RWC and visibility setting

[Sweet19blue]

Hello,

I am new to Xplane, and went for your great weather bundle!

I was flying test flights with RWC via Xplane default realtime weather , SMP of course but also the Real Haze Terra plugin, and wondered how all these plugins deal with visibility.

If, for exemple, I have a CAVOK metar, how is the visibility value chosen? Because I was flying CAVOK and got 16 sm visibility (real terrain haze read value) which very hazy (but for sure 16sm would be 9999). It seems I can not increase visibility inside Real Terra Haze because if I do so, internet real time weather disconnect immediately. I Wonder what is the link between Xplane visibility setting, SMP visibility et real haze terra visibility.

Also, is there a way to limit maximum visibility in order to preserve performance and look? For exemple, if RWC is asked to display great CAVOK conditions, is there a way not to have unlimited visibility to the horizon, but rather a maximum visibiltiy of 45SM ?

Sorry for newbie questions,

Keep up the good work,

Pierre

 

 

 

 

 

[sundog]

I don't use Real Terra Haze myself, so I'll have to rely on others to answer most of your questions. But I can tell you the Skymaxx Pro and Real Weather Connector generally don't mess with whatever RTH + X-Plane would have done with visibility without us; for the most part, we just let X-Plane do its thing with visibility. The one exception is if you're flying into a stratiform cloud. Apart from that, SMP and RWC don't enter the picture at all with visibility effects.

[Havner]

RTH's visibility setting are basically setting weather's visibility. Setting this by hand will make X-Plane disable real-weather and fall back to uniform weather. That's because visibility range is tied to weather. It's either automatically updated or set by hand in weather settings.

There is an ugly workaround though. Set X-Plane to uniform weather. Set RWC to "always". Then you can set visibility by hand (either in RTH or in X-Plane's weather window). Though with this setting you will only have clouds set from real weather stations (by RWC). You won't have any other weather updates (winds, etc).

[Sweet19blue]

Thank you for these explanations! I will leave visibility autoupdate then. But just to confirm : How is the visibility chosen by RWC? Like I said, a CAVOK metar or a 9999 visibility may be from 11 km visibility to unlimited in reality. I guess RWC does  random calculation to set visibility setting between those values, am I right?

Pierre

 

[sundog]

1 hour ago, Sweet19blue said:

Thank you for these explanations! I will leave visibility autoupdate then. But just to confirm : How is the visibility chosen by RWC? Like I said, a CAVOK metar or a 9999 visibility may be from 11 km visibility to unlimited in reality. I guess RWC does  random calculation to set visibility setting between those values, am I right?

Pierre

 

RWC does not touch X-Plane's visibility settings; it leaves it to do what it would have done without RWC based on its own interpretation of METAR or what external add-ons are telling it. RWC only concerns itself with the placement of clouds.

As for how X-Plane interprets CAVOK or 9999 - only the wizards at Laminar know for sure! If I were them, I'd set the visibility as far as I could while still obscuring the edges of the terrain tiles that are loaded.

[Sweet19blue]

Ok I understood! Many thanks ! I will try to ask if there is a way to set maximum visibility value Inside Xplane itself.

By the way, I have another question : Does RWC SMP can display Cumulonimbus cloud with high vertical extension? I am yet to find a video or screenshot of such a cloud.

thanks fo your hard work,

Pierre

 

[sundog]

We do have specific clouds for cumulonimbus "anvil" clouds as well as towering cumulus. If the METAR includes "CB" or "TCU" we honor it.  As summer approaches they'll become easier to find  For now, check a national weather map to find stormy areas and you're likely to find them there.

[Sweet19blue]

Sorry but I just wonder about one more thing : Is it possible to load real weather via RWC at the beginning of the flight, and then switch off real time weather but keep weather conditions RWC injected at first in the game on a global scale? Is it also possible to save a weather situation to fly in again at a later time?

Pierre

 

Edited May 11, 2016 by Sweet19blue

[sundog]

7 hours ago, Sweet19blue said:

Sorry but I just wonder about one more thing : Is it possible to load real weather via RWC at the beginning of the flight, and then switch off real time weather but keep weather conditions RWC injected at first in the game on a global scale? Is it also possible to save a weather situation to fly in again at a later time?

Pierre

 

Sounds like you might want to invest in the FSGRW weather engine add-on. It has a "static weather download" option that would fulfill your first question, and the ability to load historical weather for your second.

RWC will read the METAR data provided by FSGRW and display the clouds accordingly.