Love ASE and dont really see a need to upgrade unless my frustrations with DWC mode are lessened. Specifically have you guys improved the situation where you are flying along and all of a sudden thuderstorms form all around you? Or any weather for that matter. Being that DWC is global this is going to happen. Since DWC is the only mode with the visibility graduation a smoothing it is now the only mode I will fly in. In reading the manual for 2012 it sounds like you guys modified the global write for 2012 with some specific station data to minimize this weather change all of a sudden effect, or shall I say, not seeing the weather comming in the distance effect. I understand it will remember the weather so that if you look back you will see the previouse weather but how far in the distance will we now have to avoid thunderstorms or see the different weather over stations to our front. It is nice to have this at the max visibility distance I have set at 55nm. If this has been improved in this area enough I will bust out the plastic immediately.Oh and I also have REX that I use for textures. Your clouds look way less transparent. Are they? For this reason along I may upgrade. My big bug with REX clouds is that you can see through them most of the time, like a ghost.Thanks

Hi Marc,In DWC you're not getting station-based cloud representations all around... we've managed to do a few things in the very localized area to give you some variation, and the clouds are indeed remembered along your route of flight, but this is not going to eliminate the fact that you aren't going to see those thunderstorms way off in the distance until you are close to them.We've worked hard to increase the overall opacity of cloud sprites while trying to avoid other problems that can occur when you do this. We're really happy with the improvement here, and before AS2012 I too was very unhappy with how pretty much any clouds looked too transparent, even our past XG product.I'm a programmer not a salesman, I'll leave it to others to try and sell you on it :)

Damian, how far in the distance. I am good with 30 miles. Or maybe 20. I know it depends on how far apart the stations are but can I get a ballpark?I think I am going to upgrade for those less transparent clouds, worth the 35 bucks for my pickyness.Will I be able to use some REX textures with some of yours at will w/o any conflicts? Like AS clouds and REX sky.

Distance will depend yes on the station location, other stations in the area, and where the station lies within the dynamic wx "box" of FSX cloud rendering (16x16km). It could be 1000 miles, and it could be less than 1 mile. Picture this: If you're flying over a wx station reporting clear, then the next one, just 5 miles down the route of flight, is reporting thundestorms, you'll see them anywhere from immediately after transiting the clear station, to 5 miles later, all depending on FSX and how it decides to render your clouds/box.You can use any other graphics add-ons textures with AS2012, either by manually installing various textures with the addons (and disabling certain installation items, i.e. skies), or you can create snapshots and combine them at will and even assign them for wx-influenced selection.

Thanks Damian

This problem of horizon line during sunset (see below pic) has been also resolved or mitigated?I am using FEX and ASE.Thanks in advance.

I still have this problem sometimes, this is a visibility rendering issue and for me was related to using FSUIPC to control my visibility, I think. I don't think it is ASE. I too would like to figure out what causes this. There is a good chance if you do not use DWC that AS2012 will hide that from your view, if you use visibility reduction below 60 miles it should be hidden anyway.Do you have Shade? Or REX?