[Release] Grb2fmap - GRIB to BMS Converter
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EDIT: did you just rename the .grb.gz to .grb??? You need to decompress the .gz file first! (use winrar, 7zip, …)
you were right I have not decompress the file !!
Thanks Ahmed
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Hi Ahmed !
First, thanks for your amazing tool !
That is why I added the option to get lower map generation intervals.
As GRIB files are generated at a minimum of 3H intervals, I don’t really understand what is the goal of reducing map generation intervals to 60min for exemple. It will load 3 times the same weather map in a 3H period… And if I set a weather movement the map will reset to its original position every hour in the 3H period, right ?
But maybe I have missed something.
Sorry for my English
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No, it will do interpolation math to the values between 0300 and 0600. So 10°C 0300 13°C 0600, the converter will make 11°C 0400 12°C 0500.
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Exactly as Frederf says, the weather will be interpolated between the two forecasts.
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Once again, excellent tool, thank you very much!
May I suggest some features for a future update?
I think it would be a good idea to have an additional small tab in Grib to BMS converter window, that will prompt user to select theater size each time it attempts to load/generate a weather map. Now we must do this manually editing the grb2fmap.ini file, replacing FmapRows=59 and FmapColumns=59 values (which are for standard theater sizes e.g. Korea) to FmapRows=118 and FmapColumns=118 (which values are for bigger theaters like EMF). I do not know if this is possible/better idea but the app could also select a specific TE mission in order to adjust these values, or even better also point the correct weather time generation based on the TE mission start time.
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No, it will do interpolation math to the values between 0300 and 0600. So 10°C 0300 13°C 0600, the converter will make 11°C 0400 12°C 0500.
Exactly as Frederf says, the weather will be interpolated between the two forecasts.
Ok thanks ! I looked in weather commander and effectively temperature, pressure and wind change, only clouds are not interpolated.
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No clouds in FSMAP, only “Weather Type” Sunny/Fair/Poor/Inclement. If these 4 states aren’t smoothed (between state 1 and 3 is 2) then it probably should be. Since it’s only 4 options there is minimal smoothing possible.
I think a great feature would be for suggested weather type data based on GRIB data. It might be a bit too much labor to use but converter might analyze weather data and suggest what static settings for each of the 4 types (visibility, cloud thickness, turbulence).
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There is indeed interpolation on the weather type as well.
The weather type is ‘guessed’ from the cloud coverage and the precipitation data from the GRIB, according to the pre-set criteria.
Both cloud coverage and precipitation data are interpolated before selecting the weather type for a given time, using trilinear interpolation. This is (way) more accurate than interpolating weather types, and also means that there is no necessarily a “poor” state in-between “fair” and “inclement”.
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There is indeed interpolation on the weather type as well.
The weather type is ‘guessed’ from the cloud coverage and the precipitation data from the GRIB, according to the pre-set criteria.
Both cloud coverage and precipitation data are interpolated before selecting the weather type for a given time, using trilinear interpolation. This is (way) more accurate than interpolating weather types, and also means that there is no necessarily a “poor” state in-between “fair” and “inclement”.
There will be necessarly a POOR state between fair and inclement cells…
this interpolation is automatically done in game , put a sunny adjacent to inclement and you will see in game, weather changing is smooth
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I meant in between consecutive fmaps generated by my tool jp (as diditopgun claimed there was none), not inside BMS
EDIT: diditopgun, you can actually notice this interpolation in the video in the first post. Each frame is 1hr, GRIB data interval is 3hrs (aka 3 frames).
EDIT2: Actually, depending on the interval options you set on zyGrib (i.e. interval same than period), you will end up with only one TCDC and APCP record. In this case the “clouds” will be the same for all the files. This is to be expected as there is only one sample. I will think whether to generate only one file in that case for the next release, to avoid confusion. <–- done in v0.5c
EDIT3: Also, as the GRIB cloud cover/precipitation data (only) is encoded for a time range, it is normal for the first couple of hours (until there are two data sets to interpolate from) to show the same weathertype pattern, as there is no data to interpolate in this period, just the first record. There may be a little bit of room for improvement here with some smarter processing. I will take a look… <–- done in (not yet released) v0.5d
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Does anyone know the GRIB map size that should be used to make FMAPs for the 4.33 ITO theater? Or, recommended GRIB coordinates?
Edit, nevermind …. found in post #1.
Also, are the corresponding BMS ITO coordinates needed and, if so, what are those?
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These are one and the same. Just download the GRIB via ZyGRIB from the specified lat/long. Unzip the saved GRIB file then run GRIB2FMAP and point it at the GRIB you just downloaded. Simples!
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Maybe someone can help me out here?
First off incredible tool BTW!!! It appears I have everything working, however. I cannot see the file to select to have it converted?? When I open the grb2fmap and click convert, it is pointing towards the correct folder, but it will not show the *.grb files?? They are in the folder, I can see them. But it will not show when trying to convert them, thus I cannot select the files??? Am I missing something???
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Maybe someone can help me out here?
Am I missing something???Yes, you are missing step 2 of the instructions
- Unzip the downloaded file
The file you download is compressed in .bz2 format. The program only accepts .grib files. You need to decompress your downloaded .bz2 file (most common archivers such as winrar, 7zip, etc will do it)
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AHHH! Damn how did I miss that. lol
THANKS!
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By default the GRIB downloads are compressed. You have to unzip (or whatever compression it uses) to get the files out of the compressed archive.
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Just for those who didn’t notice, v0.5d is up with various small fixes for the issues that were raised over the week, with especial mention to improved interpolation of the weather type in the first few hours generated. Also, for those wanting to match the GRIB forecast times with the BMS time, this is now output to the log window too.
I am also waiting for the answer from the zyGrib developer to the matter of allowing us to use his GRIB data server from within the tool. If it is positive you can expect that option in the future. That should make a little bit more straightforward the process of converting the weather (and most likely allow automatically matching the timezone for those who want that). If not, unless some more issues pop up, this should be final for a long time.
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I’ve been using these coords for Balkans Theater. It may not be exact but it seems to work.
Min N 37 Max N 46
Min E 11 Max E 20 -
I’ve been using these coords for Balkans Theater. It may not be exact but it seems to work.
Min N 37 Max N 46
Min E 11 Max E 20I also found it to work nicely if the longitude and latitude differ 9°!
Enables me to use the local weather here! -
best way to judge the coordinates is to match winds and tempertures to the coastline. when looking in the Weather commander.
as grb2fmap will always convert the area it needs. it’s just a matter of matching if to the theater