CumulusX!

Peter - can you confirm how the lift profile changes with height using the *default* CumulusX settings at 1pm on a summer day at 40 degrees North (i.e. Mifflin)? I read your notes on it in the CumulusX documentation but couldn't work out the actual values. 'Default' doesn't have an inversion layer and the weak layer near the ground is quite short, but when soaring at 2500 feet MSL (1700 feet AGL) I'm able to reach quite a few thermals (at the default 5 thermals per 100 square kilometers) but I'm finding it difficult to find lift. The 'default' thermal strengths are quite strong in the settings so I don't really understand it. There's a possibility the default has the…

I would greatly appreciate help on a problem I am having with CumulusX, I will list the characteristics to keep it succinct: I have installed Cumulus x (latest version I think it is 1.0) and Simprobe. I am set to unblue Mifflin Day 1 mission: Start - thermals everywhere for the first 3minutes then white Cumulusx looking stuff appears on the ground in patches where I assume thermals may have been. 4 minute mark - thermals in sky are starting to thin out and I can see them disappearing before my eyes until within 15 sec no thermals at all. 26 min mark - thermals suddenly appear everywhere again and 1min later start disappearing and approx 15 seconds later are all gon…

Have any of you all tried ezdoc_walk_cameraV1_22 yet? It's a great utility ( http://www.arccpro.narod.ru/index_page20.htm ) for walking around your aircraft or scenery. I was going to use it to get better screenshots for my upcoming FS2004/FSX funfly&contest. At first use, it was looking great as it made the experience more pleasant. But then, when I entered FSX the next time, my .BGL cumulus clouds for the funfly/contest were messed up. I had white rectangles where the cumulus cloud images should be. I will have to check again, but I believe the automatic cumulus clouds show up correctly. Anyway, just wondering if anyone has tried it and had any luck. Scott

After spending many hours this winter simsoaring with FSX and CumulusX! and Simprobe, since the start of the real life soaring season last april I noticed that my real-life soaring has improved dramatically. Finding thermal lift under (streets of) clouds, being aware of the windfactor when deciding where to expect the position of the thermal under a Cu-cloud, centering and staying centered into thermals to get the optimum of lift, has become much more adequate, resulting in longer duration of flights and having more fun while flying. I already had three +3hr solo-flights in the last two weeks, where over the last two years my record was 50 minutes. This afternoon I even n…

Hello everybody, today I finalised the full release package by updating the manual and the version number. The final release is now available from here: http://www.luerkens.homepage.t-online.de/peter/ Thanks to everybody for help, testing and suggestions. Cheers! Peter

So that is now the final state. Please check out and send me your feedback about bugs and so on. best regards, Peter What's new in Version 0.96 RC This version includes two new functionalities. During placement of thermals the slope data base is examined and the properties of the underneath slope patch is attached to the data set of each thermal. During thermal simulation this information is compared against the current wind and irradiation condition, and it is decided whether to activate a particular thermal or not. This function is active only, if there is a slope data base and if it is enabled. In addition, the gtround elevation is included in the thermal data set,…

Hi Peter & Ian I just tried cumulusX! and sim_probe and love the combo. To me this is one of the most ingenious add-ons for FSX - even for non-gliders. :yahoo: To quickly introduce myself, Im quite involved in the FS scene, have a reputation as a scenery designer (http://www.simpilotexperience.com) and also run a free online magazine (http://www.simpilotnet.com). I would love to take this add-on to the next level. There are more wind effects (maybe not just gliding related) like coastal winds. I'm wondering if you would be interested in developing your programs into a new kind of weather add-on which makes atmospheric modelling in FSX much more realistic. I got …

Peter, I have a mayor problem. When trying to start cumulusx Vista gives a general error saying that Cumulusx is not functioning and has to be closed. The same error occurs when I try to startup cumulusx with windows explorer (not via FSX) I deleted Cumulusx completely (except the panel part), did a registry cleanup, defragmented my disk, shut of the firewall and more. But when re-installing RC3, or .951 after doing the complete cleanup the same error message occurs. Bert ***Edit: Never mind, going back to the last restore-point did the trick. Everything works oké again.

Hello, I am new to CumulusX!, and I seem to be having a bit of trouble. I really like flying sailplanes in FSX, but I wanted to try CumulusX! to make things a bit more realistic. I am launching a flight in a window, and when I am sitting on the runway, I navigate a file browser to the Modules\CumulusX!\ directory and click on the CumulusX! application file. When I do that, I get the dreaded error report window that says "CumulusX! 0.81 beta has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." I am not able to get any more information about what is causing the error. Am I doing things correctly? Any ideas about what might be causing …

So now, the curtain rises and the first public alpha release of a soaring tool for FSX is out. Currently it allows ridge-soaring with the help of existing CCS2004-"-.slo"-files. Check out the readme.txt. I'm interested in your feedback. Cheers, Peter Edit: typos, attachment removed for final release.

I'd really like to hear more about the multi-player flying experience from yesterday, plus any other comments about flying with CumulusX! and sim_probe. For *bug* reports (or feature requests) can I please ask they're kept to the CumulusX! and sim_probe feedback threads, or this one will get clogged up. Where was the multi-player flight from yesterday, and how did it go? Was anyone using TrackIR? I have that and suspect it would be particularly useful for multi-player soaring because you have to look around more, but I've never tried it. Did you watch other gliders attempt jumps across gaps? I would expect the pilot still in the ridge lift would see the gap-jumpi…

Peter - let us know what / how much feedback you want on CumulusX! I've downloaded it and been flying the Appalacian ridges in the NE USA that I know first-hand, and am very very impressed with the ridge lift CumulusX produces. I've got some immediate comment although I'd guess you're already familiar with the points: CumulusX! could be auto-started in the FSX startup file, and so would automatically connect to FSX, wait for the SimStart event, and start producing lift, rather than having its own window with the buttons as now, and exit when it detects fsx closing. Simconnect can put items on the FSX menu - when you mentioned the menu before I thought that's where it…

CumulusX! is consitently giving me an exception error if it's still open when I quit FSX: I've tried 'autostart' but thick as I am I can't work out what that actually does, even after reading Peter's instructions, and it doesn't prevent this exception when I quit FSX. Ian cumulus_exception.txt

My analysis work on the 'ground elevation probe' technique to derive ridge lift from the live FSX terrain around the user aircraft is completed and I've spent a few days documenting the approach: Efficient simulation of topographic lift in FSX This work is complimentary to the work Peter has done on CumulusX! and we should see if the code can be combined. I would imagine the possibility of a pure module in FSX with no user interface that quietly applies ridge lift throughout the landscape which would co-exist with CumulusX! providing thermals and Cu's, without needing CumulusX! as a pre-requisite, AND/OR the the technique could be programmed into CumulusX! as a fallbac…

Hi, I found a source for high quality input data for the creation of slope files. This is the CIAT ( see citation below) which offers "SRTM 3" Version 3" digital elevation data and with a Google-kmz file an (halfway) easy to use interface to download the portion of elevation data you may need. A big improvement over NASA SRTM-files (version 2) is, that all holes are filled with reasonable data now. Usage is free for non commercial and non-profit uses. I made a first test and created the picture below from my home area, the Eifel-region in germany. I'm going to integrate this as a new import option for creating the slope data base with the Slope Data Base Tool. It is req…

Hi, CumulusX! goes public, at Xmas. So for all virtual gliding enthusiasts enjoy your possibly new rig with the thrilling experience of realistic gliding. Find a 0.5 MB download at my homepage. merry Christmas, and, in case, a happy new year. Cheers, Peter

Hi, eventually I got a small tool ready, which allows to import DAT-files into a slope data base and examine the result. The detour with CCS2004 is not needed anymore. The tool can be used as well for importing and examination of the CCS2004 slope data base. It's availabe at my homepage. best regards, Peter

For ridge lift, as CumulusX is connecting to FSX via simconnect anyway, could it sample the terrain near the users aircraft and decide the slope for itself instead of the CCS2004 slope file? With the wind speed and direction from the simconnect interface, CumulusX could optimise the samples needed for slope calculation function in that you would most likely sample the ground heights *upwind* of the users current position. It seems like then it could inject ridge lift into any terrain you flew over. Did I miss something ? thanks, Ian

I'm flabbergasted! A whole new forum for CumulusX! What a great honor, thanks folks. Only one little wish: Could we rename it to CumulusX! with the exclamation mark and without the blank? I know, there is at least one more software out, called Cumulus, and I'd like to avoid confusion. best regards, Peter