New.....Open Clouds

[gera]

http://www.fsopen.co.uk/software/openclouds/

 

[Bjoern]

Dang it, Gera! I wanted to be the first one to post about it here!



Open Clouds is a good, free alternative for those who don't want to afford ASX, ASA, ASE or REX.
The visibility limitation is a very useful feature in particular.

 

[Ferry_vO]

Thanks for the heads-up, Gera!

Weather is much more realistic now; using default real weather in FsX I would always get clear weather at my default field EHLE but now I do have more realistic weather conditions.

It looks good too! Seattle (PNW):

Honolulu (Megascenery):

 

[Roger]

I wonder if it can be used with FeX?

 

[robcap]

Indeed a nice find, downloaded right after the first post by Gera.
Makes use of standard FSX real weather engine, with some visibility enhancements, it seems.
Too bad I already have ASA ;-)
I'll see if there are performance differences.

R.

 

[Ferry_vO]

The more I use it, the more I like it!

 

[stiz]

i like it to, only downside is you cant check what the weathers like before hand!

 

[ryanbatc]

It's not too bad. The main problem - it takes METARS literally, if it says 10SM, the vis is limited to 10 miles. The highest reportable value in the US is 10SM, it usually is much greater vis.

 

[stiz]

doesnt bother me, in my neck of the woods your lucky to see 10 miles as it is .. if you can see 20 your doing extremly well indeed! so i dont know what 10+ mile vis acutally looks like

 

[mjrhealth]

What do you mean you cant chesck the weather out before hand. just start the programme. let it connect to the weather servers, run fsx. have a look or short flight then connect it to FSx and watch the change, it can be quiet interesting.

 

[Ferry_vO]

What do you mean you cant chesck the weather out before hand.

'Open Clouds' doesn't tell you what weather it's just downloaded, and it can be substantially different from 'FsX real weather' so it can be a bit of a surprise once you apply 'Open clouds'.

 

[Ferry_vO]

A new version is no available that adds the 'winds aloft'.

 

[TeiscoDelRay]

Really cool but I think I am using it wrong. It does not seem to update while in the sim and it sometimes crashes the sim.

 

[Bjoern]

Wow, 1.08 already!

Thanks for the HU.

 

[Naki]

I have just got into using this programme on a regular basis..open it up the other day and found out that I now have to pay for it on a subscription basis...agggh. (unless you live in the UK)..a bit sneaky if you ask me. I don't really want to pay on a subscription basis. If Im going to pay for some nice weather graphics I would go the REX or FEX route instead which is a one off cost.

I am not that fussed about my weather other than the way fog, low cloud and the visibility on the horizon is treated in FSX...is there any other freeware programmes that treat these aspects better than the default FSX?

 

[Stefano Zibell]

HDE (High Definition Environment) does a great job on the freeware side of things. It was made for fs9, but the clouds are fsx ready and the sky colors can be converted. You can find the package and the converted sky colors, look on simviation. Does not come with any weather engine though.

 

[Naki]

Thanks..that might do the trick as I can live with the FSX weather engine

 

[Walter]

Quick question: When I install it, do I do it in the folder that it wants to make - C:\Program Files (x86)\Open Clouds\ or should I put it into the FSX folder? If I gotta do the FSX folder, which one would that be?

Thank you

Walter

 

[Walter]

Nevermind! I got it!! :mixedsmi:

Walter

 

[stiz]

" Free version restricted to UK. Subscription model introduced for global coverage."

bah .. well it was nice when it lasted.