name="nathanpinard" post="3045418" timestamp="1406703115"]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.

 

 

Yeah.....lol

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.

No question that Skymaxx is a game-changer. I own it, and eagerly look forward to version 2. But no add-on can overcome the existing limit in XP of a maximum of 3 cloud layers and 3 wind layers. FSX permits many more discrete layers for both clouds and wind.

 

That limit is hard-coded into XP's current atmosphere model - and only LM can change it. I have no doubt it will eventually happen, but until it does, weather add-on makers simply will not be able to do the kind of things with XP weather that can currently be done with FSX.

 

XP does have some weather features that are more advanced than FSX - especially in the area of icing and low-level wind shear - but more discrete cloud and upper-level wind layers are a "must" for future XP versions.

But no add-on can overcome the existing limit in XP of a maximum of 3 cloud layers and 3 wind layers

 

It is  possible to just completely disable X-Plane's built in 3-layer weather representation (there's a new dataref for this in 10.30) and substitute your own. Under the hood, SkyMaxx Pro can draw clouds anywhere it wants to. A weather injector add-on could publish as many layers as it wants to - even the locations of individual clouds - directly to SkyMaxx Pro, cutting the X-Plane SDK out of the equation. The two add-ons would just have to agree on a data format for communicating with each other.

 

The bits I'm not sure about are making the weather radar display and physics consistent with the weather represented in the 3D world, if X-Plane were sidestepped in this manner. I know 10.30 has some new means for adding your own forces to planes so maybe the physics part is possible now.

It is possible to just completely disable X-Plane's built in 3-layer weather representation (there's a new dataref for this in 10.30) and substitute your own. Under the hood, SkyMaxx Pro can draw clouds anywhere it wants to. A weather injector add-on could publish as many layers as it wants to - even the locations of individual clouds - directly to SkyMaxx Pro, cutting the X-Plane SDK out of the equation. The two add-ons would just have to agree on a data format for communicating with each other.

 

The bits I'm not sure about are making the weather radar display and physics consistent with the weather represented in the 3D world, if X-Plane were sidestepped in this manner. I know 10.30 has some new means for adding your own forces to planes so maybe the physics part is possible now.

Did not know it was possible to disable the layers in 10.30. If so, then indeed, we are getting closer to full external control. I do know that Skymaxx clouds and sky textures look great in my XP setup, and can't wait to see what version 2 will bring!

Doesn't EFASS WX bypass X-plane's WX engine? I know I don't have to enable XPX WX to get my local weather,

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

That looks sweet !

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.

 

That isn't guaranteed, since not every developer participates in those big Steam sales. There was one game I wanted to get a while back, but not at full price, and the price never dropped from retail until the publisher was bought by another company. IIRC, the Rise of Flight packs weren't in the recent Steam summer sale.

 

It depends on what Austin wants to do. It might also be complicated by needing to run parallel sales at x-plane.org, their own site store, and any other places selling it. 

 

Back to the weather... those screen shots look good, although I'm still missing the look of a big Cb anvil in the distance. Maybe that isn't possible now, due to the above-mentioned way XPX doesn't allow two different weather patterns to co-exist (clear skies for your plane, a nasty Cb developing off on the horizon in your flight path). At any rate, it's good to hear that 10.30 is opening up more avenues for 3rd party developers to improve the weather. 

SkyMaxx Pro 2.1 is out!

Just downloaded it and am anxious to try. :smile: