Active Sky coming to MSFS

[RobJC 2,073]

8 hours ago, RALF9636 said:

That has always been just an illusion made up by some who wanted to believe. I have to admit that I had hoped for this as well - but it has never been true.

On the contrary there has never been a sim that was so predisposed for addons to be further improved by. In previous sims I've spent most of my time trying to keep all the addons compatible with the sim and foremost with each other. They kept breaking each other and fiddling around with settings and files was my daily fare.

None of that has ever been necessary with MSFS and all its addons. I run dozens of addons that make MSFS so much better and never had any major issues with them.

I'm glad that soon Active Sky will be one of them.

 

I just don't care for the overhead required for so many add-ons. The upside just isn't there for me. The default airports are fine. Default weather is fine. The only thing I really needed was AI traffic and ATC. And with those two what I want probably goes beyond what can be expected from any flight sim out of the box. It really just depends on what you want. Glad there are choices for people who want more, but I am resisting add-ons as much as possible. But to each their own. 

[Maxis 1,887]

I just did another flight last night in the A300F at dusk from Oslo to Tailinn.. moving from one weather front to another is something i cannot unsee and give up. So i think the secondary enhancement features of passive mode and if the potential weather radar api's will work in passive mode is ultimately what i am interested in.

 

From Active Sky's webpage..

Passive Depiction Mode

Passive mode is used with live weather and allows MSFS’s internal live weather depiction to take full control of weather depiction in the simulator, while Active Sky FS provides Active Air Effects and all other non-depiction features (mapping, planning, voice features, conditions report, web companion app, etc.) This can provide better regional variation and cloud variations outside of Preset control, recommended for LIVE WEATHER VFR and casual flights where visuals and effects are more important than weather conditions accuracy.

Active Air Effects

Provided in either depiction mode, Active Air Effects enhance your flight with turbulence, drafts and more:

• Clear air turbulence
• Internal MSFS turbulence compatibility (for combined ASFS-applied and internal MSFS-applied turbulence effects)
• Updrafts
• Downdrafts
• Microbursts
• Thunderstorm vicinity turbulence and draft effects
• Gusts, wind variation and gust-related turbulence

[Fiorentoni 4,388]

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Edited April 15 by Fiorentoni

[blueshark747 1,848]

The older FSX/P3D platforms were my final bout with weather/sky/texture injector apps.

Pretty satisfied with default sky/environment features I don't feel a need to get back into those injector apps.

[GSalden 4,701]

@Maxis,

Thanks for posting this 

 

Edited April 15 by Ray Proudfoot
Long quoted post removed

[sidfadc 1,344]

I will defo wait for the YouTube reviews before parting cash.

[vgbaron 3,724]

Since the NDA has been lifted, I can happily say that I have been running ASFS for a while now. Is it perfect? Nope but IMHO, it is better than anything else out there and definitely better than default.

I have an old system, 7700K @5ghz with a 3090GPU and I saw no performance hit at all with ASFS - I usually run ASFS, Navigraph charts, LittleNavMap and the AutoFPS app. Sliders maxed in sim and I get about 60fps with FG on - doesn't change with ASFS running.

My favorite way of using ASFS is to use historical weather and pick a date, then use the search function to find an airport with low vis and ceiling. Then plan about an hour long flight into that destination.

Couldn't do anything like that with default - also what I like most is the changing weather along the route getting to final approach in IMC. My biggest complaint with default weather - if I set a preset to get IMC at destination, I get the same weather on departure - with ASFS I can takeoff in the nclear and fly into the bad stuff.

The TStorms, winds and turbulence are very well modelled.

If you just like to fly around with pretty clouds and not care much about them other than they look pretty - maybe the default weather will do for you.

[jstnj 20]

7 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

If you just like to fly around with pretty clouds and not care much about them other than they look pretty - maybe the default weather will do for you.

I mean, it's fine to give your opinion, but this statement (and the rest of the post) ignores the concerns that people have in this thread and concludes "ASFS gud because it does a thing". 

Edited April 15 by jstnj

[Bobsk8 12,869]

1 minute ago, jstnj said:

I mean, it's fine to give your opinion, but this statement (and the rest of the post) ignores the concerns that people have in this thread and concludes "ASFS gud because it does a thing". 

I remember using    Active Sky for a long time in P3D, and if you set anymore than three cloud layers, you got to fly in a slide show. 

[Fiorentoni 4,388]

13 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

Since the NDA has been lifted, I can happily say that I have been running ASFS for a while now. Is it perfect? Nope but IMHO, it is better than anything else out there and definitely better than default.

I have an old system, 7700K @5ghz with a 3090GPU and I saw no performance hit at all with ASFS - I usually run ASFS, Navigraph charts, LittleNavMap and the AutoFPS app. Sliders maxed in sim and I get about 60fps with FG on - doesn't change with ASFS running.

My favorite way of using ASFS is to use historical weather and pick a date, then use the search function to find an airport with low vis and ceiling. Then plan about an hour long flight into that destination.

Couldn't do anything like that with default - also what I like most is the changing weather along the route getting to final approach in IMC. My biggest complaint with default weather - if I set a preset to get IMC at destination, I get the same weather on departure - with ASFS I can takeoff in the nclear and fly into the bad stuff.

The TStorms, winds and turbulence are very well modelled.

If you just like to fly around with pretty clouds and not care much about them other than they look pretty - maybe the default weather will do for you.

1) How are transitions? Do you "see" them?

2) Are there more cloud types / variations than with default live weather?
 

[Cognita 1,114]

32 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

If you just like to fly around with pretty clouds and not care much about them other than they look pretty - maybe the default weather will do for you.

Yea, this is pretty much me... but I really hope this gives those who have been demanding more varied and better weather what they are looking for and maybe the complaints will die down on the forums.

I can't see Damian releasing something that is not better than what is there which is likely part of the reason why it has taken Active Sky this long to release a product. There may be some trade-offs but it will be a sound product that will provide certain advantages. I am looking forward to seeing it in action and hearing what the weather aficionados say about it. Regardless, I will very likely pick it up soon after release, if for no other reason than to support Active Sky, a dedicated company that has supported the hobby for many years and that support needs to go both ways.

Edited April 15 by Cognita

[F737MAX 5,738]

18 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

I remember using    Active Sky for a long time in P3D, and if you set anymore than three cloud layers, you got to fly in a slide show. 

Think that's more to do with P3D's inability to render complex imagery without a large impact on any given PC.

Re-ran P3D v5 on my current PC and it wasn't nearly as happy as it is running MSFS with more detail and higher graphics settings.

[F737MAX 5,738]

43 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

If you just like to fly around with pretty clouds and not care much about them other than they look pretty - maybe the default weather will do for you.

That does a disservice to the default weather capability. While it's nowhere near perfect, it does (usually) reproduce similar weather to that currently in the real world. It can also display different weather fronts in the same view—something we haven't previously had in flight simming.

Nonetheless, the historical weather feature, 'Active Air Effects' while using MSFS' Live Weather, and (by the sounds of things) more emphatic Thunderstorms, has all piqued my interest.

Edited April 15 by F737MAX

[RALF9636 1,999]

38 minutes ago, Fiorentoni said:

1) How are transitions? Do you "see" them?

 

There is a customizable setting for the transition rate. You can set it to instant transition (very noticable but instantly accurate according to METARs) or very slow transition where clouds are fading in and out just like they were naturally building up resp. dissipating. Barely noticable as transitions. Or anything in between to your liking.

 

(I've been using it for a while too.)

Edited April 15 by RALF9636

[MrBitstFlyer 3,897]

27 minutes ago, Fiorentoni said:

1) How are transitions? Do you "see" them?

Depends on how smooth you need the transitions to be.  Live weather itself often 'jumps' when something changes.  The two current options, Rex and xEnviro do the transitions slightly different.  Rex very slowly changes the weather so you hardly notice it - if you stare at the clouds you will notice new clouds form / dissipate slowly.   xEnviro makes many small transitions almost constantly, so you can see them, but the effect is not off putting to me.  Neither transitions like the old programs, with really off putting big sudden changes

I am very interested to see how ActiveSky handles the transitions.  I guess all of us like the MSFS local weather model, but I prefer the addon weather engines for the much better cloud / layer depiction.