I’m interested in hearing your thoughts. Currently I run default Live Weather with ASFS on Passive Mode.
If your settings are different, please explain your reasoning behind them. I’m still a heavy MSFS noob as I primarily fly on X-Plane 12 - PMDG’s releasing the 737-800 has reignited my interest in FS2024 and I’m picking up where I left off.
If you’re looking for realistic and eye-pleasing skies, then ActiveSky is the better of the two. If you want accurate, diverse weather with seamless transitions, then MSFS’ live weather does that better. I actually have to say that I’ve seen more clouds do the ‘pop in’ in transition in FS2024 than in MSFS2020, so take that ‘seamless’ with a grain of salt.
The ingame Live Weather has a bug where all the clouds are super-transparent. If you use a preset then they are normal-density again, which ASFS does really nicely.
I always fly with ActiveSky, because I could care less how accurate the weather is when it looks like a volcano erupted all over the skyscape. Active Sky allows you numerous options to really customize the skyscape and not just draw the same popcorn clouds when the METAR reads FEW 2500. It also controls the winds much more efficiently, with the not-so-small downside of not currently producing gusts. Plus, it allows you to use tons of historical weather while FS2024 only offers the previous 24hours of historical data.
The main downside of ASFS is that it uses weather presets to portray the live weather. So you won’t see a variation of weather over a vast region like you would with MSFS’ live weather. These presets get updated at an interval of your choosing and the weather scene slowly changes to match the latest information, which can sometimes lead to interesting transitions – especially on approach.
That being said, ASFS is severely limited in its capabilities due to the lack of a Weather API. So if you’re used to ASXP or something similar, I can tell you now it won’t be the same. ASFS is, in my opinion, the best (temporary) weather solution for MSFS, but it’s not a great one. The weather situation in MSFS really needs some love, which I hope it gets in 2026.
For $30, I’d say just pick it up and see for yourself. Low-risk, high reward.
Happy holidays and happy flying!
I enjoy Active Sky. I currently use it in MSFS 2024 and X-Plane 12 and have used it in past sims also.
Thanks for your thoughts. I forgot to caveat that I own both ASXP and ASFS. I run ASXP in Passive Mode and let X-Plane take the reigns on weather depiction. It’s great stuff on that side.
@davegranstrom16 what ASFS settings do you run particularly? From what you mentioned it sounds like a highly customized active mode.
I use Live Weather with Active Sky Preset Control. I’ve tried Passive but don’t love the looks of the MSFS skyscapes.
Download interval: 30
Force DataNet downloads: OFF
Prevent downloads on approach/departure: user discretion, I have it OFF
Clone dep/dest weather: OFF
Auto-load sim flight plan: ON
Auto-load SimBrief plans: user discretion, I have this ON
Depict Hurricanes: ON
Depiction Smoothing rate: 2
Periodic Theme Reload Interval: 15
Enable Temperature-based Altimeter Errors: ON
Enbale Surface Wind Attenuation cancelation: ON
Snow Ground Cover Threshold: 2.5
Enable Direct Wind Control: ON
Cloud Density Adjustment: 75
Wind Speed Limiter: 148
Maximum Cloud Turbulence: 100 (I have in-sim turbulence on Medium for all airliner flying)
Prevent thunderstorms when CB reported: ON
Force BKN to 7/8ths: OFF
Add Clouds for CAVOK/NSC/NCD/Unspecified: ON
Maximum Surface Wind: 100
Maximum Wind Turbulence: 100
Turbulence Effect scale: 50
Turbulence Rotational Effect Preference: I use 50, but this will be different for everyone
Maximum Windshear: 50
Force ATC windlock: OFF (if using BATC or SayIntentions, it may be better to turn on)
Disable Winds Aloft: OFF
Interlayer Wind Interpolation: ON
Wake Turbulence Strength: 70 (I use MSFS2020 only, but iirc FS2024 has custom wake turbulence by default – may be best to leave this around 20-30)
Maximum downdraft rate: 1000
Maximum updraft/thermal rate: 1000
Realistic thunderstorm up and downdraft rate: ON
Random light chop turbulence percentage: 25
Reduce turbulence near surface: user discretion, I have this OFF
Fog layer generation: ON
Minimum surface visibility: 0
Maximum surface visibility: 75 (but it really depends on the region you are flying in; obviously Dubai or New Delhi will have lower visibility than Maine or Idaho)
Force low humidity in high-visibility conditions: ON (because MSFS has a very interesting rendition of humidity; turns everything orange and the instruments become hard to see)
Everything is off; I use BeyondATC for the vocals
Same as above
For me the major downsides are lack of weather radar when using the fenix- maybe I’m missig something, but I beleive I read something that stated this? When I switch it on I lose what limited WXR I had with default msfs. Not sure how many other planes this affects? When I start up the scene looks great with AS-more accurate to my local weather than MSFS. As the flight goes on things start to fall apart- especially when I get to cruising altitude… I usually end up seeing a bunch of repeating patterns and clouds in a line which is super annoying. This problem seems to be worse at night. Yes, you also need to dial in the transition timeframe to avoid significant changes in weather. I currently use it in passive mode- MSFS does all the rendering. Winds and turbulence seem to be more realistic. I’ve been using AS since the P3D days and this is def a limited version in comparison.
I bought AS, tried it for a while, and realized it wasn’t what I was hoping it would be (better atmospherics injected into Live Weather.) It’s OK with presets, but that’s not what I want.
I’ll use the sim’s Live Weather (with all its limitations) for now.
Thanks for the replies all. I have a follow-on topic I will create for another duet of weather apps and gauge an idea of who uses what. O7
Have you tried passive mode?
I tried it but must have been doing something wrong, because I kept getting weather that switched back and forth between clear skies and clouds. Maybe I’ll revisit Passive Mode once I (hopefully) get other major issues with sim performance ironed out.
The transparent cloud issue in MSFS makes low ceiling IFR approaches completely pointless. I use Sim Bit World for flights and was recently flying “for” Scandinavian Airlines in large part because I was looking forward to some good deep winter IMC. The METARs will say LIFR with 200’ OVC ceilings but good vis beneath… a super typical scenario. I should see nothing of the ground except maybe some “brighter” clouds at night when im above this cloud deck. I shouldn’t see the runway lights break out until minimums. Sadly, I see the ground, including the runway lights, throughout the entire approach. The cloud deck has gaps and is completely transparent. It might as well be a full VFR. I desperately hope Microsoft addresses this becaise LIFR approaches are my favorite.
I bought Active Sky in the hopes that their cloud density setting would help with this. To some extent, it does, but nighttime still has IMC issues. Thinking it was better than nothing, I left it on active mode. Twice now, however, when at cruise, the temperature profile suddenly injected surface-like temps at cruise altitude, which is a death sentence to continued flight; the plane can’t generate enough thrust to maintain airspeed. Both times, i happened to catch it and switched to passive mode, which fixed it (although the pax probably didn’t enjoy the abrupt transition lol).
So now, I am back to default MSFS weather with Active Sky on passive mode. At least i get some turbulence. But I would LOVE to see good, true IMC depicted in MSFS wx.
I’ve never seen that before, which version of ASFS are you using? I use 9435.
Yep, same. It’s only been twice, and both times over oceans. Other than what I described above, I generally like MSFS weather, so using AS on passive mode is not a big lose to me.
This is also a bug with REX Atmos Core if you’re using that.
If you could provide any details (via a support ticket) we could look into this. It may be a source data issue. If we can replicate/confirm the source of the problem we can perhaps handle cases like this to prevent unrealistic temps regardless of data issues. Thanks.
I wouldn’t be so certain that the bug described about the temperature spikes is Active Sky related. I’ve had this issue ever since the SU4 Beta, and still now on the SU4 release version. I saw someone else describe it in a forum post as ‘TAT Inversion’, it happens when using default MSFS Live weather with no weather add-ons installed. I’d say it happens on about 30% of flights I do, if not more. It would be interesting to see if this is a global issue or somehow related to weather data sources in certain regions.
