Weather generator

[Humpty 751]

Here is shot I just took @PAJN using FSrealWX , I was lucky that the crashed HDD is still working so I could run X plane.

 

The WX is Cumulus OCast @15k  Broken @13k. (not that I understand all that)

 

Will try now in FSX using FSrealWx.

 

[Humpty 751]

Same area in Fsx again using FSrealWX.  Now the difference is almost NIL.

 

 What I see in FSX is a better cloud rendering. In XPX the default clouds were just flat you know what I mean.

 

[deetee 164]

In terms of straight out of the box, XP10 is waaay ahead of FSX (ATC apart...). For example I installed FSX-SE the other day and took a quick flight. To be honest even with the sliders all the way up, the default scenery looked like a giant pigeon had evacuated its bowels all over southern Scotland. FTX Global hides a multitude of sins but it's still a blurry, pop-uppy mess. Thanks to 3rd-party weather engines, FSX clouds can look half decent but I still prefer the X-Plane default puffs.

 

My go-to X-Plane weather is generally EFASS, which I also use for art controls out of convenience instead of RTH.

[Humpty 751]

 the default scenery looked like a giant pigeon had evacuated its bowels all over southern Scotland.

 

Haha so true.  all poo at times.

 

But I really like HDE V2 in FSX.

 

But when I see the "Few Cumulus" in X plane and compare it in real life they match perfectly.

 

EFASS for me it's too bloated , it's like my smartphone all bloatware.  Need a simple quick weather injector.

[scotchegg 4,186]

It's just been announced in an interview with one of the X-Plane devs that this is finally get worked on. Fingers crossed they also look at the weather and ATC.

 

Which interview Tony? And yes, SMP might be borking your weather even further. I've noticed recently its cloud placement is pretty basic and unfortunately I'm getting more convincing results with default clouds...

 

As for turbulence, FSRealWX adds it pretty well IIRC, and I think there's a check box for automatically adding it in clouds...?

[tonywob 4,768]

 

 

Which interview Tony? And yes, SMP might be borking your weather even further. I've noticed recently its cloud placement is pretty basic and unfortunately I'm getting more convincing results with default clouds...

 

This one here, in German, but understandable with Google Translate http://forum.avsim.net/topic/460940-german-interview-with-phillip-m%C3%BCnzel-includes-some-news-about-coming-features/

 

I had a feeling it might be SMP, as I used to be able to set low vis and it worked fine. I hope they fix this at some point as it's difficult to fly with the default clouds now

[benrussell 20]

Take screenshots of your "clouds seen" vs your "cloud settings" and report the issue.

[Comanche 417]

The other day, We had a big snow storm here in NY. High winds, snow, horrible visibility. Not weather any sane person would fly in.  

 

I used real weather in X-plane 10 that night and had the same poor visibility, high winds, snow falling (no snow textures on ground) and lots of turbulence at different altitudes. Not to bad. Very close to what I would expect and next to impossible to fly in.  The wind was so strong, the Baron I was flying way being pushed sideways on the taxiway. I was somewhat impressed and thought it was better than I had in FSX.

 

Yea, it could be better, but I guess Im not as picky as most.

 

Rob

[Humpty 751]

I think we are getting a bit pushy with XPX.

 

I did a small test flight before leaving for work at Juneau.

 

I used FSrealWX. Now I can not interpret weather except a couple of things.

 

FSrealwx METAR says

 

Clouds : Overcast at 200ft.

 

So I checked the weather menu in XPX.

 

PAJN elev 19ft .  Clouds base 220  ft.  and tops at 2200ft.

 

So my thinking is that at least  the injected weather is showing up correctly.

 

Yes there are weather conditions which do surprise me in XPX like a naked rain where there is rain but no clouds or just few cumulus.

[tonywob 4,768]

 

 

So I checked the weather menu in XPX.
 
PAJN elev 19ft .  Clouds base 220  ft.  and tops at 2200ft.
 
So my thinking is that at least  the injected weather is showing up correctly.

 

My issue is that the cloud base, tops and visibility aren't being shown correctly. If a METAR is reporting a cloud base of 500ft and rain, then this is generally what I'd expect to see (Even the ATIS agrees, so X-Plane must be reading it), but it's often not the case. Whether or not it is SMP or something wrong in X-Plane or my settings I don't know. The weather in X-Plane I think needs more options, at present it only has 3 cloud layers, so maybe if they improve this in future releases, we'll see some really powerful weather injectors.

 

Also, I'm presuming the AGL inside the weather settings is referring to "feet above ground level" and not "meters". Either way, I try both and it makes no difference.

 

 

 

Take screenshots of your "clouds seen" vs your "cloud settings" and report the issue.

 

Thanks Ben, I'll post a bug report over at x-pilot. 

[Humpty 751]

@Tony

 

Why not try the defaults clouds ?

 

X plane reports as MSL.

 

Recent shot. Sshh don't tell my boss.

 

 

[tonywob 4,768]

 

 

Why not try the defaults clouds ?
 
X plane reports as MSL.
 
Recent shot. Sshh don't tell my boss.

 

Simming in work,, get back to work 

 

The default clouds kill my framerates, so I use SMP, which also visually looks much nicer.

[Humpty 751]

I meant check the default clouds with the weather conditions.

[thepitts 30]

Why not just self generate the weather ?

 

There's easy access to relevant Metars ; in addition if you're attempting to replicate the weather at your home base look out the window. Obviously if you're one of the long haul simmers who rejoice in recreating the boredom experienced by real crews you aren't going to get an evolving weather pattern as you move through time zones. For others like me who have a 30-45min simming window the weather is unlikely to alter significantly over the period.

 

Tim

[Humpty 751]

@TIm

 

Then I would prefer using CAVOK if not using an injector.