Abdullah Almuntassir of Ultra Weather XP has taken to Facebook to announce what he and the development team is working on new updates for the popular weather and texture engine for X-Plane 11. Since the release of version 2.5.1, the team has looked at bug reports and community tickets to consider what needs to be done next for the product.
It is confirmed that the developer is working on new versions of the product for users and will include plenty of exciting new features. One area in which the development team is focusing on is how visibility is injected into the simulator. Using dynamic Mie and Raliegh scattering, the team can build an engine that produces dynamic visibility. Abdullah said that they are working on to mix “all formulas bring fine results while mixing all of these functions and to give us correct and nice views depending on weather conditions.”
Alongside the visibility, they are also hoping to add other elements such as gain and ambience to the sky as well as dynamic whiteness. These features will come with version 2.6.2.
Right now, the focus is on the visibility factors to come with Ultra Weather 2.6.1. A work in progress list was shared highlighting where the team is with development and roughly how complete a specific component is. You can view that below.
Ultra Weather 2.6.1 Development Progress
- Fix the remaining issue with reported weather that not presented correctly as reported in METAR. ( Done )
- Enhance the “Dynamic Clouds Coloring.” ( Done )
- Enhance the “Dynamic Sky Coloring” ( Done )
- Fix “Clouds Terrain Blend” ( there is a conflict with X-Plane and need more time ) It’s Done from my side but needs to find out what the problem with x-plane!
- Enhance the Cirrus Clouds textures. ( Done )
- Enhance the “Dynamic Water Waves” ( Work in progress 30% )
- Enhance the “Dynamic Light Haze” ( Done )
- Enhance the “Dynamic Mie Scattering” ( Work in progress 90% )
- Enhance the “Dynamic Raleigh Scattering” ( Work in progress 90% )
- Enhance the “Simulate Volumetric Clouds” ( Work in progress 70% )
- Fix the hard edge of clouds in low visibility while using “Increase Cloud Distance” ( Work in progress 80% )
- Fix the remaining clouds popping in and out. ( there is a conflict with X-Plane and need more time ) It’s Done from my side but needs to find out what the problem with x-plane!
- Enhance Flying through clouds effect. ( Done )
- Adjust the whole cloud sizes to gain more FPS. ( Done )
- Enhance the shadows. ( Done)
Once version 2.6.1 is out, work on 2.6.2 will begin and all of the following will be complete with Ultra Weather XP for X-Plane 11.
Current Development
- New Dynamic Mie Scattering.
- New Dynamic Raleigh Scattering.
- New Dynamic Visibility to working together with the above.
- New dynamic Sky Gain (2.6.2) works in the background with above.
- New Dynamic Skies Ambient (2.6.2) works in the background with above.
- New Dynamic Atmosphere to working together with the above.
- New Dynamic Whiteness control (2.6.2) works in the background with above
