Right, Rome wasn't built in a day, but I think it's clear that what we need in better weather modeling has to come from Laminar, and not 3rd party add-ons.

 

All it takes is one look at the cloud settings in the X-Plane setup dialog -- programmed as three discrete layers -- to know that we're not going to get realistic Cb's (vertical, huge thunderstorms) without a rewrite of the weather engine. This isn't something you can do with an add-on that makes the clouds look prettier.

 

Question: FSX doesn't do windshear or microbursts I hear.

 

Does Xplane model at least the mechanics of that (not necessarily a weather system/cell)

Parrifin SM models towering thunderstorms in v2 which are tied into precipitation in the x-plane weather dialog.

 

Im at work but ill share an image tonight......

Share the program tonight if you wish too? Visa ready for the upgrade..... B)

Question: FSX doesn't do windshear or microbursts I hear.

 

Does Xplane model at least the mechanics of that (not necessarily a weather system/cell)

I don't know whether stock fsx does, but ASN does. Wake turbulence as well.

 

Good question re whether x-plane is capable.

Question: FSX doesn't do windshear or microbursts I hear.

 

Does Xplane model at least the mechanics of that (not necessarily a weather system/cell)

 

X-Plane models both wind shear and microbursts, although I can't vouch for how realistic it is. Austin tends to go overboard on special effects, and then they're dialed back as the sim develops.

 

Shear is set in the Environment/Weather dialog so it's tied to the current weather (and presumably, available for real-world injection). Microbursts are in the Aircraft/Equipment Failures dialog, so they're either on a timer or random, depending on how failures are set up. Maybe it's intentionally not tied to the weather engine, to allow for freak clear-air bursts?

 

In XPX I often fly with real-world weather enabled in the sim, but I've never turned on microbursts. I occasionally fly FSEconomy jobs, and it would suck to have a long flight end with a microburst crash, just before landing. 

 

Parrifin SM models towering thunderstorms in v2 which are tied into precipitation in the x-plane weather dialog.

 

Im at work but ill share an image tonight......

 

 

I'd like to see what that looks like, thanks!

OK these are a few shots of the clouds during stormy conditions, visibility was cranked all the way up which isn't the most realistic during bad conditions.  I wanted to show the storm columns in action....

 

First shot is of the towering cumolous rain columns with dynamic lightning...

 

 

Ok the next series shows the tops of the storm system during different times of day.....

 

 

 

 

 

Our storm clouds are random at the moment due to the limitations in the X-Plane SDK,  but with that said it is a good interpretation of the METAR......

 

Version 1 does have the storm columns but they are a lot smaller and less dramatic in appearance......

Very nice John, when do you expect the final version to be out? Can't wait for this!

Very nice John, when do you expect the final version to be out? Can't wait for this!

 

 

Very soon especially since I am back on track​.....  

John thats great news! Very looking forward to this release. Amazing work on this, and yes v2 looks way better than REX any day.

Interesting how those clouds are rendered. They look almost water color.

 

Not super keen on that, as REX is tons better. Hopefully they develop for XP in the future as well.

 

I can see XPlane coming ahead of P3d for sure, but it's going to need some Steam (har har)

 

And everyone one of us will own XP eventually regardless since it'll no doubt get a deep discount next summer, or even this winter. Steam is all about volume.

As a Beta tester for SkyMaxx 2.0 I can say these clouds go way beyond REX. REX is very pretty but at the end of the day they are not 3 dimensional volumetric like these clouds. When you fly into SkyMaxx clouds you half expect to hear the whoosh sound that you get in reality  Not only that, the SkyMaxx clouds move and rotate in the sky and cast shadows on land and water. There is also crespular rays and lens flare effects.

 

I have put together a gallery of X-Plane shots, most of which use SkyMaxx Pro 2.0 clouds, and a lot of which are actually using the low resolution puffs, there is an option for high resolution puffs that has minimal or no frame rate hit on my rig.

 

http://www.theodessafiles.co.uk/x-plane

Everyone that uses XPX should send an e-mail to the OPUS developer asking him to support X-Plane that would be an excellent weather engine.OPUS and Skymax would be second to none

Though XP has a good simulation of atmospheric characteristics, the existing weather engine is very limited in terms of what parameters can be controlled externally. At present, there are only three upper-level wind and temperature levels, likewise only three cloud layers. AFAIK, all weather in XP is global at any given moment - there is no way to set weather by zones as there is in FSX, so you can not (for instance) show an approaching build-up of clouds from a distant frontal system, while currently flying in clear skies.

 

With the current limits in the XP weather engine, there is no way that HiFi, Opus or any other developer could produce a weather injection program for XP that could produce the kind of results that those developers can now achieve in FSX. It would be kind of like handing an expert guitar player an instrument that has only two of the normal six strings. No matter how much skill the muscian might have, he's going to be very limited in the kind of notes and chords he would be able to play, compared to what he could do with a fully functional instrument.

 

Though the weather engine in XP version 10 has been substantially improved in comparison to older versions, it still has a long way to go.

And here is an example of one using the high res cloud puffs. 

 

 

With the current limits in the XP weather engine, there is no way that HiFi, Opus or any other developer could produce a weather injection program for XP that could produce the kind of results that those developers can now achieve in FSX.

 

There is a way - if add-on developers work together. X-Plane plugins can send whatever data they want to each other, so you could imagine a world where HiFi, Opus, or whoever sends finer-grained weather data to SkyMaxx Pro which can then represent it.