Hi Steve,

Just curious what is the source of the metars and how many stations are used and frequency read to render the shadows?

 

Regards

Brent

Firstly the METARs are not used to render shadows - the clouds are used to render shadows (under each cloud!). 

 

The program uses the SDK function to get the interpolated weather at the aircraft lat long every 15-20 secs.  This is used for terrain shading when clouds cannot be shown (too low, mountains above aircraft etc).  This reduces the lighting transition in overcast/broken clouds when clouds are faded out eg when landing.

So when landing in a shaded area and go below 1000' agl the ground doesn't suddenly become very bright but rather lighting is muted to match the interpolated wx like overcast?

That's the idea yes.

Yes, I understand. I didn't phrase my question very well.  The Metar option to provide shadows for under 1000' etc. are from what source? Also, if the overcast is partly cloudy where is that read from to provide reduced sunlight or is it binary (on/off)?

 

Brent

It's using sim connect. GetInterpolatedweather.

 

Fsx returns a metar which contains the clouds coverage in eighths.

 

Although this is ESP not fsx it's basically the same

 

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc526983.aspx

Thanks Steve - seems like a great solution to the minor shortcomings (i.e. <1000' )