Hi Guys
I have been watching a post at the FSGlobal Real Weather Forums with interest; I can confirm these guys have provided a solution for their product to work over multiple networked machines, thus Wideview *NOT* having to feed the weather to the clients.
Quote by boris4356:
Networking to multi PC's works very well now, and there is no more need to run the weather through Wideview. There is a setting in Wideview that allows PC's other then the Main Wideview server PC to get their weather directly from another source without having to be interpolated by Wideview first.
When this is set, and the networkbridge is properly set up with the main Wideview PC as the Primary FSX server in the FSGRW network settings, and the additional PC's set up in the secondary section, the results are truely amazing!
There is no more stuttering, skies clearing or cloud popping when FSGRW provides the weather through the network bridges like there was when it was fed through Wideview. I fly into the fronts in the distance now, and the weather changes are very subtle. The winds and temps are also rock stable. I have not had any windshifts. The main FSX PC still gets all the data required for turbulance, temps, winds etc which affects the aircraft movement.
I really like FSGRW. It just feels right, and really enhances the flight experience!
Bill
Needles to say I'm in!!!
I hope this helps others in their noble quest to Simulator Perfection
Sounds very promising :), I'am gonna try it.
I've had a look and its very promising. Testing required. I'll post here with results.
I look forward to hearing from you guys
Thanks
First look.....very nice.
Got it working, but more testing to do.
here's a quick video of initial setup.
http://youtu.be/68gx9eD0IwM (http://youtu.be/68gx9eD0IwM)
hope it helps?
More to come : )
Mark
Great video!!!! Thank you.
Thanks Sam
I'll try and do some better videos with my camera instead of the iphone!
Weather works great and wideview really smooth as less to generate and distribute.
Mark
In the air
http://youtu.be/OFdQ1gJkmOA (http://youtu.be/OFdQ1gJkmOA)
Better videos to come.
Really impressive early results.
Mark
That does look compelling!
There's no mention at all about this on the WideView forum.
Fred
Hi Fred
The wideview website/forum doesn't seem to be very active and I think users of wideview buy it and are pretty much on their own! I think it's a fantastic piece of software but I think support and development has all but stopped.
Saying that, it's given my sim a new lease of life especially as I'm using tv's for the outside view.
If you've got the space, money and time, wideview certainly still has a place in sim building.
It's certainly nice to see other developers giving us wideview users some great additions to enhance our wideview world.
Just the traffic to sort now, although wideview does a fairly good job on its own as I mostly fly online.
Mark
Hi!
As I am the developer of FSGRW (together with Stefan Schaefer from PILOT'S), I'm glad you like our multiple network bridge solution.
Since there seems to be a little confusion about the "primary" and "secondary" network bridges, here's a few words about this: in very basic terms, what FS Global Real Weather does is this:
1) Get current flight parameters from flight sim (ie. aircraft location, altitude, ground speed etc)
2) Set / Update the weather within a radius around the aircraft
3) back to 1
Step 1 will only be done in connection with ONE network bridge, because it doesn't make sense to read the current aircraft location from all network bridges (they should be the same anyway and if they aren't - which means that the sims are not properly synced - FSGRW would get confused anyway, because what weather should be set then!?). The network bridge which is not only used for setting weather but also getting these flight parameters is the primary one.
Secondary Network Bridges act only as additional weather receivers, but FSGRW doesn't ask them for aircraft location, ground speed etc. I've attached a diagram that shows how this works.
If it's still confusing, feel free to ask :).
Bernd
Bernd
Nice product by the way. The confusing part I refer too is not the process but more the naming convention. It's obvious to me now but calling both parts bridges made me think harder to achieve this simple task.
Maybe if the naming was changed to, lets say server (pc running fsglobal) and clients (client pcs)
Also a mention that the network bridge only needs to run on client pcs.
Just my early observations
Keep up the great work
Regards and thanks
Mark
Quote from: markfire on September 06, 2013, 02:10:42 PM
Maybe if the naming was changed to, lets say server (pc running fsglobal) and clients (client pcs)
Also a mention that the network bridge only needs to run on client pcs.
That's actually not the case. The primary network bridge can be ANY network bridge on ANY pc on the network and doesn't have to be the one where FSGRW Main UI runs. Many users have FSGRW on a seperate computer where FSX is not even installed. FSGRW requires on all computers (the one you enter as primary network bridge and all the secondary network bridges) FSGRW Network Bridge to be installed and running. The only difference between primary and secondary network bridges is, that FSGRW only reads flight parameters from the primary network bridge.
However, you are right that only computers with FSX installed (i.e. the clients) require Network Bridge to be installed, FSGRW UI itself acts as server (actually it's the other way round, but we shouldn't make it too complicated here).
A short summary:
.) All computers with the sim installed require FSGRW Network Bridge to be installed and running
.) If the computer where FSGRW (the main user interface) is running doesn't have the sim installed (or running), it doesn't require a Network Bridge installed (this is the case if the computer running FSGRW only acts as "data feeder" to other computers with the sim installed, but doesn't have the sim running).
.) The difference between primary and secondary bridge is, as explained, that flight parameters are only read from the primary one.
Thanks for the positive feedback :). Actually this was one of the most difficult features to add, because I don't have a homecockpit which made testing not very easy :).
Bernd
Hi Guys
Mark
Fantastic input, please keep up the good work mate - thank you
Bernd
Thank you for joining this thread, it's really great to have your input.
I'm going to purchase and download this weekend :)
Thanks Mark and Bernd for sharing your experience and further explanation. I'm mentally ready now for installing FSGRW/Network Bridges on my 5 machines ???.
Here's FSGlobal weather network config.
Bernd, good to see you here! Congratulations to Stephan and you or another excellent product from the FS Pilot house. I own them all.
I see that a lot of simmers are converting into your program and it would be good to write a small tutorial to help understand the networking part better. Everything that helps implementation will help adoption of your program.
Alles Gute
Luis
PS check proSim737 forum too
More testing videos.
http://youtu.be/qE3YZeePkXc (http://youtu.be/qE3YZeePkXc)
http://youtu.be/S5OKMwfkoc8 (http://youtu.be/S5OKMwfkoc8)
Enjoy : )
Hi Mark,
Thanks so much for an excellent Video. I've never seen Wideview shown as well.
I think such a video as this one would be widely appreciated on the Wideview Forum.
with some details. Would you please post there. I know Luiciana doesn't seem to appear as regular but is very quick to respond by email if you have any problems. Besides that there
is a great wealth of support.
Regards
Les
Les
Now posted on the Wideview Forum
regards
Mark
Thanks Mark,
I've looked out for an excellent video of Wideview showing how good it is and especially
its smoothness and with your in HD it was the icing on the cake.
Can you tell me how I can keep that video as I would like to be able to view it when I
have any doubts about my setup.
Regards
Les
Les
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel, then add as favourite. I won't be taking it off
Regards
Mark
Will do and Thanks
Les
Hi Guys,
It was my post at the FSGRW website that was quoted at the beginning of this thread.
I made a post today at AVSim that has a bit more detail that you may be interested in:
http://forum.avsim.net/topic/420804-fs-global-real-weather-and-wideview/ (http://forum.avsim.net/topic/420804-fs-global-real-weather-and-wideview/)
This program is absolutely amazing! If you don't have it yet, I would not hesitate. It dramatically changes the performance of Wideview. You will not regret getting it!
Bill
Quote from: sluyt050 on September 07, 2013, 01:39:48 AM
Thanks Mark and Bernd for sharing your experience and further explanation. I'm mentally ready now for installing FSGRW/Network Bridges on my 5 machines ???.
Hi Edward,
I installed FSGRW/Network Bridges on 4 machines, and it was extremely simple and quick. It took no longer than 5 or 10 minutes.
Bill
Finally got this setup on my system this afternoon. All i can say is that it is simple, does perfect weather modeling and is really easy to use. It is syncing all my wideview clients weather absolutely perfectly. I am one happy camper ;D ;D ;D.
I am on the trial at the moment but buying my key tonight!
Scott
Quick video
737 Cockpit Wideview and FS Global Weather (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hmpbGrmYXI#)
Scott
The synchronisation and overall impression is really overwhelming. Fantastic!
Scott
Your Video - sensational
Mark
Your Settings - thanks for helping us all and sharing mate
Edward
FSGRW - thanks for confirming too; I've bought it in preparation for my WideView setup
Cheers everyone who has contributed here - keep it all coming
That is awesome Scott, glad you got it going, looks great.!!!
Scott
Nice videos mate. I really think you should upgrade those monitors to something bigger! I of course would be happy to take the old ones : )
Mark
Wonderful video Scott. I admire your skill and persistence to continually "dial-in" your Sim. It just keeps getting better!
Mike
Thanks guys. It is a highly collaborative effort learning from others experiences and sharing them here which makes these efforts bear fruit and come to life. I appreciate all the help, viewpoints, and shared wisdom everyone brings to the table here.
One thing that would be nice to have in FSGRW which I think I will miss is the ability to tune Atis like we can with Active Sky. In Active Sky you tune 122.00 to get Atis info whereever you are. This is not an issue if using Realtime real world weather as you can use tons of products such as Foreflight and other EFBs in the cockpit or in Sim-Avionics you can call up a METAR right from the CDUs but if you are using historical weather (which is a great feature that seems to be available in all weather generation programs including FSGRW) then the EFBs and such will not be of help. You can of course lookup station weather in FSGRW but who wants a big computer screen in the cockpit along with a keyboard to look it up.
Maybe the developer of FSGRW can chime in with some ideas or thoughts around this subject?
Other ideas?
Scott
Is a great feeling when you accomplish a task, specially if everyone pitch in and help, is good to see us moving forward as a group, this is what this forum is all about I'm happy for Scott and others that can use this as a vehicle to succeed, thank you members and companies associated here for your input, I said this because I know deep inside how Scott feels right now, keep up on helping each other out!!
Cheers,
Sam.
Scott,
Nice to hear you finally got this monkey off your back. What wonders are you now going to come up with, with this newly liberated free time? ;D
I just have one question re. FSGRW. If weather synchronization was not an issue with WideView, would you have stuck with Active Sky 2012 or would you still switch to FSGRW knowing what you know now.
I have read various comments on other sites related to the accuracy of the real weather depiction and several people claimed the weather with FSGRW was closer to the actual real weather than Active Sky. Can you comment about that or is it too soon to give your opinion?
Same question for Mark or anyone else by the way ;)
Thanks,
Maurice
If the wideview sync was working I would still switch to FSGRW over AS or Rex engines for the main reason I highlight in the video that it seems to spawn weather way off in the distance gradually and very realistically. I dont see clouds just magically appearing out of nowhere like I did with Active Sky. I also read that there is a new version of Active Sky in the works that is a total revamp so they can do silimilar things so maybe the next version will share this capability. Right now it is FSGRW for me for that reason as well. Worth the price I think. Anyone can trial it free and get 12 weather downloads to see how it works.
Quote from: XOrionFE on September 22, 2013, 07:44:32 AM
If the wideview sync was working I would still switch to FSGRW over AS or Rex engines for the main reason I highlight in the video that it seems to spawn weather way off in the distance gradually and very realistically. I dont see clouds just magically appearing out of nowhere like I did with Active Sky.
Very strange. I would think that this was an FSX function and not a weather engine function as you can specify the cloud draw distance in FSX. When set at 90 miles, I found it was much less disturbing than the default 60 miles.
Worth trying anyway, but I'm much more interested in how accurate the weather is compared to the actual real weather.
Thanks,
Maurice
Scott,
Excellent video's and info. FSX looks great.
Rhys b
Maurice
FSGW is the only weather product i have used that;
1. creates real weather that reflects what you see out of your window.
2. gives you a feeling of depth due to the gradual build up of weather from far off.
3. can be used with wideview thus reducing it's workload = smoother graphics
I use REX textures installed on the server, then copied over to the four clients. At present i'm using 4096 textures but considering using the 2048 ones as not a lot of difference and agin will lowwerr the overhead on the pc's.
There are a few more tweaks to experiment with and i'll post the results first on here, of course : )
If there's any specific questions relating to wideview or FSGW drop me a PM
I must give a lot of the credit to Kosta regarding FSX PC performance, the guys a legend and really puts the time in.
Here's his site for those that want to get the most out of their rig.
http://kostasfsworld.wordpress.com/fsx-software-and-hardware-guide/ (http://kostasfsworld.wordpress.com/fsx-software-and-hardware-guide/)
Credit to my buddy Andrew737 who always bugs me regarding performance and perfection : )
Happy times
Mark
I finally got around to trying FSGRW. I concur with all the positive comments above, and it truly is a must for WideView users!
Previously on my WideView setup I had WideTraffic running on a totally separate network to squeak out some extra performance. With the FSGRW network bridge setup I have reverted to a single network for combined WideView/WideTraffic. The net result is even smoother preformance for WideView including AI traffic and absolute 100% synchronization for weather. And the weather effects as mentioned are terrific. I find that the "white flashing" is much reduced even when using moving clouds.
Fred K
Quote from: Maurice on September 22, 2013, 12:13:31 PM
Quote from: XOrionFE on September 22, 2013, 07:44:32 AM
If the wideview sync was working I would still switch to FSGRW over AS or Rex engines for the main reason I highlight in the video that it seems to spawn weather way off in the distance gradually and very realistically. I dont see clouds just magically appearing out of nowhere like I did with Active Sky.
Very strange. I would think that this was an FSX function and not a weather engine function as you can specify the cloud draw distance in FSX. When set at 90 miles, I found it was much less disturbing than the default 60 miles.
The problem (at least from my experience) is that the SimConnect API allows you set the weather either globally or at specific METAR stations. SimConnect has a function that returns the nearest METAR stations, but the results are inaccurate. If the returned data was accurate, it would be extremely easy to query the nearest stations then set the weather data, creating weather in the distance. But since the data is inaccurate, most people set the weather globally on each update (hence the instant change). A few developers have tried things such as setting the weather once within XX miles of the destination airport, then leaving it static. But if the real weather changes before you arrive, then the weather you see in the sim will not match the real world ATIS. I'm pretty sure this could be remedied with a good back-end database and a few great circle calculations to determine the nearest METAR stations, but I never got that far.
wow guys, good to find a topic about this.
I've got the evaluation version of FSGRW and I think it's great.
However, I'm using FS2004 - does any of you know how to synchronise weather in FS9 as opposed to FSX?
I aspire to XOrionFE's lovely clouds which pass smoothly from one screen to the next...
Quote from: fatcharlie on August 22, 2014, 12:55:59 PM
However, I'm using FS2004 - does any of you know how to synchronise weather in FS9 as opposed to FSX?
Hi,
To the best of my knowledge, cloud synchronization across independent monitors (i.e. on different pc's, not multiple pc's on the same card like with TH2go), and also traffic synchronization (which WideTraffic X does), is
not possible in FS9. Luciano has made this clear in the WidevieW manual. It (cloud sync) happens in FSX SP2 and beyond, but that is through something internal to FSX, as Luciano himself said.
Regards,
Chakko.
from WidevieW 2004 manual, p.35:
"IMPORTANT! all the synchronization methods, with or without WidevieW, synchronize the weather "data" only, and there is no guarantee that every PC of the network will behave exactly as expected. For example, if a 3/8 sky coverage has been selected, the same coverage will be passed to the clients, but the actual position of every single cloud in the sky, may be largely different from one PC to another, causing some unpleasant effect while flying in the clouds (you will not see the clouds passing exactly from one monitor to another). Also, since FS2004, the weather can be modified by some unexpected situation or FS' interpolation & complex morphing, preventing a safe and reliable synchronization throughout the network. Unfortunately these situations are totally outside of my control, and I cannot do anything at the moment, in order to improve it."From WidevieW X manual, p.26:
IMPORTANT (APPLIES TO FSX BEFORE FSX SP2) WidevieW synchronizes the weather "data" only (raw METAR information), and there is no guarantee that every PC of the network will behave exactly as expected. For example, if a 3/8 sky coverage has been selected, the same coverage will be passed to the clients, but the actual position of every single cloud in the sky, may be different from one PC to another, causing some unpleasant effect while flying through the clouds (you will not see the clouds passing exactly from one monitor to another) This happens because the clouds are randomly scattered in the sky and each PC generates different random positions, impossible to take control over them.
IMPORTANT (APPLIES TO FSX SP2 / ESP / P3D)
With FSX SP2 and later simulator software, the clouds seems to be actually capable to synchronize through the monitors, so you can see the same cloud, with its specific shape and texture, passing from one monitor to another. Anyway, this feature still require that the clients are powered up all together (with a maximum tolerance of a few minutes between them) and also the simulator software launched at the same time (again, a few minute of difference can be tolerated). Moreover, the computers should have the most similar software and hardware configuration and NO dynamic weather active. Setting the weather via add-on weather programs may also disrupt precise cloud shape synchronization (you can of course still use add-on weather programs, but you may lose this particular function)
Hi Chakko,
Yep I'd seen that in the manuals, but made the assumption it might be something to do with FSGRW that makes the synchronisation. In other words, although WV is not capable of synchronising across networks, perhaps FSGRW was.
Turns out, it's something in FSX. So i guess I'll either have to buy FSX or just put up with funny looking clouds.
Thanks for the clarification.