Commander112 Posted March 25, 2019 Report Posted March 25, 2019 (edited) I just installed Skymaxx Pro 1.4.7 into Windows 10, x-plane 10 I do not have the real wx connector plugin . I set clouds to 800ft msl At airport with field elevation of 400MSL I expected to see a stratus layer as I climbed through 800 MSL. The stratus layer depth is set to 3000 ft. As I fly through 800 msl, a paper thin flash occurs but no stratus layer. There are stratus layer above at about 5000MSL even though the wx is set to clear above the 3800 msl mark. Alos, if fly above stratus layer, that is several thousand feet deep, I can still see the runway lights. Set to HD stratus. Any ideas Edited March 25, 2019 by Commander112
sundog Posted March 26, 2019 Report Posted March 26, 2019 I'll assume your setting is "HD Cloud Puffs" and you're using SkyMaxx Pro 4.7.1 (if it's really 1.4.7, that's the problem!) The current version of SkyMaxx Pro is 4.7.3, by the way. If you just obtained SkyMaxx Pro, I'm not sure how you ended up with 4.7.1. If you can reproduce this, it would be really helpful to get a copy of your log.txt file after finishing the flight. There are certain edge cases where SMP will force the altitude of a cloud layer to something different in order to avoid some sort of visual anomaly, and you may have hit one of those. You might also experiment with other overcast settings; "solid stratiform" might give you something closer to what you expect. As for seeing runway lights through clouds, I believe that's an X-Plane bug that was fixed in X-Plane 11.
Commander112 Posted March 26, 2019 Author Report Posted March 26, 2019 (edited) I'm not sure what version I have running because the download clearly says 4.7.3 but when I go into the plugin menu and select Configure Clouds, it says 4.7.2. I've never owned a previous version. I am currently using "solid Stratus" which does look better but the same issue exists when using it. When I started up program to send you a log, I refreshed the weather back to clear then added the stratus layer with base at 800 and tops at 2800. Changed visibility down to 2 miles. Here is the log.txt Also, the default clouds that come with XP 10 are opaque until exiting base layer. Is there anyway to increase the opacity of SMP clouds? Its really needed for IFR training. Log.txt Edited March 26, 2019 by Commander112
Commander112 Posted March 26, 2019 Author Report Posted March 26, 2019 I have tried a number of scenarios and different settings and the clouds are not corresponding to the xplane weather settings
sundog Posted March 26, 2019 Report Posted March 26, 2019 Bear in mind we model "scud", which is random variation in the tops and bottoms of cloud layers. Clouds are not perfectly flat in reality, and we try to reflect that. Your log indicates that we positioned a stratus cloud layer with a base altitude of 84.3 meters, which is 276 feet. I'm guessing this is some sort of AGL / MSL confusion.
Commander112 Posted March 26, 2019 Author Report Posted March 26, 2019 I've been a pilot for over 45 years. I am not confused on what I am seeing. I don't know why you are bringing up scud layers. I am not talking about the cloud layer varying a hundred feet. I have it set for 800MSL out of an airport that is 450MS and the stratus layer is shown at 5000ft MSL I don't know what the log says or doesn't say. It is not rendering the cloud layers correctly. How do I fix that? Would you like to get on my computer with teamviewer?
sundog Posted March 26, 2019 Report Posted March 26, 2019 No, we don't do live support with TeamViewer. According to the log - which I know you don't care about, but it tells us exactly what SMP is doing under the hood - the stratus layer was positioned at 84.3 meters AGL. It looks like you're flying out of KRME, which is at an elevation of 154 meters. If I add those together I get 238 meters, which is 780 feet. Pretty close, considering local variations in elevation and such. The "scud" we simulate is within +- 150 meters of the cloud. None of that would explain you seeing a stratus layer with a bottom at 5,000 feet. According to the log, that just isn't happening. It might be helpful to see a screenshot showing this cloud layer you're seeing. It's possible it's some effect happening outside of SMP or something.
Commander112 Posted March 26, 2019 Author Report Posted March 26, 2019 (edited) When I select SkyMaxxx disenabled, the clouds look correct, clear above and solid stratus until breaking out at 800MSL (give or take). Can not see the runway lights while in clouds as an aside. I do care what the log says, I just don't know how to read it and it is giving conflicting info from what I am seeing. When I switch back SMP on, I get a single (I guess) layer at several thousand feet above and nothing below. Visibility is 6+ though its set at 2.5. As I descend through 800 MSL I get a quick "layer" that is very very thin, more of a flash (same on takeoff). The XP10 weather settings are 800 base 3000 MSL tops (set to stratus), other layers above are clear skies. Is there a cache problem here? What does the log say about the depth of the layer? I disabled Pilotedge and Vatsim, two plugins that have some wx interaction. Still the same thing. Edited March 26, 2019 by Commander112
sundog Posted March 26, 2019 Report Posted March 26, 2019 (edited) OK... so I think what's happening is that when you were at the ground, you did see the bottom of the cloud layer at 800 feet. When you flew through it, that was the flash you reported. So at this point, you're inside the cloud - and I think the issue is that the ground isn't fogged out as it should be, due to you being inside the cloud. I'm not really sure why that's happening; I suspect it must be some bug specific to X-Plane 10, as I'm pretty sure that works in X-Plane 11. We'll investigate it as we prepare our next release, but to answer your immediate question, no I don't have a fix for that. I'd suggest experimenting with our other options for overcast representation in the meantime - or consider upgrading to X-Plane 11, which is better supported at this point. Edited March 26, 2019 by sundog
Commander112 Posted March 26, 2019 Author Report Posted March 26, 2019 Can't update right now because Flythissim doesn't support xplane11 yet.
sundog Posted March 27, 2019 Report Posted March 27, 2019 Just to close this out - I've spent the morning testing things in XP10. It turns out that some changes we made for VR support in SkyMaxx Pro 4.7 had the side effect of breaking the in-cloud fog effects in X-Plane 10, if you selected "solid stratiform" or "broken stratiform" for the overcast representation. I've fixed that for our next release. I think that's what you were seeing. Separately, there were some adjustments happening to "overcast cumulus" cloud layer types if you had the cloud/terrain blending control set higher than zero that may have been affecting you when using other clouds types. I've also fixed that.
Commander112 Posted March 27, 2019 Author Report Posted March 27, 2019 (edited) When can I expect that release? And Thank you for your efforts Edited March 27, 2019 by Commander112
Commander112 Posted March 27, 2019 Author Report Posted March 27, 2019 Frank, Do you have any idea how long this will be to get an update out. Right now I have an app that is not useful and I am getting no where fast with Cameron. I would like to keep the app but it makes no sense at this time as it doesn't do anything. Jim
sundog Posted March 28, 2019 Report Posted March 28, 2019 (edited) Well, it's not true that "it doesn't do anything" - there's just a bug that affects overcast clouds in certain cases under X-Plane 10. But I understand that it's a show-stopper for how you're using it. I can't make any promises as to when this fix will be released. It needs to be tested, packaged up, and distributed by X-Aviation, all of which is outside of our control. We're also hoping to squeeze a few new features in with it over the next week before we take it to that stage. Edited March 28, 2019 by sundog
Commander112 Posted April 1, 2019 Author Report Posted April 1, 2019 OK, that was a poor use of words, I admit. I see you are going to fold this fix into 4.8, will this be a free update to those with 4.7.3?
Commander112 Posted May 7, 2019 Author Report Posted May 7, 2019 Any word on when this will be available?
sundog Posted May 8, 2019 Report Posted May 8, 2019 15 hours ago, Commander112 said: Any word on when this will be available? Beta testing just wrapped up, but I don't have a release date - that's out of our hands at this point!
Commander112 Posted May 21, 2019 Author Report Posted May 21, 2019 The new version 4.8 works great. Thank you. 1) Can you tell me the difference between stratus and overcast? I noticed that the runway lights are visible through the overcast but not for the stratus. The stratus works great for IFR training but was wondering what the difference is. 2) Can you explain further what the "Suppress towering storm clouds above 40 degrees latitude (unless told to explicitly by an external injector)" means. 3) Has the manual PDF changed? Its still labelled 4.7? Thanks again.
sundog Posted May 21, 2019 Report Posted May 21, 2019 1 hour ago, Commander112 said: The new version 4.8 works great. Thank you. 1) Can you tell me the difference between stratus and overcast? I noticed that the runway lights are visible through the overcast but not for the stratus. The stratus works great for IFR training but was wondering what the difference is. 2) Can you explain further what the "Suppress towering storm clouds above 40 degrees latitude (unless told to explicitly by an external injector)" means. 3) Has the manual PDF changed? Its still labelled 4.7? Thanks again. 1) We treat stratus and overcast the same within SMP, but some options for overcast representation in 4.8 will behave differently. I'm not sure why runway lights would appear differently - it might have more to do with the thickness of the cloud layer we're being asked to create, and the effect that has on the cloud's transparency. 2) When thunderstorms are present, we can simulate towering cumulus clouds that are very tall. These types of clouds are common in the tropics and sub-tropics, but not in more northerly latitudes. It resulted in a lot of complaints from people who live North of 40 degrees where these clouds aren't really seen, as they look unnatural to them. So, we no longer create those cloud types above that latitude, unless FSGRW explicitly tells us to. We will continue to represent cumulonimbus "anvil" clouds at all latitudes when appropriate. 3) We provided a 4.8 manual to X-Aviation; I'll follow up with them to make sure it was included in the release.
Commander112 Posted May 21, 2019 Author Report Posted May 21, 2019 (edited) Thanks for the quick reply. When it installed, SkyMaxx uninstalled the previous version and then installed the new version. There is a folder under resources / plugins named silverlining but when I run X-Plane 10, there is no entry under plugins for SkyMaxx. Its not under Plugins admin either. This is new. What am I doing wrong. I also rebooted after installing. I believe it installed because the clouds look different than the default xp clouds The log.txt says the win.xpl module could not be found (error 126), but it is sitting in /64/ folder just as it is supposed to be. Its dated 4/23/2019 about 2-3k in size. I uninstalled and reinstalled and get the same error. x-plane is asking me to reauthtenicate the license, which I do. Edited May 21, 2019 by Commander112
sundog Posted May 21, 2019 Report Posted May 21, 2019 (edited) Commander112, really not sure what happened there. I'd advise you to open up a support ticket with X-Aviation on that. It sounds like some sort of file permission issue or maybe a license issue; first thing I'd try is re-installing it. It does sound like you have the correct file installed - it just doesn't want to load it for some odd reason. Edited May 21, 2019 by sundog
Commander112 Posted May 21, 2019 Author Report Posted May 21, 2019 Re-installed, file is there, directory /64 has security set to full access control for everyone. Submitted support ticket.
Commander112 Posted May 22, 2019 Author Report Posted May 22, 2019 I haven't heard back from x-aviation support yet. THe comments above that this "works great" and the "runway lights can be seen through the clouds" was actually the default clouds under xp10 that I was looking at. I have not yet seen 4.8 working. But I have tried a few things: 1) I can reinstall 4.7.3 without any problems. It appears n Plugins 2) I installed 4.8 again and get the same result, it is not loaded nor is it found in the plugins. Error 126 in Log.txt, can't find win.xpl 3) My IT department says there's something wrong with the installer. Did you guys actually try installing the app from x-aviation onto a xp10 computer? 4) I actually tried reinstalling 4.8 this morning and I got a message I had not seen before. There has been an error. Unable to download component Skymaxx Pro. Component file version does not match. I elected to abort rather than continue. I then redownloaded the file from x-aviation, it appears to be the same file and reran. This time it says it installed completely, I verified my license and the same result, No SkyMaxx Pro 5) Are you guys responsible for the installer or is x-aviation. At the end of the install, it launches the old manual not the new one. 6) Did the win.xpl change so that it is no longer compatible with xp10? Is there a registry entry that I can check?
Recommended Posts