JimmiG Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 I seem to be in the minority, but I'm actually not that interested in real-world weather in a flight sim. I can understand the appeal of having real, dynamic, unpredictable weather, but for me it imposes too many limitations. In the real world, if the weather is bad, you simply stay on the ground and hope for better weather next weekend. Doing this in the sim seems to be taking the realism a bit too far. So I usually resort to the inbuilt weather themes or create my own weather. However this also has limitations - the weather is always predictable, and not very interesting. I remember the way Flight Unlimited III handled weather. It was simple yet genius. It basically consisted of a severity slider and a "Generate" button. It would then generate winds, clouds, set the visibility, temperature etc. and even place warm- and cold fronts based on the severity slider. Once you started flying however, the weather kept updating. A nice sunny summer afternoon could change into rain and thunderstorms. Is there anything like this for FSX/Prepar3D? What do you use when you don't want to fly with real-world weather? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaseman007 Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 That certainly is an interesting take on the weather interaction within fsx. I personally love using real weather within the sim. I can always find somewhere in the virtual world to fly if a certain location has me stuck on the ground. Jas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlaycock Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 Hi It is interesting that I have the same thoughts on the weather in FSX. I don't want real weather but would like it to be random and changing. However I don't know of a program that offers this Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venturi Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 Real world test your flight planning ability and ultimately the safety of you and you passengers, If your flying around randomly then yes for sure set what you feel like flying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexf Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 I use real weather but if you want ORBx has a good set of free weather presets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DexyRed Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 I use REX Essential + Overdrive. Under the weather tab, select 'Use random weather theme', enter your location, select season then severity then click 'Generate'. You can then load up FSX and fly with that. That said, I don't actually use that feature very much myself, preferring rw weather. Also, I'm not sure if it stays static or evolves with time. Perhaps other users could say from their own experiences. Still, I think you may find it worth a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmiG Posted April 30, 2013 Author Share Posted April 30, 2013 Real world test your flight planning ability and ultimately the safety of you and you passengers, If your flying around randomly then yes for sure set what you feel like flying. This depends on what type of flying you do. If you're a private pilot, bush pilot or small charter pilot, the responsible thing to do when the weather turns bad is to simply stay on the ground. That $100 hamburger can wait until next Saturday. Many accidents have occurred because pilots took off in bad weather or pressed on when the weather turned bad. Even if you are instrument rated, if you fly for fun you might decide to stay on the ground because the flight simply wouldn't be enjoyable. Again, I do want *dynamic* weather to test my skills and surprise me from time to time. But I don't want to be prevented from flying the sim from my home in Sweden for 4 weeks, because the weather in Washington halfway around the world happens to stink. I use REX Essential + Overdrive. Under the weather tab, select 'Use random weather theme', enter your location, select season then severity then click 'Generate'. You can then load up FSX and fly with that. That said, I don't actually use that feature very much myself, preferring rw weather. Also, I'm not sure if it stays static or evolves with time. Perhaps other users could say from their own experiences. Still, I think you may find it worth a look. I've read about that. Looks pretty interesting. However REX is a bit overkill for my needs. The sheer amount of content is actually a drawback for me - I had the FS9 version and spent more time trying to compose the ultimate sky+water theme than actually enjoying the textures. But if the random weather generator is really good I might check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mamue Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 http://www.simflight.de/2013/04/29/review-fs-global-real-weather-von-pilots/comment-page-1/ Look about this. It's in german, you can translate them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Watson Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 What I often do is start AS 2012 then click Find WX option. Put in the criteria you want and limit the ICAO codes, eg Winds more than 30kts, ICOA starting with K, then have a look at the list, and make a flight from one of those airports. Makes for an interesting takeoff. Then search again, but for airports with vis less than 1nm, heavy rain, and make the the destination. It can take 10 mins to find 2 interesting places that are the distance apart you want for the aircaft you will fly, but it's worth while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taph Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 Normally fly real weather, and If I find I am grounded then use bush flyers luck dip and take it from there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sightseer Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 I agree with you Jimmi (and others). Dynamic is good. Ive just read my post on the P3D website where I say that I don't care about dynamic weather and I realize that I take too many meds for too many conditions...and most of you know nothing about that...so...... dynamic weather - good. accurate weather - I don't care. "real weather" is better than static weather themes or apparently static themes. there needs to be a generator. I just think real current condtions would make an excellent seed for a dynamic generator. im gonnna go drink more coffee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzpx56 Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 Buy plenty of Orbx sceneries - it will always be fine and sunny somewhere in the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmiG Posted May 3, 2013 Author Share Posted May 3, 2013 Buy plenty of Orbx sceneries - it will always be fine and sunny somewhere in the world. True, but that kind of breaks the realism too - Oh, looks like it's raining in Oregon today. I'll just teleport my Cessna to Australia, then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roger hopkins Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 I'm replying a bit late, been a bit busy with some repaints but I couldn't resist the 50% reduction of REX weather the other week about £14.00 which was a snip, very really do I fly without using it so I don't bother with FSX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortspecialbus Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 True, but that kind of breaks the realism too - Oh, looks like it's raining in Oregon today. I'll just teleport my Cessna to Australia, then Oh, looks like it's raining in Oregon today. Guess my Australian self will fly my Australian Cessna then. That's how I go about it. Otherwise I'd have to fly my little a2a piper cub between continents every time I wanted to fly somewhere else, and as I'm not Charles Lindbergh, that's out of the question. -stefan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmiG Posted May 8, 2013 Author Share Posted May 8, 2013 Oh, looks like it's raining in Oregon today. Guess my Australian self will fly my Australian Cessna then. That's how I go about it. Otherwise I'd have to fly my little a2a piper cub between continents every time I wanted to fly somewhere else, and as I'm not Charles Lindbergh, that's out of the question. -stefan That's almost what I've been doing the last few weeks - just resuming the flight where I left off. Really fun and immersive. I've only stayed within the NA region though. When I decide to fly in England next, I'll either have to let my clone over there fly, or teleport myself I ended up getting REX. I figure at least it gives me more options - Custom weather is still there if I want to use it, as well as real-time weather and randomly generated weather. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortspecialbus Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 That's almost what I've been doing the last few weeks - just resuming the flight where I left off. Really fun and immersive. I've only stayed within the NA region though. When I decide to fly in England next, I'll either have to let my clone over there fly, or teleport myself I ended up getting REX. I figure at least it gives me more options - Custom weather is still there if I want to use it, as well as real-time weather and randomly generated weather. I used to do that - pick up where I left off. However my obsession with real world weather did kinda make that impractical, as well as my ADD of where to fly. It was certainly fun while it lasted though! As far as REX goes, either make one weather theme once and stick with it forever, or just let it installed the WX-influenced textures and let it do its own thing. Otherwise, along with other tweaking, you'll add "farting about with weather textures" to the endless list of things you do with flight sim that aren't flying. -stefan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmiG Posted May 8, 2013 Author Share Posted May 8, 2013 As far as REX goes, either make one weather theme once and stick with it forever, or just let it installed the WX-influenced textures and let it do its own thing. Otherwise, along with other tweaking, you'll add "farting about with weather textures" to the endless list of things you do with flight sim that aren't flying. -stefan That is good advice and something I can relate to since I had the FS9 version of REX. There are probably hundreds or even thousands of possible combinations of clouds, sky and water that you can choose. Right now I have created a theme with a dark blue sky and bright, sharp white clouds - I like skies with contrast rather than milky white or greyish polluted-type atmospheres, even if those may be more realistic on many days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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