trying to check out the weather and low clouds using an non-precision NDB approach to LPGR Graciosa/Portugal in my Aerobask Phenom 300, using the G1000. I searched where I could tune and display the ADF frequency , but can't believe x-plane has no ADF in the G1000? does that mean no NDB approaches in all G1000 aircraft in x-plane 12?

On 1/7/2025 at 2:36 AM, jcomm said:

X-Plane 12 is THE KING OF EVERYTHING 😍😁

Nah it was uninstalled. So was 2020, and 2024. I uninstall more than anyone.

1 hour ago, Greazer said:

Nah it was uninstalled. So was 2020, and 2024. I uninstall more than anyone.

🤣

No no no  no !!!! Meeeee the UNINSTALLER !!!!

Not sure if its changed as I only fly X Plane now, but doesn't MSFS not have a visibility slider, or it didn't at some point, there was no way to adjust vis distance it was all done with clouds?

One thing I'd really like Laminar to implement would be a save function for custom set weather profiles, sometimes i just like to make winter wonderlands and spend a little time getting nice cloudscapes and then I loose them as soon as i have to exit. 

But overall the weather engine has drastically improved and I'm hoping they will iron out the graininess from the distant clouds at some point, not that its detracting much from the enjoyment! 🙂

Edited January 13, 20251 yr by Spam3d

1 hour ago, jcomm said:

No no no  no !!!! Meeeee the UNINSTALLER !!!!

You have competition 

One thing I'd like to see improved is better snow/ice cover. Whilst it looks good, the coverage is somewhat unrealistic and effects everything equally rather than being more localised. 

1 hour ago, tonywob said:

You have competition 

One thing I'd like to see improved is better snow/ice cover. Whilst it looks good, the coverage is somewhat unrealistic and effects everything equally rather than being more localised. 

Indeed Tony,

and, for me the illumination of low cloud layers during night when there is no moonlight is yet another thing I would like to be able to see represented, as well as the aircraft lights on clouds 🙂

and other details, like for instance making the thermals, when they're defined manually or the grib data suggests their existence, being associated with clouds whenever height(Td) < height(Inversion)

4 hours ago, Spam3d said:

Not sure if its changed as I only fly X Plane now, but doesn't MSFS not have a visibility slider, or it didn't at some point, there was no way to adjust vis distance it was all done with clouds?

One thing I'd really like Laminar to implement would be a save function for custom set weather profiles, sometimes i just like to make winter wonderlands and spend a little time getting nice cloudscapes and then I loose them as soon as i have to exit. 

But overall the weather engine has drastically improved and I'm hoping they will iron out the graininess from the distant clouds at some point, not that its detracting much from the enjoyment! 🙂

Somehow and although there is no way either in the Manual Weather dialogue or through simconnect to set visibility like in other flight simulation platforms like FSX / P3D and XP, MSFS 2020 and 2024's approach not being precise in terms of correct parametrization according for instance with METAR reports still does an acceptable job using it's "aerosol" approach.

For instance when there's intense rain, although the rain sometimes isn't graphically represented, at least in my install and with the aircraft I use, the effects on visibility are nicely, I'd say plausibly represented in FS 2024.

OFC X-Plane and Prepar3d specifilally model horizontal visibility and thus do a more correct modeling of it.

agreed XP11 is the king of weather simulation.

XP12 and MSFS still can't depict low IFR weather on my end

1 hour ago, drix9 said:

agreed XP11 is the king of weather simulation.

XP12 and MSFS still can't depict low IFR weather on my end

Could you be more specific please?

What exactly is failing ? Low visibility settings ? Precipitation effects on visibility ? ...

Thx!

P.S.: I use xEnviro 1.34 and it does it's job better than default weather in some aspects, although I find default weather has progressed quite promissingly in the latest updates.

2 hours ago, drix9 said:

agreed XP11 is the king of weather simulation.

XP12 and MSFS still can't depict low IFR weather on my end

Sure XP11...with all clouds disappearing all 10 minutes and being drawn again...one of the worst weather depictions ever.

10 hours ago, drix9 said:

agreed XP11 is the king of weather simulation.

XP12 and MSFS still can't depict low IFR weather on my end

Now that's an opinion I never thought I'd read.

XP12 weather is fine for me apart from the ice/snow coverage. I'd like historic weather and some other features, but overall it gives pretty accurate coverage. Even for where I live, it does a good job of interpolating between METARs and other data and transitions are smooth and gradual and often the conditions outside match what I'm seeing in real life.

XP11 was a pretty bad that I had to use xEnviro, in XP12 I feel no need to use 3rd party software. MFS also is pretty decent, although its simulation of IMC conditions needs work

I find it funny that people should expect "real", weather, when the data available can only ever provide a best guess. If the weather ever looks correct where you are, its a pure fluke.

Maybe in the future, with the help of modern techniques, they can merge not only grib data but also satellite and Earth cam data to better paint the skies.

MSFS was going in that direction with the Meteoblue feed which itself uses some composed information techniques.

Anyway I find that overall XP12 does a very good job these days at replicating the skies, including high level clouds, and does it better than FS 2024 which is a bit better than FS 2020.

I am using also xEnviro with XP12 and I find it under some circumstances even better than default.

 

mjrheath - a point I have been patiently pointing out to simmers since day one. Even producing a forecast is a complex process involving a variety of different data sources. Even the basic Metar is a compromise when it comes to cloud amount, type, and distribution and in fact will leave out some visible cloud to report the main type at a particular level although wind, temperature and pressures are accurate. The trend to autostations has made it worse because most automatic stations have no means of recording cloud at all only the basics. So the improvement in weather depiction is quite impressive but will never give you a true picture - too many variables. 

Thought I would throw in this chart this what the met people get from balloon radio sonde flights which they do regularly at a lot of met stations. It charts temperature, moisture wind and pressure as the balloon rises in the atmosphere. As can be seen nothing is a straight line and can be very complicated. 

The red line is temperature, the green line is moisture or Dew Point, LCL is the lifted condensation level that is the level to which the moisture must be lifted for cloud to form - note it tells you nothing about cloud type. The synoptic charts are the source of flow data or direction but are again temperature and pressure dependant and when you get to higher altitudes the normal high to low gradient for pressure holds but now temperature differences keep the flow going not pressure, so not so easy. This is but one source that goes into met weather forecasts. 

As I said what I get in the sim is far from perfect but it has come a long way and is now sufficiently realistic for a pleasant or unpleasant experience. When LM latched onto True Sky for drawing clouds by pixels on a computer screen it took them a few years in P3D to even get it to look right I delved a lot into True Sky which was for the computer gaming industry and was amazed that they had managed to achieve so much compared to the cartoon pictures from FSX and earlier days. In my humble view Laminar have made great strides in getting weather and cloud depictions working in the sim and leave the rest for dead. 

Did a flight from Hanoi to Vinh in Vietnam this morning in the sim- fascinating that the weather matched the forecasts and metars perfectly even the cloud bases were spot on, as for the cloud depiction well always limited but pretty good really. 

If I could buy shares in Laminar I probably would they are solving some really tricky simulator or computer programming problems bit by bit and there is a lot of stuff in this sim we take for granted that is a gold mine in its own right - probably time for MS to buy em up, pinch the good bits and then shut em down which is their standard operating procedure. 

 

Edited January 18, 20251 yr by coastaldriver