>Well, I have used both. I also bought FS Water.>>In my opinion, Flight Environment is the way to go!>But what about the new Active Sky version 5? Does it not offer the same things as FE or could they complement each other?

>But what about the new Active Sky version 5? Does it not offer>the same things as FE or could they complement each other?see;http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...c_page=1#256006

They should be able to complement each other though until it's released we won't know for sure. It should be the case the new Active Sky weather engine should be 100% compatible with any cloud sets.As for Active environment again I see no reason why AE won't want to make options to use "other clouds" but there may be a delay as I would expect they want the initial release to work in a manner they can predict and to control bugs etc.I can promise you any FE customer is going to get excellent support and that the product will continue to get free updates, get expanded and that a new weather engine is very likey to follow that will really be exciting and do some pretty amazing things. We can't say too much about that now but we did look at all the current weather engines and found them to be very compatible with FE but not really taking advantage of the environment in a way we would like to see.We are working on a lot of ways to make FE better and the weather engine is certainly one area we are looking toowards.One thing I would say is that we have very solid bridges built with all the weather engine developers and get very good support from them and all of them are very willing to build various ways we can work with their engines to control the environment. The big advantage FE has for example is water. We will also be able to control the wave height and reflection colors patterns etc to suit the season and type of weather. For example a darker winter look to water can be triggered by a weather engine.Peter

Hopefully later today I will be purchasing your product. The other pruchasers of your product seem to be quite satisfied. Add in the fact that your attention to these questions has been exemplary (same with you, Spooky!) this product seems like a "must buy", not only from a product standpoint but from a customer service standpoint as well.

Thanks for the vote of confidence.I'll be very interested to hear what you have to say about the prodcut, if it came up to expectations etc.Regards, Peter

Because it proves how stupid I am!!! So there I was, admiring my Skyworld skyscape, loving every moment of it, knowing without any doubt that no other add-on, not even FE can compare to what I am seeing on my screen.But, I noticed that FE had an update so I decided to download it just for grins. When I fired FE up, I noticed that the clouds in the FE configuration program looked like the ones I already had in FS from Skyworld! Then I realized what I did...The last time I used Skyworld I also had FE open but I installed the FE clouds last by mistake, thinking that I had done the opposite and installed the Skyworld clouds. SO, at the end of the day, it WAS FE that I loved so much after all!*DOH* Time to soak my head while giving credit where credit is due. FE is truly everything they said it was after all: clouds and water. Okay, I'll go slink away now.Mike T.

Hi Mike, we all make mistakes, god knows i've done many times.....But it takes courage to say you did, so i would like to say thank you for your kind words!Many happy flying hours, using whatever addon you like.- Anthonyhttp://members.home.nl/vos69/logofe.jpg

Thanks Mike,Well done for owning up to the mistake, God knows we have all done things like that.The thing to remember is that FE and FSW are similar in as much that you change the textures before loading up the game.The last you use, FSW or FE will be the clouds that are installed in to game.I wonder how many other people have make that mistake because we did have a few early complaints that "they could not see any difference" between FSW clouds and FE clouds, but as you can see there are quiet some differences after all.Personally, I think the comparisons between the two are really not subtle and anyone who looks can see a big difference. Of course which you like best will be a personal thing.Peter

I'm a (former) longtime user of FSW, both in FS2002 and FS2004. After messing up the water effects when installing different addons I decided to give FE a try. I must say that it's beyond my expectations. And also the FPS seems to be better, or maybe it's just smoother. Whatever, it feels much better and that's the important thing for me.BUT - as an Active Sky user I had a nice hazy horizon, even in CAVOK. Now it's gone and it's a sharp line between sky and water. Is it because of the FE or do I have to reconfigure AS again?BR,Jan B.

I don't own Active Sky (holding out for V) but I think there is a haze effect setting that you can uncheck

yes, redo your AS settings....

As far as I know checking the "depict FS9 Haze layer" is not what you are asking about? This FS9 Haze layer is addressed to a degree with FE by making the effect more varied and for some people they like the effect.Certainly the default FS9 haze layer is a little too much so Active sky give the option to turn if off. You may find you like it turned on though with the new FE haze layers? Certainly I think keeping the haze in adds something especaially with our new clouds.As for the horizon effect I'm not sure? It could be a visibility setting or something else.I know Chris Wills was doing something a while back with the horizon effect but FE does not touch any of these files.What I would suggest is you look for the horizon fix that Chris did and you should be able to install that without affecting FE in any way. If it does let us know and we will sort it out.Sometimes I get a sharp unrealistic horizon and sometimes not. I do know that sometimes in real life the horizon can be very sharp so take care with such fixes. Peter

any idea on the name for that file regarding the horizon? i am getting this weird horizon action as well... i cant find the file in avsim library

you might be looking for the maximum visability option in AS?I set mine to 40...

not sure but you may find the horizon effect looks better with some sky sets compared to others.It can vary due to season and location also. strange but true.It's down to a line or two in the sky bit maps that can contribute to this effect or reduce itPeter