The difference is here:

 

I own both AS16 and ASCA 

 

 

and here:

 

all the shots and video I have seen to date

 

Perhaps a trial may change your opinion or preconceived ideas, in my case it did, for years - and until Friday evening - REX was my reference, not anymore. Until further notice.

Perhaps a trial may change your opinion or preconceived ideas, in my case it did, for years - and until Friday evening - REX was my reference, not anymore. Until further notice.

 

Maybe, but you can't trial Cloud Art for obvious reasons, but to be honest I've seen nothing that makes me remotely interested in what it has to offer. I am trialing AS2016 though and so far today its doing a reasonable job of portraying my local conditions, and certainly better than yesterday. I am going to give it a good trashing over the next six days and see if it changes my mind about weather engines, which I don't use because often the results are a mess.

This would be fine if the textures were good, but all the shots and video I have seen to date are less than nice. Clouds full of mismatched and repeating textures, and some outlandish sky colours. Unfortunately Hi-Fi's forte is not in texture creation. An intergrated engine and texture system is a great idea, but this is not it as far as I'm concerned. I'm also hoping AS2016 does a better job at representing todays local weather, as it missed the mark by miles yesterday. Maybe Britain's terrible summer weather is too much for it :wink:

 

Have to agree with Novation here, just trying out the trial been using ASN for years...but it seems that it still uses themes set in FSX. weather here is broken cloud at 700 yes....light rain yes....but you cannot see any blue sky today but in the sim there appears great big blue patches as it always has done, so see no difference in the way it is presenting the weather from ASN. Performance does appear marginally better with AS16, whether using the new  cloud package changes this theme issue I am not sure..will keep testing.

 

all the best

sorry to be thick, can I use ASCA with ASN? I don't have enough cash to get both this month so I thought I'd get ASCA whilst it's reduced and AS2106 after the payday bunny has visited.

 

 

Jim Harris

You can use ASCA with ASN, but the dynamic texture integration will only work with AS2016

..will keep testing.

 

 

Yeah, a fair chance is warranted, and today, having just finished a typical for me, local flight I am happy with the results.

 

This is a rubbish snap from my location. Living high up I can see most of today's flights weather, which is fairly benign, with moderate cloud cover, mildly convective with good visibility.

 

Not at the same location, but close, and looking in the same direction. Its close enough for me, but we'll see how it does over the rest of the week. My nervous passenger enjoyed her flight, despite having a seedy perv sat behind her

Using REX HD clouds BTW. Soft clouds were too fuzzy for todays weather.

Novation,

 

Very nicely shown and not to bad a comparison.

 

For me I was departing EGKK the weather was as in my last post according to the metar, but there is no blue sky showing outside my window but shows in the sim large areas' in other words most probably in real life several broken layers at 700 feet appearing to give a solid overcast...although it is not overcast in that sense.

 

I think AS16 will do a great job as does ASN but I think and may well be wrong that all weather engines load up themes and thats how it works. I do not believe it will ever be possible to see what we all see out of our windows as metars are updated all the time and depicted as such in the sim to the best of its capability's....but I am no expert so could be well off track......however it looks good as a program and it would appear to lighten the sim load overall...

 

So a busy next few days then a decision to make!

 

All the best

Hi guys,

 

one question: One the HiFi website it says that AS16 needs P3D version 3.2.3+, but I'm still on v.3.1 and currently don't have the time and nerves to mess around with updating P3D. So, does it really not work with v.3.1 at all? Anyone maybe tried it?

 

Thanks a lot and best regards

Olli

Hi guys,

 

one question: One the HiFi website it says that AS16 needs P3D version 3.2.3+, but I'm still on v.3.1 and currently don't have the time and nerves to mess around with updating P3D. So, does it really not work with v.3.1 at all? Anyone maybe tried it?

 

Thanks a lot and best regards

Olli

 

Might want see post this on their forum. http://www.hifisimtech.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?18-Prepar3D

Hi folks. Looks like you CAN run them all at the same time, with some pretty great effects. See post here:

 

Looks Like AS16, ASCA, & REX Soft Clouds CAN Work Tog...

One thing I haven't seen anyone mention yet about AS16 is the very realistic looking haze layer. Looks exactly like what I see in real life flying, in the summer, when the humidity is high. Love it!!!!

 

 

very realistic looking haze layer

 

 

Yes I have noticed this, the horizon does look very good.

 

I did another local flight this afternoon, as the conditions had changed: more cloud cover, greater convection and light to moderate rain showers, with higher wind speed, however AS2016 did NOT reflect this change (or the data it uses to build its weather did not) as I got very similar conditions to this morning, and after an hours flight I had no few clouds, and this was not the case at all. This is a shame as conditions would have given an interesting flight, but AS gave me a glorious summers day

 

I've just done a flight in N.Wales, without knowing the conditions, but it was certainly interesting, and visually striking (I'll put some pics in screenshots) and conversely, as close match for my home conditions. When it looks good, it looks very-very good.

To get a deeper overcast, without blue patches, you really have to add on the layers etc in settings. The ones that say going beyond default will likely be a performance hit. And it usually is but thats the tradeoff. You want matching heavy overcast, you have to increase the layers and other settings.

If your setup can handle it, then by all means go for it. Just tried the trial, and had great representation of heavy overcast areas when I searched for airports with such conditions, but I had to play with the settings to go beyond the defaults. Granted I did those tests in lighter systems aircraft. Im sure I will have to knock it down a few when flying PMDG and the like.

@Novation - I understand your complaints but I don't think you'll ever be satisfied - meaning that NO weather engine in a sim will look exctly as you see out the window.

 

I literally live right off the end of runway 15 at KBUR which also has a weather reporting station. I can count on one hand the times I've seen an exact match. 

 

The weather program gets the METAR and interprets it - metars are updated each hour - let's say you have your weather program set to d/l weather every 15 minutes - so you could easily be off 1:15 minutes from what is outside your window.

 

If you are going to evaluate a weather engine - get and decode the metar and see how close it comes to that - what's outside your window is the least important.

 

Also, remember that occasionally metar's have errors.

 

Just MHO,

 

Vic

If you are going to evaluate a weather engine - get and decode the metar and see how close it comes to that - what's outside your window is the least important.

 

 

 

Also, remember that occasionally metar's have errors.

I accept that, but blue skies when there should be overcast with rain (which was the case this afternoon) renders REAL WEATHER pointless. I'm only a few miles from an airport and weather station, so looking out of my window should give me a very good idea, should it not?

 

If I pay £60 for real weather..... I want real weather, within reason.