6 minutes ago, regis9 said:

There's on on the custom tab that changes time but keeps the weather current, then there's the historical one on the the live tab that changes time AND weather, based on historical data

No, right now the weather is attached to time - if you change the time, you'll get the weather that was current to that time (up to 24 hours). They are going to allow the de-linking, but that's in a future patch. 

If I use active sky for live weather, I take AS will match what Vatsim etc. see as the current METAR? AS will use its own version what live is?

15 hours ago, BrammyH said:

If I use active sky for live weather, I take AS will match what Vatsim etc. see as the current METAR? AS will use its own version what live is?

It takes the METARs from NOOA IIRC. I guess so does Vatsim, so it should be the same

On 12/24/2024 at 6:53 PM, AnkH said:

And no weather fronts. Sadly...

Of course ActiveSky has weather fronts. The difference is default weather will have a smooth transition where ASFS will have a finely stepped transition.

If you have a Simbrief flight plan, it can be imported into ASFS for smoother transitions.

On 12/24/2024 at 6:55 PM, Sonosusto said:

I want accuracy, yes. But with that is not having an abrupt change. Need gradual. I am talking like it going from cavok-esque to "OMG I am flying in IFR conditions all of sudden

Make sure to put your flight plan into ASFS and you will not see abrupt changes like you described.

Where do you fire up ASFS & in what order, in relation to starting MSFS2024??

Is it in the Menu across the top of the page?

T45

1 hour ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

Make sure to put your flight plan into ASFS and you will not see abrupt changes like you described.

Yeah, the issue was fixed so all good here.

AS is essential for IFR and VFR alike

3 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

Of course ActiveSky has weather fronts. The difference is default weather will have a smooth transition where ASFS will have a finely stepped transition.

If you have a Simbrief flight plan, it can be imported into ASFS for smoother transitions.

No Active Sky has no weather fronts, as in: Clear skies to the left, to the right, behind me... but a huge front 50nm in front of me.

One can rightly pick faults with default weather depictions, but the weather system simulating the whole global air mass as one thing rather than a collection of thousands of metar amalgamated into a data smoothing algorithm is something that shouldn’t be dismissed.  
 

I went the 2020 cycle without purchasing AS or other weather injector at all.  I did just purchase AS for 2024, mostly because the default historical 24 hr feature can’t be bypassed which messes with my usage of BATC and its reliance on true live weather only.   AS does look nicer and seems to do a great job of local weather depiction, and the historical modes are great for my non batc flights,  but long term, I’d rather the default system prevail, particularly for airliner flying. (and allow planners/third party atc to use the sim data)

2 hours ago, Fiorentoni said:

No Active Sky has no weather fronts, as in: Clear skies to the left, to the right, behind me... but a huge front 50nm in front of me.

That is a very different statement.  You are saying you can't see a distant weather front which is correct. I replied to the statement 'you can't see weather fronts' which is incorrect.

Just now, MrBitstFlyer said:

That is a very different statement.  You are saying you can't see a distant weather front which is correct. I replied to the statement 'you can't see weather fronts' which is incorrect.

But you don't see weather fronts in Active Sky. Any. You might see a couple of clouds and space in between and another couple of clouds and more space in between and more clouds etc. But that's all a coherent cloud formation, e.g. "scattered". A front means it's a different cloud formation that's not yet at your current location

1 hour ago, ShawnG said:

AS does look nicer and seems to do a great job of local weather depiction, and the historical modes are great for my non batc flights,  but long term, I’d rather the default system prevail, particularly for airliner flying. (and allow planners/third party atc to use the sim data)

I'm with you on that statement.  ASFS can have better looking skies at the cost of a global model.  2024 default is certainly better than 2020, but please allow third parties to access the weather sim data.

2 minutes ago, Fiorentoni said:

A front means it's a different cloud formation that's not yet at your current location

A front can indeed be at your current location, otherwise it would never arrive 🙂

ASFS will show all phases of a weather front as you fly towards it, but in a stepped fashion, rather than completely smooth like default 

My last flight was from Lisbon to Luton using ASFS. Took off in blue sky but landed in 400ft overcast and rain. I saw all stages of the front during the flight, from cirrus, stratus, cumulus etc.  visibility and cloud base gradually changed over time.

Because my Simbrief flight plan was imported into ASFS, all the transitions were smoother than they would have been.

The only difference is not seeing the front off in the distance, which I agree is desirable. 2024 weather is better than 2020, but ASFS can still show more cloud types than default.

6 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

Of course ActiveSky has weather fronts. The difference is default weather will have a smooth transition where ASFS will have a finely stepped transition.

It does not. At least not in live weather. I am happy to be wrong if anyone is ever able to show me an approaching weatherfront using AS in any sim where half of the sky is almost totally overcast and half of the sky is almost clear of any clouds and you can fly over the approaching front. Or, if often the case in the Alps: north of the main mountain ridge overcast, south of it clear skies. The default weather engine can easily depict such weatherfronts or distinct weather situations and flying above them is a joy. If you do this with AS, you fly from north to south over the Alps, you can see clear skies till the horizon including the regions south of the main ridge and then, when you are flown over the ridge, weather suddenly changes from clear skies to overcast and if you look back, overcast is now also applied north of the Alps. 

Simply because AS is unable to display more than one weather theme at a time, you always get the same weather from horizon to horizon. Limitation of the weather engine, I know, but the reason I use it only for very limited local VFR flights...

1 hour ago, AnkH said:

I am happy to be wrong if anyone is ever able to show me an approaching weatherfront using AS in any sim where half of the sky is almost totally overcast and half of the sky is almost clear of any clouds

I am not sure why you mention this because it is blindingly obvious that a weather addon that has to use a global weather model will not show a weather front in the distance or different clouds in different directions.  The point I refute is anybody saying ASFS can not show weather fronts as it clearly can - it must be able to if it is downloading real weather.  There are just two differences.

1.  ASFS can not show a weather front in the distance.
2.  Flying towards a weather front in ASFS will be displayed as a series of merged weather areas.

If you load into MSFS where the sky is cloudless, ASFS will show you a cloudless sky.  When the next weather download occurs, and the sky now contains cirrus, ASFS will merge the sky from clear to cirrus in the time interval the user sets in the options. At the next weather update the real sky may contain cirrus and stratus.  Again, ASFS will merge from pure cirrus to cirrus and stratus. This will continue until the front is overhead with a low cloud base and rain.

MSFS default weather will show exactly the same weather if the data is the same, but it will show the front in the distance plus merging will be much smoother. I would assume all of us prefer default weather for its local weather model and different weather in different directions.  Although I am loving the new default weather in 2024, ASFS is still able to display the clouds in a more convincing way imho. 

Sometimes I want to see a local model so will use default.  Sometimes, I will switch to ASFS, and if it is doing a better job of displaying the clouds, I may choose to use it instead. It is just plain wrong to say ASFS does not show weather fronts, because how could it not?

Edited December 26, 20241 yr by MrBitstFlyer