HiFi have just announced that Service Pack 1 of their fantastic Active Sky 16 and Active Sky Cloud Art will be available soon. Currently in closed beta, the team expects it to make it available for open beta testing very soon. Not content with just fixing bugs, the team have added even more features to make the purchase even more compelling.
The biggest change for Active Sky 16 will be visibility and effect improvements.
Hifi have listened to user’s feedback and have taken the time to improve the P3D visibility depiction – improving the haze at the horizon, better restricted visibility and fixed the issues of visibility shifts when at 10,000ft. In addition, the cloud motion effect has been worked tirelessly on to make more realistic than before.
Of course, there have been other changes too, including user options, improved turbulence effects and loads of bug fixes. Developers can also rejoice as there’s a new API which will integrate with Active Sky technology.
We mustn’t forget about Active Sky Cloud Art!
Hifi have, yet again, taken on board feedback and have created 6 new soft-style cloud textures, 7 new natural sky colours, with improved vibrance and brightness, as well as improving and reworking the original texture sets. There’s also a new UI-based weather influenced configuration tool and new Art Tools API, allowing users to make your own content which will be fully dynamic. At this time, Sky Color textures are supported, but HiFi say more categories are to be added soon.
This is a huge update to an already excellent product. As soon as this is out, we’ll let you know.
