I'm a little late on this one but I couldn't bring myself to buy this product based on the screenshots I was seeing. I went ahead and took the plunge and all I can say is, WOW.... This is one package you'd have to buy in order to see the difference it makes. I'm in awe of what you can accomplish with this application. Great Job Flight1... :-beerchug

yes, you can get good looking water with an NVIDIA card....http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/112549.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/112550.jpg

I was wondering if it would affect the operation of FS Meteo which I use for my real time weather.Cheers,Chris Porter:-outtaPerthWestern Australia

Guess it's all about personal taste but I still prefer Lynn and Bill Lyons fs9wat water textures available for download here in AVSIM's file library.In the screenshot attached, short final into Diagoras (LGRP) airport - Rhodes a beautiful summer evening.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/112551.jpg

Yes, no problem, we have talked at length withe Marc from FS Meteo and both products are working very well together.Peter

WebM you have no idea what your missing out on. There are many ways to quickly customize water textures and effects plus have them randomly change... You know how the month of July always produces a white haze layer that (at least to me) is very unrealistic. With FE2004 you can now do something about it. Remember the issue where people were complaining the night textures where too light. Now you can darken the clouds and night sky at night to make things more realistic. Another thing I've noticed is FS9 runs better on my machine using FE....I can't stress enough all the benefits you get with this add-on (I certainly didn't mention all the features above). You'll never understand what you get with this program from screenshots. If you stuck on those old Lynn and Bill Lyons textures, you

>Greetings all!>>Since I make it a principle to be at least as straightforward>in my praise as I am in my criticism, I am pleased to tell you>that I received a very friendly email from the developer,>among other subjects offering to refund my money. Such an>almost immediate reaction from a developer shows that he truly>cares for his customers, which I consider highly laudable, and>hence worthy of mentioning here. >>I have emailed back that I do not want a refund, because I>consider it much more important to help keep good developers>in business. Even if I am not (yet) much impressed with Flight>Environment, I sure am impressed with the positive attitude of>its developer!>>Anyway, I'll keep experimenting with my various settings of>computer and FE. Hopefully I'll eventually hit the "sweet>spot" that is exactly right for me, my rig, and my tired old>eyes (grin)!>>Be well!>>Jaap Verduijn.This post gets my vote for "condescending post" of the year, given that your original post contained no constructive feedback and evaluation whatsoever. You called the product "hype".ricardo

Hi Dillon,As a matter of fact I'm already an owner of FE2004 and has used it for a couple of days now and have tried all functions for random sets of the textures and so on. Some things are modelled very beautifully but despite that I chosed to go back to what I had before since I in the end find those textures better. I have alternative freeware textures for both the sun, water, sky, clouds etc and all of them are extremly good in my opinion.But like I said, this is all personal taste and for everyone that thinks FE is the best they've seen I'm happy for them. I'm looking forward to the new product from HiFi, will be very interesting to see what they will come up with this time!All the best,

>I was wondering if it would affect the operation of FS Meteo>which I use for my real time weather.>>Cheers,>>Chris Porter>:-outta>>Perth>Western Australia>I prefer using fsmeteo for FE2004

Concerning HiFi, I may stick with AS2004.5 on this go around. Seeing as this weather package is coming out with it's own textures, I don't think I want to play around with two programs that are so closely matched. AS2004.5 offers great weather but the cloud textures in Flight1

Thanks Peter, much appreciated.Chris Porter:-outtaPerthWestern Australia

I do agree,but have one question for you: i own both FSWater and Flight Environment, will the first be useless now that FSEnvironment is out?Ocean FX, FS Water, FS Sky World 2004, and now Flight Environment!!!Is there a way to import some oldie texture sets into that wonderful Flight Environment front end?Thanks Luigi ;-)

FE didnt seem to make much difference to my current "eye candy" and FPS is down with/without the smaller sized textures so going to request a refund now I've uninstalled it.adam

Interestingly enough, after taking FE through its paces on two trans atlantic trips of 8 10 hours, I have gone back to FS Skyworld.On comparison, FS Skyworld offers quite a few more cloud variations that FE. Additionally, I like highly photorealistic cloud scapes, I find that Skyworld fits the bill in that area.Next, on performance, the default 32-bit FE clouds impose a serious frame rate hit but then again so do the large Skyworld clouds as well as the default FS 2004 clouds, especially in overcast conditions. However, on comparing the reduced sized clouds the Skyworld clouds perform better on my system sometimes by +10 fps in broken and overcast conditions.With Activesky, I have found that pound-for-pound, the Skyworld skyscapes are more diverse with more cloud variations and just give me an overall better "feel", especially with the photorealistic highly textured variations and Activesky. With FE I get the feel of remastered default FS 2004 clouds...they are pretty nice but they left me wanting for them to go the next step. I get that next step feel with Skyworld for some reason. The sky colors are pretty much the same between Skyworld and FE but I kept the FE variation in place.Also, the FE new water colors and textures are perfect and give realistic coloring for the geographical area...water in the NE US should be greenish not a azure blue. I like the FE water and consider it a step forward over FS Water.Finally, Skyworld gives the proper "dark" night time coloring. Night is dark and so is the flight deck. Skyworld eliminates the radiation glow of the clouds at night and the ghostly glow of the aircraft on the ground with totally dark texturing which is totally realistic. FE night textures are only slightly darker than the default night.At the end of the day, after flying for hours with Skyworld and FE and comparing the two, my personal preference is Skyworld for clouds and night textures, FE for the water.The updated FS Water in FE keeps FE on my hard drive and with the discount I don't mind paying $15. Besides, the product is not defective so to me it would be unfair to request a refund.Methinks that in this case with FE, "The emperor has no clothes" truly does apply. We all see what we want to see and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.Best regards,Mike T.

Thanks Mike for at least liking and giving some positive feedback on the water. Unfortunately, you have not been able to enjoy the clouds but maybe it's down to perception or the way you are using it. The total number of cumulus01 clouds is 1920 and the variations can be either very subtle or very dramacitc. The best way to appreciate this is to use the randomizer and then for sure you will see they are not re-worked FS9 clouds. Far from it. It maybe that you got by chance a cloud set very similar to FS9 when you tested and that can happen by chance with FE.Because I wanted a lot of choice and to find a balance that was acceptable to all tastes I've made the variations appear anything from just a little different that FS9 clouds to a lot different. I don't want to get drawn into a slanging match about who's clouds are better but IMO the default FS9 clouds are very good in their own right and there is little wrong with them. You only have to look on screen shot forums and see that most people are still using the default clouds not freeware clouds.Yes, some of the alternatives can look good in some conditions and indeed any clouds can at time look odd due to the limitations of the game; but on balance I like clouds to look good at least most of the time. And that is why so much testing in all kinds of altitudes and weather themes and real weather has been done with my clouds.Foe example; some Freeware clouds look bad at FL350 if the stratus layer is around 9,000 feet or less. I have ensured as far as posible this is not the case with my stratus.If you have done 2 trans-atlantic flights of 10 hours in total then I assume you have maybe run FE twice.New clothes you have mentioned a couple of times now. You know what I mean.But to be fair you have not really given FE a fair test. Okay you have flown for 10 hours but most of my testers in 10 hours were able to test a lot of sets and conditions. So to be fair you have only tried a few sets and at FL350 there is often not much to tell between the sets or any other clouds for that matter and if you were trans altantic then you were mostly at that kind of altitude.Do yourself a favor, be positive and find the time to test the clouds in more depth in various conditions and themes etc. Also, I would suggest you put your trust in the randomizer. Only last night I built what I thought would be a fantastic set and it looked pertty average. I ran up the randomizer and it was an amazing as a result and put together a combination I would never have thought of.If after testing in depth you still feel the results are inferior to any freeware then I will be happy to give you your money back and give you a free copy of the water section. I really don't like an unhappy customer and the last thing I want is for people to be dissapointed. So far most users are able to enjoy and appreciate the FE clouds.It's not only about money to me. It's about the wow factor and reading positive posts, most of which are about wow gives me a good pat on the back. But when I read posts like yours which is so far the most negative from any user posting a line has been crossed and for me I really don't want you on that side of the line and paying for it.If I was in your shoes I would want a refund as we are all different and appreciate different things.