About This File
* My daughter asked to add this:
Enjoy the snow presented by Queen Elsa of Arendelle
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We had a big snow storm couple of days ago, and when I loaded my xplane, there is no snow! It turns out xplane will only show you snow if it is currently snowing... here we are
A big thanks to @pbuckner @Antonio Golfari who helped me to understand how NOAA grib works ... if you want a system that replaces xplane weather and use real time NOAA data. https://github.com/biuti/XplaneNoaaWeather by @Antonio Golfari
***Works on X-Plane 12 only***
Win/Lin/Mac(universal build for both Intel and Arm)
How to install:
1. Unzip the file and put it under your Resources/plugins
2. **MAC USER ONLY**: remove the quarantine flags of mac.xpl. Use "finder" to go to bin folder, right click on the OSX11wgrib2, then click open. It will ask for permissions and a terminal window will popup. This is to let Mac know you are ok to run this binary. Then you are good to go.
How it works:
It reads NOAA 4hr GFS model prediction from 4hrs ago and assumes that's what is now. Then it put snow based on NOAA data in your current location. HOWEVER, the noaa data doesn't cover the entire earth especially along shore lines. That means you will see "bugs" like following:
Known Issues:
1. no snow at all, example, entire Norway shoreline is not covered. NOAA data covers until 200-300km away from the shore. I have tried to extend snow to shorelines but there are still cases NOAA report is too far away from shore that i can't do much
2. I have snow but it's all gone after passing a point, or vice verse. This is because NOAA data is reported on a 0.25degree to 0.25degree resolution so when you fly into another "box", the data i have would be zero. I have tried to smooth it out but it is not perfect in some places, similar to #1
3. Puddle/ice are not handled (planned: next minor release)
4. When you select manual weather, set time to summer, the plugin still reads current NOAA and puts snow. I will see if i can just introduce historical feature and disable this plugin entirely when you select manual weather instead of live. (planned: next minor release)
Rumours on the street:
An XPlane developer said they are working on snow feature. It will make snow regional instead of a global "accumulated snow amount". While I am going to fix bugs and improve small things. I think we might soon see native accumulated snow.
Edited yesterday at 08:32 AM by cfanap
update known issues
What's New in Version 1.1.0
Released Yesterday at 08:28 AM
1. Add smooth snow depth transition
It was a step transition, on a 1 degree box, so you were seeing big flip. It is now using a better continuously equation to slowly transition out, 0.1 by 0.1 degree
2. Use highest resolution data
Using 0.25 degree NOAA data instead of 1 degree
3. Better costal coverage
This is a best effort fix to address missing snow coverage near shore lines. Say NOAA reports 20cm of snow 50KM from shore, if you were flying 55KM from shore, it would show no snow. When you fly closer, suddenly 20cm of snow is on the ground. Right now, when i will extend snow cover from 20CM, 50KM away to something like 15CM, 40KM away, ... 2CM, -10KM.
What the heck is -10km? Because we only have a global snow control, If i scale it to 0 at 0km, you will still have the same problem flying 0.00001 meter away from the shore. but if i extend it further, you are less likely to see snow gone. However, this is also depends on how much snow NOAA reported where. If its last point says 100CM, 200KM, I won't expand that far cause that will just make snow everywhere. The expand is going east/west only and I simply assume that is the most logical way to cover coastal area for now. The max extend distance is 20 boxes (0.1 degree per box).
Please report your experience, especially for #3, so in the next release, I can adjust that or even let you configure it based on how much love NOAA gives to your location.
4. Hide wgrib2 prompt window on Windows
5. Fix: flat earth issue when you passing 360 degree.
The plugin won't think you fell off the edge of earth any more.
What's New in Version 1.2.0-beta.3 See changelog
Released
No changelog available for this version.