RAIN

[flydav]

I love the rain effect on the windshield but the drops are just a few while in the reality the water would be really much more. Is it possible to increase the number of the drops so that one must use the wiper in order to clean up the windshield? Thanks.

[Cameron]

Are you speaking about while on the ground?

 

There are wiper limitations in the air...

[flydav]

No on landing, the drops get on the windshield as the plane was on the ground, I believe that in flight the effect should be a bit more dramatic so that the use of wipers is made necessary.

Edited October 16, 2013 by flydav

[Goran_M]

Trust me, it is much easier to see out the windows when flying without the use of wipers than it is on the ground.  The airflow over the windows will blow the rain off very quickly when flying at high speed.

[guym-p]

Yes: check lists often specify a maximum airspeed above which wipers should not be used, and it's surprisingly low.  Rain repellent products were specifically developed for aircraft to reduce the speed at which raindrops bead up and roll off the screen in the airflow.  It works extremely well on cars at motorway speeds, so that one can turn off the wipers and see better.

[Ben Russell]

There's also depth of field issues going on.

Rain drops are a lot less distracting when you look through them, which is what we have to aim to simulate until we get some kind of advanced eye tracker and 3D display.. not even Occulus Rift comes close to solving that.

[AtomicFrawg]

Yes: check lists often specify a maximum airspeed above which wipers should not be used, and it's surprisingly low.  Rain repellent products were specifically developed for aircraft to reduce the speed at which raindrops bead up and roll off the screen in the airflow.  It works extremely well on cars at motorway speeds, so that one can turn off the wipers and see better.

 

I have to agree. I use rain-x window wash fluid, and I can pretty much turn off my wipers at 50+ mph. So I would imagine it would be way better at 100+ MPH.