With SkyMaxx Pro 3.1 now out the door and so much positive feedback coming back to us through various channels, we're ready for the next step: Real Weather Connector!

We have completed our beta testing phase and the packaging for retail begins now. For those of you hearing about Real Weather Connector for the first time, Real Weather Connector couples with SkyMaxx Pro v3.1 when you have the real weather option selected in X-Plane. Without Real Weather Connector there is a limitation in the X-Plane plugin SDK which makes it impossible for products like SkyMaxx Pro to access real weather data in far out distances. Instead, you would see real weather ONLY for the area your aircraft is flying over, and it would be uniformly set for the entire scene (meaning you can't see overcast ahead if broken clouds are below you; the whole scene would be broken clouds instead). After a ton of work (more programming code than in SkyMaxx Pro v3 itself!), Real Weather Connector now makes this possible reading downloaded weather data from the default X-Plane real weather METAR file format OR a program like FSGRW (note: EFASS and NOAA are not compatible with Real Weather Connector as they do not provide the required data files for Real Weather Connector to be able to work its magic!). We have actually had rather spectacular results with the default real weather download functionality in X-Plane. These third party programs (like FSGRW) are optional, not required!

So, again in simpler terms, Real Weather Connector lets you see different weather conditions in the distance, and fly into them smoothly, just like in real life. All of the clouds around you will be in the right place and at the right altitude, and won't just "pop" in as you fly. If you look closely at the screenshots below, you'll see there are many different weather systems and cloud conditions visible in the same view - that wasn't possible before with SkyMaxx Pro v3!

Real Weather Connector will be released this coming Friday, April 15, 2016.

As a thank you to our current customers, anyone who purchases SkyMaxx Pro v3 prior to April 15, 2016 will receive a discount to be used towards the purchase of this product! We will send out discount codes before the product goes live so you have the opportunity to purchase this product as soon as it's available.

Of course, no final announcement is complete without a promotional video (and more screenshots below the video), so we're excited to show you that now!

Further to the video above, check out some of these awesome images by @Yidahoo showcasing Real Weather Connector in action. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

We'll see you in the skies with awesome weather scenes this Friday! 

Enjoy!

Since the release of SkyMaxx Pro v1 one of the most requested features was to be able to see cloud/weather formations in the distance similar in a manner to what X-Plane default clouds are able to achieve (but at a huge cost of performance running those default clouds).

Unfortunately, the X-Plane plug-in Software Development Kit has not made such a seemingly trivial concept very easy to achieve, as the weather "radar" X-Plane draws is actually only available to default X-Plane's own cloud system at a root level. Laminar has stated that allowing this same information to be accessible to plugins would require a certain amount of work they are unable to provide at this time, so we've sat in limbo contemplating what we can do to improve this (or how).

It is with great excitement that we announce Real Weather Connector today after lots of work and research on how to tackle a perceived issue for the SkyMaxx Pro series.

To be precise, Real Weather Connector will further enhance your flying sessions when utilizing real world weather from sources like NOAA, FSGRW, X-Plane's Real WX Download option, EFASS, etc. It will parse the METAR data downloaded from these applications and grid the SkyMaxx Pro v3 clouds to their respective locations.

Don't think of it as a replacement for whatever you use to get real weather from. It enhances the experience by creating a more direct link between these apps and SkyMaxx Pro - and it also works great with X-Plane's built-in real world weather or any weather engine that drops METAR files.

As an example:

If you flew without Real Weather Connector installed right now your SkyMaxx Pro v3 clouds will draw clouds from METAR data download from apps like those listed above and create weather based on your EXACT aircraft location while you fly. What happens here is what some refer to as clouds popping in and out, miraculously changing from one extreme to another (like broken clouds suddenly disappear and overcast comes in out of nowhere). You won't see weather systems ahead or behind you, but instead the same type of cloud systems everywhere you look until you move to the next closest METAR location. With Real Weather Connector you will see weather systems in the distance! You will see systems behind you, to your left, and to your right all based on the real weather data you download. It makes for an amazingly immersive experience, and we're really excited to have achieved this!

The finer details:

• Real Weather Connector will create weather systems based on downloaded Real World data from programs like those listed above.
• It will require SkyMaxx Pro v3.1. The version 3.1 update will be free to all existing customers and contain other enhancements we will announce soon.
• SkyMaxx Pro v3 will recognize when Real Weather Connector is installed and a new menu option will become available to select whether you'd like to use real weather data or not.
• Real Weather Connector will be its own product, but is dependent on SkyMaxx Pro v3 to run. A lot of R&D has gone into this to make this work. As usual, all SkyMaxx Pro v3 updates will be free for that respective product, but we need to be able to pay the bills for the development and time it took away from our families to create this Real Weather Connector add-on. A price will be announced at a later time. To be clear, there are more lines of code to produce Real Weather Connector than there is in SkyMaxx Pro v3. It's been that big of a project!
• We are currently in beta and trying to catch any bugs we can find (and we expect to find some with such a complex way to draw these clouds). We do not know how long this process will last, but we are working diligently to get it into your hands.

Screenshots are below a few posts down as well as HERE!

Happy Flying, and thanks for looking!

Doing more testing today around Florida and Colorado. Just thought I would post a few more pics doing some long haul flying and enjoying the weather!

 Looking back towards Denver at FL370 with an overcast layer behind us.

Approaching the Gunnison, CO area with a nasty storm ahead. This went on as far as the eye could see!