P3D 737NGx and Active Sky Next - Weather Radar

[mac44 15]

Just recently got NGX and being trying to get the weather radar to work.....so have a few questions

1)I start ASN in the background then P3D and have been usually selecting in game Active Sky Next weather theme rather than one of the themes such as building storm - but what I find is that once I am in the cockpit and have the radar setup (WX then test) I don't get weather appearing until from the drop down menus I select one of the themes - then everything comes to life - not sure if this means the ASN theme has no bad weather to report for the area or am I doing something wrong in the setup?(but selecting the ASN theme usually brings up nothing on the radar but the other themes do)

2)Separate question is that for ASN do I actually need to select ASN theme in game or does ASN automatically come through no matter what theme I select?

3)Note I do think ASN is working because usually 5-10mins into the flight I get the green bar saying weather is being update....

4)Also notice there are some settings in ASN for clouds - which are the best settings to get for most realistic cloud cover (have a reasonably powerful machine)...7

any help appreciated

[ESzczesniak 128]

What do you mean by "selecting one of the themes from the drop down menus"?  Are you talking about the preset weather themes in P3D?

 

Also, why are you thinking the WXR is not working?  I ask because of a fundamental misunderstanding that most people have about weather radars in flight simulators.  Early WXR simply gave a cloud map, and as such many people seem to expect that if they see clouds, they should see WXR returns.  This is untrue and in fact most clouds (depends a little on gain settings) will not show on WXR.  WXR looks at precipitation/moisture content, so as a generalized rule, you really only see storm clouds on WXR (very generalized, not totally true).  Additionally, WXR looks in a beam forward of the aircraft.  This can be adjusted some by the tilt, but the WXR will not show returns of towering thunderstorms right over head when 20 NM straight in front of your a/c is clear.  Generally speaking, except for some light cloud returns and ground clutter/noise, an airliners WXR will often show nothing on the screen. 

 

It is my knowledge and experience (only been through a couple storms with the NGX/777) that the PMDG WXR actually simulates both the beam direction and precipitation return (over cloud mapping).

[mac44 15]

ES thanks for the reply

1)By weather themes I mean in the scenario setup screen of P3D there is a weather section - you can select weather theme or user defined - under themes there is a large range including "activesky weather" theme (which I might wrongly be assuming you need to select to get ASN weather injected into the sim? - correct me if this assumption is wrong - but there are many other themes such as "fogged in" and "orbx weather 1-6"

2)I was not sure if the radar was working because everytime I selected the activesky theme I seem to get nothing appearing on the weather radar - this is perhaps because there is no weather to display or because my setup is wrong - however when I (in flight) select another theme (such as cold fronts) I immediately get returns on the radar - fully aware the WX does not just display clouds!....

hope you can assist and clear up my confusion.....

[ESzczesniak 128]

Well, it's a bit difficult to say with the weather themes.  Many of the default P3D schemes are built around more stormy weather.  Cold fronts could very well have some more dense clouds with moisture that would return, and the others such as heavy snows, thunderstoms, etc., could as well.

 

Additionally, the WXR is supposed to only really work with ASN and not default weather, so there may be something confusing this as well.

[tf51d 284]

ES thanks for the reply

1)By weather themes I mean in the scenario setup screen of P3D there is a weather section - you can select weather theme or user defined - under themes there is a large range including "activesky weather" theme (which I might wrongly be assuming you need to select to get ASN weather injected into the sim? - correct me if this assumption is wrong - but there are many other themes such as "fogged in" and "orbx weather 1-6"

2)I was not sure if the radar was working because everytime I selected the activesky theme I seem to get nothing appearing on the weather radar - this is perhaps because there is no weather to display or because my setup is wrong - however when I (in flight) select another theme (such as cold fronts) I immediately get returns on the radar - fully aware the WX does not just display clouds!....

hope you can assist and clear up my confusion.....

The weather themes in the sim do not use ASN and therefore the WXR in the NGX will not work. You can set weather manually or load a previous weather file within ASN that will work.

[mac44 15]

ES and tf thanks for the replies......

 

1)Basic question then if you want to get ASN weather to work in your P3D flight what's the best way to do it - meaning firstly I start ASN then I start P3D and it loads the scenario editor (where I start most of my flights) - at this point my P3D is by default selecting a weather theme before I start the flight (cold front seems the default theme) - at this point what do I need to select in the weather options (there does not seems not to be an option to turn themes off only user defined alternative) to get the ASN weather to work?(and therefore my NGX weather radar to work) Note - I also see a ActiveSky weather Theme which I was wrongly assuming selected the ASN weather and can also see a clear all sky's "theme"...

2)tf I note your above point but Its strange that when I was changing to a particular theme in flight that my weather radar appeared to be picking things up - especially if I was selecting something like major thunderstorms there would be a dramatic change in the radar to reflect this although in theory I guess your saying the radar should not be picking anything accurate up(so am a bit confused) - note also when flying with a "theme" I sometime see the little green update bar saying ASN weather is loading..........- note my ASN is always set for live ...