That is a very contemporary description. Greetings from Germany.

Haha yes it is! 

I think since 10.50, winds and turbulence are just fine with X-Plane's real weather. Did around 20 flights and got reasonable turbulence and winds aloft.

 

 

We'll have to agree to disagree here. In my opinion X-Plane's interpretation of turbulence and variable winds is way off. I've tried disabling all lua and python plugins, using just SMP + RWC + X-Plane's real world weather, and most of the time I get perfectly smooth air, no matter the weather - alternatively I get wild left-right yawing instead of turbulence which isn't realistic either.

I was flying today and X-Plane's weather isn't even close to reality... The NOAA plugin isn't perfect either (as you've mentioned, the visibility changes are ugly) but the winds and turbulence are a lot more convincing from my point of view.

 

 

I was flying today and X-Plane's weather isn't even close to reality

 

Sorry to hear your results are less than stellar but I see the exact opposite. I follow my flight using PFPX, predicted weather charts along the route and get correct winds at altitude all the way. I also get mild turbulence on many occasions. I haven't purposely flown into high turbulence areas, mainly because the flight planning software or flight plans from flightaware avoid them.

 

As for the NOAA plugin, I can't even use it in 10.50b7. I uninstalled it along with pythoninterface, as it was crashing x-plane.

 

Today I did a flight from KMIA to MKJS. At FL370, off the shores of Cuba, I could see a ridge of cloud out the Captain's window, while the First Officer's side was clear blue skies. I went in to the x-plane weather screen and it fit perfectly what I was seeing out the window. I checked the forecast winds against the PFD, that was also quite close.

Strange that we're getting such different results. But I should probably clarify my statement - saying that X-Plane's real world weather was "not even close to reality" was poorly expressed on my part. In fact, the clouds and visibility are both pretty good! Considering X-Plane's limitations when it comes to cloud depiction I'm quite happy in this area.

My issues are mainly (variable) winds and turbulence. In these areas, IMO it indeed isn't close to reality. When using the real-world weather option I get perfectly smooth air in most cases, never any wind gusts, turbulence or anything of that kind. It's like the old "on rails" kind of flying we got in FSX before there were any good weather engines... With the NOAA plugin it isn't perfect either but more plausible IMO.

 

Anyway, everyone should use what they feel is best for their simming. My observations are mostly for GA flying, too, so perhaps it's a completely different case with airliners flying at high altitudes.

 

 

 

As for the NOAA plugin, I can't even use it in 10.50b7. I uninstalled it along with pythoninterface, as it was crashing x-plane.

 

Weird, the python interface and NOAA work well for me with 10.50b7... Perhaps you had an old version installed?

I can also confirm, NOAA works fine in b7 for me too. 

 

I've been going between NOAA and the game's own weather and I honestly, from a visual standpoint, can't see much of a difference. So that's good. I haven't met enough turbulence or windy areas these summer days to give an opinion on the current discussion. However, I might stick to NOAA for a while as X-Plane's flight model lends itself really well to flying in realistic wind settings. The thought of ruining that with an unrealistic representation of wind and turbulence would suck. Then I'll just deal with that NOAA update you're talking about.

 

I really appreciate all the input and the discussion. Coming into X-Plane, I'm just soaking up information, learning-by-trying and seeing what sticks. It's a fantastic game, just wish the weather was a lot better, in terms of performance, depiction etc. then I would drop P3D in a heartbeat. 

 

 

Weird, the python interface and NOAA work well for me with 10.50b7... Perhaps you had an old version installed?

I'll have to look into that for sure. I was certain 10.50b broke it, thanks for letting me know it still works.