Not PMDG related but this is the best forum for advice........

[Guest Northy]

Hi fellow pilots,I'm looking to buy a weather program or weather radar program.What about Activesky 2004? Any 737 drivers use it? If so,whats it like? does it generate better weather than the default FS9 weather?Also I've been looking into Reality xp's weather radar,anyone care to comment on it.Your opinions would be appreciated.Thanks,Regards,Martin.:-)

[744pilot 0]

I don't own the reality Xp radar but I do own the AS2004 (activsky pro)and it's worth it. it's better then the FS9 wx.You also get a WX radar with it but it's not as good a reality WX radar.Good luck,

[Vulcan 14]

Always use AS2004 and would not hesitate to reccomend it to anyone looking for a 'real' weather program.It's not perfect, yet, thanks to the known wind 'bug' that FS9 has but the AS team, along with Pete Dowson are working hard to curb the effects.I do have the other popular weather program but now use AS because I feel that team are moving forward to a perfect solution.As mentioned AS2004 has it's own weather radar so you may not need the Reality radar, however I do not have it so cannot comment on how much better it may be.Good luck.

[Guest Northy]

Hi Vulcan,Thanks for the reply.You mention a wind bug,how much of a problem does cause while flying?Thanks,Regards,Martin.

[Guest Erups]

The so called "wind-bug" is part of the inner core of the FS2004 weather engine: when the wind is turning cw it's smooth, when turning ccw it's not smooth anymore (may be the reverse, i don't remember).Anyway since release of FSUIPC 3.30 (if i'm not mistaken) Peter Dawson found a way to eliminate this bug, and AS2004 benefited from this (as does anybody using a meteo prog which passes trough FSUIPC or using registered FSUIPC).All i can say is that with AS2004 you have almost perfect weather representation, very few problems (i never had, but from time to time somebody shows some problem, i think it's plain normal for any software) and the team is eager to help should you have any problem, even the most stupid.One of the best buy in the sim community from my point of view.

[Guest meyomyx]

Just for balance - I use FSMeteo and it works very well indeed.

[Guest DZollner]

I own both AS2004 and FSMeteo. Since purchasing AS2004 I don't use FSMeteo any longer. My biggest gripe with the FS2004 weather was the severe wind shifts. But, with FSUIPC 3.30, those wind shifts are gone and I'm in heaven. It's such a great pleasure to fly up to cruise altitude in the 737NG with a nice smooth climb now. IMHO the skies look much more realistic with AS2004 than with FSMeteo and the default weather. Multiple cloud layers, high cirrus (I know FSUIPC adds these too, but AS2004 adds its own as well), and some convincing overcast and storm representations. I had always been a faithful patron of Marc's FSMeteo, until I saw how it introduced some annoying stutters when introducing weather into FS2004. I then decided to give AS2004 a try and am extremely pleased that I did.

[Guest psouthan]

Hi,I am a perfectionist when it comes to FS flying. I have spent thousands of hours and money on my set up. My advice is go for it but have the specs to meet its requirements. I'm not saying it slows your system down (I don't know) I have a pentium 4 600GB hard drive 2GB of memory and a 246MB Gforce FX590 ultra video card. The clouds are superb especially with the beta version.RegardsPaul

[Guest LLgaz]

I have both Activesky and FSMeteo. For eye candy, in terms of better looking and more varied clouds, and better cloud and visibility smoothing,.....less of "cloudy then totally clear", Activesky wins hands down. However, I use FSMeteo 90% of the time, using Activesky only when FSMeteo's server is down. The reason why I prefer FSMeteo is that it gives much more accurate winds aloft while still giving a decent representation of the clouds. I usually plan my flights by taking in the "big" picture with aloft winds charts online, and FSMeteo is almost always an accurate representation of those winds. Since winds aloft affect my flight more than clouds then I vote for winds.The Wind Shift bug affects both.....(unless you use the route based weather smoothing of Activesky, but this just gives you an average for wind aloft simulation which isn't realistic) but is lessened alot by the fix in FSUIPC. Also both will have server down times from time to time, but these are few and far between.

[Guest cast1010]

Anthony, you would probably want to check ActiveSky forum, your facts are a little outdated on behalf of ActiveSky 2004. There's not even the "Route based wind smoothing" fuction anymore in the most recent build (being out for two weeks), go and check it out, the winds aloft are as reported, though there is still a small bug bothering and that has been fixed in the soon to be released new beta build.Carlos