The most realistic weather with ActiveSky

[BWBriscoe 116]

Ok, I know it's a lottery, but how do I get the most realistic weather in 5.3 HF+ with ActiveSky :

1. EA on / Volumetric clouds ultra
2. EA on / Volumetric off
3. EA off
4. Any other combination I've missed...

[cyyzrwy24 127]

It appears...none of the above is the right answer. Bit better but I still see haze. And Volumetric is so unrealistic and odd puffy. It is up to your liking. I keep EA on and VC off. With EA off my clouds are totally dark. ASCA+ASP+ENVSHADE here. Other than that...performance is stunning. First flight was CTD after 3Hrs...will see second flight. But never been smoother than now.

[BWBriscoe 116]

7 minutes ago, cyyzrwy24 said:

It appears...none of the above is the right answer. Bit better but I still see haze. And Volumetric is so unrealistic and odd puffy. It is up to your liking. I keep EA on and VC off. With EA off my clouds are totally dark. ASCA+ASP+ENVSHADE here. Other than that...performance is stunning. First flight was CTD after 3Hrs...will see second flight. But never been smoother than now.

Sorry, I'm confused...what is your set up?

[micstatic 4,319]

ea on for me.  Then I use rex sky force for the clouds.  

[cyyzrwy24 127]

29 minutes ago, BWBriscoe said:

Sorry, I'm confused...what is your set up?

I keep EA on and VC off.

[mobiel 72]

Same here

[B777ER 2,486]

#2 for me until they get dynamic themes in Trusky. 

[dave2013 1,130]

I like EA on and volumetric clouds off.

I'm using ENVSHADE and ENVTEX and like them both. 

The only issue I have with EA is that the sun reflection effect is excessive IMO.

Dave

[sonny147 579]

EA on VOL Clouds off, using  default clouds at the moment  and AS here 

[kevinfirth 1,396]

EA on, VC High for me

[Patco Lch 1,466]

Variety is the spice of simulation. Don’t care for volumetric clouds but EA on most times and sometimes off to enjoy a brilliant day. Even try VC occasionally. No wrong answer.

[joepoway 241]

EA on Volumetric Clouds off. ActiveSky on and Active Sky cloud art on Full Dynamics. Finally I’m liking what I see, sure it could be better but works for me.

Joe

[jimcarrel 688]

44 minutes ago, joepoway said:

EA on Volumetric Clouds off. ActiveSky on and Active Sky cloud art on Full Dynamics. Finally I’m liking what I see, sure it could be better but works for me.

Joe

Ditto, best for me.

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

18 hours ago, cyyzrwy24 said:

It appears...none of the above is the right answer. Bit better but I still see haze. And Volumetric is so unrealistic and odd puffy. It is up to your liking. I keep EA on and VC off. With EA off my clouds are totally dark. ASCA+ASP+ENVSHADE here. Other than that...performance is stunning. First flight was CTD after 3Hrs...will see second flight. But never been smoother than now.

What the best or most realistic weather settings are is so subjective that someone is always going to challenge what anyone says.  With that in mind, cyyzrwy24 is correct in my opinion.

This same question has long been asked, so as someone who did a fair amount of flying (and in different areas of the world), I went to work along with a private pilot friend mine and we came up with not only what we believed were the best addons (we worked with and tried them ALL), but the best settings for the addons we decided on.

The guys at REX have always done a great job of marketing and hoping for the best, but the simple fact is that ActiveSky is the finest weather engine I've ever used, and ActiveSkyCloudArt is simply a must have.  If you want to push textures even further, then add the Toga products!

So, ActiveSky P3D. ActiveSky Cloud Art, and Toga's EnvTex and EnvShade is in my opinion, the way to go.  I would provide the files with the settings I use for the AS and Toga products, however short of some work I did earlier this year for the US Navy, I haven't booted up P3D this year due to health reasons and I have no updated my AS or Toga products so the files wouldn't be very useful to you guys.

While I have and run both P3Dv4 and v5, I do not use EA or Volumetric clouds in P3Dv5 (not yet anyway).

I sincerely hope this makes a differernce for those looking to achieve terrific and realistic weather in P3Dv4/v5.

 

Best wishes and a very Happy upcoming New Year!

 

Disclosure:  I believe it's fair to say that I have a long history of providing fair and unbiased opinions regarding anything flight simulatuion related.  As a matter of full disclosure, I worked with the REX Team for several years and Reed Stough was a very good aquitence of mine. Damian Clark at HiFi is a very good aquintence of mine with whom I have worked closely with in the past.  I am not directly affliated with either company.

 

 

 

[cyyzrwy24 127]

2 minutes ago, DaveCT2003 said:

The guys at REX have always done a great job of marketing and hoping for the best, but the simple fact is that ActiveSky is the finest weather engine I've ever used, and ActiveSkyCloudArt is simply a must have.  If you want to push textures even further, then add the Toga products!

Furthermore, I would like to add my disappointment wit REX guys. While, up to v4.5 everything worked really perfect and with new platform launch it seems that they are not much interested in LM product. I've been following their Discord announcements for quite some time now and I could clearly see delay after delay for any change or update for P3D. Also, even last "patch" doesn't do anything anymore to my SIM. 

With latest 5.3 update, and same day, I added ASCA and P3D got new dimension. Of course, still not my liking but considerably better look. This is due to some other limitations P3D has. But again as I mentioned before, we all see it differently.

Question that I have is, since I have SF installed, I am not sure if it interferes with everything now. Or should I remove it completely off my PC and leave only ASP3+ASCA+Envshade?