Hi all,  I'm relatively new to X-Plane and I'm looking for some advice as to a weather engine and what I believe to be a haze issue.

 

I have a low end pc (specs I believe show up on my profile) and due I think to my GPU, I struggle to reach 15 fps with even very low settings.  As I really didn't like the default clouds at there lowest settings I bought Skymaxx pro which looks, to me, an improvement.  However, I'm looking for something free to power it.  I got the Noaa plugin, but I can't work out what settings I need in it, in particular the switch to metar setting and what it does.  If it partly uses the default weather, then I fear it suffers the same issue of apparently only updating once an hour.

 

I've also briefly looked at EFASS but not worked out how to use its weather engine (and also been somewhat put off as I don't think the engine works over a network), and yesterday heard of FSrealWX.

 

Also running Active Sky Next for FSX, I appreciate none will be as advanced but could anyone advice me on which will give the most "realistic" weather depiction in X-Plane, and if it is the Noaa plugin, how to use it properly.

 

The other issue is one I don't really understand; I'd thought that there was supposed to be some form of fog at the edge of what X-Plane draws, possibly called haze?  However, when I fly (here using HD Mesh v3) I seem to just get a jagged horizon which looks particularly bad when mountains just sort of stop.  I tried getting the real terra haze plugin but I can still see the "edge of the world".  If someone could advise me on a suitable image sharing site, I'll put in an example screenshot and my rendering options.

 

I'm hoping someone might have an idea if there's something wrong here or if I just have to live with it until I get a better graphics card.

 

Many thanks and I'm sorry if this has come out a bit blunt, that wasn't my intention.

I think AIPilotX stated to not even try HDMv3 without at least 8GB ram.  Possibly upgrade that, easy, and less expensive that other options.  Have a look at FSRealWX.  I personnaly haven't got it quite working, but others have.  EFASS Ultra WX disconnects the program from the weather source randomly.  The author is aware of it and hopefully will fix it soon. 

Thanks very much for the advice!  I'll have a go at disabling the mesh, good idea.  I'm getting a bit confused with the FSRealWX website and the pro version etc. but I'll have another go.  Thanks.

Guys, about the visibility issue ... I am almost sure, its independent from HD Mesh! This is a known "limitation" of X-Plane, and depending on hase / atmosphere settings it can be quite obviously visible, or almost unnoticeable. Usually you can make it less intrusive by bringing - in weather settings - the visibility distance below 40 miles.

The haze seems realistic enough to me.  If you want to fly a sim that simply cannot display haze or low clouds in mountainous scenery, go fly FSX.  There are few places these days you can fly without haze, smog or other distance effects.