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Weather Generation

J

Jetliner

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unitedstates
Does anyone know if there is a reasonably straightforward way of generating weather in FSX? In my mission thing that I'm working on, based on location (lat/lon/elev) and season, I want to be able to either select from a series of possible weather conditions or generate weather. Personally, I prefer downloadable weather but, if I use a date system in the program to monitor the "simulation" date you may well end up flying through a snow storm (real world) in the middle of summer (sim world)!

Also, with this weather system, it would make it possible to enter directly into the mission things like delay patterns and diversions based on conditions at the destination. I need everything to be flexible, as each mission/flight will be different.

Thanks!

John
 
Horst18519

Horst18519

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John, the answer is quick and disappointing: unless you do all this with an external tool, you won't have any flexibility for weather changes within the mission-module.
 
J

Jetliner

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:(

I was afraid of that. Oh well, I'll have to find another way. Is it maybe possible to program the weather at a specific station and then just replace the ICAO with that of the departure airport you currently want? I know the wx file is encrypted but, I have seen the ICAO code in there. Maybe I'll give that a whirl. Then it'd be a matter of pulling up the weather profile desired and throwing the airport code into it.
 
Horst18519

Horst18519

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The only possibility I see is to load a new FLT (and the wx), but you can't do that from within a mission.
 
J

Jetliner

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Well, the FLT file can be done easily enough. All you need is to load it all in and resave it in the location of the current mission FLT file. I've already done that - same with the mission XML. But, the weather file is the issue.

Basically, my, 'transfer' program, I guess you'd call it, opens any file that can be edited in a text editor, makes any alterations and then resaves it to whatever location and name I give it. The XML and FLT's are such files but, I'm not sure about the wx file. Or, maybe I could dump a pile of them into the mission folder and then point the FLT to the folder and weather title I want to use. Hmm... You've given me something to think about now. :D
 
Horst18519

Horst18519

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Anyway you have the problem that FSX will load the new FLT, which means that the user will get a break in the mission while the new situation is loaded. If that is ok with you there may be some nice possibilities for you. :)
 
J

Jib01

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I just posted a similar question above. So I guess the answer is here. The only way I see to have changing weather is to use real online weather. I'm going to look into that to see if missions can recognize it.

Bummer.....

Regards
Jib01/02
:mad: :mad: :mad:
 
J

Jetliner

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Missions DO work with real world weather. First, set up your flight with downloadable weather. Then, save the flight and link it to your mission. Whenever you start that mission, it will try to connect to the web and get the weather. If you're not connected, it changes to default (Fair, I think) and gives you a message.
 
Horst18519

Horst18519

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That is indeed possible. But whatever you do, you cannot check the weather from within the mission system. You'll have to use an external program for that.
 
J

Jib01

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And other problem with that is that you can not simulate the actual weather that occured for a historic flight. It only gives you the weather for today.

Regards
Jib01/02
 
Horst18519

Horst18519

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That can be solved:

Download the weather, choose "individual weather" and save the flight. All weather information is now stored in the wx-file and will be used in the mission.
 
F

FlapsOut

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Hmmm

Please see my posts in SimConnect/SimConnect Weather?

I think we may make an easy solution for Mission Builders ;)

I'm interested in the Weather, but I think some easily manufactured tools may work for (particularly) Mission Builders.

External Programs? Bah! Humbug! And, Nonsense! :D

FlapsOut
 
J

Jetliner

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Horst18519 said:
That can be solved:

Download the weather, choose "individual weather" and save the flight. All weather information is now stored in the wx-file and will be used in the mission.
Click to expand...

Okay but, does that store ALL weather or just for your departure airport? Since my mission file will be altered based on the time of year, airline currently affiliated with, aircraft being used, etc. if I'm going to alter the weather, I need to know that wherever I'm departing from, the weather will be as such.

Okay, that didn't make any sense. :rolleyes:

Let's say I'm currently flying for Orbit and they designate that my next flight is from say, KBGR - KCMH. The calendar date (in my program) is February 9. That would give an increased chance of snow and ice so, I would then run a random calc to determine whether snow is, "in the forecast." If it returns true, I want the weather to reflect that. I suppose, I could simply use one of the presets but, ideally, I'd like to be able to set up several weather profiles and point to the one which matches up with the, "forecast."

It also has to work at any location, as next week, I might be departing from KBZN or something and need the same type of weather. As far as I understand, only the presets will work this way. Any downloaded or user generated weather is specific to that particular flight. Am I wrong?

Then again, there are so many variables in weather systems, it may just be simpler to use downloadable everytime.
 
J

Jetliner

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Horst18519 said:
Anyway you have the problem that FSX will load the new FLT, which means that the user will get a break in the mission while the new situation is loaded.
Click to expand...

I just now caught this one! :duck:

What does this mean, a break while the new situtation is loaded? All my stuff is done prior to selecting the mission. (?)
 
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J

Jetliner

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unitedstates
Horst18519 said:
That is indeed possible. But whatever you do, you cannot check the weather from within the mission system. You'll have to use an external program for that.
Click to expand...

Well, you can always go to the, "Map" option and then select the station. That option isn't restricted in missions with rewards. And, there's always the ATIS. ;)
 
Horst18519

Horst18519

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I meant that the mission system cannot read the METAR. You can do it personally, but if you want the mission for example to say "winds 20 at 10" you have to read out the METAR. That's not possible (only via simconnect).

In the weather-files (.wx) the complete worldwide weather is stored. So if you load a flt the corresponding wx-file will be loaded and you'll have the weather you stored there - no matter where on earth you are. ;)
 
J

Jetliner

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Please, bear with me for a little further clarification. :)

When you save the FLT and the weather, does this mean it basically takes a snapshot of the global weather? Here's a scenario:

I setup a flight out of PANC and the weather is blizzard conditions. Now, I save that and the wx file is saved as well. Okay, so if I then link up that wx to a flight departing out of say, KMIA, will I get the weather for KMIA as recorded in the wx file or will it give me the blizzard conditions from the original flight?

I believe it's the former but what I need is the second option.
 
Horst18519

Horst18519

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If you take a look into the FLT-file you will find this:
[Weather]
WeatherType=0
Click to expand...
There are (afaIk) 3 options:

0 - default weather schemes
1 - online weather
2 - use weather in associated wx-file

So, if you load a flt called "klax2kjfk" and use weathertype=2 then you should have a wx-file next to the flt file called "klax2kjfk.wx". If you don't fsx will load clear skies.
It doesn't matter where this wx-file came from in the first place. All that matters is that it has now the same name as the flt-file even if it should have previously stored as "callmelikeyouwant.wx".

I hope that was clear (and true :D ).

Edit: Forgot something:

In the wx-file the complete weather-data from all over the world is stored (at least I think so). So it doesn't matter from where you saved the flight, in Timbuktu shall always be Timbuktu weather. :D
 
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J

Jetliner

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Okay, well... the whole front of that was unneccessary but anyway... ;)

My point was that if I save a flight departing in a snow storm, I want to be able to save that storm to use from anywhere else I depart from. But, it sounds like it will load whatever the conditions were on that day in whatever city you choose.

I want to be able to have my little thing decide: "Okay, you're leaving on this date and the chance of rain is 87% - roll the dice - okay, it's raining. Go find the weather profile for rain and use it for this flight."

I think I'll just set the mission weather to default to real world download and leave it at that.
 
Horst18519

Horst18519

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Why don't you set the snowstorm as worldwide weather? You can setup several different weather situations and depending on which departure airport the user takes you load a file that gives realistic weather for this airport.
 
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