Well I downloaded AS6.5 and ASG over the weekend. And to my surprise, it ran pretty decent. I only have a couple flights in, and I'm still learning how to use it. Very tricky figuring out what settings will over-ride what. Like having a snow and rain blizzard in the AS METAR, but having a clear sky theme in ASG. I think I have it figured out.I turned the graphic resolution up to "high" in ASG, but wasn't able to find the settings in FS9 that are shown in the AS user guide. I have AI traffic going and I'll see stuttering every 4min or so. On my first landing I was about to touch down and I flipped over. Turns out there were gusts up to 31kts that I wasn't expecting. Neat! So I have a lot more to play around with here.The only time I realize my computer is down on power is when I close out of everything. The overlapping windows take a while to disappear. If I close one window, its remnants stay on another window and it is slowly redrawn. My friend's 512M memory stick was the wrong type so I wasn't able to try that. So I'm surprised it runs decent with what I have. May order some memory online and see how I do then.Oh, two questions:1) Why does it take a few minutes for the weather to be applied in FS9? Kinda weird setting up the plane, taxiing and then all of a sudden there are clouds and snow.2) Is time of day dictated by FS9 always? Say in ASG I choose night twilight theme or whatever it's called, but in FS9 I set the time to day...I'm guessing it uses the clouds and weather from AS/ASG but applies it during the daytime hours?

Oh, two questions:1) Why does it take a few minutes for the weather to be applied in FS9? Kinda weird setting up the plane, taxiing and then all of a sudden there are clouds and snow.2) Is time of day dictated by FS9 always? Say in ASG I choose night twilight theme or whatever it's called, but in FS9 I set the time to day...I'm guessing it uses the clouds and weather from AS/ASG but applies it during the daytime hours?

1. Weather must first be downloaded which takes up to 30 seconds. Then it must write that data to all the weather stations, which takes up to a minute. I usually start AS first before flight sim, so it can download weather while i set all my other programs up. Then I open up FS and let it sit for a minute until the proper weather loads up, then I go about my flying day.2. There is an option in AS to have time of day read from either your system or FS itself.

Hi Bill,Even though this has now moved into the area of Support and should be posted at our forum, I will briefly answer here!1. Anything in ASG is related to textures only. You are not going to get any kind of weather by using one of those themes. So the "Clear Sky" ASG theme is a group of textures we think look good together, but it will not give you "Clear Skies" in FS. The weather conditions are still going to come from AS.2. There are no graphics settings that you need to change in FS. That option in ASG just sets the resolution for the ASG textures that will be installed into your FS. For your system submit a medium set of textures with FS closed and then run FS and see what happens.3. As the other poster suggested, always start AS first and then FS. Yes, it does take a bit of time for the weather to be processed in AS and then again in FS. Sit still somewhere for up to 5 minutes and then start your flight procedures. A more powerful computer and/or more memory will cut down on this time frame.4. For the most realistic situation both AS and FS should be set to use System Time. Then you will always be flying with the most current weather available.Thanks,

Thanks so much Jim. I will post any follow-up threads in the hifisim forum. I'm really looking forward to playing around with this.

Thanks so much Jim. I will post any follow-up threads in the hifisim forum. I'm really looking forward to playing around with this.

well done on getting AS Bill.I did too,never fly without it,it increased realism by a factor of 30.And if there's a problem,they'll go out of their way to help you out.Nicest program I have,certainly in combination with the Majestic dash 8.cheersJP.

I would for sure consider bying a new system to run FS on + a registered copy of FSUIPC/WideFS. That way you could network your two computers and run just FS on the new one and ActiveSky (and maybe some other goodies) on your old one.As stated earlier, an E8400, simple motherboard, 2-4GB of RAM (1066Mhz for some overclocking headroom) and a 512Mb graphics card would be money well spent.

I've gotten a bunch more flights in since posting this, and I must say I'm very surprised at how good my system is running. I'm using the Flight1 172, Active Sky and all my graphics maxed out in FS9. Granted I don't have any terrain add-ons, but it runs great on the system I mention above. I've also started using Vatsim now without problem.I ordered 2G of memory (not yet received) just for some piece of mind and to speed up windows operations. I also plan to uninstall a bunch of programs, move files off the hard-drive and give it a good defragging when I get a laptop in a few weeks.Just wanted to let others know it is possible to run smooth on a system such as mine.

Just be careful with Ultimate Terrain Night Light Settings...Those can be quite a FPS hungry Monster if you dont know how to handle them.Just be careful with Ultimate Terrain Night Light Settings...Those can be quite a monster hungry FPS if you dont know how to handle them.

Just be careful with Ultimate Terrain Night Light Settings...Those can be quite a FPS hungry Monster if you dont know how to handle them.

I'm using a 6 year old 1.8 GHz PC with 3 monitors/ 3 views. I run Ultimate Terrain Can/Ak & USA full blast except Residential Lighting is off. My suggestion is to begin with everything ON, then carefully start turning off some lighting if you are really unhappy with performance. Check performance after any category is turned off.Alex Reid