General

Hi fellow simmers

Just thought I should introduce myself to the forum and give you an update.

You may have noticed Beta 2.00.6 on our downloads page, this Beta includes our latest Live Weather Engine and associated Dynamic Weather (please download and read the Live_Weather.pdf document for further details). Lately we have been working closely with William and his demanding B17 sim to get FSX simulating the temperatures aloft correctly and fine tuning our METAR decoding and visibility layering. Everything seems to be proceeding very well indeed, although I will be posting 2.00.7 soon with some minor updates.

So far the Dynamic Weather has lived up to all our expectations, the weather updates are instantaneous and the weather patterns are proving to be very detailed and realistic (well just about as realistic as you can get in FSX).

Our immediate plans are to continue testing the current Beta for a short while before posting it as the new version 2 release.

We will also be starting work on the following Live Weather Engine upgrades,

Firstly, we intend providing an option to run the Live Weather Engine on a networked client computer thereby offloading the work onto a separate system. This client can be any old laptop or PC you are able to run OpusFSX on and network to the server via LAN cable. The designated  Live Weather client doesn't even need FSX to be installed, just as long as it can write its Dynamic Weather to the server and communicate via the IPC link.

Secondly, we will be developing the cloud smoothing algorithm. Looking at the weather patterns we have been generating for the UK (the lousy British summer has had some beneficial effect) we will probably only dissipate broken and overcast cloud coverage (octas 5 to 8). If the cloud coverage is scattered or few (octas 1 to 4) it probably won't need any further smoothing at the edges. Obviously we will implement whatever looks the most realistic.

Finally, we will simulate the winds aloft (an option for real winds aloft will be added later). I have been toying with the idea of using the aircraft's current lat/long and knowledge of the prevailing high-altitude winds and jet streams to simulate the winds aloft.

The above upgrades may not be developed in the same strict order. As per usual, as soon as I have something that appears to work, even though the upgrade is still in development, I will post the software as a Beta and let you start using the new features ASAP, assist in the testing, offer your constructive comments and suggestion etc.

I have also generated an OpusFSX_Beta.zip file which after testing I will look to use on our downloads page for the latest Beta software. That way you can download the latest Beta and simply extract the contents into your c:\OpusFSX folder on your server and clients without the need to uninstall and reinstall anything. Remember, all the purchase and licensing information is unwrapped into c:\Opus Software on your designated server system, you should never touch or move these files. The client systems do not need any licensing information. The actual OpusFSX software and all associated files are installed into c:\OpusFSX, you can copy and replace these files at any time hence the planned use of the zip file for new Beta software.

I should also mention we have captured one more 3D accelerometer data set for the taxiing, landing and airborne phases. We expect to capture more data this summer ready for processing, mostly low pass filtering to remove engine noise (4 to 7 stages required) and data normalisation, before preparing it for use by the Live Camera's DHM software. Our aim is to have at least three sets of accelerometer data for use by the DHM software to provide the greatest level of variety and realism. The frequency and amplitude of the data is adjusted on the fly, so to speak, based on actual conditions (air/ground speed, heaviness of touch down, etc.) to make the experience as realistic and fresh as possible.

As far as long term plans are concerned. Well, Opus Software has already budgeted for a further four years of support and on-going development of OpusFSX (that's as far ahead as the company budgets) so who knows were that will take us. Some of our future development plans are posted on the web (e.g. Live Traffic), others like accessing GRIB data to download the actual winds aloft etc. are just mentioned, but we also take note of all customer requests and ideas (some unfortunately are just impossible given the limitations of FSX and SimConnect), but we do listen.

I should also mention, OpusFSX is designed around multi-threading, as far as possible everything is processed in parallel. So if you are looking to achieve optimum performance on your systems, use multi-core PCs and laptops (the more CPU cores the better) equipped with large amounts of memory, and of course use a Gigabit LAN. Even so, because of its design you should find OpusFSX works just great on lower performance systems and should have a minimal (if any) affect on the FSX frame rates, that's going to be mostly down to your aircraft sim and scenery.

That's about it for now apart from one final unrelated comment. In my honest opinion, the Flight Sim software (FSX) has never looked or performed better, with modern PC and graphic card technology, the excellent Win 7 64-bit operating system, all the excellent addon packages available (PMDG's superb 737NGX, Real Air's SF260, the latest REX sky and cloud textures, ORBX and UTX scenery, GlobalX mesh data, ... etc. etc. and we hope of course OpusFSX) the future of FSX and Prepar3D is very bright indeed, despite the decision by Microsoft to axe the Flight Sim in favour of the Flight game. There, I've had my say.

Finally, thanks for your interest in the product and to all those who are helping to test the many Beta variants, many thanks for your cooperation and patience. If you frequent airfields and happen to see a Europa XS Tri-Gear, G-OSLD land please come over and say hello, Cheryl and I love to chat with enthusiasts.