HiFi Technologies - Active Sky FS

Active Sky FS (ASFS) brings direct MSFS 2020 and MSFS2024 integration. Brand new features and functionality are made specifically for MSFS and designed to improve your weather simulation experience.

Focused on comprehensive weather realism simulation, ASFS includes high-fidelity weather data and synthesis, planning, briefing, mapping, live weather, optional historical weather with playback, custom weather, scenarios, API, multiple depiction options, active air effects, snow depth data control, voice features, Navigraph and SimBrief integration, and much, much more.

FEATURES

• Direct MSFS Integration
  Using a combination of techniques for weather lookup and control, ASFS integrates directly with MSFS 2020 and MSFS2024.
• ASFS Preset weather and Passive weather depiction modes
  Using Preset weather depiction from ASFS or Passive weather depiction (from MSFS live weather), a variety of weather visuals and depiction methods, offering various levels of realism, control and visual quality are available depending on your needs. Transition control and configurable smoothing is also provided in ASFS Preset mode.
• Active Air Effects
  Customizable clear air turbulence, thermals, drafts and wake turbulence effects work in tandem with existing MSFS effects to provide and enhance realism. Air effects are provided in any depiction mode.
• Cloud Turbulence
  Cloud turbulence is now fully implemented and works in both preset and passive modes.
• Advanced Historical Weather
  In addition to including Live and Custom weather modes, we also offer Historical mode with comprehensive global weather data in hourly archives. Dynamic historical playback provides realistic changing weather as per the archived historical timeline. Optionally lock the historical time to your configured simulator time for easy date/time synchronization and control through MSFS.
• Enhanced Cloudscape and Thunderstorm Depiction
  Using ASFS Preset weather depiction, sky conditions control enables cloud types including multiple stratus, cumulus, towering cumulus, cumulonimbus, stratocumulus and cirrus variations. Thunderstorm scene handling also works to increase the visual realism, height and overall visual cloudscape of multiple cumulonimbus variations.
• Active Sky Weather Engine
  24 years of active development of weather simulation for MSFS and other platforms culminates in a mature and refined weather engine system that natively includes advanced weather data analysis, lookup, mapping, planning, briefing and more.
• Advanced Data Collection, Synthesis, Modeling and Interpretation
  Active Sky constantly downloads and analyzes conditions, providing world-wide high-fidelity weather conditions and effects, utilizing surface airport conditions (METARs), Forecasts (TAFs), Upper air data (GRIB), Significant Weather information (Sigmets/Airmets), Tropical storm data and more. Weather data is offered in live real-time or historical modes, with a dynamic historical weather playback feature.
• Ground Snow Simulation
  Using actual global ground snow depth data, ground snow cover is controlled and smoothed at all times in AS Preset depiction mode.
• Comprehensive Custom Weather
  Easily create multiple custom weather areas using the map screen, customizing by METAR text or through our weather setting wizard. Custom weather is supplemented by the previously loaded weather, enabling precise, variable and realistic saved weather scenarios that can be recalled at any time.
• Scenarios
  Fly different weather-based scenarios, or create your own.
• Voice Features
  Get Voice weather briefings and in-flight weather updates on your radio via our simulated ATIS/ASOS and Flight Watch service.
• 3rd-Party Integration Features
  Navigraph data integration, SimBrief flight plan integration, PMDG wind data export and our universal common data export features provides integration with multiple popular 3rd-party add-ons.
• Active Sky API
  Advanced API features are available to everyone to integrate directly with AS features including weather lookup, effects, mode control and weather conditions control.

ASFS WEATHER & CLOUD DEPICTION SPECIFICATIONS

ASFS Preset Weather Depiction Mode
ASFS Preset weather depiction mode features advanced weather preset conditions control for the best accuracy within the preset depiction capabilities, and full use of the Active Sky weather data and synthesis system including historical and custom weather options. This is recommend for those desiring the highest levels of conditions realism and challenge, especially for IFR ceilings and visibility, as well as long distance route planning, wind and fuel calculations:

• Available with LIVE weather, HISTORICAL weather, and custom weather
• Wind, gusts and variability control (surface and aloft, up to 60,000ft)
• Cloud layer control
• Precipitation control
• Ground snow cover control
• Temperature and humidity control
• Barometric pressure control with advanced temperature-adjusted pressure effects (appropriate corrections required for safe and/or expected IFR terminal procedures in colder or hotter temperatures)
• Visibility simulation through advanced humidity control, fog layer generation and intelligent visibility graduation and smoothing
• Smooth cloud and conditions transitions with configurable smoothing rate
• Cloud scene scattering and variation control for variety within the preset depiction area
• Sky conditions control for multiple cloud type variations
• Thunderstorm scene handling for improved visual height and realism
• Weather-cell-based presentation with surface data prioritization based on flight plan
• Transitions handling (updates conditions smartly depending on flight plan and flight stage)

Passive Depiction Mode
Passive mode is used with live weather and allows MSFS’s internal live weather depiction to take full control of weather depiction in the simulator, while Active Sky FS provides Active Air Effects and all other non-depiction features (mapping, planning, voice features, conditions report, web companion app, etc.) This can provide better regional variation and cloud variations outside of Preset control, recommended for LIVE WEATHER VFR and casual flights where visuals and effects are more important than weather conditions accuracy.

Active Air Effects
Provided in either depiction mode, Active Air Effects enhance your flight with turbulence, drafts and more:

• Clear air turbulence
• Internal MSFS turbulence compatibility (for combined ASFS-applied and internal MSFS-applied turbulence effects)
• Updrafts
• Downdrafts
• Microbursts
• Thunderstorm vicinity turbulence and draft effects
• Gusts, wind variation and gust-related turbulence
• New: Cloud turbulence with in-cloud detection

• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 or 2024 (PC only, X-Box not supported)
• Windows 10 / 11 (64 bit)
• 4 GB RAM or greater
• 2 GHz x64 processor or greater
• 1 GB+ free storage space
• Minimum processor and memory requirements per MSFS 2020 product information is recommended
• 1024×768 minimum screen resolution
• Stable internet connection (broadband recommended)
• Online activation and login system requires online connection – this product cannot be used offline**

**Active Sky FS is an online product that will require the creation of a new user account. You must be logged in to use the software. One login per user account is permitted. You can install the software on multiple machines and/or move the software to other machines, but may be logged in only once at a time.

Update 042225 (SU2 Official) B9243 (1.0.9243.18411)

• Updated for MSFS2024 SU2 (1.4.13.0 or later) which uses some new integration methods for FS2024 (this is now only compatible with SU2 or later when using FS2024)
• Adjusted French language units handling to correct an issue in some units modes (hybrid, for example) with MSFS2024 SU2 wind layer speeds, where they are shown as knots but handled as m/s – was causing about double the realized winds in-sim – Now, the wind speed will correctly be depicted in sim, but will show as half the actual speed when viewed in the internal weather UI
• Fixed units issue in some cases that would cause too much precipitation and lower visibility than intended (both FS2020 and FS2024)
• Adjusted precipitation for much lower rates overall (matching more realistic values according to typical categorization of light, moderate, heavy) – Increases visibility during lower precip levels, but rain may be hard to see in external camera modes

Update 011325 (SU2 Beta) B9144 (1.0.9144.20724)

• Added new MSFS toolbar functionality with ASFS icon, and ASFS now operates like all other toolbar add-ons (and must be enabled in the toolbar configuration menu)
• Added ASFS toolbar icon click-to-open ASFS application functionality (works in both MSFS2020/2024)
• Added new option: Snow ground cover threshold temperature, sets the temp at which ground snow is canceled (when at or above this temp), when ground snow is enabled (using NOAA downloads)
• Added new “Activate” button in Weather Configuration screen for historical time, replacing earlier automatic activation process after 5 seconds
• Added new feature/option: Enable direct wind control (Simulator depiction options) – Enables control of MSFS aloft wind layers to match ASFS-computed ambient winds, in attempts for better direct control and elimination of MSFS-related wind shifts – default ON
• Added new feature/option: Cloud density adjustment slider (Simulator depiction options) – Allows adjustment of depicted cloud density, increase for higher detail and puff (at the expense of graininess and patterning), reduce for lower detail and softness – default 50
• Added new feature/option: Wind speed limiter (Simulator depiction options) – Limits maximum winds set by ASFS to prevent potential wind depiction issues found in recent MSFS builds – use with caution – default 148
• Adjusted handling of aloft wind data by limiting max speeds in source data to match Wind speed limiter option, for accurate flight planning given any limiting applied
• Changed conditions screen Sky Conditions text from “showers” to “rain” when precip is light (to avoid confusion with technical definition of rain showers from convective clouds)
• Decreased general cloud transition smoothing rate when building by approximately 20%
• Increased wind transition speed approximately 15%
• Reduced density of stratus and cumulus layers, especially when overcast, up to approximately 20%, to reduce graininess and/or row patterns in some cases, based on recent MSFS2020/2024 cloud depiction changes observed
• Fixed potential upside-down appearing cloud layer depiction with MSFS2024 when coverage = 0 (clear)
• Changed script connection warning icon to show after 2 minutes of flight running status instead of 1 (to account for long loading times in some cases)
• Documentation updated, including improved MSFS configuration notes including toolbar enabling/disabling and ASFS button usage
• Turbulence Improvements:
  • Adjusted effect of “turbulence rotation effect preference” (wind options) to allow more translational turb optionally when using left-most slider options, and about 15% additional translational vs. rotational effects by default (at 50%)
  • Fixed unexpected reduction of turbulence (by one level) when flying over water
  • Added draft-based additive turbulence
  • Adjusted random light chop turbulence percentage effect at max and min settings for more expected results (should be similar at default 25%)
  • Added new wind option: Reduce turbulence near surface, which gradually reduces turbulence below 3000ft AGL, default off

Update 121524 (SU1) B9115 (1.0.9115.31736)

• New wind smoothing processes in weather control script for smoother vectorized wind conditions changes targeting approximately 2 kt/deg/sec (depiction smoothing rate setting has a limited effect)

Update 121424 (SU1) B9114 (1.0.9114.40964)

• Disabled all multiple IP network functionality for weather control script which is suspected to be causing issues for some users with multiple IP addresses/VPNs (NOTE: This does not change any functionality, the local IPv4 address 127.0.0.1 is always used)
• Various other attempted fixes for some users having weather control script communication issues
• Defaulted force of 127.0.0.1 local IP address for ASFS comms
• Fixed issue with snow not depicting in some cases
• Added additional PMDG export auto detection paths
• Fixed issue with Store 2024 community path handling that could result in invalid script installation in this configuration (and inability to depict weather)