8 minutes ago, SierraHotel said:

Yep, as Erich says, they work perfectly if you add "windy-things" to your community folder.

So every single windsock, regardless of whether it's default or a third party scenery, is correctly oriented with this? 

Yep. It's a good utility but unfortunately, @scotchegg pointed out the other problem: you have to be really close to them to see them at all. A lot of times this means you will taxi all the way to the end of a runway before you finally see a windsock telling you you should be taking off opposite-direction.

 

13 hours ago, chapstick said:

So every single windsock, regardless of whether it's default or a third party scenery, is correctly oriented with this? 

I have long had Windy Things installed and still see plenty of third-party and default windsocks blowing the wrong way and often duplicated. So, I'm pretty sure that the Windy Things only controls the correct operation of their own windsock objects. This paragraph from the Windy Things product description seems to confirm my thinking...

"Important Notes

Unlike the default Asobo windsock, all of the objects in this library have been designed so that they will remain properly oriented to the wind, regardless of how you rotate them in your scene.

I am still interested in creating internal windsock lighting in addition to the external windsock lighting included in this library, but the lighting system in MSFS 2020 does not seem to work well for that application.  If anyone has had success in creating a working lighting effect INSIDE an object in MSFS, please PM me here with your ideas".

 

Edited September 2, 20232 yr by mfahey
Typo Fix

Isn’t Windy Things just a model library that can be used by devs when creating airports with the scenery editor? I don’t see anything in it’s description that it automatically replaces anything simply by putting it into the community folder.

Edited September 2, 20232 yr by petz_e

25 minutes ago, petz_e said:

Isn’t Windy Things just a model library that can be used by devs when creating airports with the scenery editor? I don’t see anything in it’s description that it automatically replaces anything simply by putting it into the community folder.

Yes, it's a library that will do nothing in your community if you don't have a scenery that is using it.

In the real world (just PPL VFR pilot here), I always struggle finding the windsock(s), checking it and validating the wind direction, then process the runway choice 😉 So, the low LOD associated with a Tobii device make a great training tool 😉

Edited September 2, 20232 yr by vbazillio

Even if they work, which some don’t, it doesn’t matter because the LOD at airports is ridiculous. Popping cars in car parks and taxis signs appearing if by magic in front of you etc… My rose tinted glasses are well and truly removed. 

I always use the ctrl-z mod so I can see active wind.  Cheating?  Sure, but I would assume in the real world you’re either getting wind information from the FBO/ATIS/AWOS if available.  If not, you’ be outside and could at least get a broad sense of which way the wind is blowing before you choose a runway end to taxi to.

6 hours ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

Even if they work, which some don’t, it doesn’t matter because the LOD at airports is ridiculous. Popping cars in car parks and taxis signs appearing if by magic in front of you etc… My rose tinted glasses are well and truly removed. 

Which often leads to a delightful micro stutter / hang / 8-second freeze on approach as everything loads in at once.

Shocking that you can’t rely on wind socks in a so-called “flight simulator”. Unbelievable. 

On 9/1/2023 at 9:48 AM, ianb2469 said:

I like to check them against the weather to see how they do. In RW flying they’re of course very useful!

For instance the ones at LGKO by ORBX - there are two at the southern end of the runway and they point in opposing directions 😆

You know, that happens IRL too

Some long strips with 2 socks in less than flat surroundings or with trees/buildings close in almost always point in different directions

The SINGLE windsock at my home strip likes to do a 180 in the time it takes me to go from overhead to turning Final,  common on low wind thermic days

ETA...btw, I'm just musing and not in any way excusing the often ridiculous windsock behaviour in the game

Edited September 4, 20232 yr by Pathfinder633

On 9/2/2023 at 5:51 PM, Ianrivaldosmith said:

Even if they work, which some don’t, it doesn’t matter because the LOD at airports is ridiculous. Popping cars in car parks and taxis signs appearing if by magic in front of you etc… My rose tinted glasses are well and truly removed. 

deleted, never mind

Edited September 4, 20232 yr by Pathfinder633
CBA

On 9/3/2023 at 3:53 AM, Virtual-Chris said:

Shocking that you can’t rely on wind socks in a so-called “flight simulator”. Unbelievable. 

Seen plenty issues like this with SODE in thousands of hours flying P3D…just saying. 

I actually have had good representations of the wind and can't recall any errors recently.  Maybe it's because I only have a few custom airports?  I use them on occasion (when available) as there are certainly a lot of airports that don't have any metar reports,

In my RW flying days about 1/2 of the fields I flew into were uncontrolled but there was usually someone in the FBO monitoring Unicom,  I would simply place a call on Unicom requesting "winds & active" and plan my approach accordingly.

16 hours ago, RandallR said:

I actually have had good representations of the wind and can't recall any errors recently.  Maybe it's because I only have a few custom airports?  I use them on occasion (when available) as there are certainly a lot of airports that don't have any metar reports,

In my RW flying days about 1/2 of the fields I flew into were uncontrolled but there was usually someone in the FBO monitoring Unicom,  I would simply place a call on Unicom requesting "winds & active" and plan my approach accordingly.

Really?, Ive been to many many farm strips with a windsock but nobody monitoring the Radio, but the other way round?. Very odd here in the UK  I can't remember ever visiting a strip with no windsock but someone on the ground monitoring a radio (A few with neither)

The lack of windsocks for some airports I was referring to are in the sim (not the RW) though most of the sim airports appear to have them and they appear fairly close to where the charts say they should.

In my RW days I can't recall any airport I flew into or from NOT having a windsock (though they weren't always easy to locate from the air).  I did most of my flying in the 70's and only in the US.  Most of the fields had someone monitoring Unicom (they were not farm strips) but a number of them had runways that averaged in the 2500' - 3000' range and probably about half were turf.  The only strip I flew into that didn't have anyone around was a small resort operation.

In my home base the person in the FBO office once had to run to the bathroom while I was flying and missed an announcement about clearing the space for skydivers.  I suddenly found myself in the circuit with jumpers...