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Longranger

Active Sky for X-Plane

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1 hour ago, GCBraun said:

 

If they are not replacing any clouds, but just depicting weather, what is the point of saying that it is VR compatible/optimized??

If you do not change anything, of course X-Plane will remain VR compatible. This is pathetic.

I recommend everyone to take a look at the new X-Enviro 1.10 screens. They are mindblowing.

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Belligerent X-Plane 12 enthusiast on Apple M1 Max 64GB

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11 hours ago, regis9 said:

I'm really excited for this.  Active Sky is one of the things I really miss in X-Plane 11 coming from P3D.  Even if it's not perfect/full function at first, the fact that the HiFi team is investing time in X-Plane is certainly a good thing.

Me too, I really miss Active Sky. I just liked the way I had matching weather between PFPX and the Sim. 

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@Colonel X

Let me be skeptical about any screenshots where FPS is not displayed or where the devs state clearly that the current test version needs a lot of optmization. Long range screenshots with Sky Max were mindblowing as well but when trying to reproduce the same on my system I had a huge FPS hit. Nothing against those product, in fact I owe both but I've grown less optimistic than years ago about hype.

Edited by Desaix
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I know what you mean. However, SkyMaxx is a failed concept, that was clear the moment V4 was released, and thus the product was discontinued. X-Enviro is entirely in another league, and the performance has always been decent (I was never a fan of their texture based rendering in earlier versions however). Let us wait and see when 1.10 gets released. It very much looks like the revolution in weather depiction we have been waiting for.

Active Sky in contrary reads like a freeware plug-in comparable to NOAA or FSGRW.


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Belligerent X-Plane 12 enthusiast on Apple M1 Max 64GB

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13 hours ago, Colonel X said:

Incredibly underwhelming.

I figured that this would happen. I'm still running FSGRW (I already had it originally for P3d) and SkyMaxx Pro and I will just stay with that combo even though it's weak. I figure that eventually after an XP update that those add-ons plus the now ghostware XPUIPC will stop working and I will be forced to buy XEnviro.

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Isn’t this how Active Sky first started in FSX?  Not at all underwhelming and I don’t even have XP yet.  Very exciting to see this finally come to fruition.


Dylan Charles

"The aircraft G-limits are only there in case there is another flight by that particular airplane. If subsequent flights do not appear likely, there are no G-limits."

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I hope that HiFi's foray into XP doesn't end like the Aesop's fable of the dog and the bone. A dog found a meaty bone behind the butcher store and began carrying it back to his dog house. On the way he crossed a bridge over a small stream. He leaned over the edge of the bridge and on the water below he saw his reflection. There was another dog with the same giant, juicy bone. He became angry and wanted the second bone so he began growling. As his mouth opened, his bone fell into the stream and thus he had nothing.

Edited by jabloomf1230

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16 hours ago, Colonel X said:

Incredibly underwhelming.

 

15 hours ago, olderndirt said:

I agee with the Colonel.  The whole problem is XP weather textures and, not changing them, seems an exercise in nothing.

In the context of a major change in the graphics API to Vulcan and Metal, I wouldn't call it underwhelming, it's just a delayed feature. 

As Longranger said above, anything that involves 3D objects and effects will have to be re-written for Vulkan and Metal. That doesn't just apply to Active Sky; the other weather plugins like xEnviro and SkyMaxx will have to re-write how they draw clouds too.

So the question is whether Active Sky is adding enough new features to make it worthwhile picking up now, instead of waiting to see what the Vulkan version looks like. Assuming that's a free update, of course.

 

6 hours ago, Longranger said:

We are talking about much more than a texture replacement pack. What they mean by technology is really a new engine.

Is that really the case? When I think of "new weather engine" I think of something that gets rid of the 2D "horizontal pancake" model X-Plane uses, which can't model discrete 3D weather systems. And it can't model systems with vertical convection like CBs. 

When I see a decent string of individual thunderstorms that actually look like anvil-head CBs and aren't stacked up like pancakes from separate elements, and with full dynamic convection flow, then I'll know it's a new weather engine.
🙂

I've always assumed we'd have to wait for Laminar to re-write the internal weather from scratch to get that level of weather realism. Maybe a 3rd party could do it, but I haven't seen it done yet, which makes me skeptical.

 

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X-Plane and Microsoft Flight Simulator on Windows 10 
i7 6700 4.0 GHz, 32 GB RAM, GTX 1660 ti, 1920x1200 monitor

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They're listing a price of 39.99$.

The fact that it will use native XP clouds may be disappointing, but I'm not surprised, was expecting that.

On the other hand, the fact that they have planned a new visual cloud engine post Vulkan, is exciting.

In any case, I agree with Paraffin. Until XP won't have clouds that are dynamic in space and time, moving with winds, growing and disappearing, with a convective structure, I will not be satisfied.


"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity." [Abraham Lincoln]

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"Released explanation"? I was going to "Add to cart". 🙂 Ide follow Hifi to the end as I have the greatest respect for them over the years. Class people!

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Freeware plug-in?!  It’s easy to see that some have very little experience with Hi-Fi products. They have no peer in P3D when it comes to bringing the fluid dynamic that is the virtual air we fly through alive and realistic. That’s what matters. Weather is not clouds. Clouds are just the visible indication of weather. 

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I'm finding the default XP weather engine with FS Enhancer does an excellent job of WX depiction.

 

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I strongly believe everybody will be positively surprised by their wetaher injector, and debut in  X-Plane's World ...  But I'm biased of course 🙂

Been a long time satisfied user of all their products since fs9, and while I'd rather like to see it ported to DCS World, I'm sure it'll shine in X-Plane.

Edited by jcomm

Main Simulation Rig:

Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti, 1 TB & 500 GB M.2 nvme drives, Win11.

Glider pilot since October 1980...

Avid simmer since 1992...

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It will be interesting to see, what Hifi Sim, gets out of X-Plane... but, well - how can you not fall in love with these shots?
(this is xEnviro 1.10)

Looks amazing...

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Best regards,
--Anders Bermann--
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Scandinavian VA

Pilot-ID: SAS2471

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