FSX-MS AS Next available now

[tttocs 301]

 

 

At present I find Opus perhaps doesn't throw the plane around enough, and ASN throws it around too much - for the same given winds and conditions.

So we need something in the middle! :smile:

 

I wonder...  I did duplicate flights in moderate IFR conditions last night in Opus and ASN using the Piston Duke.  In Opus, I had only Bump Aircraft, Turbulent Motion and Turbulent Bumps enabled for Light Aircraft, while in ASN, all turbulence settings were default (with no external effect enhancements like Opus, EZDOK or accu-feel), and Opus was kicking me around a bit more than ASN was, with both being believable for the conditions I was in.

 

I don't fly the heavy stuff, but it looks like there are a number of factors in play here, including the plane being flown.  So far, I've flown Carenado's 337, 210, piston Malibu, and the RealAir Dukes (turbine and v2 piston) with ASN in a variety of conditions.  My personal preference is for motion effects to be noticeable and plausible but not exaggerated and artificial.  That's obviously subjective, but basically I'd rather err on the side of understatement, and with the GA planes I've tried so far, I've had nothing to complain about.

 

Scott

[JRBarrett 3,203]

I actually thought the visual affect was pretty exciting, but if the aircraft literally will not stay airborne that's a bit of a problem.

In the ASN options menu, you can control the maximum allowable turbulence, updraft/downdraft rates etc. Perhaps you might want to try setting these a bit lower and see if it helps.

 

 

[peppy197 165]

Enhanced Turbulence

 

Set to true to enhance experience (default = true}

[E6BAV8R 88]

Hi Ryan,

 

what do you mean "150 miles clouds set"? Min/Max Cloud draw distance (CDD) set to 150?

 

In a situation like this, I'd suggest you set through ASN options the minimum CDD to 60 and the maximum CDD to 90 (or even 110 or larger). In this case, ASN will override any setting you set inside fsx and adjust the actual CDD dynamically (based on visibility, "cloud load", aircraft altitude to help you preserve some frames when the conditions are "heavy". Also keep an eye if the frames drop when a "smooth reload" is active (clouds fading out/in).

 

Kostas Terzides

ASN developer

 

I'm using the below settings for ASN and I'm still getting hammered pretty hard (FPS wise).  I'm using 1024 32-bit cloud textures and, as I said earlier, I had no FPS issues with AS2012.  I have no virus scanners or firewalls on while using FSX.

 

Max Cloud Layers: 4

CDD: 60/75

No Enhanced Overcast

Max Upper Visibility: 75

 

I also can't seem to get rid of the grid cloud patterns.  I never had this issue with AS2012 either.

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

I'm using 1024 32-bit cloud textures and, as I said earlier, I had no FPS issues with AS2012.

.

1. 32bit cloud textures or 32bit any texture is one of the worst things you can do in FSX to destroy performance. Try the DXT5 textures.

 

2. ASN is renderin thicker cloud layers than As2012, so that in combination with your 32bit clouds easily can explain your performance problems.

 

Try DXT clouds first and see how that goes, then if you still need more performance experiment with less cloud layers or lower CCD.

[slait 169]

Another thing, not in front of ASN now so can't remember the exact name but there is an option in ASN called something like 'Enhance turbulence' and I think it's checked by default.

 

Maybe you should try unchecking that option if you didn't already try that.

 

I did turn that off during the flight but it didn't seem to change anything. Would I need to restart ASN for that to work?

 

In the ASN options menu, you can control the maximum allowable turbulence, updraft/downdraft rates etc. Perhaps you might want to try setting these a bit lower and see if it helps.

 

I changed cloud turbulence from 100 to 50, but didn't see any improvement. I wasn't sure what else to change.

[E6BAV8R 88]

1. 32bit cloud textures or 32bit any texture is one of the worst things you can do in FSX to destroy performance. Try the DXT5 textures.

 

2. ASN is renderin thicker cloud layers than As2012, so that in combination with your 32bit clouds easily can explain your performance problems.

 

Try DXT clouds first and see how that goes, then if you still need more performance experiment with less cloud layers or lower CCD.

 

The main point being I used the exact same settings (or higher) and had no FPS issues.  I do realize ASN draws higher cloud layers and have been experimenting with less than 5 but it doesn't seem to be doing much good.  I've already been lowering the CDD substantially.  Minimum CDD is already as low as it can go.

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

Try DXT textures then and see how it goes, you can always revert to the 32bit if need be, but 32 bit dont really look all that different than DXT.

 

BTW, its really hard to compare performance between both programs and their performance since they render very differently.

[ZKOKQ 986]

Just read Kostas' post above and appreciate the excessive effect of turbulance on the heavier aircraft may be to do with DHM settings that I'm using in Opus, so fair enough if that's the case. I will reduce Opus' DHM settings and test the flight again soon

 

 

he DHM software derives its parameter PURELY from the Live Weather Engine LWE. It is the LWE that consults its nearly one million meteorological para erasers and determines in real time both the strength and frequency of the DHM, the synchronised Bump Aircraft turbulence, and now the ButtKicker turbulent vibrations.

 

Without the LWE the DHM controls and supervision is just fixed at a low level and is NOT dynamic in its strength or other parameters.

Dave, are you sure Opus DHM is working correctly? The above quote is from the Opus forum.

Reading that, I got the impression it only works with Opus weather.

Did not for me when trying the ASN demo. Got turb all the time, regardless of the conditions.

[Kuragiman 227]

Just completed my first flight using AS Next from KHOU in Texas, all the way up to KMDW at Chicago with 150 mile draw distance set in AS Next using VatSIM weather.    I am still so utterly stunned by the night and day difference between REX WXPLUS which I was using and this.    Not a SINGLE cloud pop the entire 2 and half hours airborne.   The weather was solid.    The overcast was real.  I felt like weeping tears of joy as I broke out of the clouds after takeoff from Houston and saw the tops of the clouds looking perfect, like the real thing.   And then I hit turbulence, real turbulence, not the broken stuff of the past.    I actually saw my wings flex on my PMDG 737NGX for the first time since I bought it 6 months ago.   MY FSPAXs were not very happy about it and were fearful of the turbulence and my flight attendant actually mentioned the turbulence to the passengers when I flicked on the seat belt sign.   I had to ask ATC for a higher flight level to get out of the bumps and bruises.   The weather advisory the Fort Worth Center controller gave me matched exactly what I was seeing and feeling.    I cannot believe I didn't see a single cloud move out of it's position the entire flight.   Whatever tech they are using to render the clouds ahead of you it was flawless on this flight.  My weather immersion was not broken once.     And I saw true fog and blinding overcast for the first time after lifting off from Houston.   Just 2000 feet up and vanished into the cloud bank and it was true IFR from there until I broke free.     I used pretty much every default setting in AS Next right out of the box.  Just click and go.  So simple and perfect.    Cannot wait to do my next flight with this amazing weather engine running the clouds.   It made good use of my REX cloud textures.   Stunning.  Cannot say enough good things.   I will snag this after the trial is up for sure.

[Ray Proudfoot 9,063]

Thanks, your feedback is very much appreciated. For turbulence, there are 2 things:

- First, when it should occur: I think ASN shines at this, taking into account specific SIGMETS (or AIRMETS in the USA), jet-stream and significant interlayer wind direction/speed changes, presence of t-storms, entering a cloud (even if it is an isolated thundercloud), and combination of surface winds with terrain mesh causing CAT (clear air turbulence). We've done excessive tests for the latter one and you will be able to notice this when you cross for example the Alps. So pilot awareness of the possible conditions leading to significant turbulence is important and realistically simulated with ASN.

 

It's early days for me but I'm visiting a friend this weekend for lots of flying so I'm sure we'll be looking out for this. And with a fairly big Atlantic storm approaching the UK we'll have plenty of interesting weather to try out.

 

 

 

- The actual effect: This is really a multi-factorial and in the end mostly subjective thing. Depends on the aircraft itself, the actual effect produced by the weather engine on the aircraft, the g-force limitations of the aircraft and then things like DHM (either through tuning fsx itself or through the use of external programs enhancing this). The end result was a long debate we had during beta testing where other users considered our default turbulence very smooth and others very excessive. This debate seems to carry on now (post release) with users like Slait stating that the turbulence was very strong and other ones (on the hifi forum) wondering "where is the turbulence". As one of our respected beta team members actually said (I don't know if he wants me to say his name), this is like "Chasing the rainbow".

 

Exactly. It's a very subjective thing and you'll always get varied opinions. How easy would it be to provide a slider so users can vary it rather than an on/off switch? Personally I have no problem with it but it's early days of course.

 

 

Back to your question about the CDD. You can play with this. I'd say setting (at least max) CDD to 150, if you don't have performance issues, will improve things significantly. With the added benefit of making the wx radar more useful for practicing weather avoidance procedures (since you can see a storm in detail radar view earlier this way). Not sure, you have to experiment on this.

 

I've altered the values to 90/200 in line with Andy's. Slewing up to FL400 certainly looks much improved and fps is unchanged. :Applause:

[BK 1]

Yes, I've just flown the Coolsky DC-9 into Providence, RI, and the buffeting was way over the top.   The DC-9 was literally getting thrown around like a C152.  It just didn't feel realistic.   If it could be toned down to about 30% of what it was doing here, it would be fantastic.     At present I find Opus perhaps doesn't throw the plane around enough, and ASN throws it around too much      - for the same given winds and conditions.

 

So we need something in the middle!   :smile:

 

EDIT:   Just read Kostas' post above and appreciate the excessive effect of turbulance on the heavier aircraft may be to do with DHM settings that I'm using in Opus, so fair enough if that's the case.      I will reduce Opus' DHM settings and test the flight again soon. :smile:

Q_flyer,

Let me suggest here that if you use both weather engines at the same time (OPUS and ASN) who knows what happens in terms of parameters injected into FSX? Few month ago I encountered the same with the NGX. I had both AS2012 and OPUS running at the same time and got very strong bumping and throwing around to the point I had to cut the flight off in the middle. I believe one cannot use both programs at the same time unless you disable OPUS weather engine. Obviously, I cannot prove that but based on my experience and your description here I think this is the case.

 

Thanks

Benny

[Nyxx 6,994]

Froogle review.

 

[Drumcode 1,914]

Could anyone check if the elevator trim display indicator is missing in your NGX's after the XGauge installation? It should display the trim setting when hovered over the trim wheel with the mouse.

I appreciate the input.

[dolph98 25]

Does anyone have suggestions that could help with my problem? I use ASE normally, and it is installed on a laptop which has a wired connection thru my router which is also connected to my desktop where FSX lives. I have the setup for ASE working and I also use Plan-G for moving map. I have zero problems with Plan-G but the issue I have been plagued with is that when I close FSX to mess with textures by firing up REX to change cloud or other textures, then close REX and reopen FSX, ASE does not set the weather anymore unless I close ASE and reopen it. Actually it has nothing to do with REX, that is just an example. This happens if I close FSX and reopen it no matter what the reason.

 

Now with the ASN trial, the same thing is happening so I'm thinking it is something within my network - but I have no idea what it could be.

 

I would consider purchasing the upgrade to ASN but if this situation does not change, there is no reason for me to do so. BTW, I have posted on HIFI's site this problem and have no answers as of yet. The only advantage I can see is that ASN opens faster than ASE but that is no reason for me to spend hard earned dollars.

 

Thanks for listening.