FSUIPC Temperature Smoothening

[Andreww]

Hello Peter,

When flying the PSS Concorde or Altitude Concorde; an aircraft that spends much of its time flying very close to TMO, instantaneous fluctuations in temperature can have considerable adverse affects.

The wind and pressure smoothening controls in FSUIPC are superb; might it be possible to implement a similar feature in future version of FSUIPC to control temperature shifts in FS?

I’d be happy to help out if any testing was required.

Best Regards,

Andrew

[Pete Dowson]

The wind and pressure smoothening controls in FSUIPC are superb

Is that with FS2000 or FS2002? There really isn't any pressure smoothing in FSUIPC for FS2004. I can't get at the ambient pressure to fiddle it without other unwanted ramifications.

; might it be possible to implement a similar feature in future version of FSUIPC to control temperature shifts in FS?

It's the same problem as with pressure -- if I attempt to fiddle the temperature at the aircraft all sorts of other things go haywire. I've only managed to successfully control the immediate wind effects (not really the wind itself) and the visibility (a graphics effect).

If you use one of the better weather control programs such as FSMeteo or ActiveSky, I think you'll find they do a pretty good job of smoothing these things. This is by controlling the inputs rather than, as in FSUIPC's case, trying to manipulate effects. FSUIPC itself doesn't originate the values in any case.

Regards,

Pete

[Andreww]

Thanks for the reply Pete,

I should have mentioned that these temperature shifts are experienced when using Active Sky (Build 193). I put the question to Damian Clark who suggested that I contacted you to see if it was possible to smoothen out the fluctuations.

Thanks for the explanation.

Regards,

Andrew

[Pete Dowson]

I should have mentioned that these temperature shifts are experienced when using Active Sky (Build 193).

Hmmm. Not sure how/why there would be fluctuations then, I thought ActiveSky took steps to ensure harmony between neighbouring weather stations, and did itself smoothing for weather changes on-the-fly. Is this not now the case?

Or is this a new bug in FS itself which you've identified?

I put the question to Damian Clark who suggested that I contacted you to see if it was possible to smoothen out the fluctuations.

Well, as I said, I've no way of directly affecting either temperature or pressure without quite nasty repercussions thoughout the whole modelling. I did try, believe me, but everything in that area of FS's atmospheric simulation seems to be linked to everything else.

Assuming the fluctuations are not being caused by some sort of calculation bug in FS, like the 180 degree wind shifts are, then the only way I know is by ensuring that the input figures, those set for all the surrounding weather stations, are not too disparate and don't change too quickly. That's really in the hands of the weather program.

Of course, in Concorde cruise, you are pretty high. Have you checked (eg in WeatherSet2) to see if the program is actually providing temperature data for a layer at that altitude?

Regards,

Pete

[Andreww]

Temperature smoothing would need to be facilitated by FSUIPC, as there is no effective way to manipulate independant station data without forcing a rewrite process which takes too long and can cause wx pops if done frequently. So we need either FSUIPC temp smoothing (which AS could automatically activate as required) or direct temperature control (of the live/sim variable, not the actual per-station data) so AS can perform its own temp smoothing..

There are ways we can minimize the problem, such as locking an average aloft temperature to prevent any changes. But since this would negatively affect realism we would rather see the real data smoothed.

I believe AS only simulates weather to an Altitude of 39,000ft. Damian wrote a number of routines manipulating temperatures at altitudes higher than 39k to simulate a more realistic higher temperature; which works quite well.

The problem arises when a temperature change of +/- 5 degrees or more occurs instantaneously which the autopilot routines struggle to cope with.

Have you checked (eg in WeatherSet2) to see if the program is actually providing temperature data for a layer at that altitude?

I’ll check – might it be possible to use some of the offsets in FSUIPC (0EB4 for example) and implement our own manipulations into a gauge to control such fluctuations in the cruise only? I understand this may induce the same adverse affects you’ve described.

Thanks for your input on this topic.

[Pete Dowson]

The problem arises when a temperature change of +/- 5 degrees or more occurs instantaneously which the autopilot routines struggle to cope with.

Yes, but why is that instantaneous change occurring? Where are the different temperatures coming from? If not ActiveSky, where?

I’ll check – might it be possible to use some of the offsets in FSUIPC (0EB4 for example) and implement our own manipulations into a gauge to control such fluctuations in the cruise only? I understand this may induce the same adverse affects you’ve described.

No, it's unlikely to make any change as those offsets only control global weather, which, in FS2004, is just the default for any weather stations which don't already have their own weather.

Regards,

Pete