differences between ActiveSky and OpusFSI

[tecto 3]

So what is the biggest advantage of ActiveSky comparing to OpusFSI?

Both are the weather engines and I don't know what are the differences. I'm using ENVTEX for textures and OpusFSI weather engine and wondering whether switching to ActiveSky will make me happier? Or maybe I should switch to REX SkyForce?

What are the pros and cons for all of them?

I'm quite new to this subject and when I'm looking at photos of flights with REX or AS I can't see much difference between my views, clouds etc.. So what is all about?

Where I should look to see the difference?

[Bunchy 222]

Hi Tecto,

 

My experience between ActiveSky and Opus is that ActiveSky is the winner as far as weather transitions go.

AS is very smooth at drawing the weather with imperceptible changes between weather zones.

Opus is a very good weather engine too, but it never has resolved the sudden/abrupt weather changes. This is an annoyance to me but many find it ok.

 

It is this reason alone, I prefer AS over Opus.

 

I have never used SkyForce, so can't comment on that.

 

Hope this helps

 

Stu

[speedyTC 194]

To confuse you even more...

I use ASN as my weather engine, REX Sky Force for my cloud/skies textures and Opus FSX for the cameras and turbulence effects. This is all in FSX, so factor that in as well.

There seems to be a general consensus that Active Sky is, so far, the best of the WX engines available. REX textures (both the older REX4 Texture Direct with Soft Clouds and now the latest Sky Force sets) seem to get the nod as well. As for Opus FSX, I had been using it some time ago as my go-to WX engine but it got replaced by ASN when that came out. The cameras aspect of Opus which I mentioned, serves me best for its in-cockpit effects lending a very realistic rendition of disturbed air and turbulence when that is detected. If I did not have Opus I would have explored both EZdok and Chaseplane as camera programmes. As far as I am aware most simmers use either one of these packages for their camera needs as they are very comprehensive indeed but personally I do not need the smooth and tune-able transitions between cameras nor the cinematic follows and options that both offer.

Cheers!

[Holdit 551]

56 minutes ago, speedyTC said:

To confuse you even more...

I use ASN as my weather engine, REX Sky Force for my cloud/skies textures and Opus FSX for the cameras and turbulence effects. This is all in FSX, so factor that in as well.

There seems to be a general consensus

I could have written those exact words myself,  because I use ASN and Opus FSX in exactly the same way. I had used EZ-DOK before, but the bumpiness provided by Opus feels more natural. I believe this is because the Opus movement is directly responding to the movements of the aircraft and the air it is flying through. EZ-DOK V.1's movements were more randomly generated.

I'm in the process of getting P3Dv4 set up, and I'm Leaning more towards ChasePlane with AS16 for weather.

 

[Nyxx 6,993]

Opus and Sky force and to my knowledge all others have a founderment flaw.

You fly for a period of time and your skies redraw the weather/clouds. After you have been flying for let's say 10 mins the clouds your flying towards you would never get to because your skies are redrawn.

As far as I know only AS gives a no cloud redraw solution if you see a cloud 100-150 miles ahead of you, you will get to it. It's prediction of clouds and the emersion of flying in the real skies is second to none.

If your thinking of going all out on weather.

AS for WX

ASCA+Envtex for dynamic skys. (Some people prefer to use just ASCA and some prefer to use all of Envtex with ASCA.)

I use AS+SF for cloud structures and textures.

For camera Chaseplane.

[Dirk98 354]

Ditto on the WX and textures.

For camera and motion effects EZCA2

 

[SierraHotel 976]

I have all of the above and much prefer SF3D for clouds, rain/snow and PTA shaders, AS16 for weather and ENVTEX for the rest. Oh, and Chaseplane for cameras. I have uninstalled ASCA,and REX4/Softclouds and unticked everything pertaining to sky/weather etc in ENVTEX. 

[Patco Lch 1,464]

Also you have to have Active Sky for your PMDG weather radar if you use those aircraft. I Fly as well.

[kand 205]

I now use skyforce for the cloud models only with real time sync

ASCA in full dynamic for the cloud textures

AS4 for the wx engine

Envtex for everything else

[gboz 157]

15 hours ago, speedyTC said:

I use ASN as my weather engine, REX Sky Force for my cloud/skies textures and Opus FSX for the cameras and turbulence effects. This is all in FSX, so factor that in as well.

I've been thinking of adding ASN to my Opus/SF setup too but how do you get the Opus turbulence effects to work without Opus weather running. My Opus VC turbulence motions only start after Opus has updated the weather.

Thanks,
gb.

[Bobsk8 12,564]

Active sky works and works well.  

[ZKOKQ 984]

13 minutes ago, gboz said:

I've been thinking of adding ASN to my Opus/SF setup too but how do you get the Opus turbulence effects to work without Opus weather running. My Opus VC turbulence motions only start after Opus has updated the weather.

Thanks,
gb.

Disable the weather engine. I have to go to work now, but you need to put a dll in one of the xml files, then Opus cams will get weather info from active sky.

Will post how too later, if nobody has in the interim.

[reecemj 144]

Just turn weather off in opus setup leave the cameras checked and the cams work fine with AS..There’s a good manual on this at the website.

[gboz 157]

6 hours ago, reecemj said:

Just turn weather off in opus setup leave the cameras checked and the cams work fine with AS..There’s a good manual on this at the website.

Thanks, cameras are ok but Opus seems to need to "see" an active weather engine to initiate VC movments.

Do you mean the Opus or AS website for the manual?

gb.

[speedyTC 194]

22 hours ago, gboz said:

I've been thinking of adding ASN to my Opus/SF setup too but how do you get the Opus turbulence effects to work without Opus weather running. My Opus VC turbulence motions only start after Opus has updated the weather.

Thanks,
gb.

Hi gb,

there is an option in the OpusFSX settings page that disables weather updates in Opus. In practice, I've found that I always need to go back into ASN ->Tools -> Refresh weather to get ASN weather back into the sim.

My flow is as follows: Sky Force (WX engine disabled) minimize, start ASN and load the flightplan, start FSX and select my aircraft of choice then start Opus, enable the cameras and then go back into ASN and refresh the weather to force ASN to override anything Opus may have injected into the sim. 

Hope this helps.

Cheers!