ASE is for FSX and FS9.AS2012 is an FSX only product.

However, HiFi intends to develop it further to encompass P3D and FS9 and X-Plane. No schedule announced.DJ

 

Gosh, that must be why Microsoft, Oracle, Lockheed, PMDG, Flight1, et al have such low market share... Get real - every company does things their own way; your choice is to buy it or not and that is strictly up to you. Marketing philosophy correctness is in the eye of the beholder.DJ

The opposite is the case. That is why they are so successful! With Boeing for instance, they transition into newer and better variations of what they build and distribute best while not disenfranchising those products and customers that came before. Each version brings new and comprehensive improvements to the existing and previously built airframes, running changes as it were, or better known in the software world, patches. Hey, if it's not Boeing, I'm not going! ...and that means 787, 777, 747, 767, 757, 737, 727 and 707! The difference between an upgrade and a replacement is a matter of timing, with strong demand that drives production, not production that seeks after weak demand. But I digress.

Hello StephenHifi have not devalued or replaced ASE.AS2012 is a different product for those who would like weather dependant textures as well as a very good weather engine.IE the folks who would have probably bought REX because of the feature set, and those customers who enjoyed AS6.5 and its built in textures or in the past bought ASX and AS Graphics and wished they where more integrated and not separate programs.If you are happy with ASE then stick with it, it is the same today as it was yesterday, nothing has devalued overnight for you.If on the other hand you like REX but wish it had a better weather engine (who doesn't) then AS2012 is exactly what you need.Did you feel that FSX was devalued when MS threw FSX and Acceleration into one box and released it for sale ?.Maybe some here feel that Damien should have stopped at ASE and once everyone has their copy just sit back and provide the weather servers and bandwidth 24hrs a day for free, without attempting to generate further revenue.

All good points. I wish AS2012 every success and hope it enhances FSX as much as we all hope it will. We can count on changing and evolving tastes to change and evolve marketing opportunities and redirect purchasing power.Kind regards,

Hi,Concerning "not updating our products and just devaluing them"... I hope it is remembered that we've provided FREE major upgrades quite a few times (most recently ASA->ASE) and have always updated our products with many service packs. We just released SP3 for ASE and are preparing SP4. We've provided countless enhancements in such updates and upgrades, all of which has been provided free. There is a limit to what we can do without compensation however, we are a company after-all, one with a significant and costly network infrastructure which must be funded by sales. Then of course there is the cost of development, which unfortunately is not free (although after computing my hourly wages, mine nearly is). Of course I'm not the only developer, and these are just the tips of icebergs as far as total costs go. My point is, we've been as generous as we can. Sorry to those who aren't satisfied with that.

I really hope in the new release there may be more network options as in support for WideFS. I'm not saying to dump Simconnect but, I have always found it so much easier to use Pete's program. I don't know if it's possible to support both options but if it is I sure wish HiFi would consider it.

You could use it with ASE, by telling ASE to run in FS9 mode instead of FSX. But I would tend to recommend sticking to the SimConnect interface as it provides ASE with the full range of weather facilities supported in FSX, more than the subset which FSUIPC supports for compatibility.RegardsPete

Hi,Concerning "not updating our products and just devaluing them"... I hope it is remembered that we've provided FREE major upgrades quite a few times (most recently ASA->ASE) and have always updated our products with many service packs. We just released SP3 for ASE and are preparing SP4. We've provided countless enhancements in such updates and upgrades, all of which has been provided free. There is a limit to what we can do without compensation however, we are a company after-all, one with a significant and costly network infrastructure which must be funded by sales. Then of course there is the cost of development, which unfortunately is not free (although after computing my hourly wages, mine nearly is). Of course I'm not the only developer, and these are just the tips of icebergs as far as total costs go. My point is, we've been as generous as we can. Sorry to those who aren't satisfied with that.

That is absolutely true. As a long time active sky customer I can confirm that I've had numerous free upgrades. I have ASE (SP3) and I am very happy with it.

That is absolutely true. As a long time active sky customer I can confirm that I've had numerous free upgrades. I have ASE (SP3) and I am very happy with it.

+1Same here!

+1Same here!

Ditto for me. i bought ASX in 2007 and subsequently received free upgrades to ASA, and then ASE all of which have had regular Service packs and attentive support! I'd say I've had more than my money's worth and will support HiFi with their future efforts.

We have many users for example who've just recently upgraded from ASv6.

How's that work? Or does AS6 work in FSX?Not that I'm a little behind the curve...

How's that work? Or does AS6 work in FSX?

There are quite a few folks using ASV6.5 with FSX. It works via FSUIPC, same as on FS9, with WideFS as well.Pete

Ditto for me. i bought ASX in 2007 and subsequently received free upgrades to ASA, and then ASE all of which have had regular Service packs and attentive support! I'd say I've had more than my money's worth and will support HiFi with their future efforts.

Couldn't agree more. I've been a Hifi customer since ASX, I paid for an upgrade to ASA, and received ASE free (I think it was ASA that I paid for and ASE that was a free upgrade, I could have those confused). I also use x-graphics. I certainly feel like I've gotten my money's worth over the years, especially when you consider it's an addon I use EVERY single time I fly. There are few other addons I own with a comparable cost/hour of usage. I was thinking of getting REX 2.0 since it's on half price just for the cloud textures, but now that there a new Active Sky coming, with improved graphics that won't require me to mess around with things too much, I'm patiently waiting for that. I really don't get all the negativity, Hifi has been a great payware vendor to buy from in my experience and I'm glad to support them.

AS2012 works well with the NGX, inlcudes some enhanced flight planning capability (including flight plan export in .pln format), and has a more polished weather engine than its predecessors and competitors. I'm running the beta with REX2 and they get along fine. I still need to give AS2012's graphics a better chance but have had a tough time pulling myself away from REX....I'll be testing some of the built-in graphics over this weekend.I've used ASE for some time now, and AS2012 is an improvement in my view.

There are quite a few folks using ASV6.5 with FSX. It works via FSUIPC, same as on FS9, with WideFS as well.Pete

Thanks, Pete. The discussion caused me to start thinking "What did I buy a long time ago?" and a check at Flight1 turned up an AS6 purchase that I can now recall, albeit vaguley.

As an Active Sky and its successors user for more years than I care to remember this looks like a great product for anyone that doesn't already have REX and/or ASE. But for those who already own both, as I do, the 16 gig (or whatever it is) of unneeded textures cluttering up my HDD will be a big obstacle in the way of purchasing AS2012 when all that I would find useful is the newer weather engine. What chance unbundling the textures and weather engine upgrade? Otherwise I may have to pass on this one.Bruce

AS2012 works well with the NGX, inlcudes some enhanced flight planning capability (including flight plan export in .pln format), and has a more polished weather engine than its predecessors and competitors. I'm running the beta with REX2 and they get along fine.

Can you define the improvements made over e. g. ASE on the sheer weather part? The question was asked a few times now, but not more than vague descriptions came out so far.The 'improved' from a salesman is just that, reasonable, but just a salesman's comment regarding his own product. So any detailed description of a guy not selling the stuff is more than appreciated.

Hi,We've attempted to do our best to describe specifics about our unreleased software including weather changes here in this thread, but we've covered most of this already, and many details are still pending. I invite everyone to come to our forum here on avsim (http://forum.avsim.net/forum/171-hifi-simulation-software-support/) and have a look, where we are discussing AS2012, providing new shots and other details as they are announced.Thanks everyone for your interest and your support.