AS16+ASCA

[b2vulcan]

First flight with AS16 & ASCA providing real weather.

Cherokee, Liverpool to Sleap.

METAR
EGGP 111920Z 26007KT 9999 FEW015 SCT040 16/13 Q1008

[n421nj]

How does it compare to ASN? Not sure if its worth the upgrade?

[Alan_A]

For me (longtime ASN user), worth the upgrade. Weather depiction is much improved - not dramatically but you immediately notice the convection model and the light turbulence in and around clouds. Works nicely with ASCA in global automatic mode, matching cloud and sky textures to METARs. Screenshots don't do it justice, but the weather modeling and cloud modeling make for a very nice experience. Performance seems better on my system, too - am running it at defaults, where I always had to trade back settings (e.g. cloud layers) in ASN. Early days, but I like what I'm seeing.

If you're on the fence, AS16 is available on a 7-day trial basis. ASCA isn't, unfortunately but understandably - there's no way to keep people from copying textures, then refusing to buy. So that's strictly a pay to play.

In all, I'm very happy with the new suite.

[n421nj]

I have soft clouds by rex. How is the cloud art compared ?

[crazac]

I've been expecting this thread. Thank you.

After waiting, for what seems like forever for Rex's weather force (or whatever it's called now), I'm about to commit to AS16. I already know that it is rad, but, look forward to the conversation here.

Given that I have Rex texture 4 I will probably not run cloud art. But, I suppose everything can be up in the air and flow either way

[Alan_A]

@n421nj - Hard to say, because reactions to cloud graphics are so subjective. I live on the US east coast and always found those chiseled, high-res cloud images cartoonish - clouds in my area are pretty diffuse. But people from drier climates can't stand the low-res clouds I like. So there are those considerations. But with that out of the way, I'd have to say, based on limited experience, that the combination of AS16 and ASCA compares pretty favorably. The ASCA clouds tend not to look as good in screenshots. But when you're actually running the programs together, the dynamic texture loading, the new animations for flying into or near clouds, other graphic features like the haze layer, and the improved convection model, all taken together, make for a nice experience. Nicer? To me, yes, but of course your mileage may vary.

Keep in mind, though, that you can use AS16 with REX Soft Clouds. AS 16 will run with any cloud and sky textures. The only thing you lose is the dynamic texture loading based on METARs, but if you're OK picking a texture set - or using the REX4 feature to load textures based on a METAR - you're good to go. The textures won't change as you fly, they'll stay in place for the remainder of the flight, same as they would if you used ASN and Soft Clouds.

Over on Avsim, there are plenty of screenshots of AS16 with Soft Clouds, and they look pretty good.

If you're looking for examples of AS16 with ASCA, try to find videos, not screenshots. You'll get a much better feel for it.

Hope this helps.

@crazac - sorry, we cross-posted. Same message - you can easily run AS16 with REX4 and/or Soft Clouds, and results seem to be pretty good. Yes, there's the new REX weather generator due out soon, and you can run that with ASCA. Lots of ways to mix and match. It's a shame there are no trials available for the textures but the reasons why make sense. For now, run the trial of AS16 and see how it does for you with Soft Clouds. The one thing that does seem clear to me is that AS16 is a pretty big step forward from ASN - which was already really good, so that's saying a lot. See what you think of it.

[AKar]

Not much testing yet, but ASN 2016 seems a worthy update. I don't know yet if my main issues with ASN have been improved, but will get in to that.

I also replaced the Rex Soft Clouds and sky themes with ASCA's automatic function that integrates with ASN 2016. It seems fairly impressive on P3D, and dare to say I will surely rate it Recommended! The clouds are very good indeed, even if the overcasts are still overly taxing on the system - but not noticeably more than with any clouds.

-Esa

[Alan_A]

I haven't yet tried an overcast - I'll be interested to see what happens to performance on my system. Am ready to cut back settings, in particular to reduce cloud layers to 3. That's what I did in ASN and it always ran better for me that way (and looked fine). Staying at default for now, but we'll see...

[crazac]

Thanks Alan! My plan, hopefully this coming weekend, is to run the AS16 with my Rex4+SC. I've never had a weather engine so I'm sure it will be great in comparison. I'll definitely run over to avsim for a look.

As far as packages are concerned, I'm on a tight space budget and have to manage my data space and performance. So, I'm hesitant to commit to large art packages that I don't already have. Unless, if it's worth uninstalling competitive product...

[b2vulcan]

@n421nj,

I have only done a few static checks at Manchester (EGCC) between AS16 and ASN Andrew to see if there was a noticeable impact on performance and didn't see any.

This short flight was done because there was quite a lot of low cloud and I wanted to see how it affected performance and the look of the clouds.

The clouds look better than the REX textures I was using (I think REX 3, certainly not their soft clouds) but that will be down to ASCA not AS16 as such.

As others have said here Andrew, try the 7 day trail of AS16.

I have used hifi's weather programs since day one so I may be biased but I think it is the best weather engine out there and it is constantly being improved.

[R-2800-59]

Goddamit. I just bought ASN a few weeks ago...

There is a discount on the update for ASN customers, but nevertheless... Why didn't I see this coming!?

Seems that another thing rips holes in my already perforated purse

[Alfredson007]

I'm still going with the default weather engine myself :\ i am mostly flying in a good VFR weather, if i fly IFR, i usually fly it in the soup focusing on gauges, not interested in graphics.. in VFR, also not interested in graphics (much), but framerates, wind behaviour, turbulence, possible up/downdrafts etc i am interested in. Of course the better graphics WITHOUT noticeable fps impact is always a welcomed bonus. Should i go for AS16 or even with both?

[AKar]

Well, I indeed would say you would want to go for AS16+ASCA if you're looking for a weather engine for realistic real-time conditions in FSX or P3D. The improvements over ASN + REX Textures Essential + Soft clouds I used earlier, with AS16+ASCA and using Global Automatic theme that syncs them, are quite noticeable (albeit some of that is likely because of P3Dv2.5 → P3Dv3.3 rendering differences). I like it.





I haven't really tested the winds in flight just yet, nor my major issues with ASN (quite poor representation of frontal weather systems, and very bad updraft/downdraft simulation). Still, I'd recommend the combo.

Edit: One more!



-Esa

[Mike62]

For those people that have REX and would like to mix and match ASCA with REX, it is possible which is what I will probably do when I decide to purchase.

http://www.avsim.com/topic/491573-looks ... -together/

Mike

[n421nj]

Man im torn here. I like the setup i have now with ASN + rex4 Soft clouds but im always looking for a better weather engine and cloud graphics that will get me a few more fps and more realistic flights. Im also worried that ill mess something up trying to remove ASN and Rex4 and installing AS2016 with cloud art. However the temptation of a more realistic flight experience may be too hard to pass up. Any word yet on performance and the overcast layers?