Excellent news - there will be ASXP for XP12 ;-)

[Brian Mackie 123]

HiFi's announcement is very welcome, and careful readers of its official announcement will have noticed a reference to the lack of progress in providing something similar for users of the other simulator. It contains hints of resistance, which might ring a bell with people who recognise the somewhat protective (one could say, quasi-monopolistic) stance demonstrated by that platform (and the other Big One) over the years. XP has a major advantage because it is an open-system-based product - and this usually provides a healthier long-term business model for third party developers. Smaller is beautiful!

[GoranM 3,764]

I never understood all the fanfare over a pre-made, high fidelity "anything", with no access to it's SDK.  Whatever is created by the original developer of the platform, in this case, weather in X-Plane, other developers could have a different, unique, more authentic take on it.  I certainly wouldn't want to be restricted to SDK access.

It's far better, for everyone, if the SDK remains open, so developers can create something that is potentially better and more feature rich.  

Edited March 9, 2023 by GoranM

[jwenting 20]

I stopped spending on AS when they for the umpteenths time forced everyone to buy it again by changing the hardcoded URLs of their weather servers in order to disable all existing installations.

Not sure if they still do that, but definitely was a thing years ago.

[Damian Clark 1,257]

1 hour ago, jwenting said:

I stopped spending on AS when they for the umpteenths time forced everyone to buy it again by changing the hardcoded URLs of their weather servers in order to disable all existing installations.

Not sure if they still do that, but definitely was a thing years ago.

AFAIK, we've only disabled old obsolete revisions, always offering an update (free) for license holders.  Feel free to pm me or reply here regarding your experience, if you'd like.  In any case, this is yet another free upgrade despite requiring quite an investment of time and effort which is ongoing.  You're feedback is appreciated.

Edited March 9, 2023 by Damian Clark

[level7 172]

So excited!!! Thank you so much!!!

[Baber20 1,438]

@Damian Clark Having used ActiveSky in P3D, I know that weather depiction and accuracy will be spot on but I found this part interesting 'The full integration with X-Plane 12 provides new weather transition smoothing, enhanced cloud and visibility depiction, new lighting, and an overall much-improved visual weather experience."

Could you elaborate on what "new lighting" means here ? Also what visuals enhancements can we expect from clouds ?

Thanks

[Damian Clark 1,257]

2 minutes ago, Baber20 said:

@Damian Clark Having used ActiveSky in P3D, I know that weather depiction and accuracy will be spot on but I found this part interesting 'The full integration with X-Plane 12 provides new weather transition smoothing, enhanced cloud and visibility depiction, new lighting, and an overall much-improved visual weather experience."

Could you elaborate on what "new lighting" means here ? Also what visuals enhancements can we expect from clouds ?

Thanks

This is specific to the X-Plane 12 weather system and our integration with it.  X-Plane 12 provides the visual depiction, including new lighting and graphics/weather system/API, while we are providing the specific data/control of weather parameters, together providing the "improved visual weather experience" result.  Thanks for the question.  We'll work to improve the product info and make this more clear.

[Franz007 482]

6 hours ago, Pe11e said:

Believe it or not, ASXP is the main decisive thing for me, should I migrate to XP12 or not. Historic weather and proper in cloud turbulence, variable visibility, etc, are the features I can't fly without. MSFS is lacking too in that regard. That is why I'm still using XP11 mostly.

What is wrong with the cloud-turbulences? They tuned it based on Janov‘s inputs (a real commercial pilot). They were too strong before.

[jcomm 5,931]

6 hours ago, Pe11e said:

Believe it or not, ASXP is the main decisive thing for me, should I migrate to XP12 or not. Historic weather and proper in cloud turbulence, variable visibility, etc, are the features I can't fly without. MSFS is lacking too in that regard. That is why I'm still using XP11 mostly.

Along the years HiFi brought to MS FS and P3D as well as in some way and given the many limitations in the previous version of XP, into XP11 too, a high quality simulation of weather in many of it's aspects / features, making possible what each of the sims couldn't offer by default.

MFS decided to close the door to 3pds and the result is the most amalgamated and in some aspects incoherent weather engine presently available, making some simmers that aren't sold just by the looks migrate "back" to P3D and XP11.

LR has brought to XP12 some really neat features, including a better model of geopotential height, they ended up accepting what was initially considered "useless" by Austin when I asked him for the feature (proper Tropopause height and Temperatures as well as beyond Tropopause data), better soaring weather, etc... It only lacks a fully featured SDK at the moment, but I believe they aim at it and are just to busy at the moment with other aspects of the simulator. 

With HiFi in the boat the conditions for success are closer to being met 🙂

Honestly, after the release of XP12 itself, these were the best news simulation-wise for me in the last 2,5 years!!!

Edited March 9, 2023 by cagarini

[UKflyer 630]

13 hours ago, Franz007 said:

What do you expect from xE that isn't already part of the default weather? xE in XP11 completely ruined my fps and was shimmering a lot at lower resolutions.

Does alot more than ASXP, transforms the environment in XP11 for me. Hopefully it can do the same to XP12. The implementation of the atmosphere and clouds in XP12 is quite poor IMO.

Edited March 9, 2023 by UKflyer

[jcomm 5,931]

1 hour ago, UKflyer said:

Does alot more than ASXP, transforms the environment in XP11 for me. Hopefully it can do the same to XP12. The implementation of the atmosphere and clouds in XP12 is quite poor IMO.

Does xEnviro do Historical weather?

[tonywob 4,769]

6 minutes ago, cagarini said:

Does xEnviro do Historical weather?

No, in fact, you couldn't even set your own weather, it was always live weather.

[jcomm 5,931]

4 minutes ago, tonywob said:

No, in fact, you couldn't even set your own weather, it was always live weather.

Thx Tony, not for me then...

[Franz007 482]

1 hour ago, UKflyer said:

Does alot more than ASXP, transforms the environment in XP11 for me. Hopefully it can do the same to XP12. The implementation of the atmosphere and clouds in XP12 is quite poor IMO.

What so you mean with environnement? The environnement is one of XP12‘s big improvements (colour, sound, moving trees, ground-effects, seasons, haze and amazing lighting, turbulences in clouds). My xE im XP11 wasn‘t as good as that.

And what so you mean with the implementation of atmosphere being poor in XP12? They even simulate the Tropo-altitude and altitude-inacuracy caused by ISA-variations. Can you describe it more in details what you mean?

And if i am not mistaken, i never saw any CB in xE. They are there in XP12…

[UKflyer 630]

20 minutes ago, Franz007 said:

What so you mean with environnement? The environnement is one of XP12‘s big improvements (colour, sound, moving trees, ground-effects, seasons, haze and amazing lighting, turbulences in clouds). My xE im XP11 wasn‘t as good as that.

And what so you mean with the implementation of atmosphere being poor in XP12? They even simulate the Tropo-altitude and altitude-inacuracy caused by ISA-variations. Can you describe it more in details what you mean?

And if i am not mistaken, i never saw any CB in xE. They are there in XP12…

You're making the wrong comparison, XP11 Xenviro with XP12. I'm saying XP11 default and XP11 with Xenviro is transformational. It would be interesting to see what they can do with the default XP12. Yes XP12 has improvements but cloud rendering, volumetric lighting (including in cloud from aircraft lights) and atmospheric visibility based on temperature/dewpoint is lacking.