Premature New Version

[Chappie 0]

If you look at the past few days in the forums as a simple snapshot (let alone the past few weeks or months) you will see countless topics of weather not depicting properly, windshifts that can't be controlled, no clouds when the observation is overcast, on and on. Now, you are touting this new version as fixing a lot of those issues and you feel good about charging people for it? Anything that remedies known problems in ASX should be free; anything new you add I have no problem paying for. I like the comment that you have refocused on core weather delivery into the sim, that is important. One just has to look at a very recent release of an environment enhancement program and realize that snapshots are cool but when it is time to install and run (which many people are have problems doing) and get the real effects of a program all the "fluff" means nothing if it misses the desired end result; which for most of us is realistic weather. I could care less about a cool front end if the final result is clear skies when a 300' overcast sky is called for. If I could start a program that goes out and gets the current observations and properly populates my flight sim environment and then it drops to a taskbar icon that is all I need. For the most part FSX and FS9 have adequate clouds built in, just give us a high-end weather engine that takes existing real weather data and makes my flying environment "as real as it gets!"Steve

[Damian Clark 1,040]

Hi Steve,Thanks for your comments.We do not have any open bugs or issues with ASX that have not been solved as of SP3. If there is something specific you are having problems with then please report on this so we can investigate.As to inherent FSX problems, ASX does NOT claim to fix these entirely, only improve upon them by limiting undesired behavior as much as possible. I think you are talking more about limitations in FSX rather than problems with the product. Yes, we've further limited undersired effects and improved overall depiction in our new product. It's taken over 2 years of development time and while we have released 3 significant service packs for ASX, we cannot continue to innovate and remain in business by not charging for new and expensive-to-implement technology.There will be upgrade paths available to owners of ASv6.5 and/or ASX. Once further information is announced please take a good look at the features, and I think you'll agree that the feature set speaks for itself.With all that said, we still have an ASX service pack 4 being worked on which plans to bring a few additional improvements in many areas, and will probably be available for public testing within the next 2 months. If you'd like to bring up specific technical issues now is the time. Please write us a tell-us@hifisim.com.Best,

[Chappie 0]

Damian,I appreciate the comments back, but the "open bugs or issues being solved" comment is not entirely true. From your ASX product description page it says this..."We are now fully controlling all the important parameters that bring you beautiful and realistic weather depiction to your simulated flights." One could argue that you are somewhat "controlling" the winds but I had a flight last night that showed realistic winds out of the west in ASX and the winds in my FSX world were blowing from the east. I would say you accurately depict the winds in the ASX front-end software but are coming up short in the delivery end to FSX. And the "realistic" weather is coming up short as well with large clear skies above and around your aircraft in an overcast environment. If it was only me saying this then I would not be commenting here, but the forums are filled with comments that mirror these two specific problems. I am not saying it is not a FSX problem, I am saying that your position that your product delivers what the quote above states is not accurate.As simple as ActiveSky was in the early years it delivered a very realistic environment. It seems we have moved away from the simple yet real and more toward a fluff and less accurate phase of flight simulation weather add-ons. My opinion, as long winded as it took to get here, is that I wish add-on developers would put the time and effort into making it really, really work and that could be a real simple front-end piece of software but it delivers the goods. If you want to take that information and create another piece of software that neatly displays it and allows manual manipulation to it then great, make a cool GUI with all the bells and whistles.I do appreciate your hard work and customer dedication.Steve

Hi Steve,Thanks for your comments.We do not have any open bugs or issues with ASX that have not been solved as of SP3. If there is something specific you are having problems with then please report on this so we can investigate.As to inherent FSX problems, ASX does NOT claim to fix these entirely, only improve upon them by limiting undesired behavior as much as possible. I think you are talking more about limitations in FSX rather than problems with the product. Yes, we've further limited undersired effects and improved overall depiction in our new product. It's taken over 2 years of development time and while we have released 3 significant service packs for ASX, we cannot continue to innovate and remain in business by not charging for new and expensive-to-implement technology.There will be upgrade paths available to owners of ASv6.5 and/or ASX. Once further information is announced please take a good look at the features, and I think you'll agree that the feature set speaks for itself.With all that said, we still have an ASX service pack 4 being worked on which plans to bring a few additional improvements in many areas, and will probably be available for public testing within the next 2 months. If you'd like to bring up specific technical issues now is the time. Please write us a tell-us@hifisim.com.Best,

[Slick Willy 2]

I feel the same as Steve on this one. It is one thing to say it is a limitation of FSX and another to say I have to go buy a different piece of software to make this product work as Steve stated "We are now fully controlling all the important parameters that bring you beautiful and realistic weather depiction to your simulated flights." I have read thru these forums many times looking for a way to resolve the issues for winds aloft and the only answer that seems to work is buying FSuipc. As a customer I can not support a buisness that sells me a product for $70 (ASX/Xgraph) and another 20-30 for a different program to make the wind blow right.Willy

[shortspecialbus 13]

Edit: I decided to retract my comments, as I was in a bad mood, and I missed that they were coming out with SP4. I am going to trust that SP4 will include everything they can do to fix wind shifts/incorrect wind depiction, as I know they try hard to put out quality products.-stefan

[Chappie 0]

Rock on and damn straight!I too have disabled all ASX options and have found some improvement in wind smoothness using only an unregistered FSUIPC.

I have the registered version of FSUIPC and still have issues with ASX, although the continued hard work of FSUIPC creator Peter Dowson constantly improves on this. It is getting old buying high-end add-on software which ASX is and then being disappointed with the final result. I swore off buying new software to wait out the forums and see what the early buyers had to say on new releases and the latest release of REX and Traffic X were my first tests of this concept and I am glad I did hold off. What is even more disappointing is people that read these forums, have the same problems and say nothing in hopes that since the word is out it will get fixed. I believe it will only get fixed when the masses weigh in and let their voices be heard that they to are experiencing these problems. Iam sure this helps the programmers get focused on what needs to be fixed if many are screaming.ASX has definitely added to my flight simming experience but it is my opinion that it has not lived up to it's "advertised" abilities. I guess what I am saying is let's have a little more truth in advertising and make the product match the words touting it.Steve