I have been flying a lot in FSX in the mountains of central Idaho using various general aviation aircraft. As a resident of the area I am very aware of the weather in the region. I have seen, now that FSX (and the real world Northern Hemisphere) has moved in to Spring, something I rarely noticed at tubeliner altitudes.
I am curious about how the FSX "Terrain Engine", for lack of a better description, and the FSX "Weather Engine" (in this case Active Sky Evolution...ASE) interact to display what I see on the ground as I fly over it?
For example, in the recent past we had a "warm spell" here in Idaho and it corresponded very nicely with the turn of the season (for real and in FSX) to Spring. In FSX I saw quite a lot less snow on the mountains during this period. However, last week was particularly rainy in the lower elevations for real and snow in the mountains above 6,000 feet. Now, flying over the exact same scenery at the same season in FSX I am seeing snow in mountain meadows that were green in FSX two weeks ago. So FSX has "reacted" to what the real weather has done.
A more specific example is the airstrip at Pine Idaho, 1U9. During the week of warm weather I drove to Pine and saw for myself that there was no snow around the airfield at all. It had all melted off nicely. I flew in FSX just to see how FSX would display the airfield and terrain and it matched very well, some snow at higher elevations but none on or near the airfield. I was impressed with how FSX reacted to the season and the real weather...and ASE.
After a week of rain and higher elevation snow I drove up to Pine again (it's only a 40 minute drive for me) and saw spots of snow at lower elevations and the remains of snow along the fringe of the grass runway and airfield boundary. Went home and loaded up FSX and sure enough, the edge of the runway was showing a fringe of snow. FSX had somehow taken the real information and weather history...perhaps from ASE somehow or a real world embedded link somewhere in the FSX code...and was displaying the airfield very well and, for the most part, accurately.
So now I have this wondering about how FSX and the real world are able to interact so well...at least to me it seems that way. If it were purely a "time of year" or specific day thing there is no way FSX could know to display snow on a field where only a week before it had displayed none. Somehow FSX "knew" a field it depicted the terrain as clear of any snow earlier had received snow and now showed it with a snow "fringe" on the edge of the runway and parking area. I thought perhaps ASE was somehow looking at the real world weather history and affecting the airfield with a snow fringe. To test this I ran FSX without any weather engine, choosing "Clear" in the weather options and not even starting ASE. Snow fringe was still there. I realize FSX won't always depict a field that way it looks at the moment, but I am very impressed that it seems to have a "knowledge base" within it's code somewhere that remembers what has happened in an area weatherwise.
Any coding gurus out there know how FSX interacts to display terrain that is reasonably accurate with the weather, past and present?
Randy
I am curious about how the FSX "Terrain Engine", for lack of a better description, and the FSX "Weather Engine" (in this case Active Sky Evolution...ASE) interact to display what I see on the ground as I fly over it?
For example, in the recent past we had a "warm spell" here in Idaho and it corresponded very nicely with the turn of the season (for real and in FSX) to Spring. In FSX I saw quite a lot less snow on the mountains during this period. However, last week was particularly rainy in the lower elevations for real and snow in the mountains above 6,000 feet. Now, flying over the exact same scenery at the same season in FSX I am seeing snow in mountain meadows that were green in FSX two weeks ago. So FSX has "reacted" to what the real weather has done.
A more specific example is the airstrip at Pine Idaho, 1U9. During the week of warm weather I drove to Pine and saw for myself that there was no snow around the airfield at all. It had all melted off nicely. I flew in FSX just to see how FSX would display the airfield and terrain and it matched very well, some snow at higher elevations but none on or near the airfield. I was impressed with how FSX reacted to the season and the real weather...and ASE.
After a week of rain and higher elevation snow I drove up to Pine again (it's only a 40 minute drive for me) and saw spots of snow at lower elevations and the remains of snow along the fringe of the grass runway and airfield boundary. Went home and loaded up FSX and sure enough, the edge of the runway was showing a fringe of snow. FSX had somehow taken the real information and weather history...perhaps from ASE somehow or a real world embedded link somewhere in the FSX code...and was displaying the airfield very well and, for the most part, accurately.
So now I have this wondering about how FSX and the real world are able to interact so well...at least to me it seems that way. If it were purely a "time of year" or specific day thing there is no way FSX could know to display snow on a field where only a week before it had displayed none. Somehow FSX "knew" a field it depicted the terrain as clear of any snow earlier had received snow and now showed it with a snow "fringe" on the edge of the runway and parking area. I thought perhaps ASE was somehow looking at the real world weather history and affecting the airfield with a snow fringe. To test this I ran FSX without any weather engine, choosing "Clear" in the weather options and not even starting ASE. Snow fringe was still there. I realize FSX won't always depict a field that way it looks at the moment, but I am very impressed that it seems to have a "knowledge base" within it's code somewhere that remembers what has happened in an area weatherwise.
Any coding gurus out there know how FSX interacts to display terrain that is reasonably accurate with the weather, past and present?
Randy
