ActiveSky - across networked PCs anyone

[navymustang]

Has anyone been successful (or is it even possible) to run Active Sky 16 on a server PC and let it talk to multiple client PCs running their own copies of P3D?

For example, a server PC running P3D (v3) with 3 client PCs all running P3D driving their own projectors.

Couldn't find a comment on this topic when I searched the archives.
Thanks

[FredK]

Hi Jim

I have looked at ActiveSky for my WideView setup.......

First...you do need multiple licenses for ActiveSky since it is PC specific....I did make that investment.

I tried it two ways....(1) weather transfer through WV and (2) independent weather download on my WV server and each WV client.

I was not happy either way....

I found that weather transfer via WV for ActiveSky really bogs down the system causing unacceptable stuttering in moderate-heavy weather situations.  Synchronization is also a problem for heavy weather (i.e., missing clouds). There is just two much data being transferred with AS for WV to handle.

Likewise, the issue with independent weather loading method is that the weather does not stay synchronized across clients for more than 10 minutes or so....so that is a big issue. 

As I have mentioned in previous posts I am using FS Global Real Weather for my weather engine and that really works terrifically with WV since it transfers weather to the clients independent of WV via a separate "network bridge".  The result is perfect weather synchronization even in the heaviest weather without any impact on WV performance whatsoever as I can perceive.

One big caveat though...All of this was with P3Dv3....I have not explored anything with P3Dv4 as yet.   I am awaiting release of FSGRW for V4 for that and probably will also wait until the end of the year to let the dust settle and bugs to be worked out for V4.   My ultimate plan however is to continue to use WV with FSGRW along with upgrading my WV clients to I9 CPUs if the price falls somewhere to a reasonable level by year-end.

Also,  FSGRW claims to be working on a much improved version for P3Dv4 which will include radar weather depiction like AS and other improvements.

Finally as I have stated previously I tend to actually like the appearance of FSGRW better than AS.  FSGRW does provide for complex weather formations as does AS including winds aloft etc.  So you do get varied weather level depictions that transition nicely.  I characterize AS to have a more "artsy" and dramatic kind of appearance that in my opinion gets a bit dramatic.  But that comes down to a matter of personal preference of course.

Fred K

[Ridgenj]

Dear Fred, in your clients do you have copies of FSGRW and Mytraffic residing in the same disk as P3D3? Due to the OOM issue I never installed all my add-ons, what I will do now. Are 4 cloned Firecuda's 2TB good enough? Today I have 4 Samsung 950 Pro 512 but FS Global NG alone is already 100 gigabytes plus Orbx and I ran out of space.For Win10 I use
a dedicated Samsung 960 Evo stick and my farm has 7 PC's in total.
Any suggestions how to make all these more efficient?
Cheers
Luis

[FredK]

Luis...

For my 4 WV computers I have everything loaded on a single 2TB optical disk.  I previously had my OS on a separate SSD hard drive, but with the WIN 10 update that happened about a year ago that config did no longer work and irretrievably crashed all 4 computers.

As add-ons I am using Ultimate Terrain, GEX, REX HD, MyTraffic, FSGRW, and about 30 airport upgrades.

FSGRW does not require a lot of space.

The next time around my plan is to keep the airport scenery upgrades on a separate disk simply for convenience for major upgrades.  WV does require a fair bit of effort in setting up since everything has to be installed on separate computers.  That can be short-cutted by keeping the scenery on a separate drive.  Cloning as you have is a very good idea.

Currently I never have any crashes happening including OOMs. The key point is that with WV I am running FSX for my WV server with all sliders minimized since I do not use my WV server for visual display.  For my WV clients I am using P3Dv3 in each case with sliders towards the max.  It is interesting to note...when I was using P3D for my WV server I would have periodic occasional unexplained crashes occurring on the server requiring a complete reboot of the flight, however the WV clients never crashed even though the loading on those were much more than for the server.  I honestly say that since I moved to FSX for my server I have yet to have a single crash.  So my surmise is that something involved with FSUIPC or SimConnect was affecting the crashes with P3D.  My setup right now is extremely stable. So I intend to keep FSX for my server when I move to P3Dv4.  It is reported that it can still run that way.

Fred K

[Ridgenj]

Many thanks for the detailed response.
Apparently P3D4 seems to be stable and crashes happen only when loading add-ons that are not ported with the new SKD.
For my visual server I have Strix GTX1080Ti and all levers at zero. The IG's are I5-6500 and GTX1070 all at max. I have OPUS, Rex, AS and FSGRW. Like you, FSGRW is my preferred engine with Rex clouds.
With WV and WT for 64Bit it should work like a charm


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[navymustang]

Luis, what do you use Opus for since you have WideView and a weather engine on your system?

[Ridgenj]

Hi Jim, I don't use it, I just own it....lol Typical  Software wanderlust, was the first to offer networking capabilities as a weather engine


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[navymustang]

Oh my - if any of us went through our chest of thrown away software, then added up the cost - we would faint   

[Ridgenj]

Almost as bad as with OEM and aftermarket panels and equipment


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tennyson]

.....and let's not forget the 40-50 dollars sceneries just piling up around our ears.

On my last US/Canadian/Alaskan Tour, I bought over 700 bucks of airports around those areas.
Not that they are wasted, tho. Most have been updated to P3D V4 now and some in the imminent future.

As for ASP4, I'm a bit busy doing house reno's at the moment, but I've managed to load my cockpit PC's with all V4 stuff and when I finally get it all back running with V4, I'll be testing ASP4 in a networked three PC to projectors set-up.
So, I'm happy to pass on my results when I get them going.


Frank

[AaronS]

Hi guys,
I know this is an old thread, but I was wondering how the networking with ASP4 went. I'm having a bit of trouble setting mine up.
I have a server and client setup using wideview and would like to have ASP4 control weather on both machines from the server.
I have 2 copies of ASP4 and as you know, the weather wont stay synced. I've seen the setup guide for networking ASP4 floating around the web, but can't seem to get it working. It doesn't seem to address the weather on both machines though, only sending the info from one to the other. I would like to know if anyone has a similar setup or if I could be steered in the right direction for a solution. I'm using P3D v4 on both machines. I should be upgraded to 4.4 in a few days.

Thanks,
Aaron

[FredK]

Hi Aaron

ActiveSky will not sync across a multichannel setup.  That said you can run (network) ActiveSky on a separate computer that you do not use as a display.

Of course, you can use ActiveSky on your WV server and transfer weather via WV.  However that method is not recommended in that it affects WV performance as you have probably discovered.

FSGRW is designed for distributing weather over a networked multi-channel setup.  It does this using a separate "network bridge" independent of WV so it does not impinge WV performance.  FSGRW is easy to setup and weather sync is absolutely perfect.  I have used it for some years now.

Fred K

[AaronS]

Thanks Fred,
What are the WV settings for server and client to send ActiveSky via WV? I would just like to see the results before I commit to a completely new solution. I assume ASP4 is running on both machines for this to work and what are the settings for that also.

Thanks,
Aaron

[navymustang]

I am still amazed about why so many folks use these very complex cloud programs when P3D generates such nice weather systems right out of the box and they propagate via WideView in networked systems with no problems at all.

[FredK]

Thanks Fred,
What are the WV settings for server and client to send ActiveSky via WV? I would just like to see the results before I commit to a completely new solution. I assume ASP4 is running on both machines for this to work and what are the settings for that also.

Simply run AS only the server and set the weather in WV to transfer via WV.

I am still amazed about why so many folks use these very complex cloud programs when P3D generates such nice weather systems right out of the box and they propagate via WideView in networked systems with no problems at all.

Be aware that there is a distinction between two types of weather add-on programs....generation and depiction. The value of programs like AS and FSGRW is that they provide additional real weather information regarding weather layers, winds aloft, cloud formations, visibility etc. beyond what the native P3D generates but utilizing the native P3D cloud and weather files (and I do agree that the native files in P3D are very good).  However there is more weather data to handle over the network. FSGRW utilizes a separate "network bridge" that helps deal with all that.

On the other hand programs like ASCA and REX actually augment/replace the cloud formation files in P3D with custom files.  While these can offer a very stunning depiction I tend to feel that such becomes a bit artistic and somewhat unrealistic. Others will feel differently of course.

Fred K