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CumulusX! & add on weather programs


NoiR

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Hello all! I'm a fresh new soaring pilot with questions to bug you! :)

I have been using FS series for quite a while but haven't been trying soaring untill now. Now I use FSX, CumulusX!, Sim_Probe and a winch start program. What I was wondering is that does CumulusX! and sim_probe work with 3rd party weather addons like Active Sky Advanced for example? ASA tries to create thermals and stuff, but I don't know how accurately modelled they are. Couldn't find any info regarding ASA thermals or up/downdrifts anywhere besides their marketing text, so I'd prefer to use CumulusX! etc. for now. Still ASA provides quite nice visuals and overall weather environment so I'd like to use that instead of FSX's own "real world weather"... which is kinda far from real from time to time. So, if it's possible to make CumulusX! and simprobe work together with ASA then please tell me how!

Sorry if this question has been asked before, could'nt find an answer while browsing the forums...

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Hi NoiR,

you're very welcome here. As a matter of fact I have no personal experience yet, how CumulusX! (WinchX! should not be an issue at all) works together with ASA and the like. What I can explain is the following: CumulusX! works by partly bypassing the aircraft's flight dynamic model. Thus it is not relying on the existence of vertical air motion in FSX' weather engine.

Built-in thermals of FSX continue generating vertical air motion (though highly unrealistic) and the still active part of the aircraft's flight dynamics reacts on that. If both, an FSX-thermal and a CumulusX! thermal coincide, the lift of the two will superpose.

Now, if ASA produces lift by creating native FSX-thermals, ASA lift and CumulusX! lift will superpose. IF ASA uses a similar approach like CumulusX! they will fight each other.

Another topic is the clouds. ASA makes pretty nice clouds, current CumulusX! clouds are far from being so good. I have a new cloud set in preparation, which is way better as the current (I think) but it will not achieve the quality of ASA or FEX etc, i.e. they will always look noticeably different. This is both, advantage and disadvantage. Disadvantage is that it doesn't look so nice as the add-on clouds, advantage is that you have something to look out when searching for lift. I can tell you, that you will pretty often meet the cows if you don't have a hint.

Aside from that, CumulusX! will react on the weather situation created by ASA as long as ASA does not misuse cloud descriptors, e.g. overloading stratus clouds with another set of cumulus in order to create a bigger variety for fair weather schemes. I've heard that FEX requires a decision on the weather situation before start of an FSX session, in order to replace cloud textures whith a more appropriate set.

BTW, I would be a bit surprised to find ASA making actually thermals and ridge lift. I know it was a feature of Active Sky for FS9, and I saw an announcement for ASX, but in the forums I only read that it was not working.

best regards,

Peter

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Thank you for your very informative and fast reply!

ASA creates some kind of thermals and up/downdrafts that's for sure. How realistic they are, that's another matter. I tested ASA's thermal creation with schematic thermal visualization on and noticed it produced "random" thermals that were like few meters wide. Try to stay inside of such thermal! I think the weather wasn't optimal for thermal creation though. That's as far as I had patience to use ASA's thermal features and I changed to use CumulusX! Sorry but what do you mean by "superpose"? I checked a online dictionary with no avail and english is not my native lanquage. Do FSX and CumulusX! thermals "add up" when they coincide? Does CumulusX! need the FSX thermals at all or will it work without them? There is a option in ASA where you can deacticvate thermal creation altogether, I could try ASA & CumulusX! combination with deactivation on?

If I understand correct: if ASA uses FSX thermals (as it looks like it does) and is not misusing cloud descriptions it should work together with CumulusX! nicely. I'll test them a little further and let's see how they co-operate.

Your clouds are not a problem to me! It's good to have distinct identification of thermals since I'm a total newbie on soaring anyway! I like cows, but I prefer to take the car to go see them. :)

Edit: voila, nice, beautifull CumulusX! clouds are popping up with ASA. I wonder why I didn't get it to work first time I tried!

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You're right, they add up. English is not my native language either and I'm always unsure about "superpose" and "superimpose". My dictionary knows both of them.

And CumulusX! will work, even if FSX thermals are deactivated in the FSX options screen.

best regards,

Peter

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  • 4 weeks later...

You're right, they add up. English is not my native language either and I'm always unsure about "superpose" and "superimpose". My dictionary knows both of them.

And CumulusX! will work, even if FSX thermals are deactivated in the FSX options screen.

best regards,

Peter

Hi Peter, how does Cumulus X work when FSX is connected to VATSIM?

Does VATSIM weather (clear or real) override Cumulus X?

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Should try it out myself, btw, but CumulusX! looks at any weather (be it from VATSIM or not) and adapts with its thermal engine to what it finds. If VATSIM gives you nice weather, you will have CumulusX! thermals amongst it, if there is stratus, there will be none. If there is clear skies you might have blue thermals. Check with the debug window, the number of thermals 25 km around you will be shown.

Curious whether they fixed their weather transmission meanwhile. Afaik, neither SB4 nor FSINN send FSX weather correctly. You are advised always using real weather, instead.

best regards,

Peter

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Should try it out myself, btw, but CumulusX! looks at any weather (be it from VATSIM or not) and adapts with its thermal engine to what it finds. If VATSIM gives you nice weather, you will have CumulusX! thermals amongst it, if there is stratus, there will be none. If there is clear skies you might have blue thermals. Check with the debug window, the number of thermals 25 km around you will be shown.

Curious whether they fixed their weather transmission meanwhile. Afaik, neither SB4 nor FSINN send FSX weather correctly. You are advised always using real weather, instead.

best regards,

Peter

Many thanks Peter, the reason I ask is that I am the CEO of a new gliding club shortly to be launched, the UK Virtual Gliding Association and of course we will be making extensive use of CX, WinchX and other tools in both FSX and FS9.

PS, do you any idea how I can contact Wolfgang Piper?

Regards

Richard

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  • 2 years later...

I'm just starting out in FSX and wanting to do gliding. I have found some gliding scenery addons at Simviation. I have FSX and was planning to use CumulusX - But these scenery packs suggest they add thermals already. thus are they compatible or redundant if CumulsX is used? Are there other benefits of these scenery sets besides the thermals? Also the one I found for my home region BC Canada is FS2004 - will it work with FSX Acceleration? Also from the discussion above I am curious if I have to turn the Native Thermal effects OFF when using CumulusX so that the cumulative superposition of the native thermals and the effect of the flight dynamic dont become unrealistic - or is that taken into account already?

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I'm just starting out in FSX and wanting to do gliding. I have found some gliding scenery addons at Simviation. I have FSX and was planning to use CumulusX - But these scenery packs suggest they add thermals already. thus are they compatible or redundant if CumulsX is used? Are there other benefits of these scenery sets besides the thermals? Also the one I found for my home region BC Canada is FS2004 - will it work with FSX Acceleration? Also from the discussion above I am curious if I have to turn the Native Thermal effects OFF when using CumulusX so that the cumulative superposition of the native thermals and the effect of the flight dynamic dont become unrealistic - or is that taken into account already?

Hi , I have no personal experience with these sceneries but I suppose that they use FSX built-in thermals, which are mostly non dependent on weather or season. As the name implies, thermal sceneries might be relatively static, i.e. you will experience thermals at the same place every day, the whole day long, regardless of season or general weather conditions.Furhtermore there is little to no chance to experience ridge lift. If you want just a simple try-out of gliding you may try these.

However, if you like to experience the flavour of real gliding, than you should give CumulusX! a try. In CumulusX! thermals develop depending on season, time of the day, region, weather conditions, and the properties of the underlying landscape. Ridge lift is produced when wind is blowing against slopes, taking into account also complex shading effects of mountains in upwind direction. Every calendar day will be different. CumulusX! works also with real word weather and with alternative weather programs.

best regards,

Peter

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