ActiveSky FS Released

[Tuskin38 6,569]

Chewwy has switched to Bogata which has thunderstorms, Active Sky is showing them correctly.

[sloppysmusic 260]

Question for those seeing issues with 'current' weather are they using AS custom control or the passive mode that lets msfs handle the weather but adds 'extras'? 

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

[Fiorentoni 4,257]

11 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

Question for those seeing issues with 'current' weather are they using AS custom control or the passive mode that lets msfs handle the weather but adds 'extras'? 

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

Passive depiction is MSFS default weather, just with added turbulence effects on it.

[Rene_Feijen 126]

Well, not working for me, it keeps saying Waiting for Simulator. Installed with Eset antivirus off, and made exceptions for HIFI folder and installation folder.

Now, in the manual it says Certain firewall/AV software such as AVG requires trusting/excluding the
ActiveSkyUtils.exe file (located at [ASFS installation folder]\AddonFolder)

 

I cannot find that activeskyutils.exe file ??

Edited April 18 by Rene_Feijen

[Tuskin38 6,569]

Chewwy went to Bogata and the METAR AS is grabbing is an hour out of date. No matter if he refreshes it or not.

edit: it finally updated after going to historical weather and back to real time

Edited April 18 by Tuskin38

[espent 1,397]

I just don’t think MSFS (as opposed to other sims) have big enough weather problems to generate a need for this. 
 

Lets see in 6 months how many are still using it. 

[Tuskin38 6,569]

4 minutes ago, espent said:

I just don’t think MSFS (as opposed to other sims) have big enough weather problems to generate a need for this. 
 

Lets see in 6 months how many are still using it. 

Cloud turbulence, thick/dense clouds and thunderstorms are still missing from MSFS live weather.

Edited April 18 by Tuskin38

[sloppysmusic 260]

43 minutes ago, LondonController said:

That being said I have given negative reviews before on things and gone on to love a product in the future once issues have been fixed. So hopefully that can happen at some point.

All of your points are valid except we'll disagree about good things not taking 'ages' to get working well. All the things I've loved most about simming over the years have taken AGES to work well for me. All the pmdg products, garmin aviation units, a2a Connie just as a few examples took several days of manual studying before I even started using them. I certainly would never be so bold as to review any product I was not 100% familiar with out of respect for the devs. 

I don't ask you to like or love a product, just to understand it in detail and explain with reference to the manual what it does right and wrong and what could be improved before submitting any kind of review. 

You obviously have talent and in perspective the simmers who stream are not comparable at all to the pond depths plumbed by many uber popular streamers. Way more respectful and knowledgeable on technology and it's usage for the sim customer base. 

So take my criticism as pretty light please and I hope you will use said talent and experience to provide quality in depth reviews sorely lacking with new products. Kudos for turning up here and dodging some of the flak (lul 👀😁). 

 

 

Edited April 18 by sloppysmusic
Typo oops

[JughedJones 220]

15 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

Cloud turbulence, thick/dense clouds and thunderstorms are still missing from MSFS live weather.

Yeah, the lightning and thunder in Chewie's stream looked really good. It just looked good in general. 

Is that enough for me?  Maybe? 

[Maxis 1,875]

Sigh ..

Ok i'm looking forward to a comprehensive review that can demonstrate

Active Mode

1 Transitions

2 Cloud Variance

3. Historical weather and how it works

4 Faithfulness to the Metar

 

Passive mode ( And what it is about)

1. An explanation as to "what is an air effect"

2. A demonstration of that "air effect" at work

3. Any other benefits of using Passive mode.

 

User interface

1. Initial setup to the sim

2. Setup of any co programs (Simbrief / PMDG)

3. How it looks and where to get to the essential features/options in the menu

4. Potential setup issues to look out for and avoid.

 

Recommendation and Wrap Up

 

Hopefully something of a semi professional review comes out soon. I'm not one for sitting down and watching someone stumble through "their review" of a product. (No offense to them but that's too messy for my taste)

 

But its early days and i have the time so  hopefully someone steps up.

 

Edited April 18 by Maxis

[LondonController 6]

4 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

All of your points are valid except we'll disagree about good things not taking 'ages' to get working well. All the things I've loved most about simming over the years have taken AGES to work well for me. All the pmdg products, garmin aviation units, a2a Connie just as a few examples took several days of manual studying before I even started using them. I certainly would never be so bold as to review any product I was not 100% familiar with out of respect for the devs. 

I don't need you to like or love a product, just to understand it in detail and explain with reference to the manual what it does right and wrong and what could be improved before submitting any kind of review. 

You obviously have talent and in perspective the simmers who stream are not comparable at all to the pond depths plumbed by many uber popular streamers. Way more respectful and knowledgeable on technology and it's usage for the sim customer base. 

So take my criticism as pretty light please and I hope you will use said talent and experience to provide quality in depth reviews sorely lacking with new products. Kudos for turning up here and dodging some of the flak (lul 👀😁). 

 

 

I've been in the game for far far too many years now to take criticism to much to heart, and most is water off a ducks back. But I do appreciate a constructive conversation with yourself tonight. I don't think people quite realise how many hours us streamers put into creating and preparing content, I would love to have a bit more time to read manuals... but there is just isn't enough hours in the day lol.

Wish you all the best! 🙂

[MrBitstFlyer 3,882]

1 hour ago, Purr said:

The only thing holding me back at the moment is whether you can see an approaching front in the distance or if it is just metar "cubes" that one transitions between?

MS hasn't opened up the weather to third parties, so all weather addons will do as you describe.  The selling point for these apps is the better cloud depiction.  MSFS live weather is generally a collection of cumulus.  The addons can create better looking cumulus as well as stratus and good overcasts.  I would love the best of both worlds, but currently you have to make a choice between MSFS (local weather model - can see fronts approaching & poor cloud depiction in many cases), or addons (global weather model - fronts transition as you approach, but far better cloud depiction).

Personally, I prefer a more realistic sky, so I have been using REX, but now using ActiveSky to compare with REX.  Transitions these days I feel are done smoothly, so I am not bothered by them.  However, If seeing local weather and thus fronts in the distance, you are stuck with MSFS live weather and its often poor clouds (in comparison to the addons).

[MrBitstFlyer 3,882]

1 hour ago, Johnny19 said:

I can confirm the same thing observing sitting at my home airport in Zagreb, ZAG (LDZA), outside there are clear skies above, clouds on the horizon though, and while Live Sim weather really depicts the current situation, ActiveSky shows no clouds whatsoever. Here is the current METAR LDZA 181800Z 36003KT 320V020 CAVOK 09/03 Q1012 NOSIG

MSFS live weather is a LOCAL weather model, so it can show weather in the distance.  ActiveSky, REX and xEnviro are global weather models (because ms hasn't open up the weather to third parties), therefore they will not show clouds on the horizon - ActiveSky is doing what it is supposed to do.

[MarcG 3,018]

13 minutes ago, JughedJones said:

Yeah, the lightning and thunder in Chewie's stream looked really good. It just looked good in general. 

Is that enough for me?  Maybe? 

just rewound and I've not seen clouds/rain/lightning like that since pre-SU7 (if then!), looked much better than what Asobo Live Weather depicts for storms when it doesn't even have lightning....

[F737MAX 5,660]

Q8 Pilot on his stream said ASFS "broke" the Fenix A320. Needed to "turn it off for the Fenix to fly like it should." 😔

I really liked the weather at SKBO and OPIS that was generated by ASFS on Chewwie's stream, but the Fenix not being compatible makes it a no-go for now, at least.

 

Edited April 18 by F737MAX