Visibility settings - FSUIPC 4

[GHD]

I see the warning that the Visibility tab is "For testing only! These facilities still need more FSX changes". The General limits seem to have no affect in FSX. What changes to FSX are necessary and will these be forthcoming?

George

[Pete Dowson]

I see the warning that the Visibility tab is "For testing only! These facilities still need more FSX changes". The General limits seem to have no affect in FSX.

Did you enable changes to FS weather (in the Miscellaneous tab)? They then may have an effect, but weather changes in FSX take timesometimes a long time. And then, the effect you get may not be what you want, and in some cases the results are awful.

Even, without FSUIPC4, just doing somethnig simple like selecting a stormy overcast theme after having clear weather doesn't appear to do what you ask, for a long time, and then the clouds seem to appear left, right and rear, but never in front out of the cokcpit view. Very confusing. I've had rain when flying ABOVE all the cloud layers, and rain in a clear area with distant clouds only. And this is with the default weather facilities, no FSUIPC4 at all. Add more unpredictablility because the METAR strings sent to FSX by FSUIPC4 (or other programs) aren't interpreted properly, and it gets very hard to understand what is going on.

Just like UK weather, notoriously unpredictable!

What changes to FSX are necessary and will these be forthcoming?

They need the weather facilities in SimConnect fixing to work properly. They were broken in Beta 3 but MS didn't have time to fix them before the user release was forced on them.

I was informed they had the top priority for fixing in the first SimConnect update, whenever that might be (this year I'd hope), but now that there are all these much more severe problems with SimConnect's TCP/IP usage conflicting with so many third party security programs I suspect that the weather fixes may take second place.

When they do work as specified they will be better than anything we've had before, but at present the results of trying to write weather data into FSX is rather, er, experimental, as I said. Considering the problems, ActiveSky does an excellent job, and it is probably rather more reliable than trying to modify FS's own weather at present.

Regards

Pete

[GHD]

Thanks Pete for the very complete and informative answer.

In fact I hadn't enabled "Allow changes to FS own weather" on the Miscellaneous tab :oops: Enabling this immediately altered the visibility. This is just what I need when using photographic scenery.

I do have Active Sky 6.5 but if the weather is lousey I tend to use the FSUIPC visibility settings.

Thanks again,

George

[Pete Dowson]

In fact I hadn't enabled "Allow changes to FS own weather" on the Miscellaneous tab :oops: Enabling this immediately altered the visibility.

Really? And to the value you expected? If so, could you tell me what weather you started with. Was it downloaded weather or a weather theme, or something else?

There's so many compbinations to test I've not been through them all. But I remember getting weird results when trying to apply changes to downloaded weather ...

Regards,

Pete

[Pete Dowson]

when using photographic scenery.

Which photo scenery are you using? Did you port the FS9 UK VFR scenery over? If so, does it work well?

I ordered the Horizon set for England & Wales as soon as I saw it advertised for sale, and even paid extra for next day delivery, but that was a week or two ago and nothing's arrived yet, so I assume it isn't ready. According to the Ads it is specifically designed for FSX and has much better resolution.

Regards

Pete

[GHD]

It was "User defined" with one layer of cumulus 2/8 between 6000 and 7000 but with unlimited visibility. The FSUIPC vis settings were 1000/500/300/300.

Which photo scenery are you using? Did you port the FS9 UK VFR scenery over? If so, does it work well?

Yes, I'm using the VFR Photographic Scenery and VFR Terrain in FSX. It works very well. I also installed the Horizon Generation X Demo and that is incredible. Here is a top-down shot showing that it has exactly the same registration as the original (left side of shot) but the increase in detail is amazing.

I've also pre-ordered Generation X and I believe it should be out next month.

George

ps. I would request a refund of your "Next day delivery" charge :wink:

[Pete Dowson]

Here is a top-down shot showing that it has exactly the same registration as the original (left side of shot) but the increase in detail is amazing.

Wow! I can't wait! (Well, I can as I haven't time to fly at present in any case! :-( )

ps. I would request a refund of your "Next day delivery" charge :wink:

Well, it was only about £3 extra, and it should still mean I get it a couple of days before I would anyway! ;-)

Thanks,

Pete

[GHD]

I think you should also be aware that Generation X will take about 90Gb of storage. Currently I have all of my scenery on 74Gb Raptors so I have ordered two 320Gb drives to replace the Raptors, one for each of my systems :roll:

George

[Pete Dowson]

I think you should also be aware that Generation X will take about 90Gb of storage. Currently I have all of my scenery on 74Gb Raptors so I have ordered two 320Gb drives to replace the Raptors, one for each of my systems :roll:

No problems. I won't have that much space, but on my Flying-Only PCs I've always had too much! ;-)

Pete