What's are the big differences between ASN vs AS16?

[captain420 3,099]

I bought Active Sky Next, and was interested in upgrading to AS16, but $41 for an upgrade is very expensive. :(

 

I'm curious about what the main differences between the 2 are? I've downloaded the trial but can't really tell a difference asides from the new UI.

[qqwertz 781]

You can get a trial version of AS16 that works for 7 days. I bought AS16 at the end of my trial and also added ASCA. Here is my subjective list of changes:

 

- Much more turbulences when you fly through clouds. It feels more real to me.

- I haven't noticed this feature in ASN: on the map, you can display warnings issues for specific areas (turbulences, thunderstorms, ...)

- Cockpit effects such as rain drops and clouds passing over your windshield.

- I believe AS16 uses less memory than ASN

 

With ASCA (no trial available unfortunately):

- Dynamic weather: the textures change depending on your local weather. It is pretty awesome to start in hazy weather in Greece, fly over thunderstorm clouds in Croatia, and land in overcast conditions in Germany.

- The clouds look not a flat (3D clouds) when you are flying at higher altitudes.

[Poppet 707]

 

 

- Cockpit effects such as rain drops and clouds passing over your windshield.

 

Effects as in......

 

Rain actually hitting the Glass?   Or just flying past it ? 

[qqwertz 781]

Hitting it. Looks pretty nice, and of course only happens when you fly through or below clouds.

 

Peter

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

AS16 doesn't simulate rain drops hitting the glass in the VC.

 

It does provide a sense of the clouds moving past but there are no rain drop animations to make it appear as though rain drops are hitting the glass.

 

The AS16 developers will tell you that and they never advertise that as a feature.

[qqwertz 781]

AS16 doesn't simulate rain drops hitting the glass in the VC.

Jim is correct, I apologize for my mistake. I tested AS16 with the RealAir Turbine Duke and the Aerosoft A320. I didn't get into rain with the A320, but I got rain drops in the Turbine Duke. After Jim's comment I searched the web and found that the rain drops are part of the RealAir model and not generated by AS16.

 

Sorry about that,

Peter

[Poppet 707]

Ahh right,  I was thinking that.  

 

Yes the Realair Planes does some fantastic Rain drop effects

[mikea76 184]

the way the weather affects your plane is a lot more realistic now, turbulence in clouds and near weather systems is a lot more noticeable, gusty conditions are much more challenging now in light aircraft.

[brucewtb 249]

Well I have had the trial for seven days and I keep coming up short when I look for reasons to upgrade. Sure there is more turbulence but I have plenty in ASN and I think it is over done in AS16 especially if you also have EZCA.  Thunderstorms are probably a better look in AS16 but not by much compared with ASN.  It seemed to me that full overcast was better depicted in ASN compared to AS16 and on looking further at the settings I note that AS16 doesn't seem to have the enhanced overcast setting that ASN has.  I like it that with AS16 clouds are no longer vertically stretched at high latitudes - makes Aerosoft's Antartica scenery more appealing.  I have done my testing using historical weather so I can compare like with like ie weather at a particular time and place in both utilities.  Some say performance is better in AS16 but that has not been my experience.   Not sure if I will upgrade maybe you need ASCA to see a more dramatic difference but I like Rex's Soft Clouds - they have made a big difference to my simming experience and I would be very reluctant to give them the flick in favour of ASCA.

 

Bruceb

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Well I have had the trial for seven days and I keep coming up short when I look for reasons to upgrade. Sure there is more turbulence but I have plenty in ASN and I think it is over done in AS16 especially if you also have EZCA. Thunderstorms are probably a better look in AS16 but not by much compared with ASN. It seemed to me that full overcast was better depicted in ASN compared to AS16 and on looking further at the settings I note that AS16 doesn't seem to have the enhanced overcast setting that ASN has. I like it that with AS16 clouds are no longer vertically stretched at high latitudes - makes Aerosoft's Antartica scenery more appealing. I have done my testing using historical weather so I can compare like with like ie weather at a particular time and place in both utilities. Some say performance is better in AS16 but that has not been my experience. Not sure if I will upgrade maybe you need ASCA to see a more dramatic difference but I like Rex's Soft Clouds - they have made a big difference to my simming experience and I would be very reluctant to give them the flick in favour of ASCA.

 

Bruceb

I'm kind of in the same boat. Tried each with saved weather situations to compare head to head, but frankly each seemd to offer the same depiction as the other. All the UI and map improvements and Navdata stuff doesn't really matter to me as I make a load flight plans from PFPX and don't really mess with the UI much at all.

 

I was excited about the dynamic texture loading but have been disappointed with some of the screen shots I've seen so far. At this point I think I will wait and see what texture improvements are made to ASCA before I buy the ASCA upgrade and consider it.

 

I'm not usually impressed with REX sky or cloud textures but am intrigued by the video teaser and like the rain shafts and tornado effects.

 

Either way, glad we have many choices to choose from.

[lowew79 0]

It seems that 16 is sim specific as well.  One version for FSX (and steam ) and an entire other purchase for P3D.  ASN was one price for for all sims. .  (Unless my memory is going)

[twharrell 38]

Giving life to an old thread rather than starting a new one....

 

After a few months with AS16, I'm curious about experiences of those who upgraded from ASN. I tried the AS16 Demo a month ago and personally didn't see enough to make me want to upgrade. But that was only after a handful of flights.

[Dan_Churchman 4]

I had Active Sky a long time ago; before 2012 version. Loved it. Textures for clouds used to be included.

 

When I started researching the current situation, I noticed ASN on Steam. I've got FSX Deluxe, but when steam offered FSX:SE for $4.50, I thought, sure, why not! I really value being able to redownload anytime I need to.

 

Anyway, I bit the bullet and dropped the USD80 necessary for both AS16 and ASCA. That's a tone of cash for something I see as "one product". Anyway...

 

Word of warning: Of the vendors HiFi Sim Tech offer, I recommend simMarket for the simple reason that they give unlimited downloads. My PC died 3 1/2 years ago, and I just stopped flying. I've recently jumped back in, and from simMarket and Flight1 I've been able to download software I purchased as much as 8 years ago. Others want me to pay more to "reactivate the link". So I voted with my dollars and chose simMarket for this huge investment in my hobby.

 

"Hey Vendors, see what being greedy gets you?"

 

One other thing... AS16 I believe can run from a different PC provided you have a registered version of FSUIPC. I'm going to look into that functionality. I think ASN can do this also. I can't be sure about this, but I suspect that if you choose ASN and buy it through Steam, you'll not be able to run it on any computer except your active Steam computer. You can change this PC, but if you ALSO use FSX:SE then you'll be forced to run ASN on the same PC.

 

Most probably don't care about that, so no big deal. Just pointing out for the rare few...

 

Blue Stormy Skies folks...

[scottb613 1,188]

Hi Folks,

 

I fairly recently made the jump - it seems to make true IMC approaches more realistic - or - it could have just been a setting thing on my older ASN - I don't tweak the ASN/AS16 settings very often once I have them set... I found adding ENVTEX to the mix improved things even more - the rain/snow in ENVTEX seems to minimize that - Starship Enterprise @ warp speed feeling - when flying through precip... Personally I'm pretty happy with my move from ASN/REX to AS16/ASCA/ENVTEX...

 

Regards,

Scott

[Maarten Otto 18]

I love it for the fact that in a two hour flight I can come across three or four different weather systems based on current live metar data. This morning I left Riga in Overcast, Crossed a clear sky Holland and Landed in London in a CAT3 autoland as visibility was horrible....

 

Never had that in ASnext