I found the Active Sky user interface a little congested and not very intuitive. 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. This isn’t too dissimilar to using the default X-Plane clouds and weather system. I normally get about 40 FPS in the air using the FlightFactor A320 rendering overcast skies with ASXP. Not only do they look great, they are easy on your frame rate too. 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. Once all that is done, all you need to do is login to ASXP with your email and password. 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.

If you were sat on the fence as to whether you should take the plunge, then I’ll hopefully help you make that decision. I’ve had ASXP for a while now and I would say I have just about mastered the complexity of the system. 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. In December of 2018 Active Sky for X-Plane (known as ASXP) was born. HiFi Simulations has been working on bringing their renowned weather engine to X-Plane for about three years. There is no question about the impact of ActiveSky for P3D and how it really brings the weather to life.

Active sky xp atis