X-Aviation's Real Weather Connector

[flyingdrill]

I'm sure the X-Plane users who use SkyMaxx Pro are aware of this new plugin (released today), which enables the downloaded weather to look accurate over distance, and should stop that experience of abruptly flying out of one weather situation, and have another one suddenly pop up.
The include .pdf says this:
"RWC doesn’t seem to do anything while I’m flying online with VATSIM, PilotEdge, etc.
The plugins that come with these online networks override X-Plane’s weather with uniform weather conditions. If you want to fly on these networks while using detailed METAR data to position your clouds, set RWC to “Always” in its configuration screen."

Does the PilotEdge plugin behave in that way? I use the X-Plane downloaded weather, and it seems to work on PE. BTW, I use a Mac.

[Keith Smith]

Nope, we don't set the weather. Cameron from X-Aviation checked with me 2 days ago, I'll ask him to update the content.

[flyingdrill]

I was pretty sure the plugin didn't interfere with the weather, as I have always seen the weather pretty much as it should be. I didn't presume to tell Cameron that, as I wanted to check with you. Now I can leave it to you to put him right!

Thanks, Keith.

[Keith Smith]

In his defense, he didn't actually write the PDF, someone else did. I've let him know about the error, he'll let the document author know.

[Justin Lerner]

So any word on how this plugin affects performance? One of the boasted features is that it draws up to six(!) layers of clouds versus the traditional three. Although I like the idea of being able to use a real weather plugin (currently I use none) in conjunction with this plugin to draw the sky beyond my immediate vicinity (especially important for VFR flying), I can't justify spending $20 if I take a performance hit while using it. I really wish more payware add-ons had trial periods, but I digress.

[flyingdrill]

Justin, I can't say that I've noticed much of a performance hit. Flying with a load of clouds does slow things down anyway. I am usually seeing around 30 fps or more in cloud in GA planes (which is what you will be flying in VFR!) in PilotEdge on a top spec. iMac. The plane itself, underlying mesh and other scenery you have is also affecting things, so it is difficult to work out quite what is doing what. You can spend a lot of time disabling this or that, but I've come to the conclusion that if I'm not being reduced to a slide show, it's OK! In clearer weather, I can get 60 fps. If you are in Windows and have a fast PC, with a better graphics card than we Mac users have to put up with, you may not notice anything. Today, in "in and out" fluffy clouds, I saw a dip into the 20's, but it was no big deal.

Don't forget that RWC requires SkyMaxx Pro (now at v3.2). It won't do anything without that.

[Justin Lerner]

Don't forget that RWC requires SkyMaxx Pro (now at v3.2). It won't do anything without that.

Requires it? I thought it could run standalone in conjunction with other plugins? The description isn't very clear if that's the case.

[Matthias Geiss]

It works as a "bridge" between Skymaxx (which is required) and any real weather engine, which can be X-Planes built in weather or an external plugin like NOAA or FSGRW.