744 Forum

Apron => Accessories => Topic started by: JP59 on Wed, 14 Oct 2015 14:27

Title: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Wed, 14 Oct 2015 14:27
Hello,

After one year of learning about C++ programing (thanks Hardy and Nico for giving me the programing "virus"  ;)), it's time for me to share my first program with the PSX wonderfull community : PSXAloft.

Below description text has been modified after PSXAloft v.2.0 release :

PSXAloft is a Windows program which injects aloft wind and OAT data within PSX. Those data can come from a "static" ActiveSky flight plan file, or from a "dynamic" SimConnect bridge which take data directly from FSX or P3D. PSXAloft can also inject wind/OAT data for cruise and descent legs within PSX FMC when you request a datalink update, and generate turbulence (aerodynamics and sound). All those features are optional.

A PDF user manual is provided within the PSXAloft package. You'll find many other informations inside.

Here is the link to my website, from which you can download PSXAloft : https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4bi2oz5wd5uvmu0/AAC5cH5VvWalGMz-jZdG8CSda?dl=1 (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4bi2oz5wd5uvmu0/AAC5cH5VvWalGMz-jZdG8CSda?dl=1)

Enjoy your flights with PSXAloft !
Best regards
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: tango4 on Wed, 14 Oct 2015 15:00
Will try it as soon as possible !
If it is working on my setup, I'll be a happy man! For me, the ability to have winds aloft synchronised with PFPX was THE missing feature of PSX.
All I can say is a HUGE MERCI BEAUCOUP !!!!!!!

Charles
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Wed, 14 Oct 2015 15:25
Congrats, Jean-philippe.

Sounds like a good program!

If you want to put it on the Add-ons page, perhaps after the beta phase, let me know.


Cheers,

|-|ardy
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Wed, 14 Oct 2015 17:57
Merci Charles. Thanks Hardy. Will let you know after the first users impressions and the Beta phase. I already have some new features and improvements in mind.

Cheers
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cagarini on Wed, 14 Oct 2015 18:19
Is it compatible with ASN ( ACtiveSky Next ) ?

This is great news!!!

Merci!!!!
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Wed, 14 Oct 2015 18:55
Yes it is compatible with ASN. Everything is detailed in the User guide included.

Regards
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Pierre Theillere on Wed, 14 Oct 2015 19:18
Hi Jean-Philippe!

Wow... that's exactly THE addon I was in need of, to résume PSx "normal OPS"! As soon as I've changed my dead HDD for a SSD on one of the computers, I'll give it a try!
Thanks by anticipation... that's definitely a great gift for free for the PSx community...
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cagarini on Wed, 14 Oct 2015 19:46
Quote from: JP744 on Wed, 14 Oct 2015 18:55
Yes it is compatible with ASN. Everything is detailed in the User guide included.

Regards

I couldn't find the guide ?  Duh!... I've got to wear glasses ... :-)
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Sylle on Wed, 14 Oct 2015 22:29
Hello JP!

Thanks a lot for this wonderful tool!

Unfortunately, it is not compatible with Activesky Evolution (it does not generate a flightplanwx.txt file) so I guess I'll have to invest in a newer version  ;D

Regards,
Sylvain
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: HercMighty on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 01:01
Congrats! I dabble some in programming myself and always a good feeling when you get one working.

Got a question though. In the FMC when you request and load winds data does anyone know where that winds data comes from? Can it come from or does it come from this program if running?

Thanks
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 06:25
Thanks to all for your kind words.

Quote from: HercMighty on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 01:01
Got a question though. In the FMC when you request and load winds data does anyone know where that winds data comes from? Can it come from or does it come from this program if running?

Thanks

The FMC upper wind data comes from the PSX world. Feeding the FMC from the PSXAloft data is on my plans. For now, what you can do is to manually insert the winds and OAT data in the WPT winds page. Not necessary for all WPT. Just do it for WPT where you see a significative change of OAT or wind direction and/or velocity, or WPT where step climbs will be performed.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: tango4 on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 08:31
Hi again,
I also have a small question.
What happens if I divert to another airport midflight ?
Basically, I was wondering if your addon was only using the active sky flightplan for smoothing purposes (and for the turbulence feature) ? If I understood well, the injected data comes in real time from active sky, so I should be able to divert without any issue, but I just wanted to clarify this aspect.
And once again thanks a lot !!!!!!!!!

Charles
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 09:06
Charles,

If you divert to another airport during your flight, the last known ActiveSky flight plan WPT data will remain active, until you descend below 20000ft, where PSX weather will be available again. If it is a short to medium leg to reach diversion airport, it is not an issue (the upper winds doesn't change significantly within some hundreds of miles). However, if your leg to reach to diversion airport is, say, 1000NM long, keep in mind the upper winds will be the last known overflew WPT from your ActiveSky flight plan and will not be updated until your reach another valid WPT. It is the same for turbulence. However, you can disable turbulence at any time by clicking the "Turb Config" button and erase the turbulence data for the last overflew WPT. Maybe I could add a button "Disable Turb" to do the job quickly.

PSXAloft was designed for "Normal OPS". It reads data from a "static" file which is not updated along the route. Another solution is to reload a new flight plan within ActiveSky, according to your diversion leg. Reload the new generated activeflightplanwx.txt file within PSXAloft, and click "Refresh Wx" button. PSXAloft will detect your new route WPTs and will continue updating wind and OAT along your diversion route.

Regards,

Edit : the activeflightplanwx file, and thus PSXAloft data are refreshed at every ASN wx new snapshot update.
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: tango4 on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 09:13
Thanks a lot for those explanations.
So just to clarify, I only have to run active sky to "generate" the activeflightplanwx file, but it does not need to be RUNNING while flying PSX, is that correct ?

If so it is no problem quickly generating another flightplan on the fly with PFPX in case of diversion and reinject it.

Thanks again for your help.

Charles
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 09:30
That is correct Charles. The only way I would sugest you to keep ActiveSky running is for visuals within FSX or P3D. But PSXAloft only needs the activeflightplanwx.txt file path for working, not ActiveSky itself.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: tango4 on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 09:33
Great, thanks for clarifying !
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: G-CIVA on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 10:42
Quote from: JP744 on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 09:06PSXAloft was designed for "Normal OPS". It reads data from a "static" file which is not updated along the route.

Please take my comment here as constructive ...

Reading data from a 'static' file will come with some significant disadvantages.

Obviously the 744 is capable of flights of in excess of 12 hours, in this time 'Spot Winds' at altitude will 'change'.

PFPX does a fantastic job of predicting this 'change' to within a tolerance of 5-10% when set to download WX from the RW source.

ASN also does a fantastic job of matching this 'change' to within a tolerance of 5-10% when set to download WX from ASN server (which BTW matches what the PFPX WX server 'spits out' very closely).

By limiting what sounds like an excellent programme to only using a 'Spot Wind' 'snapshot' surely you are selling the capability of your efforts a little short.  Are you not able to just let your programme connect to ASN, inject the required data into PSX & then run happily in the background injecting live wind data into PSX on the fly?

Regards
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: tango4 on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 11:12
I sort of had the same thought. What you get in flight planning is just a prediction. But if you can avoid a direct connection to active sky I think that is perhaps better for stability, performance etc. This add on is great because you can use it with PSX standalone, no FS connected whatsoever.
Just a suggestion here, but a simpler way to achieve that result would be to introduce a randomizer.
And you could make the random factor more important as you move along the flight plan.
For example, in the first 500Nm of the flight plan, values used will be the one in the file plus or minus 5%. Between 500 and 2000Nm plus or minus 10% and so on.
That means that the winds would be CONSISTENT with your flight planning without being exactly the same, as in real life.

Please keep in mind I am not a programmer, so my suggestion might be dumb of too difficult to implement.

All the best.

Charles
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 11:24
Hello Steve,

Thanks for your constructive comments and suggestions. Unfortunately, I do not have any information from ASN support about how to connect with ASN and retrieve live data. If you have any information, It could be useful for me.

However, I you fed PFPX with ActiveSky data when you built your flight plan, the data you see on your flight plan sheet and PSXAloft data will match all along the flight, even after 12 hours of flight. Live update of PSXAloft data will only be necessary if you rebuild your flight plan during the flight with an updated ASN snapshot. This is not a normal OPS procedure.

You could even fly with a 2 years old ASN snapshot very well with excellent match between PFPX and PSXAloft, if you fed PFPX with this snapshot. The important thing is that PFPX and PSXAloft use the same source.

I made many 12+ hours flights with PSXAloft before the release and wind data always match with flight plan predictions, even at the end of my flight. Again, if PFPX and PSXAloft uses the same "static" source, you'll never get the problem you described.

Let me know if I'm wrong somewhere.

Regards,

Edit : After some investigations, PSXAloft data is well updated all along the flight. Everytime ASN downloads a new snapshot, the activeflightplanwx file is updated. The data PSXAloft uses are not static, but dynamic.
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 11:39
Quote from: tango4 on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 11:12
Just a suggestion here, but a simpler way to achieve that result would be to introduce a randomizer.
And you could make the random factor more important as you move along the flight plan.
For example, in the first 500Nm of the flight plan, values used will be the one in the file plus or minus 5%. Between 500 and 2000Nm plus or minus 10% and so on.
That means that the winds would be CONSISTENT with your flight planning without being exactly the same, as in real life.

Charles

PSXAloft already includes a small "random factor". It is not done by a randomizer itself, but because wind data is set within FL "boundaries". More you fly away from boundaries, more the wind direction and velocity will vary. It gives you a close value from the flight plan predictions, but not exactly the same value.

However, I many users want the feature you described, I could implement it in a further version. Let me know after you tried some long haul flights.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: G-CIVA on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 11:56
Jean-philippe,

I do not think you are doing anything wrong.

I just don't see the point in utilising such brilliant tools as we have now such as PFPX & ASN to load a static WX picture into a something like PSX to then send it off on a 12 hour voyage.

We have at our fingertips in PFPX something akin to what a real flight dispatcher has when he plans a flight - PFPX will predict with a fair degree of accuracy what the spot winds will be doing near the T/D point in 12 hours time.

Both of these programmes download WX files from different sources which are able to recreate the worldwide WX & Spot Wind situation worldwide with a high degree of accuracy.

The data from ASN can be injected into PSX (albeit via FSX or p3D) by programmes such as PSXWx; which ties in nicely with using FSX/p3D as both the scenery generator & online client connectivity host for PSX.

Just my thoughts.

Regards.

Regards
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 12:20
Quote from: G-CIVA on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 11:56
I do not think you are doing anything wrong.

I was thinking about something wrong in my reasonment  :-)

I understand what you think, but the fact is that I always had a very good match between PFPX predictions and PSXAloft data, even after 12 hours of flight. That's why honestly I do not see the utility to constantly update PSXAloft data along the flight. Again, if PFPX and PSXAloft uses the same ASN snapshot, there will be no problem.

Please try some long haul flights with PSXAloft and report.

Thanks for your contribution.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Fri, 16 Oct 2015 09:06
Hello,

Beta 4 is up.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: tango4 on Fri, 16 Oct 2015 10:41
Download link not working for me...
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Fri, 16 Oct 2015 13:10
Please try again.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: tango4 on Fri, 16 Oct 2015 13:25
Thanks ! ;D
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: matchball on Fri, 16 Oct 2015 13:32
This is an addon I have been looking forward so many months. Last week I actually started thinking of trying to learn about coding and make this kind of addon myself. Thank you so much! Highly appreciated (and will be highly used ;) )!

Will the WPT wind data request also get the correct winds (that is imported by PSXAloft)?
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Fri, 16 Oct 2015 20:30
Quote from: matchball on Fri, 16 Oct 2015 13:32
Will the WPT wind data request also get the correct winds (that is imported by PSXAloft)?

Hello. I am working on this feature. It will be available in Beta 5, probably within 1-2 weeks soon.

Guys, feedback will be appreciated. Feel free to report any bug or suggestion. PSXAloft is still in development.

Best regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: joergalv on Fri, 16 Oct 2015 22:39
Hello Jean-Philippe,

great contribution to the community. Thanks a lot!

I did a short test flight with beta 4, and noticed that PSXAloft injects updates into PSX after passing FMC waypoints.
So i have changing winds/SAT at waypoints, and constant winds/SAT between waypoints. Don't want to be nit-picking, but knowing that changes in wind strength, wind direction and SAT will only occur after passing a waypoint.. well it spoils the immersion a bit.
Do you maybe consider interpolating wind and temp between last and next waypoint and sending regular (every 5s or 10s ) updates to PSX?
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: J D ADAM on Sat, 17 Oct 2015 07:39
Hello Jean-Philippe,
  Thank you for your addition to our fine add ons.

Having everything set up I get all the necessary connections.

However as soon as I try to connect the program closes down with message "Windows checking for reasons for
problem"

Is this because I am running Windows 7     not XP as suggested in your manual.

Cheers

Derek
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sat, 17 Oct 2015 08:16
Quote from: Derek Adam on Sat, 17 Oct 2015 07:39
Is this because I am running Windows 7     not XP as suggested in your manual.

Hello Derek. Sorry to listen that. PSXAloft is compatible with all windows versions FROM winXP. It works also with 7 (I developed it under Win7).

- Did you try to restart PSXAloft many times ? Every time the same issue when you press "Connect" ?
- Did you install Visual C++ 2012 libraries ? I think yes because if not installed PSXAloft will not start at all but please check again.
- Do you have a sound card on your computer ?
- Did you shared correctly (read-write authorizations) the folder containing activeflightplanwx.txt file (if networked) ?
- What were the messages displayed within PSXAloft just before you click the "Connect" button ? Regarding "Connection status", "WX File" and "Turb File".

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sat, 17 Oct 2015 08:21
Quote from: joergalv on Fri, 16 Oct 2015 22:39
...wind direction and SAT will only occur after passing a waypoint.. well it spoils the immersion a bit.
Do you maybe consider interpolating wind and temp between last and next waypoint and sending regular (every 5s or 10s ) updates to PSX?

Hello Joerg. You're right. PSXAloft was designed to smoothly update new values overhead each CRZ WPT. As the wind conditions do not change drastically between 2 cruise WPTs I thought it was not necessary to constantly update and interpolate data.

Just a question. Why do you change wind and OAT within the ASN activeflightplanwx file during the flight ? PSXAloft is designed for "normal" OPS. Not for "fancy tweaking".  :) :) :)

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: joergalv on Sat, 17 Oct 2015 09:06
Hello Jean-philippe,

Quote from: JP744 on Sat, 17 Oct 2015 08:21
As the wind conditions do not change drastically between 2 cruise WPTs

agree, in most cases this will be true, but considering route segments >200NM distance, it just 'feels' strange to know that i'll get the same wind and oat along the next 200+ NM. Probably you're right that it's technically (meaning in terms of fuel consumption, flight time, etc.) no difference.

Quote from: JP744 on Sat, 17 Oct 2015 08:21
Why do you change wind and OAT within the ASN activeflightplanwx file during the flight ? PSXAloft is designed for "normal" OPS. Not for "fancy tweaking".  :) :) :)

Ah sorry, my english.. i don't alter ASN activeflightplanwx file during the flight.
I should have written "So i get changing winds/SAT at waypoints, and constant winds/SAT between waypoints" .
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sat, 17 Oct 2015 09:46
No problem. As said before, the update only occurs at every WPT. But your suggestion is interesting. I will think about how to implement.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: pcpilot on Sat, 17 Oct 2015 21:00
Hi Jean-philippe

Many thanks for a great add on. I have just carried out a short flight (EGLL-UUEE) and PSXAloft just worked fine. I look forward to testing your software on some longer flights.

I am always amazed by the time and effort put into the free quality add ons made available to PSX, and yours is another one to add to my collection.

Once again many thanks.

Graham.


Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: J D ADAM on Sat, 17 Oct 2015 23:08
Hi Jean Phillipe,

Thank you for your reply.

- Did you try to restart PSXAloft many times ? Every time the same issue when you press "Connect" ?
Yes  Both in a network situation and also direct

- Did you install Visual C++ 2012 libraries ? I think yes because if not installed PSXAloft will not start at all but please check again.
Have done and is installed

- Do you have a sound card on your computer ?
Yes

- Did you shared correctly (read-write authorizations) the folder containing activeflightplanwx.txt file (if networked) ?
Yes  Had to get my computer Guru to do that., and I have checked as well!

- What were the messages displayed within PSXAloft just before you click the "Connect" button ? Regarding "Connection status", "WX File" and "Turb File".

Connection Status:Ready to connect
PSX version:
Client ID:
Wx File: Loaded
Turb File:Loaded

Then having pressed connect

Connection Status:Connected
PSX version 11.0.6-beta 17 Navtech, Inc.(cycle 1503)

Client ID:10
Wx File: Loaded

Turb File:Loaded


"PSXAloft_1.0_Beta_4.exe has stopped working" is the message from Win7

Thank you for your patience.

Cheers,
Derek
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sun, 18 Oct 2015 07:50
Ok. I see PSXAloft connects well and has a first "dialog" with PSX because it retrieves client ID and PSX version.

- After how many seconds PSXAloft crashes ? Immediately ? Did you have time to do something within PSX ?
- Please try without loading turbulence (just WX File)
- Please try with a "local" activeflightplanwx.txt file (loaded directly from the PSXAloft computer)

...and report for both situations.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: J D ADAM on Mon, 19 Oct 2015 05:40
Hi Jean Phillipe,
My feeling is that the information from and to ASN is not being transferred to ASN activeflightplanwx. It is only 1kb in size and no information within the file. I am trying to work out why this be so. I would like to think that I have all the files directed to the correct ones and will work on this tomorrow.I will come back to you in the near future.
Am I correct in assuming that when you introduce a new flight plan to  ASN activeflightplanwx, the old one goes into the backup file?

In the mean time I will struggle on.

Thank you and cheers
Derek
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Mon, 19 Oct 2015 06:30
Hi Derek. If your activeflightplanwx file is empty, it is an ASN issue. PSXAloft can't work with an empty file. That's why it crashes. It assumes that you have correctly setup ASN by loading a flight plan within ASN interface before you load the file within PSXAloft.

That's why I implemented a "security" that disables the "Connect" button before the activeflightplanwx file is loaded.

If you load a new flight plan within ASN interface, a new activeflightplanwx file is generated, replacing the older one.

Keep me posted.
Regards,

Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: tango4 on Mon, 19 Oct 2015 16:18
Hi Jean Philippe,
I ran a short test flight today. Connection worked flawlessly, but I had a strange issue.
When reaching cruise level, the winds did not correspond to the ones I had in the flightplan.
This was a flight from LFPG to LFBO at FL390. I investigated a bit and found that the winds injected were precisely the winds in my activeskywx file, but from the layer above ! It corresponded precisely to the winds at FL440 (I think it is 440, but I don't have active sky in front of me, but it was definitely the active sky layer above my cruise level). It felt like there was some sort of "offset" in the file.

Here is the file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xppjtumo0hr54s4/activeflightplanwx.txt?dl=0

Tell me if you want me to run some more tests (alhough I don't know if I'll have the time right now).

Charles
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Mon, 19 Oct 2015 16:50
Quote from: Derek Adam on Mon, 19 Oct 2015 05:40
My feeling is that the information from and to ASN is not being transferred to ASN activeflightplanwx. It is only 1kb in size and no information within the file.

Derek,

Please download again Beta 4. I added some lines of code to avoid PSXAloft to crash when the activeflightplanwx file template is invalid. It will only give you an error message in the Wx File status field. Let me know if you get this message.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Mon, 19 Oct 2015 17:27
Merci Charles for your report. You're right. PSXAloft has 10 5000ft height layers from 0 to 45000ft. It determines which of the layer corresponds with your current altitude and loads the corresponding one's wind and OAT data.

If you flew at 390, PSXAloft should load winds for 40000ft layer, which should be very close to your flight plan predictions.

However, if you just reached your TOC, you may still have the climb winds loaded within PSXAloft, which can be a little bit different with predictions.

- Did you see big differences during all your cruise ? What happened after you overflow the first cruise waypoint available within the activeflightplanwx file ?

- What was exactly the difference ? Small differences are normal. PSXAloft was designed to let a little difference between predictions and actual winds, like in the real world.

- Did you build your flight plan with PFPX ? If yes, did you feed PFPX with ASN ?

Next time, please also copy/paste the debug window content within a txt file, in order to investigate easier.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: tango4 on Mon, 19 Oct 2015 17:58
-it was definitely not my climb wind. Each time I overflow a waypoint it adjusted the wind according to the table, but using the wrong FL.
-the difference was perhaps 10 to 15kt, not that much, but it's just is was PRECISELY the values from the layer above each time.
-I used PFPX but as this was a test flight just for PSX weather I used activesky directly during the flight. I loaded the flight plan in active sky and kept it open during the flight on this page so it displayed the weather brief according to the file it generated. That's where I saw FL440. I think active sky does not generate this table with fixed FL, the levels depend on your cruise level, but as you say in 5000ft increment. Meaning my cruise being FL390 it generated a table for each point with FL340 390 AND 440. Had my cruise been 400 I guess it would have generated 350 400 and 450. I'll try and run some more tests when I have time and will report back.
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: tango4 on Mon, 19 Oct 2015 18:10
And sorry for the formatting of my last post, I realize it is just awful, I'm writing on my phone !
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Mon, 19 Oct 2015 18:34
Just a thought ...

There is a difference between the true altitude from the PSX server and the altitude on the PFD/AFDS/FMC which varies with the local zone's QNH if STD/FL is used (i.e. if the local QNH is not set on the instruments).

If the add-on doesn't gradually interpolate between data layers, there may be a jump at the border of the layers, and there may be even the wrong layer in use if the QNH/STD difference is large.


Cheers,

|-|ardy

Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Mon, 19 Oct 2015 19:56
Need to investigate further at the ASN side. Unfortunately I am very busy with my job this time. Thank you in advance for your patience.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: J D ADAM on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 00:23
Hi Jean-Phillipe

QuotePlease download again Beta 4. I added some lines of code to avoid PSXAloft to crash when the activeflightplanwx file template is invalid. It will only give you an error message in the Wx File status field. Let me know if you get this message.


Yes "no FL active"

The question I now have is:-  Whilst setting up a flight plan how does the resulting weather get to activeflightplanner.txt. Does it go via the export function or is it automatic?
I have PFPX set up to use ASN weather.

Cheers
Derek
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 04:22
Quote from: Derek Adam on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 00:23
The question I now have is:-  Whilst setting up a flight plan how does the resulting weather get to activeflightplanner.txt. Does it go via the export function or is it automatic?

ASN should fill the activeflightplanwx.txt file automatically when you load a flight plan within ASN interface. No need to confirm or export anything.

Maybe you should see with ASN support what's wrong.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: J D ADAM on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 07:13
Hello Jean-Phillipe,
                              Is it necessary to set up simconnect within AS either direct or networked?

Other fine members of this forum who have written fine addons to PSX have learned that it is usually me who have the most problems.  However I will plug along.

Cheers
Derek
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 08:03
Quote from: G-CIVA on Thu, 15 Oct 2015 10:42
Reading data from a 'static' file will come with some significant disadvantages.

Obviously the 744 is capable of flights of in excess of 12 hours, in this time 'Spot Winds' at altitude will 'change'.

PFPX does a fantastic job of predicting this 'change' to within a tolerance of 5-10% when set to download WX from the RW source.

ASN also does a fantastic job of matching this 'change' to within a tolerance of 5-10% when set to download WX from ASN server (which BTW matches what the PFPX WX server 'spits out' very closely).

By limiting what sounds like an excellent programme to only using a 'Spot Wind' 'snapshot' surely you are selling the capability of your efforts a little short.  Are you not able to just let your programme connect to ASN, inject the required data into PSX & then run happily in the background injecting live wind data into PSX on the fly?

Hello. I was thinking about Steve's comment and posted on ASN forum. I had a discussion with some ASN developers. It seems the activeflightplanwx file is updated at every new ASN snapshot download (last comment developer said he checked the ASN code and confirmed). I think it answers the question about having "old" weather data from PSXAloft after 12 hours of flight. If you setup ASN to auto refresh say, every 30 minutes, you'll get a "fresh" activeflightplanwx file every 30 minutes, and PSXAloft will inject those fresh data. Will try to check this afternoon if I can have some hours to definitively confirm. Edit : I ran the test and I can confirm activeflightplanwx file is automatically updated with fresh data at every ASN snapshot download. PSXAloft is always fed with fresh data, even after several hours of flight.

Here is the link to ASN forum : http://www.hifisimtech.com/forums/showthread.php?5228-Is-activeflightplanwx-file-updated (http://www.hifisimtech.com/forums/showthread.php?5228-Is-activeflightplanwx-file-updated)

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 08:29
Quote from: Derek Adam on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 07:13
Other fine members of this forum who have written fine addons to PSX have learned that it is usually me who have the most problems.  However I will plug along.

No problem Derek. I will be very happy to help you but I am not an ASN "expert". I am not sure it needs Simconnect for "local" situation (ASN and FSX/P3D on the same computer). I would say yes. What is your setup ? Are ASN and FSX/P3D on the same computer ?

Again, if you get an empty activeflightplanwx file, it is an ASN issue, I'm sorry. It should generate the file even when not connected with anything.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 17:34
Quote from: tango4 on Mon, 19 Oct 2015 16:18
When reaching cruise level, the winds did not correspond to the ones I had in the flightplan.
This was a flight from LFPG to LFBO at FL390. I investigated a bit and found that the winds injected were precisely the winds in my activeskywx file, but from the layer above ! It corresponded precisely to the winds at FL440 (I think it is 440, but I don't have active sky in front of me, but it was definitely the active sky layer above my cruise level). It felt like there was some sort of "offset" in the file.

Hello. Beta 5 is up. It corrects the above problem which came from a wrong layer setup within PSXAloft. Thank you Charles for your contribution.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: J D ADAM on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 21:19
Hi Jean-Phillipe,

Eureka   Have got your fine program working, after many many hours of trying many things.  Whether it is correctly interpreting winds from the flight plan is yet to be proven, because of my work around!!

On the 'weather mode panel of ASNFSX is a button "save weathermode" and I suddenly have 3807kb of info in the activeflightplanner.txt.

Your program loads perfectly and shows " Below FL1" which is self explanatory.

Golf today, but tomorrow I will see if my work around works around!

Thank you for your ongoing help

and

Kindest regards

Derek
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Wed, 21 Oct 2015 05:46
Hi Derek,

I'm happy to see it is ok now. I don't know about this button within ASN. Always had a new activeflightplanwx file when loading a new flight plan, without pressing any button here.

Which version (build) of ASN do you use ?

If you are on the ground, it is normal PSXAloft shows "Below FL1" which is in fact 6000ft which is the first "layer". Don't forget to refresh WX within PSXAloft when you set the target cruise altitude within PSX FMC in order to configure the winds properly for the climb. PSXAloft will detect this change and display a reminder message. Working on an automatic function which will do it for you automatically.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: J D ADAM on Wed, 21 Oct 2015 23:09
Good Morning Jean-phillipe,

Well so much for my excitement in getting  things to work#%^##^@^

Everything worked soooo well initially:-
Below Fl1
FL2 Active
Load TOC weather info
Fl7 Climb
Then boom    invalid wx file template. Check file  :(

So PSPX is not passing on the flight plan to activeflightplanner.txt although it  is specified in "Configure Weather settings" in PSPX.

I am using Build 5751 in ASN.

Cheers
Derek
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 22 Oct 2015 05:45
Quote from: Derek Adam on Wed, 21 Oct 2015 23:09
Then boom    invalid wx file template. Check file  :(

So PSPX is not passing on the flight plan to activeflightplanner.txt although it  is specified in "Configure Weather settings" in PSPX.

I am using Build 5751 in ASN.

Hello. Please send me a copy of the activeflightplanwx file in question. PFPX has nothing to do with PSXAloft.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: CarlBB on Thu, 22 Oct 2015 12:39
Hi,

Mine worked ok once, and ever since a new activeflightplanwx was generated for the same route, just difference time, I am also seeing "invalid wx file template" no matter what I try.

Can send to you later if this helps?

Thanks for developing this  :)

Carl
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 22 Oct 2015 14:10
Hello Carl,

Does PSXAloft hangs or crashes after the message is displayed ? I had a quick look at the code and I think I introduced a bug with this new function  :) . Send the file in question if possible.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 22 Oct 2015 18:00
Hello Again,

Beta 6 is ready but not already online. As it is a major update, I need to do a full test flight, maybe tomorrow, in order to test the new functionalities, like the wind/OAT data injection when doing a route and descent forecast datalink request in the FMC ! (Thank you Hardy for your very detailed description about how to decode and modify RTE DATA).

Bug concerning wx file template should be corrected, I think I found where the bug came from, but I would like you send me the wx file which caused the error in order to make a second check.

If everything works fine, I think I will be able to upload Beta 6 tomorrow or saturday.

Thank you all for your patience.

Cheers,

Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hessel Oosten on Thu, 22 Oct 2015 19:14
Jean-philippe,

But...., may I suggest... ;) to do it slow and take your time.

Everyone is very gratefull/reconnaissant for your efforts.
And it's important than -you too- have fun in the mean time.

Hessel

Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 22 Oct 2015 20:04
Quote from: Hessel Oosten on Thu, 22 Oct 2015 19:14
But...., may I suggest... ;) to do it slow and take your time.

Coding C++ became a passion for me and it is not at all a constraint. If I do it "quick" as you feel, it is because I am the first user of PSXAloft and I want to use the datalink feature for my Saturday flight and will have a great moment of fun  :)

More seriously (and technically), I built some "raw" C++ classes some months ago so everything was 75% ready.

But you are free to wait before to download Beta 6 if you want  ;)

Kind regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: CarlBB on Thu, 22 Oct 2015 20:54
Hi

I've uploaded the file to here

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0ByHqlvAm35geM1BQSHZLVU9Kckk&usp=sharing

Thanks

Carl
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: CarlBB on Thu, 22 Oct 2015 20:59
Quote from: JP744 on Thu, 22 Oct 2015 14:10
Hello Carl,

Does PSXAloft hangs or crashes after the message is displayed ? I had a quick look at the code and I think I introduced a bug with this new function  :) . Send the file in question if possible.

Regards,

And to answer - it doesn't really crash as such, but most of the option disappear. A restart though is the only thing that brings it back to life.

Thanks

Carl
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: J D ADAM on Thu, 22 Oct 2015 21:14
Thank you Jean-phillipe for all your help.

I have got everything working. ! was flight planning with PFPX before I was setting up the route in ASN. Wot a dope!

Next problem for me to solve is to stop PFPX printing the flight plan in garbage form, but that is not for you to help solve.

Thank you for  ongoing patience for a more mature man (stupid) who loves flight simulation with PSX with a passion.

With kindest regards,
Derek
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 22 Oct 2015 21:51
Quote from: CarlBB on Thu, 22 Oct 2015 20:54
Hi

I've uploaded the file to here

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0ByHqlvAm35geM1BQSHZLVU9Kckk&usp=sharing

Thanks

Carl

Ok I understand now. There is no TOC and TOD in your ASN flight plan because you didn't tick the checkbox "Add TOC/TOD to the flight plan" within ASN flight plan page.

PSXAloft doesn't find the TOC data, that's why it is lost.

Need to warn PSXAloft users in the User Manual to tick this box.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Fri, 23 Oct 2015 07:33
Quote from: Derek Adam on Thu, 22 Oct 2015 21:14
Thank you Jean-phillipe for all your help.

I have got everything working. ! Thank you for  ongoing patience for a more mature man (stupid) who loves flight simulation with PSX with a passion.

You're welcome Derek. Glad to see it is ok now.
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX.
Post by: JP59 on Sat, 24 Oct 2015 13:02
Hello,

Beta 6 is available for download. It includes datalink feature.

As it is a major update, you can have a look at the User Manual Rev.2 included in the package, and the revision history at the first page of this thread.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: evaamo on Sat, 24 Oct 2015 16:40
Hi Jean Philippe, I will try your software later today, but I wanted to thank you for your efforts! Sounds like a great addition to PSX!

Cheers,
-E
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: GodAtum on Sat, 24 Oct 2015 17:22
Thanks for all your hard work. I was curious as to wether Active Sky is more accurate then the NOAA online sources I currently use in PFPX and PSX?
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX.
Post by: CarlBB on Sat, 24 Oct 2015 22:28
Quote from: JP744 on Sat, 24 Oct 2015 13:02
... I includes datalink feature...
Regards,

Thank you for this add on and this new feature Jean-Phillipe. It's a great program based on a very interesting idea  :)

Regards

Carl
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: evaamo on Sun, 25 Oct 2015 01:32
Hello Jean Philippe

Just wanted to tell you that I had a really enjoyable flight this afternoon using your great addon. Winds worked as expected and as reported by PFPX. I also tested the datalink feature and it worked perfectly as well.

Looks like you have a winner addon here! Congratulations and thanks for the contribution!

Cheers
-E
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sun, 25 Oct 2015 06:42
Hello,

Thanks for your kind words. I also made a flight last night. After 6 hours of cruise, get aloft winds a little bit slower than expected by PFPX. Retrieved datalink update, saw strong tail winds at 370, anticipated step climb to 370 and won back my 4 minutes lost before. Very immersive (I think) ! Great pleasure after so many months of hard coding  :) :)

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Mon, 26 Oct 2015 12:37
Hello,

Beta 7 is available.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: CarlBB on Mon, 26 Oct 2015 23:08
Hi Jean-Phillipe,

I have just loaded a situation that I saved after landing where on the outbound leg, I was using PSXAloft. I now wish to pre-flight this for the return leg. Now, although I intend to use PSXAloft for the return, I noticed that on my Weather Page> Planet that Randomize jet streams is greyed out. I do appreciate that in cruise and whilst PSXAloft is in control that you'd need to do this, but do you need to consider this when PSXAloft disconnects?

Thanks

Carl
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Mon, 26 Oct 2015 23:23
Hi Carl,

if I understand your question correctly, it's rather a philosophical question: Should an add-on remember every variable set in PSX before the add-on starts to inject data, in order to reinject all these old variables before the add-on disconnects?

My personal opinion: If you start thinking in this direction, you will open a cup of worms and need to consider thousands of variables. The activation of the jetstream model is just one of them, it's a boolean variable. Before you connect the add-on, you, the user, may have deactivated the jetstream model already. If the add-on activates it before add-on disconnection, the add-on would not restore your previous setting. Hence it must remember all the variables. The only restoration an add-on should perform before disconnection is to remove its own subsystem prompt from the CDU menu; but this affects CDU subsystem add-ons only, like BACARS or CMC. PSXAloft has no prompt on the CDU menu.


Cheers,

|-|ardy

Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Tue, 27 Oct 2015 08:13
Hello Carl,

I though long time ago about how to implement that but for the same reasons as Hardy explained I gave up. I see two options :

Option 1 :

When you are on the ground, reset manually the PSX jet-stream system while PSXAloft is disconnected, then reconnect PSXAloft. Jet-stream system will automatically be disactivated and overriden by PSXAloft passing 20000ft. I think it is not necessary (see option 2).

Option 2 :

Let PSXAloft connected and jet-stream system disactivated. During your initial climb and landing, local surface weather and wind conditions are managed by METAR system, not jet-stream system (Hardy will confirm or not if I am wrong but this is what I saw when testing PSXAloft). Thus, I do not see any problem to takeoff and land with jet-stream system disactivated.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: CarlBB on Tue, 27 Oct 2015 17:54
Hi Hardy and Jean-Phillipe,

Thank you both for replies. What I am seeing is during pre-flight of the return where PSXAloft managed winds on the way out and will do on the way back, that even though PSX was disconnected and the situation saved, I now have no way to make the button available again. I do of course not need to as I will ensure dept weather is set in a zone. And then PSXAloft does the management above 20000 feet which is all fine.

So my question was a simple - perhaps naive - can you just send something on disconnect to re-enable the PSX internal weather model ? If there is more to it than this, then of course I understand.


Edit: I think I see what I need to do  :)

One more question - If I save a situ part way thru a flight and then come back the next day (using same activeflightplanwx.txt file) do you see any problems doing so ? I have already tried and it seems fine  :)

Thanks again

Carl
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Tue, 27 Oct 2015 18:48
Hello,

When PSXAloft is disconnected, you can reset tropopause altitude, tropopause temperature and tropopause winds to "Variable by latitude and season" and "Variable by jet stream constellation" and then re-randomize jet stream constellation. The button is back alive. I do not see any problem here (tested right now).

To answer your question, no problem about using any wx file you want, technically. But if you use the wx file of yesturday, and build your PFPX flight plan with actual snapshot, you'll probably have wrong winds aloft predictions within PFPX.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: CarlBB on Tue, 27 Oct 2015 19:34
Hi,

Thanks for answers and on the subject of flying over a few days this is ok as I ensure that I use the same static WX file in PFPX and all other programs.

Thanks again  :)

Carl
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Wed, 28 Oct 2015 00:07
Hi Carl,

so the question was simply how to activate the jetstream model?

Well, yes, under "Tropopause winds" just click "Variable by jet stream constellation".

This activates the planetary jetstream model and enables all its associated controls which are:

• Wind speed control for each jet stream
• Mouse controlled jet stream path design
• Randomize button (according to current season)
• Clear air turbulence checkbox (jet stream related CAT)


Cheers,

|-|ardy
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Ivo de Colfmaker on Wed, 28 Oct 2015 08:31
Hi Jean -Phillipe
Thank you very much for this great add on,
Beta 4 works fine for me, beta7 does not .
It connects fine and loads the active sky weather file, but then nothing happens,
Did I missed something?
Ivo
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Wed, 28 Oct 2015 08:53
Quote from: Ivo de Colfmaker on Wed, 28 Oct 2015 08:31
It connects fine and loads the active sky weather file, but then nothing happens,
Did I missed something?
Ivo

Hello Ivo,

What do you mean by "nothing happens" ? From Beta 6 I disabled the debug window output, so it is normal you do not see any message printed. I let the window for now because I still use it for development.

If the application is "alive" (buttons alive, no error message from windows) everything is ok.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Ivo de Colfmaker on Wed, 28 Oct 2015 19:14
hi Jean Phillipe,

sorry, my mistake.
looked at the debug window and since there was no text, made the wrong conclusion.
it works like a dream.
ivo
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 10:31
Hello,

Version 1.0 is now released.

A big thank you dear Beta testers  ;)

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 14:54
Hello,

now also listed on http://aerowinx.com/html/addons.html


Cheers :-)

|-|ardy
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: evaamo on Tue, 10 Nov 2015 16:23
Good job Jean Philipe! Thank you for your contribution. It's been working great so far ! :-)

cheers
-E
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: tango4 on Wed, 11 Nov 2015 10:49
Thanks a lot Jean-Philipe !
I don't have much time at the moment, but will try your latest release when I can.
This was really THE missing feature for us "hobby" users, that is really great !

Charles
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 12 Nov 2015 12:49
Quote from: Hardy Heinlin on Mon, 19 Oct 2015 18:34
Just a thought ...

There is a difference between the true altitude from the PSX server and the altitude on the PFD/AFDS/FMC which varies with the local zone's QNH if STD/FL is used (i.e. if the local QNH is not set on the instruments).

If the add-on doesn't gradually interpolate between data layers, there may be a jump at the border of the layers, and there may be even the wrong layer in use if the QNH/STD difference is large.


Cheers,

|-|ardy

Hello Hardy,

Still have a problem of altitude "drifting" when flying STD outside weather zones. I do not understand because PSXAloft  doesn't modify any QNH at all. I need to manually set the QNH in the weather window for "Outside weather zone" global QNH. When coming back in a focused weather zone, altitude is right. Could you please detail a little bit more about how to interpolate QNH ? I do not understand the notion of difference between PSX server global QNH and clients local QNH. Note that I still use the smoothing feature injecting "Qi243=2000\r\n" before every weather injection.

Best regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Thu, 12 Nov 2015 13:23
Hi Jean-philippe,

QNH is not to be interpolated. The focussed zone sets the QNH. If no zone is focussed, the planet sets the QNH.

PSX internally performs a slow transition from the old value to the new, injected value if a METAR text is injected, or if Qi243 is injected shortly before the actual data injection. Qi243 is described here:

http://aerowinx.com/board/index.php?topic=2971.msg30006#msg30006


Cheers,

|-|ardy
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 12 Nov 2015 15:56
Thanks. This is what PSXAloft do, but I noticed an altitude drift when no local weather is focused (planet QNH in use). I do not see where it comes from.

Will continue investigating.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sun, 22 Nov 2015 15:22
Hello,

PSXAloft is still under development. Thanks again to everybody for your kind words, and always constructive remarks and sugestions. I post here again to announce some future important improvements to come with probably a version 2.0 of PSXAloft.

Version 2.0 will introduce a new bridge to simconnect. ASN flight plan wx file will not be used anymore for wind aloft and OAT injections. Injections will be done every 5 seconds according to P3D (and maybe FSX) aloft current wind and OAT. Those values can come from anywhere (ASN, P3D internal WX, OPUS, REX, ...)

Tests are done with P3D and everything is working very fine ! I am working on a compatibility with FSX. For now, datalink is still fed with ASN wx file, but I am working to implement a direct feed from simconnect also (not yet tested if it will be technically possible).

One question : do you use PSXAloft turbulence generation feature ? If yes, what is your feeling ? Personally, I think it can be improved. I would like to introduce a "live" turbulence generation, still through simconnect.

Still a lot of work, but I wanted to share my enthousiasm with you.

Stay tuned  ;)
Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cagarini on Sun, 22 Nov 2015 16:52
Jean-phillipe,

congratulations for your project and what appears to bet a promising future.

As a member of the ASN beta team I would be glad to feed any questions to the beta forum.

ASN is already modeling internally such things as geopotential height, and while presently and in FSX / P3D pressure gradient is still "standard", I believe future updates will give FSX / P3D users the chance to experiment the effects of flying in cold, dense air...

Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: evaamo on Sun, 22 Nov 2015 17:46
Hello Jean-Phillipe, first of all thank you for your continuous improvement to your great PSXAloft utility. Enhancements for 2.0 sound very promising.

I have a request for you, though. Please don't disable the ASN wx file functionality in PSXAloft 2.0. For example, I use ASN and PFPX and then PSXAloft to feed the winds/oat into PSX. But many times I don't use FSX, just PSX stand-alone. By reading your post, It seems that PSXAloft 2.0 will make running FSX/P3D a requirement. I understand I could just keep using PSXAloft 1.0 instead of 2.0, but then again I don't know if you have fixed any bugs or added new features that could be back-ported to 1.0 ?

On the other hand, I haven't used the turbulence feature. Not because I don't find it interesting, it's just that I'm lazy ;-)

Cheers and thanks again JP!
-E

   
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Mon, 23 Nov 2015 08:47
Quote from: evaamo on Sun, 22 Nov 2015 17:46
By reading your post, It seems that PSXAloft 2.0 will make running FSX/P3D a requirement. I understand I could just keep using PSXAloft 1.0 instead of 2.0, but then again I don't know if you have fixed any bugs or added new features that could be back-ported to 1.0 ?

Hello,

To be honest, I would like to make PSXAloft independent of the ASN WX file (if possible) by retrieving all the data directly from simconnect. Mixing the two solutions is technically possible but I had to make a choice. The code in version 2.0 was totally redesigned. Working with simconnect every 5 seconds and with a static file at every waypoint is not the same thing. I had many requests to make the wind update more "dynamic". This is what version 2.0 will do because updates will be done every 5 seconds. Again, I had to make a choice. Not easy to satisfy everybody  :)

Quote from: evaamo on Sun, 22 Nov 2015 17:46
...but then again I don't know if you have fixed any bugs...

If you see any bug within version 1.0 do not hesitate to feed-back.

Best regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: evaamo on Mon, 23 Nov 2015 16:19
Hello Jean Phillipe, thanks for the reply. I perfectly understand the choice you had to make and I believe the path you're following is the correct one, simconnect is the way to go.

Since you have redesigned the code, have you considered uploading the source code of version 1.0 to github?.

Cheers!
-E
 
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Pierre Theillere on Thu, 3 Dec 2015 13:30
Hi Jean Philippe,

I purchased and installed ActiveSkyNext, unzipped PSx_Aloft, and also installed the VC++ 2012 x86 library... but Windows XP SP3 tells me that PSx_Aloft isn't a valid Win32 executable file. Are there any other libraries that need to be installed prior to running your program?
I noticed that the .exe is very small, only 130560 bytes: I re-downloaded it (just in case it got corrupted) but same result.
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Fri, 4 Dec 2015 17:39
Hello Pierre,

Looks like I compiled the .exe without XP compatibility option. Please download PSXAloft again and report. It should work.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Pierre Theillere on Fri, 4 Dec 2015 18:32
Hi Jean-Philippe!

Amazing "customer support" for your great free software: it now works! Now I have to wait till a long rainy winter day comes, to fly a realistically planned longhaul.
Thanks a lot for your great efficient work!
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Fri, 4 Dec 2015 19:23
Some informations about PSXAloft 2.0 tests and development:

- I can confirm it will be compatible with FSX and P3D (tested).
- It will still need ASN flight plan file for the datalink feature. Retrieving WX informations through SimConnect for "far away" waypoints is not technically possible.
- I am still thinking about how to make the turbulence simulation better. Not an easy job. Again, it looks like very difficult to retrieve those data through SimConnect.

Thanks again for your patience and support. I have to manage both my personal 1:1 scale simulator development, and software development, and my simulator gave me a lot of work those last weeks.

Best regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Thu, 24 Dec 2015 14:35
Jean-Phillipe-

C'est très bon, merci beaucoup!

I have made PSXAloft part of each flight, and had superb results... brilliant!

C
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Fri, 25 Dec 2015 13:27
Thank you and congrats for your perfect French  ;)

I take the opportunity here to give you some news. PSXAloft 2.0 is in its final testing phase. As you probably already know, it is a major update, including SimConnect bridge and a new turbulence generation engine.

For all the future nostalgics of version 1.0, I am pleased to announce that PSXAloft 2.0 will have an option to disable SimConnect bridge, and run in "static / standalone" mode, without need to connect with FSX/P3D, like version 1.0.

I hope to release within the next days or weeks.

Best regards and merry Christmas to all !
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: tango4 on Fri, 25 Dec 2015 17:28
 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Et joyeux Noël à toi !

Charles
Title: Re: PSXAloft : upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: evaamo on Fri, 25 Dec 2015 18:15
JP, as one of the 1.0 nostalgics, I thank you for that option!.

Merry Christmas!
-E
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Tue, 5 Jan 2016 12:22
Hello,

I am very happy to announce the release of PSXAloft 2.0. You can download the new package with the link provided in the first page of this thread.

As some of you probably know, it is a major update, including SimConnect bridge to retrieve data directly from FSX/P3D, a new turbulence generation engine, new user interface,...

All the previous liked features of PSXAloft 1.0 were kept, including the "static" mode using ActiveSky Next flight plan file instead of FSX/P3D live data, for users who don't want to connect with FSX/P3D.

Everything is detailed in the new user manual included in the package. May I suggest everybody, new or previous v1.0 users, to have a deep look at this new manual, because it is a completely new program.

I hope you'll enjoy this new version. I wish you all a happy new year 2016 with PSXAloft  :)
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: evaamo on Tue, 5 Jan 2016 18:02
Thank you JP! Happy new year to you as well. I look forward to testing this new version, thanks again for this great addon.

Best,
-E
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Pierre Theillere on Tue, 5 Jan 2016 18:21
Hi JP!

Congrats for the update: bad weather seems to finally creep in... so that it's high time to resume longhaul OPS with real weather on cruise, thanks to your amazing tool!
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: tango4 on Fri, 8 Jan 2016 16:19
I'm a bit late here and I did not have time to test it but really....BIG THANKS !
Very nice to share your hard work with us here .
Bonne année !!!

Charles
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Fri, 8 Jan 2016 18:59
Quote from: tango4 on Fri,  8 Jan 2016 16:19
I'm a bit late here and I did not have time to test it but really....BIG THANKS !

I'm happy if you like v2.0  :)

Best regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Sat, 9 Jan 2016 16:32
Jean-phillippe,

First, a very big THANK-YOU!

When using v2.0 in DYNAMIC mode I noticed a continuous jerking of the TDZ bars on the Altimeter Tape (with current field QNH set).  Not wanting this to continue during flight, I edited the .cfg to turn the SimConnect Bridge to OFF (=0). That settled things down and the winds/fuel were fine using the former ASN FP (STATIC) method.  Has anyone else reported this jerking of the QNH?  It was about 1/sec NOT every 5 sec as I would have thought your program would produce. 

I would like to go back and try DYNAMIC mode again, but am waiting to see if there has been any feedback on this issue?

Again, we are collectively grateful- you provide the final necessary piece of the full-visual long-haul connundrum ;)

Ta!

C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Sat, 9 Jan 2016 17:49
Carl,

normally, you can't see the TDZ in cruise. Did it jump up by 30000+ feet?

Or did you see this when you were on the ground?

What exactly was jerking? The TDZ only? Or the whole altimeter tape?

Did the QNH digits change?

And what is a "jerk"? 5 feet? 1000 feet? Half a second? Some milliseconds?

Just curious :-) Because your description sounds so bizarre ...


|-|ardy

Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Sat, 9 Jan 2016 18:27
Hardy-

At least I am consistent in my bizzare descriptions ;)

Yes, on the ground in pre-flight, so I shut down PSXAloft and edited the .cfg file.
Restarting PSXAloft the jerking was gone, but now I was in STATIC mode.

The jerking/twitching did not result in altitude/QNH change.... However was a constant up down,
about 1 per second, showing about a 20' field altitude change for the TDZ.

HTH make things a little less bizzare

C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Sat, 9 Jan 2016 18:40
Was there an FMC route data injection every 1 second?

The TDZ is determined by the origin and destination airport entries in the FMC, which are part of the route data.

If no airport entries exist, it may also use the current elevation. This may be influenced by your scenery generator add-on.


|-|
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Sat, 9 Jan 2016 19:06
Hardy-

re. "Was there an FMC route data injection every 1 second?" I don't know... unless PSXAloft was doing something.... nothing new, VisualPSX & TrafficPSX were running on a second machine with ASN and PSXAloft, vPilot + 1 PSX client.  A second PSX Client was on another machine.  The server PSX machine also runs P3d v2.5, Bernd's PSXonMCP2 program and vPilot Traffic.

The ONLY change from before was PSXAloft v2 instead of v1- nothing other than that which is why I mentioned it here.  Also, changing from DYNAMIC to STATIC PSXAloft v2 eliminated the issue which is another reason I mention it in this thread.

Best- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sun, 10 Jan 2016 07:52
Hello,

Quote from: cavaricooper on Sat,  9 Jan 2016 19:06
The ONLY change from before was PSXAloft v2 instead of v1- nothing other than that which is why I mentioned it here.  Also, changing from DYNAMIC to STATIC PSXAloft v2 eliminated the issue which is another reason I mention it in this thread.

It must be a coincidence. There is no difference between DYNAMIC and STATIC mode below 20000ft because PSXAloft do not inject WX data below 20000ft. It is only "sleeping" monitoring altitude waiting for 20000ft to "wake up" and start WX injections. Also, PSXAloft has nothing to do with QNH, airport elevation,...

Quote from: cavaricooper on Sat,  9 Jan 2016 19:06
Hardy-

"Was there an FMC route data injection every 1 second?" I don't know... unless PSXAloft was doing something....

When PSXAloft is injecting FMC RTE wind/OAT data when requesting uplink, it is only done by a single injection, not every second.

The only PSXAloft feature available on the ground is RTE DATA uplink, so :

- Did you request an FMC RTE wind uplink before you see these jumps ?

- Was your FMC route loaded (origin and destination airports set and route EXEC) when you saw these jumps ?

- What were origin and destination airports ? Did you try starting from another airport ? Same issue ?

Please try again. If you get this issue again, may you send a SITU file ?

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Britjet on Sun, 10 Jan 2016 14:36
Hi Jean-phillipe,

I see in your manual that it doesn't work for a P3D version newer than 1.4.
Has anyone tested this, do you know? I have 3.1

Peter
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Sun, 10 Jan 2016 14:39
Peter-

I am using with P3d v2.5 FWIW.  PSXAloft I and II work....still investigating the one spurious incident, but will probably be able to attribute that to the ijut at the yoke ;).


Jean-phillipe-

Quote from: JP744 on Sun, 10 Jan 2016 07:52
Hello,

Quote from: cavaricooper on Sat,  9 Jan 2016 19:06
The ONLY change from before was PSXAloft v2 instead of v1- nothing other than that which is why I mentioned it here.  Also, changing from DYNAMIC to STATIC PSXAloft v2 eliminated the issue which is another reason I mention it in this thread.

It must be a coincidence. There is no difference between DYNAMIC and STATIC mode below 20000ft because PSXAloft do not inject WX data below 20000ft. It is only "sleeping" monitoring altitude waiting for 20000ft to "wake up" and start WX injections. Also, PSXAloft has nothing to do with QNH, airport elevation,...

#### Quite possible, it may have been an issue with field elevation (RJCM)

Quote from: cavaricooper on Sat,  9 Jan 2016 19:06
Hardy-

"Was there an FMC route data injection every 1 second?" I don't know... unless PSXAloft was doing something....

When PSXAloft is injecting FMC RTE wind/OAT data when requesting uplink, it is only done by a single injection, not every second.

The only PSXAloft feature available on the ground is RTE DATA uplink, so :

- Did you request an FMC RTE wind uplink before you see these jumps ?

### No

- Was your FMC route loaded (origin and destination airports set and route EXEC) when you saw these jumps ?

### Yes

- What were origin and destination airports ? Did you try starting from another airport ? Same issue ?

### RJCM- RPLL/YES/NO

Please try again. If you get this issue again, may you send a SITU file ?

### Wilco

Regards,

Currently underway with SimConnect DYNAMIC enabled... EGSS-LGAV... no issues so far (see my reference to Peter).

Ta- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sun, 10 Jan 2016 16:13
Quote from: Britjet on Sun, 10 Jan 2016 14:36
Hi Jean-phillipe,

I see in your manual that it doesn't work for a P3D version newer than 1.4.
Has anyone tested this, do you know? I have 3.1

Peter

Hello Peter,

Sorry it is an error in the manual. Thank you for pointing this. You need P3D 1.4 or later. So 3.1 is ok. I'll modify the manual ASAP.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sun, 10 Jan 2016 16:18
Quote from: cavaricooper on Sat,  9 Jan 2016 19:06
Currently underway with SimConnect DYNAMIC enabled... EGSS-LGAV... no issues so far (see my reference to Peter).

Fingers crossed  :)

I see you didn't request datalink before these jumps. So PSXAloft didn't inject anything. Must be something else than PSXAloft which caused these jumps. But please report after your flight to feedback.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Sun, 10 Jan 2016 17:30
Carl, were you taxiing when the TDZ jumps occured? If so, did it jump along a "stairway" with a certain trend like 10 ft, 20 ft, 30, 40, 50 etc. -- or always back to the same level like 0, 0, 0, 20, 0, 0, 0, 20, 0, 0, 0 etc.? And, had you entered a departure runway on the first RTE page?


|-|
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Sun, 10 Jan 2016 17:35
Hardy-

On stand, on APU.

About a 20' jump and back to 0... Up and down, no total change in altitude or QNH.  No, I typically enter DEP and RWY on the DEPARR Page....




Jean-phillipe-

No issues on this flight.... Flawless. Don't dig too much, I'm sure it's operator error ;)

Ta- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Sun, 10 Jan 2016 17:52
Carl, I suspect your VisualPSX is injecting slightly inconsistent elevation data from your external scenery. According to your description, the injection time intervals are approx. 950 ms, 50 ms, 950 ms, 50 ms, i.e. there seem to be two 1-second cycles, whereas one cycle is injecting data X (correct), and the other is injecting data Y (incorrect). The TDZ display picks up these changes instantly, but the aircraft has a great inertia and therefore doesn't change its altitude so quickly, hence the barometric altimeter doesn't change quickly either. If this theory is right, maybe VisualPSX sits in a P3D scenery between two different runway elevations, causing a decision problem.


|-|
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Britjet on Sun, 10 Jan 2016 17:54
Thanks Carl and JP..

Peter
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Sun, 10 Jan 2016 18:12
Hardy-

I suspect you are correct (as usual)- this has not resurfaced elsewhere.  Sheesh- what are the odds of me picking that field for the initial PSXAloft II flight!  Perhaps I had better go purchase a Lotto ticket (with it currently above $1.3 billion it does seem like a remarkably good idea).

Ta- C

PS- about every third post from you has me desperately wishing I were smarter... I still stand in awe!

Quote from: Hardy Heinlin on Sun, 10 Jan 2016 17:52
Carl, I suspect your VisualPSX is injecting slightly inconsistent elevation data from your external scenery. According to your description, the injection time intervals are approx. 950 ms, 50 ms, 950 ms, 50 ms, i.e. there seem to be two 1-second cycles, whereas one cycle is injecting data X (correct), and the other is injecting data Y (incorrect). The TDZ display picks up these changes instantly, but the aircraft has a great inertia and therefore doesn't change its altitude so quickly, hence the barometric altimeter doesn't change quickly either. If this theory is right, maybe VisualPSX sits in a P3D scenery between two different runway elevations, causing a decision problem.


|-|
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hessel Oosten on Sun, 10 Jan 2016 21:51
Jean-Philippe,

Completely nauseous here....

You did IT !
It works without any problem here -and-fluent (even the turbulence ... ;)

Thanks a lot !

Hessel
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Mon, 11 Jan 2016 09:53
Hello,

Many thanks Hessel for your kind words. I'm happy to see it works fine everywhere (fingers crossed)  :)

I wonder if some real 747 pilots use PSXAloft, may you feedback your feeling about turbulence generation for Light,
Moderate and Severe modes ? What about turbulence frequency, length, intensity, sound, sound duration, etc ? If you have any suggestion to improve this feature do not hesitate to share your experience.

Best regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Britjet on Mon, 11 Jan 2016 10:15
I hope to try it today...
Peter
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hessel Oosten on Mon, 11 Jan 2016 12:09
Well, it seems (IS !) better to await Peter's/Hardy's comments, I presume (I AM SURE)... :D.

But my feeling was, that yawing was less in relation to pitch movements ???

Hessel
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Britjet on Mon, 11 Jan 2016 15:32
Very impressed, JP - although I have yet to work out how to export flight plans from PFPX etc ..

If I understand correctly..

Without using any of the "flight plan" options - PSXAloft will interrogate Activesky and produce winds etc for any flight, anywhere? Great.
I was able to do a descent page download without an ASky flight plan (didn't try en-route winds) and they loaded - is this the ActiveSky winds? They seemed to agree very well with my PSXAloft upper winds, but I'm not sure..

- Turbulence! He He! I nearly had a heart attack when the "severe turbulence" sounds started! Did you by any chance record them from an old Citroen CV with a broken exhaust?! Very clever, anyway! I think that the sound may be a bit overdone though - a little bit of seat rocking, the occasional seat belt tab clinking (always annoying!) and perhaps a bit of glassware "tinkle" would be my suggestion..

I tried all three levels of turbulence. I think they are very good. You certainly wouldn't want any more pitch movement - particularly in severe (I only tried severe in descent so far) - it would be quite sick-making with an immersive wrap screen such as I have..

I don't think there needs to be any increase in yaw movement. Although the rw back end swings about a bit in turbulence it isn't something that you feel or see at the front.

Question - Can you change the turbulence points again once in flight? eg after passing point AAA on route AAA BBB CCC with turbulence at point BBB - can you select AAA and start the turbulence?

I'm enjoying the realism - nice one!

Peter





Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Mon, 11 Jan 2016 17:32
Hello Peter,

Quote from: Britjet on Mon, 11 Jan 2016 15:32
Without using any of the "flight plan" options - PSXAloft will interrogate Activesky and produce winds etc for any flight, anywhere? Great.

Yes. In dynamic mode, PSXAloft retrieve wind and OAT data directly from your scenery generator through SimConnect. Data can come from any weather add-on (ActiveSky, REX, Opus,...) and is available anywhere in the world. Usefull in case of diversion  ;)

Quote from: Britjet on Mon, 11 Jan 2016 15:32
I was able to do a descent page download without an ASky flight plan (didn't try en-route winds) and they loaded - is this the ActiveSky winds? They seemed to agree very well with my PSXAloft upper winds, but I'm not sure..

If you request datalink without an ASN flight plan file loaded within PSXAloft user interface, FMC will be fed with "default" PSX weather data. It also works like this if you load a flight plan different than your PSX FMC route (say, you load an ASN LFPG-RJAA flight plan, and your FMC is flying a KJFK-EGLL route). If you are lucky data will match, especially for short legs, like descent, but I recommand to always load the ASN flight plan within PSXAloft interface before to request datalink.

- Load you flight plan within ASN interface (exported from PFPX in FSX format)
- An "activeflightplanwx.txt" file will be generated by ASN
- Load this file within PSXAloft via user interface (button "BROWSE"). The file is generally located at C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\ASNP3D\Weather
- You can go with datalink

Quote from: Britjet on Mon, 11 Jan 2016 15:32
- Turbulence! He He! I nearly had a heart attack when the "severe turbulence" sounds started! Did you by any chance record them from an old Citroen CV with a broken exhaust?! Very clever, anyway! I think that the sound may be a bit overdone though - a little bit of seat rocking, the occasional seat belt tab clinking (always annoying!) and perhaps a bit of glassware "tinkle" would be my suggestion..

Sorry if I frightened you. I'll add a caution message on the turbulence button  :) :) :) . The severe sound is different from the light and moderate ones. I'll work on it.

Quote from: Britjet on Mon, 11 Jan 2016 15:32
Question - Can you change the turbulence points again once in flight? eg after passing point AAA on route AAA BBB CCC with turbulence at point BBB - can you select AAA and start the turbulence?

Yes. Just press the turbulence configuration button, reset turbulence zones up to you, and press OK. The turbulence generation algorithm will calculate your new turbulence zone.

Quote from: Britjet on Mon, 11 Jan 2016 15:32
I'm enjoying the realism - nice one!

Thank you very much Peter for your feedback.

Kind regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Britjet on Mon, 11 Jan 2016 18:34
Thanks "JP"!

Peter
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Britjet on Wed, 13 Jan 2016 20:43
Hi Jean-Philippe,

I am "bumping around" with your severe turbulence in the cruise!
It looks to me as though what is happening is that you are injecting a pitch change into PSX which causes a height fluctuation. To me that is the wrong way round, but I realise that this may be very difficult to simulate.

What happens, as I see it, for the height change, (I think!) is that you get a sudden vertical movement of air changing the angle of attack, and the aircraft starts to change height. It then pitches on autopilot to compensate - so you would get:-
1) Quite rapid (but short time) height change tendency
2) Pitch change to compensate

What I see (?) happening in PSXAloft (and please correct me if I am wrong) is:

1) Pitch change (injected?)
2) Resultant height change
3) Autopilot then compensates back to target

I suppose that the desired effect might best be achieved by injecting a sudden loss or gain of main wing lift - but of course I don't know if you can do this..

As for speed - I think if anything the instantaneous speed "excursions" (ie speed trend arrow) could be maybe 25% bigger. The trend arrow can be quite alarming!

Pitch change - too large at the moment. Quite vomitable actually! I suppose this is a function of the way you may be causing the height change? I would certainly never expect to see it get up to 6 degs, which is what is happening at the moment (in lee waves this would certainly be possible, but not otherwise).

I hope this helps!

Peter
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Wed, 13 Jan 2016 22:25
Hi,

it is possible to inject certain turbulence impulses, but there are no pitch impulses. Injectable impulses are for vertical speed, bank, yaw, and headwind/tailwind. Pitch reactions are a consequence of injected vertical speed impulses or headwind/tailwind impulses.


Cheers,

|-|ardy
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 14 Jan 2016 10:02
Hi Peter,

Quote from: Britjet on Wed, 13 Jan 2016 20:43
I am "bumping around" with your severe turbulence in the cruise!
It looks to me as though what is happening is that you are injecting a pitch change into PSX which causes a height fluctuation. To me that is the wrong way round, but I realise that this may be very difficult to simulate.

As Hardy said, I can just inject some altitude, bank, yaw and wind variations. The pitch changes you describe are the reaction of the autopilot to altitude changes I inject. I cannot inject pitch variations directly.

For your understanding of the background, PSXAloft turbulence generation algorithm is a big randomizer thread. It generates :

- Random altitude, bank, yaw and wind variations. Sometimes you can get all of these 4, sometimes 3, 2, or 1
- Random intensity of each of these variations
- Random number of data injections in PSX during the same loop (makes the effet stronger or lighter)
- Random time between injections
- Random time between each loop
- Random sound duration

For each level of turbulence (Light, Moderate or Severe) randomized lower and upper limits are different. The only thing I can do is to decrease altitude changes in severe turbulence. Thus it will indirectly limit the pitch variations the autopilot commands.

Please try PSXAloft v.2.0.1 (link and change log on the first post of this thread) and tell me what's your feeling. I also increased airspeed variations a little bit.

Thanks again for your contribution
Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Britjet on Thu, 14 Jan 2016 12:22
Hi Jean-philippe,

Thanks (and Hardy) for the explanation. I have just flown 2.1
Just talking about severe..

1) I like the speed trend vector now :-)
2) Small changes in bank look good :-)
3) The reduced pitch effect is better :-)
4) I am not sure how you can program this, but the up and down pitching is too frequent - it feels like a small boat in a storm. Up, down, up, down (etc).
What would be better, I think, is to have the injection less frequent but longer duration
eg...
1) vertical draft - slowly increases over (say) 5 seconds to 700fpm - Autopilot compensates
2) draft decreases at similar rate - autopilot compensates.
3) A couple of seconds with no draft to allow pitch to stabilise
4) The same or reverse effect.

I was wondering if the (sometimes) large pitch changes are due to the autopilot making a correction and then being "caught out" by a vertical draft in the opposite direction?
I think the main thing here (for me ) is that the vertical changes seem too frequent and too short, and reverse too quickly?

I hope that helps..

Peter

Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 14 Jan 2016 14:09
Hi Peter,

Quote from: Britjet on Thu, 14 Jan 2016 12:22
4) I am not sure how you can program this, but the up and down pitching is too frequent - it feels like a small boat in a storm. Up, down, up, down (etc).

This is due to AFDS which over-compensate after a vertical speed injection. The only thing I can do to reduce this effect is to reduce intensity of V/S injections. This is what I did.

Quote from: Britjet on Thu, 14 Jan 2016 12:22
What would be better, I think, is to have the injection less frequent but longer duration
eg...
1) vertical draft - slowly increases over (say) 5 seconds to 700fpm - Autopilot compensates
2) draft decreases at similar rate - autopilot compensates.
3) A couple of seconds with no draft to allow pitch to stabilise
4) The same or reverse effect.

I worked on my code. Please download again PSXAloft v.2.0.1 and try it. I only changed severe turbulence for now. Waiting for your feedback before to work on other modes. I also worked on synchronization between sound and "aerodynamic" turbulence effect. The sound sucks (I'm searching for a new one on the internet) but tell me if you prefer this new synchro (or not).

Regards,

Edit : A new version is online since 17:05 UTC. Please try this one.
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Britjet on Thu, 14 Jan 2016 19:38
Hi Jean-Philippe,

Thanks for the quick update! - I tried it (showing still as 2.01 but I can see it is different).

I think that is better. If anything I think you could increase the effect very very slightly on the draft - maybe stronger for longer ?

One for Hardy - I think the PSX autothrottle is too responsive here to the speed changes? - it immediately makes a large thrust setting change at the first sign of a speed change if the trend vector is large.

Now I'm not sure (as usual!) what the autothrottle uses but I don't think it looks at the speed trend vector - just the speed, so a change of speed of (say) 5-10 kts would not cause a huge thrust change even if the trend vector was very large. Eventually it would "wake up" and put the required thrust on if the speed continued to change, but not at first..I would be interested to know what parameters PSX uses..
In turbulence we would often have to "help" the speed control by overriding the thrust levers to maintain a sensible speed. You would have the autothrottle motors fighting you quite often as it hadn't yet changed the thrust.

Any other 747 guys who might like to chip in on this, please?

I think it is getting there, Jean Philippe, but of course that is only my opinion and I would welcome other 747 input.
I well remember losing a 90kt headwind over the Alps in 10 seconds one evening, it was rough as hell with speed getting to the "red"  from .82 Mach (even with thrust levers rapidly closed manually) but the altitude and pitch hardly did a thing. Maybe we need a "buttkicker"? :-)

Peter


Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 14 Jan 2016 20:15
Thank you so much Peter for your kind help. I "compiled" all your suggestions :

- 3 turbulence modes reworked
- Better sound synchronization for 3 modes
- Severe turbulence sound less loud

For you and all PSXAloft users, version 2.0.2 is up. You can download the new package with the link provided on the first post of this thread.

Best regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Fri, 15 Jan 2016 01:11
Hi Peter,

the A/T in PSX and in the real aircraft does not only look at the speed; the result would be as terrible as in FS5.

Like in all control loops, there are also trend and acceleration parameters involved to avoid overreactions on one hand, and to prevent too slow a response on the other hand. When you have 50 knots to go, you don't want to wait 10 minutes; and when you're approaching the speed bug faster than planned, you want to counteract this new trend earlier than planned. Otherwise the control will oscillate. Knowing the trend is essential to dampen and  stabilize the control loop.

These trend parameters need to be fine-tuned very carefully. It's not a question whether they are used, but how much influence they have.

This influence also depends on the trend direction: Like on the real aircraft, PSX's A/T reacts faster upon a tailwind increase, and slower on a headwind increase. When increases of tailwind and headwind alternate nearly equally in time and intensity, the A/T will therefore keep the average speed some knots above the speed bug (a desired side effect) because the thrust reduction after a headwind event always takes longer than the thrust increase after a tailwind event.

In PSX 10.0.6, the A/T's thrust decrease command is slower than the spool-down capability of the engines, while the thrust increase command is slighly faster than the spool-up capability. I.e. if I would make the command faster, the engines wouldn't spool up faster anyway. But you asked for a slower thrust increase command. I'll check if I can fine-tune this again in the next update. A hair too slow and you will unnecessarily lose some knots in the next tailwind shear -- that's what I want to avoid ...


Cheers,

|-|ardy
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Britjet on Fri, 15 Jan 2016 10:20
Hi Hardy

That's an interesting explanation. Thank you! I certainly didn't know that the trend arrow was a factor.
Common 'cultural' knowledge is that the autothrottle is relatively unresponsive in cruise as a fuel-saving measure, but if course it is a difficult thing to check on the aircraft. Certainly the sims don't model cruise turbulence at all well, so I can't experiment.

Of course another factor is that if the thrust changes in a few seconds from nearly max to nearly idle, this is a huge pitch-couple change, and also an aircraft at max thrust that suddenly encounters an increasing speed trend would have to throttle back quickly. For this reason I know that one school of thought ( on all jets, really), is to disengage the auto throttle, and make small manual adjustments about a datum.

I have noticed on the sim that if you allow the speed to get low on the approach (say, 10 kts below Ref) without the autothrottle engaged, and then engage it, the autothrottle immediately certainly puts on a LOAD of thrust. Cruise might be different, however. I have no idea if there are cruise and approach modes. I wouldn't have thought so..

I appreciate your thoughts about changing it slightly but I would beware of changing anything just based on my 'feeling'. I could be wrong...(as usual). It's just that in PSXAloft the auto throttle seems more active than I remember.

Cheers!

Peter
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Fri, 15 Jan 2016 15:14
FWIW, I remember reading that approach mode triggers a difference response curve in AT logic (from TOGA, Cruise, Climb etc), with particular attention to low speed attenuation....however, John and our other gurus can no doubt shed more illuminating light...

@Jean-phillipe-

I just flew a SHORT route segment of the last flight with MODERATE turbulence (PSXAloft version 2.0.2)... I usually smiled through my outside loops in the S2C, but this bit had me hanging on for dear life.  I was particularly glad the trolly-dolly hadn't brought my cuppa as my attention was fully on the PFD and 'tis a shame to waste a good Darjeeling ;)

Thanks for working on this immensely important part of long haul simulation!

Best- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Fri, 15 Jan 2016 15:18
Quote from: cavaricooper on Fri, 15 Jan 2016 15:14
FWIW, I remember reading that approach mode triggers a difference response curve in AT logic, with particular attention to low speed attenuation....however, John and our other gurus can no doubt shed more illuminating light...

Best- C

That's the feature I described in my previous post: "... A/T reacts faster upon a tailwind increase, and slower on a headwind increase ..." -- etc.


Cheers,

|-|ardy


Sorry, my poor English: "... A/T reacts faster to a tailwind increase, and slower to a headwind increase ..."
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Fri, 15 Jan 2016 16:52
Hardy-

My personal (and for many I'd hazard, OUR COLLECTIVE) Oracle at Delphi- NEVER apologize to us mere mortals.

:)

C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Mon, 18 Jan 2016 22:49
Jean-phillippe-

I have been making PSXAloft II v2.02 part of each flight, and enjoying it immensely.  I have even put in the occasional route segment with turbulence, and have developed an even healthier respect for Peter et al...

Today however, I had ATC caution me that I was 300' above my cleared altitude.  I remember reading some discussion about others having this same issue with VATSIM controllers, and was hoping that you may have a thought about this matter...?  I did recheck to make sure STD was set x3.

Ta!

C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Tue, 19 Jan 2016 08:29
Hello Carl,

PSXAloft do not send anything to PSX in relationship with QNH or aircraft altitude.

Some users like me reported sometimes client/server altitude synchronization issue. Below is the link to the related post. Is that your issue ?

http://aerowinx.com/board/index.php?topic=3375.0

One last question. Were you inside a turbulence area ? In case of severe turbulence aircraft altitude can change (not up to 300ft it's true). If your ATC is too "sensitive" it could advise you too quickly ? Just a though.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Tue, 19 Jan 2016 13:51
JP-

No, I was not in a turbulence area.  The issue in your link sounds exactly as I experienced.

I was however in the Netherlands with many, many reporting stations.... My PSX Wx (at FL310) was being fed by PSXAloft and the ASN Flight-Plan Wx.  Visual PSX is sending ASN Wx to the P3D visuals.  BOTH PSX and ASN get real time data.

I run vPilot Traffic on my PSX server, and vPilot client on a client machine.

I'm sure Hardy is investigating.... will standby for any developments, and report if there are any further altitude anomalies.

Ta- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Tue, 19 Jan 2016 14:00
Carl, I don't know which add-on injects what PSX data into your Internet ATC. It's always a function of true altitude and local QNH anyway.
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Tue, 19 Jan 2016 14:22
Quote from: cavaricooper on Tue, 19 Jan 2016 13:51
I run vPilot Traffic on my PSX server, and vPilot client on a client machine.

Maybe you could test running all the vPilot stuff on the same computer. I do not see how PSXAloft could be the reason of a vPilot altitude issue. Again, there is nothing in my code which deals with QNH or altitude.

The issue linked is a server/client QNH synchronization problem when add-ons, like PSXAloft, use the WxSlowTransit feature of PSX under certain conditions. As you can see Hardy is aware and is investigating. It is a very specific issue which happens only under precise conditions. Did you clearly identified a PFD altitude offset between PSX server and PSX client ?

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Tue, 19 Jan 2016 16:54
Hardy-

I assume (yes, I know, I know) that ASN is feeding PSX via PSXAloft (FL310).  vPilot is then reading FSX aircraft altitude and sending that to VATSIM ATC....

Quote from: Hardy Heinlin on Tue, 19 Jan 2016 14:00
Carl, I don't know which add-on injects what PSX data into your Internet ATC. It's always a function of true altitude and local QNH anyway.

JP-

I will run both on the same machine the next time I fly, however, that may not be until Friday. 

There was no identified offset between client and server (PSX) as I do not look at the client PFD normally. I WILL check this as well, next flight.

Quote from: JP744 on Tue, 19 Jan 2016 14:22
Quote from: cavaricooper on Tue, 19 Jan 2016 13:51
I run vPilot Traffic on my PSX server, and vPilot client on a client machine.

Maybe you could test running all the vPilot stuff on the same computer. I do not see how PSXAloft could be the reason of a vPilot altitude issue. Again, there is nothing in my code which deals with QNH or altitude.

The issue linked is a server/client QNH synchronization problem when add-ons, like PSXAloft, use the WxSlowTransit feature of PSX under certain conditions. As you can see Hardy is aware and is investigating. It is a very specific issue which happens only under precise conditions. Did you clearly identified a PFD altitude offset between PSX server and PSX client ?

Cheers,

As always, most grateful- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Tue, 19 Jan 2016 17:25
Quote from: cavaricooper on Tue, 19 Jan 2016 16:54
I assume (yes, I know, I know) that ASN is feeding PSX via PSXAloft (FL310).  vPilot is then reading FSX aircraft altitude and sending that to VATSIM ATC....

PSXAloft is only feeding PSX winds and OAT. Not QNH.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Thu, 21 Jan 2016 14:44
Hardy-

Asked Ross to review and comment.....

Quote from: Hardy Heinlin on Tue, 19 Jan 2016 14:00
Carl, I don't know which add-on injects what PSX data into your Internet ATC. It's always a function of true altitude and local QNH anyway.

I don't have that answer... But he will....

Best- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 21 Jan 2016 15:04
Hello Carl,

Excuse me but, as we are in the PSXAloft thread, I would like to understand what's exactly your issue with PSXAloft ? I would like to help but I get confused with VATSIM ATC QNH / altitude issue. Who warned you about altitude ? Virtual ATC ? Was the PSX altitude correct ? Did you clearly identified PSXAloft ? I really don't know how it could influence an ATC client altitude, but if you think so, I need more informations to investigate.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Thu, 21 Jan 2016 15:11
JP-

Apologies, this may very well be the wrong place to continue this issue. 

Initially I thought there may be interaction between the reported altitude to VATSIM and PSXAloft, but you have clearly stated that is not the case.

Hardy- can you separate the thread, or should I start a new one?

Sorry for the confusion!

Best- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Thu, 21 Jan 2016 15:38
When it happens again, start a new thread. -- Also, when it happens again, ask ATC what QNH they're using and compare this with the focussed QNH on PSX's Instructor.


|-|
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 21 Jan 2016 15:45
Carl,

No need to apologize. You're welcome :)

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Thu, 21 Jan 2016 16:02
Hardy-

Will do.

Quote from: Hardy Heinlin on Thu, 21 Jan 2016 15:38
When it happens again, start a new thread. -- Also, when it happens again, ask ATC what QNH they're using and compare this with the focussed QNH on PSX's Instructor.

|-|

JP-

Ta!

C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Thu, 21 Jan 2016 23:59
JP-

I (hesitantly) post here again after Ross' reply-

Hello Carl, vPilot reads both pressure altitude and true altitude from FSX/P3D via SimConnect, and sends that to the VATSIM server.

Note that the pressure setting you've dialed into your altimeter has no effect on the values read from SimConnect. SimConnect reports both the pressure altitude (calibrated for standard pressure, 29.92 inches) and the true altitude (based on the actual pressure loaded into the weather settings in your sim) ... so if ATC was saying you were off your altitude, my best guess is that you had the wrong pressure setting dialed into your altimeter. That would obviously make you fly the wrong altitude, just like how it works real world.

Does that help?

_________________
Ross Carlson - Developer

The Simconnect bit had me thinking.... this all occurred AFTER I set up Simconnect for PSXAloft.... I can DEFINITELY confirm that I had STD x 3 set.  I will test further, but since he brought up Simconnect... I thought that might at least be a corner you could poke around your code in....

If I am just confused (very likely), I will go crawl under the nearest rock and not bother you until I have flown this version a bit more.

Thanks for your indulgence, and your understanding....

Best- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Fri, 22 Jan 2016 02:02
Quote from: cavaricooper on Thu, 21 Jan 2016 23:59
Does that help?

No :-)

Ask ATC what QNH they're using and compare this with the focussed QNH on PSX's Instructor. And check if the zone is focussed or in smooth transit.


|-|
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Fri, 22 Jan 2016 09:39
Hello Carl,

This is how PSXAloft works in dynamic mode : it sends a request to SimConnect to send :

- Ambient wind direction
- Ambient wind velocity
- Ambient OAT

... to PSXAloft every 5 seconds. That's all. There is nothing in my code which write anything to SimConnect. I only read FSX/P3D data.

Quote from: cavaricooper on Thu, 21 Jan 2016 23:59
.... this all occurred AFTER I set up Simconnect for PSXAloft....

How did you conclude that ? Can you reproduce this issue every time you try ? Does the issue disappear when you erase the PSXAloft SimConnect entry, or disconnect PSXAloft ? If yes, please check you SimConnect.xml and cfg's (vPilot and PSXAloft ones). Look for any error, confict (versions of clients/server, ports, IP,...).

Quote from: cavaricooper on Thu, 21 Jan 2016 23:59
Thanks for your indulgence, and your understanding....

You're welcome. I would like to help but I don't know what I can do a the PSXAloft side, as there is nothing in my code which could lead to a QNH/altitude issue.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Fri, 22 Jan 2016 11:42
JP-

Plan on flighting today... Will report back.

Ta!

C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 15:10
JP-

On Beta 7 now... yesterday on Beta 6 I was not able to reproduce, however, in reading your troposphere post I am reminded about something I asked for earlier.... seems similar.... from a discussion about the earlier PSXWeather....

I keep wondering if we just injected ASN Wx for the full flight regime, would there be any of these interactions?  I appreciate Hardy's enormous efforts in simulating the Wx engine, but for those with ASN there is real time data always available.... is turning OFF all PSX Wx a possibility?

Obviously, when using PSX standalone, the PSX Wx engine remains a superb model.

Best- C

Quote from: cavaricooper on Sun, 23 Aug 2015 15:20

Would it be possible to turn OFF all PSX Wx and just send ASN/P3D Wx to PSX?  Whilst PSX Wx is superb in a stand alone application, there has been much success/progress with ASN in P3D combined with PFPX.  Together they make a more than adequate solution for long-haul simulation in P3D alone.  Should that not also be equally satisfactory for PSX?  After all PSX Wx (the HH version) is attempting to portray RW conditions, whilst ASN is purportedly "feeding" RW conditions to P3D and then through PSXWx (yours ;)) to PSX...

Best- C

Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 15:20
Carl,

it is OFF when fixed data are injected by add-ons.

Off is off. I can't make it offer.


|-|
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 15:40
JP-

In that case can PSXAloft just inject data continuously?  Totally removing any interactions with stock PSX Weather?  Forget the FL200 and inject from parked to parked... or is my simpelton's brain imagining non-existent possibilities?

Best- C

Quote from: Hardy Heinlin on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 15:20
Carl,

it is OFF when fixed data are injected by add-ons.

Off is off. I can't make it offer.


|-|
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 16:34
Carl, what do you mean by "continuously"?

PSXAloft injects data continuously every few seconds.

Do you mean it should inject it at 70 Hz? That would be a ridiculous waste of network resources.

QuoteTotally removing any interactions with stock PSX Weather?

This advice is so absurd, I don't know where to begin with my explanation of why it is so absurd ... :-) especially in the context of what I was just telling you in the post before :-)

Do you know what an aerodynamics model is?

Do you know the function of IAS?

...


Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 16:50
Hardy-

I am willing to stipulate I am not particularly bright.

That said, I was speculating about the possibility of direct injection of ASN data into PSX to avoid the interactions recently discussed.  From your response I realize that my speculation about that possibility was woefully incorrect- please forgive my absurdities.

I am now fully aware that I am attempting a discussion on matters I simply do not understand-  I shall refrain.

Best- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 16:59
Thanks, Carl. No offense :-)


Cheers!

|-|ardy
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 17:26
Hello Carl,

Quote from: cavaricooper on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 15:40
In that case can PSXAloft just inject data continuously?  Totally removing any interactions with stock PSX Weather?  Forget the FL200 and inject from parked to parked... or is my simpelton's brain imagining non-existent possibilities?

It is not possible. You cannot set PSX tropopause lower than 20000ft. And it is the only way to inject continuous wind and OAT "stream" to PSX. I think every 5 seconds is a good compromize to avoid network unnecessary overload.

The actual Hardy's system offers a very good PSX / PSXAloft interraction. Why would you like to change that ?

The only PSXAloft aspect I woud like to improve is the OAT smoothing when passing 20000ft, and also when user connects PSXAloft while in flight with default PSX weather enabled. The OAT change is still too strong, leading to important IAS changes at first PSXAloft injection.

I realize, despite his everlasting kindness and dedication, Hardy is maybe fed up with my newbie weather/tropopause hacker's endless requests :) Finally -Hardy, this is for you ;)- the last request I could have (one more ?##?!!#!?!#!?""!), would be to allow add-ons to inject directly wind direction/velocity and OAT to PSX, without need to go through tropopause data. Just a straight stream injection, which will override any previous WX settings (tropopause, METAR, jet streams,...). Add-ons will do their own smoothing process and background "business".  "OK. You're not happy with my professional standalone WX engine ? You want to play with weather ? Do your own business and inject here ! That's all. Do it at your own risk. No after market support provided" :) :). It will definitively solve any interraction issues between PSX WX engine and add-ons injections.

In fact Carl, your request is technically possible, if PSXAloft was doing its own METAR injections, and smoothing during climb/descent to transit to/from aloft WX. But as said before, PSX does it very well, and live fed from internet. We are very lucky.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 17:58
Hardy-

None taken.  My eternal gratitude remains quite intact :-)

C
Quote from: Hardy Heinlin on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 16:59
Thanks, Carl. No offense :-)


Cheers!

|-|ardy

JP-
Thanks for continuing on your quest... 'tis vital to accurate long-haul online w/ RW Wx.

Quote from: JP744 on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 17:26

Finally -Hardy, this is for you ;)- the last request I could have (one more ?##?!!#!?!#!?""!), would be to allow add-ons to inject directly wind direction/velocity and OAT to PSX, without need to go through tropopause data. Just a straight stream injection, which will override any previous WX settings (tropopause, METAR, jet streams,...). Add-ons will do their own smoothing process and background "business".  "OK. You're not happy with my professional standalone WX engine ? You want to play with weather ? Do your own business and inject here ! That's all. Do it at your own risk. No after market support provided" :) :). It will definitively solve any interraction issues between PSX WX engine and add-ons injections.

In fact Carl, your request is technically possible, if PSXAloft was doing its own METAR injections, and smoothing during climb/descent to transit to/from aloft WX. But as said before, PSX does it very well, and live fed from internet. We are very lucky.

Cheers,

Best- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 18:26
Hi Jean-philippe,

your suggestion won't work. It won't work because the IAS is also aerodynamics driven, no matter whether you inject your data at 345 ft or at 20000 ft. It makes no difference.

The model runs at the sim's highest frame rate, up to 72 Hz. You can't run the aerodynamics at 0.2 Hz.

If you take over the entire model, you would have to inject a high speed stream like ...

21.00456655°
21.00456623°
21.00456612°
21.00456577°
...

And that would be nonsense. You would have to do the same smoothing tasks that PSX is already doing for you. And you would need a new, special network channel for this high speed stream. And you would have to study all the interdependencies within the model. And so on ...


Cheers,

|-|ardy

Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Mon, 25 Jan 2016 18:41
Hardy,

It wasn't my idea to go so far. First because PSX model is excellent, second because I don't have 1% of the required programing knowledge.

I was just thinking : if we can inject tropopause wind and OAT data, why couldn't we inject global/instant wind and OAT data. It will only be ambient/current conditions, and PSX aerodynamic model will react according with these conditions, which is I think the way it already does.

Sorry, I used the term "stream" which is not appropriate. I was thinking about injections only when a parameter needs to be changed, not at 72Hz. Maybe 2Hz would be necessary to get a satisfactory smoothing effect.

But it was just an idea. I realize eveything is already here. I only need to be more creative.

Thanks again

Cheers !
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sun, 31 Jan 2016 12:15
Hello,

PSXAloft version 2.1 is available for download. Here are the release notes :

- January 31, 2016 : PSXAloft v.2.1

- Magnetic declination now taken from PSX, not from FSX/P3D anymore
- Magnetic declination now taken into account also in static mode
- First WX injection now begin 5 seconds after connection
- Added "basic" OAT smoothing process. When target OAT is different by more than 1°C than actual PSX OAT, OAT will be increased or decreased by 1°C every 5 seconds until target OAT is reached. Requires PSX v.10.0.7 Beta 6 or later for better results
- Dynamic mode : "advanced" OAT smoothing process added during climb. When connecting PSXAloft below 20000ft, an interpolated OAT at 20000ft is injected. It makes the PSX/PSXAloft transition smoother when passing 20000ft. Please note, for better results in both modes, it is recommanded to connect PSXAloft with aircraft on the ground
- Turbulence zone edges random limit increased to 20% of theoric zone length
 


Download link is in the first post of this thread, as usual.

Cheers !
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Sun, 31 Jan 2016 13:46
JP-

As ever, many thanks.  Looking forward to flying w/ v2.1 :).

Typically I start P3D, then PSX server, both with saved flights at my last stand.  Then 2 PSX clients, PSXonMCP2, VisualPSX & TrafficPSX.  After that I start ASN and load the PFPX FP.  After all this I start PSXAloft II and load the activewx file.  All this occurs before initial overhead flows.  Is this optimal?

The PSX ecosystem (for me at least) is hugely dependent on VisualPSX, PSXAloft and now BACARS for my long-haul simulation. That said, it remains brilliant in a standalone on a rMBP whilst traveling- 744 nirvana... If all this continues, self-actualization may be possible.

;)

Best- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sun, 31 Jan 2016 14:00
Hello Carl,

Quote from: cavaricooper on Sun, 31 Jan 2016 13:46
Typically I start P3D, then PSX server, both with saved flights at my last stand.  Then 2 PSX clients, VisualPSX & TrafficPSX.  After that I start ASN and load the PFPX FP.  After all this I start PSXAloft II and load the activewx file.  All this occurs before initial overhead flows.  Is this optimal?

Yes. Whilst it is possible to connect/disconnect PSXAloft anytime you want during a flight, you'll get the best of the last update by connecting PSXAloft when aircraft is on the ground. It was designed to work that way.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cagarini on Sun, 31 Jan 2016 15:13
If one day this could be made available for XPX as well, it would be great...

Presently there's the NOAA plugin, and two other weather injection programs that are able to inject winds, turbulence and temperatures aloft in XPX.
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: GodAtum on Sun, 31 Jan 2016 15:44
Hi all,

Thank you for developing this addon. My question is, is it possible for PSX to read addon (eg ASN/FSXWX) weather data instead of using VisualPSX to inject from PSX to P3D.
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sun, 31 Jan 2016 17:24
Quote from: GodAtum on Sun, 31 Jan 2016 15:44
Hi all,

Thank you for developing this addon. My question is, is it possible for PSX to read addon (eg ASN/FSXWX) weather data instead of using VisualPSX to inject from PSX to P3D.

PSXAloft already injects ASN data within PSX.
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: J D ADAM on Sat, 6 Feb 2016 01:30
Hi Jean-philippe,    I would like to get your fine program working but my problem lies with simconnect!

My simconnect file the works with Visual PSX is


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?>

<SimBase.Document Type="SimConnect" version="1,0">
  <Descr>SimConnect</Descr>
  <Filename>SimConnect.xml</Filename>
  <Disabled>False</Disabled>
  <SimConnect.Comm>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol>
    <Scope>local</Scope>
    <Address>192.168.1.31</Address>
    <MaxClients>64</MaxClients>
    <Port>29764</Port>
    <MaxRecvSize>8192</MaxRecvSize>
    <DisableNagle>True</DisableNagle>
  </SimConnect.Comm>
</SimBase.Document>


The simconnect program trying to follow your manual is:-

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?>

<SimBase.Document Type="SimConnect" version="1,0">
  <Descr>SimConnect</Descr>
  <Filename>SimConnect.xml</Filename>
  <Disabled>False</Disabled>
  <SimConnect.Comm>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol>
    <Scope>local</Scope>
    <Address>192.168.1.31</Address>
    <MaxClients>64</MaxClients>
    <Port>29764</Port>
    <MaxRecvSize>8192</MaxRecvSize>
    <DisableNagle>True</DisableNagle>
  </SimConnect.Comm>
<SimConnect.Comm>
      <Disabled>False</Disabled>
      <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol>
      <Scope>global</Scope>
      <Address>192.168.1.31</Address>
      <MaxClients>64</MaxClients>
      <Port>29730</Port>
      <MaxRecvSize>4096</MaxRecvSize>
      <DisableNagle>False</DisableNagle>
   </SimConnect.Comm>.........................................................................
<SimConnect.Comm>
      <Disabled>False</Disabled>
      <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol>
      <Scope>local</Scope>
      <Address>192.168.1.31</Address>       
      <MaxClients>64</MaxClients>
      <Port>29800</Port>
      <MaxRecvSize>8192</MaxRecvSize>
      <DisableNagle>False</DisableNagle>
   </SimConnect.Comm>



However my response from loading PSXAloft  is:-

"unable to connect simconnect."


Your advice would be appreciated

Cheers

Derek Adam
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sat, 6 Feb 2016 10:42
Hello Derek,

Replace "local" by "global" in the PSXAloft entry, like this :

Quote from: Derek Adam on Sat,  6 Feb 2016 01:30


The simconnect program trying to follow your manual is:-

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?>

<SimBase.Document Type="SimConnect" version="1,0">
  <Descr>SimConnect</Descr>
  <Filename>SimConnect.xml</Filename>
  <Disabled>False</Disabled>
  <SimConnect.Comm>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol>
    <Scope>local</Scope>
    <Address>192.168.1.31</Address>
    <MaxClients>64</MaxClients>
    <Port>29764</Port>
    <MaxRecvSize>8192</MaxRecvSize>
    <DisableNagle>True</DisableNagle>
  </SimConnect.Comm>
<SimConnect.Comm>
      <Disabled>False</Disabled>
      <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol>
      <Scope>global</Scope>
      <Address>192.168.1.31</Address>       
      <MaxClients>64</MaxClients>
      <Port>29800</Port>
      <MaxRecvSize>8192</MaxRecvSize>
      <DisableNagle>False</DisableNagle>
   </SimConnect.Comm>

I think the problem is here. If still not working, please ensure you have setup the IP adress to 192.168.1.31 in the simconnect.cfg file (located in the PSXAloft folder).

It was an error within my "example" file. I corrected it. Thanks for reporting.

One question though. Why do you copy all the example file ? It is just an example. The entries in the example might not match with yours. Keep you existing file and just copy/past the PSXAloft entry like shown in the example and replace IP and port to match your config.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: J D ADAM on Sat, 6 Feb 2016 22:14
Hi JP,


Thank you for your reply.

Below is my new .xml file  and with it I get the message from loading FSX

Can't Init SimConnect error"

Then FSX loads!

Oh Dear!

Regards
Derek




<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?>

<SimBase.Document Type="SimConnect" version="1,0">
  <Descr>SimConnect</Descr>
  <Filename>SimConnect.xml</Filename>
  <Disabled>False</Disabled>
  <SimConnect.Comm>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol>
    <Scope>local</Scope>
    <Address>192.168.1.31</Address>
    <MaxClients>64</MaxClients>
    <Port>29764</Port>
    <MaxRecvSize>8192</MaxRecvSize>
    <DisableNagle>True</DisableNagle>
  </SimConnect.Comm>
<SimConnect.Comm>
      <Disabled>False</Disabled>
      <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol>
      <Scope>global</Scope>
      <Address>192.168.1.31</Address>
      <MaxClients>64</MaxClients>
      <Port>29730</Port>
      <MaxRecvSize>4096</MaxRecvSize>
      <DisableNagle>False</DisableNagle>
   </SimConnect.Comm>.........................................................................
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sun, 7 Feb 2016 09:31
Hello,

I am not a SimConnect expert. Just a question : why do you use 29730 port entry like in my example ? As I said before, you need to adapt your .xml according to your own configuration. The example sample provided is just an example, based on my own SimConnect.xml. In your SimConnect.xml, the last line...

</SimBase.Document>

...is missing. That's why you get an error.

1- Take your "raw" SimConnect.xml (the one you used before PSXAloft)
2- Just add the following lines :

<SimConnect.Comm>
      <Disabled>False</Disabled>
      <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol>
      <Scope>global</Scope>
      <Address>192.168.1.31</Address>     
      <MaxClients>64</MaxClients>
      <Port>29800</Port>
      <MaxRecvSize>8192</MaxRecvSize>
      <DisableNagle>False</DisableNagle>
   </SimConnect.Comm>


between the last...

</SimConnect.Comm>

...and last line which is...

</SimBase.Document>

I made a sample for you, based on your first SimConnect.xml. If you only use VisualPSX and PSXAloft, it will work without modification :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?>

<SimBase.Document Type="SimConnect" version="1,0">
  <Descr>SimConnect</Descr>
  <Filename>SimConnect.xml</Filename>
  <Disabled>False</Disabled>
  <SimConnect.Comm>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol>
    <Scope>local</Scope>
    <Address>192.168.1.31</Address>
    <MaxClients>64</MaxClients>
    <Port>29764</Port>
    <MaxRecvSize>8192</MaxRecvSize>
    <DisableNagle>True</DisableNagle>
  </SimConnect.Comm>
<SimConnect.Comm>
      <Disabled>False</Disabled>
      <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol>
      <Scope>global</Scope>
      <Address>192.168.1.31</Address>     
      <MaxClients>64</MaxClients>
      <Port>29800</Port>
      <MaxRecvSize>8192</MaxRecvSize>
      <DisableNagle>False</DisableNagle>
   </SimConnect.Comm>
</SimBase.Document>


I hope this helps
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: J D ADAM on Sun, 7 Feb 2016 20:06
Hi Jean-philippe,

Eureka it works. A classic example of me not seeing the wood for the trees!

Thank you so much  for your help, and the production of this fine add on.

Kind regards

Derek

Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Mon, 8 Feb 2016 08:09
You're welcome Derek.
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Fri, 12 Feb 2016 09:30
Hello,

PSXAloft v.2.1.1 is available. Please note this new version is compiled with VS2015, so you need to install Visual C++ 2015 redistributable package, if it is not already installed on your computer. Standalone installers for both x86 and x64 systems are included within the PSXAloft 2.1.1 package.

In this new version I implemented an hardware printer output feature. Please have a look at the new PSXAloft manual provided for further details.

In a far :) future, when my ground handling add-on will be finished, I'll integrate everything in a new add-on called PSXTools. Every feature (WX, ground handling, pushback, printer, cabin simulation,...) will be integrated in a single add-on and fully selectable.

Edit : Version 2.1.2 uploaded. Option added to insert empty feed lines at the end of the paper sheet. See manual for further details.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Fri, 12 Feb 2016 12:45
JP-

Ta!  Appreciate the pointer from the other thread, I had no idea.  I will upgrade PSXAloft today.  I love the idea of an integrated suite, that is a great idea!

Question- I run PSX server on one computer, PSXAloft on another (with 1 PSX client), whilst the printer is hooked up to an an abacus (actually an OLD Pentium 4 box on XP) that just runs the center forward panel (another PSX client) and the printer.  It is an old parallel interface, and that is the only machine with a parallel port.

If I SHARE that printer across the network, will PSXAloft "see" and use it?

EDIT- ok, I see that PSXAloft will only print to the DEFAULT printer on that particular machine... so I believe currently I would have to install PSXAloft on the abacus (which ought to be ok, as it isn't particularly demanding of the CPU).  I cannot make the shared printer DEFAULT on that machine, as I use it for other purposes as well....  ta!

Thanks for your continued work on this ecosystem- I wish I were smarter and could contribute, but know I am most grateful for this communities efforts.

Best- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Fri, 12 Feb 2016 14:54
JP-

re. v2.1.2

I cannot find the config.cfg file you mention in the manual re. printing.  The printer kept printing multiple pages, despite the default OFF.....?

There is a config.ini file as usual, however, there is NO printer line to look at....

Any thoughts?  I had to roll back to v2.1 as it kept printing multiple pages at every ACARS/BACARS message.

Thank-you,

C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Fri, 12 Feb 2016 17:21
Quote from: cavaricooper on Fri, 12 Feb 2016 14:54
JP-

re. v2.1.2

I cannot find the config.cfg file you mention in the manual re. printing.  The printer kept printing multiple pages, despite the default OFF.....?

There is a config.ini file as usual, however, there is NO printer line to look at....

Hello,

It is config.ini, my mistake. I modified the manual

I am confused. There is a new PRINTER line in the new config.ini file provided. Did you erase the whole last PSXAloft folder and copy the whole new PSXAloft folder on your computer ?

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Fri, 12 Feb 2016 17:46
Quote from: cavaricooper on Fri, 12 Feb 2016 14:54
Any thoughts?  I had to roll back to v2.1 as it kept printing multiple pages at every ACARS/BACARS message.

To all : please re-download PSXAloft package if you did it before today 1746Z. There was something wrong with the config.ini file which was producing multi pages printing. I'm sorry.

@Carl : Thank you for your report.


Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Sat, 13 Feb 2016 02:38
JP-

I will get the new installer in the am- Ta! Absolutely NO apologies needed- we are lucky to have such talent shared!

With your last build v2.1 I have been very happy with winds at FLs.  I look forward to this one.

Will there eventually be ability to use the NON default printer?

Best- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sat, 13 Feb 2016 07:09
Hello Carl,

Thanks for your kind words. There is no change from version 2.1 regarding WX. Only new printer output feature added. I think you should try with your networked printer. If it is shared and defined as the default printer on the PSXAloft computer, it may work. I am not 100% sure so if you could give it a try and report please.

I do not plan to supply the usage of a non default printer.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: bublegom on Sat, 13 Feb 2016 11:32
Hi Jean-Philippe

I try with my default network printer and it works fine.
Thank you

François
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sat, 13 Feb 2016 11:59
Quote from: bublegom on Sat, 13 Feb 2016 11:32
Hi Jean-Philippe

I try with my default network printer and it works fine.
Thank you

François

Great ! Merci François for your feedback.

Edit : A little trick. I use a notepad file called "printerSheet.txt" to "buffer" the data before sending to the printer. This file will be created at the first printer output from PSXAloft and is placed in the main PSXAloft folder. To avoid printing default notepad file header and page bottom, just open the file in notepad, then go to file - page layout and cancel header and bottom text. You only need to do this trick once. Notepad will remind your settings.
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Tue, 23 Feb 2016 05:13
Hello,

PSXAloft v.2.1.3 is available on my website : http://www.eolesimulation.com (http://www.eolesimulation.com)

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Tue, 23 Feb 2016 11:54
JP-

So far I've been very happy with v2.1.2... Off to grab v2.1.3... Many thanks for your continued dedication to this important facet of long-haul simulation.

C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hessel Oosten on Tue, 23 Feb 2016 13:03
Jean-Philippe,

Simple question please.
I add PRINTER=1 to the config.ini.

But... printing doesn't work to the default printer.

When looking for the cause of this problem I see:

After closing PSXAloft (2.1.3) in the config.ini, every time the added sentence: PRINTER=1 is removed ?

Hessel
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Tue, 23 Feb 2016 14:18
Hi Hessel,

The config.ini file is very sensible to newline characters, as I use these newlines in getline() function in order to retrieve the data. Be carefull to only delete the character(s) after the '=' and do not delete newlines invisible characters.

Please download again PSXAloft package and replace your config.ini file with the new downloaded one. It should work (tested on my system OK). Report if you still have problem.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hessel Oosten on Tue, 23 Feb 2016 15:44
Hi Jean-philippe,

Yes, Yes !

It immediately functions now after this new download.

Thanks a lot, again !

Hessel
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: J D ADAM on Mon, 29 Feb 2016 20:44
Hi Jean -Phillipe,

Would you clarify for me that the wind vectors I obtain from ASN/PFPX  are automatically transferred to PSX.
I know that there can be a 5% randomness but my results are greater than this. I do have PSX weather untagged.

Thank you in anticipation
and kind regards

Derek
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Tue, 1 Mar 2016 00:11
Derek-

I have found 'tis best to use PSX Flight Path METARS, live PSX Wx.  PSXAloft only functions above FL200..... leaving PSX to rely on it's own METAR based Wx for lower levels- works brilliantly this way.  PSXAloft will read and send the Wx from the current active wx file (on my iPad so off the top of my head it lives at C:\users\name\appdata\roaming\hifi\asnp3d\weather\activewxfile). 

Then if VisualPSX is ticked, it will send PSX Wx to P3d as well.... in "close" approximation.  It all comes together incredibly well- I am often immensely satisfied by seeing ASN winds at my level reflected within a very few degrees/kts on my ND whilst the outside view approximately depicts the Wx as well.

HTH

Best- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Tue, 1 Mar 2016 10:30
Quote from: Derek Adam on Mon, 29 Feb 2016 20:44
Hi Jean -Phillipe,

Would you clarify for me that the wind vectors I obtain from ASN/PFPX  are automatically transferred to PSX.

Yes. Above 20000ft.

Quote
I know that there can be a 5% randomness but my results are greater than this. I do have PSX weather untagged.

Sometimes ASN predictions are different with real WX you can see during the flight. It can also happen in the real world. PSXAloft simply injects live or ASN flight plan file WX in PSX, that's all.

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: J D ADAM on Thu, 3 Mar 2016 22:45
Hi JP and C for your replies

Quote:-
Sometimes ASN predictions are different with real WX you can see during the flight. It can also happen in the real world. PSXAloft simply injects live or ASN flight plan file WX in PSX, that's all.


I have prepared a flight plan for UUEE/LFPG.

I will quote the results I am getting for one waypoint        TU       at FL380

from active flight planner     064@4     084@2      225@2     215@6     248@9   

from flight plan (PSPX)                                                218/043

from flight plan ASN command centre                         204/8

from downloaded Route Data on FMC (PSX)               220/25  (Fl390)

Actual weather as displayed on the ND                         212/16

So you see i am getting some acceptable variations but like JP I like accuracy in my flight planning, even though my flying may be of questionable quality!


I do not have PSX weather ticked and have PSPX ticked to get the weather from Active Sky

Somewhere along the way I am doing something wrong but cannot think what!

Be assured I am grateful to all the addons programmers.

Thank you for all the contributions.

Regards,
Derek
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Fri, 4 Mar 2016 10:00
I also often get these differences, which are very acceptable. PSXAloft do not modify ASN WX data at all, only straight injection from ASN/FSX/P3D to PSX. So these differences comes from ASN, not from PSXAloft.

In my opinion, it is a good thing. I also like accuracy, but it will be boring and unrealistic to have exactly the same value on the flight plan and on the ND during all the flight.

Don't forget aloft data on your PFPX flight plan is a forecast, which can be made some hours before you overfly the waypoint in question. Like in the real world, sometimes forecast can be wrong, or slightly different.

Just a trick, be careful to always start PFPX after ASN has started and downloaded the last WX snapshot, in order to build your flight plan with the latest data.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: G-CIVA on Fri, 4 Mar 2016 13:13
Derek,

There is another way to 'do this' - I was initially a sceptic about using this programme as I do not like locking in a fixed set of wind data that is set to one single set of downloaded data from ActiveSky.

As you will see I use PSXAloft in conjunction with PFPX & ActiveSky in a simpler way, there is a more realistic 'connection & interface' between the three of them & the result - although requiring more work on my part this 'connection & interface' is probably more realistic...

It is simpler but I suspect we have all been 'spoilt' by the technology that now enables WIND UPLINK into the FMS.

Plan your flight with PFPX using the real world WX data source; it will be able to forecast with great accuracy what the upper winds will be doing up to 18 - 20 hours later.

Depending on your flightplan format PFPX will produce a Waypoint Wind Data Block; this can be used to manually enter the CRZ winds where applicable into the FMS during the pre flight process.  Remember that in the days before all of the data connectivity this was the 744 crews bread & butter, at times not all of the data was entered prior to take off, sometimes not all of the flightplan was entered even.

But they had a good flightplan, & they had a good fuel figure, the rest they sorted out once settled in the cruise.

Run ActiveSky in real time mode (download interval set to 5 minutes) in conjunction with PSXAloft in dynamic mode.

That is it.

ActiveSky will happily run & will do a surprisingly good job of recreating what PFPX predicts at the CRZ levels - even 12 hours later (something like 144 WX downloads later - remember ASN creates instantaneous weather PFPX predicts forecast weather).  You would have to keep recreating ASN flightplan files to get anywhere near the accuracy I am getting.

PSXAloft does a fantastic job of then 'pushing this data' into PSX.  Thanks JP!

That said the accuracy is within 5-10% all the time with the odd anomaly very occasionally.

I don't spend an hour at the gate slavishly entering CRZ Wind/Temp entries for every WPT & FL before the push either!  Just enough to get the flight moving, after passing F100 it normally takes less than 10-20 mins & its done & dusted ... PFPX will also give DES FORECAST WINDs that are pretty close too.

The key here is that both PFPX & ActiveSky are using their real world sources for their data & that nothing is 'fixed' so to speak. 

Best
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Britjet on Fri, 4 Mar 2016 14:17
I like the look of this method. I was never a great fan of wind uplinks..it may have been our system at fault but I often found it didn't populate the FMC columns very well, often ignoring columns where it felt that the aircraft shouldn't be eg too high or low.
One thing we had as a "culture" (and I have no idea why it worked, but it did), was to just input the initial cruise altitude (eg FL330) and no other, and then just insert the winds into that line from the THIRD wind column on our flight plan, regardless of what level it quoted.
Then we would climb as suggested on the plan, or as on the FMC if that looked better. It was always important to input the top of descent wind accurately.
It always worked extremely well, the fuel would typically change by no more than a tonne all flight. Someone with a much larger brain than I explained it to me once but had to go and lie down in a darkened room halfway through the explanation!
Of course this may have been something to do with the BA forecast system and how Honeywell programmed the FMC winds - I don't know..
Just for interest :-)

Peter
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Britjet on Fri, 4 Mar 2016 14:25
You don't need to put all the winds in, just where they change significantly. It is also important to put in OAT at a level as you go along, as it can have a significant effect on Mach No and hence fuel...
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: G-CIVA on Fri, 4 Mar 2016 14:45
Quote from: Britjet on Fri,  4 Mar 2016 14:25
You don't need to put all the winds in, just where they change significantly. It is also important to put in OAT at a level as you go along, as it can have a significant effect on Mach No and hence fuel...

Peter,

Thanks for your comments ... I probably did not emphasize this point nearly as much as I should have - I don't spend hours slavishly entering four wind entries per waypoint on the flightplan! ... as a rule of thumb for me I enter data where it changes by a factor of circa +/-10 degrees/+/-10 knots, or by a factor of +/-3 degrees Celcius.

Cheers Steve
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: J D ADAM on Fri, 4 Mar 2016 20:31
Thank you yet again for your help.

Regards
Derek
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: evaamo on Sat, 5 Mar 2016 20:39
Thank you Steve and Peter for the insightful replies!
I will certainly try your methods later today.

I had the idea ASN was able to forecast Winds Aloft when used together with PFPX, not just current-conditions snapshots. On the other hand, unless you use VisualPSX, I find a 5-minute frequency setting in ASN for downloading new wx data as overkill, since Winds Aloft information is only refreshed every 6 hours by the weather sources ASN uses.   

cheers!
-E
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: G-CIVA on Sat, 5 Mar 2016 21:00
Quote from: evaamo on Sat,  5 Mar 2016 20:39
I had the idea ASN was able to forecast Winds Aloft when used together with PFPX, not just current-conditions snapshots. On the other hand, unless you use VisualPSX, I find a 5-minute frequency setting in ASN for downloading new wx data as overkill, since Winds Aloft information is only refreshed every 6 hours by the weather sources ASN uses.

This is where the confusion begins ... ASN is a real world weather simulator or to put it another way it is a world weather generator.  It is just doing that.  It is not forecasting anything.

Allowing ASN to download at the most frequent interval gives your scenery generator the most realistic WX picture i.e. the visual simulation you are looking for, plus the closest upper wind picture above F200, for PSX to use.  This 'blended' weather picture is fed into PSX by PSXAloft II giving us a constantly updated simulation of what is happening anywhere on the planet in realtime.

PFPX actually downloads the real world WX information much more regularly than every 6 hours - to take into account the changing situation nearer ground level.

It is true that the upper wind data it uses is only updated every 6 hours.

I often think people overthink this relationship too much.  With a little bit of finger typing before you depart with PFPX you can have a really accurate fuel figure at the gate, a few more entries in in the FMS before the push & Bobs your uncle you might surprise yourself with a decent result at the other end.
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: evaamo on Sat, 5 Mar 2016 22:14
Hi Steve, after reading this thread (http://www.avsim.com/topic/442471-asn-and-pfpx-winds-aloft/?p=3017879) it seems you're mostly correct: ASN does not export forecasted Winds Aloft information to flight planners such as PFPX, but it does, however, export forecasted Winds to add-ons such as PMDG's 777 and internally to its own Flight Plan Briefing. This is confirmed by one of the ASN developers in that thread.

This last part is interesting, because I usually compare the values ASN shows in it's user interface ("briefing") to what is included in the PFPX-generated flight plan (using ASN as Weather source), and there are usually discrepancies. Now I know why!.

So I guess the workflow you mentioned above is the best solution, use PFPX server subscription for weather and then PSXAloft in dynamic mode to obtain better results.

I'm a PSXAloft "static mode" user myself, mostly due to the fact that I use PSX as a standalone sim when I travel, I wonder if it's possible for JP to add functionality to his awesome program that would refresh (read the activeflightplan file) every 15-30 minutes or so to keep the Winds up-to-date.

Cheers
-E

Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: G-CIVA on Sat, 5 Mar 2016 23:19
The solution in your case is to 'refresh' this weather picture regularly, I suspect this will need to be carried out manually by the user, as it will involve the creation & export of files from one system to another.

What we really need is the ability to create a wind uplink file DIRECTLY from PFPX ... that we can then directly exprt to PFPX just like we do for our flight plans ...that is the nirvana, in my opinion.

PFPX is already able to create such wx files for simulations like the PMDG 777, I guess its just a matter of getting the PSX format correct so that it can be created in an 'exportable format' by PFPX.

Doug Snow can you hear us?  8)
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sun, 6 Mar 2016 07:59
Hi Guys,

Very interesting informations.

Quote from: evaamo on Sat,  5 Mar 2016 22:14
I'm a PSXAloft "static mode" user myself, mostly due to the fact that I use PSX as a standalone sim when I travel, I wonder if it's possible for JP to add functionality to his awesome program that would refresh (read the activeflightplan file) every 15-30 minutes or so to keep the Winds up-to-date.

In static mode, the acitveflightplan file is read overhead every overflew WPT, so if a new file has been generated by ASN, PSXAloft takes data from this new file.

Quote from: G-CIVA on Sat,  5 Mar 2016 23:19
PFPX is already able to create such wx files for simulations like the PMDG 777, I guess its just a matter of getting the PSX format correct so that it can be created in an 'exportable format' by PFPX.

That's a good idea ! I'll have a look at the .wx file generated for the PMDG 777 and see if I can use this file to feed PSX FMC via PSXAloft.

Edit : After a quick look at the .wx file generated, it looks like easy to inject data from this file in PSX FMC using PSXAloft. The user will have to export the route to a "dummy" PMDG folder (like My Documents\PMDG WX) with PFPX, and then point this file using a browse option in PSXAloft. I could make it available in the next update. What do you think ?

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: G-CIVA on Sun, 6 Mar 2016 09:02
Quote from: JP744 on Sun,  6 Mar 2016 07:59That's a good idea ! I'll have a look at the .wx file generated for the PMDG 777 and see if I can use this file to feed PSX FMC via PSXAloft.

If you can find a way to achieve this; or speak to Christian the developer of PFPX & collaborate to enable PFPX to create the type of WX file PSX needs for the WX uplink you will have 'cracked it'!

Best

Steve
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sun, 6 Mar 2016 10:38
I don't think it will be necessary to ask for a specific PSX file, because all the data is already available in the PMDG 777 file. PSXAloft can cast these data to PSX format.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Sun, 6 Mar 2016 13:55
JP-

That will indeed be the icing on the cake!  The issue with the 777 file is that some may not have that a/c (I suppose a fictitious folder could be created for PFPX output... however...) Christian is very cooperative with developers, and Hardy already has a working relationship with him.  He and Judith were on vacation, however, they ought to be back now (or else very soon).

Eagerly awaiting your next release!

Best- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Mon, 7 Mar 2016 00:17
Hi Carl,

I don't have the PMDG 777 myself but I exported the file in a "dummy" folder. It took me 30 seconds...

I'll start working on the new update ASAP.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Michael Benson on Mon, 7 Mar 2016 11:21
Hi Jean-philippe,

I don't want to step on your toes, but as part of PSXNet we've already written something that reads the PFPX 777 wind output and injects it into the PSX Wind Page.  I think Mark was hoping to release the initial version at some point this week.

By all means go ahead and do your own version, I just wanted to give you the option to save you some work!
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: CarlBB on Mon, 7 Mar 2016 12:24
Quote from: JP744 on Mon,  7 Mar 2016 00:17
Hi Carl,

I don't have the PMDG 777 myself but I exported the file in a "dummy" folder. It took me 30 seconds...

I'll start working on the new update ASAP.

Cheers,

If I understood correctly, this sounds amazing!

Thanks and good luck with next update  :)

Carl

Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Mon, 7 Mar 2016 12:40
Quote from: Triple7 on Mon,  7 Mar 2016 11:21
Hi Jean-philippe,

I don't want to step on your toes, but as part of PSXNet we've already written something that reads the PFPX 777 wind output and injects it into the PSX Wind Page.  I think Mark was hoping to release the initial version at some point this week.

By all means go ahead and do your own version, I just wanted to give you the option to save you some work!

No problem. I had the same idea of an integrated suite : PSXTools. I'm working on it since a couple of months. We really should work together :) :)

Good luck for the release. Your add on looks like great. Congrats ;)
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Gary Oliver on Tue, 8 Mar 2016 01:48
Jp,

The last time the French and British collaborated they created Concorde... Is that something we can live up to?

Thanks
Gary
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Thu, 10 Mar 2016 10:08
Quote from: Gary Oliver on Tue,  8 Mar 2016 01:48
The last time the French and British collaborated they created Concorde... Is that something we can live up to?

That's true Gary. Don't forget the  channel tunel. Very nice examples of what our two countries can do together...

With friendly regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JRBarrett on Mon, 21 Mar 2016 13:49
I just tried the latest version of PSX Aloft while linked to P3D 3.2 via Visual PSX, and using the latest version 5919 of ASN. It worked very well indeed! I ran it in dynamic mode, and my enroute winds and temps were a very close match to the forecast generated by PFPX.

Although I used dynamic mode, I did load my PFPX flight plan into ASN, and pointed PSX Aloft to the ASN activeweather file. Doing this permitted using the FMS wind uplink feature, which also worked perfectly. I have ASN set to download new weather at 15 minute intervals, and the activeweather file was updated with each new download.

The one thing that did not seem to work was attempting an import of descent winds in the FMS. If I requested a descent winds uplink, the "send" and "receive" functions worked OK - and after a few moments, I saw a message that the uplink was ready to load, but the fields on the descent page never populated after pressing "load".

Am I missing something, or is this feature not supported? It occurred to me later that I may have to specify altitudes on the left side of the descent forecast page before requesting a forecast uplink, but I am away from my computer (and PSX manual) today, so cannot verify. I do realize that although the ASN activeweather file contains current winds for multiple levels, that PSX Aloft only injects winds and temps at or above FL200, with the default PSX weather taking over at lower altitudes.

(I did checkmark the TOC and TOD boxes in the ASN flight plan import page).
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Mon, 21 Mar 2016 13:53
Hi-

Silly question.... but did you first select the activeflightplanwx.txt (user/appdata/roaming/Hifi/ASNP3D/Weather) from ASN?

C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JRBarrett on Mon, 21 Mar 2016 14:17
Quote from: cavaricooper on Mon, 21 Mar 2016 13:53
Hi-

Silly question.... but did you first select the activeflightplanwx.txt (user/appdata/roaming/Hifi/ASNP3D/Weather) from ASN?

C

Yes I did, right after starting PSX Aloft. As I said, the uplink of enroute winds on the FMS LEGS page worked just fine, and the actual winds I encountered at cruise were spot on with the uploaded forecast.

The more I think about it, the more I believe I would have to enter specific altitudes on the descent forecast page, before requesting an uplink. After all, there are no "standard" set of altitudes to enter on this page - if the pilot were entering the descent forecast manually, it would be their choice as to which altitudes below cruise to specify. I usually pick 25,000, 16,000 12,000 and 6000 - but may change that up if the forecast shows a significant wind shift at other levels.

Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Mon, 21 Mar 2016 17:07
JR-

I'm stumped- Do you get the forecast winds WITHOUT PSXAloft running?  It would seem something else is at work, as PSXAloft only supplies the data above FL200....  I do not have to enter ALTS to get the forecast winds....

I'm sure HH or JP will have you sorted in no time....

Best- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JRBarrett on Mon, 21 Mar 2016 18:04
Quote from: cavaricooper on Mon, 21 Mar 2016 17:07
JR-

I'm stumped- Do you get the forecast winds WITHOUT PSXAloft running?  It would seem something else is at work, as PSXAloft only supplies the data above FL200....  I do not have to enter ALTS to get the forecast winds....

I'm sure HH or JP will have you sorted in no time....

Best- C

The only forecast that will not upload are the descent forecast winds on the VNAV DES page. Enroute winds on the RTE DATA side of the LEGS page works fine.
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Wed, 23 Mar 2016 00:38
Hi JR,

There is no need to pre-fill the ALTS in the DES forecast page. PSXAloft should fill the whole data for you.

- What were your FMC destination airport ? It MUST be the same as the one in your activeflightplanwx.txt file
- Please send me your activeflightplanwx.txt file


Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: tango4 on Mon, 11 Apr 2016 09:21
Hi Jean Philippe !
Sorry to be back from nowhere but I did not use PSX for complete flights recently for lack of time , but I'm trying to get back to it a bit, although I only fly short haul.
It seems though that I have the same problem as JRBarrett here regarding descent forecast winds not coming.
I'm using your program in static mode (as I'm not using P3D with PSX for different reasons).

My test flight is LFPG EGLL.
I checked that destination was correct in activeflightplanwx.txt, and I have TOC/TOD added by activesky.
First I had a cruise FL of 240, and reading your manual again, I saw that it always injects wind at TOD using FL300. So I changed that to cruise at 340 in the FMC and in activesky just to be sure, but still no success.

If you have some time to look into it, tell me and I can email you the files if you wish.

Anyway, thanks again for your fantastic program.

Charles

Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Tue, 12 Apr 2016 22:55
JP-

Just wanted to see if you can share any more information re. your latest project re. waypoint winds?  I did email Christian and ask for a separate PSX Wx folder selection for output options in the next PFPX build.

Appreciate anything you can share...

Ta!

C

Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sat, 23 Apr 2016 09:32
Hello,

I am working on a new PSXTools suite which will integrate PSXAloft with ground handling, cabin simulation,...

I is a very long time project and I can't give you any information about the release. I currently work hard on my hardware simulator and have to leave C++ in the backside for some time.

re-descend forecast problems, I can't reproduce the problem. You can send me files and I'll have a look.

Cheers
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: tango4 on Sat, 23 Apr 2016 12:40
Thanks for your answer JP !
Don't sweat it, this descent forecast issue is no big deal. I think it's a better idea for you to focus on PSXTools !

And good luck with your hardware work too; to be honest, I was really impressed by what I saw in your video, so I know what you are capable of...

All the best !

Charles
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: andrej on Sun, 17 Jul 2016 19:13
Hello Jean-philippe,

I would like to ask, if PSXAloft will work with newly released Active Sky 16? If not, is there any chance for an update in the future?

Thanks!
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: andrej on Fri, 22 Jul 2016 12:12
I went ahead and upgraded to AS16 and the good news is that PSXAloftII works flawlessly! I can only recommend for anyone to upgrade ASN to AS16 and Active Sky Cloud Art (it is little pricey, but well worth it).

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: joergalv on Sat, 23 Jul 2016 11:09
Thanks Andrej for letting us know. Good to know it is working. I will give AS16 a try.

Cheers
Joerg
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Wed, 27 Jul 2016 17:24
Hello guys,

I am glad to see PSXAloft continues to work and satisfy a lot of users, despite the end of its development. I don't have the time I wish now, but I'll for sure come back to PSX add-ons development ASAP.

Cheers to all !
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Markus Vitzethum on Fri, 12 Aug 2016 16:10
Hi Jean-Philippe,

I, too, have switched to Active Sky 2016 and at the same started using PSXAloft. Thanks a lot for a great tool.

But, also from my side, a silly question.

Right now, while I am typing this, I am cruising at FL350 at S50° E151° on flight from YSSY to SCEL. At that position, the magnetic variation is about 30° and I notice that active sky reports the upper wind vector as 211°True/77 kts (for FL340).
In P3D, the wind vector is given as 184° magnetic /77 kts, that's about correct.

Yet, in PSX I get the same wind data as 212° magnetic / 75 kts. When I move the heading reference switch to TRUE, I get a wind vector of 243° true / 74 kts.

So, it looks like I get the TRUE wind direction from P3D as a magnetic direction in PSX. I would appreciate if you can have a look into this.

PSXAloft is version 2.1.3 and I simply press the CONNECT button, nothing else.

Thanks a lot and best regards,
  Markus

Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: hunijjang on Thu, 1 Sep 2016 11:28
Hello All  :)

I have a question, about PSXAloft settings and runnings.

For the settings :

In the PSX...

Preferences

: Checked the box - Allow METAR files download from Internet

Situation > Weahter > Planet or In the focuse ICAO code of airport.

: Checked the box - Set zones by flight track and downloaded METARs(Internet is on)

In the AS16 for P3D...

Options > Selected to REALISM mode and Also Download interval change from 15 to 5mins

open the Simconnet.xml, I was to overwrite it contents from these files and changed to my IP address.

Also completed, edits to Simconnet.cfg for my IP address.

For the runnings :

1. Start to AS16 and P3D(Not join to fly mode, so just opened)

2. Start to PSX and PSXAloft and verify for PSX connetion status and SimConnect connetion status both on green(Connected)

3. makes to .txt files use to P3D flight planner or such as PFPX? and Import to the PSXAloft?

4. If I don't want use to about Turbulence generation for randoms, so Just be ignored for that(Config Turb)?

It is all setup for use to PSXAloft with PSX? and Setup to correctly?

Thanks

edited : Where is the tick the box "Add TOC and TOD to the flight plan" option in the AS16? there are only on the ASN options?

Best Regards,

Younghoon
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Fri, 2 Sep 2016 17:38
Younghoon-

That is what I have done and it works.  The only issue at the present is that FORECAST winds do not populate in the VNAV DES page.  For that I have to close PSXAloft and then once I SEND I can pull descent winds.  If it is a short sector I just get them before starting PSXAloft.  If a long-haul then I grab them before descent (there can be some interesting variation in winds aloft when stopping and starting PSXAloft above FL200).

HTH- C

PS- PSX Weather does not have the issue of preventing FORECAST wind population.  Flying with that ATM.
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: hunijjang on Sat, 3 Sep 2016 02:18
Quote from: cavaricooper on Fri,  2 Sep 2016 17:38
Younghoon-

That is what I have done and it works.  The only issue at the present is that FORECAST winds do not populate in the VNAV DES page.  For that I have to close PSXAloft and then once I SEND I can pull descent winds.  If it is a short sector I just get them before starting PSXAloft.  If a long-haul then I grab them before descent (there can be some interesting variation in winds aloft when stopping and starting PSXAloft above FL200).

HTH- C

PS- PSX Weather does not have the issue of preventing FORECAST wind population.  Flying with that ATM.

Hello

Thanks for your answer.

so, that is correctly to working way.  :)

"PSX Weather does not have the issue of preventing FORECAST wind population." is means, I don't need to the PSXAloft for necessary? and PSX is realized for upper winds and lower winds from the NOAA metars?

Also ATM is means abbreviation of atmosphere?

Best Regards,

Younghoon
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Sat, 3 Sep 2016 16:42
Younghoon-

PSX Wx allows descent forecast winds to populate on the FORECAST page... for some reason PSXAloft seems to interfere with that.

ATM is meant to represent "at the moment"... I was saying that at the moment I am using PSX Wx more than PSXAloft- but both have their merits.

HTH- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sun, 4 Sep 2016 12:14
Quote from: Markus Vitzethum on Fri, 12 Aug 2016 16:10
Right now, while I am typing this, I am cruising at FL350 at S50° E151° on flight from YSSY to SCEL. At that position, the magnetic variation is about 30° and I notice that active sky reports the upper wind vector as 211°True/77 kts (for FL340).
In P3D, the wind vector is given as 184° magnetic /77 kts, that's about correct.

Yet, in PSX I get the same wind data as 212° magnetic / 75 kts. When I move the heading reference switch to TRUE, I get a wind vector of 243° true / 74 kts.

So, it looks like I get the TRUE wind direction from P3D as a magnetic direction in PSX. I would appreciate if you can have a look into this.

Hello,

P3D send magnetic wind and PSX uses true wind (or reverse I do not remember). PSXAloft takes magnetic declination from PSX and applies that declination to P3D received wind before injecting the corrected wind within PSX. I see in your report AS gives 211@77 and in PSX ND you can see 212@75. That's fine no ?

About the descent forecast winds, I'll have a look at this, but I'm too busy with my hardware at the moment.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: GodAtum on Sun, 4 Sep 2016 22:42
Quote from: cavaricooper on Sat,  3 Sep 2016 16:42
Younghoon-

PSX Wx allows descent forecast winds to populate on the FORECAST page... for some reason PSXAloft seems to interfere with that.

ATM is meant to represent "at the moment"... I was saying that at the moment I am using PSX Wx more than PSXAloft- but both have their merits.

HTH- C

is that why when running PSXAloft, the winds fail to populate on that page? i was wondering why that was happeneing!
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Markus Vitzethum on Wed, 7 Sep 2016 12:25
Hello Jean-Philippe,

thanks for your reply.

> P3D send magnetic wind and PSX uses true wind (or reverse I do not remember). PSXAloft takes magnetic
> declination from PSX and applies that declination to P3D received wind before injecting the corrected wind within  > PSX. I see in your report AS gives 211@77 and in PSX ND you can see 212@75. That's fine no ?

let have a look at it again. I compared the following


Active Sky: 211° true     / 77 knots
PSX:        212° magnetic / 75 knots

or (same data)

Active Sky: 211° true / 77 knots
PSX:        243° true / 74 knots

or

Prepar3D: 184° magnetic / 77 knots
PSX:      212° magnetic / 75 knots


In all 3 cases I compare the same data (just 3 different software programs) at the same time. But in all 3 cases, I have a difference of about 30° between the wind direction in P3D and the wind direction in PSX.

During that flight I noted that the magnetic variation is also about 30°, so my conclusion was (and is) that I have an "offset" from the Active Sky wind direction in PSX which is about the size of the magnetic variation.

I can propose the following: I take more data from different location on the planet, preferably from locations with a large magnetic variation. What do you think?

This way we can check if this is systematic effect.

Best regards,
  Markus


Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Sat, 1 Oct 2016 21:15
JP-

With my most recent update to P3D v3.4 I am happy to report that waypoint winds aloft still popluate with PSXAloft II.  Any news on further progress re. FORECAST winds?

Ta!

C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: jos d. on Tue, 14 Mar 2017 15:01
Hi,
The download link is not working for me. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Thank you.
Jos
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: asboyd on Tue, 14 Mar 2017 20:55
Looks like JP's web site is down...
Maybe someone can provide a new link...

Alex B
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: jos d. on Wed, 15 Mar 2017 21:42
The server stays down. I wonder if someone using Dropbox could provide the files?

Jos.
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: andrej on Thu, 16 Mar 2017 04:55
Hey guys,

try this link. It should be link to v2.1.3. Hope it works, if not I will fix it later this evening (its early morning here :) ).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mc5230fhf7ktvwv/PSXAloft%20v.2.1.3.zip?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/mc5230fhf7ktvwv/PSXAloft%20v.2.1.3.zip?dl=0)

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: asboyd on Thu, 16 Mar 2017 08:03
Dropbox link works..
Thank you.

AB
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: jos d. on Thu, 16 Mar 2017 09:25
Thank you, Andrej. The link worked perfectly.

Jos
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Mon, 27 Mar 2017 10:13
Hello everybody,

I've just updated the link on the first page. Thanks to andrej for providing the "backup".

Best regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: asboyd on Mon, 27 Mar 2017 20:16
I now get a server message telling me I am not authorised to download from your link...

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: joergalv on Tue, 28 Mar 2017 11:02
Quote from: asboyd on Mon, 27 Mar 2017 20:16
I now get a server message telling me I am not authorised to download from your link...

Cheers,

Link is working just fine over here. Do you have cookies disabled by default? That might block the DL
Cookies need to be allowed (if only only for this session) for https://www.dropbox.com

Cheers,
Jörg
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: asboyd on Tue, 28 Mar 2017 20:27
It looks like the problem is with IDM... Internet Download Manager...
I am a member of Dropbox and use IDM for all my other Dropbox files, however the post 1 link seems to cause IDM to be seen as unauthorised. When I disabled IDM the download works.

Cheers,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Mon, 5 Jun 2017 17:54
Hello,

Did somebody try PSXAloft with P3D v4 ? I wonder if it is compatible. I don't have v4 yet so if somebody could report it would be very kind.

Kind regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: joergalv on Mon, 5 Jun 2017 18:19
Affirmative. P3Dv4 + ASP4 Beta + PSXAloft II  is working out of the box!
Didn't test the use of flightplans yet, but a simple 'Connect' gives AS based winds aloft >20.000ft in PSX as expected.

ASP4 = Active Sky for P3Dv4

Joerg
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Tue, 6 Jun 2017 00:26
Excellent news! Anyone hear from JP lately?

C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Tue, 6 Jun 2017 03:54
Quote from: joergalv on Mon,  5 Jun 2017 18:19
Affirmative. P3Dv4 + ASP4 Beta + PSXAloft II  is working out of the box!
Didn't test the use of flightplans yet, but a simple 'Connect' gives AS based winds aloft >20.000ft in PSX as expected

That's good news. Thank you.
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Mon, 12 Jun 2017 16:16
JP-

How great to see you active here! Any word on the Descent Forecast Winds working with ExternalSim active?

Best- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Mon, 12 Jun 2017 17:12
Hello Carl,

I'm back after one year away from my simulator (home change and its induced work, work, work)  :D

My hardware sim was de-packed and I started re-wiring everything. I also had a (quick) look at PSXAloft. I also have descent forecast page not loading. I don't know why. It worked during testing, and now it doesn't. Maybe not something very important (I hope). I will have a look ASAP.

I'm glad to see some people still use and apreciate PSXAloft. I still want to implement the integration within PSXTools, and then add some new "modules" like ground, cabin simulation,... easier to say...  :D

Everything is in my head, and on some paper. Just need to find time (and energy) for coding. As a C++ beginer, it takes me very long time. But I'm convinced immersive simulation also needs some "extra" like "outside world"/"backstage" simulation. This will be the aim of PSXTools.

Kind regards
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Mon, 12 Jun 2017 18:35
JP-

It does a bang up job of winds aloft, so whatever you can do will be appreciated. Good to have you back in the PSX pond :)

C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sat, 17 Jun 2017 11:36
Hi,

I quote this old comment of Markus and will comment below :

Quote from: Markus Vitzethum on Wed,  7 Sep 2016 12:25
Hello Jean-Philippe,

thanks for your reply.

> P3D send magnetic wind and PSX uses true wind (or reverse I do not remember). PSXAloft takes magnetic
> declination from PSX and applies that declination to P3D received wind before injecting the corrected wind within  > PSX. I see in your report AS gives 211@77 and in PSX ND you can see 212@75. That's fine no ?

let have a look at it again. I compared the following


Active Sky: 211° true     / 77 knots
PSX:        212° magnetic / 75 knots

or (same data)

Active Sky: 211° true / 77 knots
PSX:        243° true / 74 knots

or

Prepar3D: 184° magnetic / 77 knots
PSX:      212° magnetic / 75 knots


In all 3 cases I compare the same data (just 3 different software programs) at the same time. But in all 3 cases, I have a difference of about 30° between the wind direction in P3D and the wind direction in PSX.

During that flight I noted that the magnetic variation is also about 30°, so my conclusion was (and is) that I have an "offset" from the Active Sky wind direction in PSX which is about the size of the magnetic variation.

I can propose the following: I take more data from different location on the planet, preferably from locations with a large magnetic variation. What do you think?

This way we can check if this is systematic effect.

Best regards,
  Markus

I was working at the next update of PSXAloft. Descent data link bug is resoved. PSXAloft v.2.2 is released with this correction. Markus, I also worked at your comments (see the above quote). Thank you for pointing this. I investigated and I think I found my mistake. I was assuming SimConnect sent magnetic wind to PSXAloft, but it sends true wind. As we must inject true wind to PSX, I don't need to apply magnetic declination to FSX/P3D winds before to inject data to PSX.

So to summarize :

- Active Sky displays TRUE wind within current conditions window
- FSX/P3D displays MAGNETIC wind when pressing Shift + Z (upper left screen corner), BUT sends TRUE wind through SimConnect
- PSX needs TRUE wind injections from add-ons
- PSX weather window (planet) displays TRUE wind at tropopause
- PSX ND displays magnetic wind (declination applied within PSX process)

So PSXAloft only needs to inject raw data to PSX.

Please go to the first page of this thread to download PSXAloft v.2.2. If you could stress PSXAloft within big declinations areas and report, it would be kind.

Edit : I stressed until 15° declination and I read 209° magnetic on P3D and 208° magnetic on PSX ND. Sounds good ?

Don't forget to install Visual C++ 2017 redistributable before to use PSXAloft v.2.2 (standalone installers provided within package)

Cheers !
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sat, 17 Jun 2017 16:47
If somebody downloaded PSXAloft v.2.2 before 1543Z please download again and overwrite existing .exe. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Regards
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Sat, 17 Jun 2017 18:34
Hi all,

regarding those minor mag var differences by 1° between flight sims: Does anybody know what year P3D's mag var table refers to? Is it still from the year when FSX or FS5 was developed? Or is the table updated from decade to decade or ...?


Regards,

|-|ardy
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Sat, 17 Jun 2017 18:36
Hardy-

https://www.aero.sors.fr   

https://www.aero.sors.fr/navaids.html

is where I (and I'd venture most) go to update MagDec... 2017 available.

HTH- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Sat, 17 Jun 2017 18:42
Does that mean that different P3D users use different mag var tables?

What's in the original P3D package?


|-|
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: cavaricooper on Sat, 17 Jun 2017 19:44
Hardy-

Unfortunately, yes.  Just as with Navigraph FMC data, some update each cycle, some once in a while, and others never.... as far as the default years for each simulator, I will have to defer to others for that answer.... I update each cycle and each Mag Dec as soon as practicable.... for instance, both my P3D v3 and v4 are currently on 2017 MagVar, and I am running the latest cycle of AIRAC data (for everything other than PSX which is using 1703).

Best- C
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JohnH on Sat, 17 Jun 2017 20:09
Quote from: Hardy Heinlin on Sat, 17 Jun 2017 18:42
Does that mean that different P3D users use different mag var tables?

What's in the original P3D package?
|-|

Hi Hardy,

here is from info from fsdeveloper.com,,

Magnetic declination changes with time, more or less depending on world area.
From available historical data, it appears coded values in stock simulator files date from 1988 for FS2004 and 2009 for FSX and P3D files.
Current values (2015) differ by around 3° and 1° for FS2004 and FSX/P3D respectively, although larger variations can be observed in some parts of the world

hope this helps, John
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Wed, 21 Jun 2017 15:02
Hardy, where does the PSX magnetic declination comes from ? Is it from yearly updated NavData ?

Regards,
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: Hardy Heinlin on Wed, 21 Jun 2017 15:13
I think it's set for 2016. I will update it in 2018. It's in the main program, not in the nav database.


Regards,

|-|ardy
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Wed, 21 Jun 2017 18:00
Thank you for the info.
Title: Re: PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX
Post by: JP59 on Sun, 16 Jul 2017 11:16
Hello,

Due to PSXTools release, support for PSXAloft is closed. Please post within PSXTools thread at :

http://aerowinx.com/board/index.php?topic=4335.0 (http://aerowinx.com/board/index.php?topic=4335.0)

Best regards