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Weather


Michael Garrett
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Michael Garrett
Posted
Posted

Hey guys, what do you use for weather? 

 

I'm returning to flight simulation after several years. Looking to try x plane for the first time ever, as well as the new fs2020. 

 

I recall in my days with fsx having to use add on weather apps like active sky x. 

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Don Desfosse
Posted
Posted

I don't have any hard data, but my guess is ActiveSky is generally considered the (gold) standard in our community.  I'm trying to think, but everyone that I can think of that I fly with uses it.  

Welcome back!

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Don Desfosse
Vice President, Operations

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Ryan Geckler
Posted
Posted

MSFS weather is excellent on it's own - no add-ons required.

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Ryan Geckler - GK | Former VATUSA3 - Division Training Manager

VATSIM Minneapolis ARTCC | FAA Miami ARTCC 

 

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Michael Garrett
Posted
Posted

Ok thanks guys. I appreciation the replies! 

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Don Desfosse
Posted
Posted

Thanks Ryan, hadn't heard that.  Then again I still have yet to come out of the stone ages and embrace MSFS 🙂

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Don Desfosse
Vice President, Operations

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Thimo Koolen
Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Ryan Geckler said:

MSFS weather is excellent on it's own - no add-ons required.

Is it? I've heard quite some complaints that it's not always very accurate.

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ACCNL4 (Training Director) - Dutch VACC

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Tim Waldon
Posted
Posted

Hello Michael, welcome back to flight simulation!

X-Plane has good built-in weather but you can definitely use addons that are available. I don't use MSFS, so I can't speak on that.

Just a quick word of caution. Flight sims have advanced to an extremely realistic level in the last few years. Be careful, it's going to be addictive! 😉

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Ryan Geckler
Posted
Posted
19 hours ago, Thimo Koolen said:

Is it? I've heard quite some complaints that it's not always very accurate.

I've found ActiveSky to be significantly more inaccurate, but that's just my observation. YMMV

Ryan Geckler - GK | Former VATUSA3 - Division Training Manager

VATSIM Minneapolis ARTCC | FAA Miami ARTCC 

 

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Robert Shearman Jr
Posted
Posted
On 9/15/2022 at 1:23 AM, Thimo Koolen said:

Is it? I've heard quite some complaints that it's not always very accurate.

My anedotal observation is that the data source seems to lag behind real-time -- so if a line of storms is visible on SkyVector which has just moved through Chicago and is now sitting off to the east, in the sim it may be over top of the airport now or is just west and still moving into the area.  I haven't spent a lot of time making careful notes to confirm this hypothesis but it's my current working theory.

Cheers,
-R.

fvJfs7z.png

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Michael Garrett
Posted
Posted

This is a lot of interesting info. Thanks you guys. The thoughts about a time delay in real VS sim weather makes sense. I'm ok with that. 

Additionally, the point about simulations and how far they've come since I was last involved is exciting as well as it may be dangerous to a person's wallet! 😅😂😎👍

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Michael Garrett
Posted
Posted
On 9/15/2022 at 9:07 AM, Tim Waldon said:

Hello Michael, welcome back to flight simulation!

X-Plane has good built-in weather but you can definitely use addons that are available. I don't use MSFS, so I can't speak on that.

Just a quick word of caution. Flight sims have advanced to an extremely realistic level in the last few years. Be careful, it's going to be addictive! 😉

Due to the expected increase in technology requirements compared to 2007 I've saved up for a new pc. I get to order it next month. About 5 or 6 weeks from now. I'm hoping it will be good for 5 years or so at least. 😅

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Andreas Fuchs
Posted
Posted (edited)

If you go for MSFS, you will NOT need an additional weather program, because Microsoft has not opened the weather interface (yet). For X-Plane the live weather function that comes with the simulator is good for starters. I do own ActiveSky for X-Plane 11 and always used it. The cool thing is that you can define custom weather areas which is good when you want to fly VFR and the actual weather is bad. Simply take a real world METAR and replace all those nasty cloud layers with "CAVOK" and you will be good to go, while the temperature and QNH will remain like in the real world.

As usual: before you buy anything, try the weather function(s) that come with the simulator first.

Edited by Andreas Fuchs
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Andrew Crowley
Posted
Posted (edited)

The MSFS weather engine is good enough to surprise me on what seems a fairly regular basis now. 

Climbing out of Vegas the other night, with the Metar reporting reduced vis in blowing dust.  Not only did the sim render reduced vis as you'd expect... it looked like a layer of blowing dust. It was night and these pics are badly compressed (sim does not show any of the banding of course) but you can see the color difference between dust and clouds in the moonlight:

https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/be/c5/X3Dok1Qd_t.png

 https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/01/f9/ZQ7PQOX6_t.png

And here, it's picking up and displaying wildfire smoke in the Sierra: 

https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/99/9f/DbApH1zN_t.png

Edited by Andrew Crowley
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Jason Saucier
Posted
Posted
On 9/14/2022 at 6:28 PM, Ryan Geckler said:

MSFS weather is excellent on it's own - no add-ons required.

It has been rather good surprisingly.  And I believe they will improve on it over time as well.  

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John Stockton
Posted
Posted

It seems to me that once our client logs into VATSIM it would download raw weather data from VATSIM. This way we're all on the same page. Our individual simulator renders the raw data.

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N313GM, P0: X-Plane 12.01r3, Windows 11, i7-13700k, RTX4080 (16GB), 32GB DDR4 4800

839080

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Ronnie Cummins
Posted
Posted

Is there a weather map/app/add-on that most of you use. I noticed that simaware doesn't show everything and some aircraft don't show weather on displays.

Not a weather generator. But an add-on weather radar of sorts

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Tim Waldon
Posted
Posted

Here are two great sources for world-wide weather (and flight planning). They both feature layer mapping which allow you to customize what is displayed on the map. You can keep the webpages running in the background, or on a second monitor if you have one.

https://skyvector.com/

https://www.1800wxbrief.com/Website/interactiveMap

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Ronnie Cummins
Posted
Posted

Thanks dude!!

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Luke Kolin
Posted
Posted
On 9/16/2022 at 10:36 AM, Robert Shearman Jr said:

My anedotal observation is that the data source seems to lag behind real-time -- so if a line of storms is visible on SkyVector which has just moved through Chicago and is now sitting off to the east, in the sim it may be over top of the airport now or is just west and still moving into the area.  I haven't spent a lot of time making careful notes to confirm this hypothesis but it's my current working theory.

Having built a few of these systems in the past I can absolutely confirm this. The radar maps you see have a latency of between 5-15 minutes.

Cheers!

Luke

... I spawn hundreds of children a day. They are daemons because they are easier to kill. The first four remain stubbornly alive despite my (and their) best efforts.

... Normal in my household makes you a member of a visible minority.

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  • 1 month later...
Michael Flemming Hansen
Posted
Posted

I have come to use xE for X Plane 11 a lot. I do also have ActiveSky, but I don't like the XP11 vanilla clouds. 

Cheers,

Michael

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