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INTRODUCTION Ventura Sky is a free Fly With Lua script for X-Plane 10.50 which has the potential to transform your X-Plane experience. Requiring SkyMaxx Pro v3, Real Weather Connector, [XPGFS] NOAA Weather plug-in 2.2.2 and Maxx FX (optional), Ventura Sky creates a dynamic atmosphere that combines the variety of real weather with an optimized, dynamic visibility limit which will seamlessly interpolate between live visibilities and increase as you climb out of the weather. By synchronizing visibility, raleigh scattering („haze“) and colors (the Ventura Sky sky color set comes included), Ventura Sky enables a calibrated, vibrant environment for X-Plane that takes full advantage of what X-Plane’s HDR mode parameters have to offer. FEATURES Get rid of X-Plane’s standard dull, washed out day colors - Ventura Sky offers a vivid, realistic look at all times of the day, at all altitudes. Solid visibility limit at 16nm (25700m) below 10000 feet (all values editable in the script), independent from cloud layers. The sky colors have been adjusted to give you a pristine, clear blue sky at 16nm (if the weather allows it). The result is a sophisticated balance of realism and performance. Along with the improved visuals (less aliasing) comes the performance benefit of a visibility limit. Enjoy X-Plane scenery flying low without having to pay for visibility you don’t need. Realtime visibility data from the [XPGFS] NOAA Weather plug-in will be deployed seamlessly - any visibility change will be smooth (10m per frame), never again will you suffer a sudden, immersion killing switch. Visibilities higher than 16nm will always be cut to 16nm (or your desired value) prior to being deployed. Above 10000 feet, visibility will increase / decrease dynamically based on your altitude. By the time you reach say FL 320, X-Plane will flex it’s long range visibility muscles. Descend below 10000ft and the nearest live visibility will be deployed (limit applied if necessary). No more fade-in of scenery - no more „ghost“ buildings at the horizon. Buildings will be drawn fully once they are visible. Increases „pop-in“ effect a little, but that’s arguably better than having transparent buildings on the horizon. Enjoy 6X boosted atmospheric scattering at low altitudes and 4x at high altitudes for improved depth perception - all settings have been synchronized with the Ventura Sky sky color set for maximum realism and seamlessness - at all positions of the sun. A simple status report will be available in your X-Plane dev console. Check the current conditions and the state of the script as you fly, easily understand what it does. Ventura Sky is configuration free - drop the script in the Fly With Lua scripts folder and it will just work next time you start your sim. However, many values may be edited when you open the script (explanations inside). TECHNICAL DETAILS Ventura Sky uses X-Plane datarefs to build the atmosphere and this prohibits X-Plane’s own clouds to be drawn (we need a single, clear cloud layer that goes up to 46000 feet). The [XPGFS] NOAA Weather plug-in hands temperature, pressure and winds directly to X-Plane, however we make it skip cloud levels and have it hand its calculated visibility to the Ventura Sky script (via a dummy variable) instead of X-Plane itself. The Ventura Sky script then calculates visibility and sky condition and writes these to X-Plane. SkyMaxx Pro v3 and Real Weather Connector, then inject METAR data based clouds via the „Always“ function. As of now, we recommend to turn off cloud shadows of SkyMaxx, as these are currently not working well with X-Plane’s own haze. IMPORTANT NOTE Ventura Sky ONLY works with real weather provided by the [XPGFS] NOAA Weather plug-in 2.2.2 (.py file needs to be edited, instructions below). SkyMaxx Pro v3 and Real Weather Connector (set to „Always“) is required to inject clouds. It has only been tested in X-Plane’s HDR rendering mode. Maxx FX is optional, settings are included to achieve exactly the look shown.

Hey guys, I have a question about the PMDG 737NGX Re-entry procedures. I've been unsuccessful at descending through FL360 and It has me scratching my head. Currently, i've been using a standard VNAV descent profile to begin my re-entry but I always end up in an aircraft overstress. I tried to RTFM, but I couldn't find anything pertaining to atmospheric re-entry in the POH or SOP. When reaching FL360 or above, what attitude do you guys normally use to continue your descent down to the STAR? Also, I've had serious issues getting the APU to run through my cruise and descent. I'm following Ryan's tutorials but the APU simply won't start, it gives me a "APU FAULT" error. I also get an "Above Max Cert Alt." Warning on the FMC whenever I climb to cruise. I included a picture of my last failed re-entry attempt. I don't know if the attitude was too steep, but I always overstress it whenever I reach Mach 4.5. Any help in solving my problems would be appreciated. Thanks!