I am not sure I quite understand. FE is basically from what I understnad a cloud/water texture addon - ASV offers the same, but with an intergrated weather engine? ASV has 512x512 textures for download, but people are raving about Flight1's Flight Environment. What am I missing?Are FE's textures simply "better"?

Hi there,It's a very personal thing to say which textures are better. The difference is also that FE has a lot of water options which ASV does not have and ASV has a weather engine which FE does not have.FE also works in a very different way and makes textures as required so it does not take up too much disk space and can offer a lot of choice.Also FE allows the user to manually select cumulus and stratus, and wispy sets individually which ASV does not. This is again linked to the amount of choices and also the technology.I would certainly not say that FE clouds are better or worst than ASV clouds but I would say most FE users use ASV and in most still use FE clouds. I certainly don't know anyone who is dissapointed in the awesome combination of FE clouds with ASV weather engine.Most people who have both agree they think this combination is a must have together and nobody who has ASV has asked for money back with FE. I suspect that issue is the same for ASV.I know it may seem odd to you but the bottom line is I would reccomend you get both. If currenly you have ASV then getting FE would make things more interesting and exciting. Likewise if you have FE THEN GET ASV.The combination is simply stunning.Regards,

Thank you Peter for your excellent response. I know that I won't stay away from FE, so expect my order soon ;-)Pat

Peter,I just bought Flight Environment to use with ASV 5 and am very happy so far. I like the interface to choose the clouds and textures. Nice big picture to look at, and a description and some tips for choosing. Very nice. Clouds are indeed awesome, and performance if anything is better.Two questions:1. I am not getting the pink illumination of the clouds at sunset any more. Why is that missing?2. Most, if not all of the water textures I have tried seem very green even over the ocean. I would expect them to be deep blue. I know some of the sky textures mention a bit of green appearance,but I am not sure this is what you talk about in your tips.This is really green!PS my monitor is calibrated!Thanks,Greg

Hi there,Gland you like it so far.As for sunsets there are a fair few of them and some have a pink hue and others don't. This is done on purpose to try and create a more vairible and realistic feel as sunsets are not always vivid pinks etc. Some of the sunsets are a brilliant a vivid red or organge. There is really a lot of varitions in FE.Water for the first three or so sets are matched to default FS9 water colours. This is to blend better and to avoid a harsh blend of water that can be miss-matched near to the horizon. It's down to water class, a little like land class that determins the colour. As for colour, I have eveyone telling me it should be more blue, or more grey or more green or more green/grey. That's why the latest update has so many more choices than the first release. It's basically because nobody can agree what colour water should be.It's the same in the real world because so much depends with water colour on sky and clouds and haze and also the natural tones in the water. Of the coast of England for example, it can be anthing from a grey to a dark and vivid green similar to Seattle. Some parts of England can look very tropical at times. On the other hand parts of the North Sea near to Holland can be very brown green looking and especially when overcast.FE tries to give choice to the user. There are reflection sets that can make the water more blue and some that make it more green. Also, the sky can make water a little more green; RE; alternate sets can have a slightly greener cast of colour.So the point is we have one person saying make it more blue and another saying grey and another saying green and another saying brown.It will take you a long time of experimenting with all the water sets available with FE to find out which ones are more blue or less green etc.You need to work through it all logically starting with base set one and working then through the reflection sets tring different times of the day and different weather conditons. Overcast for example makes the water much more green/grey in colour. You need to set clear skies to make sure you are seeing the blues.Personally, I can surff the net and find picutures that prove everyone is right, water should be more blue, more green more grey and more brown. LOL We are all totally confused simply because that's how the real world is.....The best way to find really blue water is to go to the tropics like Puerto Rico, the British Virgin Islands, Hawawii etc. All this water is very blue.

Thanks for the detailed reply. I will keep exploring. But wrt to sunsets, I was looking for pink tinged clouds, not the actual sky itself. I will try some more variants, it is early in the game!Greg

Hi there again Greg. Believe it or not the pink tinge on the clouds is triggered by the sky tile which has information in it that will cast the colour of the clouds. Sorry for not making that clear. So it's a matter of trying different sun sets in FE and fining one that gives the clouds a pink tinge.There is also a strong random element with any of the sky sets and sunsets. There is a 10% chance only that you will get a specific look even within a specific selected set. What can cause the change is season and location. This is inkeeping with what FS9 does by default. What FE does is makes the variations bigger still and more inkeeping with what happens in real life. Just like real life you can't specify what kind of sun-set you get.....But as long as you are prepared to play around for a while and then save the sun-set you like as a favorite and also the situation file in game then you should be able to find what you are looking for.

Thanks,I did find a pink cloud tinged sunset!I made my first actual flight with FE using ASV 5 as the weather engine from Portland to Vancouver BS yesterday with some very active realtime weather. I am sold! I actually saw for the first time very accurate rendition of towering cu punching through a flat layer of altostratus. Good Looking thunderstorms around as well. Beautiful descent through multiple incredibly real cloud layers and types with beautiful reflections off the water at times.Again performance with all the cumulus around was definitely better than with default FS clouds.Great job on this add on. Look forward to next update.ThanksGreg

Most welcome Greg and thanks for the feedback and complements.

Hi Peter,Does FE allow the installation of water without the clouds? This would be handy for those of us who wish to stay with a particular cloud set/s from ASV but merely wish to try a different water set from FE.Unless I am missing something, currently when we choose a water set and then install from FE the program will also overwrite any cloud textures that the user may have installed from ASV. We then have to go to ASV and recover those clouds which is a bit of a pain at times.You are encouraging us to use both ASV and FE, and obviously this is very laudible since both programs are excellent and have much to offer the end user, but it would be nice if FE had a switch we could choose on those occasions we don't wish to overwrite the cloud sets from ASV.Maybe this has been covered before, I don't know.Just a thought.Regards,Mike

i understand the appreciation for these and similar progams, but considering all the freeware textures, water, clouds, etc...are they really that much of an improvement? I currently use chris wills' cloud sets, a collection of water textures and two paywares...fs genesis landclass and ultimate terrain. what do we really gain from either or both of these programs? thanks...sherm

http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/review/fe/fe.htmI really urge you to read that review because it should answer any questions you have about FE.

I'm not sure I know of any FE users who use just FE water but I'm sure there are some.But no problem at all if you want to use ASV clouds because all you do is install FE water and then run ASV and install ASV clouds.Simple and it works.

>Hi there again Greg. Believe it or not the pink tinge on the>clouds is triggered by the sky tile which has information in>it that will cast the colour of the clouds. Sorry for not>making that clear. So it's a matter of trying different sun>sets in FE and fining one that gives the clouds a pink tinge.>Hey Pete, I've seen the pink tinge in the clouds last night when I was flying through my own self made perfect storm; to put my new Cirrus SR20G2 through its paces. :) The thing is I didn't use the manual way of selecting clouds sky etc...I prefer the randomizer included with FE. You never know what you are going to get,(just like real life) but when you do...it is awesome. Flying through your clouds at 2 mile visibilty and winds and rain from hades, make for a wonderful experience; admiring the different textures of the clouds as you fly through them.

>i understand the appreciation for these and similar progams,>but considering all the freeware textures, water, clouds,>etc...are they really that much of an improvement? I currently>use chris wills' cloud sets, a collection of water textures>and two paywares...fs genesis landclass and ultimate terrain.>what do we really gain from either or both of these programs?>thanks...>>sherm1. performance2. atmosphere3. realism - decending through layers of realistic clouds during a thunderstorm without the perfomance hit = a very happy Mr. Funi ;-)