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Press Releases |
Did You Know? |
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October 20, 2006 ActiveSky Version 6.5 has been released and includes full FSX support! All ASv6 users can upgrade free of charge from http://sales.hifisim.com/ASv6/downloads.htm. ASv6.5 also includes FSX native flight-plan file import support, official FSUIPC v4 support, and several changes to ensure the best possible experience using AS with FSX. Of course FS2004 is still fully supported as well! Users having both simulator versions installed can easily run either one at any time with full ASv6.5 weather generation. ASG and AR, 2 bundled components that are included with ASv6 and v6.5, are not compatible with FSX due to significant technology differences which requires completely new FSX-based solutions. These new FSX-based solutions are already being developed with more news and status on them to be made available very soon.
September 2, 2006 ActiveSky Version 6 and Ground Environment Professional have been upgraded! The upgrades are now available for download to all existing ASv6/GE Pro users. For ASv6, this new service upgrade adds several exciting new improvements, including full integration with Ground Environment Professional. New additions include GE Pro integration options, new automatic ActiveRadar installation monitoring and repair, improved databases and coverage, and much more. For GE Pro, this upgrade includes new stunning and color-customizable night textures with presets, new beautiful desert and boreal textures, a completely redesigned and revamped interface, new Dutch textures with night lighting and aligned autogen, new halo bitmap and of course full integration with ActiveSky version 6. By themselves these upgrades represent a significant enhancement over the previous versions. Together, a seamless, coordinated and beautifully-combined Ground/Sky/Weather visual environment all with conditional weather influence is now finally available. For more information or to download these products/updates, please visit the respective websites: ActiveSky Version 6 – http://sales.hifisim.com/asv6 Ground Environment Professional - http://environments.flight1.net/gepro
August 26, 2006 Damian Clark (HiFi) and Peter
Wilding (FS Environments) are excited to announce new integration
features between ActiveSky v6 and Ground Environment Professional!
New collaboration between the two teams has resulted in some great
new functionality for users of both products. Ground Environment
Professional's unique colorization and weather-based selection
features can now use ASv6 weather data in a completely seamless and
integrated manner. ASv6 can now also automatically launch the GE Pro
selection and texture installation procedures either automatically
on route entry or by manual button press. New ASv6 options that
affect the use of these new features are also available. Damian
Clark states that "It's been a popular request by users of both
products to include integration features. we're very happy to have
teamed up to give our users what they've asked for". Peter Wilding
adds "We've also been exploring other integration possibilities
including Flight Environment as well as potential future products,
and the future looks very promising". Ground Environment
Professional and ActiveSky v6 updates incorporating this new
integration are currently in final beta and will be available very
soon. For more information about these products and developments,
please visit associated websites: Ground Environment Professional (http://environments.flight1.net)
and ActiveSky Version 6 (http://sales.hifisim.com/ASv6). June 13, 2006 HiFi Simulation Software has announced the release of Service Update 4 for ActiveSky Version 6 + Graphics. This update contains several fixes and enhancements, and is recommended for all ASv6 users. SU4 can be downloaded from http://sales.hifisim.com/ASv6/downloads.htm. ActiveSky Version 6 + Graphics is the latest full-featured weather and sky environment engine + complete sky graphics upgrade made exclusively for FS2004 and beyond. With roughly 5 years of ongoing development, the ActiveSky product line continues to evolve bringing new features based on user feedback and advances in new software technology. AS is designed, built, and tested by an assortment of real pilots, experienced simulation enthusiasts and meteorological experts. For more information please visit http://sales.hifisim.com/ASv6.
February 13, 2006 HiFi Simulation Software has announced the release of Service Update 3 for ActiveSky Version 6 + Graphics. This update contains several fixes and improves memory usage and performance. It is a recommended upgrade for all ASv6 users and can be downloaded from http://sales.hifisim.com/ASv6/downloads.htm. ActiveSky Version 6 + Graphics is the latest full-featured weather and sky environment engine + complete sky graphics upgrade made exclusively for FS2004 and beyond. With roughly 5 years of ongoing development, the ActiveSky product line continues to evolve bringing new features based on user feedback and advances in new software technology. AS is designed, built, and tested by an assortment of real pilots, experienced simulation enthusiasts and meteorological experts. For more information please visit http://sales.hifisim.com/ASv6.
January 19, 2006 HiFi Simulation Software has announced the release of Service Update 2 for ActiveSky Version 6 + Graphics. This update contains several fixes and enhancements based on user feedback. It is a recommended critical upgrade for all ASv6 users and can be downloaded from http://sales.hifisim.com/ASv6/downloads.htm.
December 21, 2005
ASv6 +
Graphics is a comprehensive weather engine and sky graphics
upgrade for MSFS 2004. From high-quality cloud and sky graphics
to real-time weather condition transition and depiction, this is
a complete and robust system that provides the highest level of
realism possible through all facets of weather simulation.
ActiveSky is designed, built, tested and maintained by an
assortment of real-world pilots, experienced simulator
enthusiasts and meteorological experts. Our latest release
includes more exciting new features and refinements to enhance
your weather and sky simulation experience...
Some of the new Features include new FS9 virtual wx-station insert and control capability with over 500 new weather stations, better oceanic/rural transitions and depiction, better oceanic and high-altitude flight transitions with new related options, a new Wx-Finder utility for easily finding any desired conditions and ActiveSky Graphics, a newly designed graphics upgrade with all new high-quality 3D cloud textures and texture generation processes, many new textures in various categories, thousands more texture combinations (over 1 million 3D cloud texture possibilities alone), a brand new visually-appealing and powerful interface and full Wx-Influenced selection integration with the ASv6 engine. ActiveSky Version 6 and ActiveSky Graphics are being launched as an integrated/combined product and can be purchased for immediate download (US $37.99) at http://sales.hifisim.com/ASv6. Existing ASV/E users can upgrade to ASv6+Graphics absolutely free from http://sales.hifisim.com/ASv6/downloads.htm.
December 18, 2005 HiFi Simulation Software has announced that the next generation of enhanced weather and sky simulation is about to arrive, with the pending release of ActiveSky Version 6 and ActiveSky Graphics. ActiveSky Version 6 features new FS9 wx-station insert and control technology to bridge the gap between existing wx-station reporting points. This brings much greater accuracy and realism to many areas, especially oceanic and rural. A side-benefit is much better transitions with suppression ranges up to 250nm and process ranges of up to 500nm. Flying oceanic and other long-haul routes is now a much more pleasant experience. Additional reporting ICAO wx-stations have been added (both client and server side), and a new Wx-Finder utility is incorporated to easily find desired weather conditions. New turbulence effects and option allow for as much in-flight turbulence as desired (with wx-conditional influence). New options, better wind smoothing, new ActiveSky Graphics integration, and refinement in many weather engine-related components have been made. ActiveSky Graphics is a brand new Cloud, Sky and Environment Graphics upgrade package that includes completely re-designed cloud textures, new content, new direct texture generation and management processes, and a new user interface that is visually appealing and extremely powerful. The end result textures are much higher in quality and offer thousands more combination possibilities (over 500,000 unique cloud texture possibilities alone). ASG supports full compatibility with all other graphic add-ons by allowing easy enable/disable of all texture categories. ActiveSky Version 6 and ActiveSky Graphics incorporate Wx-Influenced graphics selection capability, called "Intelligent Graphics Selection" or IGS. IGS now uses air stability, visibility, surface wind speed and aloft wind speed for conditional influence of most different graphic texture selection categories. Between IGS, Random, and Custom theme selections with full automatic submission capability, your skies will become dramatically more beautiful, unique and realistic. IGS has been designed with open-architecture support to enable wx-influenced selections of other 3rd-party graphics content. With IGS, all texture categories (sky, environment, ground, water, etc.) can be dynamically selected based on wx condition influence categorization via IGS definition files. Developers interested in using IGS can contact HiFi @ development@hifisim.com for direct support in integration. ActiveSky 6 and ActiveSky Graphics are being launched as an integrated/combined product with a pre-Christmas release target. Existing ASV/ASVE customers will be receiving a FREE UPGRADE to ASv6+Graphics. Please visit HiFi Simulation Software's Website at http://www.hifisim.com for screenshots and more information!
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ActiveSky is programmed by Damian Clark and graphical texture content is created by Chris Willis. Support and Usability Design Assistance is provided by Jim Skorna. Work first began on developing ActiveSky back in 2001. The first version (original ActiveSky) was released in early 2002. Since then, we've released ActiveSky wxRE (December 2002), ActiveSky 2004 (December 2003), ActiveSky 2004.5 (November 2004), ASV (June 2005), ASV Enhanced (October 2005) and just recently: ASv6 and ActiveSky Graphics (December 2005). The ActiveSky private beta team is a core group of approximately 30 members who have been testing the product's various versions since 2002. They put many hours into testing and interacting with the development team on a daily basis. Most of them are actual real-world Pilots and all of them have extensive simulation and weather experience. Several members hold advanced degrees in aeronautics and meteorology. The various ActiveSky versions have earned numerous awards for Best Flight Sim Add-on Utility and Best Weather Engine. Our most recent award was given by SimFlight for AS2004 (Best FS Tool). Damian Clark, Programmer and Lead Developer, is a Commercial Pilot Certificate holder with Multi-Engine and Instrument Ratings. The HiFi DataNet took over 2 years to develop and consists of 3 separate servers (2 collection/distribution, 1 collection/control). The system is responsible for collecting weather data automatically from several different sources, synthesizing it into station-based data, archiving snapshots, and providing the real-time or archived data to AS users in a secure (encrypted) and efficient format. Over 30 gigabytes of weather data are collected and served each day!
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(c) 2005, 2006 HiFi Simulation Software |
