sundog

First, let me remind everyone that SkyMaxx Pro and Real Weather Connector don't control the visibility and fog effects in X-Plane. All they do is create and place clouds. The issue here from our standpoint is that X-Plane is representing reduced visibility, but we aren't getting any clouds that coincide with that area of reduced visibility. So once you get above the ground fog and look down in this particular case, there are no clouds sitting on the ground to obscure your view of the ground. The METAR data for UMMG you're finding online doesn't match what X-Plane was receiving at the time. Here's what's in your METAR.rwx: UMMG 120300Z 00000MPS 0400 R17/0900 FG NSC 14/14 Q1020 NOSIG What we changed in SMP 3.3.2 was to look for "vertical visibility" information (the VV003 you saw online) and create low clouds when that is seen. That fixes the case you originally sent in. But there is no VV entry, or any cloud coverage information at all in what's published here. I would guess that the information you were looking at was more current, and if you were to fly an hour later the vertical visibility information that was later added to the weather report would have flowed into X-Plane, and your flight would have looked as you expected. In SMP 3.3.2 you should expect ground fog to work better when VV is indicated in the METAR. This case is different - all we have to go on is the "FG" (fog) entry, but there is no information as to how thick the fog is, so we don't know how to create the clouds that are behind the ground fog. I suppose we could just guess; it might not match exactly with the thickness of fog that X-Plane represents, but it would probably be better than nothing. I can take a crack at that for the next update. Bear in mind though this is a different, very specific additional case you've uncovered. Usually FG is accompanied by some sort of cloud cover or vertical visibility information that we can work with.

Try deleting your METAR.rwx file and restart X-Plane. There was an issue during one hour yesterday where unusual METAR data was being published by NOAA that caused SMP to crash. You may have been affected by that. We've fixed the underlying issue for the next update.

The METAR report that caused the crash has already changed, so if you're still experiencing this, deleting your METAR file(s) and restarting X-Plane should clear things up for now. The root cause of the crash has been identified; once again it is a bug in the METAR parsing code we obtained from NOAA. The entry this time comes from one of my favorite places, ironically enough - Whidbey Island in Washington State: KNUW 091053Z 12004KT 1 3/4SM BR FEW010 08/06 A3038 RMK AO2 VIS 1/2 That final VIS 1/2 is what threw it off. I've coded up a fix for this case and will see if we can squeeze it into the forthcoming SMP 3.3.2 update to ensure this particular case doesn't happen again.

I don't think going back to 3.3 will help. The issue probably has to do with the software library we use from NOAA to parse METAR files crashing on some unusual METAR entry it hasn't seen before. Once the METAR data changes this problem will go away, and we'll see if we can track down the root cause in the meantime. If anyone can post their METAR.rwx file while experiencing this issue, it would help.

Can you also provide your METAR.rwx file please? Odds are this will clear up on its own in an hour, but I'll need that file to figure out what happened.

"Always" might be a better option for you, for now. It will basically ignore what FSGRW is giving X-Plane for cloud cover in that mode, but you'll at least have complex weather formations with no abrupt changes as you fly.

Yes, I've been following this too. There are people reporting sudden framerate drops from 30+ to single digits who aren't even using SkyMaxx Pro at all, so I'm starting to wonder if SMP's being falsely accused in many cases. Still, if you're not using FSGRW, updating to SkyMaxx Pro 3.3.1 is still a good idea. It fixes any situations I can find within SMP that might cause performance to suddenly tank for no apparent reason. I automatically accept all Windows 10 updates and am not seeing this myself though, so whatever's really going on would seem to be complicated.

I'd appreciate it! Or at least change the title to be a little less scary

Looking at the VV entries does seem to produce the desired results. I implemented that and now you can see some nice ground fog over CZST using the METAR file you provided: The SkyMaxx Pro 3.3.2 update is already in the process of being delivered, so I'm not sure we can squeeze this change into it. But if not, it's queued up for the next update.

The underlying issue here is that Real Weather Connector is interpreting the METAR data differently than X-Plane would have. X-Plane is fogging the scene based on its interpretation, while SMP is drawing clouds based on RWC's interpretation. The METAR in question is: CZST 061454Z 00000KT 2SM -RA BR VV004 10/10 A2985 RMK FG8 SLP111 This indicates low visibility and rain at the ground, but doesn't actually indicate any clouds at all! So RWC / SMP is treating this as clear skies, even though it obviously isn't with such low visibility. Without an OVC entry in there, RWC doesn't see the clouds that it needs to create. I think X-Plane is just fabricating its own overcast ground fog layer in response to these conditions, but since SMP disables X-Plane's built-in clouds, they're not appearing which makes the fog appear inconsistent. We've talked to Laminar about a mechanism to allow X-Plane to sync its internal understanding of cloud coverage with our own, and maybe we'll see that in a future release of X-Plane and SMP. For now however, perhaps we could use the VV004 entry as a clue that heavy cloud cover is present, but can't be accurately observed by whoever is reporting it due to low visibility. The only work-around right now would be to disable RWC while flying in these specific conditions. They're fairly rare, though - I only see these problematic conditions at a handful of airports around the world in the METAR file you provided. Thanks for providing such complete data. I wasn't aware of this case until now.

The patch has been tested and delivered to X-Aviation; they need to package it up, write up an announcement, etc. before it goes out. Should be soon.

Well, the thing is SMP / RWC makes no attempt to send any information to other weather systems; it only reads from them. So it's hard for me to envision a path where SMP could directly cause a problem in XSB. I could envision XSB causing a problem in SMP, but not the other way around. The data strongly suggests it's an issue internal to XSB. From what I've gathered, the XSB forum on VATSIM is the best place to get support for XSB: https://forums.vatsim.net/viewforum.php?f=109

Your log indicates that your crash happened within the XSquawkBox plugin, not SMP. Make sure you have the latest XSB installed, and if not, I'd seek support from its authors first.

3.3.1 should be perfectly fine if you're not running FSGRW; the upcoming fix is just for FSGRW.

I have identified an incompatibility between SMP 3.3.1 and FSGRW in the code if you are using RWC. Working on a fix now. For now, either don't use FSGRW+RWC or stick with 3.3.0. To summarize: using SMP 3.3.1, FSGRW, and RWC together won't work.

SMP/RWC only reads one of the METAR file at a time. It uses X-Plane's METAR.rwx file if RWC is set to "automatic" mode, and our MAXX_METAR.rwx file only if RWC is set to "always" mode. What probably happened is that the weather you just downloaded resulted in enough additional clouds compared to the weather you previously had as to cause a problem. I noticed you have custom scenery installed for CYVR, which may play a role in what you're experiencing. But I suspect you're really seeing the effects of a rare bug that we're in the process of patching. For now, you can just slightly change your cloud area setting in SMP if performance seems to tank for no apparent reason to fix it. Or, setting the cloud area below 10,000 should avoid the issue entirely until we issue a patch.

No. (quick answer!)

If the "never change visible weather" option is on in Real Weather Connector, then you shouldn't see any weather changes as you fly as long as RWC is on. If you are seeing changes, I'd question whether RWC is actually active. Try setting it to "always" mode to be sure, and double check that Skymaxx Pro indicates version 3.3 in its configuration screen.

If you also have Real Weather Connector installed and active, yes the additional layers will also be displayed.

Sounds like the cloud backdrop issue to me. Nudging your cloud draw area setting probably would have cleared it up. I'll see if we can expedite the release of the fix for this somehow.

It's true, sometimes those CB's just suck up all the surrounding moisture in Florida. But you're right that they are usually surrounded by cumulus congestus, towering cumulus, and other clouds in various stages of development. Right now RWC just honors what's in the METAR report, so if METAR says there are thunderstorms but little cloud coverage accompanying them, we dutifully create a lonely cumulonimbus cloud. For example, right now Tampa is reporting cumulonimbus clouds but only "FEW" coverage (in addition to a higher overcast layer.) If you look at other parts of the world, CB clouds are usually accompanied by lots of other clouds in the METAR, which looks a lot more natural to most people. Kathmandu is having a pretty bad day, for example: VNKT 311750Z 28004KT 6000 TS FEW010 FEW025CB SCT030 BKN100 22/21 Q1014 NOSIG CB TO SE S SW W NW N NE AND E This results in a much nicer looking scene, where the CB cloud itself just sort of gets lost in amongst the surrounding clouds: I've considered fabricating a cumulus congestus cloud area surrounding all cumulonimbus clouds no matter what the METAR says. But then I think we'd get dinged for not being faithful to the reported conditions. Anyhow, there is room for improvement in the representation of the CB clouds themselves, so we're starting there.

That's weird. Even though this isn't a SMP/RWC issue, I'm curious as to what's going on there. If you could capture your log.txt after encountering a failed METAR download I'd like to see it; there should be some information in there pointing to the issue.

Our cloud shadows are drawn as overlays on top of X-Plane's terrain, which means we need to try and reverse-engineer how X-Plane applies visibility to the terrain in order to get the shadows to match. We don't always get it exactly right, but it's something that we're often tweaking in new releases. I've actually hired a couple of people to build a new system for creating cumulonimbus clouds for a future release, in order to give us finer control over their shapes. As Cameron said though, these clouds come in a very wide variety and a lot depends on where you live. It's very hard to make everyone happy with them, and even harder to find an acceptable trade-off between their visual quality, volumetric nature, and performance given how massive these clouds are. But we're working on it.

I don't see any indication in your log that X-Plane even tried to download METAR data of its own. You can try to force it by going to X-Plane's weather screen, setting it into real weather mode, and click the "download now" button.

Denco - if you only see problems occur at or above cloud draw area settings of 10,000 square km, then that would be consistent with the bug I just fixed. Might be the same thing after all.