Live weather when?
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CAPRIYT -
April 16, 2025 at 10:00 PM -
Thread is Resolved
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A feature like live weather takes many months of full time work. It's not some you can quickly put together and push out in an update just like that.
Would the same level of difficulty apply in just implementing random weather from the existing settings (clouds, winds, visibility, etc)? That would at least add a little variety...
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- Official Post
Would the same level of difficulty apply in just implementing random weather from the existing settings (clouds, winds, visibility, etc)? That would at least add a little variety...
The visual model would be identical. So no, that would not save much time overall.
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Random weather sounds good to me!
The idea would be to have an option, that when selected, the weather and cloud parameters should have random valued, when you start the flight, or a simple button we press in the configuration to change the weather/clouds settings randomly.
Many times, I want to flight but it is hard to decide a route, this why I like third party flight plans and tasks.
Sometimes I want different weather, but I don't imagine what to select
Random could add some challenge to the flights!
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The visual model would be identical. So no, that would not save much time overall.
I would even wait a whole year for that 😉
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- Official Post
Good and somewhat plausible random weather might be more difficult to implement than just using pre-computed data from weather forecasts or real world METAR data... just saying.
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Good and somewhat plausible random weather might be more difficult to implement than just using pre-computed data from weather forecasts or real world METAR data... just saying.
Have you thinked to add more than 18-19 knots wind and more turbulence?
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Random weather sounds good to me!
The idea would be to have an option, that when selected, the weather and cloud parameters should have random valued, when you start the flight, or a simple button we press in the configuration to change the weather/clouds settings randomly.
Many times, I want to flight but it is hard to decide a route, this why I like third party flight plans and tasks.
Sometimes I want different weather, but I don't imagine what to select
Random could add some challenge to the flights!
I totally agree. Even just a simple random button in the conditions tab would be really fun to play around with. I imagine it would be relatively easy to implement, especialy if it just selects a random slider position for each slider (such as visibility, wind, wind heading, clouds, time, etc...).
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Good and somewhat plausible random weather might be more difficult to implement than just using pre-computed data from weather forecasts or real world METAR data
This isn't hard to understand.
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Agreed, we are just suggesting a "randomize" button to scramble the already built out weather functions
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There should be a possibility that randomizing the computational load required for these existing functions may not be as easy to implement as imagined.
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Actually fetching METAR data via API needs some basic considerations, like:
- What is the source of the METAR data?
- Are there any API service costs for calling the API?
- How reliable is the source? Is the API reachable at all times? Is it well reachable for all global users?
- Does the API cover all airports in Aerofly FS?
- How does Aerofly react if the API is not reachable, slow to respond, yields a broken answer or no aldata for the current airport?
- How do you authenticate with the API? (You do not want other applications to leech your data by finding out your API key, adding to your costs.)
In my experiments the APIs tend to have running costs (because offering such a service needs servers accessible via the internet), or offer limited service (a free API I found is centered on CONUS, and the data quality is sometimes lacking like mixing data types or missing data for certain airports at certain times).
If you were really serious about offering a reliable METAR service, you would need a professional API with a CDN for robust world-wide access. Additionally you might need to build your own service on top of other APIs to offer reliable, ready-to-use and non-leechable data.
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- Official Post
Actually fetching METAR data via API needs some basic considerations, like:
- What is the source of the METAR data?
- Are there any API service costs for calling the API?
- How reliable is the source? Is the API reachable at all times? Is it well reachable for all global users?
- Does the API cover all airports in Aerofly FS?
- How does Aerofly react if the API is not reachable, slow to respond, yields a broken answer or no aldata for the current airport?
- How do you authenticate with the API? (You do not want other applications to leech your data by finding out your API key, adding to your costs.)
In my experiments the APIs tend to have running costs (because offering such a service needs servers accessible via the internet), or offer limited service (a free API I found is centered on CONUS, and the data quality is sometimes lacking like mixing data types or missing data for certain airports at certain times).
If you were really serious about offering a reliable METAR service, you would need a professional API with a CDN for robust world-wide access. Additionally you might need to build your own service on top of other APIs to offer reliable, ready-to-use and non-leechable data.
METAR data is one of the easier data to come by and it's quite small even for global coverage.
We already have a content delivery network in place for global scenery streaming and aircraft downloads. So attaching weather data to that should be possible in the future but of course all that costs money.
We could still offer several pre-downloaded weather situation based on historical real world weather if the cost of API calls to weather providers turns out to be too expensive. But there are several weather providers like NOAA and DWD which offer data free of charge because it's already been paid for by the countries taxpayers.
We already did plenty of research on that front so getting the data is not the issue. We have access to global weather forcast and real time data if we want to, with several fall back options.
But the issue remains: how to create a good looking weather inside the sim even on weak mobile devices with just 3GB of RAM...
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Force devices with only 3GB RAM to use low-quality weather texture models, as well as 3D models
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Another alternative could be to select from a list of weather presets. For example, in MSFS for gliding, the community has created a long list of weather profiles (fixed weather parameters) you have to choose from, to run a certain task.
Actually we could add this list to Armitage weather app. -
But the issue remains: how to create a good looking weather inside the sim even on weak mobile devices with just 3GB of RAM...
Something like this would be great, and maybe not as heavy, as it does look like the clouds are not volumetric:
Condor 3 - The WeatherUnexpectedly, we have to delay the release by a few days. Our excellent beta team have uncovered some issues we need to resolve and retest. Please be assured...www.youtube.com -
I agree with Nuno, a weather implementation in the graphics aspect similar to Condor, would be awesome in AFS, and more than enough.
It is not necessary to implement the complex weather/wind of Condor, since it is the core of that sim targeted to gliders flights.
In Condor the rain is very simple but efective: from far away it is like a vertical fog, and when you are inside the rain, the water drops flow in the glass. We don't need a so elaborate rain graphics. I don't remember if the rain trays are seen in the air.
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Live weather would be great. Alternatively, you could also set the weather at your destination airport in advance. I hope you understand what I mean. Easier to create.You should be able to set the weather at the departure and destination airports separately in advance, just a thought 🤷
This might be slightly off the original topic, but... if I wanted to set the real-world weather for a specific location in AeroFly, how would I do that using the in-sim weather parameters? I mean, if I check the weather from a real-world source, is there a way to match it using the available settings in the sim? I'm asking because right now, I just adjust the weather sliders randomly to change the conditions.
Regards
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This might be slightly off the original topic, but... if I wanted to set the real-world weather for a specific location in AeroFly, how would I do that using the in-sim weather parameters? I mean, if I check the weather from a real-world source, is there a way to match it using the available settings in the sim? I'm asking because right now, I just adjust the weather sliders randomly to change the conditions.
Regards
You can only adjust it roughly with the weather controls, unfortunately it doesn't work 100% accurately.
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This might be slightly off the original topic, but... if I wanted to set the real-world weather for a specific location in AeroFly, how would I do that using the in-sim weather parameters? I mean, if I check the weather from a real-world source, is there a way to match it using the available settings in the sim? I'm asking because right now, I just adjust the weather sliders randomly to change the conditions.
Regards
You might want to get structured flight weather, like in
METAR, TAF and NOTAM decoder for all 68,423 airportsMeteorological Aerodrome Reports (METAR), Terminal Area Forecasts (TAF), SIGMET and Notices to Airmen (NOTAM) of all airports in the world. Decoded and visual.metar-taf.comAnd then you need to translate this to the simulator's sliders:
aerofly-wettergeraet/docs/aerofly-config.md at main · fboes/aerofly-wettergeraet✈️ Copy METAR weather information into Aerofly FS2 and Aerofly FS 4 - fboes/aerofly-wettergeraetgithub.comIf you are on a PC, you might also use the Wettergerät, which downloads METAR information to Aerofly FS:
GitHub - fboes/aerofly-wettergeraet: ✈️ Copy METAR weather information into Aerofly FS2 and Aerofly FS 4✈️ Copy METAR weather information into Aerofly FS2 and Aerofly FS 4 - fboes/aerofly-wettergeraetgithub.com
