elpatron68 / sailawaygribconverter

Adjust Xygrib time to match Sailaway sailing simulator

Sailaway Grib Converter

This program converts Xygrib files downloaded from qtVLM for usage with the sailing simulation game Sailaway.

It shifts the grib 3 hours to the future using wgrib2.exe to better match the Sailaway in-game weather conditions.

Sailaway Grib Converter runs in the background without any user interaction.

Installation

• Download SailawayGribConverter.zip from Releases and extract it to a directory of your choice.
• Create a Desktop shortcut (or Autostart shortcut) to SailawayGribConverter.exe.
• Open the shortcut properties and append [1 blank]"<Path to qtVLM grib directory>"[1 blank]"<Full path to wgrib2.exe>" to the Target field in the shortcut´s properties.
  • Example for Target: "C:\Tools\SailawayGribConverter\SailawayGribConverter.exe" "C:\Program Files\qtVlm\grib" "C:\Tools\SailawayGribConverter\wgrib2.exe"

Usage

General

• Start Sailaway Grib Converter from the shortcut before you start qtVLM.
• Select area and download Xygrib to a grib slot of your choice.
• As soon as the file is downloaded, it will be converted using wgrib2.exe.
• Reload the grib file in qtVLM (Grib - Grib Slot X - Reload).
• Exit the program by right-clicking on its tray icon if you don´t use it anymore.

Select Time Shift

Right click on the tray icon and select Time Shift - +x hour(s) to adjust the time span the grib is moved. The selected value will be permanenty saved. Default is +3 hours.

Pause

Right click on the tray icon and select Pause if you don´t want SailawayGribConverter to automatically convert downloaded grib files.

How it works

Sailaway Grib Converter uses a File System Watcher to get noticed about any newly created files with the extension *.grb2 in the directory where qtVLM saves downloaded gribs.

Once a grib file is downloaded, it will immediately be time-shifted to +3 hours using wgrib2.exe. The new file overwrites the former (unshifted) file, so the user has to reload the Grib in qtVLM (or restart qtVLM) to let the changes take effect.

Use qtVLMs Grid Info (Crtl-I) to compare the weather conditions from the game with the ones from the grid (works best if you use Sailaway to NMEA)