Active Sky Weather Engine Preview

[vgbaron 3,643]

 

 

REX and what they have done with regards to the total rebuild of the weather engine

 

Eric

 

 REX has already stated that this new product is NOT a weather engine.

 

Vic

[Damian Clark 1,268]

Hi,

 

As mentioned, performance was a top priority.

 

There will be an upgrade path but these new products are not free. Near 3 years and 5 service packs with ASN was our limit of capability for free upgrades. More details on pricing and upgrade paths soon.

 

3D cloud structures files (we include over 100 comprehensive variants) comprise dozens of individual models, so we can easily say we have thousands of models coming if you refer to individual objects and separate cloud structures, depends on definition.

 

Our Overcast is definitely full coverage and high performance, and was also a high priority.

 

Many more details coming soon. You will be able to try it for free as well of course. Thanks!

[G-YMML1 582]

Please have an option for 256 Textures, as with Overcast and 4xSGSAA even 980Ti could not help. 

[carguy4471 19]

I have owned many versions of the Active Sky franchise, going back to AS6. When a brand new version is released, it normally is sold as a new product - however, HiFi has a good track record of rewarding customer loyalty, and there have always been substantial discounts for registered owners of previous products.

 

I'd assume that this will be the case with AS16 for those who already own ASN.

 

Not sure if this will apply to ASCA, since that is not a weather engine as such, but a completely new cloudscape and texture enhancement product.

 

Thank you for chiming in.  I've only owned ASN so I'm not familiar with HIFIs past upgrade paths.  

 

I think I'd be a pretty happy camper is they offered a small discount on AS16 for current ASN users.  I feel the same way about ASCA though, it's a new product entirely.  

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Many more details coming soon.

 

 

I'm looking forward to it. Generally, in any add-on category for FSX/P3d there are at least two or three 3rd party products that all do a commendable job. But when it comes to weather, in my opinion, ASN is far and away the best in that category. And I've purchased FSGRW, OPUSFSI and REX3 at some point in time or another.

 

I don't know if you saw one of my comments in another thread here. Is the AS16 radar interface sufficiently changed such that Roland's radar gauge will no longer work? Or will AS16 contain a similar gauge that is easily integrated into the VC?

[Damian Clark 1,268]

Hi,

 

API including radar data integration still remains of course and has been improved further. All existing integrated add-ons will work great with AS16.

 

The new airborne radar simulation mode is added to XGauge to give realistic airborne radar to all aircraft but of course the api integrated solutions are preferred in such aircraft. The 3D representation of our xgauge is also available to all developers to use in their aircraft/ panels as desired, but for maximum realism the radar api is best for integration directly into the existing realstic avionics systems.

Please have an option for 256 Textures, as with Overcast and 4xSGSAA even 980Ti could not help.

 

Yes.

 

And how about simultaneous resolution variability such as 512Dxt overcast with 2048 or 4096 cumulus few sct and bkn? . Much has gone into perf.

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

Our Overcast is definitely full coverage and high performance, and was also a high priority.

If it has solid, reasonably accurate overcast, it will be worth every penny.

[Damian Clark 1,268]

If it has solid, reasonably accurate overcast, it will be worth every penny.

Yes full coverage = solid.

[Poppet 710]

Damian

 

Build it and we will come

[G-YMML1 582]

CC is ready:-)

[Irishcurse 234]

Been purchasing their products forever. I look forward to purchasing this product. I know as in the past they won't disappoint.

[spesimen 135]

one interesting tidbit on their site is that it addresses the skinny/stretched clouds at high latitudes, nice!

 

cheers

-andy crosby

[rayharris51 5]

All good, but the focus seems still to be mainly on various exotic cumulus storm and low - med level clouds.

 

I just wonder if they will include Alto Cumulus, stratocumulus, cirro cumulus and other important mid level clouds, at the moment this is a big gap in realistic rendition. Funnily enough we used to see a sort of alto cumulus as far back as FS2004... But rarely since.

 

If this product could get rid of Cumulus clouds appearing at 15-25,000 and replace them with realistic mid level clouds then they have my vote - + more stratiform clouds...

 

Also thick layers of Cirro stratus in weather fronts right from 30,000 down to 3,000 nimbostratus stratus layers would be good, if not a little challenging on performance no doubt.

 

Interesting developments though.

 

Ray

[Flic1 977]

 

 

If this product could get rid of Cumulus clouds appearing at 15-25,000 and replace them with realistic mid level clouds then they have my vote - + more stratiform clouds...

 

This has annoyed me for quite some time...seeing tiny cumulus clouds up at 25k feet.  I hope this is finally fixed!!

[Damian Clark 1,268]

Hi,

 

A small example of some 3D Cloud structure types (all with multiple variants and coverages) that are included:

 

Altostratus

Altocumulus

Stratocumulus

Cirrostratus

Cirrocumulus

Cirrus Perlucidus

Cirrus Lacunosus

Cumulus Humilis

Cumulus Congestus

Cumulus Mediocris

Towering Cumulus (Congestus)

NimboStratus

CumuloNimbus Calvus

CumuloNimbus Incus

 

There are many more, this is just off the top of my head (still traveling back home from FSCON).  More details on this will be posted on product pages soon.

 

Also, FWIW, the CB's follow realistic height profiles depending on tropopause, troposphere and stratosphere heights at the depicted latitude which usually restrain convective development further (thus why a CB gets an anvil top).  30-40K heights are typical, with some rare exceptions up to 60K+ in "supercell" conditions depending on latitude, CAPE and LI.  We could provide 80K, 100K, 200K heights for super dramatic effect (and certainly did in testing) or impressive video scenes but as usual we retain a sharp focus on realism above all else.  In any case, previous FSX/P3D tstorm conditions would typically result in 15-20K heights (if depicted high at all) due to the old cloud models/structures and definitions.  This has been a big area of improvement with AS16+ASCA.