AlexMD11

Thanks for the detailed explanation - that’s much appreciated and look forward to next developments!

Are there any plans to use different sources of cloud data rather than just METAR? For instance, think no cloud is reported about 5,000ft in the UK, whilst we often see cloudy conditions above that - and understand AS would depict this as clear skies as not reported on METAR?

That’s a better price than I was expecting, pending reviews and videos might be worth it for just enhancement of effects in passive mode.

Saw on Facebook a post from Just Flight earlier today saying that the release date is apparently “fairly imminent” - so just hope we’ll get some more proper videos very soon to showcase what’s it’s capable of so we can all make up our minds!

As much as I’d like them to succeed, and I did use AS in both FSX and P3D, the preset method is a bit of a killer for me. The great thing about default weather, as much as I do hate the lack of variety of clouds, is being able to see different types of weather in the distance and actually flying towards them - don’t think this would allow for it. And with the passive mode I understand they don’t change depiction so still wouldn’t solve lack of cloud variety in the default weather engine.

It doesn't show up as a separate aircraft, you just select the 'default' ASOBO A320 and if you have installed correctly the additional functionaly will be there when you load it in the sim.

I think for VFR flying the weather themes are absolutely fine, however, on longer journeys on jets the weather themes generally mean that the weather is the same anywhere. Flying from Northern Europe to the Mediterranean in summer for instance can have some very interesting weather situations, flying from rainy into sunny weather, overflying some thunderstorms and so on. These situations are generally not replicated through static themes - unless MSFS comes up with some much better weather themes as you suggest.

Yep I'd like that, as long as VR will continue to receive the same attention - not in the way that VR in its basic form gets a checkmark as in 'delivered', focus is moved onto completely different deliverables, and the more advanced milestones of VR will be put at the back of the roadmap again at an even lower priority (since there now is at least 'some' VR capability). The question then also is what that basic functionality would entail and if that would be in line with the expectations of VR users who are paying for the product to use it in VR.

Aside from seasons in the sim, I hope that there will be the ability to use historic weather. If it's January and I want to fly in the summer, I don't want to end up in snow using real world weather or having to select a fixed theme.

I never thought about VR until I switched from P3D to X-Plane less than a year ago and noticed a pretty active VR community. I decided to buy an Oculus Rift at the time and was absolutely amazed by the level of immersion - I have now upgraded to a Rift S (that does give that extra bit of clarity that you need for VR) and I can safely say that VR has made my whole flight sim experience so much more enjoyable and made especially GA aircraft flying a lot more interesting. As it looks that VFR flying will be enhanced quite significantly I am very excited for the VR world in the new Flight Simulator. That said, as much as VR is a very important feature for me as well, I am sure that the new FS will have tons to offer to enjoy myself with, even without VR at launch. As some of the devs were saying in the Q&A I have seen, I'd rather wait for a very good implementation rather than a quick and dirty one, especially where I am a bit concerned about the performance where XP is struggling at times even though I have a relatively high-end system. As long as it is on their roadmap and it will be there at some point, I am a happy man.

I had very low FPS at FlyTampa EHAM until I read somewhere that it has to do with the order in the scenery library. Not sure if I remember correctly and cannot check at the moment, but I believe it had to do with the “general library” needing to be placed below the actual airport instead of the other way around. Might be worth playing around with that, made the world of difference for me.

Yes, that’s one of the reasons I haven’t flown with AI in a while. I wish LM could somehow make AFCADs dynamic - and set runways to open or close through a wind direction and speed logic that can be edited within the AFCAD.

Thanks for your response Graham. I have looked into the AI SIDSTAR Controller before but I thought that it was only for use at certain airports, however, I see now that there also is a more generic approach for other airports which looks certainly interesting!

How does this play with AI traffic? I've been frustrated with default ATC assigning "wrong" runways and not being able to use SID/STARs in conjunction with ATC and AI traffic. I think I read somewhere that AI is still dependent on default ATC?

Apologies for the bump - however, I have been dealing with the so-called 'popcorn' clouds as well. At first I thought it might have been my texture sets (REX TD and Soft clouds), but when I started to load scenarios in different parts of the world (where overcast/broked clouds are present with ASN), it struck me that I only see these popcorn clouds and repetitive patterns at locations that are closer to the poles. I have seen beautiful cloud formations with large clouds close to the equator (WSSS, SEGU), but further up North (EFRO, CYYC) these ugly cloud patterns persist. I believe I have read about this issue regarding lattitude before, however, I was wondering whether some way of fixing this has come past?