Hi, I have recently re installed FSX and ASA. Despite having the software for a litle while, i have not really got to grips with it or used it much. The supplied manual is very in depth , but lacks an idiot proof guide. Explaining in depth the function of all the buttons is good, but we ( I !! ) could also do with a kind of "walkthrough" on how to use and in what combinations and order to achieve differnt results. I have been trial and error using it, but its really difficult to know if what i am seeing is how its supposed to look and function, or just the result of my fiddling>Please can someone give me a step by step of how to and in which order use the programme to inject real life weather in to FSX. At the moment I am not interested in the more complex stuff such as PIREPS etc, I just want the best looking and most accurately depicted weather. For instance, I see that it says start ASA then FSX, but if you do it in that order, how does ASA detect the airport you want to fly from? As the default flight loads first. I am using REX1 for textures, but not its weather engine. I also have a couple of questions re the snapshots for graphics. i have imported several themes i like from REX using the snapshot system. Does ASA use a data bank of all snapshot textures to choose its textures from, or does it just use the currently installed textures. How does it choose the textures and decide which is best? Does it for instance choose sky colours and cloud sizes? Is it best to labouriously install ALL textures from REX into ASA for the best result? Is there a quick way do this, or do you have to change the textures in rex and install them to fsx each time? running SP1 BTWThx MarkPS: a quick edit: I just did a small flight in the rockys, loaded my flight plan into ASA, installed a snapshot when it asked me ( it picked REX "Reality" ) all seemed good, I got the ASA weather loading green strip,took off and was a bit dissapointed. The clouds looked terrible, there was a layer of very thin cloud at abot 13,000ft that looked very 2D and there appeared to be the tops of clouds submerged in the ground. When i checked in the weather set up screen, it showed a layer of cumulus started at 0 ft above sea level and extending to about 10,000ft and a layer of cirrus right above it. This was obviously the thin crappy looking layer I was flying in. How come it depicts real life weather with clouds at 0ft above sea level when aspen is at about 8,000ft. Something not quite right here I feel?

Hi Mark,I'll briefly answer some of these things so as not to overwhelm you.1. For real time weather: Start ASA, then FSX. It doesn't matter where you start in FSX, ASA will adjust according to your FSX location, even as you move around. If you want to check FSX to see if you are using ASA data, you can go to the weather page in FS and see if weather is marked to User Defined. If it is then you are using ASA data.2. You can manually chose a Snapshot from the Graphics screen by highlighting a snapshot and clicking on the Install Selected icon. Or you can enter a flightplan on the Briefing screen and ASA will ask you if you wish to install textures. The plan can be simply the departure, destination, an average speed and altitude of the flight. ASA will load a snapshot that closely matches up with the average weather along the route. All of this you do with FSX closed.3. To quickly generate snapshots with REX: With FSX closed, run REX and send the textures to FSX, then use the Take New Snapshot Icon. Assign the Snapshot to a weather category. Repeat until you are satisfied with the number and types of Snapshots. This should move pretty quick after awhile.I think that covers things for now.Thanks,

Hi Jim, thx for the reply. i get the answer to number 1 Ok. In answer 2 are you saying that you can install a snapshot manually, without using the realtime weather facility of ASA? Does ASA also allow you to choose your own weather for the flight, regardless of real life weather? what I am after is a simple path to result, kinda like this:If you want to get real weather in your flight, press X, go to Y etc etc .Have I got this right:If you do not want real time weather and want to use ASA instead of REX or FSX to inject a snapshot of your choice from the selection you previously installed into ASA, press button "install snapshot" ( this is useful, but kind of a duplicate feature of both REX and FSX, correct?) If you want real weather, ASA can only install the most similar type of snapshot it can find in the library, correct? It cannot mix and match textures from all the different installed snapshots, correct? If both the preceeding are correct, then how does ASA choose the textures, by the description of the type of snapshot? Or by looking at the textures within the snapshot? It follows that I will need to install a large amount of varying snapshots for the software to accurately depict the weather, correct? I am already using the process you described to load snapshots, but there are hundreds of different combinations. Thx, MarkPS JIm, i added an edit to my first post that you may have missed, while answering

Hi,For the edit: The cloud textures only look as good as REX makes them look. ASA doesn't modify the textures. At high altitude airports this can happen because of FSX.From your new post:1. If you want real time weather: start ASA, then run FSX. Where ever you start, fly, or go in FSX you will get real time weather. You can install a Snapshot manually as described above. Through all this I don't want you to think that Snapshots contain any weather data or conditions, as they do not. Snapshots are groups of textures only, with no data attached. You can set up your own weather, but that is for another time.2. Using Snapshots means that you don't need to start REX and submit textures. Everything happens through Snapshots.3. No, you cannot mix snapshots. For that, use REX directly and don't submit a Snapshot.4. ASA analyzes the weather, determines which weather category fits the conditions and then chooses a random Snapshot from that category. 3 or 4 Snapshots under each category is good enough. So 20-30 total Snapshots is enough.Thanks,

Hi Jim, thx, its all becoming a little clearer.Another question - you say the cloud problem is down to FSX, how is this? I thought that if ASA was injecting the weather, it would read the cloud data ( iE height, type, thickness etc etc from the weather service download and then load that type of clouds, and the various heights and layers into FSX, using the textures chosen from the different snapshots. FSX having nothing to do with the weather. Or have I got that wrong ? In which case, how does it work? Also Re the problem in the first post edit. When I went to the weather screen in flight to look and see what was going on, and noticed the errant cloud layers causing the problem, I moved them both upwards to a sensible height, went back into the flight and it all looked good. Then 10 or 20 seconds later they changed back again. Is this because ASA is injecting real time weather info back into FSX and changing it back again? If so, is there any way to ensure that the clouds are put in at the correct height?It seems to me a pretty basic and very obvious and unwanted problem in both FSX and ASA if this cannot be sorted out. After all, its just a basic difference between height above sea level and ground level isn't it? Thx, Mark

Hi Mark,It's a flaw in the FS system the same way that it can be sometimes raining while flying above the clouds! I don't know the ins and outs of the system so I can't explain it any more than that. Sometimes at high altitude airports clouds get rendered too close to the ground.Thanks,

Ok Jim, then how best to get rid, why do they come back when I move them up manually? Does this mean that to avoid seeing them, I have to not use ASA real weather ? So, if you use ASA to generate real weather, and the airport you take off from is above seal level, you have to put up with partially submerged clouds in the landscape and other clouds at the wrong height ? Correct? And to ensure it all looks like it should, I will just have to not use ASA, instead use user defined weather in FSX and then insert my own cloud selection at the appropriate height, Correct? If yes, I am massively dissapointed. For a start the whole point of using a programme like yours is to increase the perception of reality. If it cannot render the clouds at the correct height due to a problem with FSX code or something then that is unbelievable. I cannot believe that this issue has not been addressed in any service pack by microsoft or any 3rd party developer. Please confirm, Thx Mark

Mark,I will confirm that is correct.Now, as unbelievable as that may seem to you, it also would be unbelievable as to the number of man hours we have spent in the past X number of years discovering, reporting to Microsoft, debugging, coding fixes, improving, testing, releasing patches, supporting, and participating in the improvement of the FS experience.Is everything perfect yet? No it is not. We are selves are still learning about the ins and outs of FSX and SimConnect and if others have discovered fixes for the imperfections of FSX, that is great. We will continue to draw upon their discoveries and knowledge, and improve our products to the best of our abilities.If our shortcomings prevent you from using our product, then we are sorry for that. We are only human and day in and day out we do our best to support the FS community. If you have purchased ASA with in the last 30 days and would like a refund, we will gladly do that for you, just let us know.Moving forward we are listing and tracking any outstanding issues that users are still experiencing and I will surely add this to the list.Thanks,

Hi Jim, I guess I have not expressed myself very well. I am not saying that your obvious hard work etc is not appreciated by myself, I can see what an involved and very good piece of software it is, otherwise, I would not have purchased it. There is no question of a refund being wanted. Its a fantastic product. So apologies if I have come over like that, it was not how I meant to be perceived. And thank you for the help and support.It's just as I said, it's dissapointing, as it spoils what is nearly overall a perfect visual experience. When everything else is looking so good, these issues take on a significance that is sometimes out of proportion. The other point is, I am no coder or expert and I guess what seems easy to me may be very different in reality. Fact is I have not come across this issue before in any other threads and screenshots, here on this forum, or indeed over at the REX forums , or in the game and it came as some suprise, as to me, its a pretty major visual problem. Everything else that the original developers and the aftermarket software people such as yourself has produced is to such a high standard it suprised me that this issue slipped through. When FSX has a weather generator that allows you to depict multiple cloud layers of varying types, changing over time and reflecting real life input, a simple thing like making sure clouds are rendered above the landscape, not IN the landscape I would have thought was a basic, before all the other more complex stuff. Bur what do I know!!!Do you happens to know the exact circumstances of the issue? Can it be summed up by saying that FSX does not allow for the airport elevation? Did you also see the reply from Pete Dowson in this thread: http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=255351 where he postulates that it may be related to using the global settings. Do you have any comment on that, as I have not had a chance to check yet myself. Thx, and apologies again for coming over ungrateful, Mark

Hi Mark,Thanks for your clarifications!I am not sure what the cause of this is, but as others have posted, this even happens with default FSX weather.What I can do is add this to the next SP list and have Damian take a look.Thanks,