Visibility tab on FSUIPC4.04

[yuki]

Just purchased FSUIPC for FSX to attain site visibility control which is not available in FSX itself. However, after several hours of research I had to conclude that the all functions in visibility tab on latest FSUIPC do not work. What I expect with FSUIPC is to get limited visibility at a given altitude likely 60NM against FSX default unlimited visibility that appears to reach over 100NM.

While I noticed a comment in the program that states those function is still under testing with FSX, I wonder if the result I get is something what I have to live with for now or there is something wrong with my setting etc.

Appreciate your help.

Yuki

[Pete Dowson]

Just purchased FSUIPC for FSX to attain site visibility control which is not available in FSX itself. However, after several hours of research I had to conclude that the all functions in visibility tab on latest FSUIPC do not work.

Well, that's rather an extreme statement. They certainly don't work as well as I'd like, as the underlying support in FSX isn't yet working. The results they produce are sometimes not quite as one would expect, and occasionally seem to be downright weird.

What I expect with FSUIPC is to get limited visibility at a given altitude likely 60NM against FSX default unlimited visibility that appears to reach over 100NM.

What external weather program are you using? If you are wanting it all to work with FSX's own weather, you need to enable that. Because of the odd effects of applying some of the options, the action to apply any of them to FS's own default weather is disabled initially. There's a check mark on the Miscellaneous tab in FSUIP4 options to enable it.

Each of the Weather-related sections in the User Guide does mention this. For instance in the Visibility section it states this in the second paragraph:

The facilities are intended to work both as filters on external weather being injected (through FSUIPC4) into FSX, and also, if the “Miscellaneous” option is set to allow it (see later), on the weather set in FSX by its own system, primarily downloading. I wouldn’t recommend the latter option at present.

I have high hopes of real improvements to come in the weather handling, but it needs an FSX update. Unfortunately, given the other problems discovered in Simconnect since FSX was released I suspect that the improvements we need in such facilities will have to take second place, so I have no idea what sort of timescale we are looking at.

Regards

Pete

[yuki]

Pete, thank you for quick reply.

I would rather be more specific to the problem I have. In FS9, your module works perfectly in my interest of sight visibility. Unlimited visibility is set in FS then enable FSUIPC visibility tab along with enabling "allow change to FS own weather" in miscellaneous tab. Limitting it to 30NM for instance, result is clearly visible as objects(terrain) in far distance are no longer visible.

Having said that, unfortunately, same setting does not give me ANY visual change in FSX. Currently I do not use any external weather generation add-on with FSX. However, as I described as above, I thought that FSUIPC still works solely with FSX but I did not notice any change in graphic rendering that supposed to have by FSUIPC option.

I would just like to clarify if it is a stage of developping of your module for FSX. Or, am I mssing some other simple but important point to get the result that I expect ??

Best regards

Yuki

[Pete Dowson]

Having said that, unfortunately, same setting does not give me ANY visual change in FSX. Currently I do not use any external weather generation add-on with FSX.

So you DO have the checkbox enabling FS weather to be changed set? Sorry, but it still isn't clear from what you say.

However, as I described as above, I thought that FSUIPC still works solely with FSX but I did not notice any change in graphic rendering that supposed to have by FSUIPC option.

This is contradictory to what others have reported, but it may be down to some of these FSX weather peculiarities I mentioned.

How have you got the FSX weather changes slider? That may make a difference. Also, I don't think the weather overrides work with themes -- are you using downloaded weather or your own specifically set weather?

Finally, how long are you waiting for the weather to change, and do you look all around you, not just out of the froont window? I've noticed that even if I go into FSX's weather menu and set clouds, they don't seem to appear very quickly looking forward, but if I look to the side or behind there are lots of clouds already drawing! It is all very peculiar. I think some similar strange things happen with the visibility.

If you enable Weather logging in FSUIPC4, then try again, wait a while, then look at the log. You will see that FSUIPC4 is reading the weather from up to 9 stations around the aircraft, modifying the weather so read, and writing it back. It does this over a period of many seconds (all 9 may not be set for 20-40 seconds) to avoid any noticeable performance hit or stutter, and repeats regularly round the 9 stations which of course may be changing as you fly.

The format is a sort of enhanced METAR, but the visibility parts are pretty standard. You will be able to see what it is trying to do.

When I do that I notice several things:

1. The weather being read starts off looking sensible, but gradually becomes rather odd. Some parts suffer definite erros, like visibilities of 0000 being read back - I actually put in a detection for that so I don't send it back.

2. Often FSX only seems to obey parts of the METAR being sent back, even though most is the same (albeit necessarily in a different form -- see below *). It seems to make inexplicable changes.

3. It is often very hard indeed to relate any of the weather being reported by the surrounding stations to that actually experienced at the aircraft, looking out of the window or reading the values on gauges.

* As if reading METARs wasn't difficult enough, Microsoft implemented a different format for those METARs when reading weather to that it demands when writing it! This is subject of ongoing negotiation, as it isn't at all satisfactory I'm afraid.

I would just like to clarify if it is a stage of developping of your module for FSX.

No, more a stage of development of FSX. The weather interface it presents is by no means finished.

Or, am I mssing some other simple but important point to get the result that I expect ??

Probably not, but that is more difficult to answer because with FSX I don't know what to expect. Possibly with different weather settings in FSX you might get what you expect, as others have done. By checking the Log as above you can see if FSUIPC4 is doing what you might expect, and you can see how FSX responds. Whether that is then reflected in what you see out of the window seems to be rather variable at present. Some folks are saying it works okay (which isn't often my experience) but I think you are the first to say it does nothing at all.

I think those happiest with FSX's weather at present are those using ActiveSky or FSMeteo. You'd then want to uncheck the option in the Miscallaneous tab.

Regards

Pete