Vanishing Overcast/Fog

[HamSammich]

This has been a chronic problem throughout SkyMaxx versions. Enclosed is a link to a brief video demonstrating it and then making the same quick flight in default weather. Leaving aside all the advantages of SkyMaxx's cloud depiction, it seems to me to be utterly broken in this respect.

Scenario is as follows. On the ground in fog or low overcast. Climbing does not put you into it. Instead, the layer recedes away from you and vanishes beneath you. It works in reverse on arrival. You descend from clear skies, with a clear view of the ground, into the same conditions--and this is important--without EVER descending through ANYTHING. Performance considerations aside, X-Plane, on its own, renders this just fine.

Getting this right strikes me as fundamental. Otherwise, practicing IFR procedures which, as you know, involve decision altitudes, becomes pretty much impossible.

Here's the short video and, attached, are my log.txt and METAR.rwx.

Best,

 

Marshall

 

METAR.rwx

Log.txt

[sundog]

The underlying issue here is that Real Weather Connector is interpreting the METAR data differently than X-Plane would have. X-Plane is fogging the scene based on its interpretation, while SMP is drawing clouds based on RWC's interpretation.

The METAR in question is:

CZST 061454Z 00000KT 2SM -RA BR VV004 10/10 A2985 RMK FG8 SLP111

This indicates low visibility and rain at the ground, but doesn't actually indicate any clouds at all! So RWC / SMP is treating this as clear skies, even though it obviously isn't with such low visibility. Without an OVC entry in there, RWC doesn't see the clouds that it needs to create.

I think X-Plane is just fabricating its own overcast ground fog layer in response to these conditions, but since SMP disables X-Plane's built-in clouds, they're not appearing which makes the fog appear inconsistent.

We've talked to Laminar about a mechanism to allow X-Plane to sync its internal understanding of cloud coverage with our own, and maybe we'll see that in a future release of X-Plane and SMP. For now however, perhaps we could use the VV004 entry as a clue that heavy cloud cover is present, but can't be accurately observed by whoever is reporting it due to low visibility.

The only work-around right now would be to disable RWC while flying in these specific conditions. They're fairly rare, though - I only see these problematic conditions at a handful of airports around the world in the METAR file you provided.

Thanks for providing such complete data. I wasn't aware of this case until now.

 

Edited September 6, 2016 by sundog

[sundog]

Looking at the VV entries does seem to produce the desired results. I implemented that and now you can see some nice ground fog over CZST using the METAR file you provided:

The SkyMaxx Pro 3.3.2 update is already in the process of being delivered, so I'm not sure we can squeeze this change into it. But if not, it's queued up for the next update.

 

[HamSammich]

Frank,

 

Thanks for the quick eyeballs. For a user, I don't much care one way or another who's doing what. Which is not to say I don't appreciate the difficulties you get saddled with. Please see what you can do. I'd settle for no fog or fog--whichever--just not fog that disappears. Keep it up. Thanks.

best,

 

Marshall

[HamSammich]

Frank,

 

Wow. Sounds good. If you'd like, I'll take that video down--especially since it will soon be obsolete.

 

Best,

 

marshall

[sundog]

I'd appreciate it! Or at least change the title to be a little less scary

[HamSammich]

How bout I change it to "Soon-to-be-fixed?" :-)

 

I'll just axe it. (There goes my best click-bait)

 

Best,

 

marshall