But one question -> since XP10.30 ? (I´m not sure, but I haven´t seen this issue bevore) the visibility layer goes up (about 2000 feet) to "unlimited" (over first cloud layer, no matter which visibility is reported) -> a very "useless" and annoying "feature" (have report this in the FSRGW forum with screenshots, and why such a "solution" at all ?, or I´m the only one with this "issue"?)!

 

That's an X-Plane or weather injector issue, which is not in the realm of these two products (SkyMaxx Pro 3/Real Weather Connector).

Yes, sorry, I know that, little miswritten! The question should be if this plugin can improve this X-Plane issue, but you have already answered the question!

 

Thank you, cheers!

Ground up redo of the weather system sure better be in the cards for XP11

Ground up redo of the weather system sure better be in the cards for XP11

 

Very much agree. Not only the general weather system, but also the environmental effects (visibility, fog, rain, contaminated runways, etc.) all of which I still find, overall, inferior to FS9.

Ground up redo of the weather system sure better be in the cards for XP11

 

Same here. All I want is to see a couple of classic anvil-head thunderclouds on the horizon and have to maneuver around, between, or over them. And suffer the consequences if I don't. That won't happen, as far as I can tell, until X-Plane's weather engine evolves past the current primitive three-layer pancake of weather data.

 

We need full 3D modeling of weather systems, including discrete vertical systems like Cb's. Everything I've seen so far as an add-on doesn't address this, which is one of the things that really matters if you're flying something other than a tubeliner in the upper flight levels. And even for them, it's sometimes a life and death issue.

 

Why can't we experience that in the sim? It's the last remaining frontier.

Hummm.. I was initially excited to see this, and then I read that it's going to require SMP 3. Whiiiiich I had finally decided, just before my upgrade window was up, to pass on.  So, since it requires a piece of software that I would now have to pay full price for, I guess it'll make it that much easier to save a bit more money, and pass on this too.

 

Wish I could be a bit more positive about it all, but XP is still holding strong as my 'clear skies' sim...

Some new screenshots of Real Weather Connector have been posted in the respective forum for the product.

I was happy to go for smp1 and also paid the upgrade to smp3.

 

This looks to me like a nice feature that enhances smp in its lifecycle - but not as another standalone product. sorry, i'll pass this one...

 

Regards,

Heiko

 

 

This looks to me like a nice feature that enhances smp in its lifecycle - but not as another standalone product. sorry, i'll pass this one...

 

Hey, no problem! Thanks for purchasing the other products, Heiko!

I'll likely grab this when it becomes available.  It's not clear exactly what benefits are coming but I'm sure there will be some reviews from users that will clear things up.  Weather smoothing is the really issue for me.  My system is fast enough that a micro-second pause for weather loading is not objectionable, but I really do not like clouds suddenly appearing from nowhere and not visible as you approach them.  Cloud textures are not much of a consideration for me - I'm OK with SMPv3.

This is a matter of taste of course, but for me the best cloud/weather solution for XP by far is the NOAA weather plugin combined with Murmur's cloud tweaks and downsampled cloud textures. This combination has the advantage of the default cloud "mechanics" (visible distant clouds), excellent performance (better than SMP 3) and thanks to NOAA there are winds aloft as well as turbulence effects. The downside is that weather transitions are not perfectly smooth, but that's a small price to pay, especially since all these addons are freeware! :smile:

 

I also use this combination to get what I regard as the most acceptable and performance friendly weather generation currently for X-Plane.

pass :wink:

I have to say I'm very unimpressed by most of the weather addons for XP. SMP 3.0 is nice for screenshots but frankly I don't like flying with it. FSGRW is a good weather engine but it has no turbulence, and that's a serious lack.

 

This is a matter of taste of course, but for me the best cloud/weather solution for XP by far is the NOAA weather plugin combined with Murmur's cloud tweaks and downsampled cloud textures. This combination has the advantage of the default cloud "mechanics" (visible distant clouds), excellent performance (better than SMP 3) and thanks to NOAA there are winds aloft as well as turbulence effects. The downside is that weather transitions are not perfectly smooth, but that's a small price to pay, especially since all these addons are freeware! :smile:

 

fsgrw has acknowledged the turbulence issue. They said its there but currently xp does not have a way for them to inject it. They say they are trying to contact LR about it.

I think this would be a worthwhile addition though I do hope the pricing will reflect that it's essentially an addon to an addon, which is a little questionable in itself but I've not had to work on it so hey ho, what do I know. I don't want to denigrate the work you've put in. I'd like to have it but if it's priced similarly to SkyMaxx, I"ll probably not be tempted enough tbh.

I think this would be a worthwhile addition though I do hope the pricing will reflect that it's essentially an addon to an addon, which is a little questionable in itself but I've not had to work on it so hey ho, what do I know. I don't want to denigrate the work you've put in. I'd like to have it but if it's priced similarly to SkyMaxx, I"ll probably not be tempted enough tbh.

 

To be quite clear, this is really a grey area of perception. It's middle ground between a weather injector and an enabler. The truth is, while it doesn't fetch the weather, it does much more of a lot of things you'd expect a weather injector TO DO, and does it better in a lot of areas.

 

Frank put it this way in a post somewhere else:

 

"...we're not bringing XP's default real-world weather functionality to SkyMaxx; we're inventing our own. We're parsing and interpolating raw METAR information, and using it to position cloud formations and storm clouds in ways X-Plane's built-in weather cannot. For example, we can have hundreds of distinct cloud layers in view at once, all at different altitudes - and we offer cloud types like cumulonimbus and towering cumulus that the default engine doesn't have. We didn't replicate what X-Plane's default clouds can do, we went beyond that.

 

I think once folks start to get their hands on it and spread the word, folks will understand why it's a product in its own right. For now, stay tuned while we get through beta testing."

 

We're just leveraging SkyMaxx Pro's clouds because we can. It's definitely no small project, especially considering there are more lines of code in this little add-on than in all of SkyMaxx Pro itself!