In P3D I have been using Active Sky with ASCA.  I realize that this is personal opinion but, what weather engine is recommended for MSFS?

You're going to get a lot of answers. Mine is that you use either REX Simulations or MSFS 2020 native which is what I use. I tried REX and it did not go well. I've no idea if there is yet other choices.

United001

There's not really a great one yet.  The default "live" weather is decent for a general depiction of enroute weather, but sometimes is very far from actual conditions upon landing.  Asobo is planning to overhaul their system come 2022 I guess.

24 minutes ago, tjrush said:

In P3D I have been using Active Sky with ASCA.  I realize that this is personal opinion but, what weather engine is recommended for MSFS?

Pretty much what Ryan said.  I have REX also mainly as an option, if I want METAR-based, but I find myself generally using the default weather to avoid sudden transitions.  I'd say overall there really isn't any "great" option.

Also -- I notice your signature -- there is a KTEB for MSFS now I believe.  Released not to long ago.

Mace,

Is this the one by Dreamfleet Studios?

Tom

 

Edited September 3, 20214 yr by tjrush

Yes I have it as well - one of the nicest sceneries.

Is the Contrail Installation required (Manager system) any problem?

 

I've not had any issues with Contrail.

OK. you convinced me.

1 hour ago, ryanbatcund said:

There's not really a great one yet.  The default "live" weather is decent for a general depiction of enroute weather, but sometimes is very far from actual conditions upon landing.  Asobo is planning to overhaul their system come 2022 I guess.

Actually my flight today was a great example.  Live MSFS native weather was several hours behind real time.  So much so that from Merriville, Indiana, on the way to Kansas City, I should have encountered showers for perhaps the first 30 minutes into the flight.  And nothing severe.  Instead I encountered severe weather from takeoff all the way to Kirksville, Missouri (IRK) when I stuck with MSFS live weather.  So from time to time I switched to REX Weather Force.  It presented me with more accurate weather.  But as I tuned various ATIS/AWOS frequencies along the way for updates the weather reported by MSFS was totally off song.  Altimeter settings were the only element even close to either real time, real world weather, or the weather that was presented in the sim.  And despite clear skies around Kirksville, I was hearing thunder for at least 30 minutes when in clear skies.

It has been perhaps 25 years since at least one sim or another provided much more accurate weather.  Considering that the technology has been available this is a real embarrassment.  And as far off as it was, my experience today was better than its been for perhaps 10 previous flights.  That however is not a good observation.

REX has preformed flawless for me with MSFS .

3 hours ago, ryanbatcund said:

There's not really a great one yet.  

I agree with Ryan.  As far as I know, there's no external weather engine capable of depicting accurate spatially resolved weather, meaning you get whatever metar you're closest to globally, then when you move to another metar, the weather resets globally.  No moving into fronts, no thunderstorms in the distance, etc. 

Once we get Active Sky for MSFS, along with a decent AI package, I'm all in.  Until then it's P3D with AS/ASCA and VoxATC using AIG for me.

8 hours ago, tjrush said:

In P3D I have been using Active Sky with ASCA.  I realize that this is personal opinion but, what weather engine is recommended for MSFS?

I generally use Unreal Weather (free addon) and it is quite fine (of course can be improved more). Metar based and matches the online (Vatsim) weather. Strongly suggested. In game menu is easy to use. ( I think better than REX or MSFS native Live Weather)  Just give it a try.

https://unrealweather.blogspot.com/2020/09/unreal-weather-live-metar-released.html

Edited September 4, 20214 yr by kt069

The only addon weather engines I know and have tried are REX (payware) and Unreal Weather (freeware). They do pretty much the same and set the weather according to the nearest available METAR station. I fly a lot in areas where METAR stations are scarce or automated (i.e., they do not observe precipitation or cloud coverage), and in these cases both products do not help much. I then use MSFS weather if it looks reasonable, but if it is obviously wrong (e.g., the infamous thunderstorms), I use Unreal Weather. I haven't used REX in a long time.

Peter

As for now i highly recomend to use default weather. Rex have maybe better metars but terrible weather transitions.

Edited September 4, 20214 yr by Cyrex1984