Damian from HiFi Sim Tech took to the forums to let the community know what has been happening behind closed doors at the company. Since returning from FlightSimExpo 2019, the team have had some time to reflect based on meeting many community members at the event this year. By the sounds of it, they also look to be attending next year in Las Vegas. I’m sure that the announcement will come in time. In the meantime, Damian took the opportunity to talk about the future and what the team are currently working on.
X-Plane Users
The first update was all about X-Plane support. With the success of ASXP, the team are continuing to refine the product and work towards greater visuals. In particular, they are looking to bring their cloud depiction visual replacement technology to X-Plane. The team still need to finalise things to make sure that performance is adequate when complex cloud scenes appear.
Further to just the visuals, the team are continuing to refine and bring other enhancements to Active Sky XP over the next year.
Prepar3D
Damian has confirmed that HiFi Sim Tech is working on a brand new next-generation P3D weather engine. Other than commenting on that they will be focusing on realism and a “more authentic weather experience”, no other details were shared in that regard.
As for Active Sky Cloud Art, the team also confirmed that Volume 2 is well under development with new textures for the sky, clouds and more. In addition to new textures and models, the team are working on enhancing the API and integration with Prepar3D as a platform.
It has also been confirmed that development of the new open graphics integration capability between Active Sky weather engine and a variety of graphics/visual add-ons is near completion. This means developers will be able to integrate their work with Active Sky and utilise dynamic weather and other influential effects.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and Other Projects
Damian also said that HiFi Sim Tech are working on “a couple of other projects” that they are hoping to show off in the next year. No hints as to what they could be at this point.
Finally, he also answered the question about what he thinks about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. He began by saying that they know “nearly nothing” about the product and what third-party support will be given by Microsoft for the product. He confirmed that they are not aware of any release dates, nor whether there will be a comprehensive SDK for the team to develop from to integrate realistic weather. However, Damian did say that they will continue working towards their mission of making products for the users on “all platforms that they demand.” We have heard from a range of other developers who have echoed similar statements. You can read all of them in our original article about how developers reacted to the news.
You can see the original source on the HiFi Sim Tech forums.
