So as the title states, whats everyone using for weather these days?  I was a XEnviro user and pretty happy, although some of the latest versions I haven't been happy with and having some graphical issues however.  Plus I have some VR issues.  I switched to SMP with the weather connector which isn't bad, but I don't feel like there's any wind.  With Xenviro I could sense gusts and such and turbulence.  SMP seems to have none of that, not to mention I saw some rain when none was in the forecast for the local area I was flying.  The performance also doesn't seem that great to me on SMP but I may need to tweak a bit.

Im using Ultra Weather XP combined with FS Global real weather.

Pros:

-Gorgeous clouds

-Clouds in distance not compromising performance

-Good wind and weather depiction

-Historical Weather

-Weather Injection is made by .rwx file, so no incompatibilities with 3d party planes or any other plugin that interacts with XP weather system

Cons:

-2D clouds

-Abrupt weather changes when using dynamic weather

-Rotating clouds near the plane

These cons are also present in xenviro, which btw i also have but and do not use, i got tired of constant problems and bugs and the weak or non existing support, and worst, the inability of devs to hear constructive criticism, any non praise in their "support" media ends in a delete or ban, a shame.

Anyway, very happy with this combo and expectant about the already announce active sky coming this year 😉

SkyMaxx Pro here, because it gives me the best depiction of lower-altitude clouds for bush plane flying in the mountains. I'm usually never flying above 16,000 feet and often lower on my FSEconomy runs, and this just looks better to me at lower altitudes than other things I've tried like XEnviro. 

I don't use Real Weather Connector even though I own it. With the light to medium GA planes and helicopters I fly, and the areas I like to fly in (Pacific Northwest and UK), real weather is often too windy during part of the year. So I'll download real weather at the start of a flight, back down the winds if I have to, and leave that setting for the entire flight. Most of my FSEconomy flights are 200-300 miles, so it doesn't break realism too much to use the same weather for the flight.

For FSEconomy, I'll often cheat and raise the cloud deck if it means I can't land otherwise, because each flight has to be completed. I still want a taste of real weather though, so this (and the default XP weather) gives me enough control. That's one reason I ditched XEnviro, aside from just not looking that great in the mountains. XEnviro is always real weather all the time, without enough fine-tuning for light aircraft that can't handle current conditions. 

I'm still open to other options, if something better comes along. We still have fairly primitive weather modeling in X-Plane. Maybe it will come from a 3rd party developer, but I suspect that Laminar has to step up to the plate and revamp the underlying weather engine before we can get things like vertical convection in CB's, active 3-dimensional storm fronts, etc.

Edited July 6, 20187 yr by Paraffin

FSGRW. Works pretty well!

I'm using default weather and clouds at the moment in XP11. My primary sim is P3D but I really do enjoy X-Plane here and there, it's a solid improving platform. I've been very happy with Active Sky in P3D so I've been waiting to see what they come up with before I decide on what weather program I want to invest in for X-Plane.

I use XEnviro primarily as my weather engine and when its not working I use FSGRW with the default clouds as a backup.

With XEnviro I like the way if calculates the correct colors in the sky as well as the winds at all levels.

The clouds as far as I am concern, I know its a work in progress although you can get horizon to horizon coverage as well as low lever stratus clouds. You get a sense of speed when flying thru them which I'm always impress with, especially when doing takeoff's from LAX.  

As far as being concern with towering cumulonimbus or high clouds, if I want to see them, I just go to default if I am in the mode for it. Otherwise I could careless because I know they will find a solution in getting them into XEnviro at some point. My main concern when landing an aircraft is if I'm getting the condition I expecting to see (rain, wind, overcast with turbulence, low visibility) or what ever the weather report I experience at 2000 or 5000.  I am not going to go outside plane, at the point of landing, to measure the height of the clouds or see if they look right when I am trying to focus on landing. That's is something I just don't worry about at the moment.

I just enjoy flying and leave my worries about the next version for later.

Also HiFi Active Sky for X plane is suppose to be coming out later in the year and will be another alternative to have as well.

Bob

 

 

 

36 minutes ago, BobFS88 said:

As far as being concern with towering cumulonimbus or high clouds, if I want to see them, I just go to default if I am in the mode for it. Otherwise I could careless because I know they will find a solution in getting them into XEnviro at some point.

My point about CBs is that it won't matter if XEnviro, or Active Sky or anyone else throws a pretty image of a CB into the sim that looks realistic.

It won't matter, because it won't actually model the dynamics of a CB, including vertical convection, downdrafts, and temperature variation within the system.

For that, we need a full 3D weather model. And also modeling of discrete 3D storm systems, even if they're just interpolated from available METAR instead of current realtime data modeling. CBs and strong weather fronts in the sim should be real dangers that we have to track and avoid where possible, instead of pretty pictures we admire in the distance.

If a 3rd party developer can bring that to the sim, I'll buy it. But I think Laminar might have to build the groundwork for it inside the sim.

Using SkyMaxx Pro  for now. 

Skymax and fsgrw

Default with NOAA plugin for now but I'm interested in the next version of Xenvio, the new cloud engine looks pretty good from the W.I.P videos.

I was using xenviro, but switched over to FSEnhancer for now because it looks great and lets me chose my own weather 

'FSEnhancer' and the 'Ultimate Mod'.  Not your REX but better than default.

I'm using default weather in 11.25 and I find it rather plausible.

Did use FSGRW and SkyMax, but never really liked either, for this or that reason...

Since we recovered the aloft winds I'm fine with just default.

I do look fwd for ASXP though 🙂

FSGRW and UWX. Good performance and plausible weather. My choice.

Skymax: In general very nice but I have to tune settings so much down, it never looks that good on my PC.

Xenviro: Performance is better than Skymax but worse than UWX. Too many new problems with every update.

FSEnhancer for cloud textures and FSGRW as weather engine. Works well.