Active Sky review

[Bond 126]

3 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

if you have navigraph you can create quick new FP inside the sim, export to the internal plan then ASFS can read it. 

That's not the point I was making... I don't always start a flight with a FP. I was just pointing that AS keeps the last FP and messes with the weather until we clear that FP.

[Fiorentoni 4,295]

9 minutes ago, Bond said:

That's not the point I was making... I don't always start a flight with a FP. I was just pointing that AS keeps the last FP and messes with the weather until we clear that FP.

Okay that's something else than what was discussed. If the FP is wrong/old it might do weird things, that's understandable.

[Fiorentoni 4,295]

In general: Using a FP will ensure you get the weather that's reported via the METAR. If you don't, you might get a liberal interpretation of several METARs of nearby airports plus interpolation. So the weather at your departure/destination airport might look quite different than what's in the METAR. That's usually a bad thing, obviously, at least for IFR.

Edited April 26 by Fiorentoni

[sloppysmusic 261]

12 minutes ago, Fiorentoni said:

So the weather at your departure/destination airport might look quite different than what's in the METAR. That's usually a bad thing, obviously, at least for IFR.

Ironically if you're IFR WITHOUT a flight plan.....the sim and ASFS will give you what real life probably will!

😟

[RNAVV19R 3]

Anyone try the new 'Enable surface wind attenuation cancelation' feature in beta 8881? Any thoughts?

[ark 1,295]

I don't have Active Sky -- yet. In reading here and the previous thread (now locked) I see posts referring to three Active Sky modes,  Preset mode, Active mode, and Passive mode.

My understanding is Passive mode is when you are using live MSFS weather, and Active Sky is "only" providing air effects such as turbulence, wind drafts, etc.

My sense is Active mode and Preset mode are really the same thing. Correct?  My understanding here is this is when Active Sky provides live or historical weather, where you can adjust the transition times between locations with METAR reports, etc. You can also customize the weather with the myriad of "controls" that Active Sky provides. I think it is this ability to adjust all these controls is where the term Preset come from, but I personally find this confusing and misleading since MSFS also has options for types of Preset weather when live weather is not used (you can select rain, or overcast, or clear, etc) I think it would be better if Active Sky used a different term, something like Managed mode or Customized mode perhaps, because the Preset weather in MSFS is not like the Preset weather in Active Sky. To me, Preset weather implies unchanging (set) weather, which of course doesn't fit the Active Sky situation.

Just my $0.02.  Corrections to any misconceptions above welcomed.

Al

Edited April 26 by ark

[Fiorentoni 4,295]

20 minutes ago, ark said:

My sense is Active mode and Preset mode are really the same thing. Correct?

Correct. The name "preset" comes from the fact that technically it's injected into MSFS as a preset, albeit a dynamically changing one (through updates and transitions).

[Bobsk8 12,819]

2 hours ago, Bond said:

That's not the point I was making... I don't always start a flight with a FP. I was just pointing that AS keeps the last FP and messes with the weather until we clear that FP.

Well you wouldn't want to fly somewhere with the  fiightplan from your last flight, or what am I missing? 

[ark 1,295]

21 minutes ago, Fiorentoni said:

Correct. The name "preset" comes from the fact that technically it's injected into MSFS as a preset, albeit a dynamically changing one (through updates and transitions).

Thanks for the response and explanation. I guess I would say the correct technical term that describes how AS does what it does may not be the best term to convey to the average non-technical user what the result is.

Al

Edited April 26 by ark

[ha5mvo 259]

8 minutes ago, ark said:

Thanks for the response and explanation. I guess I would say the correct technical term that describes how AS does what it does may not be the best term to convey to the average non-technical user what the result is.

Al

Well, you have an option to build your own static preset using AS just as you would with the sim weather but yes, "presets" as you say is more descriptive of how it is forced to circumvent the limitations imposed by Asobo.

[mmcmah 427]

1 hour ago, ark said:

I don't have Active Sky -- yet. In reading here and the previous thread (now locked) I see posts referring to three Active Sky modes,  Preset mode, Active mode, and Passive mode.

My understanding is Passive mode is when you are using live MSFS weather, and Active Sky is "only" providing air effects such as turbulence, wind drafts, etc.

My sense is Active mode and Preset mode are really the same thing. Correct?  My understanding here is this is when Active Sky provides live or historical weather, where you can adjust the transition times between locations with METAR reports, etc. You can also customize the weather with the myriad of "controls" that Active Sky provides. I think it is this ability to adjust all these controls is where the term Preset come from, but I personally find this confusing and misleading since MSFS also has options for types of Preset weather when live weather is not used (you can select rain, or overcast, or clear, etc) I think it would be better if Active Sky used a different term, something like Managed mode or Customized mode perhaps, because the Preset weather in MSFS is not like the Preset weather in Active Sky. To me, Preset weather implies unchanging (set) weather, which of course doesn't fit the Active Sky situation.

Just my $0.02.  Corrections to any misconceptions above welcomed.

Al

You are not wrong about the right way to say it, but your description is slightly off. There are two basic modes: Passive and Active Preset modes, which are either Live MSFS with air effects from ASFS (Passive) and not MSFS weather where ASFS injected there weather and more air effects (Active Preset).

Within Active Preset mode, there are three options: Live weather, Historical Weather (which you can set independently or through the time in the sim via a locking option) and Custom weather for a certain geographic region that you define on the map.

[ark 1,295]

16 minutes ago, mmcmah said:

You are not wrong about the right way to say it, but your description is slightly off. There are two basic modes: Passive and Active Preset modes, which are either Live MSFS with air effects from ASFS (Passive) and not MSFS weather where ASFS injected there weather and more air effects (Active Preset).

Within Active Preset mode, there are three options: Live weather, Historical Weather (which you can set independently or through the time in the sim via a locking option) and Custom weather for a certain geographic region that you define on the map.

I appreciate all the above responses!

Couple of questions:

1. Does Live weather with the Active Preset mode make any use of MSFS live weather? Or is it mainly based on METARS and interpolation (smoothing) between them?

2. Do all three Active Preset options make use of the many variables you can set with the AS controls, or is that only for the Live weather option?

I realize these questions have likely been answered somewhere in the 60+ pages of the various AS threads, but it is not always easy to find them.

Thanks very much,

Al

Edited April 26 by ark

[Fiorentoni 4,295]

12 minutes ago, ark said:

I appreciate all the above responses!

Couple of questions:

1. Does Live weather with the Active Preset mode make any use of MSFS live weather? Or is it mainly based on METARS and interpolation (smoothing) between them?

2. Do all three Active Preset options make use of the many variables you can set with the AS controls, or is that only for the Live weather option?

I realize these questions have likely been answered somewhere in the 60+ pages of the various AS threads, but it is not always easy to find them.

Thanks very much,

Al

1. The latter. Well, it uses MSFS graphics and cloud textures and stuff, but nothing in regards of weather data.

2. All three make use of it. Some probably are not working in passive depiction mode (e.g. those that actively influence clouds or transitions, obviously, with MSFS taking over the cloud depiction).
 

[pete_auau 1,163]

there are settings  with in the  option  section  not  to load  the  flight  plans  in,  you  can set  it  automatically  or  not

[Cpt_Piett 4,786]

Been flying with 8881 all day without any issues. Set both download and smoothing at default (30/50), seemed to work well. All settings are default actually as I uninstalled-reinstalled for 8881. Realism mode and preset mode. 

Been using historical weather a lot, works great! Very useful for flying in daylight with correct weather. I even figured how to use it with simbrief: https://forums.hifisimtech.com/threads/how-to-setup-simbrief-for-historical-weather.14883/#post-66780

Edited April 27 by Cpt_Piett