5 Questions From Asa Potential Customer

[G-YMML1 582]

Hi folks,Own FS9 with tonns of addon, ASV6, nice powerful rigs and no plans to switch to FSX. Here is my list.1. Are you going to retain archive weather feature back to 2005 as it was included in AS previous releases? I'm normally fly in the "past", so this is very important feature for me.2. Is usage of Wide FS mandatory if I'm flying offline?3. How is virtual memory usage with ASA in FS9? The old one was quite hungry - afraid that combination of PMDG MD11, FSDT JFK and ASA might be mortal from the standpoint of OOM issues.4. I'm big fan of FE, so do I still have an option not to use ASA cloud's package as it was implemented in previous version?5. How to apply for discount if I bought my ASV6.5. from simmarket?Thanks for your patience, sorry for bad english and thanks for all your hard work and dedication.Dmitriy

[Damian Clark 1,235]

Hi there,1. ASA uses a brand new server system and new data, which was initialized shortly before January 1, 2007. You will have historical weather data available from January 1 2007 and forward.2. WideFS is only needed if you are in a networked configuration, having FS9 and ASA on different machines. If you are using FSX on networked configuration, SimConnect is used instead of WideFS (included with FSX deluxe).3. ASA is a big app and quite hungry, no question, but is not significantly heavier in memory or cpu requirements than previous versions. We have many testers with MD11 + tons of other add-ons.4. Yes, actually ASA does not include a clouds package. You can use FE clouds, ASG clouds, whatever you want. You can use them all together too (i.e. FE water, FE clouds, ASG sky) and once you capture/snapshot them into the system they are fully utilized.5. The upgrade version from ASv6 checks for eligibility during installation. You must have a valid/working installation of ASv6/ASv6.5 for the installation to commence.Thanks for your interest!

[Mace 1,909]

2. WideFS is only needed if you are in a networked configuration, having FS9 and ASA on different machines. If you are using FSX on networked configuration, SimConnect is used instead of WideFS (included with FSX deluxe).

Damian/Jim/Carl etc:Let me see if I am understanding the networking aspects of ASA:1. ASA can be installed on a remote computer, just like ASX could?2. Does ASA behave the same good way as ASX when it comes to networking?3. Do you recommend one way or the other, installing ASA and FSX on the same computer, or networking them?(and, kind of unrelated follow up question) :( 4. Can slow network bandwidth cause frame rate slowdowns as wx is injected into the sim, from the remote PC?

[JSkorna 137]

OK!1. Right, with the limitation that you aren't going to be able to auto-generate texture sets from X Graphics.2. Yes, and we hope that ASA will locate and use SP1/SP2 in a more efficient manner.3. I use things on one computer, but I have 2 big screens to fill up with stuff. CPU and memory footprints are about the same as ASX. I think just having a second screen to use would be worth the network setup. Also, no need to switch out of FS and avoid the FSX crashes when doing so.4. How slow? A 56K network is plenty as long as your anti-virus is not scanning everything going from one computer to the next.Thanks!

[Mace 1,909]

Thank you for the response,Regarding #4, "how slow?", I have a 802.11g class wireless adapter, (what is that, about 38 mBPS average?) Anyway, it is a modern wireless setup and it is very fast as far as transfer rate. I do not run anti-virus on either box. I don't think it is ASX doing it, actually. My setup of Vista is sometimes slow to recognize networked files and folders...I think THAT is probably what is going on, but I don't have any way to confirm it. (Not sure if a program like ProcMon or FileMon would show this type of attempted network file access by ASX). I was just wondering if you had ever heard of anyone mentioning that sort of frame drop?

[JSkorna 137]

Hi,That should still be fast enough. No, there have been no reports of anything along these lines.