I’m surprised that I missed that Active Sky X-Plane release…well, sorta. I embargoed myself from looking at flight sim stuff while I was studying for my King Air recurrent.
Right now I’m purging my X-Plane 11 scenery directory and try to restore some order to my install. As such, I’ve removed all of my add on mesh and am going through the process of reinstalling X-Plane 11 UHD Mesh v4 and X-Plane 11 HD Mesh v4. I’m moving to the XP11 versions of those and think I’m officially closing the door on my XP10 install.
OK…so what I’m seeing is that now SkyMaxx users are being offered the additional utility of FS Global Real Weather (FSGRW) which adds some functionality to the weather engine. So yes, you’d essentially have three different products working together to give you weather. It seems nuts.
BUT…
Then I read up on FSGRW and this part does appeal to me because of the Christmas Flight and many of our group flights that go over vast oceanic areas…
“Weather conceived out of real weatherdata of 24.000+ stations based on land and at sea (=> correct weather over the oceans)”
I’m not sure that I get accurate winds aloft right now with just what I’m using. (At least, not over oceanic areas)…
Hmmm…
But I really need a comparison with Active Sky XP. Does anyone know of someone who has put together a column format of comparisons between the two? And not just what is currently in there…but what Active Sky is planning to do as it moves forward. I love Active Sky for P3D and FSX, and the company has a great reputation. So I wouldn’t be adverse to moving to that product, particularly if it becomes an all in one product.
@BeachAV8R, When I did my leg from San Francisco to Honolulu in the Short Solent I used FSGRW and flew headings based on the Sky Vector flight log. It got me close enough to pick up the NDB at MCAS Kaneohe Bay with only slight course adjustments required. That was a significant improvement over using the realtime winds from XEnviro during an oceanic crossing I flew for the 2017 Christmas trek.
I’m interested in Active Sky, but I am not sure what it would give me that FSGRW isn’t already providing.
FSGRW is a standalone program that can be used for P3D and X-Plane (64 bit version of FSGRW). If you buy the older 32 Bit version, you can use it with FSX as well.
I don’t have that one…wish I could help out. Looks like a nice bird. If memory serves me, the Seneca had counter-rotating engines so it didn’t have a “critical” engine. I might be wrong on that though…so don’t take my word for it…
Speaking about X-Plane releases…while I haven’t got over to the Dark Side just yet (and what was up with that Darth Maul dude…watched Phantom Menace last night…made no sense whatsoever…but I digress)…however I do see XP11 in my future.
That said I’m looking at ORBX’s True Earth for England. I painfully purchased FTX England, Scotland and Wales for FSX…painfully becauseI purchased DVDs and now it is extremely difficult to update. I get it that it is hand corrected photo-imagery…but besides that, any thoughts on how it compares with the FSX sceneries?
My concern is that after many years I finally have a PC that can run enhanced scenery with the slides more towards the right than the left…don’t want to throw out that baby with the FSX bathwater if I can help it.
So… Active Sky. I kinda like it! I just landed the little Aerobask Robin at Ketchikan Alaska where currently it is rather windy with gusts into the 30’s. It was a real handful.
I’ve had plenty of special offers for Active sky over the last couple of years, I thought it was just nicer clouds and atmospheric lighting…evidently it is more.
Here is a rundown of what they have so far in the X-Plane version.
Like you, I initially thought it was going to be a cloud upgrade, but there is a lot more going on than that.
I’ll keep you informed. If I get time, I will jot my thoughts down on my growing collection of weather plugins/packages…
So far I have XEnviro, FSGRW, UltraWeather XP and now Active Sky. UltraWeather XP is for eye candy, but it really is nice. The cool thing is that it works great with both FSGRW and Active Sky, so you get a great combination no matter what system you use to inject the weather.
I’m still hopeful that XEnviro will end up being something special, but I’m not too happy with the current version.
Wow…includes wake turbulence. That is downright cool! Thanks for the link.
I am taking a measured and planned approach to switching to X-Plane—looking at enhanced scenery, specific aircraft and, now, a realistic flight environment / weather.
In other words, I’m not going to go hog wild every 10% Off Tuesday at PC Aviator
Yeah, I think that it’s a weather injection engine only at this point Paul, and that cloud injection will follow. Perhaps Cloud Art for X-Plane? Anyway, I find that being able to plug a plan into AS and have it give a full weather briefing along the route, while injecting that weather into P3D so useful, that I’ll most likely buy it for X-Plane.
Edit #1: It looks like SkyMax Pro is compatible with Active Sky for X-Plane. From their feature list:
" • Active Sky XP (ASXP) when using Real Weather Connector"
I wonder how that works. RWC grabs weather from ASXP rather than a real weather source? IMHO, it would be better if SMP would pull the weather directly from ASXP rather than need a proxy from RWC.
Edit #2: From the ASXP FAQ concerning clouds…
Q: Are cloud texture replacements included?
A: Yes, an optional cloud texture replacement, evolved from the newest ASCA content and designed specifically for X-Plane 11.26/11.30+ is included. Two different variants are available, high performance, which is softer and lower resolution, and high detail, which is higher resolution, with harder edges. ASXP also works great with any other textures and other visual enhancements.
Q: Is a complete cloud visuals depiction replacement included?
A: No, not at this time. HiFi is working on such technology and hopes it will be ready to debut sometime in late 2019.