Active Sky review

[vgbaron 3,715]

If either AS OR MS produce weather that matches a camera shot or looking out a window in real life it is pure coincidence. Are we next going to measure cloud size in the sim versus a picture? It's a visual representation of a weather report - that's all - you can make no further judgements.

Now, if the report shows overcast at 6000 and the program shows scattered at 10000 - that's not right but if it is overcast at 6000 that's it. The fact that one does or doesn't like the cloud type is a matter of personal preference.

From what I have seen, one of the most repeated complaints about AS is that the weather doesn't match what someone sees in a camera or picture - news flash - it's not supposed to.

IMHO, there are a lot of reasons to like or dislike AS but that particular measurement is just not valid.

[edu2703 281]

19 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

If either AS OR MS produce weather that matches a camera shot or looking out a window in real life it is pure coincidence. Are we next going to measure cloud size in the sim versus a picture? It's a visual representation of a weather report - that's all - you can make no further judgements.

Now, if the report shows overcast at 6000 and the program shows scattered at 10000 - that's not right but if it is overcast at 6000 that's it. The fact that one does or doesn't like the cloud type is a matter of personal preference.

From what I have seen, one of the most repeated complaints about AS is that the weather doesn't match what someone sees in a camera or picture - news flash - it's not supposed to.

IMHO, there are a lot of reasons to like or dislike AS but that particular measurement is just not valid.

If ASFS showed at least some scattered clouds over the airport even without rain, I'd give it a pass. A clear sky in a place that is overcast and raining is a sizeable difference. And it gets worse when MSFS live weather accurately shows overcast and rain.

I know neither ASFS nor MSFS live weather will give a 100% 1:1 real world weather deciption on MSFS anywhere and all the time. However, if comparing it to real footage is not valid to see which one is more accurate, then what are we going to compare it to? If each person has to create a mental image of what the weather should look like from METAR data, each person will create it differently, having different interpretations of the same data.

And the curious thing is that the validity of comparing with real footage or with what a random person sees through the window wasn't questioned when it was used to validate the accuracy of ASFS, but now it is when it's used to show its inaccuracy? 

I will no longer discuss weather in this thread. I've seen the majority here just want to hear praise for ASFS, including moderators, so the chance of any productive discussion here is zero.

 

[Damian Clark 1,273]

The thin flat and low clouds, and altitude/units issues were confirmed to be related to units conversion issues with certain language settings such as French with certain units settings.  This has been fixed in recent betas confirmed by many.  We're sorry we had this bug.  We have fixed this and many other issues we've found after release, that did not occur in beta.  We had a fairly comprehensive beta, but were not able to test every scenario that we are aware of now with a wide scale release.  We are working very hard to fix anything remaining.  As of today nearly everything major is solved with B8883.

Edited April 28 by Damian Clark

[Damian Clark 1,273]

As for conditions not being exactly as expected at a given location, there are many potential explanations, some of them intentional.  We understand that with precip some are not getting it as expected at the airport because the clouds are surrounding the airport sometimes, and not all over the sky.  We're looking at improving regional coverage and general cloud coverage, with precipitation, to be less variable and more global in nature, so you'll nearly always get precip as expected even if the cloud data and/or interpretation says the clouds should be more scattered or off to the side.  In the mean time, please wait a couple minutes for the clouds to move over your location to get the rain, or fly around the area to experience the precipitation, when getting lower-coverage cloud layers specified for the location.

Edited April 28 by Damian Clark

[vgbaron 3,715]

13 minutes ago, edu2703 said:

I will no longer discuss weather in this thread. I've seen the majority here just want to hear praise for ASFS, including moderators, so the chance of any productive discussion here is zero.

Completely untrue. There has been quite a bit of back and forth with valid points on either side. Were you allegations true, I would have just hidden every negative post or taken action against anyone with a different opinion OR just closed the thread. The fact that it is 27 pages long speaks to the open discussion. In your post above, I agree, if metar calls for clouds and rain and AS shows clear sky - something is wrong but my experience with AS has shown that most of the time it's something outside of AS control and if it is something that AS is doing wrong, it should be reported to the developer so that it can be fixed. It is, after all, a computer program and I have yet to see one that is perfect.

[Adamski_NZ 967]

6 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

Completely untrue. There has been quite a bit of back and forth with valid points on either side.

Agreed. I'm enjoying reading this thread - with all its usual "variations" but still informative!

Either way, we're still getting regular feedback from Damian, which is really encouraging.

[Cpt_Piett 4,822]

7 minutes ago, Adamski_NZ said:

Agreed. I'm enjoying reading this thread - with all its usual "variations" but still informative!

Either way, we're still getting regular feedback from Damian, which is really encouraging.

Same, great thread! Just about to load up a flight with B8883. Still on default settings which has worked out quite well in the last two betas. The transitions are barely noticeable.

Btw, been using realism mode from the start. Turb in MSFS to low. Any other recommendations? 

Edited April 28 by Cpt_Piett

[fppilot 4,397]

Indianapolis to Birmingham, AL, today, in my Indycar AMR Safety Team Hondajet on my way to the Indycar weekend at Barber Motorsports.  Finally some cirrus and representative altostratus.  Arrival weather matched weather seen during the telecast of Indycar practice and qualifying.  Had light rain during taxi, takeoff, and departure from KTYQ, Indy Executive, matching weather reports from the area.

This is great!

 

Edited April 28 by fppilot

[vgbaron 3,715]

A friend sent me this - he is at 12K - looks to me like there are clouds above him.

 

 

[pete_auau 1,167]

[
upload images for free

 

[fppilot 4,397]

1 hour ago, vgbaron said:

A friend sent me this - he is at 12K - looks to me like there are clouds above him.

 

 

Wow!  First altostratus, now altocumulus.  Two firsts within MSFS!  What a great day.  And Hondajets rule the day! 😁

I like your friends!  😅

Edited April 28 by fppilot

[vgbaron 3,715]

Hopefully this will resolve the misinformation that AS doesn't create clouds above 12k. Can't really do much except show pictures.

 

[Nemo 1,305]

2 hours ago, vgbaron said:

A friend sent me this - he is at 12K - looks to me like there are clouds above him.

 

 

If we knew date and time and the position, everybody should be able to reproduce that depiction with AS historical weather.

[GSalden 4,700]

3 hours ago, vgbaron said:

A friend sent me this - he is at 12K - looks to me like there are clouds above him.

 

 

In my vid , a couple of pages back, I was flying between 2 cloud layers (default weather )..I see this lots of times.

in my fill size cockpit I want to see different weather in the distance around me if it exists. Not everywhere I look it is the same, with exception of transitions when going from one weather station to the other.

If only Asobo would let 3rd party developers control the MSFS weather completely than AS can really shine. 

Buying it twice and just for some effects (Passive mode) like turbulence with MSFS 2024 coming in a few months I won’t do.

 

Edited April 28 by GSalden

[scotchegg 4,240]

1 minute ago, GSalden said:

Buying it twice and just for some effects (Passive mode) like turbulence with MSFS 2024 coming in a few months I won’t do

If they can work out cloud turbulence in passive mode, that (along with better turbulence generally, better crosswinds, and historical weather) would tip it just into ‘worth it’ for the months until 2024 releases. If the yen hadn’t crashed so badly in the past few months and my daughter not just got into a pricey private school, I wouldn’t even be thinking about it😅