An FSUIPC offset for graduated visibility altitudes

[Bryn]

G'day,

Curious about whether there is an offset for the graduated visibility altitude options. I haven't been able to find one in the manuals. If there isn't one, could one be added? It would be handy for me to make the graduated visibility a bit more precise around the cloud layers, without having to get into the messiness of NWI writes (that's with me presuming the minimum altitude in the graduated visibility options is the GLOB visibility maxAlt?).

Anyway, heaps easier (for me, at least) if they were available is a simple writeable offset.

Cheers,

Bryn.

PS. Also still wishing for some more writeable AI controls for FS9, like runway selection, and active runways. ;-)

[Pete Dowson]

Curious about whether there is an offset for the graduated visibility altitude options. I haven't been able to find one in the manuals. If there isn't one, could one be added? It would be handy for me to make the graduated visibility a bit more precise around the cloud layers, without having to get into the messiness of NWI writes (that's with me presuming the minimum altitude in the graduated visibility options is the GLOB visibility maxAlt?).

I assume you are talking about FSUIPC3, not FSUIPC4 by the way. You don't provide the context, but the visibility control doesn't really allow any effective graduated visibility in FSX.

Sorry, there isn't and not really an easy way to change things on-the-fly, the way it is working. Additionally, the code in that area in now at least 8 years old, and quite complex. I'm not really willing to risk messing about with it at this stage. Generally, apart from Lua plug-in provisions, development of FSUIPC3 is frozen.

Regards

Pete

[Bryn]

Thanks for the response. It is FS9 and FSUIPC3. I understand the position on FSUIPC3 (though I reckon FS9 is a far more reliable and enjoyable platform than FSX).

A question then:

When I set the minimum altitude to zero, the form says that it graduates from the top of the layer. Am I right that that is the top of the global layer, or does it take a local layer?

With that answer, I should be able to manipulate the NWI for my purposes. Painful as that is.

Cheers,

Bryn.

[Pete Dowson]

When I set the minimum altitude to zero, the form says that it graduates from the top of the layer. Am I right that that is the top of the global layer, or does it take a local layer?

The current layer whichever is operating. Global weather only operates at weather stations which don't have their own weather set. And it progresses independently in any case, so effectively there is never any such thing as "global weather", only "default initial weather".

FSX is different in that they granted our request for a global weather mode, on the justification that we needed precisely reproducible conditions for training purposes. The global mode is used by Active Sky on FSX for its "direct weather control" mode as this gives it more precise control.

BTW I think you are mistaken about FSX. Given the right hardware it is very reliable and very enjoyable, much more so than FS9. The level of detaill and quality at add-on airports is incredible compared to FS9.

Regards

Pete