Cloud Generation

[Lep 0]

I have the latest CX and would like to know how may I set weather to have more cumulus clouds. I tried varying FSX's weather setting to produce more clouds but it doesn't seem to change anything (I've disabled FSX file as recommended by CX).

And when I tried turning on the default CX's thermal script, it shows up as red color, meaning it's not activated and is using auto thermal instead. How can I use script so that I can specify the amount of clouds, etc.?

Lep

[Peter Lürkens 30]

Hi Lep,

the number of CumulusX! thermals (and their respective clouds) is defined in the CumulusX! settings panel. The allowed range is from 1-15 per 100km2, standard is 5. A high number may reduce FPS.

For script thermals you need a script file that contains information on these. Have a look at the documentation for a detailed description.

best regards,

Peter

[Lep 0]

Hi Lep,

the number of CumulusX! thermals (and their respective clouds) is defined in the CumulusX! settings panel. The allowed range is from 1-15 per 100km2, standard is 5. A high number may reduce FPS.

For script thermals you need a script file that contains information on these. Have a look at the documentation for a detailed description.

best regards,

Peter

Okay thanks. I did open up the script and made some adjustments, but it still showed up as red when selected. I must have left out a script file name. Will try again.

Lep

[Lep 0]

Just tried saving the script, as in "Save Settings", and it saved to a ".cmx" file, while opening a script file points to looking for a ".dat" file. A clearer instruction on this would be appreciated. Thanks.

Lep

[Peter Lürkens 30]

Please have a look into the manual, in the appendix "CCS-Script File Format (.dat)". There is everything about it.

regards,

Peter

[Lep 0]

Please have a look into the manual, in the appendix "CCS-Script File Format (.dat)". There is everything about it.

regards,

Peter

I saw that section but it explains only the data and its meaning, but not how one can create such a dat file. I just want to know how I may create such a file. Also, are there any user ready-made sample files of some common weather scenarios for download? Having these will make the whole experience a lot more accessible to casual user. Thanks.

Lep

[Peter Lürkens 30]

I just want to know how I may create such a file.

Hi Lep,

for the casual user it's certainly recommended to stay with the AutoThermals function. The thermaal script file is mostly intended to create the option to connect FS9 using CCS2004 and FSX using CumulusX! in the same online session and having the same thermals.

CCS2004 has a an option for creating scriptfiles which can be used by CumulusX! likewise. Other than that you have to use a text editor to create such file which is clearly to tedious as it would normally contain in the order of 10000 thermals. You may create your own script file generator instead in some programming language.

regards,

Peter

[Lep 0]

Hi Lep,

for the casual user it's certainly recommended to stay with the AutoThermals function. The thermaal script file is mostly intended to create the option to connect FS9 using CCS2004 and FSX using CumulusX! in the same online session and having the same thermals.

CCS2004 has a an option for creating scriptfiles which can be used by CumulusX! likewise. Other than that you have to use a text editor to create such file which is clearly to tedious as it would normally contain in the order of 10000 thermals. You may create your own script file generator instead in some programming language.

regards,

Peter

Okay noted, Thanks. Just a suggestion -- CX is clearly a great utility, but I feel if it could be made easier to use where custom-made scripts are concerned, it would be wonderful.

Btw, in cases where I do not want to fly with any thermal present, is there any way I could temporarily disable CX? Or must I remove it, and if so, can I just uninstall using MS add/remove program, or do I follow the manual's steps? I sure want to keep CX, but there are times when I do not want any thermal.

Lep

[bruin 3]

Btw, in cases where I do not want to fly with any thermal present, is there any way I could temporarily disable CX? Or must I remove it, and if so, can I just uninstall using MS add/remove program, or do I follow the manual's steps? I sure want to keep CX, but there are times when I do not want any thermal.

Lep

Have a look at all the options you can enable/disable in the main screen of CX!

Bert

[Peter Lürkens 30]

You can enable/disable CumulusX! in FSX' add-ons menu.

regards,

Peter

[B21 19]

You can find tasks where people have set up appropriate soaring weather conditions in the forum here:

http://www.forum.aer...p?showforum=274

The 'script' capability really is a legacy from the FS2002/2004 days and nobody has used it for years. By far the main process is to create a normal flight in FSX and set the location, time of day, and *FSX* weather e.g. the Cu cloudbase, and let CumulusX do its thing automatically - this will be repeatable across multiple users. The chosen wind and terrain will drive the ridge lift, and the sun angle, latitude, cloudbase will determine the thermal strengths.

After you've created/tried a few shared flights just using the standard FSX 'flight save' mechanism (e.g. see 'Task 1' in the forum above), then the next step (not many have done this) is look at the '.CMX' file that can be stored with your flight. This will *force* CumulusX settings for the user (e.g. thermal diameter) so you have a bit more control.

This is still very different than the placement of individual thermals using 'scripting' but frankly that method became obsolete with FS2004. Cx does much better for FSX or if you want to hand-craft a thermal scenario then FSX standard has a 'mission' format that allows you to do that - missions don't *have* to contain complex scripted behaviour, at their simplest they're just a saved flight and associated Wx. Soaring missions exist (see here and here) and I created quite a few that are available but frankly that approach has been superceded by using Cx + saved flight + CMS file as with 'Task 1'.

B21

[Lep 0]

You can find tasks where people have set up appropriate soaring weather conditions in the forum here:

http://www.forum.aer...p?showforum=274

The 'script' capability really is a legacy from the FS2002/2004 days and nobody has used it for years. By far the main process is to create a normal flight in FSX and set the location, time of day, and *FSX* weather e.g. the Cu cloudbase, and let CumulusX do its thing automatically - this will be repeatable across multiple users. The chosen wind and terrain will drive the ridge lift, and the sun angle, latitude, cloudbase will determine the thermal strengths.

After you've created/tried a few shared flights just using the standard FSX 'flight save' mechanism (e.g. see 'Task 1' in the forum above), then the next step (not many have done this) is look at the '.CMX' file that can be stored with your flight. This will *force* CumulusX settings for the user (e.g. thermal diameter) so you have a bit more control.

This is still very different than the placement of individual thermals using 'scripting' but frankly that method became obsolete with FS2004. Cx does much better for FSX or if you want to hand-craft a thermal scenario then FSX standard has a 'mission' format that allows you to do that - missions don't *have* to contain complex scripted behaviour, at their simplest they're just a saved flight and associated Wx. Soaring missions exist (see here and here) and I created quite a few that are available but frankly that approach has been superceded by using Cx + saved flight + CMS file as with 'Task 1'.

B21

Thanks a lot for the detailed guide. Just did another flight in the Discus B somewhere in Italy. Did as suggested using FSX weather, but there were too few Cu clouds around (I set to ceiling 12,000 feet). It will be good if user can determine how cloudy the sky should be. On this same subject, when downloading real weather, does it mean the sky will always look like fair weather even though real world weather is cloudy, or even stormy?

On another issue, ever since I installed CX, I noticed that when on short final approach to land (in any aircraft including Discus), the ground terrain ahead will start to wobble up and down a little, physically and visually. I'm sure it's not the plane that wobbles, and turbulence is set to zero. Very strange. This happens quite often, like 80% of the time. Has this something to do with CX? Before CX, I have never encountered this before. Anyone notices this?

Lep

[Lep 0]

Another thing I realised is that sometime at some locations (eg I was trying to flying at Alaska), the Auto Thermal will show as either orange or light blue, which I know means either thermal is not here yet or no more for that day.

Question is, how do I enforce it such that there IS thermal for that time and that place that I want to fly?

Lep

[Peter Lürkens 30]

Hi Lep,

the wobbling is a side effect of Win 7 (if it applies to you). In the licensed version this is cured with an extra DLL. It has also some other goodies. In Vista or XP this effect shouldn't be noticale, unless you have a very unevenly running PC.

There is no way to enforce thermals at a specific time-of-the-day or season. This is all handled by CumulusX! internal thermal engine which makes an educated guess when and where thermals will occur. Up to now there were no complaints about it being unrealistic or insufficient. If you want to be sure to have thermals, just select fair weather spring or summer and early afternoon. That will work.

The number of thermals, which are present at good weather conditions during the daily maximum can be set by the parameter "Thermal Coverage" on CumulusX!' configuration pane. Depending on the time of the day the actual coverage may vary, also the landscape will have an influence. Forests shift the thermal activity to a later time of the day, water bodies do not have thermals above, as snow and ice unless over steep slopes. The default value over an average landscape is 5/100km^2 which is normally sufficient for relaxed flying provided base is high enough and lift is strong enough. Minimum is 1/100km^2 and maximum is 15/100km^2. With dense coverage FPS may drop.

If there are blue skies thermals are usually invisible, but still present, details are in the manual, and also how one can influence the conditions under which thermals are indicated by clouds or not.

The general presence of thermals depends on the time of day and season and the type of FSX cloud coverage. When there are stratus clouds as lowest layer, then thermals will not be produced at all. If there is an overcast Cu-layer as the lowest, thermals can exist but are not shown by extra clouds. So if you have a storm, then presence of thermals depend on the type of cloud coverage during this. Nevertheless, it might be an idea to define also a maximum wind speed.

best regards,

Peter

[Lep 0]

Hi Lep,

the wobbling is a side effect of Win 7 (if it applies to you). In the licensed version this is cured with an extra DLL. It has also some other goodies. In Vista or XP this effect shouldn't be noticale, unless you have a very unevenly running PC.

There is no way to enforce thermals at a specific time-of-the-day or season. This is all handled by CumulusX! internal thermal engine which makes an educated guess when and where thermals will occur. Up to now there were no complaints about it being unrealistic or insufficient. If you want to be sure to have thermals, just select fair weather spring or summer and early afternoon. That will work.

The number of thermals, which are present at good weather conditions during the daily maximum can be set by the parameter "Thermal Coverage" on CumulusX!' configuration pane. Depending on the time of the day the actual coverage may vary, also the landscape will have an influence. Forests shift the thermal activity to a later time of the day, water bodies do not have thermals above, as snow and ice unless over steep slopes. The default value over an average landscape is 5/100km^2 which is normally sufficient for relaxed flying provided base is high enough and lift is strong enough. Minimum is 1/100km^2 and maximum is 15/100km^2. With dense coverage FPS may drop.

If there are blue skies thermals are usually invisible, but still present, details are in the manual, and also how one can influence the conditions under which thermals are indicated by clouds or not.

The general presence of thermals depends on the time of day and season and the type of FSX cloud coverage. When there are stratus clouds as lowest layer, then thermals will not be produced at all. If there is an overcast Cu-layer as the lowest, thermals can exist but are not shown by extra clouds. So if you have a storm, then presence of thermals depend on the type of cloud coverage during this. Nevertheless, it might be an idea to define also a maximum wind speed.

best regards,

Peter

Hi Peter,

Thanks so much for your detailed explanation. Truly helps clarify several things.

My system runs on Vista, and I would say prior to installing CX everything in FSX runs fine, and overall OS runs fine too. Any chance the licensed copy of CX could help eliminate this problem? How did CX affect FSX such that it produces the terrain wobbling effect? (It happens only for a few seconds when nearing the ground on approach).

On weather setting, I'm fine with fair weather but it's just that sometime I don't want there to be any strong wind. Thus I prefer using user-defined setting. As for FSX cloud coverage setting, no matter the types I used, the sky always looks the same, with just a few FSX default clouds. I had followed the manual's instruction to deactivate thermal xml defunct setting.

Which brings up the next issue -- when set to real weather download, does the sky cloud coverage follows the real downloaded cloud type/coverage, or is this overidden by CX's internal engine? In other word, do we still get the real world weather sky type? I also have Active Sky, but have not tried using it concurrently with CX. Will these two clash when run together?

Thanks.

Lep

[Lep 0]

Not wanting to wait for a reply, I had gone ahead to purchase the license for CX ! I believe this is a good program, and thus the effort is worth supporting.

After making payment however, I did not receive any serial number or instruction on how to obtain the licensed copy. Only the Paypal invoice was received. Any advice?

I sure hope this will help solve the ground wobbling issue I see. By the way, I read that licensed copy produces more realistic turbulence, may I know what this means? Do I have to set FSX turbulence on (it is now set to off)?

Lep

[Peter Lürkens 30]

Hi Lep,

thank you for supporting CumulusX!. License processing is not fully automatic and I have a look two times a day at it. It should have arrived meanwhile. Have a look at the enclosed readme how to activate the license.

The turbulence effects are independent from FSX turbulence. You may leave FSX turbulence "on" which gives you a superposition of the two.

best regards,

Peter

[Lep 0]

Hi Lep,

thank you for supporting CumulusX!. License processing is not fully automatic and I have a look two times a day at it. It should have arrived meanwhile. Have a look at the enclosed readme how to activate the license.

The turbulence effects are independent from FSX turbulence. You may leave FSX turbulence "on" which gives you a superposition of the two.

best regards,

Peter

Thanks Peter. Got the files. Will try out the copy.

Lep

[Lep 0]

Hi Peter,

I tried a flight in the Discus with the licensed copy of CX and things look good so far.

For the DLL file for fixing ground wobbling, do I need to separately copy that in anywhere? I do not seem to have that file in those that you sent me.

Thanks.

Lep

[Peter Lürkens 30]

Hi Lep,

if you have installed CumulusX! 1.8.0 that should be already there, although inactive without license except from LOWI and surroundings.

Open the debug window in CumulusX! and look if it says "CumulusXDLL = True" at the end.

regards,

Peter

[Lep 0]

Hi Lep,

if you have installed CumulusX! 1.8.0 that should be already there, although inactive without license except from LOWI and surroundings.

Open the debug window in CumulusX! and look if it says "CumulusXDLL = True" at the end.

regards,

Peter

I just tried the suggestion but the debug window turned up empty. Pls advise. Thanks.

Lep

[Peter Lürkens 30]

I just tried the suggestion but the debug window turned up empty. Pls advise. Thanks.

Lep

It fills, when you are in flight.

best regards,

Peter

[Lep 0]

It fills, when you are in flight.

best regards,

Peter

Yes, I tried it in flight and everything is okay. Had flown quite a few flights now and no more wobbling ground it seems. Hope it stays that way.

I notice the turbulence can get quite strong in mountain regions with wind blowing. Have to fly with more care now!

Lep