A couple of questions for a new user

[greg100o 12]

I just started using AS4.5 I have looked at the well written manual. My questions are as follows1. I have many saved weather situations and Weatherscape Schemes. I am uncertain how those fit into AS4.5, or how to implement them with AS4.5 which seems to function mainly by downloading real weather only.Once I just started the weather sitation and then refreshed AS4.5 and it seemed to pick up on it, but I was not sure if it did anything or I was dealing with the old FS weather system.2. Why have an update interval of 10 minutes while flying when the server updates 4 times a day? Does this relate to TAF?3. I have a Radeon 9800 Pro with 1.25GB RAM and 2.6 GHZ procesor. Is that considered Lo end[nowadays]? Reason I ask is that with PSS aircraft I seem to get more stuttering than before. How many cloud levels would be reasonable to try [with 5 as default] using default FS 2004 clouds?Thanks in advance.Greg

[JSkorna 137]

Hi Greg,Welcome aboard!! Thanks for reading the manual! To answer your questions:1. Right, your saved weather situations and schemes cannot be used in AS 2004. Real weather, either current or archived, is our goal right now.2. There are 2 modes of operation, Online and Offline. In Online Mode you are connected to our weather server and you receive updates every XX minutes per your update setting. The server archives or saves weather data 4 times per day for Offline Mode. In Offline Mode you are not not getting constant updates, but are using downloaded current weather or archived weather data from the past. Our server has been saving weather data since last December. This mode is useful for users who have not so good Internet connections or for those that like to fly in historic weather. It is in this mode that TAFs are used.3. Your system would be mid-range. Using default clouds I would suggest:3 cloud layers.Cloud draw distance set to 30 miles in FS04.Sight draw distance set to 60 miles in FS04.For better frame rates in clouds I suggest using FSW clouds from Chris.Please write back if you have other questions or problems! Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

[Guest McFly]

I was going to post a question similar to the above.I just purchased Active Sky today and was a quite dissapointed that it only has real weather capabilities. That is fine for some situations. But what about the times when you want to fly in a rain storm or heavy cloud situations and the real world at the time is bright, clear and sunny? Not much need for Active Sky. I'm sure this has been voiced before. Would it be possible to have canned themes much in the way of FS9. . . only better?Hey, I like what I see but around where I live it rains about 10 days a year. Terry

[JSkorna 137]

Hi,You are disappointed that it only has real weather? Isn't that what you expected? What made you believe we had weather themes? Not sure what the future holds, but there are no short term plans for weather themes. There has not been a huge request for this.Somewhere in the world it is raining/snowing at all times!Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

[Guest McFly]

Jim,I guess I should have said "simulated real time weather". Of course it's not "real weather". Your program is obviously creating the terrific effects from code. It doesn't seem like a gigantic stretch to create whatever conditions a person would like to see. Not much interest in themes? It didn't take a very big search to find a topic that shared my view. It would be a big + to have the option to create whatever flying conditions you want to see without traveling the world.Best regards Terry

[Guest Paragon]

If you like weather themes I would suggest you take a look at weathermaker, it's a very nice program and I got a copy of the beta weathermakerPro and it's excellent.I for one would rather have a "sleek" program that only downloads and gives me the real weather and nothing else. If it was up to me I wouldn't even have the weather radar. :)

[Guest McFly]

Paragon,AS is really a great addon. Fortunatly we had a few storms in my area over the weekend and I was able to save the data for later use. I will take a look-see at the program you mention. Although I can't imagine it holding up to the visuals from AS 2004. TerryRemember me poking fun at your sig? No hard feelings.:-)