Active Sky coming to MSFS

[jcomm 6,209]

17 minutes ago, styckx said:

All things the default weather engine does.  Again, this is overselling a product.  They are literally promoting features the sim already does. 

Question is - how the default sim does it... Which in my judgement leaves a LOT to be desired...

Enhanced effects on top of what is possible by default will be welcomed. Historic weather and integration with flight plannig too, and so on and so forth...

Edited April 14 by jcomm

[MrBitstFlyer 3,977]

41 minutes ago, chapstick said:

This will have the same limitations as the other third party wx engines we’ve seen. I’m not really sure why HiFi is staking their reputation on this, but I guess they have mouths to feed. 

Default MSFS can be spectacular at times, but can often fill the sky with cumulus style clouds where none exist in real world.  Rex and xEnviro can create more cloud types, especially stratus types more convincing than default.  Both have limitations as you say, but also deal with the limitations of default weather.

As an example, I flew out of KSZP on my last flight.  I had the radar layer turned on in ForeFlight which showed rain over the field, but clear just a few miles west.  Default, Rex and xEnviro were all accurate with where the rain stopped and the visibility increased.  Default was the smoothest transition to dry & clear, but the other two gave more convincing cloud types.  Default just showed different levels and sizes of cumulus.  xEnviro showed lower cumulus but multi level higher stratus, giving the sky a more convincing look.

I appreciate those who will always use default for the local weather model, and are willing to put up with its deficiencies.  Although third party weather engines are limited in this regard, they do bring their own unique features that some will appreciate, me included.

Edited April 14 by MrBitstFlyer

[SierraDelta 1,404]

According to the product description on the HiFi website there are 2 methods available in ASFS:

- ASFS Preset Weather Depiction Mode
ASFS Preset weather depiction mode features advanced weather preset conditions control for the best accuracy within the preset depiction capabilities, and full use of the Active Sky weather data and synthesis system including historical and custom weather options...

- 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...

I encourage you all to go and read the full product description, but basically it looks to me that we get - yet another - preset-based wx injector. I'll wait for now.

PS. Ooh, there are no proper cirrus clouds visible in the screenshots 😉

 

[MrBitstFlyer 3,977]

25 minutes ago, styckx said:

All things the default weather engine does.

You mean SHOULD.  Years since I saw a thunderstorm with default, but see often with third party apps.

[omarsmak30 4,069]

The Passive Depiction Mode can be interesting at least for me since it enhances the live default weather (that means MSFS has control), but remains to be seen 

[Ray Proudfoot 9,217]

48 minutes ago, Luis Hernandez said:

Other than that, I'm looking forward to the PMDG/Fenix WXRs...and to @Ray Proudfoot's reaction 😂

One of astonishment actually. I can't believe how @Damian Clark managed to get into the weather system and extract what he needed. It shows not just the determination of the man but his skill to be able to do that with (presumably) no assistance from Asobo / Microsoft. 👏

I hope it's a huge success for him. It's been a huge seller for FSX & P3D over the years confirming the excellence of the product. I'm sure it will sell very well irrespective of the price asked but that won't be much different to what it cost for the other sims.

I hope it doesn't break with each new forced release as happened to other products earlier in the sim's life. Well done Damian!

[Fiorentoni 4,653]

5 minutes ago, SierraDelta said:

but basically it looks to me that we get - yet another - preset-based wx injector.

Preset is not the correct word for it. Presets are predefined scenarios that are always the same when you select them. AS however creates a "custom preset" once a minute (or whatever the interval is), filled with real life metar data (and other sources), and injects it into the sim. That's exactly how it worked on P3D.
Now you're right in so far that it will inject the local weather globally and changes those injections with transitions. A lot of the value of AS will depend on how well it manages those transitions. It did pretty good on P3D, almost non-noticeable. It might be severely harder with the volumetric clouds in MSFS, but if anyone can do it it's most likely Damian Clark.

[MrBitstFlyer 3,977]

9 hours ago, Maxis said:

I'm skeptical but open to see how they handle moving fronts and transitions. If its not as seamless as the default............

It probably won't be as seamless.

Personally I appreciate the local weather model MSFS uses.  In the early days it was spectacular to fly towards or out of a front, but now flying towards a front just means different sizes of cumulus style only clouds for the most part.  xEnviro in particular, can depict a front that is jaw dropping with the multi levels of different cloud types.  Yes, the transition isn't as smooth as default, but it is great to have the choice of local weather model or sky depiction being more important.

[MrBitstFlyer 3,977]

2 minutes ago, Fiorentoni said:

A lot of the value of AS will depend on how well it manages those transitions.

Yes, and xEnviro is a good example of this.  It makes many small transitions over time, rather than one big transition.  Some will hate the effect, but I appreciate the cloud depiction more 🙂

[mobiel 75]

Refer to the description, AS seems to control the cloud layer. So will it possible to increase the sense of height with a very low cloud layer in some conditions? Actually the cloud layer rises aswell as you get into higher altitudes.

[B777ER 2,670]

Think I’ll stay on the sidelines for now. This screams integration problems for live weather with various 3rd party aircraft and wind uplink with Fenix, etc… Looks like a more polished REX weather engine and all the limitations with the closed weather system. 

[Fiorentoni 4,653]

Just now, B777ER said:

This screams integration problems for live weather with various 3rd party aircraft and wind uplink with Fenix, etc

Wind uplink in all aircraft comes from Simbrief, since there is no way to access the MSFS live weather data (including winds) from outside. Metars can be fetched from basically everywhere (and most use the internet, not MSFS metars, anyway) What other problems should there be?
I rather see the possibility of a working WX radar, like in P3D, where every higher fidelity aircraft used Active Sky for that.

[Antipodeslonghaul 86]

4 minutes ago, Fiorentoni said:

I rather see the possibility of a working WX radar, like in P3D, where every higher fidelity aircraft used Active Sky for that.

Hear, hear!

One of my best sim memories is still a PMDG 747 and using Active Sky departure out of Singapore late one night close to MTOM with massive thunderstorms all around, the weather radar all lit up in different shades, perhaps microbursts and then crashing into the ground shortly after departure. Upsetting after all the planning, yet exhilarating and a great learning experience all the same.

[SierraDelta 1,404]

31 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I can't believe how @Damian Clark managed to get into the weather system and extract what he needed.

Well, he didn't.  ASFS makes "full use of the Active Sky weather data and synthesis system" and uses that to create wx presets and inject these into MSFS - just like REX and XEnviro. The success or failure of ASFS will very much depend on how often and intelligently these presets are injected as well as how smooth the transitions are implemented. All without any negative effects to performance.

[Tuskin38 7,232]

The problem with the WXRADAR is third parties can’t create their own as they’re not allowed to read the in-sim data.

Why would this make it any different?