Force wx refresh in 2004?

[737SimGuy]

Hi Pete,

First the short version of my question ;-):

Is there a way to force the weather engine in FS2004 to refresh?

Now the long version of my question:

In my instructor station I have programmed the ability to apply an existing FS Weather Theme to the active flight by:

1. Save the current flight

2. Re-write the FLT file "Weather" section to reflect the weahter mode and theme desired.

3. Then re-load the newly written FLT file.

This all works perfectly. Problem being that FS2004 weather does not update to new theme. If I select the weather menu in FS it shows the correct theme selected. I have tried a flight reload via FS menu, scenery refresh via hotkey, and even selecting a new A/C, but nothing causes an update of the weather. If I select a different flight and then select my custom flight again, the weather updates to the correct theme.

Any suggestions on how I can force FS to recognise the theme specified in the FLT file?

Thank you,

James

[Pete Dowson]

First the short version of my question ;-):

Is there a way to force the weather engine in FS2004 to refresh?

Not that I know of, no. You can clear the engine down with the FSUIPC clear all weather facilities (both from a program and via the hot key).

1. Save the current flight

2. Re-write the FLT file "Weather" section to reflect the weahter mode and theme desired.

3. Then re-load the newly written FLT file.

This all works perfectly. Problem being that FS2004 weather does not update to new theme.

Possibly the fact that you are re-loading the flight it just saved means it thinks it doesn't need to. Try renaming the saved flight so when you load it it looks like a different one. You'll need to rename the WX file too to match.

Or you could try clearing all weather AFTER saving the flight and before reloading it.

Regards,

Pete

[737SimGuy]

Try renaming the saved flight so when you load it it looks like a different one. You'll need to rename the WX file too to match.

Or you could try clearing all weather AFTER saving the flight and before reloading it.

With the right timing, and some experimentation, these two ideas working together solves the problem! Thank you very much for the ideas!

James

[vdkeybus]

I picked up this old thread because I've found that it is not necessary to use FSUIPC's New Weather Interface to force a weather theme reload from an externally modified .FLT file as described before.

It is sufficient to reset the theme time to zero, apparently forcing FS to reapply the .wtb template to the current aircraft position.

The relevant .FLT file section should e.g. read as follows:

[Weather]

WeatherType=0

ThemeName=weather\themes\foggedin.WTB

ThemeTime=0.0

The .WX file associated with the flight is apparently disregarded in this case.

J.