ASCA Themes / REX Comparison Shots

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

 

 

loving AS16 and ASCA as a whole package

 

I guess that's my point also. The integration of AS16 and ASCA is what makes the package the best. Mixing and matching with the REX textures does give better results in some conditions, but now I'm convinced that this approach probably isn't worth the effort.

[TuFun 435]

Clouds.... out of this world clouds!

 

[vgbaron 3,620]

What I find interesting Jay is the number of posts from users who were turned off by ASCA but tried it anyway and are posting some very positive results when looking at the whole package and not some cloud screenies.

 

I was and continue to be amazed at some of the things I see using them that I did not see before. You really have to pay attention to the weather now - it's not just flying through fluffy clouds being fat, dumb and happy and enjoying the scenery.

 

Vic

[Haggis 3]

What I find interesting Jay is the number of posts from users who were turned off by ASCA but tried it anyway and are posting some very positive results when looking at the whole package and not some cloud screenies.

 

I was and continue to be amazed at some of the things I see using them that I did not see before. You really have to pay attention to the weather now - it's not just flying through fluffy clouds being fat, dumb and happy and enjoying the scenery.

 

Vic

I agree, I think both products compliment each other pretty well.  My pics were from the same flight, and have a good variety of cloud structure and weather from climb to landing.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

What I find interesting Jay is the number of posts from users who were turned off by ASCA but tried it anyway and are posting some very positive results when looking at the whole package and not some scenery.

...

 

Vic

I just flew the Turbine Duke back and forth at different altitudes in eastern Maine near KBXM, where there was a modest line of thunderstorms combined with full overcast and fog. It was the closest I've seen a flight simulator mimic the real life weather. And Roland's radar gauge looked pretty similar to the NEXRAD echos.

[hs118 707]

What I find interesting Jay is the number of posts from users who were turned off by ASCA but tried it anyway and are posting some very positive results when looking at the whole package and not some cloud screenies.

 

I was and continue to be amazed at some of the things I see using them that I did not see before. You really have to pay attention to the weather now - it's not just flying through fluffy clouds being fat, dumb and happy and enjoying the scenery.

 

Vic

Vic,

 

 

Perhaps the guidance for Hifi is these products should not be sold separately. ASCA is being marketed as not requiring AS16, yet the feedback in this thread seems to contraindicate that.

 

Glad to hear Hifi is watching the community and potentially addressing the concerns.

[Guest tymk]

What I find interesting Jay is the number of posts from users who were turned off by ASCA but tried it anyway and are posting some very positive results when looking at the whole package and not some cloud screenies.

 

I was and continue to be amazed at some of the things I see using them that I did not see before. You really have to pay attention to the weather now - it's not just flying through fluffy clouds being fat, dumb and happy and enjoying the scenery.

 

Vic

I fully agree with that. I wasn't initially too happy with ASCA as it threw some pretty unrealistic skyscapes at me, but I decided to stick with it and test it under more varied conditions. I'm still not entirely convinced by the sky colors and I've kept my previous theme, but I see great potential there. To me, by far the biggest problem is the Manifest texture theme that appears to get injected much too often, and is (in my humble opinion) the weakest link in the package. In general, based on what I see where I live, I'd like to see clearer blues under most conditions, but I agree this may be subjective and region-dependent.

 

That said, I just did a quick test as the weather outside is quite interesting (a fast-moving front with great cloud variety). Using full ASCA automation, including sky colors, I was blown away. I look for maximum realism in weather depiction, no dramatic but unrealistic cloudscapes, and ASCA can certainly do that. I know Diana mentioned more texture choices being worked on, so things are looking good... :smile: Perhaps one of the choices could be "Full Dynamics - Realism" and "Full Dynamics - Drama" to keep everyone happy...

 

Tym

[vgbaron 3,620]

 

 

Perhaps the guidance for Hifi is these products should not be sold separately. ASCA is being marketed as not requiring AS16, yet the feedback in this thread seems to contraindicate that.

 

Henry - a few years back HiFi released AS2012 which was a combined weather AND graphics package. One of the major complaints was that they could NOT be separated, people wanted to be able to mix and match.

 

Although you get the best weather representation using both AS16 and ASCA, AS16 will do very well without ASCA and ASCA can be used with other weather programs. Everyone has their favorite and are generally resistant to change.

 

 

Vic

[ffantasy67 51]

Quite convincing (to me) overcast, over Germany today: AS16 + ASCA Full Dynamics

 

 

 

 

 

[virtualstuff 758]

This is nothing!. I was around for the first great cloud war at Flightsimworld between FEX and REX. It was a bitter fight, and lives (well, forum accounts) were lost.

 

That wasn't the first ;-)

[Novation 534]

That wasn't the first ;-)

 

Really?!! there was a cloud war before that!. I had no idea (although I know of something between the same parties) but perhaps some things are best left buried

[virtualstuff 758]

Really?!! there was a cloud war before that!. I had no idea (although I know of something between the same parties) but perhaps some things are best left buried

 

Yes it does lol so many heated discussions and I agree best to leave it in the deep AVSIM archives :-)

FEX and REX where not the first with clouds they where not even doing freeware at that time...

Back in the day a lot of us started with freeware stuff.

I'm for one happy with every contribution because it means more choices for your personal preference

and have respect for everybody undertaking an effort to contribute freeware or payware.

[Afterburner 374]

The second screenshot ("AS2016 + ASCA Armageddon") looks to me like it was taken with a black & white photo camera. In other words, I have never seen a sky in the real world that was so devoid of blue color.

 

I have yet to find a sky texture package that provides a bunch of realistic sky colors at all times. Yes, some individual sets might look quite realistic from a certain view angle, but no longer as soon as you look in the other direction (e.g. a sunset sky having no color gradient over the entire 360 degree panorama) or as soon as you reach a high altitude (where the upper sky is either too dark or too bright). Other sets might generate some nice sky colors during sunset, but the transition to night is awful (e.g. the sky looking like mud). My only hope rests on the upcoming REX product, for which the developers announced that they would further optimize the sky color transition between daytimes. 

 

I wish a serious texture developer would take some real-world pictures of skies on different days and different times and properly convert them into sky texture files for FSX/P3D instead of manipulating the colors with Photoshop.

[vgbaron 3,620]

Afterburner - the problem is, and this is true I believe for all dev's - you try to be all things to all people. You've seen it in the ASCA threads and it has been the same in the past for REX and FEX and AS2012.  Evewryone has a "set" that they have never seen, everyone has "sets" that they love.

 

If I were a dev of this kind of product I'd probably have hundreds of combinations hoping that people will find their favorite and ignore the "bad" ones.

 

Just as an aside, the Armageddon theme was designed to portray a dark and bleak sky, much as one would see in the far northern latitudes in stormy conditions - I think they achieved that.

 

Vic

[Cruachan 705]

FEX and REX where not the first with clouds they where not even doing freeware at that time...

 

Remember Chris Willis (FS Sky World/FS2002)? He was the first, imho, to produce some decent clouds and sky textures for the Flight Simming community. I can well remember all the enthusiastic and excited posts following each of his releases.

 

http://www.avsim.com/topic/16976-thankyou-chris-willis-awsome/?p=103028

 

Indeed, I acted as one of his testers for a short period.

 

Mike