Question about Active Sky

[CAFedm]

Have heard of Active Sky through this and a few other sources, would like to hear your praise or otherwise - your honest opinion - as to whether you would recommend purchasing this product.

[Jared]

I can't really say that it helped the tunder clouds much, but it does tend to give the scky a more realistic viewpoint IMHO.

Would I say it is def. worth it? Probably not, but it is nice to have..

[Fozzer]

...maybe it's just me, but I always preferred the clouds in FS 2002.
Much more realistic I reckoned, even if they were "only" 2D... ;)... ;D...!
...and didn't affect the frame rates...!

The 3D cloud types, density, altitude, variation, etc, have to be very carefully selected in FS 2004 to make them appear natural... ;)...!
I set my clouds up in the flight sim after taking a peek at the sky and the clouds outside of my house, and compare them... 8)...!
To get good frame rates, I generally ignore complex cloud arrangements and select simple Cirrus or Stratus clouds, and set the visibility to 10-20 miles Max.
This gives the fastest frame rates and avoids processing  and showing scenery in the far distance, (which is un-realistic!)... ;)... 8)...!
Remember that the clouds are one of the biggest frame-rate hoggers in the flight sim...!!
Using this type of Weather selection, I get consistant smooth Frame Rates of 30FPS+.... ;D...!

For an excellent, simple, free-bee, add-on, weather program, have a peek here...>>>

http://www.avsim.com/

Search for "Weather Maker. Personal Edition".
...and download it...enjoy...!

Cheers all... ...!

Paul The Weather Man.... ... ...!

[CAFedm]

Thanks for the replies...muchly appreciated.  I will download the file mentioned above to try it out but on first glance, it apears to only be for FS2002 - if so then back to square one!