ActiveSky FS Released

[edu2703 267]

5 minutes ago, fppilot said:

 

 

Quite the set of conclusive statements.   And your credentials, please?  (and any affiliations pertinent to this discussion)

BTW, what was your most recent dew point in MSFS live weather?

 

I don't think you need a PhD in climatology to confirm the obvious, right? Just use logic. There is absolutely no chance of Active Sky FS being more realistic than Metoblue, being based almost exclusively on METAR data from individual places.

Some people in this thread are working hard to justify paying 25 dollars to have worse functionality and worse weather depiction than Meteoblue. Normal for an addon that was just been released. In 6 months, it will be as abandoned as REX Weather Force, where I don't know a single person who bought and uses it to this day. Even those who wrote long reviews at the time it was released, trying to prove that REX provided more accurate weather than Meteoblue, ended up admitting months later that Meteoblue was in fact better. With Active Sky FS, it will be no different.

Unless you're a historical weather enthusiast, weather injectors for MSFS are a cash grab.

[Soulflight 97]

23 minutes ago, Adamski_NZ said:

Is anyone out there able to do a side-by-side comparison with REX Weather Force (which is what I'm currently using)?

I got REX and stopped using it, mostly because it fails to accurrately inject surface wind at the beginning of a flight before taking off and therefore messing up active runways. AS doesnt have this issue as far as I can tell. Apart from that, the AS weather engine should be naturally superior in covering areas without a METAR provided nearby, where REX fails to do so. REX feels a bit abandoned by the devs now imho.

I am currently still playing around with it. In SKBO right now there is "light rain" and 13 degrees celsius reported but in active preset mode it is snowing there 😂Well, there will be updates.....

EDIT: the snow in colombia and 1kt of wind coming from 360 degrees looks similar to the injection issue on the ground that REX has. But in difference to REX It only happens -sometimes- as far as I can tell. If so, its necessary to switch to passive depiction to fix. Not a big deal.

Edited April 18 by Soulflight

[verbal 106]

Sorry if this has already been asked but I'm on phone at work - is there a discount for purchasers of previous versions? No big deal if not, but thought it was worth asking.

[DModjo 122]

The weather depiction without a doubt looks far better than MSFS Live to me. Its layering and cloud variations particularly.

Look forward to trying it out. 

[KERNEL32 500]

2 minutes ago, F737MAX said:

Unless I'm mistaken, ASFS uses the GFS (Global Forecast System) weather forecast model to create weather detail outside of METAR reporting stations' radii. That sounds very similar to what MSFS Live Weather does

@Damian Clark earlier in the thread you asked for possible features, could one such feature be that we could have Active Sky "omit" the METARS and only use the global forecast system?

METARS are like dinosaurs, or in aviation - VOR's. They just need to die off. Usually out of date and I don't give a rats word not allowed about VATSIM/.

[reecemj 151]

34 minutes ago, madman320 said:

We need to look to the future and not be stuck with solutions from the past, which were useful in their era, but now, we are living in a new era of flight simulation

Can we just have fun. 😊

[Damian Clark 1,272]

6 minutes ago, KERNEL32 said:

@Damian Clark earlier in the thread you asked for possible features, could one such feature be that we could have Active Sky "omit" the METARS and only use the global forecast system?

METARS are like dinosaurs, or in aviation - VOR's. They just need to die off. Usually out of date and I don't give a rats word not allowed about VATSIM/.

Please direct your feedback here: https://forums.hifisimtech.com/forums/asfs.57/

And I disagree about them needing to DIE OFF in aviation entirely.  They are critical in aviation.  They should be considered along with all the other data, but not so precisely weighted as currently, that the hard core simming community and VATSIM currently expects.  IMO anyway.  I think we agree mostly here.  In the past (maybe 16 years ago) we had a "dynamic unpredictability" feature that altered things intentionally from METAR, and while I thought this was much more realistic, it was shot down fairly unanimously.  Anyway, appreciate the the feedback, and please do forward anything you have to the link posted above.  Thanks!

Edited April 18 by Damian Clark

[Stearmandriver 2,312]

32 minutes ago, madman320 said:

I know Active Sky got its prestige from other simulators, when their default live weather was very poor or non-existent. However, MSFS has introduced a revolutionary new way of weather depiction by Meteoblue, which uses combined data from radar, weather stations and several climatological parameters, making this and any other weather addon obsolete.

All this data collected by Meteoblue provides a much more accurate depiction than the traditional METAR to METAR. METAR shows weather conditions in one place. In another place a little further away, the weather may be totally different, but ASFS will show that place as having exactly the same weather as the first place.

I repeat again: METAR deciption will NEVER be more accurate than Meteoblue. You can count clouds, compare with live footage or find that the clouds are more beautiful in Active Sky, but the weather in general won't be more realistic. Meteoblue, with its arrangement of information that goes far beyond what a METAR provides from a single location, has the ability to provide more varied and accurate weather depiction for different locations, even isolated ones, far from an airfield without METAR service. Try flying in an isolated location to see how bad ASFS will handle weather injection.

I know Meteoblue isn't perfect and there are cases of a discrepancy in MSFS live weather compared to the real world weather. It will still be more accurate than Active Sky FS, which will suffer even more from these problems, especially flying in a location far from an airfield without METAR service.

Anyway, I hope anyone interested in ASFS can at least wait for MSFS 2024. From what little is known, MSFS 2024 live weather will even be able to generate a tornado via live weather. This alone shows the great improvement it will have in relation to the current MSFS live weather.

We need to look to the future and not be stuck with solutions from the past, which were useful in their era, but now, we are living in a new era of flight simulation.

A lot of this is outright false. 

First of all, it seems you're not aware that the default MSFS weather actually does use METAR injection around airports, precisely because it IS more accurate than the Meteoblue model data.  So trying to claim that model data will ever be more accurate than actual observation data is not only false, but ignores the way MSFS default weather actually works currently 😉.

Secondly, it's worth considering WHY observation data is inherently more accurate:  because the Meteoblue model - like any model - is only run a few times a day (actually only twice in their case if I remember right.). So, if you're viewing weather produced strictly by the Meteoblue model, you're simply viewing a forecast that is up to 8 -12 hours old.  These models often blow the timing of synoptic and mesoscale changes like frontal passage by whole hours, and this could produce weather in the sim that is entirely different from what that location is currently experiencing in reality.  This is specifically why MSFS started blending in Metar injection starting with SU5.

[Damian Clark 1,272]

8 minutes ago, verbal said:

Sorry if this has already been asked but I'm on phone at work - is there a discount for purchasers of previous versions? No big deal if not, but thought it was worth asking.

We reduced the price intentionally for launch, our way of saying thanks to all previous customers, supporters and fans - but also not leaving out new customers, so this is a promotion for them too.  Price is subject to change.  Thanks!

[F737MAX 5,660]

1 minute ago, reecemj said:

Can we just have fun. 😊

No. Flight simming is über serious stuff for serious people...

Remember, if it's not done how someone else thinks it should be done, it's just wrong.

/sarcasm (but sadly not really).

[Goes off to barrel roll the PMDG 737 under a bridge.]

[Stearmandriver 2,312]

7 minutes ago, KERNEL32 said:

METARS are like dinosaurs, or in aviation - VOR's. They just need to die off. Usually out of date and I don't give a rats word not allowed about VATSIM

This is a completely bizarre statement.  You're suggesting that pilots should be flying from and to airports without any observations of current weather conditions?  They should instead just be relying on forecasts that were issued hours ago?

In my world, no current destination METAR = no dispatch.  It would be rather inconvenient if they were just to "die off"...

[scotchegg 4,207]

1 hour ago, Stearmandriver said:

I don't need or want anyone's money lol...

Found the boomer...(sorry, couldn't resist)

[VHOJT 179]

18 minutes ago, KERNEL32 said:

 

METARS are like dinosaurs, or in aviation - VOR's. They just need to die off. Usually out of date and I don't give a rats word not allowed about VATSIM/.

Maybe you should write to ICAO.  I’ve never read something so silly all year.

[Bobsk8 12,774]

22 minutes ago, KERNEL32 said:

@Damian Clark earlier in the thread you asked for possible features, could one such feature be that we could have Active Sky "omit" the METARS and only use the global forecast system?

METARS are like dinosaurs, or in aviation - VOR's. They just need to die off. Usually out of date and I don't give a rats word not allowed about VATSIM/.

So why do real pilots use Metars then? Where do you get your aviation weather, you local TV station weather forecast?

Edited April 19 by Bobsk8

[Freq_flyer44 115]

Crikey, that escalated quickly. Was alluding earlier to the limitations imposed on 3rd party devs, especially for weather add-on devs. ASFS is working well within the limitations and offers a good alternative to the inbuilt weather system. As usual many people jumping up and down without reading the short but detailed description of what ASFS does. What a thing to be a flightsim dev, Damian is doing a sterling job. I'd be mad as a hatter seeing how people who havn't bothered to 'read the ahem manual' are streaming their 'hot take' to the world.