People need to reframe how they are talking about active sky. I don’t think active sky is bad, I just think people take for granted how good MSFS actually is. In past sims active sky made a huge difference because the base sim sky boxes were donkey lol! It’s an option for people and options are always good.

I've only run two flights with it so far, but I can say I was really impressed by the historical weather function. I work at a small FBO in the US and when I came into work there was no one flying on a nice few cloud day (the winds were 18, variable, and gusting!). I loaded up the airport in sim when I got home, set it for 11 which was right after I had gotten to work that day, and was pleasantly surprised to see the winds were high, the sky looked almost exactly as it did at that time, and the variability was there. As for the live weather function, it does look much better than default, the turbulence is more realistic as well, and while it doesn't do a whole lot, it does look and feel better. If you're pinching pennies then it's not worth it, but it is an enhancement to the experience.

Totally worth it IMO. Love the effects as well!

I like MSFS live weather with RealTurb installed, it works much better imo.

Used this product since fsx days, the biggest issue l have is weather popping in and out. I fly mostly longer sectors and this becomes noticeable especially if the stations are far apart. Otherwise I’m happy with my purchase. Great video thank you.

30 Euros for slightly different cloud composition is not worth it in my opinion. Both live weather and Active Sky can be a hit or miss, it really depends on the situation. The added functionality is cool, however I don't think many simmers would use historical weather that much, and custom weather can also be set up in the default simulator. This is just one of those "enhancement" mods that are mostly good for using even more system resources and messing up the sim or its updates, for diminishing returns.

Thanks for the review.. and yes.. the ERJ was broken! ...

Ok, so I picked this up, I thought I would try it just to see. I have to say, I like it. I will admit the differences are subtle, but it is noticeable. I think it adds just that bit of extra realism to the sky boxes. I thought I would post this for those on the fence. I like it, but you can also do without if you don’t want to drop the extra dime on it.

Hi Emanuel, I too am not so interested in the look, but how a real pilot says it visually feels. So I look forward to your challenging tests. You didn't show "Passive vs AS Preset control" as I find the latter (that you used i assume)) very benign. I am finding landings with wind much harder with "Passive" which uses MSFS graphics with AS wind effects (and Newsky scores reflecting this!). Doing the same with "Preset" feels almost smoothed in same condition. These are the effects you say MSFS have dumbed down natively. For me the "Search" function is also most useful to find airports with particular (challenging) conditions. It is excellent. Look forward to your next videos as will be more useful indicator for my flying experience. Hoping will be a series of 5-6 circuits somewhere good, like you did in previous video, testing "Passive/Preset/MSFS native". Thx Alistair

The first flight I took from Atlanta to Midway I could tell a significant difference in the wind modeling. Better than Rex and 10x better than the standard sim winds. I also flew in the storms in Texas a couple days ago. Wicked clouds and wind.

My main reason for purchasing is the ability to get and load historic weather. I fly past airline routes.

you a real one!

Hi Emi, Good comparison in the video. I'm still on the fence with making a purchase

I spawned the 172, at DFW last weekend, into clouds and rain. I figured I would pop out above the clouds and continue my test. I wasn't able to get 10' AGL without being slammed down to the ground. I spawned one of the twins with similar results. So I spawned the F-22 and was at FL600 before I got to the tops of some of the clouds. I don't really remember anything unusual about the vertical climb in the F-22, other than the cloud tops, but there is no way I could have flown a light plane. It was just stock MSFS real weather but the radar showed a big system rolling through with a lot of energy. I like the idea of a more accurate "real world" weather, as I am a purest I suppose and only fly in real weather. Very interesting video and a lot of food for thought!

I love activesky it reminds me of P3D days.. I love how the wind is now it feels smoother all the way resulting in better landings in my case!

I bought it I like it, live weather only.

@A330Driver could you do a comparison between ActiveSky and MSFS+RealTurb? I'm more interested in the effects of the wind around the terrain, windshear, up and downdrafts, and cloud effects. I was about to purchase RealTurb when they launched the new version, and then AS was announced. Up till now haven't seen anyone do a comparison between these two options I mentioned. Thanks, and safe flights!

Very complete report from the ground to cruise with real cam comparison. I think people can make their own decision based on your video. It seems you had no impact on the Frame Rate. May be test it in a very busy online big custom airport.... waiting for your new video ;)

Did any of the Aircraft Developers (Fenix, PMDG, FlyByWire) already talk about the API and if it is good for a proper weather radar? As that would be the only reason for me to buy that Addon😅😂

I don't care if the clouds don't look any/much better. What I care about is do we get realistic turbulence, up/down drafts, etc. That is where MSFS fails miserably IMO. Flying though TCUs in a Cessna and being as smooth as silk, no turbulence at all of up/down drafts at all, is just awful. So, how does AS work with bad weather conditions?

I love Active Sky.. and it will become much better in FS. So much I can do with it. Passive if I want to us MSFS. I feel certain that it's only a matter of time befor weather radar uses AS. I'm very happy anyway. That's what it's about for me. Barty

Hi Emi, thanks for this review. Is there a way to make those terrible weather transitions in AS more realistic? this sudden change in the weather is an inmersion killer for me definetly...

Ive watched few videos on AS from different YT and just don’t see it’s worth the cost. Also will it get made redundant by 2024 ? I give it sometime see what they add and how others use it. Thx for the video. Living in the UK you get used to random weather every 30mins 😅. No one knows what’s happening even looking out window so how AS can represent it any better accurately than msfs who knows. Thought I saw 737 🤔

It was worth the purchase for me. It gives more realistic and accurate clouds, better turbulence, better TS, and more accurate winds. Also, I'm not sure if this is just a placebo, but I swear when I use active sky preset mode, I get better FPS. Given what some community members have been saying, I was surprised by how much I liked it. It's up to others what they might think. Moreover, in the forums, it seems like the developer is working hard to push updates constantly, so it is continually improving. I respect that you didn't go with the crowd on this one.

❤❤❤

The fast transition to OCST kills the immersion

Honestly I like active sky feel it’s more realistic than the default. There are its occasional times it’s a lil off but not as much as the default is.

Nicely done Emmanuel - a fair review as usual. One suggestion, as an AS beta tester - switching back and forth between AS and MS weather in the sim can throw AS completely off cycle. I didn't see anything unusual in your video but it CAN cause problems. Makes it difficult for you to do comparisons but it is something to be aware of. The proper way to switch is in AS, switch from Preset to Passive or you risk borking the whole AS process.

Not enough of a difference for me. I think that I'm going to hold off any decision until I see what 2024 offers.

Do you think AS makes any difference in terms of turbulence for light aircrafts? The default weather feels reasonable only if not flying with real weather, and as soon as real weather is on it feels overly violent.

Does the Fenix weather radar actually work? I have never seen anything showing on the screen from it. Btw, weather goes well beyond what the eyes can see so well depicted clouds are not an indicator or realistic conditions.

Theres a new beta update to try now, has some more fixes etc, beta came out last night.

It seems like the Motion blur or something like that is messing up the video on the view change… You might consider turning it off. And the easiest way to switch between AS and MSFS native weather for me is just to switch to passive depiction within AS itself.

I always wonder about the control check without the indicators...is it really sufficient to just move them throughout the rom and rely on feel alone ? not seeing them move ?

Hi there! Just one question. How do you set start trim automatically? Any key assigned for that? Thanks in advance

I have Active sky and imo, it takes time like when typing a certain ICAO code of an airport in the airport side of the active sky app, it just states calculating at runway in use and when landing in a misty fog/hazy weather, msfs weather engine shows the fog but active sky takes time😅

The weather transitions is EXACTLY why I will not switch... Does ActiveSky give more "accurate" weather? Maybe. But I've seen other videos where MSFS was slightly more "realistic." In the end, realism is how weather feels in the sim. Weather transitions that haven't changed since P3D 4.5, is a realism killer in my opinion. We still get turbulence in MSFS default weather... It's not perfect, but it's still there. I've been wanting historical weather for ever, but not at the cost of weather transitions like we've seen.

Does this product really fix the winds in the sim? I know a couple of the streamers I watch say that MS winds while landing are not accurate. For example when flying the airbus and landing with a 5 knot crosswind shouldn't really move the plane but with MS winds it moves the plane way too much. If active sky corrects this I think it would be worth the purchase. I also wonder is it worth the purchase when 2024 is releasing this year. If 2024 if going to correct the winds then maybe this product isn't worth the purchase. I'm not really too sure.

If Active Sky can really simulate turbulences that emanate from a tiny wood in the approach path according to your altitude, it's a spectacular enhancement to the sim.

Would you recommend this over Realturb Cat V2?

if this gonna have some api for the plane devs to make proper weather radar i might buy it but at this point its pretty okey to keep standart weather. Its free, it isnt going to get fucked with updates and i assume is less resource intesive anyway.

I think the real added value is in the historical weather and the different scenarios. Just replacing the sim's weather for live flights doesn't make much sense, in my opinion.

the hidden toga button strikes again ;P

I used ASN in FSX and was top coz you could integrate in your pmdg products (waether radar). In p3dv5 it was too too. When I switched over, I have had connection issue. It couldn't connect to msfs 2020. So MS FS will NOT work on MSFS 2024! So does it really make sense to purchase 1 product you can't use it later? I went back to Rex Weather Force and be fine. As far AS FS can't be used as weather radar I wont buy

i cant get it to inject weather...

Can you disable surface winds as in previous sim versions?

The cloud cover at your destination looked a lot like X-Plane to me.

Did you use FS Traffic for this?

Honestly I did not think AS will be miles better than default MSFS weather. Yet at this early point of several flights I’m being a bit disappointed. The visual presentation is far from the MSFS level. Did not experience any significant turbulence to comment on this. Anyhow I’ve paid for it. Hopefully they will improve. And then I’ll be in MSFS 2024 LoL…

The massive rish on that product and the discussions already do something potentially positive: there us hope Asobo realizes they have for too long not focused on weather (which is a bit crazy in a flightsim platform). dramatic kitch clouds alone with no believeable turbulence and no access to the data to allow for weather radar implementations is simply not state of the art in a flightsimulator. Hifi could fix this - and Asobo should maybe work more closely with them instead of staying autistic.

Judging by what I saw in your video, this addon is practically no different from the default weather. where is the wind, where is the turbulence, where is the thunderstorm? It seems to me that "Active sky", "Xenvira", "Rex" are simply useless for this Sim. The only time they can come in handy is if the default weather breaks down. in mfs2020 the developers were too clever with the weather.😢

Active sky won’t inject weather

weather force is also like this but its crap lol. also transitions from areas is well not nice i like msfs weather way more.

nobody's says it's bad .... mfs2020 does already a good job with live weather why pay for it?"

Hello, I usually love your videos, but I must disagree on this one :) How can you say it's more accurate? Weather injection in MSFS is global, which means that AS can only average the closest METAR and perhaps some surrounding ones into a single weather setting, and when you fly, change it under the covers (the "smooth weather transitions"). So you don't see incoming weather, as opposite to MSFS which is positional. This is pretty evident in your video at 21:00 when you compare local overcast conditions, which AS can only render as far as the eye can see, whereas MSFS localises it over the area you are flying. Still on that, if you look at the Lelystad webcam in the bottom right corner of your screen 22:55 (which is simply angled elsewhere), the sky is all but overcast. But no trace in the AS depiction - again, not because the tool is bugged, but simply because they cannot do it in MSFS. There might be some value in the more realistic turbulence effects, but in my experience what you get from RealTurb Cat Area is also really good, and for a fraction of the cost.

ASV cloud looks bad and cartoonish and 2D, no matter how you spin it. It needs significant updates!

active sky is not bad but the default weather is way better just saying.. wont be buying this

They already admitted it was create a project or go broke. A no from me.

The perfect waste of money thing