User’s Manual

© 2005, 2006 Damian Clark - HiFi Simulation Software

Introduction

Welcome to ActiveSky 6, the newest weather simulation engine for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004!

ASv6 represents continuous development and developer-user interaction for over 4 years. Since the original ActiveSky weather add-on release, AS has undergone 5 major upgrades (ActiveSky wxRE, AS2004, AS2004.5, ASV, ASV Enhanced and now ActiveSky 6). In ASv6 Enhanced, we’ve added more new features than ever! Our graphics upgrade texture and interface system has been completely re-designed and is now called “ActiveSky Graphics”, with new cloud, sky and environment content. Accompanying ASG is a new Auto-Graphics Submission system with new Wx-influenced and Random options. An important new feature to ASv6 is our new “Wx-Station Insert” capability where we’ve inserted over 500 additional programmable FS weather systems to make oceanic and rural flying areas much smoother and accurate in weather depiction and transitions. Since ASV, we’ve added dozens of new features including new offline sequential playback modes, 24 hour server archives, greatly enhanced oceanic and rural winds aloft resolution, and the Wx Configurator Interface - where you can easily program any kind of weather you desire. Also debuting since ASV is Vertical Air Simulation, with automatically-generated (or manually created) updrafts, downdrafts and thermals. An enhanced interface brings a new look to ActiveSky, and includes automatic decoding of all weather information. The new “Wx-Finder” utility now allows easy location of real-time or archived weather conditions across the globe.

Of course, ASv6 incorporates all of our previous developments and core features including online live weather downloads with a private high-resolution server system, optional offline mode, TAF processing for dynamic weather changes, enhanced FS2004 station-based weather system integration, local and update suppression for control of weather updates and changes, visibility graduation and smoothing, wind smoothing, archive weather downloads, wake turbulence effects, ActiveRadar precip and weather display module, voice flight-watch weather reports, and much, much more. Many of these core features have been enhanced and fine-tuned as requested by our users.

Were it not for our user base, who give us endless support, encouragement and feedback, we would have no ability to continue further development. We would like to thank YOU for your support of our continued pursuit of ultimate realism…

Table of Contents

1. Installation and Configuration

Installation and Configuration

Installing ASv6 on a networked computer over WideFS

Configuring FSUIPC

Configuring FS2004

Critical ASv6 Options

2. Interface Screens

Main Interface

Wx Configurator

New Route and Navigation Log

Download

Options

Wx-Finder

3. Using ASV6

Flight Startup Procedures

Using ActiveSky Graphics and Automatic Submission

Updates and Suppression

Online Mode

Offline Mode

Offline Sequential Playback Mode

TAF Processing

Vertical Air Simulation

4. ActiveRadar – The ActiveSky Precipitation and Weather Display Module

5. METAR/TAF Decoder

6. Troubleshooting & Support

7. Credits

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Chapter 1 – Installation and Configuration

Installing ASv6 (standard single-computer setup)

1. Unpack the installation .zip file to a temporary location, such as C:\ASTEMP.

2. Run the Setup.exe program to launch the installation process.

3. Follow the on-screen prompts.

4. Proceed with Configuring FSUIPC and FS2004.

Installing ASv6 on a networked computer over WideFS

1. On the separate non-FS computer, unpack the installation .zip file to a temporary location, such as C:\ASTEMP (Do not install ASv6 on the FS2004 computer).

2. Run the Setup.exe program to launch the installation process.

3. Follow the on-screen prompts.

4. Setup networking and sharing so both computers have full access to each other, especially in all FS2004 and ASv6 related paths. You will need to share the ASv6 Folder (on the ASv6/WideFS computer) and the FS2004 Folder (on the FS2004 computer) as well as the Application Data Folder (in the FS2004 computer’s Documents & Settings\User Name Location), or share the root drives (i.e. C:\) directly. For more help with networking WideFS, please see the WideFS documentation.

5. On the FS2004 computer, browse to the networked ASv6 install folder and run the ActiveRadarConnector.exe program.

6. Follow the on-screen prompts to locate the appropriate paths/files, copy required data, and test the installation.

7. If the installation fails for any reason, see the ActiveRadarConnector.txt file for additional information and alternative installation methods.

8. Proceed with Configuring FSUIPC and FS2004.

Note: WideFS use requires registered FSUIPC and WideFS licenses. For WideFS/networking help, please read the WideFS documentation.

Configuring FSUIPC

FSUIPC is required by ASv6 and many other external FS add-ons. It provides the core communications system to and from FS2004 and allows us to find out the location of the user aircraft, speed, altitude, etc., and control things such as weather parameters, vertical air effects, and more.

ASv6 is accredited for use with FSUIPC, meaning that we have pre-paid the license for basic unregistered FSUIPC use. You do not need the registered/paid FSUIPC version – all required FSUIPC features are automatically enabled and controlled by ASv6.

ASv6 includes the latest FSUIPC version (at time of release) but does not automatically install it. To install, simply copy the FSUIPC.DLL file (found in the FS9\Modules\ASv6 folder) to the FS9\Modules folder. When installed, you will see a new “Modules -> FSUIPC” menu option set in the FS menu bar. Clicking on this menu option will enable configuration of FSUIPC Parameters. Start FS2004 and do this now, as shown below:

This will open the main FSUIPC options configuration screen. The registered version is depicted below. The unregistered FSUIPC version is similar but does not permit detailed configuration of individual categories.

Click the “Weather settings off” button to reset all weather settings to default values, which is generally required for proper ASV6 operation.

If using the registered FSUIPC, you may change other weather options, but some may interfere with ASv6. We recommend only changing smoothing rates (wind, visibility, etc.) as desired. Leave the other weather options off/default or experiment at your own risk. If you get unexpected results, return back to “Weather settings off”. All non-weather options can be set as desired without negative ASv6 interaction.

Once this is done, click the “OK” button to return to FS. FSUIPC configuration is now complete!

Configuring FS2004

Certain options in FS2004 are important for proper ASv6 operation. Primarily, you need to adjust your weather display settings for desired cloud depiction.

First, go into the Options / Setting / Display menu option as shown below:

Click the “Weather” Tab on top to change your weather display options:

Sight Distance controls how far out you want the outside world to be rendered. Lower values will increase performance and hide distant objects. Higher values will decrease performance and show more distant objects. Any setting will work, but you should leave this on the low side for maximum performance.

Cloud Draw Distance controls how far out you want clouds to be depicted. This can severely effect performance.

3-D Cloud Percentage indicates what percentage of 3D clouds to draw versus 2D clouds. We recommend always using 100% to prevent possible flickers during weather writes, and for a more realistic depiction.

Cloud Detail specifies which types of clouds to draw. We highly recommend using “Detailed Clouds” with MAXIMUM Cloud Coverage Density for best depiction. Using lower settings can result in low density cloud coverage regardless of METAR reports (i.e. OVERCAST may appear Broken or Scattered).

When finished, press OK. FS2004 configuration is now complete!

Critical ASV6 Options

Before getting started on your first flight with ASv6, take a moment to adjust some critical options as summarized below:

· Online Mode – If you want automatic updates to your weather, enable this option. If Online Mode is NOT enabled, you will retain your last weather file (which will be from April 16, 2005 if this is the first run).

· Suppression Ceiling – When Update Suppression is enabled (by default), this specifies when to disable updates to prevent possible stutters/processing during critical phases of flight. When flying below this altitude (and not landed) all updates will be suppressed. Make sure to set this altitude appropriately for your kind of flying (somewhere below your cruise altitude). In prop GA planes, we recommend about 4,000ft. Jets should use about 20,000ft.

·

You may set other options as desired at this time, but it is not necessary. ASv6 will operate in default mode with all major features enabled.

Please see Chapter 2 – “Options” for detailed option descriptions. You can return to the normal defaults at any time by pressing the “SET DEFAULTS” button in the options screen.

Chapter 2 – Interface Screens

This chapter describes the various screens, commands and options available throughout ASv6.

Main Interface

This is your main interface and control panel for ASv6. All major functions can be accessed from here.

At the top, you’ll find the main interface control buttons and the active time display area. The buttons “ActiveSky Graphics”, “New Route”, “Nav Log”, “Download”, Wx Configurator”, and “Options” launch the associated interface screens (as outlined further in this chapter). Refresh will re-process and update all weather, subject to suppression settings. Load Wx and Save Wx can be used to load/save weather snapshot files. Below the buttons is the “Status Indicator” which shows important processing messages.

Next down you’ll find the Closest Station Report, showing which weather station in FS is closest to your position and the distance, followed by the METAR, TAF and Winds Aloft reports. Just to the right is the decoded weather display box.

Continuing down, the “Fetch a Report” area allows you to fetch the closest valid weather for any airport ID. Just enter the ID in the “ID:” box and press enter (or click FETCH). The reports will be displayed in the boxes below, with the decoded weather to the right.

At the bottom, “Create a Thermal” lets you name and create a new “VAS Point” in the thermals.txt file (see Chapter 3 – “Vertical Air Simulation”).

“Refresh AI” will move the time ahead in FS by 2 minutes, forcing an AI traffic reload. This can be handy if loading new weather and you want FS AI and ATC to adhere to the new wind direction.

The “Hide” button will minimize ASV6 and send it to the system task bar.

“Quit” will close all open connections and exit ASV6.

All weather displayed on this screen relates to the “active” or “in use” weather file, which will be “live” if in “Online Mode”, or as per previously loaded from a Download or Load Wx operation if in “Offline Mode”.

Weather shown in the reports will not always match the actual weather depicted in FS2004. This is by design in pursuit of realism. Rarely in the real world will conditions match exactly as reported, and conditions are always changing. Thus small variations are normal.

Remember that when weather is suppressed, it will not be updated, and the “Last used” weather will be displayed (noted by “RMK OLD RMK SUPPRESSED” in the METAR string).

Wx Configurator

The Wx Configurator Interface allows you to define your weather with the ASV6/FS2004 weather system.

This control is intended for use with OFFLINE mode. Making Wx Configurator changes will automatically enable OFFLINE mode (if ONLINE mode is enabled).

As you can see in the interface screen, setting weather is a 3-step process:

First, define the weather via one of several methods:

· By selecting a pre-saved template

· By fetching a current METAR string

· By manually editing or creating a METAR string

Next, choose where to apply the weather to. Enter the station ID, select the range to apply from the station ID, or optionally choose to apply to the entire world.

Last, click “Apply Now” for the weather to be written to the active weather file. ASV6 will now use this weather for all further processing during updates.

You can optionally save the current applied wx file using the “Save Wx” button.

For the weather to be depicted in FS immediately, you must force an UPDATE, so click the “Update and Close” button when ready to fly with your new weather.

The “Cancel” button will close the Wx Configurator interface and return to the main ASV6 screen.

TIP: Templates can be saved by entering a name and description, modifying the METAR string as desired, and pressing the “Save” button. You can remove a template from the list by deleting the associated .AST file located in ASV6\Templates. .AST files can be shared with other ASV6 users.

TIP: You can use the METAR string and Decoded wx display windows to try new METAR codes… The decoded display is automatically synchronized to the METAR string. This is a great way to experiment and learn about METAR terminology!

New Route and Navigation Log

Loading a Flight Plan is not necessary in ASV6 but it does permit some increased functionality:

· Destination airport information and distance will be shown on the ASV6 main interface screen

· Flightwatch voice reports on 122.00 will be enabled for your destination airport

· ActiveRadar, if used, can synch to the flight plan for more consistent precipitation data display

· Force Destination Weather Zone option feature will be available

· Extended Destination Winds Force option feature will be available

· VATSIM Online Weather option feature will be available

· The Weather Report and Navigation Log will be available

To Load a Flight Plan, click on the “New Route” button from the main ASV6 interface screen. The following screen will be shown:

Enter the Departure and Destination Airport Ids as well as the Cruise Altitude for your flight. Alternate ID and Cruise Speed are optional.

Alternatively, you can import an existing flight plan file (FS2004 .PLN format) using the “Import” button.

When the flight plan fields are correctly populated, press the “Process” button to have the flight plan computed…

When the flight plan is processed (may take a couple minutes depending on number of waypoints), an update is automatically started to re-process weather based on your route/option settings.

The Weather Report / Navigation Log screen will come up showing all the weather details for your flight:

You can print the entire report using the “Print All” button, or just the Navigation Log portion using the “Print Navlog” button. Close the Wx Report and Navigation Log screen with the “Close” button.

You can call up the Wx Report / Navlog at any time by pressing the “Navlog” button on the ASV6 main interface screen.

Download

Downloading current or historical weather is easy with ASV6. Just call up the Download interface from the ASV6 main screen:

To download current (most recent) weather, press the “Download Current” button.

To download historical weather, enter the desired date/hour in the input fields and press “Download Archive”.

You can also download additional consecutive hours (from the indicated start time) by entering a value in the appropriate input box. Up to 24 hours can be downloaded in one session. Each archive is approximately 400K in size and is saved in your “default weather folder” as defined in ASV6 options.

Archives are available since December 15, 2003, at the rate of 4 archives per day (00, 06, 12, and 18Z) with standard winds aloft resolution.

Since April 16, 2005, archives are available in hourly intervals (24 per day) with increased oceanic/rural winds aloft resolution.

Press the “Cancel” button to close the Download interface screen.

Note that manual downloads are not necessary when using “Online Mode”.

Options

Since the inception of ActiveSky, user’s have always wanted more control of the weather environment and processing functions. We started with about 5 options, and now we’ve got over 50! All these options may seem a little confusing to the new ASV6 user, but this section will describe what each of them do and how they affect your weather processing.

When in doubt, you can always return to the recommended default settings using the “Set Defaults” button.

Starting from the top left, continuing down then over to the right:

Updates and Weather Writes

Online Updates – Enables “live” mode with automatic download of new current weather information at each update. Use this for “real world weather”.

VATSIM Online Weather – If using VATSIM and Online Mode, you can have ASV6 automatically download and process the departure and destination METAR data from the VATSIM network by enabling this option. You must have a flight plan loaded. “Force Destination Wx Zone” should also be enabled to ensure consistent pilot/control approach and landing conditions. Rarely will this option actually have any effect, as the data is usually similar if not the same either way.

Use Update Suppression – Enable this to prevent updates while you are airborne (greater than 30 kts ground speed) and below the configurable Suppression Ceiling. Useful to prevent updates and possible system overhead-related stutters during critical phases of flight.

Disable ALL Updates on Ground – Eliminates any update processes from occurring while the aircraft is “on ground” (its groundspeed is less than 30 knots). Use with caution. All weather updates, even to non-local areas (such as your destination) will be prevented unless you press “REFRESH”.

Use Local Range Suppression - This enables the local suppression system of ASV6, preventing wx changes to the localized area around your aircraft. This effectively eliminates unrealistically changing weather (pops), allowing you to fly into weather that is changing up ahead of you. When enabled (recommended), the Suppression Range setting is used to determine which stations should be suppressed. When suppressed, the data and weather will not update, and this will be noted by the addition of “RMK OLD RMK SUPPRESSED” in the METAR string report. This system does not always prevent unavoidable cloud pops in certain (mostly very rural) areas. Increasing the Suppression Range setting can help reduce the chance of pops in such areas.

Global Area Writes – Writes your current weather to the “global” wx area in FS2004, which is used to depict weather when greater than about 120nm from any reporting station.

Automatic Global Write Toggle – Automatically changes the Global Area Writes option depending on the amount of stations in the area. If the area is dense with stations, Global writes will be disabled. If the area is low-density, Global writes are enabled. This helps prevent cloud pops in most circumstances, but it might be better to disable this option and manually control the Global Write setting to achieve best results.

Disable Local Changes on Ground – Allows weather updates on ground, but only to the area outside of the suppression range. This provides consistent weather changes to nearby areas while you are airport hopping but keeps things still while on the ground (to prevent visible pops).

Force Destination Wx Zone – Forces the destination airport weather to all stations within 80nm of the destination. Works only when a flight plan is loaded. Useful to keep your entire approach conditions consistent to the departure airport area.

Ignore FS Ready Status – Allows weather writes before an FS flight is loaded (while sitting at the main FS menu). Permits faster initial update process but can cause wx consistency problems in some circumstances.

Suppression Ceiling – As explained above, when “Use Update Suppression” is enabled, and you are “airborne”, no updates will occur below this altitude. Prevents system overhead/stutter issues during critical phases of flight. Jets should use higher values (i.e. 20000ft) while GA prop aircraft should use about 4000ft. Set it under your cruise altitude so that weather updates only when you are “enroute”.

Suppression Range – As explained above, when “Use Local Suppression” is enabled, and you are “airborne”, changes to wx within the range radius will be suppressed, to prevent visible cloud shifts. Use a larger range in lower-station-density areas.

Update Interval – The minimum update interval (in minutes). Actual update intervals may slightly vary depending on ASV6 processing particulars and the wx data in use.

Default Startup Location – Use to set the wx station ID for default startup location used by ASV6 when FS9 has not yet been loaded (or is not yet ready to provide location information).

Startup and General

Play Startup Sound Effect – Plays the sound effect when ASV6 is loaded.

Start Paused – Prevents ASV6 processes from starting until “REFRESH” is pressed. Useful when you want to change locations/setup your flight in FS9 before any weather data is processed.

Un-Pause on FS Ready Status – If ASV6 is paused (via the above Start Paused option) then it will automatically un-pause when the flight has been detected as "loaded" via the FS Ready Status Flag.

Disable Text Messages – Prevents FS2004 status text messages from appearing.

Voice ATIS/Flightwatch – Enables the voice ATIS/Flightwatch weather playback system when tuned to 122.00.

Automatic .PLN Convert to FS9 – When enabled, all loaded flight plan files will be automatically re-saved in native FS9 format. Useful to keep compatibility between add-ons (especially third-party flight planning utilities). ActiveRadar flight plans must be loaded in native FS9 format.

Auto Refresh AI on First Wx Set – Automatically turns the time ahead 2 minutes to force FS ATC and AI to reset, based on new wind conditions.

Ignore FS Location until Ready – Prevents reading the initial FS9 location which would normally trigger ASV6 to start processing based on such location. Since most users have not yet set their desired location until the flight is “created” and the sim has been started, this option effectively prevents all processing until the flight has actually been loaded. You can use the Import Route button to specify your departure airport which will be used by ASV6 for pre-sim weather information and processing (if desired).

Dynamics

TAF Processing – Enables the TAF processing system for dynamic weather changes. You must be aware of your “Use System Time” setting and FS/System time in use. See Chapter 3 – “TAF Processing” for more information.

Use System Time (vs FS Time) – Use your system clock for all TAF/dynamics/Playback features. When disabled, FS time is used.

Automatic Timezone Detection – Automatically finds your location and sets the correct Time Conversion Value.

Enable Offline Sequence Playback – Enables the playback system, allowing you to play back any historical moment since April 16, 2005. You must pre-download the desired historical range of files via the Download Interface for this feature to work correctly.

Auto Set FS Time on Archive DL – This option will perform three automatic steps when a sequential archive is downloaded:  1) Automatically uncheck USE SYSTEM TIME (if enabled) to force to FS Time processing.  2) Automatically enable offline sequence playback (if not already enabled).  3) Automatically set the time/date in FS to match the start time/date.  All this makes it easier to enable offline sequence playback mode with proper dynamics/time settings as soon as an archive set is downloaded.  This automatic option does not apply to singular (non-consecutive) archive downloads.

Time Conversion Value – Your conversion value for GMT/Local. Used for specialized dynamic feature operations. When Automatic TimeZone Detection is enabled, this value is disabled.

Visibility

Disable Visibility Graduation – Turns off the ASV6 visibility graduation effect, which increases visibility as smoothly as possible as you climb away from the surface (and decreases it again as you descend).

Visibility Smoothing – Invokes the FSUIPC visibility smoothing feature, smoothing changes to visibility as much as possible.

Enforce Visibility Limits – Enable this to prevent vis from exceeding the configurable minimum/maximum visibility values.

Fog Layer Generation – When enabled, and visibility is less than 4nm at a particular station, a pseudo fog layer will be generated via a ground cumulus cloud layer. Helpful to prevent ground visibility when flying above an area that is fogged in.

Depict FS9 Haze Layer – By default, FS9 depicts the visibility layer up to a certain altitude (called the visibility ceiling). This can be a nice effect when flying at lower altitudes. However, when flying high altitudes, an un-realistic “ring” of haze can follow the aircraft. In addition, FSUIPC is unable to smooth the rendering of changing visibility conditions between different stations, causing apparent low-level cloud/visibility shifts. Checking this option eliminates the FS9 haze layer and utilizes ASV6’s automatic visibility graduation (if not disabled) to keep things as smooth as possible.

Minimum Visibility – When “Enforce Visibility Limits” is enabled, this value specifies the minimum visibility for any weather station.

Maximum Visibility - When “Enforce Visibility Limits” is enabled, this value specifies the maximum visibility for any weather station.

Winds and Turbulence

Enable Vertical Air Simulation – Enables the “thermal” effect including updrafts and downdrafts. Thermals are stored in the thermals.txt file and can be created/edited as desired by the user. See Chapter 3 – “Vertical Air Simulation” for more information.

Auto-Generation VAS Points – Automatically generates “thermals” including updrafts and downdrafts. This is randomly based but influenced by terrain, wind speed and elevation above mountainous terrain. VAS Points will not be generated when "on ground". See Chapter 3 – “Vertical Air Simulation” for more information.

Wake Turbulence Simulation – Enables the Wake turbulence effect, causing a pitching and rolling motion when crossing the flight path of another aircraft. Use default FSUIPC AI options when using this feature to ensure correct AI aircraft tracking by ASV6.

Increased Wake Effects – Increases the wake effect (if enabled) and will usually temporarily render the aircraft out of control.

FSUIPC Wind Smoothing Control – Automatically enables FSUIPC Wind smoothing to prevent instant wind speed/direction changes. Instead, changes will be limited to 5 deg/kts per second. For additional smoothing, the registered FSUIPC can be used to specify a reduced smoothing rate.

Disable Direct Wind Control – Disables the DWC wind system in ASV6. This system, when not disabled, corrects for FS9’s erroneous wind direction changes by forcing wx as computed by ASV6 at all times. Depends on ASV6 running for correct wind depiction.

Extended Destination Wind Force – Forces all winds to that of your destination airport. A flight plan must be loaded.

Limit Surface Wind Speed – When enabled, you can set a surface wind limit (effective within 300AGL).

Disable Winds Aloft – Disables all winds aloft, depicting only surface winds.

Force Constant Route Aloft Temp – When enabled, this forces all aloft temperatures to be consistent across your route of flight (requires a flight plan to be entered and processed). This is useful when flying across oceanic routes with sensitive aircraft which may experience undesirable flight performance changes when normal temperature changes take place.

Force Constant Route Pressure – When enabled, this forces all barometric pressure settings to be consistent across your route of flight (requires a flight plan to be entered and processed). This is useful when flying across oceanic routes with sensitive aircraft which may experience undesirable flight performance changes when normal pressure changes take place.

Surface Wind Limit – If “Limit Surface Wind Speed” is enabled, this specifies the maximum surface wind (in knots).

Wind Drift Rate – Specify a value from 1-60 (in seconds), or 0 to disable this feature. When enabled, the wind will drift randomly from the initial reported value every specified interval. For example, a setting of 30 will cause a potential wind drift every 30 seconds. This creates realistic drifting wind that varies from reports.

Aloft Predictability – Specify a value from 0 to 100 (in percent). At 0, winds aloft will RARELY match reported/forecasted conditions. At 100, winds aloft will ALWAYS match reported/forecasted conditions. At 80, winds aloft will match reports approximately 80% of the time, and is a good realistic setting.

Auto VAS Frequency – If Auto VAS Generation is enabled, this specifies the frequency overall (in percentage, 1 to 100) of VAS Point occurrence.  At 100, VAS Points will be generated at the rate of about 1-2 per minute.  At 40, they will occur approximately every 3 minutes.  If winds and terrain dictate higher chance of updraft/downdraft activity, VAS Points will occur much more frequently regardless of this setting.

Proxy Server

Use Proxy Server – If using a proxy server, check this box. If you are using a proxy server, you MUST enable this option and correct enter the server name for ASV6 downloads to work properly. Check with your ISP if you are unsure.

Proxy Server Name:[Port] – Enter the name (and port, if needed) using the convention: NAME:Port. For example: proxy.my.net:80.

Server Options

Force Primary HiFi DataNet Server – When enabled, all downloads will connect to the Primary DataNet Server only. Can be useful if your connection to the secondary server is slow or the secondary server is experiencing trouble.

Force Secondary HiFi DataNet Server – When enabled, all downloads will connect to the Secondary DataNet Server only. Can be useful if your connection to the primary server is slow or the primary server is experiencing trouble.

Note: ASV6 will automatically cycle to the next server if a connection problem occurs with the initial attempt.

Clouds and Precipitation

Overcast Enhancement – Doubles-up OVC layers so they appear thicker, in attempt to get a solid overcast deck that you cannot see through. This works well most of the time but FS9 can still depict less-than-thick clouds in some circumstances. When enabled, this can cause a noticeable performance hit.

Disable CAVOK Cloud Generation – Prevents automatic random generation of fair-weather cloud layers when CAVOK is specified in the METAR report.

Disable Upper Layer Generation – Prevents the automatic generation of upper-level cirrus layers.

Limit Cloud Layers – When enabled, you can specify the maximum number of cloud layers to have depicted in FS2004. This can improve performance when set to a lower value.

Force Thunderstorms with CB – In some countries, CB is reported when vertical clouds are developing, but thunderstorms do not yet exist. In other countries, CB can be reported in lieu of thunderstorms. To force thunderstorms when CB is found in the METAR report, enable this option.

Extend Thunderstorm Layers – Stretches Tstorm layers as much as possible for maximum vertical anvil depiction. May cause rain effects when outside these clouds.

Add Rain with TS Reports – Some METAR reports show Thunde