Third Party Weather Generators for FSX

[hornet65 0]

Howdy All,

 

I've been considering a third party weather generator for FSX.  Scanning though the forums I noticed several freeware and payware (FSrealwx  FSXWX, etc).  FSXWX for intance requires FSUIPC, and FSrealwx says the freeware is for a 20 day trail to purchase.  As for requiring FSUIPC, I've also read that FSX has a simconnect feature that handles the functions of FSUIPC  (which  I'm assuming makes this add-on utility unecessary for FSX?). 

 

The bottom line is: What do I need to know about adding a 3rd party weather generator in terms of installation (do I need FSUIPC?).  Once a third party weather generator product is loaded, is it a seemless addition to FSX?  Does is overlay  FSX's real world weather or replace it entirely?  Are there memory considertions/demands to my system?  Is it as simple as FSX in just hitting the "download real weather" button? 

 

I'm looking for a little better understanding of how 3rd party weather progams interface with FSX.  I have downloaded the ZIP file for FSrealwx to my desktop.  I'm not willing to install until I understand what it will do to modify FSX

 

Guidance is appreciated.

 

Best Regards,

 

Tom S.

[fppilot 4,353]

 I use FS Global Real Weather if that is the add on you are talking about. It operates outside of FSX and injects weather into FSX using I believe the same injection as what was in place for the Microsoft weather injection.

I start FSX first and choose the location I will be flying from. I then Alt-tab out of FSX to my desktop and start FSGRW. There options you select in FSGRW such as using archived weather or live weather. You then start the weather injection. You can immediately toggle back to your running FSX. The weather will catch up as you preflight. If you stay in FSGRW for a few seconds it will confirm the location it read from FSX and show you the current metar weather report. Once in FSX and flying it keeps your weather updated at a time interval you set in FSGRW. Hope this helps. By the way. Peek at my profile and you can see that accurate weather is important to me.

 

I believe FSGRW consumes less overhead than the combo weather engine/weather texture combinations. If that is important to you. I use textures from REX E+ OD. REX writes those textures into your FSX and after that you do not need to be running REX to use the textures. 

[airernie 263]

I have REX Extreme + OD, FS Global Real Weather and ASN.  

 

The only changes that FSGRW and ASN make to FSX is to add an entry to dll.xml or exe.xml.  FSUIPC does the same thing.

 

The additions to the XML files are for the purpose of either loading the netowrk birdge, or an addon menu within FSX.   It can easily be undone with a text editor, so none of the changes are major.

 

It's been some time since I've  used REX, but I seem to recall that it only uses SimConnect, so no changes to the XML files. 

 

With the three programs, injection of weather into FSX is done by the program and replaces FSX's weather system.  If you don't open the ASN, FSGRW, etc., then FSX defaults to it's own weather. 

 

Weather programs, or at least the three I mentioned are pretty harmless, other than possibly costing you a few FPS.

[neucoas 82]

I use FSXWX, needs FSUIPC, but it works with the un-registered version

[Bjoern 1,153]

FSXWX works with an unregistered FSUIPC. The only drawback is that it doesn't use FSUIPC's wind smoothing algorithm that way, so flights might become a bit bumpy in some circumstances.