13.3.24 Radar and Terrain display

[MiserBird]

Version 13.3.24 was automatically installed recently replacing 12.2.34. Flying with .24 this morning I found the vector map to be really screwy. The weather radar display was blocked with the colors distorted and the terrain was displayed in large blocks with different elevation resolutions. I attempted to revert to my older version, but since this appears to be a production version the APK installer would not allow.

See attached screen shots

 

[Cobra]

Version 13.3.24 was automatically installed recently replacing 12.2.34. Flying with .24 this morning I found the vector map to be really screwy. The weather radar display was blocked with the colors distorted and the terrain was displayed in large blocks with different elevation resolutions. I attempted to revert to my older version, but since this appears to be a production version the APK installer would not allow.

See attached screen shots

The first image is as intended, at least for now. Reference this thread in the Beta subforum, specifically replies 18-24: https://adventurepilot.community.fo...-0-15-beta-released-for-android.361/post-3188
(For those not on the Beta team, there was feedback that AP's attempt to smooth out the blocky radar imagery into something more aesthetically pleasing was not really smoothing it much and was blurring the colors together too much such that the radar returns were very hard to interpret.)

I can't find where he said it, but at some point Brian responded that he'd remove the smoothing logic and show the raw data for now, with the intention to eventually revisit this in the future to find a better way to render the imagery. AFAIK "eventually" hasn't arrived yet.

Personally, I'd prefer to see the raw (blocky) data, since any "smoothing" that is applied is artificial and moving away from the "truth" of the raw data, so I'd be happy if "eventually" never comes. But I also know that the general public has an expectation that "prettier is better" and will show preference for "smoother" radar imagery, so I expect that eventually AP will revisit this topic.

 

[MiserBird]

The first image is as intended, at least for now. Reference this thread in the Beta subforum, specifically replies 18-24: https://adventurepilot.community.fo...-0-15-beta-released-for-android.361/post-3188
(For those not on the Beta team, there was feedback that AP's attempt to smooth out the blocky radar imagery into something more aesthetically pleasing was not really smoothing it much and was blurring the colors together too much such that the radar returns were very hard to interpret.)

I can't find where he said it, but at some point Brian responded that he'd remove the smoothing logic and show the raw data for now, with the intention to eventually revisit this in the future to find a better way to render the imagery. AFAIK "eventually" hasn't arrived yet.

Personally, I'd prefer to see the raw (blocky) data, since any "smoothing" that is applied is artificial and moving away from the "truth" of the raw data, so I'd be happy if "eventually" never comes. But I also know that the general public has an expectation that "prettier is better" and will show preference for "smoother" radar imagery, so I expect that eventually AP will revisit this topic.

Thanks Cobra, I remember well the referenced thread, and I fully agree with you and much prefer the raw image. My main complaint however, is how the light areas of precip now show up as almost just large black blocks. My previous version had a much better presentation of the weather radar. (My opacity is set to 60%) The large blocks in the terrain background as seen in the second image are very poor as compared to before, they don't really even seem to fit together.

Is there ANY path back to my older version that you may be aware of?? My next step will be to try to stop these automatic Android updates.

Seems to me having the APK installer block earlier version installs serves no purpose, maybe instead just a reminder that a newer version exists?

 

[Cobra]

Is there ANY path back to my older version that you may be aware of??

Sure. If you have an older APK, then just uninstall the current version and reinstall the older one.

Seems to me having the APK installer block earlier version installs serves no purpose, maybe instead just a reminder that a newer version exists?

I don't know how the iFly packages are built, but in general, my experience is that an installer will "clean up" and remove either all or at least the unneeded files from earlier versions, before installing the new files. To remove the unneeded files cleanly, it needs to know what files exist and where they are located.

Since the future cannot be predicted, it's not necessarily possible for an older version to know with certainty how to perform that first "clean up" step from an install of a future version.

Like I say, I don't know how it works...but I can imagine there might be reasons. iFly is certainly not the only program that doesn't let you "downgrade" seamlessly from one installed version to an earlier one.

 

[chrisqii]

Unfortunately, the APK files only work when upgrading to a new version. To revert, you must uninstall and then reinstall with the APK version you'd like.

www.iflyefb.com/AndroidAPK

 

[MiserBird]

I listed two display issues in my opening thread. The dark blocks in the radar depiction in the first screenshot were resolved by lowering the opacity from the older version's setting by an additional 15%. The large blocks in the terrain background shown in the second screenshot can be fixed by zooming out and then back in.