Customize the weather of a B737 Simulator

[Thomas Laurain]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm a new member on this forum and I have several questions.

I'm a French computer science student currently in internship in a lab in Melbourne, FL. We have here a B737 Simulator that runs under Prepar3d and uses FSUIPC.

I'm working on the weather and for my experiments, I would like to know if it is possible to replay a past weather ?

For example I'm designing a device that uses the weather radar data from the 29th of March, 2014 and I would like to know how to use these data (which are in the specific radar data format but can be exported to KMZ file) on Prepar3d to display the same weather as my device does.

I haven't watched the simulator code yet, I just know that it exists in FSUIPC at Offset C000 a XML file called New Weather that may allow me to do what I want, but I'm not sure and I don't know how it works.

 

Thank you in advance for helping me !

[Pete Dowson]

I'm working on the weather and for my experiments, I would like to know if it is possible to replay a past weather ?

 

 

Thank you in advance for helping me !

 

This is really the wrong place to ask -- I support FSUIPC and WideFs, but no weather programs.

 

Certainly programs like ActiveSky and OpusFSX and others are capable of providing weather for almost any date, time and place. Please refer to their documentation. look for "historical weather" or somesuch.

 

I haven't watched the simulator code yet, I just know that it exists in FSUIPC at Offset C000 a XML file called New Weather that may allow me to do what I want, but I'm not sure and I don't know how it works.

 

 

There is no XML in FSUIPC. It does not support XML. Offset C000 is the start of a 4kb area in which binary encoding of current weather in FS can be read and written. It is documented as "New Weather Interface" in the FSUIPC SDK, and demonstrated by the program "WeatherSet2".

 

METAR string data can be read and written as an alternative to the binary data, and that is in the 4kb area starting at B000. This is a direct interface to the METAR facilities of SimConnect.

 

Pete

[Thomas Laurain]

Thank you very muc for your answer, I am going to contact people from OpusFX because we use it in our simulator. So if I well understand, at Offset C000 I can write the current weather of the FS with any value I want, right ? and Offset B000 allows me to write the weather I want to each METAR facility ?

 

Sorry if I misunderstand, and thank you in advance.

 

Thomas.

[Pete Dowson]

Thank you very muc for your answer, I am going to contact people from OpusFX because we use it in our simulator. So if I well understand, at Offset C000 I can write the current weather of the FS with any value I want, right ? and Offset B000 allows me to write the weather I want to each METAR facility 

 

If you are using a weather program such as Opus then you surely don't want to also set the weather yourself as well?

 

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you completely. Why do you want two sources of weather?

 

Pete

[Thomas Laurain]

I'm discussing with someone from OpusFSX who told me that Opus only has weather from the last 24hours. The data they use is METAR data.

 

My problem is that I want to have a storm at a specific place because with the weather data I have, there is a storm at a place and in order to demonstrate that my device is efficient, I need to display on the simulator this storm.

And obviously I cannot wait for a real storm happening to do my experiments (particularly during the summer where the sun is always shining in Florida).

That's why I want to modify the weather displayed by the simulator, using FSUIPC or Opus, to have this storm at this specific area.

 

Thank you for the time you have taken to answer me.

 

Thomas.

[Pete Dowson]

I'm discussing with someone from OpusFSX who told me that Opus only has weather from the last 24hours. The data they use is METAR data.

 

All weather suppliers for FS use METAR data, of course.  Even FS's own downloaded "real weather" if that still works.

 

Take a look at Active Sky if you want historical weather. I think it might cover a lot more.

 

If all you want is the METARs from weather stations for a specific time and date, why not find then on the web in any case?

 

My problem is that I want to have a storm at a specific place because with the weather data I have, there is a storm at a place and in order to demonstrate that my device is efficient, I need to display on the simulator this storm.And obviously I cannot wait for a real storm happening to do my experiments (particularly during the summer where the sun is always shining in Florida).

 

Does it have to be a particular place? ActiveSky Next (ASN) has a facility for searching for things like storms, and then it is easy enough to locate the aircraft there. This is how I tested my own weather radar graphics displays linked to ASN's facilities.

 

 

That's why I want to modify the weather displayed by the simulator, using FSUIPC or Opus, to have this storm at this specific area.

 

Try using ASN. It is possibly the most advanced weather program at present, and supplies ready-made weather radar data. See the ASN WXradar stuff I included with my more recent FSUIPC releases. Several add-on aircraft have been enhanced recently to use its WX radar data facilities (PMDG 737NG and iFly 737NG, to name but two).

 

Pete

 

[Thomas Laurain]

 

If all you want is the METARs from weather stations for a specific time and date, why not find then on the web in any case?

Because OpusFSX needs METAR text statement data from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and these data are available only for the past 24 hours.

 

 

Does it have to be a particular place?

Yes because I have applied for NEXRAD data from NOAA and I have radar data of a storm, the 29th of March, which happened near West Palm Beach, FL

 

 

Try using ASN

I'm going to watch deeper the facilities they provide. ActiveSky sounds very powerful. So if I have well understood, ActiveSky is a weather engine like OpusFSX ?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Thomas.

[Pete Dowson]

Because OpusFSX needs METAR text statement data from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and these data are available only for the past 24 hours.

 

Well I'm sure Active Sky can provide older METARs, so I assume they are keeping them on their website.

 

So if I have well understood, ActiveSky is a weather engine like OpusFSX ?

 

 

It's not quite like Opus, because Opus also deals with views and spreading FS across different PCs on a network. I don't think weather was or is its main focus, thpugh it does do it quite well.

 

On the other hand, it is Active Sky's only interest, and it has held the prime weather position for FS for many years.

 

Pete

[Thomas Laurain]

Okay, thank you very much Pete for helping me, I appreciate. I will speak with my internship manager about ActiveSky, which sounds better for our simulator. For my own project, I will find an other way to realize my experiments, but thank you very much for your advice and explanations.

 

Thomas.