>The active radar module is optional.>Ronzie, do you mean optional to buy?thanks, Randy>The program itself (and the self-registered FSUIPC helper)>takes little in cpu resources. Where FPS is affected is in the>number of cloud layers and type. If you use the recommended>FSW cloud modeling techniques, you will get better FPS than>offered by the FS defaults.>>I download the world weather from their server (about four>minutes at 56K modem) in advance of the flight so that>eliminates the performance penalty acquired in some cases for>on-line weather updates but the choice is yours.

>Tom you need to get out the stone age with FS-Meteo... I was>like you and as of now I do own both. AS2004.5 takes weather>on a whole new level and you would have to see it to believe>it.>>Get the latest update from FSW over on Flightsim.com's 'New>Files List'. The file is called 'hifps.zip' released>10/18/2004. Both these updates together is a site to>behold....>>I hope this answers you question Cruachan....I run FS-Meteo on a networked PC, that saves me extra-resources and can be easily accessable on the 2nd monitor. What about AS2004? Or does it run as a module of FS9? I think I know the answer... So FS-Meteo is still more advanced in this particular aspect. As to the cloud thikness, well I don't know what to say, it can be tuned/adjusted with FSUIPC and enhanced with free add-ons. As to the weather radar I would rather use the one from reality-xp or the other one, can't remember the name now. I can't say I'm very much knowledgeable about the weather engine but "...you need to get out the stone age with FS-Meteo..." caught my eye. Any other opinions here?

you can run AS2004 on a networked PC using WideFS.Now you know the answer....

I was just looking at the new cloud downloads, but there are three of them...what's the difference?

Craig I don't know if you have a P4 Hyper Threading machine or not but if you do set the

Dirk try AS2004.5 and it'll all make since to you... :-)

>you can run AS2004 on a networked PC using WideFS.>>Now you know the answer....Well, I'm not sure yet that I know the answer... Are you 100% sure it runs via WideFS on a separate PC? Do you run it this way? Can anybody else confirm here? If it really does I'm sure I'll need to buy and compare it when the patch is incorporated. I thought that AS2004 inherited a principle structure of WC2. WC2 could not be run via WideFS, because it was just a module in FS2002.So you mean that AS2004 is a separate .exe that you run before (or after)FS9.exe?Thanks,Dirk98.

Dirk98 wrote:>Well, I'm not sure yet that I know the answer... Are you 100%>sure it runs via WideFS on a separate PC? Do you run it this>way? Can anybody else confirm here? If it really does I'm sure>I'll need to buy and compare it when the patch is>incorporated. I thought that AS2004 inherited a principle>structure of WC2. WC2 could not be run via WideFS, because it>was just a module in FS2002.>>So you mean that AS2004 is a separate .exe that you run before>(or after)FS9.exe?>>Thanks,>Dirk98.Dirk; Short answer...AS2004 absolutely does work via WideFS. That's how I use it here. Long answer...AS2004 is not an offshoot of WC. It is an executable program independent of MSFS, and uses the FSUIPC Advanced Weather Interface to do its magic. WideFS provides a FSUIPC surrogate on each client PC and LAN conectivity for each of the surrogates to the actual FSUIPC interface running on the server PC (the one with MSFS running on it).RegardsBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-V L-300Washington, DC

>I was just looking at the new cloud downloads, but there are>three of them...what's the difference?This was posted by Chris:Hifpsv2.zip= reduced visual + best performance possibleHIFPS.zip= great visual, little 20 % lower fps than Hifpsv2.zip

>Dirk98 wrote:>>Well, I'm not sure yet that I know the answer... Are you>100%>>sure it runs via WideFS on a separate PC? Do you run it this>>way? Can anybody else confirm here? If it really does I'm>sure>>I'll need to buy and compare it when the patch is>>incorporated. I thought that AS2004 inherited a principle>>structure of WC2. WC2 could not be run via WideFS, because>it>>was just a module in FS2002.>>>>So you mean that AS2004 is a separate .exe that you run>before>>(or after)FS9.exe?>>>>Thanks,>>Dirk98.>>Dirk;>> Short answer...AS2004 absolutely does work via WideFS. >That's how I use it here.>> Long answer...AS2004 is not an offshoot of WC. It is an>executable program independent of MSFS, and uses the FSUIPC>Advanced Weather Interface to do its magic. WideFS provides a>FSUIPC surrogate on each client PC and LAN conectivity for>each of the surrogates to the actual FSUIPC interface running>on the server PC (the one with MSFS running on it).>>Regards>>Bob Scott>ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-V L-300>Washington, DC>Thanks, Bob and gjharrall! You've enlightened me and now I "know the answer". What stopped me from trying it before was that I thought it didn't work via WideFS (most all of my programs, hardware and utils for Vatsim run via WideFS). Definately I'll buy it now at least for my software collection if I still like FSMeteo more. Otherwise everthing sounds very positive in favor of AS2004.

Does anyone know where Damian is from? Where is hifi based?ThanksEdit: Is AS easy to sedt up so as to download and use offline (no broadband here)?

It is included in the package. It is a .dll that you can install in your modules folder and is an option within the main install package. It is a pop-up that is brought up with a hot key and is not a gauge as such but can by fooling around be positioned over a panel if you wish. I do not use it because on my specific system I can't get the gauge video to sync on my particular system so I have not seen any results.I use the WX500 gauge sold by Reality-XP as the WX500 which operates off the FS modeled environment and is not dependent on data fed by a specific weather package - different principle entirely.

You can download weather in advance of your flight and save (archive) it if you wish. You can also download archived dates and times back for quite a few months.The AS2004.5 weather download on my 56K dial-up takes about four minutes. It is compressed data processed on their proprietary server. There have been very,very few outages. You can read about this on their forum here on AVSIM.The complete product download I think was about 6 meg. It was a reasonable dial-up download time from simmarket as I recall and activation key was delivered by e-mail shortly thereafter. simmarket is UK time.Upgrades are delivered directly from the hifisim developer site as posted in their forum here.Don't know where they are located other than I believe Europe somewhere but there has been no language barrier and support has been timely via their forum. Location is not a problem these days.

Thanks for the info. I think I may pick up Active Sky as well. Does anyone else know if its a UK or Aussie company?

Hi,Thanks for your interest in our product!HiFi and Damian are based in California. As Support I am based in Michigan. Other members of the team are based worldwide. SimMarket.com is our e-commerce vendor and offers download purchases or a CD for a few extra dollars.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg