Ian, I have terrible news for you, brace yourself...yes, you have to read the manual. I can't even work out what I need to know, let alone tell you.
I've got past the basic configuration with replacement textures and whatnot, but I'm still exploring and usually misunderstanding what the weather engine is doing in P3D, or even whether its doing anything at all. There is still that nagging doubt. For instance, if you select the weather for, say, Bowerman, and then click 'Fly Now' you still go to the default flight location ( in my case Ketchikan ). If you then select Bowerman in the P3D 'go to airport' menu, is the weather there as it should be ? When I got there, there were clouds.. after I forced the weather engine to reload the weather, it it was clear. Were the clouds correct, or is the clear weather correct ?
Is could be as simple as " if you are at Bowerman, and you had 'let the weather engine load the textures' selected beforehand, and you click on ' load weather', then the weather is loaded correctly, the appropriate cloud textures and levels are loaded correctly, all as actually exists at Bowerman ". But, if so...why did the clouds suddenly vanish ?
The good thing is this trial and error process defines exactly what it is you don't quite understand, and the manual seems pretty comprehensive. The authors of the software and the manual have done the best they can, but of course they can't do reading, the comprehension and the implementation of the instructions - I have to do that. I'll stick with it.
