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After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.
I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.
For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.
From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.
Sincerely, Jeff D.
Jerry Prsha
EF4
I'm Stoked!
Rory has been doing nothing but programming for like two years straight to get this product perfected.
I even had to alert him to the hurricane hitting the coast last year so he'd get some screenshots of Weather Defender in action. Poor guy probably forgot he got married a couple of years back as well... heheh
Rory has been doing nothing but programming for like two years straight to get this product perfected.
I even had to alert him to the hurricane hitting the coast last year so he'd get some screenshots of Weather Defender in action. Poor guy probably forgot he got married a couple of years back as well... heheh
Chris Lott
EF4
I received an e-mail from Rory of the screenshots of the new weather defender. It looks awesome! I'm not a subscriber, and I still can't see myself paying a subscription with the likes of GRLevel 3 available. I've heard good and bad about swift wx. I tried the trial version of swift wx and had a lot of trouble with it. Hopefully they have a lot of the bugs worked out.
James Wilson
EF5
I use it now and can not wait to use the new version this weekend.
Jim Saueressig
EF5
Loaded it, found out how laggy the graphics are in zoom transition, found out you pay even more than the already overpriced program for adding lightning, deleted after 10 minutes.
It looked sweet but it is just overpriced bloatware IMO.
GRLVLX is just fine.
It looked sweet but it is just overpriced bloatware IMO.
GRLVLX is just fine.
Joey Ketcham
I agree, I installed it this morning and 30 minutes later I uninstalled it. It looks pretty, but as far as the data I can get everything I need on GRLevel3 at a much cheaper cost. $19.97/month way overpriced, especially when you can pay a one-time fee to purchase GRLevel3 and configure it to get the same data you get with this software.
I'll stick with GRLevel3, if the price was much lower than what it is now I would probably get it, but for $19.97 it's simply not worth it.
paulmarv
EF0
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2009
- Messages
- 31
I agree. Twenty bucks a month is ridiculous, especially when the thing runs in seconds per frame instead of frames per second. In fact, it's not even that since it doesn't use an actual rendering engine like GR, however, it uses the TatukGIS library, which does a large portion of work for the program.
And who else hates the new projected Storm Path graphics? It looks much better in Swift 2.7, in my opinion.
I do, however, like the Radar Contouring. Almost as good as GR2A's smoothing. I've always wondered how GR performs the smoothing... does Mike Gibson ever post here?
And who else hates the new projected Storm Path graphics? It looks much better in Swift 2.7, in my opinion.
I do, however, like the Radar Contouring. Almost as good as GR2A's smoothing. I've always wondered how GR performs the smoothing... does Mike Gibson ever post here?
Dan Cook
EF5
Tried it out and ended up uninstalling it. It's too bloated and it runs slowly on my system while it runs GrlevelX and Stormlab perfectly.
Chris Lott
EF4
That's the problem I had with the trial of Swift wx. It bogged my computer down and everything took forever to load. GRLevel 3 ran like a charm when I tried it. No doubt in my mind which way to go.
Jason Boggs
DITTO from the last 5 posts. I tested it out and uninstalled it after 10 minutes. Grlevel3 is a MUCH BETTER program and costs less than this. What could be better? There is simply no better radar software than GRLevelX. Of course this is my opinion, but I know I'm not alone.
Joey Ketcham
I reinstalled Weather Defender again today since we have a shot of severe weather here in Kansas, wanted to see how it performed during severe weather and I must say, I'm not at all impressed.
Aside from the already mentioned slowness, an MD was issued about an hour ago for central and eastern Kansas and it has yet to show in Weather Defender. A severe t-storm watch was issued for the same area, that isn't showing in Weather Defender either. Yes the layers are turned on and it shows that the updates for the watches and MD's are being downloaded.
In GRLevel3 the MD and the watch showed up within minutes after being issued.
I don't see how $20/mo for this is worth it, the radar data is terrible.. it is way too smoothed and too much loss in details. Stick with GRLevel3 and StormLab, Weather Defender isn't worth it.
Aside from the already mentioned slowness, an MD was issued about an hour ago for central and eastern Kansas and it has yet to show in Weather Defender. A severe t-storm watch was issued for the same area, that isn't showing in Weather Defender either. Yes the layers are turned on and it shows that the updates for the watches and MD's are being downloaded.
In GRLevel3 the MD and the watch showed up within minutes after being issued.
I don't see how $20/mo for this is worth it, the radar data is terrible.. it is way too smoothed and too much loss in details. Stick with GRLevel3 and StormLab, Weather Defender isn't worth it.
Tyler Allison
EF5
Wow. I can feel the love in here 
Derek Weston
EF5
target audience for the product probably isn't the severe savvy storm chaser. So you get something supposedly more user friendly -- more graphic intensive -- that ends up feeling clunky to the storm chaser. (who is used to products like grlevelx)
I can see it doing well enough for the intended audience.
I can see it doing well enough for the intended audience.
Jim Saueressig
EF5
Who is the intended audience at that price?
It looks and feels like a toy for weather wannabes or armchair super chasers but I don't see them paying that kind of price, not for very long.....
Derek Weston
EF5
from the website:
Weather Defender is designed specifically for Emergency Management Professionals and First Responders. Our clients include Police and Fire departments, City and County governments, camps, conference centers, private companies and weather-wise citizens.
I don't think the product will do well with their last mention, the "weather-wise citizens" -- aka, chaser types.
But, 20 dollars a month for the before mentioned organizations is nothing.
They're less likely to be critical of the information and more likely to be lured in by good marketing (the features) and an attractive looking software package. GrLevelx, which is likely a superior product, will not look as attractive to these entities. (again, assuming they only have basic knowledge when it comes to monitoring severe weather)
(though, if there are really issues with the software being difficult to use due to slowness, it'll struggle anywhere, ultimately)
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