Weather suddenly clears

[drskyking]

While flying in solid IFR last night using downloaded real weather and winds aloft FS2002, have latest registered version of FSUIPC, halfway to my destination the weather suddenly cleared and resolution dropped. If I kept re-downloading real weather it would come back briefly then kick back to clear and altimeter would change. Wonder if anyone else has seen this. Also have latest ActiveSky, wonder if that would work better. I start with all weather cleared as advised. Thanks.

[Pete Dowson]

While flying in solid IFR last night using downloaded real weather and winds aloft FS2002, have latest registered version of FSUIPC, halfway to my destination the weather suddenly cleared and resolution dropped.

Not sure what you mean by "resolution dropped" -- resolution of what? But if you are using downloaded weather in FS2002, FSUIPC cannot help -- it really has nothing whatsoever to do with it. In FS2002 and earlier I only ever found out how to sort out global weather.

Mostly the dowlnoaded real weather in FS2002 and before was not good in any areas not close to a weather station. It reverts to global weather or noe at all rather than interpolating between distant stations. I think most folks who cared at all about good weather coverage in FS2002 used a third party program, which controls FS weather via FSUIPC's global weather manipulation.

Also have latest ActiveSky, wonder if that would work better. I start with all weather cleared as advised. Thanks.

ActiveSky or FSMeteo -- both are many times better than FS's own downloads in FS2002. But the "latest" ActiveSky is ActiveSky2004.5 -- isn't that for FS2004 only? Or not? I don't really know of the situation for FS2002.

Regards,

Pete

[drskyking]

Thanks. That makes perfect sense. I was flying over a large area with no reporting stations and when I got 15 miles out from my destination the weather came back!

What I meant by "res dropped" after the weather started going back and forth with the reloads the textures of clouds aircraft and ground looked more like 256 colors on 800x600 instead of 32 bit on 1024x768. After I restarted FS2002 when I landed the detail returned.

Regards, Robert

PS Thanks for the help with wideFS, it solved all my problems last night and made flying on line a pleasure!!

[drskyking]

I have ActiveSky v 1.92.4, the latest version for FS2002. Thanks again.

[Pete Dowson]

What I meant by "res dropped" after the weather started going back and forth with the reloads the textures of clouds aircraft and ground looked more like 256 colors on 800x600 instead of 32 bit on 1024x768. After I restarted FS2002 when I landed the detail returned.

Hmmmnot certain why the weather downloads would do that, but it sounds like some sort of incorrect mip-mapping level is getting selected. That does happen if you slew very fast, for instance, and is just where the graphics system isn't keeping up with the movement expected, but I don't know any reason for it to happen when flying at normal speeds.

Regards,

Pete

[drskyking]

I've always wondered the optimal settings on the hardware page. Maybe I don;'t have them optimal. Do you have a recommendation for which should be on and which off:mip-mapping, anti-aliasing, bi- or tri-linear filtering? I have a fast Pentium III with 1gB RAM, fsglobal5 and good old FS2002. Thanks again.

[Pete Dowson]

Do you have a recommendation for which should be on and which off:mip-mapping, anti-aliasing, bi- or tri-linear filtering? I have a fast Pentium III with 1gB RAM, fsglobal5 and good old FS2002. Thanks again.

Sorry, not I. Try one of the other forums. There are some good experts around I think, but for me it is just trial and error. And I don't really remember my FS2002 settings, it's been a long time since I used it.

Regards,

Pete

[kosmo007]

Hi Pete,

I read with interest this thread hoping to find an answer to a possible issue. I have just done a reinstall of -XP-OS, SP2, FS9. FS9 Patch, DX9.c, etc. I am now aware of things in FS9 that may be normal but can't recall seeing before the reinstall. It's like seeing for the first time a dent in the door of your car after having it serviced. The dent was there for years but you never noticed it before!

Here's my dent! In Fs9, if I select "World/Weather/ and check the Wx Themes box...say "Winter Wonderland" ...the sim will show snowing special effects OK for a few moments - but then the wx seems to clear up within a few seconds. If I go back to the "World/Weather dialog I see that the "wx Theme" box is no longer selected, but instead the "User Defined Wx" box is now mysteriously checked instead?

Is there a setting in FSUIPC that I may have made causing this wx selection to "switch"? I have read your manual papers but may have missed a fix for this - if there is one.

Finally like the car dent - this "checked box" switch may be normal behavior for FS9 but I never noticed it before!

Thanks Pete

kosmo007

[Pete Dowson]

If I go back to the "World/Weather dialog I see that the "wx Theme" box is no longer selected, but instead the "User Defined Wx" box is now mysteriously checked instead?

Is there a setting in FSUIPC that I may have made causing this wx selection to "switch"? I have read your manual papers but may have missed a fix for this - if there is one.

If you have the current version of FSUIPC (or any quite recent version), then the default option settings will not cause that.

The option which will do it (apart from running an external weather program of course) is "allow changes to FS own weather". That isn't checked by default, but if it is checked then FSUIPC will be making minor calls to the weather engine, and this will cause the theme to reset.

Regards

Pete

[kosmo007]

Thanks for the tip Pete,

your good looks are only exceeded by mine....:lol:

Merry Christmas.

kosmo007