Opus vs Active Sky Next

[GHarrall 494]

The opus cameras are miles better than Ezdok anyway. Much better to have one program doing it all.

As for ovc in opus, can't say I have had any problems with it.

I also believe that opus have asked pmdg what they need to make the radar work too.

The winds could be better though, no doubt about that

[SolRayz 392]

ASN for me and I've purchased them all. Weather progs keep getting better and better.  

[martin-w 3,235]

ASN, not by a mile... by a light-year. That's 5.88 trillion miles by the way.
 

:rolleyes:

 

Love it's capabilities, love how simple it is to operate. Just fire it up and fly, that's it. But still with the facility to tweak all necessary parameters if that's what crumbles your cookie.

[TrafficPilot 121]

Also liking ASN. Was a fan of Opus FSX but I found it got progressively worse with each new version so have uninstalled and now use ASN exclusively.

 

ASN certainly replicates  turbulence better than any other weather engine I've tried but there's not much of it unless you fly somewhere with TCU reported in the METAR or fly over mountains at a low-ish level. Can't feel any  turbulence in clouds using ASN which is a pity.

[pinlifter 502]

I use OPUS and like it, but it does still have cloud popping whenever the weather updates.  I've seen videos of ASN and it does look spectacular, not to mention everyone's positive comments on it, but I'll stay with OPUS at least until OPUS FSI is released (sometime later this year I believe).  At that time I'll make a decision on the upgrade cost to FSI versus purchasing ASN.  OPUS FSI promises a lot of enhancements over the current OPUS weather engine and I'm sure ASN will continue to keep their customers happy as well, so I'll stay on the fence for now.  It's great to have all this competition B)

[JughedJones 207]

I'm really new to this whole simming obsession, but I've tried both and stuck with ASN.

 

As some have said, OPUS tends to pop in clouds during updates and it totally breaks immersion, plus: ASN is incredibly easy to 

use.  

 

PMDG + ASN + GEX + ORBX  =  Yeah, son!  

 

(good grief I've spent a lot of money on this hobby so far!)

[SteveW 1,792]

If you want an afternoon thunderstorm to turn into a warm clear evening then at some point your 27,000ft CB will disappear. In general it's going to affect any weather engine that want changes to occur within the time of the flight plan. CBs can be faded out and replaced with smaller clouds and so on, but I'm sure they all pop clouds at some point.

[klamal 282]

I was using Opus for a little over a year before finally getting sick of "noticing" opus was there. The best compliment I can give or say about ASN is that you don't notice it's there doing its thing. Updates are smooth. This was unlike opus. Updates with opus resulted in big shifts in winds and/or cloud popping. So, you noticed it. For me, that always took away from the immersion factor. When beginning descent with Opus, you never really knew for sure if the clouds were really going to stay where they'd were or not. With ASN, I no longer think about any of that and instead actually plan for the weather like it should be. For the first time when it comes to weather in FSX, I no longer catch myself saying "I only wish it did or didn't do this" or "that darn FSX bug...curse you M$". I don't really know what I'd improve upon with ASN. Never could say that before.

[ryanbatc 12,846]

I have OPUS and it's pretty good.  I tried the demo of ASN and liked everything over OPUS except one thing: stuttering.  I tried everyway I could to get rid of the stutters....  lots of helpful people from HiFi and users here tried to help.... could not get them to go away.  For that reason I decided not to buy it.  But I really like their weather depiction, and it handeled things better than OPUS, such as VV (indefinite ceiling).... OPUS always made a psuedo layer of OVC at about 400.... the VV really looks good (well you can't see anything lol) and it works at the altitude its broadcast on the AWOW/ASOS/ATIS.

[martin-w 3,235]

Not sure why you get stutters with ASN Ryan... I've not had any issues like that at all. Very smooth.

 

Did you exclude it in your AV?

[Buziel-411 4]

It seems most people feel as if ASN is superior to OpusFSX.

Does ASN work well for low and slow VFR flying? Does it require a set flight plan in order to accurately depict the weather, or does it still perform well if you are flying an indirect cross country route?

[TrafficPilot 121]

It seems most people feel as if ASN is superior to OpusFSX.

Does ASN work well for low and slow VFR flying? Does it require a set flight plan in order to accurately depict the weather, or does it still perform well if you are flying an indirect cross country route?

 

I mainly fly low and fast (Vampire/Hunter) and find ASN very accurate for shortish flights between airfields. The mesh based turbulence generation is also nice (ie fly over a mountain or a valley and you get the sort of turbulence you would expect in a real aeroplane). The weather change is so smoothit makes the whole experience alot more fluid and enjoyable for me.

 

You can generate a flightplan if you wish but for most "low and slow" flights I've never felt the need. The transition between different weather areas is nice and gradual.

 

Hope this helps!

[FLAPS15 8]

MDF,

 

I have been along time user of Opus and have just recently added ASN. Why, well Opus is great truly but for me still has issues with wind shifts even with smoothing switched on the wind likes to wander from its target which can be frustrating, further it also suffers from the issues of cloud popping on updates...in other words your in clouds next minute nothing clear sky...not realistic.

 

But these are being worked on in a new update due this year which  should be good.

 

However you get a fantastic camera function with Opus and the back up from the developers is second to none IMO further they are always releasing updates Beta's which is great.

 

So why did I buy ASN well for mainly for choice but more for static winds aloft I am talking airline flying.....but alas it would appear ASN suffers from slight varied winds also not as bad as Opus but they are there and can cause issues, so IMO just the same really further you cannot see the weather reports from a full screen like Opus just press a select keyboard button and there you go! you have to window FSX back and forth to see ASN easy but annoying.

 

In summary and because both developers have had my money I am not being biased I have supported both teams  they both have merits and downfalls this is not a case of one is better than the other its what works for you....

 

If I was pushed to only keep one though, well even though there are those issues with Opus I would stick with that as IMO it just feels right and works for ME!

 

But now I have the choice of usage....

[JSkorna 137]

If some of you would use the weather gauge from ASN you wouldn't need to keep Alt/Tabbing out of FSX Full Screen Mode.

[martin-w 3,235]

but alas it would appear ASN suffers from slight varied winds also not as bad as Opus but they are there and can cause issues,

I've not seen any aberrant wind variation in ASN at all to be honest.