RWC - Still getting weather pops/changes

[iGavB]

Hi

I am using RWC and believe it was supposed to stop dramatic weather changes and popping, this is still happening for me, this is both with NOAA and without (just using X-Planes weather system). I am also using SkyMaxx Pro V3.x

Any ideas why I would still be getting weather pops?

[AeroPictor]

A non-technical guessing, the weather reporting sites used to get the weather data send out this data in a non-continuous way. Depending on the geographic area the changes in real world can also brutal.  The weather source gathers the data, process it to a format readable by software like RWC, SkyMaxx and X-Plane and ice this data is published the gathering starts over so I guess the delay is enough to have noticeable changes in the weather conditions.

I know that the US has a very thigh network of weather reporting stations, whereas in France this network is much more loose or distant. 

Technically better informed contributor might give or more reasonable explanation… 

Happy landings…   

[sundog]

There are two things that will cause weather to completely reload even with RWC:

- If you cross a boundary in X-Plane where X-Plane's internal coordinate system changes in order to re-align itself with a round Earth, then we re-create our clouds to ensure they are in the proper locations. I believe this happens whenever you cross a one degree tile boundary. If this is happening, you should see some messages in your log.txt from Skymaxx Pro indicating a coordinate system change.

- If a new metar.rwx file is found, we parse it an recreate the clouds. So if you've set your METAR to automatically update every 10 minutes, you'll see the clouds reload every 10 minutes.

 

 

[Domestos]

On 4/24/2016 at 0:19 PM, sundog said:

If a new metar.rwx file is found, we parse it an recreate the clouds. So if you've set your METAR to automatically update every 10 minutes, you'll see the clouds reload every 10 minutes.

That's exactly what I hoped to avoid by buying RWC. I guess I should have read the info more closely.

This is what I read:

"If you flew without Real Weather Connector installed right now your SkyMaxx Pro v3 clouds will draw clouds from METAR data download from apps like those listed above and create weather based on your EXACT aircraft location while you fly. What happens here is what some refer to as clouds popping in and out, miraculously changing from one extreme to another (like broken clouds suddenly disappear and overcast comes in out of nowhere). You won't see weather systems ahead or behind you, but instead the same type of cloud systems everywhere you look until you move to the next closest METAR location. With Real Weather Connector you will see weather systems in the distance! You will see systems behind you, to your left, and to your right all based on the real weather data you download. It makes for an amazingly immersive experience, and we're really excited to have achieved this!"

Domestos

Edited April 27, 2016 by Domestos

[sundog]

Maybe I didn't word that well. Real Weather Connector lets you fly into different weather systems in real time. But if brand-new global weather conditions are received, then of course we have to represent that new, different weather where you are somehow.

METAR data only gets refreshed once per hour by X-Plane, so at most this would happen once every hour using X-Plane's built-in weather system (or if you have RWC set to "always").

 

[Jason Gilholme]

Yes, I must agree as well that the information provided when purchasing RWC from x-aviation is very misleading as well.  This is from their website:

 

Quick Facts: Takes real world weather data in X-Plane and more precisely places clouds from SkyMaxx Pro v3.1. With Real Weather Connector you'll be able to actually see weather fronts ahead, behind, or on either side of you without abrupt changes to the weather! Watch the video below for more insight!

 

I've been flying with this plug-in for a while (both online and offline) with various settings and I've been getting lots of popping and stalls while it reloads the weather.  This is the reason I bought the product and it hasn't done what it says it should do.  Is there anything I can try on my end before I contact X-Aviation to see if they can refund me.

[Cameron]

4 minutes ago, Jason Gilholme said:

Yes, I must agree as well that the information provided when purchasing RWC from x-aviation is very misleading as well.  This is from their website:

 

Quick Facts: Takes real world weather data in X-Plane and more precisely places clouds from SkyMaxx Pro v3.1. With Real Weather Connector you'll be able to actually see weather fronts ahead, behind, or on either side of you without abrupt changes to the weather! Watch the video below for more insight!

 

I've been flying with this plug-in for a while (both online and offline) with various settings and I've been getting lots of popping and stalls while it reloads the weather.  This is the reason I bought the product and it hasn't done what it says it should do.  Is there anything I can try on my end before I contact X-Aviation to see if they can refund me.

Sounds like you have some application constantly updating your weather file. This would perhaps be the cause (FSGRW does this unless you set it to one time injection).

Due to the nature of downloads, we do not offer refunds on activated products (as posted on our website).

[Jason Gilholme]

Hi Cameron,

It's understandable about the refund - I just submitted a support ticket through x-aviation and updated myself on your t's & c's.

At the moment I'm running a very vanilla xplane from a plugins perspective.  Just SkyMaxx + RWC + MaxxFx.    I was flying offline with RWC set to always (trying to take x planes real weather updating out of the equation) and had a few large weather updates happen.  I managed to take a before and after screen shot to show the difference:

http://jasongilholme.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/before.jpg

http://jasongilholme.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/after.jpg

Is there anything you can do to help?

[Jason Gilholme]

After doing some more reading, it turns out that I'm also a victim of the co-ordinate system limitation.  Here's an extract from my log.txt

 

1:10:22.457 I/SCN: DSF load time: 40057 for file Custom Scenery/w2xp_Australia-Oceania/Earth nav data/-40+140/-40+147.dsf (0 tris)
1:10:23.636 I/SCN: DSF load time: 1202465 for file Custom Scenery/zzz_hd_global_scenery3/Earth nav data/-40+140/-40+147.dsf (69354 tris)
1:10:23.745 I/SCN: DSF load time: 1041 for file Custom Scenery/w2xp_Australia-Oceania/Earth nav data/-40+140/-40+148.dsf (0 tris)
1:10:24.211 I/SCN: DSF load time: 698229 for file Custom Scenery/zzz_hd_global_scenery3/Earth nav data/-40+140/-40+148.dsf (41070 tris)
Skymaxx Pro: Requesting new METAR download.
Skymaxx Pro: METAR data download message received.
SkyMaxx Pro: Found new MAXX_METAR.rwx file
SkyMaxx Pro: Parsing METAR data
SkyMaxx Pro: METAR parsing took 700 ms.

 

FYI:  The time stamps on those 2 screen shots are 1:08 and 1:17.

 

[sundog]

5 hours ago, Jason Gilholme said:

Skymaxx Pro: Requesting new METAR download.
Skymaxx Pro: METAR data download message received.
SkyMaxx Pro: Found new MAXX_METAR.rwx file
SkyMaxx Pro: Parsing METAR data
SkyMaxx Pro: METAR parsing took 700 ms.

 

That's not the "coordinate system limitation". That's just normal operation; you have RWC set to "always" and it downloaded some new weather information which is proceeded to display. It will only do that once per hour.

The "coordinate system" thing would result in lines like "coordinate system changed" in your log. If you see that, then yes you're crossing a tile boundary and that's what's causing the weather to reload.

If these reloads take too long for you, try reducing your cloud draw area a bit in your SMP configuration. That can help a lot.

 

 

[Denco]

Is it possible to create smooth weather transition/change when coordinate system is changing? 

[sundog]

31 minutes ago, Denco said:

Is it possible to create smooth weather transition/change when coordinate system is changing? 

I've talked to Laminar about this, and it's tricky to say the least. I'm hoping to find a creative away around it for a future update, but can't make any promises yet.

[Denco]

18 hours ago, sundog said:

I've talked to Laminar about this, and it's tricky to say the least. I'm hoping to find a creative away around it for a future update, but can't make any promises yet.

I hope you can reach their consensus on offering you help by maybe updating how the weather works. The Coordinate system changed; recreating weather thingy happens a lot when I go trough my change log. Worst case scenario: can this feature be disabled?

[sundog]

It's not a feature, it's something X-Plane does out of necessity. I've been working on it today though.

[sundog]

Well, I'm happy to report that I have this working! When you cross a one-degree tile boundary in X-Plane, cloud systems will no longer change positions on you when using Real Weather Connector. The next revision of SkyMaxx Pro will have this change in it.

Before you ask - no, I have no idea when that will be yet!

 

[Defiance_co]

Nice work sundog

I had faith in ya

Have Fun

Tony

[gcharrie]

great ! Thanks for the continuous improvments Sundog !

 

[ayarov]

this is great news Frank! hope to see update of RWC with this feature soon!!!

[Denco]

Such great news. Thank you Sundog. 

[poodster]

On 5/5/2016 at 10:11 AM, sundog said:

Well, I'm happy to report that I have this working! When you cross a one-degree tile boundary in X-Plane, cloud systems will no longer change positions on you when using Real Weather Connector. The next revision of SkyMaxx Pro will have this change in it.

Before you ask - no, I have no idea when that will be yet!

 

Next revision as in SMP V4 or a free update?

[Cameron]

32 minutes ago, poodster said:

Next revision as in SMP V4 or a free update?

We aren't even thinking about v4 at this time.

[poodster]

46 minutes ago, Cameron said:

We aren't even thinking about v4 at this time.

oh lol ok thanks. I didn't think so.

[Denco]

On 5/5/2016 at 4:11 PM, sundog said:

Well, I'm happy to report that I have this working! When you cross a one-degree tile boundary in X-Plane, cloud systems will no longer change positions on you when using Real Weather Connector. The next revision of SkyMaxx Pro will have this change in it.

Before you ask - no, I have no idea when that will be yet!

 

Is it possible to do the same when weather gets updated? You know the current drawn clouds stay as they are and are updated only when moving away from them.

[sundog]

1 hour ago, Denco said:

Is it possible to do the same when weather gets updated? You know the current drawn clouds stay as they are and are updated only when moving away from them.

Well, I'd like to hear other peoples' opinions on this. Earlier today we heard from someone who actually wanted the weather to update more frequently - say every 10  minutes, in order to have the most up-to-the-minute conditions possible. If we only updated weather on new areas you're flying into, you might have to fly 100km or so before seeing the updated conditions around you. Seems like one of those things where you are going to make some customers unhappy no matter what.

One thing SMP 3.2 will do is check to see if a newly dropped METAR file actually changed anything or not - and if not, it won't do anything with it.

 

[Denco]

2 hours ago, sundog said:

Well, I'd like to hear other peoples' opinions on this. Earlier today we heard from someone who actually wanted the weather to update more frequently - say every 10  minutes, in order to have the most up-to-the-minute conditions possible. If we only updated weather on new areas you're flying into, you might have to fly 100km or so before seeing the updated conditions around you. Seems like one of those things where you are going to make some customers unhappy no matter what.

One thing SMP 3.2 will do is check to see if a newly dropped METAR file actually changed anything or not - and if not, it won't do anything with it.

 

Wouldn't it be better, in terms of immersion, that the currently rendered clouds stay as they are and the new to be rendered clouds follow the updated weather pattern. That why we prevent clouds suddenly disappearing and then reappearing as a different structure. This always throws me off and its pain full to watch. The fix above would make the weather change smoother. I honestly can't imagine anyone likes this? Do they?