In my case I seldom use FSGRW, because I seldom use X-Plane 10 as a standalone flight simulator. So, we're not really tying ourselves to actual METAR data METAR is just the format we read.Īgain, it would be great if you could read what is actually being injected into X-plane from the weather injector being used ( FSGRW, NOAA.
In that case, Real Weather Connector will happily use these enhanced METAR files and not just the ones that come directly from individual reports. Weather engines like FSGRW write their own METAR strings that are fed to X-Plane, which presumably use a wider array of weather data sources in their construction.
Speaking toward the limitations of METAR in Europe - keep in mind METAR is just an interface X-Plane uses for weather information. I use Aerowinx PSX as my weather injector, and indeed I notice a much better performance and at the same time a better quality of depiction of cloud coverage with SP3 - it was worth the investment, and I look forward fro that upcoming product too.
I've ( again ) given up on using XP10 as a flight simulator ( maybe I should have bought the SaaB 340, but I spent my money on SMP3 instead because I skipped the promotional campaign for v2 users :-/ ), but the flight dynamics are sooo disappointing that the only thing it is really good at is World coverage of airport scenery and navaid data, night scenery, and now, the effects of SMP3, which not being comparable to what I got in MSFS or P3D are still much better than without. When it comes to storm coverage, it's important ( I'de say mandatory ) to have a synoptic scale view of the weather around you, merging not only METAR info but also other ( forecasts such as TAF, GAMET or AIREP ) sources. It's easy in Europe to have your captain reporting to the passengers that the aircraft is approaching the destination airport on a beautiful cloudless day, to just find out there's that, sometimes thick, overcast at 6500' over the area and surrounding towns. Looks promising, but you should go beyond METAR strings - they're too limited in the vertical plane specially around Europe and other areas where very low sector altitudes are common.
It's definitely no small project, especially considering there are more lines of code in this little add-on than in all of SkyMaxx Pro itself! We're just leveraging SkyMaxx Pro's clouds because we can. For now, stay tuned while we get through beta testing." I think once folks start to get their hands on it and spread the word, folks will understand why it's a product in its own right. The truth is, while it doesn't fetch the weather, it does much more of a lot of things you'd expect a weather injector TO DO, and does it better in a lot of areas. It's middle ground between a weather injector and an enabler. To be quite clear, this is really a grey area of perception. I kinda doubt that's possible with the current v10 weather engine, but I'm looking forward to see how much can be done with this add-on. and I'll be throwing money at the screen. Towering CB's that also act the way they should, with severe vertical up/downdrafts, and in discrete formations that I'd be able to duck in between. Towering cumulonimbus in the distance as a purely visual effect, would definitely sell me on this. We didn't replicate what X-Plane's default clouds can do, we went beyond that. For example, we can have hundreds of distinct cloud layers in view at once, all at different altitudes - and we offer cloud types like cumulonimbus and towering cumulus that the default engine doesn't have. We're parsing and interpolating raw METAR information, and using it to position cloud formations and storm clouds in ways X-Plane's built-in weather cannot. we're not bringing XP's default real-world weather functionality to SkyMaxx we're inventing our own. Frank put it this way in a post somewhere else: