FSUIPC winds smoothing KILLS all winds @ and above FL 520

[garyhall2530]

I see the winds die off at FL 520 exactly in several planes, so is not plane specific. I checked FSUIPC and somehow discovered the " smooth winds " box was checked on the WINDS tab of the settings. I unclicked it, and voila i now have winds above FL 520 that is what causes this. Apparently wind smoothing = killing completely at and above FL 520 in FSUIPC lol I have tested and tested this, and confirmed that this is in fact true in all flight modes and aircraft. Can this please be fixed so that wind smoothing can be used above FL 520 ? That would be so helpful when flying the Concord at up to FL 600 and the SR71 at up to FL 850 Thank you and have a great day. Love FSUPC Pete, please do not get me wrong, this would just make it better is all :) Gary

[Pete Dowson]

I see the winds die off at FL 520 exactly in several planes, so is not plane specific. I checked FSUIPC and somehow discovered the " smooth winds " box was checked on the WINDS tab of the settings. I unclicked it, and voila i now have winds above FL 520 that is what causes this. Apparently wind smoothing = killing completely at and above FL 520 in FSUIPC lol I have tested and tested this, and confirmed that this is in fact true in all flight modes and aircraft. Can this please be fixed so that wind smoothing can be used above FL 520 ?

Well, I'll have a look, but I really do need to know which version of FSUIPC you are talking about! Are you using FS9 or some earlier sim, or FSX or later? i.e. FSUIPC3 or FSUIPC4? Have you made sure your version is bang up to date (3.999y5 for FS9 and earlier or 4.859r for FSX and later)?

Pete

[Pete Dowson]

Well, I'll have a look, but I really do need to know which version of FSUIPC you are talking about! Are you using FS9 or some earlier sim, or FSX or later? i.e. FSUIPC3 or FSUIPC4? Have you made sure your version is bang up to date (3.999y5 for FS9 and earlier or 4.859r for FSX and later)?

Well, since you didn't reply I checked this in both FS9 and FSX and found that you are wrong. The wind smoothing operates exactly as it should all the way up to 60000 feet at least. I din't bother to try higher. To test this I had to set a Wind in the Weather menu up to that altitude, of course. Maybe you simply hasve no high altitude winds set?

There's absolutely no relationship between the wind smoothing parts of fSUIPC and the altitude in any case -- the wind layering set in FS is the only altitude component. FSUIPC simply works on whatever the ambient wind is at the aircraft.

Pete

[garyhall2530]

Yes Pete, of course i am wrong, never mind, sorry i bothered you.

[-Pv-]

I have verified this behavior exists and is an interaction between FSUIPC and Active Sky and possibly other external weather programs. Both FSUIPC and Active Sky 2012 were tested with the repro below, but the bug has existed for a long time in multiple versions of these programs. The actual program which is at fault, or if more than one cannot be determined by me.

Versions used in this repro:

FSUIPC Release version 4.86 Feb 04, 2013

Active Sky 2012 SP2 Beta 4815

FSX Deluxe

Win7x64 Pro

8 Gig system RAM

1 Gig VRAM

UIAutomationCore.dll added to FS install directory for system stability.

Since high altitude is required, suggest using default MS Lear 45 since it's capable of 60K ft altitude. Like the poster above, I frequently fly the Concorde and SR71 well above 60K ft where this problem becomes quite common.

Important Note: Editing the internal FS weather dialog will not reveal this problem, nor will using the default Jeppeson Real World Weather. The problem is most noticeable

with Active Sky, but was also observed with FSrealWX. The conclusion I reached is it's an external weather program interaction, possibly related to SimConnect.

Repro:

-> FSUIPC Winds Tab = Smoothing Unchecked.

->FS Weather dialog clear all weather. Verify with conrl-z there are no winds.

->Slew or fly the lear to a cruise altitude just under 50K, obtain stable flight and save flight for further repro repeats.

Important Note: Due to cacheing, it will be necessary to exit the 3D simulation between test flights in order to clear the initial

weather used in previous flight back to zero.

->Pause.

->Activate Active Sky in DWC mode and Local Writes (Whether this is important is not known. These are the settings I normally use in flight.)

->Unpause FS and notice the winds being displayed as non-zero in the contrl-z text.

->Pause.

->Enter the FUIPC UI and in Winds Tab:

Check Wind Smoothing

Changes limited to... "2"

Degrees... "0"

Check Smooth only when airborne

Exit the UI

->Unpause.

->Start climbing the Lear above 52K ft.

Observe contrl-z text and as soon as crossing 52K ft, both the direction and speed of the winds will change at the rate set in FSUIPC.

Eventually (depending on starting direction and speed) the transition will halt at 340 degrees and zero knots.

->Pause.

->Re-enter the FSUIPC UI Winds tab and uncheck WInd Smoothing. Exit the dialog.

->Un-Pause.

->Observe the Winds return to normal (Active Sky controlled.)

->Pause and re-enter the UI, select smoothing again, return to the sim, and again, the winds transition down to zero. Can repeat ad-infinitem.

This behavior as documented is predictable and repeatable and does not depend on geographical location.

-Pv-

[-Pv-]

...

[Ian P]

Pete is on holiday right now. He'll respond on his return, if no-one else is able to before then.

[-Pv-]

Damian at Active Sky has also replicated this and says a solution may require a collaboration with him.

-Pv-

[Andydigital]

http://forum.simflight.com/topic/73967-pete-dowson-is-away-until-april-1st-2013/

[-Pv-]

Any progress on this?

-Pv-

[Pete Dowson]

Important Note: Editing the internal FS weather dialog will not reveal this problem, nor will using the default Jeppeson Real World Weather. The problem is most noticeable

with Active Sky, but was also observed with FSrealWX. The conclusion I reached is it's an external weather program interaction, possibly related to SimConnect.

I'm afraid I cannot fix SimConnect problems. But your message at least provided more information. As noted earlier in the thread I could not reproduce it, but then I was not given sufficient information, and the OP, a "garyhall2530" took the huff and left here with a sercastic comment, making me ignore the thread subsequently. In particular you said:

->Activate Active Sky in DWC mode and Local Writes (Whether this is important is not known. These are the settings I normally use in flight.)

Why would you use FSUIPC's winsd smoothing in DWC mode? DWC mode gives ActiveSky absolute control over the winds in any case, so it can do the smoothing itself. The only use of FSUIPC wind smoothing is for localised WX station weathers which set conflicting winds and the bugs in FS's weather engine mess up during interpolation. I think it gets a sign wrong somewhere, or uses a cos instead of a sin, etc.

Observe contrl-z text and as soon as crossing 52K ft, both the direction and speed of the winds will change at the rate set in FSUIPC.

Eventually (depending on starting direction and speed) the transition will halt at 340 degrees and zero knots.

Would the actual altitude be 16384 metres by any chance? i.e. 53,753,28 feet? Because if so it would indicate something being stored in a signed 16-bit word and going negative.

Not that this helps me -- I've certainly checked for any altitude dependency in the FSUIPC smoothing actions, and there is none -- the altitude isn't a factor in any part of it EXCEPT for avoiding the smoothing of surface winds if the SimConnect "on ground" flag is set (i.e. even that doesn't use altitude, only the "on ground" flag, put in offset 0366). Also, if there were such a problem in that code it should affect the winds no matter who set them and in what mode. The FSUIPC smoothing is a "hack" which hooks a call from the Weather DLL into the SIM1.DLL and changes the winds being set at the aircraft before they are actually implemented. The way they get set doesn't come into it.

It's a mystery, but i don't know how I can help and I don't really know why it becomes a problem in DWC mode where smoothing shouldn't be needed in any case.

Regards

Pete

[-Pv-]

Part of the problem is the inconvenience. DWC isn't the only appropriate weather mode in Active Sky. It's an additional hassle to remember to toggle wind smoothing on and off when selecting different AS modes or when using alternative weather programs.

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