First and foremost, I love ASV5 and the cloud textures within the program. However, I had a chance this weekend to experience FE (without ASV5) on a friends CPU. I was amazed by the textures and the environment that it produced. I am interested in using FE textures along with ASV5, as I see that both programs have a definate place within my flight sim world. With that said, I have a couple questions.1. Will ICS still work withing ASV5 when using FE cloud textures?2. Is it possible to keep all of AE cloud textures and FE cloud textures within the sim?3. Will the overcast enhancement work with FE's cloud textures?4. Will extend Thunderstorm Layers work with FE's cloud textures?5. In general, will all the ASV5 options work with FE's textures?One thing I did not get to experience with FE as I have many times with AE is the towering thunderstorm clouds. The anvils produced by AE, are awesome. I wish that I could see how FE incorporates this beautiful, yet frightful cloud texture. Anyone that has FE and uses ASV5 please comment on this as I would like to know. Post a screenshot if you can.Again, this is my first post and by no means am I diminishing the great work by Chris with AE. I am just looking for a change and wanting to use a new texture set. Before doing so, I just want to make sure that ASV5 options outside of AE all work if using FE cloud textures. Thanks in advance.

Hi,1. No2. Yes, because only the textures currently being used are kept in the sim. The rest are kept in their respective programs.3. Yes4. Yes5. All but ICS.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Sales and Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_dev_team.jpg http://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_proud_supporter.jpg

Hey Jim, thanks for the quick reply. I just want to make sure I have this straight. What I have gathered from your reply is that the Online Option will be null and void if I use FE. Is that correct? The reason why I gather this conclusion is due to the response about ICS. If I choose to to use Real World Weather VIA online updates(ASV), it would not be "Real" because ASV does not have the ability to load correct cloud textures. Is this right?If this is right, what should I select within ASV5 to ensure that I am getting correct textures for the weather defined in the METAR using FE cloud set.Jim, Chris and Damian. I for one want to thank you for a wonderful program. Also, the support you offer is second to none on this forum and I for one very much appreciate it.

I use both ASV5 and FE on my system. I find that I have a huge palette of environments to work with, because I like some textures from ASV and others from FE. Keep in mind that FE is only a program that replaces FS2004 textures, while ASV can recreate weather conditions and change textures. The Intelligent Cloud Selection (ICS) is really nice because it's automatic, but ASV can still use FE fairly well to recreate weather. If you want, you can simply fetch a metar report from the starting point and choose the best clouds from FE to fit the weather. I find that storm cells look best using ASV and ICS, I'm assuming this is because FE's stratus textures are not as straight and thus don't make a realistic anvil. Depending on the conditions you like flying in, you'll find good things in both sets of cloud textures. FE allows for more different types of clouds than the Active Environment from what I've seen, but ASV seems to do better with it's own textures when building heavily in the vertical direction (as in the case of storm cells). In either case ASV is an awesome FS2004 addition and looks great! :)

So if I select ICS in ASV, ASV will load Active Enviroments textures and not Flight Enviroments? Is this correct? Or I should ask this. Is there a way to load ICS and have ASV load Active Enviroments textures. Then also load in Flight Enviroment cloud textures along with the AE set. Is this possible? I think both Peter's and Chris's cloud textures are awesome and would love to use them both at the SAME time.Is this possible ASV team?

I also wanted to add that I now own both products being ASV5 and Flight Environment. I am not looking to replace either product with the other, I just want both products to compliment one another.This weekend, we have been experiencing some dynamic weather here in Texas. I did a short flight from KDAL to KSAT. The weather generated by ASV was awesome. I flew by 6 anvils from fierce thunderstorms on both my west and east side. However, the storms still were missing something. What I believed that it was missing is some of the textures I see with Flight Environment. This has struct my interest to use both programs and have the best of all these fabulous textures. If ASV currently does not do this, I would suggest that you intergrate ICS to select textures from both Active Enviroment and Flight Environment. In my opinion, if ASV5 could do this, I personaly would reach my Flight Sim Nirvana.I ask all these questions in case the program already does this and I am missing out. Also, my lack of understanding what options will cause what programs textures into FS9 is very limited at the moment.

Hi,I hope to combine your last 2 posts in my one reply here. Please write me back if I miss something or if you have more questions!From you other post: Online Updates will still work no matter what cloud program you use, AE or FE.From this post: You can use both textures and here is how:Configute ASV to start with ICS+Manual. Save the options and close ASV for now.Start FE and make your FE choices.Close FE.Start ASV. ICS will only overwrite any cirrus selection.Start FS04.So what you will have is: FE main clouds and water textures, ICS for the cirrus textures from AE, and Online Updates from ASV.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Sales and Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_dev_team.jpg http://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_proud_supporter.jpg

Hi Jim:When you say "Configute ASV to start with ICS+Manual," does thismean check the ICS and Last Active Environment option?Many Thanks

Hi,Yes, I mis-typed!Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Sales and Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_dev_team.jpg http://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_proud_supporter.jpg

JimThis thread is confusing.To the question:1. Will ICS still work withing ASV5 when using FE cloud textures? You answer No, butthen you say by configuirng ASV to start ICS + Last environment,"ICS will only overwrite any cirrus selection," "you will have FE main clouds and water textures, ICS for the cirrus textures from AE, plus online updates from ASV".I guess you are saying that ICS will not be selecting intelligent clouds except for cirrus. Just relying on the FE clouds.Thanks for clarifying.Greg

HI,There is confusion.Using ICS will use AE clouds cumulus, stratus and cirrus will change during the flight with AEASV.Using ICS +last envsky will use AE clouds and get the last sky set and environment from AE or others like FE or fs sky world.Basicaly if you want to use only FE with ASV, set asv startup to: All Manual (No Auto Selection) FE will random the texture before fs2004 is started.Ps: Clouds type such as CB, cumulus, stratus are all the same, only the texturecolor change before the flight.ThanksChris WillisHiFi Simulation Software Team Developerhttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_dev_team.jpg http://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_proud_supporter.jpg