>$28 is kind of on the steep side for LOYAL customers....>>I need someone to tell me what the advantage AS 5 is over 4.5>paired with Flight Environment from Flight One. It appears it>is only a combo pack comprising of AS 4.5 and FS Skyworld.>>Features / advantages, Please!>>Barry>I am in the same situation as yourself. I am happy with AS 4.5 and Flight Environment, especially the randomizer function in FE so the envrionment is varied for every flight. I will need some very compelling reason to spend $28 as well.Scott

$28 for owners of AS 4.5?!?!?Well, I WAS looking forward to it:(Erik

Howdy,if you guys are familiar with the previous version then reading the online manual of ASV should give you the information you're looking for: http://www.hifisim.com/asvwebdocs/asv_user_guide.htmCheers, Holger

agreed...you can only do so much. I use the old FSMeteo with the freeware cloud sets - no problem.There are fundemental issues within FS wx engine that no developer has yet to fix correctly. I dont blame them, but I personally dont see this a any type of breakthrough, especially at this price.

>paired with Flight Environment from Flight One. It appears it>is only a combo pack comprising of AS 4.5 and FS Skyworld.There is an OCEAN of difference between the old FS Skyworld and the new ASV/AE offering. Clouds are delivered in many more forms, skies/sunsets are hugely improved. I also have FE and thing it is great but AE offers cloud types (specially the 'hard' edged type) not available anywhere else - but as everything in this business it is a matter of personal taste and preference. As to the $28 charge for existing customers - look the upgrade price should be proportional to the amount of work they put into this new product. The amount of effort that went into the ASV/AE 5.0 was substantial but ultimately it is you the consumer who decides whether it is worthwile for you. The only way you can assure that talented developers like Damian and Chris keep doing what they are doing is to be properly compensated for their time.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_beta_member.jpg

>>$28 is kind of on the steep side for LOYAL customers....>>>>I need someone to tell me what the advantage AS 5 is over>4.5>>paired with Flight Environment from Flight One. It appears>it>>is only a combo pack comprising of AS 4.5 and FS Skyworld.>>>>Features / advantages, Please!>>>>Barry>>>>I am in the same situation as yourself. I am happy with AS>4.5 and Flight Environment, especially the randomizer function>in FE so the envrionment is varied for every flight. I will>need some very compelling reason to spend $28 as well.>>ScottI agree with you . AS 4.5 works great and FE clouds and water and sky textures are fantastic and " Frame Rate Friendly" I want to read some convincing frame rate advantages to switching to something else from something that isn't broken.

Barry,For me having vertical air currents alone is already worth the price.Best regards,Henri

Hi,First it is not fs sky world inside ASV, fs sky world are based on few texture, most of ASVAE are totally new with new texture included, the amount is almost 20x bigger.-FE is not 100% compatible with Active sky 4.5 like you tought,it works in random but without know what's is going in as well for the clouds visual representation, asv do a better job, even better with the update will be implemented with asv for FE.-These new feature from ASV, will be adapted for FE users if they want to use it with ASV togheter. I cannot confirm the total of the feature list update with FE and ASV but there will be for sure. I have already talked to Peter about this.-In asv we have added option to improve the clouds visual from FE OR AE.-ASV Varied cloudssky environment for every flight at startup without you need to open anything others else or need to click anyhing. ASV Change Cirrus Clouds During the flight. With update laters more to come in this area.-All others new feature from the manual explaned. Vertical Air updraft and downdraft effects, thermals, ridge lift and turbulence. Offline Sequential Playback, Increased Winds Resolution, 24-hour Archives, Wx Configurator, Improved Weather Processing.Feature Free Update:I will not start to tell you, what's feature wil be implemented in all free update, still not confirmed such as new overcast etc. but there will be some major as well for FE compatibility for free. ThanksChris WillisHiFi Simulation Software Team Developerhttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_dev_team.jpgFreeware Addons for FSW GROUP

I haven't heard anything about FPS impact. Does it monitor FPS and dynamically adjust the cloud configurations for a desired user specified performance settings? Now that would be worth the upgrade price.Again, much more analysis will have to be done in order to pay $28 for an upgrade.I haven't read / heard really anything earth shattering. Like does AI traffic have to be reset to zero before ASV loads the weather? Or did the developers follow my suggestion and temporarily save the AI traffic % and then set it to zero, then restore the original setting after the WX is loaded? Do I have to refresh then load the flight plan? Does it still load potentially hundreds of weather stations that are more than reasonable distance from where the aircraft is flying? All the querky things with AS 4.5, have they been corrected? Maybe others can chime in with their 4.5 querks.The jury is still out. Hopefully there will be LOTS of discussion and evaluation feedback on ASV.Barry

Hi Barry,1. AI traffic does not need to be reset.2. The percent is not saved, set to zero, and restored. It is done in a much smoother way.3. You do not need to refresh and load a flight plan.4. ASV loads and processes a 200 mile radius area of weather. The benefits of this are numerous.5. What other querky things do you mean?Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Sales and Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_dev_team.jpg http://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_proud_supporter.jpg

Hi Jim,Those were the main issues I have. Which one of these are not an issue with AS 4.5? If they are an issue with AS 4.5, are they still with ASV? 1. AI traffic does not need to be reset.2. The percent is not saved, set to zero, and restored. It is done in a much smoother way.3. You do not need to refresh and load a flight plan.Option 4, I concur with and is not a problem.4. ASV loads and processes a 200 mile radius area of weather. The benefits of this are numerous.How is the AI% issue currently handled in AS 4.5 and now ASV? It has to be set to zero so FS will pick up the approporate winds and assign the correct runway. If AI traffic is taxiing then FS will not change the active runway based on winds until all AI traffic has departed.Barry

I find the $28 upgrade price steep and not justified by the feature description, especially if you have FE already.since you are a member of the beta team, your opinion has little merit as an objective of comparison and information. ricardo

>and sky textures are fantastic and " Frame Rate Friendly" I>want to read some convincing frame rate advantages toNeither ASV/AE or FE offer any frame rate advantage over one another. They seem to be completely FPS "equivalent" at least on my set-up. I was curious about how they compare so I set up some experiments. I picked TNCM airport with plenty of water around in order not to be influenced by a very heavy ground scenery. I set up two heavy overcast cloud layers and I tried different combinations of FE and AE clouds. All my cloud visibility/quality options were set up at absolute maximum. The results were astonishingly similar. Under the deck I was getting about 24 fps, going through the clouds it would drop to 18 and then above the clouds it would return to 24. It would be impossible for me to try thousands of different cloud types both sets offer so I picked those that I considered most "detailed". By the way my results don't change much regardless if I tried higher or lower resolution clouds. Not much change in performance and not much change in the look. AE offers however the absolute bare bone quality of clouds (64x64) as a 3-rd option and this one did not look good enough to me with minor improvement in performance. FE's DXT3 clouds did offer better performance at the moment you were penetrating the clouds (up to 30% better) but almost no change in performance when flying above them. Again, this is on my system, with my 'eyes'.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_beta_member.jpg

MichaelI back you with your sentiments. The work of Active Sky and FS SkyWorld has been one of the major improvements to MSFS.I can only thank both for their contribution to our hobby and the combined Version five should be something special and well worth the money.My only problem is my download rate which at 2.5 kps is painful so I will have to wait until I visit a friend with broadband before I can enjoy the delights of this groups work.Peter

$US28? Hmmm. Just bought activesky recently. No sale, er, resale here.LPXO