I have Activesky which I am pleased with especially using FS Skyworld.I believe WeatherMaker Pro comes from a different angle to ActiveSky in the sense that It revolves around building weather systems.Has anyone purchased it as it has just been released? any comments? Can it be used alongside ActiveSky using the best of both programmes features or is it a case of one or the other?A previous posting said that Skyworld will work with either?Being a weather "nut" I would appreciate any comments on this new programme.Peter

I was just about to ask the same questions;)Bill

I think it looks promising however there's a few issues I have with the product just from viewing their website:1.) No Forums 2.) No Free Trial3.) No FAQ4.) No Screen Shot Section (it's burried into a PDF file called "Specifications").If they can be a little more public-faced with their product, I wouldn't mind spending $24.95 on it, however, I just can't justify spending money on something I can't see or test first.Just my $0.02

EricHence my request for someone who has dived in to give some info :-)Peter

Peter,I'll give it a try this weekend and let you know how it is.See ya!

I have looked at their website I would like some more information such as screenshots and details of how weather is generated. It's all too sparse at the moment.Having downloaded some of their existing weatherscapes I am concerned that they create multiple cloud layers. Although I have a very high end system I nevertheless find that multiple cloud layers cause a significant deterioration in the smoothness of FS2004. So, if I were using Weathermaker Pro I think I would be tweaking it so as to get an acceptable performance in the sim - which would defeat buying the program in the first place.I therefore tend towards creating my own weather systems by hand - yes, a bit time consuming but I can, at least, generate acceptable weather to maintain smoothness in the sim.As a matter of interest do programs such as ActiveSky and Weathermaker access variables in FS2004 which cannot be set via the on-screen weather setup?David

I have purchased the program but haven't yet had the time to check it out thoroughly. Will experiment more with it today hopefully and report back about things like framerate, user-friendliness and realism.I really think they should release a demo version that would only work for a small area, allowing people to try it out before deciding.I'm especially interested in the offline weather generation since I'm not a huge fan of real-world weather. This program promises to be able to generate weather much like Flight Unlimited III did out of the box which, if it works, would be a big step forward. For those who never used that sim -it allowed you to set a few basic parameters, then have it generate a complete, dynamic weather system complete with fronts and all. You could then proceed to move those fronts and clouds around, change wind direction and speed etc.I'm pretty sure that all the variables that these program modify can be set manually as well. Ie. you could, with some work, re-create an Activesky or Weathermaker weatherscape by using the advanced weather dialog. The difference would be how those programs make the variables change over time for supposedly more realistic dynamic weather, not to mention the fact that setting up advanced weather manually is time-consuming.

If it is more realistic than Active Sky, it must spew rain and snow out of your monitor while flying :)

Hi Peter. I always enjoy posts from you on many topics. Thanks.I also was interested in the new Weather Maker Pro and wondered what they could offer above what is currently available. Then I got to thinking about what was missing in Activesky. I could not think of much. AS2004 has pretty much given me the correct current conditions wherever I fly. This program has improved with age and can now correctly simulate overcast conditions. This product also comes with great support and constant updates and improvements. Weather Maker Pro would have to offer a great deal more to warrant my attention. Always looking for the next great add-on has peaked my interest here, but it would have to be a stellar product with good support and attention to detail and forward thinking.Take care,

Keep in mind that WeatherMaker and ActiveSky do slightly different things.Though either program can do both, ActiveSky is built to download realistic real-world weather while WM's main feature is generating offline weather. Offline weather has advantages - What if you want to fly VFR and the RW weather is IMC? IRL you'd probably wait a day or two to see if the weather improves...why do that in the sim?Also since I live in Europe with Central European Time (GMT+1), flying in North America means being 9 hours ahaead of the local time there. So if I want to fly during the day (my local time) I have to artificially change the FS time. The means I get night-weatehr while flying during the day. Not very realistic :)Re: screenshots - the images in the .pdf documents are quite big. Just zoom in to about 300-400% in the PDF viewer.

Hi,I have been trying to use it for 2 days, and the version available at the moment seems to have more bugs than a roach motel!When I do get it to download realworld weather in to FS it is stunning. Using off the shelf weatherscapes work fine. I have received an email saying that they know that there is a problem and they will release a fix by Monday.A friend of mine was a beta tester on this and he has been raving on about how good it is going to be for months.I will report back with more results.regards,David

>Keep in mind that WeatherMaker and ActiveSky do slightly>different things.>Though either program can do both, ActiveSky is built to>download realistic real-world weather while WM's main feature>is generating offline weather. Offline weather has advantages>- What if you want to fly VFR and the RW weather is IMC? IRL>you'd probably wait a day or two to see if the weather>improves...why do that in the sim?>Also since I live in Europe with Central European Time>(GMT+1), flying in North America means being 9 hours ahaead of>the local time there. So if I want to fly during the day (my>local time) I have to artificially change the FS time. The>means I get night-weatehr while flying during the day. Not>very realistic :)>>Re: screenshots - the images in the .pdf documents are quite>big. Just zoom in to about 300-400% in the PDF viewer.You can download weather from any day and time period you want in Active Sky. Just download the archive weather, by picking the day and the GMT and you will have your desired weather.

Yeah but then it isn't "real world" weather is it?No problem with fictionous weather (after all most scenery in FS is fictionous) but time machines? ;)

>Hi,>When I do get it to download realworld weather in to FS it is>stunning.>>DavidThis contradicts an earlier post that stated that it is not really designed for real world weather, the way active sky is.And what do you mean by "stunning." Can you post a couple of screenshots?ricardo

>Yeah but then it isn't "real world" weather is it?>No problem with fictionous weather (after all most scenery in>FS is fictionous) but time machines? ;)Huh......