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PSXAloft II : new upper wind and turbulence simulation for PSX

Started by JP59, Wed, 14 Oct 2015 14:27

G-CIVA

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
Steve Bell
aka The CC

JP59

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,

JP59

Hello,

Beta 4 is up.

Regards,

tango4


JP59



matchball

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)?

JP59

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,

joergalv

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?

J D ADAM

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

JP59

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,

JP59

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,

joergalv

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" .

JP59

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,

pcpilot

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.



J D ADAM

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

JP59

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,

J D ADAM

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

JP59

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,


tango4

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