Article https://fselite.net/content/hifi-sim-tech-announces-active-sky-fs-for-msfs/?fbclid=IwAR0pTbsP6l-6Upni7-KELR-Cak-jP54iV7InbD4Yl2vdd7JKakOMvO77QZM

Finally a decent weather system that hopefully will not cause problems and give us weather and clouds that should be showing correctly.

I’m hopeful it’ll end up being a good product. I owned their software for p3d and swore by it. With that said, I’m a bit skeptical that this won’t end up being another type of REX style software. I’m eager to see what folks think, but I’ll read the reviews first.

Edited April 14, 20242 yr by Keirtt

I'm skeptical but open to see how they handle moving fronts and transitions. If its not as seamless as the default............

Edited April 14, 20242 yr by Maxis

Great news, this dev has been the cornerstone for the FS cloud/weather addon since FSX days and could be a game changer .. but .... ( Trigger warning ahead)

Basically 90% of MSFS falls short, in every area IMHO (yes every area.. I did warn of the triggering!) And we have 3rd part devs to thank for rescuing it. The Xbox has been a blessing and a curse I know. It gave the huge playerbase and so huge $$$$ inflows, so thus Devs can make good $$ and worth their great efforts to make the needed addons. We are basically coming full circle like FSX / P3D legacy again, where the 'base sim' is a best-effort and we need to load up 10 addons to make it any good.

I really hope Damien Clark can work wonders with the live weather cloud depiction in MSFS. Knowing how restricted to 3rd party the access to the weather side of it is (thanks Meteoblue) I am kinda skeptical, but if anyone can make the best of it, Damien can.

Looks interesting, but one thing I dont get is this broken and overcast turbulence simulation?  An overcast layer is typically stratiform and smooth.  Turbulence in the real world is based on cloud type, not sky coverage.  Turbulence in clouds needs to be related to thermals and wind changes within the cloud itself.  Cumulus clouds are always turbulent in real life, with intensity increasing with the size and height of the cloud. Stratus clouds are smooth, and cirrus can be choppy in an area of jet stream shear, or they can be smooth.  None of this has anything to do with whether the clouds form a broken or overcast layer.

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Active Sky FS will also integrate directly with SimBrief for flight plan integration and also PMDG’s aircraft for wind uplink data. The universal data export also allows other third party add-ons to interact with Active Sky FS.

That part gains my interest. Could this mean 3rd party aircraft can use ActiveSky for their Weather Radars like in the FSX/P3D days? This would be big indeed. 

Doesn't have to be perfect just has to work. I'll get it just to support them. Loved AS in P3D.

Interesting...I made good use of their products way back to FS2004 (I think, maybe FSX?) so I'll be interested so see what they can add to the MSFS weather experience.

2 hours ago, Keirtt said:

I’m hopeful it’ll end up being a good product. I owned their software for p3d and swore by it. With that said, I’m a bit skeptical that this won’t end up being another type of REX style software. I’m eager to see what folks think, but I’ll read the reviews first.

I wonder as well.  They do state that when using the Active Sky wx depiction mode, it is preset-based.  Sounds similar to Rex.

I'm mainly interested in the historical weather missing (see FAQ at the end of this page) https://hifisimtech.com/asfs/

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How far back does historical weather go?
Ground snow coverage data is available for the past 10 days only. Tropical storm data is available live and older than 10 days in the past (not available historically within 10 days of present). All other weather data is available, in hourly archives, for the past several years. Some dates/times or data layers may not be available. Coverage, resolution, and availability is subject to change.

The user interface seems to be a copy/paste of the previous version 😉 Feel getting back in front of my FS2004 or Prepar3D 😉 Anyway if it generates good evolving historical weather at 360°, I'm fine with whatever user interface.

Edited April 14, 20242 yr by vbazillio

Meh. They had how many years to do something with MSFS now? This seems sus. That interface above looks like something I'd expect from a amateur program designer of the Windows 2000 era. 

Yea, that interface takes me back to P3D, mixed feelings about that. From the description "ASFS Preset Weather Depiction Mode" it sounds like a similar approach as REX where AS will manipulate the preset values using its weather information. As others have said we will have to see how this works in regards to fronts and transitions and whether it makes the whole world one weather system.  Damien did great work in P3D, he is a talented developer and was very responsive and customer centered so I am certainly interested by this. I may get it just to support Active Sky as they find their way in the new frontier!

Nice to see the return of another big name from the FSX/P3D days but I’ll sit this one out until some reviews are in. Unpopular opinion, but I find the weather engine in MSFS to be pretty solid at this point. AS’s metar to metar injection model is well behind the tech under the hood already.

As previously pointed out, we are also getting back to the stage of bloating the sim with lots of third party apps (I’m running fs realistic, real turb and the FPS LOD program already) so am reluctant to keep adding more unless it’s really good. 

Looks like we won’t have to wait too long to find out.

 

Edited April 14, 20242 yr by bennyboy75

No more miriad apps running in background for me, I like the default weather system, it's not perfect but it works well.

Is MSFS capable of showing all cloudtypes needed to get improved cloudlayers / weather ?

Si not everything based on cumulus clouds ….