CumulusX, real thermal system for gliders in FSX

[Daube]

Hi all,

I will forward here the information I got on another forum. It's about two nice little freeware modules called CumulusX and Simprobe.


WHAT IS IT ?
CumulusX is a module that will create thermals in the FSX world.
Simprobe is a module that analyse in real time the landscape and the wind around you, to dertermine where CumulusX should create thermals, in a realistic manner.

Note for FS9 users: simprobe will not work on FS9. BUT CumulusX is also designed to work with some kind of pre-computed maps to determine where to create thermals. In the end, it's the same, it's just that simprobe does it dynamically, without downloading any map.


PREREQUISITES:
You need FSX SP2 (for the FSX version with simprobe, that is), .NET Framework 2.0, and I don't remember what else. Everything is explained in details on the homepages.


WHERE TO GET THEM:
Follow these links
http://www.luerkens.homepage.t-online.de/peter/
(scroll down to find the FS9 version)
http://carrier.csi.cam.ac.uk/forsterlew ... index.html


TROUBLESHOOTING:
If CumulusX! crashes at startup (with an error like "system.invalidoperation"), you are probably using FSX Acceleration. You have to perform the following steps:
- uninstall Acceleration
- install SP1
- install SP2 (CumulusX! should  work properly at this point)
- uninstall SP2
- install Acceleration
Worked for me

[unknown]

Wow! Thanks!

[Werd]

Bump!

I'm using this tool for few weeks and I have to say it's awesome. I switched 100% to soaring and even deleted all aircrafts but some gliders. FSX took a new dimension for me.  :)

[Werd]

TROUBLESHOOTING:
CumulusX crashes at startup. It just refuse to work on my PC. If anybody has any idea on how to solve this problem, let me know :/

CumulusX will crash if you have only Acceleration installed instead of SP2.  
So please uninstall Acceleration, then install SP2 then reinstall Acceleration. Normally it will work.

[Daube]

That's interesting. I read that same advise somewhere else (maybe on the Cumulus forum, I don't remember) but wasn't sure if it wa true or not.

Actually, my FSX is quite full of addons, so I have some questions:
- What are the risks if I uninstall Acceleration ? Will it damage anything about my addons ?
- Assuming that I manage to uninstall Acceleration and install SP2 successfully, what will I need to do to install Acceleration again ? Uninstall SP2 first or not ?

[NickN]

TROUBLESHOOTING:
CumulusX crashes at startup. It just refuse to work on my PC. If anybody has any idea on how to solve this problem, let me know :/

CumulusX will crash if you have only Acceleration installed instead of SP2.

[Werd]

Hi

Installing Acceleration after you install the standalone SP2 did help at least two people and I believe Acceleration SP2 and standalone SP2 are NOT the same thing. Actually Acceleration installer deletes SP2 but I guess some files are kept since CumulusX works after that.

edit:
here http://virtualsoaring.org/iboard/index. ... celeration
and here http://www.libertysim.net/forum/viewtop ... =6&t=18226
(french forum.. same problem, same solution)

[Daube]

TROUBLESHOOTING:
CumulusX crashes at startup. It just refuse to work on my PC. If anybody has any idea on how to solve this problem, let me know :/

CumulusX will crash if you have only Acceleration installed instead of SP2.

[Daube]

Thanks for the info Werd, I will uninstall my Acceleration and try to install SP2. Let's hope it will work.

[NickN]

Give it a try and see what happens..

If it does work I would really like to know why and if doing it that way has any effect on the sim otherwise

[Daube]

OK just for information, I am now uninstalling/reinstalling the packs.

After uninstallation of Acceleration and installation of SP1 and SP2, CumulusX could start successfully, no crash anymore.

I will now launch the installation of Acceleration again, and see what happens.

[Daube]

Acceleration reinstalled, CumulusX! works like a charm

[NickN]

hmmmmmmm

I'm going to keep my eyes and ears open on this one because from all logic, it should not have made any difference and now someone else reported a performance change after installing SP2 and then installing Acceleration

Acceleration will typically have you uninstall the stand alone SP2 if it is in your FSX so something strange is going on

[Daube]

Absolutely Nick, when reinstalling Acceleration, I had an information message asking me to uninstall SP2 first, which I did.

Performance-wise, I could not notice any difference compared to my initial Acceleration installation (which was originally made upon a fresh FSX install, with no SPs at all). Of course, some differences appeared nevertheless, for example the water towers were back, since the default.xml was restored (I deleted it in my previous installation). Another visible impact is the loading times and little stutters in the game... after uninstalling and reinstalling all this stuff (plus all the addons I installed recently), I need to defrag my harddrive again urgently.


PS: there's one phenomenom that I just noticed,though. It concerns the level of details of the ground mesh. When I switch to tower view (even just for one second) and then back to the cockpit, the mesh around my plane is "simplified" and gets rebuild immediately. Having recently installed a 10m mesh for that area (Alps), the difference is very noticeable. I don't remember having this happenning before, but I'm not sure 100% yet.