I posted this right before the PMDG Crisis, and of course , I got bumped out with hardly any helpful advice. The only reply I got did not quite address my post.This why I am repeating it again, hoping I can get some help.I am asking this because I am wondering wether either of these products, for instance are compatible with FS Meteo . I believe these are cloud enviroment embellishment and no wheather programs. I have a new Laptop computer P4 3.6 mhz,2gigas Memory, Graphic card NVidia 6800 256 megas, and the works.I am slowly loading my addons, but I have some confussion about Cloud and the new payware addons (Active Sky, Flight Enviroment).I assume I have to install first Chris Willis file HIFPS which corrects th FPS hungry default clouds in FS9.The other two products. Do they help with the clouds FPS problem or the contrary. What is the difference.I am suffering from addonniphrenia and sometimes I buy somethig because of what I read here in this Forum, without not paying enough attention to the implications vis a vis other addons or frame/slide show effects.Would appreciate your help.Edmundo CardenasSVMI

With ActiveSky you won't need FSMeteo as it's one of the best weather addons available. The latest version 5 - ASV also comes with cloud textures which are pretty good. But IMHO FE has better looking clouds with better FPS. Also FE gives water textures too.So, since you have FSMeteo already you could -1 Just get FE and use it with FSMeteo or2 Get ASV for weather and clouds and use some free water addons (PWOver) 3 Get ASV for weather and clouds and FSWater (Flight1)4 Get ASV for weather and FE for the rest The last option is a sweet combo, but I haven't used FSMeteo, so can't comment on that.The first option is recommended by FE.Keith

FS Sky World is a freeware product from Chris Willis, which you can use to push different cloud sets and other features into Flight Simulator, be they low frame rate or high-quality appearance.This includes two high-frame rate cloud sets plus many other effects.As this is high-quality and (incredibly given the amount of work which must gave gone into it) free, I'd certainly download that and give it a try.I used to combine this with FSMetar, a freeware progam for downloading on-line weather.I don't know FSMeteo but provided it is only displaying weather according to the cloud and effect sets you have installed, then it would be compatible with FS Sky World. If it comes with cloud sets of its own, then clearly it isn't fully compatible.ActiveSky 2004 is/was a payware system for downloading current weather from the internet and pushing this into FS using whatever cloud and environment sets you happened to have installed.ASV is a new payware combination of the two - Chris Willis cloud sets combined with the Activesky download facility. This comes with the ability for the system to intelligently select clouds and other effects based on current weather to give the closest approximation to real conditions. It includes high frame rate cloud sets, plus the ability to switch mip-maps on and off, which apparently can help your frame rates.As an all-encompassing system, I can't see what area would be left over for compatibility with FS Meteo.I don't know anything about Flight Environment.I have both ActiveSky 2004 and ASV. I was very happy with ActiveSky 2004 but have reservations about ASV. ASV can be very good - it gave me an excellent representation of the severe thunderstorms we had in the UK a month ago, for example.However, my impression is that ASV is great if you like to fly low-and-slow but if you like to fly airliners at high altitude, where you need long visibility and cloud draw distances, ASV controls so many of your weather and environment parameters that it exposes you to some of the old horrors in inherent in FS itself (e.g. sudden changes in visibility, a razor sharp horizon and clouds and hills popping into view from nowhere).This can be controlled by selectively disabling ASV's automatic weather selection (I now have it working OK), but this rather defeats the object of its intelligent weather creation.

I have Active Sky 5.I have downloaded and installed the 512x512 resolution cloud sets.After enabling the mip mapping they look the best as it could get,well at least for me.And they don't reduce a drop of frame in my system.I also have FsWater for water textures.As said before you could get ASV5 and Flight Environment or FsWater for water.That would give you the best quality and frames I think.You do not have to install HIFPS if you have ASV5 because ASV has its own textures which gives you a big FSP raise and a nice quality.Here check my clouds out for yourself.There are huge selections of everything,this is the pack of clouds I liked :http://virtual.planepictures.net/show.cgi?81297http://virtual.planepictures.net/show.cgi?81255http://virtual.planepictures.net/show.cgi?82816http://img336.imageshack.us/img336/8333/512clouds9hw.jpghttp://img348.imageshack.us/img348/4451/512clouds20un.jpghttp://www.sanalpilot.com/forum/uploaded/TC-BUG/4.jpghttp://www.sanalpilot.com/forum/uploaded/TC-BUG/8.jpgActive Sky 5 also comes with a program called Active Environment where you can also adjust sky colors,sunrise and sunset effects and many more as well as the clouds.It is also the best weather generator I've ever seen.So there is no need for any other program for sky if you have ASV.This is the Active Environment interface:http://img312.imageshack.us/img312/9737/as26pb.jpgSorry for the number of pictures.Hope it helps =).

well, I prefer FE2004 and ASV together, ASV for weather engine and FE for the great looking clouds/water/skys. Peter Wilding the developer of FE2004 prefers to use Weather Maker Pro for weather generation.here is a review on FE just to give you some info.http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/review/fe/fe.htm