X-Enviro is OUT

[Paraffin 2,197]

This is where I think a nice middle ground could be the historical weather option. Then if you want a certain type of weather likelihood, just set the date and time appropriately. Of course it depends on the location you fly in as well (some areas are just prone to IFR conditions) but it would definitely give a LOT more flexibility then just realtime only.

 

Maybe, but I'm having trouble seeing how that's going to work. Let's say I want to fly into CYAZ (Tofino, west coast of Vancouver Island), and it's horrible weather today. So real weather is out, for the light GA plane I'm flying. But I don't want to just punch the CAVOK button either. I just want something that looks realistic for the area, but less severe than the actual weather today.

 

Will I be able to type in CYAZ in the XEnviro plugin and then see.... what? Every METAR for every day of the last 5 years at CYAZ? I'll need a pretty hefty filtering function to set up the weather the way I want that way. It would be a ton of data to maintain on the server side, and lots of filtering for the user to wade through. 

 

Or will it be less fine-grained, and all we'll have is a choice of pre-filtered "good, medium, or bad" weather selected from the METARs at that location? That doesn't sound very useful either. Especially for anyone wanting to shoot an IFR approach with specific cloud conditions.

[hjsmuc 393]

 

 

It would be a ton of data to maintain on the server side, and lots of filtering for the user to wade through

 

I would have thought that they use another available service like http://www.ogimet.com/metars.phtml.en. Their server would then only have to pass the user's request to the external database, query the Metar, inject the results and you are ready to fly. Or even easier, you get the historical Metar yourself, enter it into the x-enviro settings and their server only returns the weather. 

 

I believe there are some options which wouldn't tax their servers much but I might be wrong.

[be77solo 125]

I feel the constant "phone home" tactic always requiring a 100% solid connection to the server across the world on an approved "HardwareID" is still the biggest problem, and also why we can't (or ever with current dev viewpoint) have custom weather.  Absolutely absurd after a $70 purchase.  They are using weather data as DRM and us legit buyers pay the price.

 

When my version can't get a proper update from their distant server, it simply crashes X-Plane (10 or 11).  That's insane and makes flying any long distances pointless with their program enabled.  Others have reported the same problem.

 

I wish them well but at the same time they are driving me mad...

[hjsmuc 393]

Agree that relying on their server and the connection is the weakest point. But then, is there an alternative in sight? SMP is way behind in graphics (at least for my eyes), it also ties you to a Hardware ID and ignores activation requests if something goes wrong, stock clouds are bad, replacement clouds only slightly better.  

 

PS: Actually, x-enviro did not ask for anything after I changed CPU, RAM and MOBO. It just worked out of the new box.

[molleh 451]

Maybe, but I'm having trouble seeing how that's going to work. Let's say I want to fly into CYAZ (Tofino, west coast of Vancouver Island), and it's horrible weather today. So real weather is out, for the light GA plane I'm flying. But I don't want to just punch the CAVOK button either. I just want something that looks realistic for the area, but less severe than the actual weather today.

 

Will I be able to type in CYAZ in the XEnviro plugin and then see.... what? Every METAR for every day of the last 5 years at CYAZ? I'll need a pretty hefty filtering function to set up the weather the way I want that way. It would be a ton of data to maintain on the server side, and lots of filtering for the user to wade through. 

 

Or will it be less fine-grained, and all we'll have is a choice of pre-filtered "good, medium, or bad" weather selected from the METARs at that location? That doesn't sound very useful either. Especially for anyone wanting to shoot an IFR approach with specific cloud conditions.

 

Well, I'm just trying to give something that might work better than just realtime only, given that apparently the Xenviro team has now said that custom weather is impossible.

 

As for how it works, I'll just use Active Sky (for FSX/P3D) as an example. You just have "sync to sim's date/time" option selected, and Active Sky simply downloads the METAR data for that date and time. It doesn't give any sort of "filtering" options by actual weather conditions, but like I said, if you are flying in an area that typically sees clearer weather in, let's say, summer for example, then with Active Sky I just pick a random summer day and I get some weather. Now obviously that's not to say there aren't crappy weather days in the summer either, but again - this is just an option that gives some other weather to work with that's not JUST real time weather. It also has the benefit of being realistic since it's the actual weather data, just from a different date/time.

 

I completely understand this doesn't solve the problem for all cases (some airports/regions are notorious for crap weather year round, so that's where custom weather comes in) but if they (Xenviro) claim custom weather is not possible, I promise you this would be a far better compromise than nothing. I have been using Active Sky for 4 years now and when I want to fly a nice VFR flight, I have had NO problems getting that with historical weather.

[Desaix 235]

Historical weather is on their list, not sure when we'll see it but if I were them that would be my priority being many users turned off by the lack of some sort of customizable weather.

[alpha12125 213]

I feel the constant "phone home" tactic always requiring a 100% solid connection to the server across the world on an approved "HardwareID" is still the biggest problem, and also why we can't (or ever with current dev viewpoint) have custom weather.  Absolutely absurd after a $70 purchase.  They are using weather data as DRM and us legit buyers pay the price.

 

When my version can't get a proper update from their distant server, it simply crashes X-Plane (10 or 11).  That's insane and makes flying any long distances pointless with their program enabled.  Others have reported the same problem.

 

I wish them well but at the same time they are driving me mad...

The DRM issue is always something that will drive people mad and in an ideal world we wouldnt need it, but sadly most of the people are idiots.

 

http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-pirates-play-a-game-development-simulator-and-then-go-bankrupt-because-of-piracy/

 

slightly off-topic but read it. the ratio is depressing. 93% piracy vs. real bought sales. Now you can argue that this ratio is 10% maybe even 20% lower with flightsim add-ons but it is simply there. This is what happens when you have no DRM.

[carlito777 712]

By the way: On the following website, you can easily search for historical weather which suits your preferences at almost any aiport in the world.

 

https://www.wunderground.com/history/

 

Really no need for customized weather once they have implemented historical weather.

[Pugilist2 878]

I agree with Desaix, the historical weather should be a priority being as many people want customizable weather.

[be77solo 125]

The DRM issue is always something that will drive people mad and in an ideal world we wouldnt need it, but sadly most of the people are idiots.

I understand why we have to have DRM (people are idiots), I just feel it should be more in line with the developers that require an initial activation.  I'm totally fine with that as I buy all my software if for no other reason than to support the devs and encourage better future versions.  My annoyance comes from any program that requires a constant all the time DRM method like Xenviro.

 

None of my other flight sim addons behave is such a manner.  That is all I'm saying, not arguing it, but when their server flakes out or I somehow have a temporary connection issue to that server on the other side of the planet for whatever reason, my simulator shouldn't crash like it currently does ending my flight.

[Paraffin 2,197]

I just noticed something about the CAVOK "panic button" that clears the weather but leaves the plugin working, so sky colors and distant haze don't change as drastically as just turning the plugin off. It isn't a persistent setting -- it resets when the next weather injection comes in.

 

I was nearing the end of a FSEconomy flight today in the Goose, real weather was bad (raining, low vis), and I was coming in over mountains before descending to a coastal runway. So I hit CAVOK in the plugin to clear the weather for the descent over the last of the mountains. But then it suddenly kicked in again at the next update (I have it set to 10 min. intervals). I had to pause the sim, re-select CAVOK to clear the weather again in order to land. 

 

That makes the CAVOK setting basically useless, at least for the way I fly. I don't want to be guessing when it will suddenly turn off and revert to zero vis. Turning off the plugin is the only thing that guarantees I can finish the flight, and at that point I might as well not be using it the plugin at all. Maybe they can change that option to be persistent, so it isn't turned off with each new weather update.

[tonywob 4,769]

Pretty much the same experience from me regarding CAVOK. At least where I fly I need to use it most of the time during the winter, so xEnviro is basically useless for me at the moment and I now have it completely disabled and use the HD sky colour textures from x-plane.org. Occasionally when there is nice weather it reduces the visibility far too much and makes VFR flying unenjoyable.

 

Custom weather is not going to happen so it seems (they won't even acknowledge it's a problem), and historical weather is so far down on their roadmap that it could be months before we see it. If there was ever a case for DRM destroying a product that has huge potential, then this is it.

 

SMP v4 has suffered the same fate. I removed it because I can no longer activate or use it after getting a new computer, so this is another weather product in the trash can, and I won't be buying anymore addons that just stop working or require always online connections.

[hjsmuc 393]

 

 

I removed it because I can no longer activate or use it after getting a new computer

 

Interesting, do you mean that the vendor refuses to let you activate it on the new computer?

[Desaix 235]

Another pirat caught red handed  XA police is terrible...

 

I see Tony's points on real weather, I can cope with online weather following the weather rather than forcing cavok where I want to fly. Really enjoying Greece right now but I understand that many have their favourite sceneries.

[hjsmuc 393]

Well, if people get paranoid they start making mistakes. Now it's them that have been reported to the authorities.