Active Sky review

[Maxis 1,878]

25 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

I have no problem with anyone ranting and raving or venting about a product they dislike on YouTube. Gotta make a living right? Plus drama sells sadly.

Calling out a small developer by NAME though crosses the line for me. That's a personal attack not a review at all.

Yea .. the commentary by the person who posted the video is moving from objective review to open commentary. I don't mind the author adding a bit of color to a review but its no longer a review when the author cannot control himself from.

Negatively calling out people who get value from the product.

Personally calling out the dev by name. The product under review is Active Sky.. not the dev behind it.

To be honest i haven't even purchased active sky as yet as i want to see a clear benefit in using passive mode but its clear some people get a benefit from it so if it doesn't work for you that's also ok but no need to express your opinion like that.

[mmcmah 421]

41 minutes ago, longhaul747 said:

Yeah, I have no idea if the warning came from ASFS or the PMDG 737?  I have been flying the PMDG 737 since it came out in all sorts of conditions and I never got a windshear warning from it.  So I am guessing the warning actually came from ASFS.  Damian might be able to explain this feature? 

Non the less it was kind of shocking and pretty cool.  It seems when you are in windshear conditions controlling the airplane becomes challenging.  Sort of like driving on an icy road.  At first you have no reaction so you naturally tend to over react and finely when you get bite on the wings you over correct.  Seems pretty realistic but I am not a real pilot so what do I know?

Its possible the warning came from RealTurb but again I never heard it give a windshear warning from that program.  I am guessing the actual warning came from ASFS!

Another thing I noticed and this is so far out there I am not giving it any sort of official notice is my ground textures and detail were pretty high up there.  Either Asobo has been messing with the ground detail or ASFS somehow eases resources so your ground textures seem improved.  Its hard to say is occasionally it just is better for some unknown reason but the detail flying into LAS was pretty solid using ASFS.  I think its safe to say such findings are unscientific but we can hope! 

It's an ASFS setting:

[MarcG 3,021]

@Damian Clark can you check your PMs please myself and others struggling to join your forum, thanks ☺️

[SierraDelta 1,349]

6 minutes ago, MarcG said:

@Damian Clark can you check your PMs please myself and others struggling to join your forum, thanks ☺️

They are aware:

https://forums.hifisimtech.com/threads/forum-problem-with-gmail-accounts.14905/post-66961

[vgbaron 3,700]

ok, I am going to go through and delete links to one of the videos posted, I suspect you can guess which one. Opinions on a product are individual but we will not allow any direct developer bashing. That is uncalled for, unwarranted and completely unsubstantiated except for someone with a specific agenda. So, before any cries of censorship, those are my reasons.

[Cpt_Piett 4,750]

3 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

What is strange is that Damian was one of the most respected developers for years and years. Now he comes out with an app in MSFS, and he seems to get hate from every direction. I don't get it. 

Besides the fact that there’s rarely much opposition to a 25$ addon of pretty much any kind. //42’s toolbar enhancement is 30$ in comparison, so with AS you get a lot of value for the price.

Edited April 23 by Cpt_Piett

[Cpt_Piett 4,750]

1 hour ago, longhaul747 said:

It seems when you are in windshear conditions controlling the airplane becomes challenging.  Sort of like driving on an icy road.  At first you have no reaction so you naturally tend to over react and finely when you get bite on the wings you over correct.  Seems pretty realistic but I am not a real pilot so what do I know?

Great document on wind shear here: https://www.faasafety.gov/files/gslac/library/documents/2011/aug/56407/faa p-8740-40 windshear[hi-res] branded.pdf

I remember how terrifying it could be doing RW landings in a light aircraft with the presence of wind shear.

[edu2703 278]

New Beta is out;

Update 042324 - B8879

• Redesigned toolbar UI interface for Parallel 42’s toolbar interop solution, establishing compatibility with most other toolbar-based mods/addons – NOTE: All developers of toolbar mods/addons are recommended to use the open-source toolbar interop by //42 to maintain compatible with all other toolbar mods/addons - please contact //42 directly for integration assistance (www.parallel42.com)
• Added new option: Enable temperature-based altimeter errors (was previously not settable and forced on) - now defaulted off
• Slowed general cloud transitions, especially during low/high coverage stages, approximately 50%. Now takes approximately 8 minutes to smooth from clear to overcast or vice versa, at default 50% slider setting.
• Adjusted AS_FSConnectorInstall to account for potential dual-sim (Steam + Store) MSFS installations, either previously installed this way or currently, which could cause improper connector installation target path and lack of any wx depiction
• Adjusted ActiveSkyUtils exe.xml install process to also account for potential dual-sim installations and handle accordingly and result in failure of simulator to connect
• Increased speed of “building” cloud layers vs. “dissipating” cloud layers (by 25%) in smoothing to reduce occurrence of unexpectedly clearer skies during some transitions
• Slightly increased cirrus generation occurrence rate in some cases
• Increased thickness of cirrus clouds at 35K and higher altitudes to prevent MSFS cloud depiction from hiding the layer in some cases
• Increased average thickness of stratus clouds and cumulus clouds approximately 15% per feedback, for more visual depth
• Increased average thickness of precipitating clouds approximately 20%
• Changed “Copying theme file to sim” message send at completion of wx theme generation to “weather theme generation complete” message to avoid confusion and bug reports due to this normal process
• Adjusted temp-based altimeter/baro error feature to only activate when both surface and current ISA temps are in excess of 10 deg, and below 10K AGL
• Reverted earlier humidity/vis change as requested for slightly less humidity (more visibility) in most cases
• Fixed issue with excessive wake turbulence effect
• Fixed issue where download time sync could be lost in longer flights or when switching modes often, or some other undetermined cases, causing historical mode to activate and download 1-hour old wx vs. live as requested
• Attempted fix for potential temperature discrepancy at higher altitudes
• Updated readme/docs including adding/updating sections regarding not changing MSFS wx mode inside MSFS as this causes failure of ASFS to properly depict weather
• Removed obsolete documentation regarding maximum cloud layer setting

 

More info: https://forums.hifisimtech.com/threads/early-open-beta-8879.14912/

Note: It's recommended doing an uninstall of both Active Sky FS and Active Sky FS Connector, then reinstall of this, to make sure the installation environment is proper (some of the fixes are specific to potential installation issues).
 

 

Edited April 23 by edu2703

[sloppysmusic 261]

6 minutes ago, edu2703 said:

New Beta is out

 

 Well that's MY day taken care of 😄

EDIT: Umm where is it?

https://hifisimtech.com/downloads/#ASFS

above has 8874 still.

Edited April 23 by sloppysmusic
where is it?

[edu2703 278]

5 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

EDIT: Umm where is it?

Here: https://forums.hifisimtech.com/threads/early-open-beta-8879.14912/

[Cpt_Piett 4,750]

Great news! 2nd update in less than a week - that's promising!

Btw my full flight video from Guangzhou to Hong Kong just finished uploading. Might be useful as I did a lot of comparisons of AS vs default. Quite exciting weather with thunderstorms, lightning and cumulonimbus. I tried to be as honest and unbiased as I could. 

My intention is not to sway the naysayers, but if that is a side effect, I don't mind, as I think HiFi and @Damian Clark have done a great job with this product. Highly recommended! 

Notice I've changed from being a sceptic to praising the product after testing it in different scenarios over the last few days 😉

 

Edited April 23 by Cpt_Piett

[mmcmah 421]

I just tried the new beta and am very impressed with the changes so far. I also increased my transition smoothing factor back up to the default of 50. It worked very well from clear skies all the way to overcast and rainy for me. I will see how it performs while flying later on.

I second the suggestion of doing an uninstall of the Connector as well as the program (two entires in the Add/Remove Programs windows dialog box), as my transitions weren't working right. Note that I did not delete my login, license, Navigraph and other settings. Simply uninstalled the programs, as you are given the option of wiping everything clean.

[sloppysmusic 261]

35 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

I think HiFi and @Damian Clark have done a great job with this product

Against all odds too!

Commendable.

 

[Fiorentoni 4,266]

I guess no one can complain anymore about flat clouds, especially CU clouds look massive now.

[Baber20 1,438]

Share screenshots of the latest beta pls