Both MSFS 2020 and X-Plane 12 have at least one problem with the blend of wind data between aloft / model and METAR.

For instance when we seek airfields with intense / gusting / variable winds and go fly there, one of the main activities for me in flight simulators, we can notice that most of the time there's a considerable softening in the wind as we climb away from the airfield towards MSA (specially in Europe where MSA away from mountainous areas is usually low).

A 33025G32KT can give you some playtime bellow 500ft AGL, but if you place your aircraft on final, or in a STAR, sometimes you come from tame winds aloft into those or close to those values in your transition to "short final" only... 

It looks to me both XP and MFS do the blend in a wrong way. 

ASFS has yet another advantage in that it does a much better work in this field too.

Ah! VOTED YES, OFC...

Edited May 29, 20242 yr by jcomm

I absolutely agree that weather needs some attention going forward. I also really want Asobo to rework the weather visuals, get closer to a more natural, realistic cloud depiction, with more whispy clouds and beautiful cirrus layers. I am sick to death of large ash clouds and the oil painting look.

That said, I hate when the community starts to deify certain developers or champion specific people as the ones to come in and 'save the day', it completely ruins the message and makes me not want to vote for it at all. I respect Damian for his work and AS was a great program but nothing in my mind thinks he's some weather God that needs to come in and make things right, that Asobo can't do. They got a lot of very competent people over there but when you're that big of a company, things take time. You work within constraints.

Also, I see people highlighting ASCA; Absolutely the last thing I'd mention trying to sell HiFi's work. Those clouds were beyond awful, that entire product was hands down one of the ugliest visual weather renditions I've seen in almost any simulation product. 

 

9 hours ago, JaseMelbo said:

They came in late for a cash grab with a substandard product.

Clearly well off of the consensus here.  Clearly.  Perhaps I am too affluent. It certainly did not stretch -my- wallet.  Does not even stretch my system performance.  Is AS available for xbox?  Just a question in case that is the lurking issue......

Edited May 29, 20242 yr by fppilot

I'll just say that the repeated message that HiFi or myself needs to "fix" anything in MSFS is filled with defensive reactions, understandably so.  There's nothing wrong with MSFS weather or their developers.  They've done the best job any sim developer has done to this date, IMO.

I know I have a lot of haters, and I think it's primarily because of this messaging that AS needs to "fix the broken FS2020 weather" which started with MSFS2020 launch.  AS and my efforts have always been about extending the sim, adding features and depth.  Just like all add-ons.  Not replacing things or fixing them, although some have seen it that way.

FWIW, I'd love to work with MS/Asobo, at ANY level.

Quote

that entire product was hands down one of the ugliest visual weather renditions I've seen

Hey, thanks!  It was our best selling product and received the most positive reviews of any.  We tried some really bold things with that, and it didn't always work, but to say that the entire product was the ugliest thing in the sim world is quite hyperbolic and trollish, IMO.... but it's an opinion none-the-less.  My role was the technical direction and product management, and AS integration developer.  While I wish we could have done better in graphics/visuals, and almost got the chance if not for legacy clouds becoming increasingly obsolete with the debut of truSKY, I'm very happy with how that product turned out and what it accomplished, and how it pushed the bar for others like REX to take things even further in graphics texture enhancements for those that continued using legacy clouds.  They did a fantastic job of course.

Since ASCA we've of course moved away from graphics enhancements and back to our roots of technical weather representation/features.  That's always been our focus and our core competency, although I'd say much of the community is unaware, and despite my attempts to clarify and be transparent about our focus and efforts, I think most still see us as "cloud graphics developers" because we did ASCA (and previously XGraphics, with REX dev when he used to be on our team way back in the day).  And graphics are always more popular than utilities.  So that's a big part of the reason why we have this misunderstanding about what I or HiFi's efforts can do.....  

My passion and skill set is focused around the very technical and high-fidelity aspects of weather representation in desktop flight simulation.  I've got 30+ years of networking, IT management, product management, systems management, programming and aviation experience with a Commercial cert and multi/IFR ratings with just shy of 1000 hours.    My goal is to innovate with integrity.  I don't give a hoot about business, status, or money.  If I could be of any use to MS/Asobo or anyone else I'm always open to opportunity.

In the mean time, I am committed to improving ASFS for MSFS2020 and MSFS2024, and continue to advocate for open developer support and weather extensibility without alienating any add-on genre or specific developer.

 

Edited May 30, 20242 yr by Damian Clark

18 hours ago, JaseMelbo said:

They came in late for a cash grab with a substandard product.

Not trying to pick a fight, just wondering if you can substantiate that?  What defines a "cash grab" and what specifically makes ASFS "substandard"?  Have you actually tried it?

Is it just because we "came in late" that you feel we have somehow been a scam?  If you follow my posts, you'd know the many reasons why we "came in late".  I could have released ASFS on day one of MSFS2020 release, or after that, like our competitors did, and made a "ton of money" with a product I wasn't fully happy with.  But I didn't.  I would not ever release something I didn't believe was a great value and offered true innovation and features that would satisfy our user base.  It took time.  I also could have abandoned the other platorms and our core traditional user base, like most other developers have, to chase the MSFS2020 market.  I did not.  I stayed as long as I possibly could, working for free, for over 2 years, to support them.  You also don't know about things that happened behind the scenes I'm not at liberty to discuss, but there were other factors.  In each case, I made decisions based on integrity, not making money.  To see so many "you're just a scammer" posts is really hard to see.

But again, I'm not tryng to fight here, I just want to understand.  Are you just defaming us, or do you have constructive criticism?  If it's constructive I really do want to understand your take.

Edited May 29, 20242 yr by Damian Clark

I've never had a problem with weather. There's clouds, there's wind, it rains, sometimes it doesn't. Good enough for me. 

18 hours ago, sultanofswing said:

I feel this thread should honestly be locked for discussion as it's completely de-railing itself.

That's their goal?

Edited May 29, 20242 yr by Damian Clark

1 hour ago, Damian Clark said:

That's their goal?

I do not know what their goal is personally, I support HIFI, I use ASFS on a daily basis as it suits my needs and I feel it is for the better.
I just think the people in this thread need to leave their feelings out of it and stop bashing companies/people.
This is a poll, IMHO that's a simple Yes or no.
 

2 hours ago, Damian Clark said:

That's their goal?

Their goal is to create a living mirror image of the planet.  Something you can barely wrap your head around.

sp

26 minutes ago, Sky_Pilot071 said:

Their goal is to create a living mirror image of the planet.  Something you can barely wrap your head around.

sp

Nice.  Why do you feel that way about me?

 

Edited May 30, 20242 yr by Damian Clark

1 hour ago, sultanofswing said:

I do not know what their goal is personally, I support HIFI, I use ASFS on a daily basis as it suits my needs and I feel it is for the better.
I just think the people in this thread need to leave their feelings out of it and stop bashing companies/people.
This is a poll, IMHO that's a simple Yes or no.
 

I don't know exactly either, but I see that there is a small group of people that constantly attack me personally, and they go unchecked.  They don't offer anything constructive, they just defame and antagonize, over and over.  It seems they want these threads shut down.  I'm sure they'll succeed again.  I'm highly suspcious of their motives and associatations.  IBTL.

Edited May 30, 20242 yr by Damian Clark

22 minutes ago, Damian Clark said:

Nice.  Why do you feel that way about me?

 

Sorry you took it that way.  Nobody can grasp the scale of Microsoft's undertaking including me.

sp

Edited May 30, 20242 yr by Sky_Pilot071

16 hours ago, Sethos said:

In the community starts to deify certain developers or champion specific people as the ones to come in and 'save the day', it completely ruins the message and makes me not want to vote for it at all. I respect Damian for his work and AS was a great program but nothing in my mind thinks he's some weather God that needs to come in and make things right, that Asobo can't do. They got a lot of very competent people over there but when you're that big of a company, things take time. You work within constraints.

Firstly, that's pretty rediculous IMO!  Who has "deified" me or called me a "weather God"? 

Maybe those who've followed my work and passion over the past 25 years figure I might have some ability to provide some value somewhere in weather development and contribute on some level for new innovation.  Maybe that's why they support me having a chance to continue doing that.  They know I've been trying to be allowed to do it via add-on/SDK support for a long time now, and that seems to never happen, and they know I'm willing to do anything to help contribute, so they are now looking at the inside/partnership angle.  I really just want to keep doing what I love.  I am truly honored by those who continue to support me and my efforts.  The support ASFS has received (by most) has been amazing and I am very grateful, and ASFS will continue getting better, but without MS/Asobo support it will always be way more limited than it could be.

I don't agree with folks saying that I'm somehow better or can "fix everything".  You know that.  It's unfortunately that many put me against MS/Asobo and can't see any mutually beneficial relationship.  I am a big supporter and acknowledge they've done amazing great things.  Can you acknowledge that I've done anything positive for weather sim, ever?  Do you think that I can do anything positive for weather sim in the future?  Honest question.

Edited May 30, 20242 yr by Damian Clark

Quote

Something you can barely wrap your head around.

Quote

Sorry you took it that way.

If you meant it differently, then yeah, I took it the wrong way.  FWIW I support MS/Asobo and their vision.  I'd love to participate at any level.  If they ever add more SDK support for weather, and/or consider me for direct work/partnership, I'd be all over it.

Edited May 30, 20242 yr by Damian Clark

 

On 5/29/2024 at 6:19 AM, JaseMelbo said:

Let's see what the end result is.  They came in late for a cash grab with a substandard product.  Please HiFi, stay away...…please.

Cash grab? Substandard? It's perfectly fine to have an opinion, but it doesn't take a huge effort to use a minimum amount of respect and decency.

On 5/29/2024 at 12:20 PM, Sethos said:

That said, I hate when the community starts to deify certain developers or champion specific people as the ones to come in and 'save the day', it completely ruins the message and makes me not want to vote for it at all. I respect Damian for his work and AS was a great program but nothing in my mind thinks he's some weather God that needs to come in and make things right, that Asobo can't do. They got a lot of very competent people over there but when you're that big of a company, things take time. You work within constraints.

The way I see it is that Damian has contributed in a huge way to the simming community over the years, which IMO is commendable. I'm very happy that HiFi decided to develop ASFS for MSFS, as I think it does offer considerable benefits vs default weather. I can also appreciate that ASFS is not by any means perfect, and I can understand that for many people, loosing fronts and local weather is a deal-braker. 

I was not going to comment, as I didn't want to add fuel to the fire, but I felt Damian could use some support. Which in no way equates to me deifying or worshipping him. 

Edited May 30, 20242 yr by Cpt_Piett