Ultra Weather XP

[hychewright 46]

Has anyone tried this new updated weather software?  If so, what is your take on it?

[monica6211 172]

I just bought this a few days ago. The sky textures are the best I have ever seen. They really look amazing. The water textures look very good as well. I bought it mainly for the cloud textures. Sadly this is the one area where I was disappointed. It gives you several controls to adjust the lighting, size, and shape of the clouds, but I did not really care much for the selection of cloud textures. There are many freeware textures that look far better. And the promo video claims that there is absolutely no frame rate hit. While under most settings this was true, I did find that some of the cloud options caused a significant drop in frames. But I have to say, the overall impression made my jaw drop when I first loaded the sim up with the new textures. I loaded up at dawn with the new sky and few clouds, and when I switched to an external view, it looked so real, I was totally amazed. I am satisfied with my purchase, and the more I tinker with the cloud tools, the more I am liking them, but I think I will be trying some freeware clouds with the product. The tech support is very good. The developer is very active in the forum, and interacts very well with customers. And he responds very quickly to any requests. He is very open to suggestions as well. Top notch support.

[Swe_Richard 1,172]

Hello.

Quick question: is it possible to render clouds all the way out to the horizon? Only having a "disc of clouds" around the aircraft is a bit of a buzzkill for me...

[deetee 164]

I think the name of this plugin is slightly misleading as it claims to provide improved environment effects for XP11, but still relies upon XP itself (or NOAA or FSGRW) to provide the actual weather engine/information. Nice screenshots, and the developer seems like a nice guy, but “caveat emptor”. 35$ is quite a lot for what it is, and there are many free alternatives. Perhaps something like Ultra Sky Effects would have been more appropriate? 

[ZKOKQ 984]

This app really shines if you use Xvision with it. Certainly a WOW!! factor anyway.

[monica6211 172]

9 hours ago, Swe_Richard said:

Hello.

Quick question: is it possible to render clouds all the way out to the horizon? Only having a "disc of clouds" around the aircraft is a bit of a buzzkill for me...

No, the clouds don't render out more than about 50-75 miles, but uses haze effects to blend the clouds to the horizon. It works okay for general aviation, but for jets it does not look nearly as good.

[Swe_Richard 1,172]

2 hours ago, monica6211 said:

No, the clouds don't render out more than about 50-75 miles, but uses haze effects to blend the clouds to the horizon. It works okay for general aviation, but for jets it does not look nearly as good.

Bummer. Man, that disc-cloud gets on my nerves every time...

[michelh 43]

Thanks monica6211. I was waiting for people to comment on this plugin. Patiently waiting for Active Sky or REX to come out with something. I guess they are not serious about it. Never heard anything back from them for X-plane.

[Paraffin 2,197]

3 hours ago, michelh said:

 Patiently waiting for Active Sky or REX to come out with something. I guess they are not serious about it. Never heard anything back from them for X-plane.

This is just a guess, but I think it may be that Active Sky (and maybe REX) are waiting for the Vulkan/Metal graphics update in X-Plane towards the end of the year, or a bit later according to the latest dev reports.

Anything that draws in 3D -- and that would be many of the weather effects we'd all like to see -- would need to be re-done for Vulkan if it was released in the current OpenGL format. Better to wait for Vulkan support as the new thing going forward, and maybe even get some performance benefits. Again, just guessing here.

[monica6211 172]

3 hours ago, michelh said:

Thanks monica6211. I was waiting for people to comment on this plugin. Patiently waiting for Active Sky or REX to come out with something. I guess they are not serious about it. Never heard anything back from them for X-plane.

Actually HiFi is actively working on their ActiveSky for XP. They posted on their forums some time ago for Beta Testers to start testing it. I applied, but didn't get picked for the first round of testing, but they sent me an email letting me know I should re-apply later this month for the next round of testing. I am really anxious to see what they bring to XP.

[olderndirt 2,295]

The new version 2.4 claims '4096' clouds but neither me nor my machine can see it

[hychewright 46]

10 hours ago, michelh said:

Patiently waiting for Active Sky or REX to come out with something.

Hi Michelh, have you heard anything that they may be doing for XP 11?

[Bloody 2]

Active Sky is in closed beta mode for X-Plane currently.

[michelh 43]

Hi Bloody.

That is good news, where did you get the info?

[Bloody 2]

https://hifisimtech.com/forums/showthread.php?9657-Development-News-Update-Summer-2018

Thats the official news and additionaly I read somewhere (Reddit? Here? Not too sure) that someone filed an application for a beta test but was rejected with the words  that he can try for the next beta next month or so.