Active Sky coming to MSFS

[jcomm 6,004]

Been using it for a while too, and since I'm picky with details that usually don't bother most users was that Damian could implement the effects of T on pressure for low / high temp operations such as non-precision approaches, because they're not correctly modelled in MSFS AND not at all modelled when using other than default weather...

Damian took a few hours to come up with the perfect solution, an I was delighted to test the effect as well as I was so far only able to do in Aerowinx PSX...

It's Active Sky at it's Best!!!

[penta_a 432]

I would love to see a side by side comparison between default weather engine and ASFS, I honestly can't see the difference thus far in cloud formation and levels, as far as historical weather, it is another story/subject.

[RALF9636 1,998]

40 minutes ago, MarcG said:

Overall that video is cool, but those thunderstorms lack height. I've never ever seen a thunderstorm with such few clouds with such a low cap height. 

The overcast scenes were good, not seen anything like that in live weather since SU5! I just hope they've fixed the opaque clouds as well, that'd be nice. 

Anyway, thanks to others reports recently I'm sold, price dependant.

Remember this video shows footage from different stages of the beta testing. There is still some fine-tuning going on. So expect the final product to look even better. 😉

 

[Franz007 561]

9 hours ago, KERNEL32 said:

Transitions? Mehh, this is going backwards IMO. We need the fluid, natural weather we had pre-SU5 (to include the original more opaque clouds and variations).

I agree that the weather looked much better. But the was a huge downside: the local conditions were almost always completely off and nowhere close to the actual reported weather. That’s why they had to merge those forecast-weather with the actual metars. That means it will never be perfect because metars are somehow limited. Making both work together is a huge challenge. But no way would I want to go back to pre SU5 with local weather being completely wrong. The general forecast-weather is not detailled enough to depict some fine variations of local weather that can vary a lot. For example you can have an airport under heavy fog and 5 miles away another one being CAVOK. That’s not possible to simulate with the pre-SU5 weather. 

[tup61 1,641]

So... AS will give you ONE type of weather applied all over the world and then transition into another type of weather along the way (if needed)?

[MarcG 3,031]

2 hours ago, RALF9636 said:

Remember this video shows footage from different stages of the beta testing. There is still some fine-tuning going on. So expect the final product to look even better. 😉

 

Good to know thanks 👍🏽 

[Fiorentoni 4,366]

1 hour ago, tup61 said:

So... AS will give you ONE type of weather applied all over the world and then transition into another type of weather along the way (if needed)?

 Yes, however - in the best of all cases - you don‘t notice that. I mean you wouldn‘t know or care what weather is beyond your line of sight, until you are actually in visible range to it. If AS can create those distance weather fronts at the right moment, it would be perfect.

[fsiscool 252]

This is what only default live weather can do but no other weather tool: show the correct weather along a weather front!

Looking to the left, at this moment over Bologna:

Looking to the right, at this moment over Bologna:

This is elementary imho because at FL300 IRL you can easily "see" the weather map inside a radius of several hundred kilometers. The transitions from good into bad weather looks completely different than any of those global-preset based tools could generate. On the screenshots we can see that we have CAVOK to the French border and beyond while a cloud system sits above the Adria. Some of the ASFS beta testers might post the same screenshots to see the difference.

Edited April 16 by fsiscool

[tup61 1,641]

1 minute ago, Fiorentoni said:

If AS can create those distance weather fronts at the right moment, it would be perfect.

The question is 'if'. I really love how MSFS can show you different kinds of weather in all four directions up to the horizon (where you can actually fly towards and in and out of) and I would hate to see the same kind of weather all around me.

[tup61 1,641]

3 minutes ago, fsiscool said:

The transitions from good into bad weather looks completely different than any of those global-preset based tools could generate. On the screenshots we can see that we have CAVOK to the French border and beyond while a cloud system sits above the Adria. Some of the ASFS beta testers might post the same screenshots to see the difference.

This indeed.

[VHOJT 181]

I have seen plenty of times clouds on one side and not the other with ASFS.  It is not as if every direction is the same weather with its methods.

[regis9 4,039]

The ability to see fronts is my biggest question.  I love being able to fly through clear skies, see a patch of clouds / cold front coming, then fly though it.

[tup61 1,641]

26 minutes ago, VHOJT said:

I have seen plenty of times clouds on one side and not the other with ASFS.  It is not as if every direction is the same weather with its methods.

Seeing clouds on one side is not the same as seeing different weather on one side.

[fsiscool 252]

1 hour ago, VHOJT said:

I have seen plenty of times clouds on one side and not the other with ASFS.

These were just randomly placed.

With any addon tool, there is no such thing as a clear view to the horizon on one side and bad weather on the other side.

I just wanted to mention that point to visualize what we have with default weather and how these addons are inferior in some crucial areas. 

 

Edited April 16 by fsiscool

[VHOJT 181]

I have flown towards increasing cloud before and the weather has deteriorated as expected.  It is not random.  It is in accordance with what I might expect - flying into an overcast area from a relatively nice day.

On an unrelated note, I have valued the accuracy of the ASFS depictions, something MSFS is not so good at as far as accuracy at airports goes.

The other evening - WMKP Penang had a thunderstorm on top of it according to the METAR.  Default MSFS weather - nothing - just some fluffy fair-weather cumulus cotton balls as far as the eye could see.  A pleasant, mostly sunny afternoon.  Nothing at all like the actual conditions reported there.  ASFS, however, correctly depicted the thunderstorm and crappy weather around the airport.  Even the MSFS METAR said TS but it was not presenting anything even remotely like it. Just a nice afternoon.

Edited April 16 by VHOJT