If you try the latest beta then you should find wind shifts and cloud popping are reduced to a minimum or eliminated completely.

 

Disabling the weather for long periods is not recommended since this will in itself cause wind shifts because FSX will not be able to meet its targets.

 

We also have plans to introduce dynamic wind targets which will coax FSX in the right direction. The new high res targets option will double the resolution of the upper wind targets when the Sim Friendly option is enabled, thus employing the same high res wind targets you get with raw GRIB forecast data.

 

Cheryl

It's also documented in the FSX/ESP SDK (SetModeTheme).

At the risk of repeating myself we were the first developer to use weather themes for producing DYNAMIC live weather, a feature that is not documented. We all know STATIC weather themes have been around for a long time. REX copied our weather injection method and AS declared at that time they would never use this method of weather injection, which they now have...

 

Anyway developers copy one another, nothing much can be done to prevent that and besides it is good for the industry. We are just pointing out that Opus are the innovators of DYNAMIC weather themes.

 

Cheryl

We have never used AS so I wouldn't say we have copied their ideas, I've not seen their visual mapping whatever that is, is it updated dynamically and does it provide all the options we have for either a large or small footprint maps with Surface QNH, Surface Winds, Surface Visibility, Surface Temperature, Precipitation Levels, Low Cloud Cover, Cruise Level Wind, Cruise Level Temperature and Met Station Cover?

NOAA GRIB data is the only reliable upper wind forecast data and historic data is provided by NOAA too so naturally we implemented them.

Anyway I don't see the point of all this futile arguing, time would be better spent sim flying!

Cheryl :smile:

I think what OPUS is saying is not that they pioneered weather themes. It's that they pioneered weather themes that were used DYNAMICALLY. I don't think anyone is really saying that before OPUS came along that weather themes weren't used or developed in FS.

Disabling the weather for long periods is not recommended since this will in itself cause wind shifts because FSX will not be able to meet its targets.

Yeah, I know. But, at least this way, I get controlled cloud popping and wind shifts that happen at times in my flight when I don't care as much(TOC and TOD). I pay the most attention during climb and descent to the weather and scenery around me. So, if I disable updates during these times, I see no cloud popping or wind shifts during these important phases for me.

 

I don't really care if the real METAR report changed from 140/12 with OVC0800 to 154/10 and OVC0900 in the final 10 minutes of my flight. I don't want to know about that because it detracts from the realism when the clouds and winds have to be injected and cause the popping and shifts. In real life, the weather wouldn't just suddenly change based on a METAR report. It would evolve on its own and to me, that's more realistic - even if it's off from the actual latest METAR.

Anyway I don't see the point of all this futile arguing, time would be better spent sim flying!

And, couldn't agree more with this statement. I said it a couple posts ago, as a customer, I really don't care who came up with what first. You guys invented Dynamic Weather Themes. Great! But, guess what? Someone else has come along and expanded on that idea and took that idea to the next level.

 

For me, I just want a weather engine that's going to do the things that I look for a weather engine to do. Tomorrow there could be a new developer that comes along and more or less "copies" and improves upon all Opus, ASN, FSGRW and REX's ideas and bakes it into one ultimate product that solves once and for all, EVERYTHING! I'll be buying it no matter how little or how much of it was originally their idea in the first place. It's how technology evolves and gets better.