Active Sky review

[Fiorentoni 4,401]

Just now, ha5mvo said:

People seem to miss the true purpose of historical weather - asobo developers included. It's not really about finding a particular time and place for exotic conditions. Perhaps the term "historical" is a misnomer that throws them off. Maybe "synchronised weather" would have been a better term.

 At least so that people who are less familiar with aviation could realise that shifting the time scale changes not only the visuals and light. Every student pilot could tell you after a couple of flights at what time of the day you can expect higher likelihood  of choppiness and when things are likely to go smoother - and that's just one aspect of weather that's time dependent. 

Without  historical weather you are either bound to never touch the time scale, or compromise on realism.

That's probably the best explanation of why historical weather is needed that I've ever come across. I never found the right words for what you just perfectly phrased.

[vgbaron 3,724]

16 minutes ago, edpatino said:

I think this video pretty much shows what can be expected from ASFS if compared to the MSFS current live weather representation and also shows the weather "tools" (historical, turbulence, cloud effects) that clearly MSFS either does not have or are not working right. As always, everything has its pros and cons, and it's up to people to decide wether to purchase ASFS or not at this time.

 

While I think this fellow actually took some time to try to have a fair assessment, I believe it is not a fair comparison - at least in the video it appears that he's switching back and forth - that will completely mess up the depiction. Perhaps running two systems side by side and combining the videos would be more accurate.

[Cpt_Piett 4,837]

1 minute ago, ha5mvo said:

At least so that people who are less familiar with aviation could realise that shifting the time scale changes not only the visuals and light. Every student pilot could tell you after a couple of flights at what time of the day you can expect higher likelihood  of choppiness and when things are likely to go smoother - and that's just one aspect of weather that's time dependent. 

Without  historical weather you are either bound to never touch the time scale, or compromise on realism.

I always fly with real weather. As I prefer to fly during daylight, I just change the location based on that. I might use historical if I really wanted to fly in real weather at a different time than RW time though. Time will tell, I got AS today.

[ha5mvo 261]

20 minutes ago, edpatino said:

I think this video pretty much shows what can be expected from ASFS if compared to the MSFS current live weather representation and also shows the weather "tools" (historical, turbulence, cloud effects) that clearly MSFS either does not have or are not working right. As always, everything has its pros and cons, and it's up to people to decide wether to purchase ASFS or not at this time.

 

It also shows how much more they could have done if they were not forced to work with both hands tied behind the back!

[Cpt_Piett 4,837]

3 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

While I think this fellow actually took some time to try to have a fair assessment, I believe it is not a fair comparison - at least in the video it appears that he's switching back and forth - that will completely mess up the depiction. Perhaps running two systems side by side and combining the videos would be more accurate.

That’s a pity, I wanted to do exactly this to compare vs default. I guess the same goes for REX, AFAIK it should be uninstalled. Or at least remove the folder in community, if there is one.

[vgbaron 3,724]

2 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

I always fly with real weather. As I prefer to fly during daylight, I just change the location based on that. I might use historical if I really wanted to fly in real weather at a different time than RW time though. Time will tell, I got AS today.

Great! I know you are a dedicated "tinkerer"  🙂 so I expect you'll play around with the settings a bit. May I suggest, setting download interval to 15 and smoothing rate to 5 and leave everything else default and go from there.

Have fun!

[turbomax 3,307]

27 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

in a cumulonimbus perhaps?

happened to me in real life. most frightening moment in my life. moments of sheer horror no weather simulator can ever reproduce.🤣 never again!

Edited April 20 by turbomax

[vgbaron 3,724]

1 minute ago, Cpt_Piett said:

That’s a pity, I wanted to do exactly this to compare vs default. I guess the same goes for REX, AFAIK it should be uninstalled. Or at least remove the folder in community, if there is one.

Yes, if REX or Enviro are active they will interfere.  So much of the depiction is based on timing - if you do try switching back and forth - be sure the green progress bar above the map has stopped and wait at least a minute for the processing to stop - that *may* give better comparison.

[vgbaron 3,724]

1 minute ago, turbomax said:

happened to me in real life. most frightening moment in my life. never again!

Been there, done that, have the soiled shorts - only I was in a Cherokee!  🙂 

[Cpt_Piett 4,837]

2 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

Great! I know you are a dedicated "tinkerer"  🙂 so I expect you'll play around with the settings a bit. May I suggest, setting download interval to 15 and smoothing rate to 5 and leave everything else default and go from there.

Thanks, I’ll give that a try. I’ll probably start with mostly default settings, then tweak the settings when I’ve had a chance to read the manual. 80+ pages, that’s pretty impressive!

Perhaps I should change my user name to Cpt_Tweaker 😅

[vgbaron 3,724]

Just now, Cpt_Piett said:

Perhaps I should change my user name to Cpt_Tweaker 😅

Works for me!  🙂 

[JRBarrett 3,128]

4 hours ago, vgbaron said:

Considering that MSFS does not display stratus clouds this is interesting.

MSFS Live Weather (not manual)  definitely can display true stratus. I have seen it several times when flying in Southern California when there is a marine layer cloud deck offshore. Flat bottoms, flat tops, and 100 percent coverage. Live Weather doesn’t “do” stratus as often as it should, but it is capable of it.

[Cpt_Piett 4,837]

3 minutes ago, turbomax said:

happened to me in real life. most frightening moment in my life. never again!

I can imagine! Had to divert around several CBs when doing PPL training down under. Btw the thermal turbulence was sometimes so severe that I suffered from air sickness as pilot in command 🤢 I’d love to experience realistic turbulence in the sim though!

[vgbaron 3,724]

1 minute ago, JRBarrett said:

MSFS Live Weather (not manual)  definitely can display true stratus. I have seen it several times when flying in Southern California when there is a marine layer cloud deck offshore. Flat bottoms, flat tops, and 100 percent coverage. Live Weather doesn’t “do” stratus as often as it should, but it is capable of it.

I stand corrected Jim -  they sure don't display them much - I suspect it's because they are not as visually effective as cumulus.

[vgbaron 3,724]

3 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

I 🤢 I’d love to experience realistic turbulence in the sim though!

Fly around the mountains in high winds  - AS modelling of the up and downdrafts will get your attention