Join Tim and Lee in exploring the freeware Dornier 328 for X-Plane 11. Stick around after the technical points for their usual banter and Dornier flight stories. Freeware Download Link
X-Plane Reviews
Join Tim and Lee in exploring the freeware Dornier 328 for X-Plane 11. Stick around after the technical points for their usual banter and Dornier flight stories. Freeware Download Link
There is no question about the impact of ActiveSky for P3D and how it really brings the weather to life. HiFi Simulations has been working on bringing their renowned weather engine to X-Plane for about three years. In December of 2018 Active Sky for X-Plane (known as ASXP) was born. The add-on is a welcome addition to the default simulator weather and injects a more realistic and exciting feel to flying around the globe. I’ve had ASXP for a while now and I would say I have just about mastered the complexity of the system. If you were sat on the fence as to whether you should take the plunge, then I’ll hopefully help you make that decision.
Initial installation was quick and easy, the system installs all the necessary files into your X-Plane root folder, including ASConnect – the plugin that allows the system to communicate with your sim. Once all that is done, all you need to do is login to ASXP with your email and password. You set this up on activation, where you’re also prompted with the question ‘would you like to install the ActiveSky weather textures?’ This alone is worth the cash – the upgraded textures for clouds in X-Plane really make an immediate difference. Not only do they look great, they are easy on your frame rate too. I normally get about 40 FPS in the air using the FlightFactor A320 rendering overcast skies with ASXP. This isn’t too dissimilar to using the default X-Plane clouds and weather system. By no means are these volumetric clouds, they are just texture replacements, so you still get the rotating cloud effect, but this does make a big difference to the clouds and realism overall.