HiFi Sim's Active Sky P3D V6 is coming as Early Access Beta

[Bob Scott 7,732]

On 7/9/2023 at 10:23 PM, IanHarrison said:

70 dollars for P3Dv6, 40 Euros for Hi Fi AS.

Simming is becoming a rich man's (person's) hobby.

I shall be staying with V5.4. Quite good enough for what I want.

Well, you definitely must not be a golfer.  Or a shooting sports guy.  Or a performance car guy.  Or a boat guy.  Or a snow skiier.  Heck, I've got graphite fly rods that each came with a price tag well over 15 times what I pay for an installment of HiFi's weather magic.  It's all relative and depends on what's important to ya. 

The good news is nobody has to be on the cutting edge to still have a lot of fun flight simming, just as one doesn't need a $750 Sage fly rod to have fun fly fishing (but if you do it much, you really can appreciate the higher-end gear).  I helped a kid get set up with P3D v4 and a bunch of freeware add-ons, including some really decent Milviz add-ons they did for P3D and recently released as freeware.  He's making the most of it on a modest hand-me-down PC, and I dare say that teenager is already as knowledgeable about aviation as many private/commercial-rated pilots.

 

[turbomax 3,296]

considering how much one needs to add to make P3Dv6 somewhat acceptable compared to the other simulators, it is the most expensive of the 3 and even then still not state of the art. the default gps, scenery, weather, aircraft, airports are all sub-standard. if I couldn't make use of most of my old add ons, I wouldn't be using P3Dv6 at all. HiFi sim should at least offer a limited trial version of his new product so we can decide if it is worthwhile. and not sell exclusively via simmarket's terrible store utility. their screenshots don't show anything I have not already seen using default weather.

Edited July 12, 2023 by turbomax

[DChockey08 299]

2 hours ago, turbomax said:

considering how much one needs to add to make P3Dv6 somewhat acceptable compared to the other simulators, it is the most expensive of the 3 and even then still not state of the art. the default gps, scenery, weather, aircraft, airports are all sub-standard. if I couldn't make use of most of my old addons, I wouldn't be using P3Dv6 at all. HiFi sim should at least offer a limited trial version of his new product so we can decide if it is worthwhile. and not sell exclusively via simmarket's terrible store utility. thei screenshots don't show anything I have not already seen using default weather.

“Hey, look, there are no purchases in the P3D market, so it makes sense that all the developers moved to other sims”

-developer releases something for P3D-

“what do you mean it isn’t FREE?!” 

 

[dave2013 1,140]

16 hours ago, Bob Scott said:

Well, you definitely must not be a golfer.  Or a shooting sports guy.  Or a performance car guy.  Or a boat guy.  Or a snow skiier.  Heck, I've got graphite fly rods that each came with a price tag well over 15 times what I pay for an installment of HiFi's weather magic.  It's all relative and depends on what's important to ya. 

Well, Bob, not everyone is as fortunate as you.  Some people simply cannot afford relatively expensive hobbies.

70 dollars or 40 dollars may not be a lot of money for you, but for some it is.

Dave

[DChockey08 299]

I don’t think anyone who still uses P3D would argue that P3D as a stand-alone entity is sufficient in 2023. And yes you’re paying money for a beta version and I get why some people have problems with that. 
 

However, a lot of us still using P3D use it because the product being discussed here (AS) offers something that is (currently) not offered in MSFS (stock or add-on) and that’s historical weather. 
 

And yes, when you use P3D in 2023, you have accept that it’s going to cost money to add-on to it. But some of us are willing to do so because it’s how we get that feature in a flight simulator in 2023. 
 

If historical weather is “lipstick on a pig” to you all, then I’m just going to have to disagree there. It’s one of the most essential features of a flight simulator. (I’m stating that as an opinion, not fact). 
 

 

[dave2013 1,140]

1 hour ago, DChockey08 said:

Three lines later:

If a company asked me to be a Beta tester for their product, then I would expect them to provide the product free of charge or compensate me somehow.

I don't consider purchasing the Active Sky P3Dv6 Beta version as truly being an actual Beta tester, however, it is not too far from that.

$15 or $20 would have been a more reasonable price for a Beta product.

Understand now?

Dave

[turbomax 3,296]

betas should be free in the first place. they can be time limited, expire after release of the final product  or some such. I don't agree with the concept of "beta" or "early preview" that you have to pay nearly or complete full price. beta is supposed to be for testing and doing the developer a favor, instead of purchasing bug ridden, half baked pre-release stuff and the risk of being told: "it was beta, can contain bugs. told you so".

Edited July 12, 2023 by turbomax

[Bob Scott 7,732]

1 hour ago, dave2013 said:

Well, Bob, not everyone is as fortunate as you.  Some people simply cannot afford relatively expensive hobbies.

70 dollars or 40 dollars may not be a lot of money for you, but for some it is.

And right there in the next paragraph I wrote that you don't have to stay on the cutting edge to enjoy the hobby.

The point I'm making is that flight simming is no more a "rich man's game" than most other hobbies--they all involve some expense, and going all-in on most of them is likely to involve more significant expense.  You can golf with a $25 set of clubs from a thrift shop on a city course, and you can take a private jet to Scotland and golf St Andrews for a week with your $15000 custom clubs, with lots of options in between those extremes.

$40 for ActiveSky for P3D v6 isn't inordinately expensive when put in perspective w/r/t the cost of other common diversions, e.g. a fishing rod, a couple dozen golf balls, a couple boxes of 12 gauge skeet ammo, a bag of dog/cat food etc etc.

 

[dave2013 1,140]

2 hours ago, Bob Scott said:

$40 for ActiveSky for P3D v6 isn't inordinately expensive when put in perspective w/r/t the cost of other common diversions, e.g. a fishing rod, a couple dozen golf balls, a couple boxes of 12 gauge word not allowed ammo, a bag of dog/cat food etc etc.

You're right, $40 is not actually a lot of money compared to many other hobbies.  My comment was aimed at your listing of high end hobbies like skiing and performance cars.

The point I'm making is that it is a *Beta* product, therefore not fully functional and likely with bugs still to fix, and should not cost $40 IMO. 

Personally, if I don't buy the Beta version, then I have no problem paying $70 or even $80 for the final version because flightsimming is my main hobby and is worth the expense.

Dave

[DChockey08 299]

21 minutes ago, dave2013 said:

Personally, if I don't buy the Beta version, then I have no problem paying $70 or even $80 for the final version because flightsimming is my main hobby and is worth the expense.

You do realize the final version will be released eventually right? You still have that option.

some of us are glad with the “early access” release. It allows us to use it in v6 sooner, even though it is not a final release. 
 

does not change anything for you if you just wish to wait for the final version. Just pretend the open beta doesn’t exist. 

[anden145 2,285]

22 minutes ago, DChockey08 said:

You do realize the final version will be released eventually right? You still have that option.

True. But remember, that it won't be $40 at final release; probably nearly double that, actually... 😕

Personally I don't see any reason to purchase it (yet). At least not, when the weather radar for the PMDG (and FSLabs provided that works in P3Dv6) etc, doesn't even work. Then I'll might as well return to MSFS. Since I solely fly tubeliners, I returned to P3D, because I really missed the weather, that ActiveSky providedm but most of all the weather radar functionality in the PMDG and FSLabs addons.When they get the weather radar plugin to work for the PMDG/FSLabs (and the other addons, which rely on this functionality), I may purchase it... but not at it's current state.

Just my opinion 🙂 

Edited July 12, 2023 by anden145

[jcomm 5,961]

Well, finally installed P3dV6 and Active Sky V6 🙂

Wow! I was missing the AS Magic !!!

Weather with Active Sky is good, I'd say more consistent than in either XP or MFS without AS
For instance in MFS they lost the correct blend between aloft winds and METAR
so when you approach an airport with gusting conditions, but the model data they're using from Meteoblue for the aloft components is outdated (which it is most of the time) you can transition from mild aloft winds into severe and intense gusting winds when on short final 🙁
XP12 hasn't yet managed to get consistent aloft weather either. HiFi ASXP12 helps a bit, but it's not perfect, or at least not as fully featured and powerful as in P3d.

ASP3dV6 Rulezzzzzzz !!!!

Edited July 13, 2023 by jcomm

[CO2Neutral 278]

Agree, P3D V6 + ASP3D V6 is several orders of magnitude more realistic than XP12 and/or MSFS.  Sorry for the compare, but facts are facts.

Can't wait to see what this weekends auto update brings.

More endless debates about spending $40 ... I'd spend $200 for ASP3D V6 because the developer worked for it and earned it.  I don't know what some of you do or don't do for revenue/income, but if you define "rich" as $40 then I highly recommend you use your own definition of "rich" as a motivator to get yourself out of the work/life situation you're currently in.

[DChockey08 299]

1 hour ago, CO2Neutral said:

Agree, P3D V6 + ASP3D V6 is several orders of magnitude more realistic than XP12 and/or MSFS.  Sorry for the compare, but facts are facts.

Can't wait to see what this weekends auto update brings.

More endless debates about spending $40 ... I'd spend $200 for ASP3D V6 because the developer worked for it and earned it.  I don't know what some of you do or don't do for revenue/income, but if you define "rich" as $40 then I highly recommend you use your own definition of "rich" as a motivator to get yourself out of the work/life situation you're currently in.

Regardless of how it compares to other sims, I’m just over the moon that the terrible TrueSky depiction from v5 is fixed. That was always the biggest drawback in v5. 

Haven’t had time to install v6 and AS, but seeing all the videos and screenshots has me so excited.
 

Under the radar too has been cloud dynamic lighting which looks incredible. I’m sure all the screenshots I’ve seen have been with the sliders all the way to the right, but word not allowed if those aren’t incredible looking. 
 

Here’s a question I’m not sure if anyone can answer, my assumption was always that the old legacy cloud system was heavily CPU dependent. My understanding is that the new clouds are very heavy on the GPU, so does that mean the new clouds are easier on the CPU than the legacy clouds? I would hope so. I’m always so heavily CPU bound and have room to spare on the GPU. 

[Bob Scott 7,732]

9 hours ago, DChockey08 said:

Here’s a question I’m not sure if anyone can answer, my assumption was always that the old legacy cloud system was heavily CPU dependent. My understanding is that the new clouds are very heavy on the GPU, so does that mean the new clouds are easier on the CPU than the legacy clouds? I would hope so. I’m always so heavily CPU bound and have room to spare on the GPU. 

No, cloud depiction has been a mostly GPU-intensive process in P3D for as long as I can remember...I would not expect the cloud depiction changes in v6 to account for any significant difference in your CPU utilization.