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Hi All, Today we began testing a new beta of Real Weather Connector which offers up some more refined clouds and colorations. These are the first tests in such a scenario when utilizing Real Weather Connector. The screenshots are taken at a range of altitudes during climb out from an area in California. Final screenshots are take at FL300.

To be honest, I will stick to SkyMaxx, as to me the clouds look much more realistic

Right, we are absolutely not opposed to any third party making an app or add-on program to do this stuff - in fact I have been in contact with someone who is set out to do just that! I understand the desire to have something like that, and I am very confident that you will see some offerings in that regard very soon after we release. If having this capability is condition sine qua non for you, then I suggest holding off on the purchase until you are satisfied that your minimum in feature completeness is achieved (so I don´t have to deal with the whining about it in customer support ). Cheers, Jan

I meant to post about that, actually! We are currently implementing some changes to how the clouds will "color" when this product is active, so this is still work in progress and WILL be adjusted prior to release.

I completely agree with you (and your wife )! While being aware that my own expectations are propably niche-in-a-niche among simmers, i can't stop asking myself question: why simmers care so much about wingflex on the exterior model, but never really notice serious bugs/disprepancies in the FMC? Do majority of us treat X-Plane as a game, not a sim? The best 15 minutes i had in X-Plane this week: Flying online i was approaching my destination airport in LES Saab. While being handed-off from ACC to APP i realized there's something wrong with my NAV1 radio. It did not catch signal from a nearby VOR. Let's try another station. Nope, didn't work. Let's see if i can receive same VOR on the NAV2 radio. Yup, works fine. The airspace is busy, i am told i'm number 4, given various speed restrictions and headings (as well as own navigation to arbitrary fixes that we're not part of my flightplan). Doing all the necessary descent/approach work on the Saab, as well as maintaining awareness of your position is very time consuming on it's own. So, how am i establish on the ILS without my primary nav radio working? Visual approach was out of the question due low overcast layer... And there goes the study sim fun - five minutes later i was handed-off to tower while descending on the glideslope with autopilot on. Because the developer choose to focus on the systems in the first place, i was able to transfer autopilot nav source to the co-pilot's side. The autopilot followed the ILS from secondary nav receiver correctly announcing "LOC2" on EADI. And then i could still remain the left seat and monitor the approach/land just by selecting "2ND CRS" on the DCP. The ATC remained unaware of my problems. How cool is that? I wouldn't try this on any (so praised) payware Boeing or Airbus released so far for X-Plane. I mean, how can people not see the difference? Does looking at the (proverbial) wingflex proves more satisfactionary?

Hi All, Doing more testing today around Florida and Colorado. Just thought I would post a few more pics doing some long haul flying and enjoying the weather! Looking back towards Denver at FL370 with an overcast layer behind us. Approaching the Gunnison, CO area with a nasty storm ahead. This went on as far as the eye could see!

Zurich so rainy today

Hello Captains, Since the release of SkyMaxx Pro v1 one of the most requested features was to be able to see cloud/weather formations in the distance similar in a manner to what X-Plane default clouds are able to achieve (but at a huge cost of performance running those default clouds). Unfortunately, the X-Plane plug-in Software Development Kit has not made such a seemingly trivial concept very easy to achieve, as the weather "radar" X-Plane draws is actually only available to default X-Plane's own cloud system at a root level. Laminar has stated that allowing this same information to be accessible to plugins would require a certain amount of work they are unable to provide at this time, so we've sat in limbo contemplating what we can do to improve this (or how). It is with great excitement that we announce Real Weather Connector today after lots of work and research on how to tackle a perceived issue for the SkyMaxx Pro series. 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. It will parse the METAR data downloaded from these applications and grid the SkyMaxx Pro v3 clouds to their respective locations. Don't think of it as a replacement for whatever you use to get real weather from. It enhances the experience by creating a more direct link between these apps and SkyMaxx Pro - and it also works great with X-Plane's built-in real world weather or any weather engine that drops METAR files. As an example: 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! The finer details: Real Weather Connector will create weather systems based on downloaded Real World data from programs like those listed above. It will require SkyMaxx Pro v3.1. The version 3.1 update will be free to all existing customers and contain other enhancements we will announce soon. SkyMaxx Pro v3 will recognize when Real Weather Connector is installed and a new menu option will become available to select whether you'd like to use real weather data or not. Real Weather Connector will be its own product, but is dependent on SkyMaxx Pro v3 to run. A lot of R&D has gone into this to make this work. As usual, all SkyMaxx Pro v3 updates will be free for that respective product, but we need to be able to pay the bills for the development and time it took away from our families to create this Real Weather Connector add-on. A price will be announced at a later time. To be clear, there are more lines of code to produce Real Weather Connector than there is in SkyMaxx Pro v3. It's been that big of a project! We are currently in beta and trying to catch any bugs we can find (and we expect to find some with such a complex way to draw these clouds). We do not know how long this process will last, but we are working diligently to get it into your hands. Screenshots are below a few posts down as well as HERE! Happy Flying, and thanks for looking!

Hello Captains, I know a lot of you enjoy seeing some form of progress, so I'm providing you with a few screenshots showing off the exterior of the 737 Classic. As per usual, everything is a work in progress, but I hope you enjoy! Remember to click on the images to see a slightly larger version!

Hey there, Honestly, with improvements we've been doing to SkyMaxx Pro 3 as a whole, I'm getting more FPS today with the new build and this new Real Weather Connector than I was with SkyMaxx Pro v3. We'll have more info about SkyMaxx Pro v3.1 later (which will of course be free for existing SMP3 users).

Well, my expectations are that the Weather Connector will further improve the graphics and realism of X-Plane and SkyMaxx Pro. The images you've posted do not demonstrate that in my opinion. Comparing the images you've posted to the default X-Plane clouds - umm..I think I'll take the slab of uniform weather since it is more realistic looking than your images. All these images are default XP weather read from the in-game weather downloading.. I mean, even the SkyMaxx Pro v2 and v3 clouds I've been seeing far surpass what you are showing - I think you are underselling what you have created if it is an improvement on what "default" SkyMaxx will do... SkyMaxx Pro screens: I'm just saying if you are promo-ing an improved product..post some screens that demonstrate it. Just trying to be helpful.. BeachAV8R

Understood, thanks for the clarification.

I am sorry, I am yet to see anything convincing about Ultra Weather. Clouds look like cartoon cut outs to me.

That's just it. It's purely motivated by you. Have you cared to see this topic has over 1,100 views and there's not a whole lot of chiming in? The Gold Star winning, commonly held high Saab 340A does not do this. No one has ever really complained either (and thousands of sales, at that!). I'm not one bit opposed to an external program, nor have I said such. I am commenting on the lack of necessity for something like this in the IXEG product. Having been in this market long enough, I know what is and is not "in demand" for the most part. This is simply not one of them. If someone were to ask me if I'd like to fund such development of a program my answer would quickly be 'no'. I'd never recoup my costs on such a thing! You're taking entertainment to a whole new level. One that majority of simmers do not typically worry about. We wouldn't be having this discussion at all otherwise. I understand you have a beloved VA, and you see a need for it. Just as much as you see a need, I see no need. Would it be nice? Yes. Is it a necessity to properly fly this aircraft? Absolutely NOT. Anyways, I'm checking out of this topic. Have fun, Eddie.

Email sent

No offense guys, but this is being blown way out of proportion. Let it be made clear this product was and still is a labor of love from the get-go. This is important to know, because the lead technical advisor on the product not only is obsessed with X-Plane (sorry, Jan ), but also the 737-300 as a whole (even after thousands of hours in the aircraft and moving to the Airbus in real life now). He's flown the real deal for years, as a Captain, and is the most qualified of any of us to speak on the necessity of something like this. Truth be told, even if it were forced to be a set "passenger total" in your head at all times, this is not a deal killer, and if it were, Jan would never (I repeat: NEVER) let any of the team get away with it. Besides, the randomizer for the Load Sheet portion of the GUI is there for good reason. I'm sure in due course things like this will be added if deemed truly necessary and the demand is there. No one is forcing you to purchase this until it meets your needs (if that ever happens). Until then, you'd be missing out on something rather amazing to experience in sim. There's really no sense in trying to argue this right now. In my opinion, the fact there is already a load sheet randomizer option in the menu I previously showed kind of makes this argument rather silly, but to each their own. We'll see what the future holds.

I would like to see what a shelf cloud from a storm front looks like in the distance with this in X-Plane.

This sounds terrific, have you made contact with other weather providers like the chaps at FSGRW? if they can provide more data to your program, the results could indeed take X-Plane to a new level

Just to provide an update, Real Weather Connector + SkyMaxx Pro 3.1 is totally decoupled from X-Plane's internal 3-layer limitation now. Internally weather is represented by a grid, and each cell of that grid can have up to 6 layers of clouds at any altitude. Development is moving fast The only limitation is the METAR data itself. If the METAR has been changed by an external weather engine to fit within X-Plane's default 3-layer system, then that's the only information we'll have available to us.

Eddie, I wonder what is so special about being able to load your plane via MCDU? What's it got to do with realism? And how is IXEG different in this aspect from other X-Plane developers? Can you name any X-Plane airliner that does indeed have MCDU airplane load feature? I can't seem to recall any at the moment. MCDU loading is a just a way of interacting with the sim user to load the airplane. I very much prefer to have a simple interface that Cameron showed us couple of posts ago* and put the data from the loadsheet into the MCDU myself (that's how you do it in real life). * having number of PAX shown in the ground services menu would be handy for flight plan filing purposes (online flying)

You obviously did. Didn´t watch the videos closely enough! Bad Dr. Nerdrage! Start at 02:00 mins, if you are the impatient type Here is my stance on setting the CG and Weight: When we initially conceived this aircraft, we had the serious simulation user in mind. The guy who wants to experience what the real pilot experiences. This explains why we handle the CG and weight stuff the way we do. Let me tell you what part the pilot has in determining and setting weight and CG. The pilot gets an estimated zero-fuel-weight on his electronic flight plan. Together with his First Officer he reviews all flight parameters, and if he works for a decent airline that care for the life of their passengers, and not only their money, he gets to determine how much fuel (in excess of the legally required minimum) he takes. Obviously he can´t overload the aircraft, and sometimes you have to make a call between taking more fuel and leaving payload behind. Once the loading is completed (and no, the Captain doesn´t tell every passenger where he needs to sit), he gets a printout of the electronic load-sheet. A bunch of numbers, along with the actual Zero Fuel weight, and the CG. He punches those into the FMS and thats it. No clicking on seats. No sliding bars to fill cargo holds. No neat little represenation of load and trim envelope, moving CG´s or stuff like that. Now we know that you guys dig that stuff, though, and we might get to it later, for now this first release is favouring virtual pilots, not the virtual loadmasters. Jan

We already have 1 layout modelled and textured. I'm currently in the process of going through it and taking advantage of an encyclopedia of photos we received late last year, re-modelleing and re-texturing certain areas, but the actual configuration is pretty much what it looks like in the screenshot.

Wow, someone got up on the wrong side of his bed, you are the spokesmen for who………..

Ah, sorry. Maybe another time. "in right angle" was not really clear!

That would be true, except as mentioned above, we're not just the pilot. We're also the loadmaster and dispatcher - and therefore, giving us tools to do that isn't counterproductive or stupid.