Active Sky Cloud Art for FSX & P3D - Released!

[nooon 21]

AS16 LFKB 090800Z 0909/1009 12008KT 9999 FEW030 PROB40 TEMPO 0910/0915 FEW026CB SCT030 BECMG 0918/0920 24004KT CAVOK TEMPO 1002/1006 SCT010 TX30/0912Z TN20/1003Z

ASCA / Global Auto

 

[npole 21]

Hi,

 

 

"solid overcast" is a feature of ASCA, not AS16. Did you get ASCA too, cause this doesn't seem like ASCA to me

 

So to have something good, you don't have to pay only for ASN... but then for ASCA.. and if you own FSX and P3D you have to pay two times again. do they think we are human wallets or what? I don't like the REX guys much.. but at this point it's better to wait for them to release the weather engine and move everything on a single product, because honestly this all look a way to charge more money to us, when we have bought the product already not so long time ago.

[Guest]

Once back in the main UI you can select and install one of the dynamic weather settings.

So... you still have to install sets in order to see all possible textures in the sim...? What does that dynamic weather setting do and mean? Sounds like if you install one you still are limited to a specific 'set of sets'? Doesn't the program automatically use any of ALL availablity textures?

 

BTW Those last two screenshots 40LM posted are quite awful indeed... Now I will certainly stick with ASN and HDE until more reviews (also of the new REX addon) are coming in.

[npole 21]

2 crashes in the space of an hour this morning after installing AS16 and ASCA.

 

Shots in FSX, Haven't had time to install into P3D yet.

 

...

 

EDIT : For clarification, FSX was set to Max cloud coverage, 90N/M, AS16 settings were all default and I HAVE installed the additional 1GB+ HD Texture pack.

 

Apart the first shot, that is identical to the current/previous ASN and REX, the others looks horrible and unrealistic to be honest, especially the last one.

[roi1862 602]

So to have something good, you don't have to pay only for ASN... but then for ASCA.. and if you own FSX and P3D you have to pay two times again. do they think we are human wallets or what? I don't like the REX guys much.. but at this point it's better to wait for them to release the weather engine and move everything on a single product, because honestly this all look a way to charge more money to us, when we have bought the product already not so long time ago.

Agreed. This time i will wait for an alternative with both as16 and acsa.

[GSalden 4,656]

So... you still have to install sets in order to see all possible textures in the sim...? What does that dynamic weather setting do and mean? Sounds like if you install one you still are limited to a specific 'set of sets'? Doesn't the program automatically use any of ALL availablity textures?

BTW Those last two screenshots 40LM posted are quite awful indeed... Now I will certainly stick with ASN and HDE until more reviews (also of the new REX addon) are coming in.

I thought that textures were loaded realtime while flying ..!?

That is why I bought AS16 for.

If it only looks at the beginning of the flight ; that feature we had several years ago too..

 

Hopefully I am wrong..

[Gilandred 690]

So... you still have to install sets in order to see all possible textures in the sim...? What does that dynamic weather setting do and mean? Sounds like if you install one you still are limited to a specific 'set of sets'? Doesn't the program automatically use any of ALL availablity textures?

 

BTW Those last two screenshots 40LM posted are quite awful indeed... Now I will certainly stick with ASN and HDE until more reviews (also of the new REX addon) are coming in.

 

I asked the same question in the AS forum, and I was told that the auto weather setting pulls from all available textures, regardless of theme selected.  I think you only need to select a theme when you fire up the sim to start from having something immediately available.  Maybe you do this part when you run it the first time - frankly the instructions aren't very clear.

 

As for those screenshots, they don't do it justice at all.  The cloud representation looks very nice live.

[4L0M 33]

AS16 ASCA :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 AS16 & Rex Soft Clouds :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Started flight with AS16 & Rex Installed, took shots, paused flight, started ASCA which then injected texture set into same flight.

 

To be fair, I don't think ASCA looks too bad on these, but I still prefer Rex personally.  The actual AS16 weather engine itself seems be be pretty good in itself, but whether its a $29.99 worth of Upgrade is debatable.

[Bobsk8 12,706]

I got AS16 this morning. I am keeping my Rex softclouds, since I don't care for the look of the ASCA clouds at all. The only downside is that my settings in ASN, were lost and AS16 were set to their defaults, like cloud layers for instance. I changed them back to what I had in ASN as accurately as I could remember what I had. My advice, write down your ASN settings before upgrading. 

[TheDanger 182]

I bought the upgrade to AS16 but I'm keeping my HDE clouds with NickN's settings. Nothing I've seen comes close. All these cloud texture products all look too cartoonish and clean and I own them all apart from the new ASCA.

 

I think it's getting silly with all these cloud textures. Can anyone honestly say that they can tell the difference between all the cloud textures released over the last 10 years, freeware or payware, if random sets were installed?

[BrettT 63]

Quick Question,  Does AS16 get rid of the hard haze line you would see in P3D where the distant mountain peaks would be crystal clear and the lower half of the mountain would be hazy?

[krazyk 157]

 

 

All others were through simmarket.

 

Hope you had the issue sorted. I, too, had purchased AS2012 from SimMarket, then upgraded to ASN and now AS16 so I don't know why your transaction wasn't served the upgrade price. On SimMarket, only the two full AS16 products show up (FSX and P3D) but as soon as I added the 55 Euro P3D version into my shopping cart, the price changed to the upgrade version (37 Euro).

 

So far, I'm very pleased with the product.

[JRBarrett 3,070]

Egbert Drenth, on 09 Jul 2016 - 01:03 AM, said:

Hi,

 

I was thinking about the dynamic texture loading for clouds in general.

What will it bring me/us? I understand the concept (I think) but what exactly is the advantage?

 

Example:

I leave EHAM - Amsterdam and fly to LFMN - Nice and let's assume they have about the same weather.

Why would the clouds in LFMN look different from the ones in EHAM? Why do I need to have different cloud textures at LFMN?

One situation where advantage of dynamic cloud textures would be seen to best advantage would be a wintertime flight from a northern airport to a southern one. Example: KJFK to KMIA in December. It would not be at all unusual in r/w to have arctic air, with snow squalls and temperatures in the 20s (F) at KJFK, while KMIA might be in the 80s with warm, humid air.

 

Both airports might be reporting TCU (towering cumulus) in their METAR reports, but TCU cloud formations in cold, arctic air look VERY different than TCU in warm, tropical air.

 

The TCU at the northern airport would be composed entirely of ice crystals, which give the cumulus a diffuse, almost "foggy" appearance. The TCU at KMIA would be composed of water droplets, with the typical crisp "lumpy" look seen in TCU clouds everywhere in summer

 

It is not just cumulus. R/W stratus clouds also look quite different in very cold air masses as opposed to warm.

 

Whether AS16 /ASCA has enough texture variety to depict this accurately I do not know, but a winter time flight from north to south, (or opposite) would be one scenario where dynamic cloud textures would really enhance the experience in-sim if done correctly.

[Iceman2 110]

I think its a must as far as WX engines go if you can spare the money. I've tried them all and have been using ASN for awhile now. I prefer AS16 because the visibility has been improved and TS in the distance stick out better, higher and meaner looking. I don't notice any performance hit like I did with soft clouds when storms are around. (smooth flying all round)

 

A big bonus for me is the AI contrails show up further in the distance, I can now see the contrails well before I spot the actual aircraft (this is a first) and the contrails don't disappear then reappear strangely like in all the other WX engines I've tried. (I've set all my contrails to -49 degs so depending on the upper temperatures on the day the contrails appear around FL350 and above)

 

All very perfect in my  book. Well  done HIFI.

 

IM

[pablo636 3]

Quick Question,  Does AS16 get rid of the hard haze line you would see in P3D where the distant mountain peaks would be crystal clear and the lower half of the mountain would be hazy?

 

yes it does!