stephen et al,

[Opus Software 84]

To save you going to SimForums I thought you might be interested in seeing the Announcements for the next beta posting. Feel free to participate in the Beta Dev Cycles. We will be posting Release Version 3.1 soon and then immediately starting the next phase of the Flight Planning Assistant - generating the OpusFlightReport.txt file and hopefully adding an Opus En Route Weather Summary for display on the FSX screen. :good:

 

OpusFSX Beta Version 3.04.0 is now available for download on our website.

 

Remember when installing the OpusFSX_v304_Beta.msi file you must uninstall your current version before installing the new version (do not delete your previous \OpusFSX installation folder).

 

After installing please check all the settings in your Configure and Weather dialogues. You can download from http://www.opussoftw...i/downloads.htm

 

The user specified flight plan is now saved on program exit and initialised on program start up. The Flight Plan Options dialog has been changed to include 'Process the Flight Plan' and 'Done' button options. The Process option will decode the current flight plan string in the Flight Plan text box and display the result in the Identified Navigation Points box. Press Done or close the dialog when finished. Two letter country codes have been appended to the navigation aids and waypoints, where they exist, within the navigation points list.

 

To delete a flight plan simply open the Flight Plan Options dialog, delete the flight plan text and press the Process button.

 

I have corrected a problem decoding flight plans containing duplicate navigation aids and waypoints, previous beta would not delete the duplicate under certain circumstances.

 

The default 'Adjust Options Automatically' option combined with 'Use Maximum Stabilisation' option no longer alters the 'Stabilised GRIB Data' option within the Weather Download Options dialog. The 'Stabilised GRIB Data' option which prevents the upper winds from changing during the flight must now be set manually by the user. The recommended setting is OFF.

 

Regards

Stephen :biggrin:

 

[captain420 3,099]

Just curious, when starting up fsx, do we have to go into weather and specifically choose opus weather each and everytime or does opus automatically inject weather as long as the opus server is running?

[Opus Software 84]

Opus will automatically download, generate and inject the weather as soon as it knows where you are located on the globe. There is an option in the Weather dialog to 'Disable Weather Update on Startup' which does just what it says and allows you to specify your flight plan, destination, cruise altitude etc. then press Update Weather when ready. But you can do this in the dialogs before running FSX, its all up to you. But you do not have to choose Opus weather each time you want it to load, everything is automatic.

 

Stephen :smile:

[jordanal 70]

Stephen,

I haven't tried this version yet (will this weekend), but have you thought about adding a 'Browse' button whereby we could navigate to the FSX flightplans and just parse it rather than manually pasting the route-string?  Since many of us use FSBuild (or similar) to export flightplans to many other addons, including FSX, it becomes very easy to just import the FSX plans.  This is the current meathodology for FlightSim Flightkeeper (FSFK), Radar Contact (RC), ActiveSky, and so on.  I know FSBuild exports plans in both the original FS2004 lat/long style, and the newer FSX xml style format.

 

Just food for thought. 

 

[Moments Later} another more seamless option might be, if a FSX FP is already loaded while setting up the session in the Free Flight screen, Opus could read the FP directly from FS session in memory.  Basically have Opus parse the active flighplan in FS when it starts?

 

More food for thought...   Desert perhaps...  

[Opus Software 84]

Hi Al

 

Good thought indeed. Yes, we already have plans to add methods to import flight plans from various sources. This will all be part of a near future beta dev cycle and guided by the users who have already voiced some suggestions along the same lines. :-)

 

Stephen

[X_Man 8]

Stephen This is very cool!

 

My only issue with weather injection during long hauls is with MY PMDG at x4 I get massive jolts that of course my virtual passengers do not like. I never had this issue with REX2 (still like Opus better...). Is there away to make the injection smoother at X4 acceleration.

[Opus Software 84]

The 4x time acceleration is really asking a lot. FSX needs time to adjust its ambient conditions and correct its own erroneous wind calculation resulting from the infamous bugs. Once again for those who do not know, these bigs only come into effect when you ask FSX to depict varied and detailed real world weather. Use global METAR injection and all is well because the weather is the same everywhere and unchanging so no new calculations are needed since nothing is changing, of course this is totally unrealistic. But Opus injects RW weather, that allows you to see the RW weather patterns, weather fronts, fly around, through, and even back through the same RW weather. The 4x acceleration will be really putting a strain on FSX during weather updates.

 

My advice would be to download and install the latest 3.04.2 beta (includes a correction to a weather anomaly). Set all defaults or even reduce the updates by changing the update frequency time and distance. Set the Adjust Options Automatically and Adjust Sim Friendly GRIB Data options. For your system you will have to set the Use a maximum Stabilisation option (this no longer Stabilises the GRIB data in the current beta). Then try that, you might be able to get away with x2 or even x4 it depends on your system and what other Addons you have making demands on FSX. FSX will either cope or not.

 

Hope that helps. Note, its nothing to do with the smoothness of the weather injected. Any changes to the weather, especially surface conditions, will result in FSX recalculating its ambient conditions. That is the wind speed and direction surrounding your aircraft. These parameters are not controlled by any Wx engine, only targets set at various altitudes. It is FSX that calculates all the ambients, including the totally calculated TAT.

 

If you are going to accelerate time perhaps you could try setting the update rate time and distance to their maximums. Or even disable the weather updates and decide yourself when you want to update the weather. You could revert back to x1 for that or just accept the likely wind shift by FSX until it settles down.

 

I may look and see if I can read the current time accel rate and perhaps automatically set it back to x1, update the weather, then set it back to what it was previously. Depends on what monitoring and control is available in SimConnect.

 

Stephen

[captain420 3,099]

Is the weather suppose to make the plane jitter everytime it updates? It's not smooth for some reason. I am using the 737 NGX and whenever the weather goes to update, it shakes the plane for a bit and the new clouds or weather patterns seem to just pop up rather than slowly change or transition. 

[Opus Software 84]

If you are flying with the sim rate speeded up, especially above x2 then it is possible to get wind shifts.

If FSX is struggling to cope due to the number of add-on packages, detailed scenery, high defintion high resolution cloud textures (we recommend non HD low resolution textures) etc then wind shifts are more likely.

 

The easiest configuration is to set your Destination, Max Cruise Altitude and enable Adjust Options Automatically. If your system has wind shifts enable the Adjust Sim Friendly Options, if your system has severe wind shifts then enable the Use Maximum Stabilisation option too.

 

If, and only if, your system still experiences 'major' wind shifts during the cruise then you can also set the Stabilised GRIB Data option, but most systems will not need this option. It is included for the few that do. Long haul flyers experiencing severe wind shifts should also set the update frequency to 1440 minutes and 480km and select the Dynamic Weather Theme size (Weather dialog) to Maximum Size to minimise weather updates.

 

PMDG 737 NGX Problems

 

Problems with "S" turns, auto pilot disconnects, wind shear alerts at cruise altitude and severe wind shifts may be caused by corrupted OPTIONS.INI files (not the 737ngxoptions.ini) in the \Flight Simulator X\PMDG\PMDG 737 NGX\Aircraft folder. It affects SimConnect, which also affects other addons that use SimConnect. The options.ini files contain configuration settings for the NGX, the info that you set up in the CDU. When downloading a new livery, it would be good practice to delete the options.ini file, and create a new one via the CDU.

 

Cheryl

Try the above with the new beta version 3.04.2 (Release Version 3.1 coming soon). This beta does not alter the Stabilised GRIB Data option. This option has to be controlled manually now since it will stabilise or freeze the GRIB upper wind and temp data during your flight. It is the changes in weather that prompt FSX to recalculate its ambient conditions and as a result on some systems generate wind shifts from the erroneous wind calculations within FSX (the wind shift bugs - only occur at higher altitudes when the weather conditions, especially surface conditions change).

Stephen

[captain420 3,099]

Thanks for that info. I will give that a try!

 

Sorry to ask but I can't seem to find those options anywhere. I am looking under the Opus menus for them.

[Opus Software 84]

The Destination, Max Cruise Altitude, Adjust Options Automatically, Adjust Sim Friendly Options, Use Maximum Stabilisation and Dynamic Weather Theme size are in the Weather dialog.

 

The Stabilised GRIB Data option is in the Weather Download options (a button in the Weather dialog).

 

You can also set Cloud Smoothing in the Smoothing and Stabilisation options (a button in the Weather dialog).

 

Cheryl

Also see our SimForums sticky topics, they might explain a few things about clouds and wind shifts in FSX.

Stephen

[X_Man 8]

Thank you for the response Stephen - excellent customer support!