Follow Up to FS2004 & TAT Post

[Mark McG]

Pete,

Further investigation of the problem I had in the previous post has led me to believe that it was not a temperature related problem.

1. Flight with no weather loaded at all - all okay no problems.

2. Flight with FSMeteo V6.01 running}

3. Flight with ActiveSky v1.9 running}See Problem Described Below

4. Flight with FS Jeppessen Weather }

I have Baro Pressure Smoothing Set, along with Winds Smoothing.

Before loading a weather programme I cleared all weather in FS.

When I got to a new winds aloft reporting station, the weather was cleared and new data loaded.It looks like there is a small pause between the old weather being cleared and the new weather being loaded.

During the time this update was taking place I encountered the large speed drop problem.

I retested this in FS2002 using FSUIPC v2.975 without encountering any problems.

Winds Smoothing works fine under normal conditions, but when I encounter the problem, Winds smoothing dissappears for a few seconds before returning when the new weather is loaded. It makes no difference how long a time I specify for winds smoothing.

More Specifically when the Weather programme is performing an online update this problem seems to occur.

Mark McGrath

[Pete Dowson]

Further investigation of the problem I had in the previous post has led me to believe that it was not a temperature related problem.

You've started a new thread, so there is no "previous post" for me to refer to.

I have Baro Pressure Smoothing Set, along with Winds Smoothing.

Neither of these are operating with localised weather, only global weather. I don't know about that ActiveSky version, but by default FSMeteo 6 sets localised weather, as of course does FS download, so those smoothing facilities have absolutely no effect on the weather you see.

Before loading a weather programme I cleared all weather in FS.

When I got to a new winds aloft reporting station, the weather was cleared and new data loaded.It looks like there is a small pause between the old weather being cleared and the new weather being loaded.

Not sure why any of the methods you mention would bother to clear all weather each time they change something. That seems very wrong. That's something to check with the authors.

During the time this update was taking place I encountered the large speed drop problem.

Sorry, I don't know what that is. Perhaps wind shear? FS2004 seems notoriously poor at smoothing winds between adjacent WX stations if they are reporting conflicting winds, and can actually reverse the wind direction several times in a short period. I have a saved FLT + WX file set, from an FS download, that demonstrates this quite clearly, flying into the Chicago area from the South. The phenomenon occurs even with no FSUIPC or other add-ins installed. I think it is a bug in the FS interpolation algorithm for the upper winds.

I retested this in FS2002 using FSUIPC v2.975 without encountering any problems.

Again, with FS downloads FSUIPC isn't at all involved. And FSMeteo and ActiveSky would both certainly be using only Global Weather, so there's no localisation for FS to mis-interpolate in any case.

Winds Smoothing works fine under normal conditions, but when I encounter the problem, Winds smoothing dissappears for a few seconds before returning when the new weather is loaded. It makes no difference how long a time I specify for winds smoothing.

This would be FS's own wind smoothing? As I say, and as made clear in the FSUIPC documentation and on the FSUIPC option screens, none of the FSUIPC smoothing actions apply to localised weather, and in fact few of the weather options apply to FS's own downloads in any case.

I have just finished wasting several days on a fruitless search for a way of imposing wind smoothing on all FS winds, regardless, as well as adding back the Taxi wind facility. It was a waste of time. Everything I tried was overridden somehow by the simulation engine. It is getting its weather data through a route I don't seem to be able to intercept.

However, on a good note. I did find a way to impose visibility limits and graduated visibility options on all weathers, no matter the origin. I am working on this now and hope to have it working in version 3.05, next week some time.

Regards,

Pete