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Release Date Announcement - Real Weather Connector!


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Captains,

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!

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

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It is rather disappointing that RWC only works with x-plane's real weather or FSGRW, since the former only provides winds aloft over the USA and the latter does not have a Mac version; since I don't live in the USA and I use a Mac, I'm afraid it's not for me. I was really looking forward to this development and I am very sad!

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7 minutes ago, Jose Almeida said:

It is rather disappointing that RWC only works with x-plane's real weather or FSGRW, since the former only provides winds aloft over the USA and the latter does not have a Mac version; since I don't live in the USA and I use a Mac, I'm afraid it's not for me. I was really looking forward to this development and I am very sad!

Encourage the developer of whichever weather injector you use to implement METAR based files! :) It's simply the default X-Plane METAR format, so nothing impossible or daunting for them (I think you use NOAA).

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The very important feature of NOAA is that it includes various layers of turbulence and winds aloft even in areas not covered by METARs (typically over the oceans or large seas). I'm not sure if the default XPL weather can do any of that. The news is especially disappointing because of what the original announcement said:

Quote

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.

FSGRW is of course an option but 40 EUR for a mere weather injector? Go figure. Now the only hope is to wait and see if the developer of the NOAA plugin can somehow adapt it to work with RWC.

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6 minutes ago, ONDR4.cz said:

I'm not sure if the default XPL weather can do any of that. The news is especially disappointing because of what the original announcement said

Sadly it wasn't until later where we discovered NOAA does some funny business with disabling certain real weather features, thereby bypassing items RWC needs to work.

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A question about how this works:

I do almost all my flying in the FSEconomy game, where it's fun to have the variety from real weather and the cloud effects from SkyMaxx Pro, but I still have to complete each assignment in the FSE game. No weather diversions allowed! 

So, what I'm doing now, is to load up X-Plane's default "real weather from the Net," at the departing airport, then see if the winds or cloud base would make the landing too difficult. I'm usually flying short enough hops that it's basically the same weather at the destination airport. Many of the airstrips I fly into with FSE are small, with non-precision approaches, and I usually fly light stuff like GA bush planes and helicopters that can't handle severe conditions.

If the weather doesn't look like I could complete the FSE assignment, I adjust it on the X-Plane weather page by backing down the winds and raising the cloud base if needed. In other words, I'm flying with hand-tweaked real weather, when the conditions are really bad out there in the real world.

Can I do the same thing with RWC? In other words, have it load in real weather but adjust it and "lock" it on the fly so I can complete an FSE assignment? Or am I always flying in downloaded weather full-time when I'm using RWC, take it or leave it?
 

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7 minutes ago, Paraffin said:

Can I do the same thing with RWC? In other words, have it load in real weather but adjust it and "lock" it on the fly so I can complete an FSE assignment?

You can absolutely do this! Real Weather Connector recognizes if you have the real weather option checked in X-Plane. If you adjust it to be localized weather to your liking then SkyMaxx Pro v3 will kick back to it's original way pre-RWC. All of this is "on the fly", so this should be easy for you as a whole. :)

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51 minutes ago, Cameron said:

You can absolutely do this! Real Weather Connector recognizes if you have the real weather option checked in X-Plane. If you adjust it to be localized weather to your liking then SkyMaxx Pro v3 will kick back to it's original way pre-RWC. All of this is "on the fly", so this should be easy for you as a whole. :)

That's great Cameron, thanks! That will let me pick and choose between static or updated, depending on real-world conditions. I'm really looking forward to this.

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7 minutes ago, Cameron said:

I don't understand this question (the first one).

Default X-Plane real weather download is shown in the video.

From what I understand you can either use the default real-world wx OR fsgrw. Is this not true? Does weather connector make these two run together at the same time? Maybe I'm just completely misunderstanding the functionality of this add-on... :/

Edited by chase172
Grammar
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From what I understand you can either use the default real-world wx OR fsgrw. Is this not true? Does weather connector make these two run together at the same time? Maybe I'm just completely missing the functionality of this add-on... :/

It can use ANY weather injector which downloads metar.rwx files from the Internet. I used the default real weather option or FSGRW as examples.

X-Plane wouldn't allow you to use both at once. Why would you even want to?

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11 minutes ago, Cameron said:

 

 

It can use ANY weather injector which downloads metar.rwx files from the Internet. I used the default real weather option or FSGRW as examples.

 

X-Plane wouldn't allow you to use both at once. Why would you even want to?

The way I see it, they both have their pros and cons. So to be able to compile the data from both AND THEN inject the weather would seem like a great product and it's what I thought the aim of the weather connector was. The video description says you can use the default engine and FSGRW is optional, so I thought this was maybe the case. 

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42 minutes ago, chase172 said:

So to be able to compile the data from both AND THEN inject the weather would seem like a great product and it's what I thought the aim of the weather connector was.

But they both compile the same data from their own sources...so it's not really right to say what you just did.

You are definitely not understanding the aim of Real Weather Connector.

As it stands now, if you load up FSGRW or X-Plane real weather, then SkyMaxx Pro will render the ENTIRE sky with clouds for the exact area where your aircraft is. So, if you are over broken clouds, but there is an overcast front 10 miles away, you will actually see broken clouds 10 miles and beyond until you get to the overcast front boundary, and all of a sudden the entire weather scene will re-draw to now show all overcast.

With Real Weather Connector it works with SkyMaxx Pro v3.1 to place various weather fronts where they should be, meaning you can now be over those broken clouds and see the overcast ahead of you. No sudden, jarring transition. This basically oversteps what's "not possible" with X-Plane right now by making our own METAR file parser...so when X-Plane or FSGRW download these files from the internet, Real Weather Connector then reads it and grids the clouds throughout the area as they should be shown.

Let's use the below image as an example...see how in the image there are clear skies and the aircraft is approaching a weather front? Without Real Weather Connector this image would have actually had those clouds throughout the entire image...no discernible boundary for where the weather system starts.

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5 hours ago, Jose Almeida said:

It is rather disappointing that RWC only works with x-plane's real weather or FSGRW, since the former only provides winds aloft over the USA and the latter does not have a Mac version; since I don't live in the USA and I use a Mac, I'm afraid it's not for me. I was really looking forward to this development and I am very sad!

Global winds aloft with x-plane's real weather is planned for 10.50, at least according to the developer blog.

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Looking forward to trying the product...  I second Mmerelles' question above; I run a two computer setup, xplane running on both, one drives an out the window view (slaved) and the other (the master) the panel view.  At present SkyMaxx is running on both machines and FSGRW running only on the master.  I would assume Weather Connector would be put on the master machine and pass all weather info to the slaved machine ?  Any comment or expertise out there on this question ?

 

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