I got fsmetar about a week ago and it is great, but It always sets the visibility to 10 miles or less, I am stuck with ifr flying only when I use the program, and it is unrealistic. I heard somewhere that 10sm on a metar means good visibility, and all metars I have seen say 10sm or a lower, anyways fsmetar interprets this incorrectly. Am I stuck with it like this? or is there a way to disable or change the way fsmetar interprets visibility? Could something be done with fsiupc's settings to fix this?

What are you sim visibility settings? Thay may override the Metar. When FSmetar sees CAVOK or 999 that is visibility of 10kms or more. However one can set visibility in the sim so that one doesn't see the dreaded cross for example. For a free add-on FSMetar does a very good job. Balance it with the recommended settings it suggests in FSUIPC and you'll get a good weather simulation.

"The cloud in the sim isn't the same shape as the cloud out of my window" That is never going to happen however much money one might spend.

Hi.

 

I don't think that FSMetar is causing the problem - unless there's been a lot of fog recently... It's more likely that something needs adjusting in the FSUIPC settings.

 

Give me an overnight (I'm at work right now) and I'll fish out my FSUIPC settings and post them here.

 

Cheers,

Dave

What are you sim visibility settings? Thay may override the Metar. When FSmetar sees CAVOK or 999 that is visibility of 10kms or more. However one can set visibility in the sim so that one doesn't see the dreaded cross for example. For a free add-on FSMetar does a very good job. Balance it with the recommended settings it suggests in FSUIPC and you'll get a good weather simulation.

"The cloud in the sim isn't the same shape as the cloud out of my window" That is never going to happen however much money one might spend.

I use the recommended fsuipc settings and the max visibility I have set in my sim is 50 miles.

Hi.

 

I don't think that FSMetar is causing the problem - unless there's been a lot of fog recently... It's more likely that something needs adjusting in the FSUIPC settings.

 

Give me an overnight (I'm at work right now) and I'll fish out my FSUIPC settings and post them here.

 

Cheers,

Dave

Ok thanks, I thought it was the actual weather for a while because we had a slow moving front and it was overcast and rainy for a few days (very unusual weather for where I live) but when it cleared up I noticed that the visibility stayed the same, and it does this for all US metars, maybe it doesn't for European ones? I will have to try an airport in an area  of the world that uses metric measurements and see if it does it too.

Okay, new update, at European airports it didn't do the same, but I noticed that at various US airports, fsmetars visibility interpretation is strange, at one airport the metar said 10sm or 10 statute miles, but the visibility fsmetar set was 5 miles, then with another airport the metar said 6sm but fsmetar set the visibility to 50 miles, but in my state of Colorado it takes the 10sm on the metar and makes the visibility 10 miles, when 10sm doesn't necessarily mean that the visibility has to be 10 miles, it means that the visibility is 10 or higher, and I am looking out my window right now and the visibility is 30 miles at the very least (can't tell for sure too many trees), but probably more like 40 to 50 miles with the altitude of over 6000 feet.

Make sure your FS default flight uses the clear weather theme and in FS dynamic weeather progression is disabled. Any flights you create should have the clear weather theme including when you save them.

 

The clear weather theme signals fsuipc to clear all weather and disable dynamic weather changes in FS.

 

I suspect FS Metar depends on this. Let it be the boss.

 

Also, after FS Metar after writing to update FS's weather engine advance the FS time one minute to force an ai refresh and immediately update ATIS.

Make sure your FS default flight uses the clear weather theme and in FS dynamic weeather progression is disabled. Any flights you create should have the clear weather theme including when you save them.

 

The clear weather theme signals fsuipc to clear all weather and disable dynamic weather changes in FS.

 

I suspect FS Metar depends on this. Let it be the boss.

 

Also, after FS Metar after writing to update FS's weather engine advance the FS time one minute to force an ai refresh and immediately update ATIS.

I have my default flight set with the fs real world weather, I will change the default flight to clear weather and see if it does anything, but I don't see how it would have an effect because fsmetar overrides fs weather automatically when the program is running, and what is FS dynamic weather progression?

Make sure that fsmetar is interpreting the same Metar that you are looking at. Noaa for example is never up to date. Vatsim is the only reliable source. Also Fsuipc will override any weather engine setting. So also will your basic visibility settings within the sim. Set it to more than CAVOK ie 20-30 miles or more. With computers always if there is one contradiction in a series of instructions the computer will go with that. In other words if your basic setting is less than cavok your weather will never appear to be cavok. Set you maximum parameters within the sim and then fsuipc and allow fsmetar to work within that.

Because it's a flight sim and not a weather sim I don't get upset if the weather out of the window is not quite displayed as is in the sim. Download Pablo Diaz's clouds and you will have a good working weather all for free. With clouds by the way never go for max resolution because you will loose transparency. P3d users enthuse over transparent clouds which already exist in fs9 with medium res and also with sliders maxed I get tree and foliage shadows.

Make sure that fsmetar is interpreting the same Metar that you are looking at. Noaa for example is never up to date. Vatsim is the only reliable source. Also Fsuipc will override any weather engine setting. So also will your basic visibility settings within the sim. Set it to more than CAVOK ie 20-30 miles or more. With computers always if there is one contradiction in a series of instructions the computer will go with that. In other words if your basic setting is less than cavok your weather will never appear to be cavok. Set you maximum parameters within the sim and then fsuipc and allow fsmetar to work within that.

Because it's a flight sim and not a weather sim I don't get upset if the weather out of the window is not quite displayed as is in the sim. Download Pablo Diaz's clouds and you will have a good working weather all for free. With clouds by the way never go for max resolution because you will loose transparency. P3d users enthuse over transparent clouds which already exist in fs9 with medium res and also with sliders maxed I get tree and foliage shadows.

I have the max visibility in the sim set to 50 miles, and I use vatsim, but judging by the problems I am getting it seems unrelated to the simulator settings because sometimes the problem occurs and other times it does not depending on the country/state I am in.

FSM always had trouble with the 9999m/10SM visibility data. If I remember correctly, there was never a fix for this.

FSM always had trouble with the 9999m/10SM visibility data. If I remember correctly, there was never a fix for this.

Really? That's a shame, I will try what these other guys have said and see if it works, but it looks like I am stuck with 10 mile visibility in my area then.

Okay, I figured out a fix for the problem, I checked the "random extend metar maxima" in fsuipcs settings and it fixed the problem. I am surprised it wasn't a recommended setting in the fsmetar manual, it was mentioned though, it was just hard to notice because it was in a picture with small print. Thanks for the help everyone!

Another thing you can try also is to download and save the Metars file. Find the Metar for the airport or reporting station you want and where it says 6SM for example change it to 9999 which is CAVOK or convert say 3SM into meters and then replace the 3SM with 4828 (in this example). Then load that file back into the programme. FSUIPC does come with a lot of tweaks that cover for the shortcomings of "all" weather programmes

Really? That's a shame, I will try what these other guys have said and see if it works, but it looks like I am stuck with 10 mile visibility in my area then.

Okay, I figured out a fix for the problem, I checked the "random extend metar maxima" in fsuipcs settings and it fixed the problem. I am surprised it wasn't a recommended setting in the fsmetar manual, it was mentioned though, it was just hard to notice because it was in a picture with small print. Thanks for the help everyone!

 

 

Ah! Those pictures are confusing aren't they. You've just discovered that what's shown in the pictures doesn't match the recommendations in the text...

 

Try these (screenies in photobucket):

 

visibility

winds

miscellaneous

clouds

 

Cheers,

D

 

edit... you could also experiment with your fs9.cfg file, somewhere in ../documents and settings/application data/microsoft/fs9/ or its equivalent. There's a parameter called TableFog. I don't recall whether it shows in the standard config file but in any case it defaults to TableFog=1. It makes the air rather murky. If you set it to TableFog=0 the air near to you is much less hazy while distant stuff looks more or less as it did before. The only drawback is that it can chop cirrus off half way through leaving them with straight edges. It's useful if you fly mid-altitudes as it makes the ground beneath you much clearer, so making eyeball navigation easier. D

 

 

also with sliders maxed I get tree and foliage shadows.

 

Which slider do you need to max? I have never noticed any tree shadows, could you please PM me a screenshot of your settings?

 

Thanks and regards,

Sascha

Which slider do you need to max? I have never noticed any tree shadows, could you please PM me a screenshot of your settings?

 

Thanks and regards,

Sascha

 

 

... and of the shadows if you refer to autogen. i'd be interested (and impressed) too.

 

D