Confused about AS Graphics

[Guest bfindlay]

...as in 'what is the point'? What does this do? I get that it 'copies texture sets' to FS9 BEFORE you launch FS9, but how does that help? If I load a 'cirrus set' for instance, and get to FS9 and the weather is broken cumulus - what benefit did the 'Cirrus set' do me? Where are the displayed (non cirrus) textures coming from? FS9 default? Holland? I see there is an option for generating texture loads via ASv6 weather - makes sense. Except you must do this BEFORE you load FS9 - I guess you must have in mind a route or something before you load the sim, enter it into the weather (the airport id), fetch the weather, then manually load it into fs9?? For what benefit? For the life of me, I cannot see any difference or any effect whatsoever that the graphics part does here. (I do see the effects of the weather engine though!)Would love to see this spelled out, perhaps with some example screenshots before and after a 'texture set' load. I certainly don't get it.Love the weather engine though - don't get me wrong - AS is my first and foremost FS add-on - and I have been a happy customer for years!-confused

[Chris Willis 8]

Hi, Thanks for using ASV. ASG contains texture that's are only to improve the quality of the cloudssky visual. Texture must be submited before fs2004 is running, because fs2004 can't refresh the texture clouds during the sim except the cirrus clouds.The weathermetar are generated by ASV6 weather engine, when the ASV6 metar reports the cirrus, cumulus,stratus, CB or any clouds formation, you will see those weathermetar generated from ASV6 as well with the ASG texture displayed in fs2004. ASG are here to improve the quality of the visual cloudssky and ASV6 Generate the weathermetar data reports in Fs2004.ThanksChris WillisHiFi Simulation Software Team Developerhttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_dev_team.jpg http://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_proud_supporter.jpg

[Guest bfindlay]

Hi Chris - thanks for replying. Didn't help though. If I choose a 'cirrus' theme. What effect does that have on the textures FS9 uses to model stratus/cumulus clouds? What textures does FS9 use in this instance?Maybe we should do a 'pepsi challenge' - spot the picture with ASG graphics uploaded! I know I would miss it! ;-)

[Chris Willis 8]

Hi, "If I choose a 'cirrus' theme. What effect does that have on the textures FS9 "Fs2004 does have seperate cirrus texture, stratus, cumulus and wispy type, each of these are seperate, this is means, if you select cirrus theme, it won't affect stratus, cumulus etc. Each Texture will be always be appropriate to the correct clouds type formation for cirrus, stratus and cumulus familly.ThanksChris WillisHiFi Simulation Software Team Developerhttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_dev_team.jpg http://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_proud_supporter.jpg

[Guest bfindlay]

Ok, so if the graphics program has no effect on anything other than the exact cloud types in a set, and your realtime weather has none of those clouds, then that brings me back to the 'what is the point' question. Seriously - I can see that a ton of work has gone into this, and I am eager to see the benefit, but I don't. Yet.In previous instances of improved cloud textures, one made available to the sim replacement textures that were used throughout the enviornment. From what I understand about this one, you have to 'guess' the weather you are going to experience before entering the sim, and if you guess right, you get improved textures - guess wrong, or change your location (weather), and you get FS9 deafault textures. Is that correct? Why can't we load all the textures, all the time and let the weather engine choose the ones that apply at the moment??

[Gazer75 0]

>Ok, so if the graphics program has no effect on anything>other than the exact cloud types in a set, and your realtime>weather has none of those clouds, then that brings me back to>the 'what is the point' question. Seriously - I can see that>a ton of work has gone into this, and I am eager to see the>benefit, but I don't. Yet.You might run into clouds on your flight no?>In previous instances of improved cloud textures, one made>available to the sim replacement textures that were used>throughout the enviornment. From what I understand about this>one, you have to 'guess' the weather you are going to>experience before entering the sim, and if you guess right,>you get improved textures - guess wrong, or change your>location (weather), and you get FS9 deafault textures. Is>that correct? Why can't we load all the textures, all the>time and let the weather engine choose the ones that apply at>the moment??Pick wx-influenced on both in ASv6. Using a flightplan or starting on same airport as the one you select as default in ASv6 will get you coulds appropriate for current wx.You get improved textures either way if you submit anything using ASG manually or through IGS.Suggest you take some time to read the manuals.JT

[JSkorna 137]

Hi,I am going to try to clear up your questions. The first seems to be: What is the point of ASG?The point of ASG is that it is a front end environmental texture loader. It takes textures and loads them into the texture folder of FS. Texture loaders have been in use for years. FS Sky, FS Sky World 2002, FS Sky World 2004, FS Water, Flight Environment all do/did the same thing: they organized textures and placed them into FS04. Notice that I will never use the word "install". That is because these textures are never truely "installed" into FS; they are just placed. They can be overwritten or copied over with no harm to the sim.What does this do for the user? One word: choice. It gives a user the choice of what their environmental textures will look like. And with choice comes the idea that THERE ARE NO WRONG CHOICES; you cannot chose wrong!So now: How do we chose? Well, one of three ways:1. Manually: We go through and choose textures that we think look nice to us. THERE ARE NO WRONG CHOICES. Sharp edged clouds? Great. Blue colored haze? Wonderful. A blue looking sunset? Stunning. Go ahead and CHOSE your favorite textures and load them. What about Themes? Think of Themes as packaged texture groups. Some users don't likehave the timecan't be bothered going through pages of textures tring to CHOSE what textures to use. So we have Themes, a package of textures that can be loaded with a single click of a button. Users can create their own Themes. Put together a combination that you like, give it a unique, discriptive name and save it.2. Randomly: With the proper options choosen you may allow ASG to randomly CHOSE any/all textures that will be loaded into FS04. Many find this to be a good option.3. IGS: Intellegent Graphics Selection. This is the newest method developed for texture CHOICE. This looks at the weather conditions at your departure airport and choses what it feels are the textures to use. It uses the weather data to make this CHOICE.These textures are used throughout your FS04 session. The cumulus cloud texture, no matter how it was chosen, is used throughout the whole world. The sky color texture cannot be changed once FS04 is started. There is RARELY the chance that default textures are used, because in 99% of cases those textures have been replaced.Why can't we load all the textures? One, because within each group the name of the texture is EXACTLY the same. Every cumulus texture has the same file name, cumulus1.bmp. So all you would be doing is loading a bunch of files and FS04 would end up with the last one submitted. Also, except for cirrus textures, textures are locked into place once you start FS04, UNTIL you exit FS04. Then new textures can be submitted.I hope this answers your questions/concerns!Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Sales and Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_dev_team.jpg http://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_proud_supporter.jpg

[Guest JimBrown]

Forgive me Jim... :-)BFindlay, the short answer is that ASG for those who wish to manually select the sky environment that ASV will use.If you wish to have ASV automatically select the sky environment, either randomly, or influenced by the current weather, then ASG is not required. (Although it does contain a couple of settings with regards to texture size and type, which are performance related.)Merry Christmas and all that......jim

[Guest]

I am not a fan of the interface for this graphics program. I just want to have weather influenced on all the time. How do I do this?And if I do not load a flight plan, will I still get weather influenced textures depending on what departure airport I have?Thanks

[jdk2 1]

Alex,Open the Wx Engine shortcut, hit Options, place a checkmark in Auto-Submit under Graphics in the middle right of the screen. Just below this, click on the Browse button next to the Full Sky Theme and Cirrus Theme boxes and select Wx-Influenced.thm in the pop-up box for both. Click Save and Close in the Options window. Load your flightplan in ASv6, refresh the weather, start FS9 and fly. Jimhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/pmdg_pf.jpg

[JSkorna 137]

Hi Al,Yes to your question.What suggestions could you make to improve things?Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Sales and Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_dev_team.jpg http://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_proud_supporter.jpg

[Guest]

I'm not sure. I think, it would be better and easier to use if they all were in one window, instead of having to cycle each selection, how about each option such as sky color has its own little box, and you can cycle your changes for each selection and see them all in one screen, then the submit button would take all those selections at once and you can make sure you didnt make a mistake in selection.Just a suggestion, but now that the other Jim pointed me towards the easiest way to have weather influenced always selected, I will use that!So if I do not load a flight plan, I will not get weather influenced textures?Anyway, thank you Jim and everyone for your work. It is an amazing product!-Alex

[glsimpilot 2]

>So if I do not load a flight plan, I will not get weather>influenced textures?I would be interested in knowing that too.http://www.lemosnet.com/misc/gpilotsig.jpg

[Chris Willis 8]

HI Alex,For manual selection, there is 2 way.When you click on selection details, then if you click on the right panel and at the first line below each 3d clouds name, below cirrus clouds name, below sky color name, below environment name, it will pop pup in the left panel all texture set in one page for each 3d clouds, cirrus clouds, sky color, environment.If you click on the name of the of the texture at the right panel and complete right last line, it will only show you what's it is the current selection and you can cycle the choice with the arrow left and right and change the categories as well.ThanksChris WillisHiFi Simulation Software Team Developerhttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_dev_team.jpg http://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_proud_supporter.jpg

[Damian Clark 1,235]

Hi,Wx-Influence/IGS uses whatever is locally current as per the last ActiveSky wx update process.Because FS9 needs to be closed to update most of the graphics, you must have your departure weather loaded to get the expected conditional selection results based on your flight. Thus you need to either a) Process a Flight Plan so the departure wx is loaded or :( Change the default startup wx station in AS options to the departure airport so the departure wx is loaded. The recommended way is just use the flight plan.Best,