Active Sky review

[Cpt_Piett 4,839]

28 minutes ago, mmcmah said:

Nice comparison! Thanks.

If anyone's from Narsarsuaq, we might be able to determine if there's snow on the ground there today 🙂

[sloppysmusic 311]

2 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

If anyone's from Narsarsuaq, we might be able to determine if there's snow on the ground there today 🙂

I'm not but in reference to that Yank in the Fjords comment earlier I'm actually a dual citizen USA/UK. Spent 20 years in Florida and despite having great weather and all the water I could throw my boat at I missed the mountains and windy roads of Europe. So with FSX I built up library of EU sceneries and all the OrbX airports. Many a happy day spent simming around your country. Been a fan of it since Heroes of Telemark as a lad lol but only been Denmark and Sweden so far. On my bucket list though! When my Jeep finally arrives from the US off that container ship (left hand drive of course!) I'll be taking cross channel ferries for years to come. Would love to drive to some of those airports I've simmed at but I KNOW I'd better get clothed up first 😄

[aniiran 434]

So here is what I am getting at: Synoptic MSFS Live weather is producing upperlevel clouds correctly.  It matches Navigraph's and Windy's cloud tops data and also matches NWS GOES sattelite IR, cloud top etc.   I have yet to see anything other than a whispy circle of small dim clouds above 20,000 feet when there should be a high level cloud deck that is broken scattered or even over cast.  I have not seen one single depiction of high clouds in a sngle scenario where they should exist.  I am asking if anyone has actually captured a screen shot of high level clouds where they obviously should exist.  I dont even see anvil heads on thunderstorms.

Edited April 22 by aniiran

[Mace 1,963]

On 4/21/2024 at 6:05 AM, Bunchy said:

I absolutely agree with the video creators comments about the cloud texturing being below what native MSFS can generate.

It looks very poor to my eye.

The MSFS Live Weather clouds look poor to my eye.

The problem with cloud depiction is that clouds look different in different parts of the world, and at different times of the year.   It's not an easy conundrum to solve.  What looks realistic to one person may look unrealistic to another.

[Dusk 25]

14 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

If anyone's from Narsarsuaq, we might be able to determine if there's snow on the ground there today 🙂

Not from Greenland, but the live feed from Narsarsuaq shows no snow at the airport or surrounding mountains.

Edited April 22 by Dusk

[sloppysmusic 311]

13 minutes ago, aniiran said:

I am asking if anyone has actually captured a screen shot of high level clouds where they obviously should exist

Lots of clouds here at different levels. I'm flying at 14000 btw. Live weather today. Not sure if they are realistic, not my field of expertise!

https://imgur.com/gallery/2h3ifjC

[DD_Arthur 1,106]

Okay! These are the first genuinely impressive images of Active Sky that I’ve seen so far.👌

Quick question about something I’m still confused about; in live weather, does it produce turbulence, updrafts, etc in thunderstorms, heavy weather…?

 

[vgbaron 3,724]

My take on the clouds - it boils down to cinematic vs realistic. In my years flying IRL I may have seen MSFS type of cumulus once or twice in the world but not to the degree that MS uses them. Instead of cirrus, stratus etc we get more bunches of cumulus gigantus. However, they are beautiful and majestic and really look cool when flying through them, bright white, dark blue and grey - fantastic - but not realistic.

AS on the other hand has flat stratus, wispy cirrus layered cumulus - all much more realistic for the real world but not necessarily the most beautiful.

So the user has to decide what type of flying they want today - use AS in passive mode and get the movie clouds and just have fun and get the AS realistic wind control or use AS preset and get accurate depiction to test your flying chops on 0/0 approaches etc.

Neither is better - just depends on what you prefer and your particular type of flying,

[vgbaron 3,724]

2 minutes ago, DD_Arthur said:

Okay! These are the first genuinely impressive images of Active Sky that I’ve seen so far.👌

Quick question about something I’m still confused about; in live weather, does it produce turbulence, updrafts, etc in thunderstorms, heavy weather…?

 

Yes, In preset AS or passive where AS controls the effects. It also controls it in historic weather according to the conditions

[Mace 1,963]

38 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

If anyone's from Narsarsuaq, we might be able to determine if there's snow on the ground there today 🙂

I wonder why with MSFS Live Weather the bay was frozen, and with ASFS Preset mode it was water?

[mmcmah 448]

2 minutes ago, Mace said:

I wonder why with MSFS Live Weather the bay was frozen, and with ASFS Preset mode it was water?

Same as with NZMF, I guess.

[aniiran 434]

21 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

Lots of clouds here at different levels. I'm flying at 14000 btw. Live weather today. Not sure if they are realistic, not my field of expertise!

https://imgur.com/gallery/2h3ifjC

Hmmm those do deptict high clouds,  I wonder if some people are having server issues or a conflicting mod.  I can't get anything like that.

[sd_flyer 6,095]

Here is Active Sky shows some weather ahead while I'm cruising at FL200

[Mace 1,963]

3 minutes ago, mmcmah said:

Same as with NZMF, I guess.

What do you mean?  Is there an explanation as to why MSFS does this (ice with Live Weather, water with Preset)?  Temp was the same with both (12C).

[mmcmah 448]

1 minute ago, Mace said:

What do you mean?  Is there an explanation as to why MSFS does this (ice with Live Weather, water with Preset)?  Temp was the same with both (12C).

I've heard something about the snow resolution in the Meteoblue model being low resolution (at least what MS uses).