Allowance to manually edit FPL file

[Paul_UK]

Whilst I know in RL there are not many that set off on XC with cloud base much lower than 3000feet AGL I thought it'd be fun to make a weak thermal strength (high variation) with a 2500feet AGL cloudbase, club class task. To achieve this I had to adjust the FPL file manually as the GUI in Condor will not allow you to create a cloudbase this low. It's flyable, and at a half reasonable speed so I thought I'd use it for a VSC race.

On attempting to upload to CC I get a warning saying 'task parameters are out of Condor's range etc....' My question is how comes some parts of FPL's can be manually edited, i.e. TP radius for AAT, but not other parts of the FPL file?

The only downside to the 2500AGL cloudbase is there are more CU generated and those with a lower spec PC may experience FPS drop due to this.

[Fronzee]

Hi Paul,

we experimented with various weather settings in FPL file and it turned out to give great results.
Its possible to set not just low cloudbases, but also much higer variation of thermal temp differences (although this gives sometimes high differences in very short distance - but hey, you could get clouds with double cloudbases as well).
Tried setting values as high as 8 (max allowable in GUI is 4-5), and with high values you could really get huge cloudstreets, combined with high activity and wide thermals you could get nice weather like after cold front - low cloudbases with wide thermals.. Setting thermals to weak nicely recreates these conditions.. only lacking temperature rise and cloudbase growing during the day as in reality.

It would be interesting to know the opinion of developers why values over the "very high" in GUI is not allowed, while, in my opinion, with them you could really recreate some real life weather patterns. If value is higher than GUI allows it just show blank during the pre-flight.

Marius

[Paul_UK]

I'm not so fussed about not being able to see the representation in the GUI. It's more an annoyance I can't upload the task to Condor Club so that it can be flown as a task and scored on the CC site.

[Paul_UK]

I've just been having a quick mess with settings and I actually got streeting to work I had thermal strength set to weak but I think it needs to be very weak, or maybe less. Anyway, 37km flown without a turn and climbing

Shot1.jpg

Shot2.jpg

No_Turn.JPG

[Bre901]

I've just been having a quick mess with settings and I actually got streeting to work I had thermal strength set to weak but I think it needs to be very weak, or maybe less. Anyway, 37km flown without a turn and climbing

Shot1.jpg

Shot2.jpg

No_Turn.JPG

That looks great indeed

Could you please post the weather part of your actual FPL ? TIA

[JeffSmith]

Yeaaah, you've got to keep those sky sheep in line!

Sheep dog sky?

[Paul_UK]

[Weather]
WindDir=191.821487426758
WindSpeed=5.24740552902222
WindUpperSpeed=0
WindDirVariation=1
WindSpeedVariation=2
WindTurbulence=1
ThermalsTemp=14.078125
ThermalsTempVariation=1
ThermalsDew=5.46875
ThermalsStrength=0
ThermalsStrengthVariation=3
ThermalsInversionheight=2012.5
ThermalsWidth=4
ThermalsWidthVariation=1
ThermalsActivity=8
ThermalsTurbulence=1
ThermalsFlatsActivity=7
ThermalsStreeting=8
WavesStability=5
WavesMoisture=8
HighCloudsCoverage=0
Pressure=1012.55340576172
WeatherPreset=0
RandomizeWeatherOnEachFlight=0

Key parameters changed manually are in Bold

Testing so far I run locked at 60FPS (V-sync enabled) and whenever the weather does its refresh, or whatever bit refreshes in Condor now and then, I get a small dip to 55FPS for a second.

I maybe need to reduce flats activity a bit or thermals activity just to create a few gaps in the street. I think adding high level cloud may also cause this effect so I'll try that too.

[Paul_UK]

Annoying, you cannot upload an FTR to Condor Club if you have manually edited certain parameters in your FPL file