A new weather engine with historical data comes to MSFS: xEnviro 2020 released!
We have a surprising new release this weekend for those looking to get a better weather simulation in MSFS. That is, at least, xEnviro‘s promise: to offer you “the most accurate weather engine for Microsoft Flight Simulator“.
It’s a bold claim that comes backed by the team’s 10-year experience with X-Plane, but xEnviro is a bit of a controversial add-on on that side of the flight simulation sphere, with many users complaining about overpromises and under-deliveries. It’s also very expensive there, at $70…
Thankfully, MSFS users will have to pay a bit less. Those who own the X-Plane version can get this update for MSFS for $24. New users will have to shell out $42, which is still considerable. Will xEnviro justify the high cost with its claims about increased realism and historical weather?
The truth is this product is now just launching for MSFS and there is a specific path the developers hope to follow with subsequent updates. For now, you’re getting the promised highly-realistic METAR-based real-time weather engine, with a refresh interval between 5 and 60 minutes, and historical weather. The latter is a first in MSFS from what we’re aware of, but it comes with a caveat: it only works beyond 16/10/2022.
Still, historical weather is something many MSFS users have been clamoring for, so it’s good to see someone promising to deliver that feature on the platform. Eventually, xEnviro will look to add its own “true-scale” clouds, effectively customizing the visuals beyond the default Asobo clouds used by the stock weather engine and REX Weather Force.
xEnviro 2020 for MSFS is available now exclusively through the Threshold Store. As stated above, pricing is set at $42.00 for new users, while existing owners of the X-Plane version are eligible for a $20 discount.
Features:
- Real-time meteorological data with a refresh interval from 5 up to 60 minutes.
- Historical weather data is available at 30 minutes intervals.
- Atmosphere condition based on dynamic air parcel prediction model used for real aviation research and training.
- Advanced atmosphere topology methods provide accurate cloud thickness and density prediction.
- Atmosphere quality includes humidity, pollution and fine particle amount.
- Actual wind direction and speed for all levels and temperature, turbulence and wind shear.
- Simulation of in-cloud turbulence.
- Surface crosswind components can be reduced during ground roll for users with no rudder pedals.
- Seasonal data processed by our servers all year round provides real-time snow coverage.
- All the weather and atmosphere-heavy calculations are executed on our servers. Therefore, expect no performance impact on your hardware.
- Feature to look up the current METAR, and TAF reports in the Weather Briefing window.
- Feature to display METAR reports for the stations around your aircraft.
- Options to change Flight Simulator toolbar appearance and size.
