Has anyone done a side-by-side comparison with Rex's Weather Force (which I currently use)?

3 hours ago, fsiscool said:

I have to admit that I don't like the uniform weather representation by ASFS. Seeing 50 miles ahead, that your route will lead into bad weather is something I don't want to miss.

Thanks for the video. I have to admit that I miss this when running in preset mode. Still testing though, only a week since release. On every single flight I change between preset and passive mode to check the difference. 

I guess the difference is more pronounced when there some significant weather activity in the distance. So far I’ve been pretty happy with preset mode, I have to admit.

2 hours ago, ricka47 said:

Has anyone done a side-by-side comparison with Rex's Weather Force (which I currently use)?

I was meaning to do that but I forgot. I’ll do a comparison in my next video (if I remember!). I’ll make it a short one, exclusively for comparing REX/ASFS. And perhaps also default? Just need to get my head around how to do it the best way.

Edited April 25, 20242 yr by Cpt_Piett

3 hours ago, fsiscool said:

After testing quite a bit with AFS active and passive mode, I came to the conclusion, that for my needs I prefer the passive depiction (= keeping MSFS Live weather).

I made a video that shows the differences, so here is what you have to overlook if you prefer ASFS in active mode:

I have to admit that I don't like the uniform weather representation by ASFS. Seeing 50 miles ahead, that your route will lead into bad weather is something I don't want to miss.

And, ... btw. is not true that MSFS Live weather is only showing one cloud type. Cloud variation looks even better to me.

Also I did not look out for special conditions that make ASFS look worse or bad. I just did a flight, encountered a bad weather cell (actually several in a row after the first one) and went back after landing to record a video of both modes, so everybody can see what I am talking about.

From your video, ActiveSky’s representation looks wildly better to me. Default just looks so simple and almost two dimensional. ActiveSky looks exactly like the weather I saw out of my window on my real world flight yesterday. 

I’m grateful we have options available to us regardless! 

Edited April 25, 20242 yr by DModjo

9 minutes ago, DModjo said:

From your video, ActiveSky’s representation looks wildly better to me. Default just looks so simple and almost two dimensional. 

Which one do you consider as the default?

Both are ActiveSky but the first is in AS passive mode, which means that the clouds are rendered as MSFS Live weather would. You think the first looks two dimensional?

The second (ActiveSky) does not even show clouds at the aircraft altitude (probably due to metar alt capping, ASFS seems to be near-blind for clouds above about 5000 ft, at least in Southern Europe where the video was shot).

Edited April 25, 20242 yr by fsiscool

1 hour ago, fsiscool said:

Which one do you consider as the default?

Both are ActiveSky but the first is in AS passive mode, which means that the clouds are rendered as MSFS Live weather would. You think the first looks two dimensional?

The second (ActiveSky) does not even show clouds at the aircraft altitude (probably due to metar alt capping, ASFS seems to be near-blind for clouds above about 5000 ft, at least in Southern Europe where the video was shot).

The clouds above 5000 has had an initial fix with the latest beta version of the software

Changelog:

Update 042424B - B8880B
- Initial implementation of >5000ft cloud generation especially in Europe (NSC/NCD) - More work in progress
- Smoothing tuning, mainly in attempts to eliminate earlier shifts/clearing in some cases
- Added new option: Use periodic theme reloads. Default On. Enable this option to have the weather theme rebuilt periodically, approximately every 7 minutes, to provide updates and variation to the weather as you fly. Without this option enabled, updates will occur only as per your download interval setting.
- Added temporary additional UI console logging for transitions monitoring (http://127.0.0.1:19999/inspector/Main.html?page=38)
- Added additional logging for turbulence (simconnect log) and transitions events (main session log)
- Adjusted METAR sky condition element filtering to not bypass "on the ground" 0 AGL altitude layers specified (e.g. FEW000)
- Attempted fix for issue where after pressing REFRESH (debug screen) and then moving download interval slider (general options), time request can default to beginning of hour and could cause historical mode to activate
- Attempted fix for flight-plan-related anomalies in weather updates, locking, and refreshing
- Fixed issue with Enabled temperature-based altimeter errors option not persisting properly
- Fixed issue with AS_FS_SimConnectLog.txt not properly attaching to log exports
- Removed Maximum Upper Visibility option (this is not having the desired effect despite our attempts to control upper visibility without MSFS overriding this at higher altitudes)
- Fixed NCD/NSC/CAVOK cloud generation issue causing loss of METAR cloud layers in some cases
 

1 hour ago, fsiscool said:

Which one do you consider as the default?

Both are ActiveSky but the first is in AS passive mode, which means that the clouds are rendered as MSFS Live weather would. You think the first looks two dimensional?

The second (ActiveSky) does not even show clouds at the aircraft altitude (probably due to metar alt capping, ASFS seems to be near-blind for clouds above about 5000 ft, at least in Southern Europe where the video was shot).

I consider passive mode as default. I think  what I mean is that the depiction looks more believable with ActiveSky generating the visuals. They use variety of cloud coverage, types, transparencies, humidity and the cloudscapes just look more similar to what one would witness out the window of a commercial flight. Subjective opinion though, but it’s nice we have options. 

I have no visuals to show, but my tests lean me toward active mode.

Passive is sure prettier, but active always seems more realistic and truer.

There is no right or wrong here, just what you prefer from your sim.

It’s hard to pass up the beautiful eye candy, but for most flights, I prefer a more realistic coverage.

 

I suppose the in-sim turbulence settings are ignored when running ASFS?

21 minutes ago, Rene_Feijen said:

I suppose the in-sim turbulence settings are ignored when running ASFS?

The turbulence in AS is much more realistic than the MSFS Turbulence. 

40 minutes ago, Rene_Feijen said:

I suppose the in-sim turbulence settings are ignored when running ASFS?

No they cannot be ignored (for technical reasons), so MSFS default turbulence will always be active. The AS devs said they created AS with MSFS turublence set to LOW, so you might want to set that too.

6 hours ago, fsiscool said:

And, ... btw. is not true that MSFS Live weather is only showing one cloud type. Cloud variation looks even better to me.

A very short video that doesn't show either weather depiction in the best light.  Yes, MSFS is mostly cumulus, and that is true for weather in the distance.

Even in your short video, ASFS cloud depiction was WAY better.

1 hour ago, Fiorentoni said:

No they cannot be ignored (for technical reasons), so MSFS default turbulence will always be active. The AS devs said they created AS with MSFS turublence set to LOW, so you might want to set that too.

Good to know, thanks!

I'm a little confused with this:

- Added new option: Use periodic theme reloads. Default On. Enable this option to have the weather theme rebuilt periodically, approximately every 7 minutes, to provide updates and variation to the weather as you fly. Without this option enabled, updates will occur only as per your download interval setting.

What's the difference between updates that occur based on regular download intervals vs. "periodic theme reloads"?

23 minutes ago, mikeklimek said:

I'm a little confused with this:

- Added new option: Use periodic theme reloads. Default On. Enable this option to have the weather theme rebuilt periodically, approximately every 7 minutes, to provide updates and variation to the weather as you fly. Without this option enabled, updates will occur only as per your download interval setting.

What's the difference between updates that occur based on regular download intervals vs. "periodic theme reloads"?

I think that it means if enabled, that your weather will refresh/rebuild every 7 min regardless of the download interval. So if you’ve flown over an area with different weather before another download happens, it will transition. 

Deleted by user

Edited April 26, 20242 yr by edu2703