HiFi Simulation Technologies is officially in with X-Plane 11 but not the way we were expecting!
It was announced several months ago that the well known FSX and P3D weather engine would be available for X-Plane 11 soon or later. The official website did not mention it though except on their forum section with a single shy post about it...until now.
The release date was delayed because of uncertainty that the 11.30 update is introducing from a developer perspective.
Now that X-Plane 11.30 official release is close, HiFi Simulation Technologies have updated their website to officially reflect that ASXP will be definitely released during December 2018.
However, if you were expecting like me a full weather engine with clouds textures replacement, you will most likely be disappointed. Because as a first step, ASXP will only be a weather depiction program exactly like what FSGlobal Real Weather does, by using whatever is available to draw clouds and sky (i.e. default X-Plane 11 textures or a custom set via free plugin or payware). According to their product description page, a full set of textures to replace the native clouds/sky textures is not expected before Q4 2019 and this date is subject to change depending on various factors (I am personally assuming that those factors could be sales result; X-Plane 11 updates; or their ability to create convincing weather textures given the fact that X-Plane 11 is a totally new flight sim platform for them).
Check the features of the initial version that will be available soon here.
http://hifisimtech.com/asxp/
We will have to wait for the first reviews to see if ASXP brings more interesting features vs FSGRW because these two products are positioned exactly on the same segment!
My fears are that if ASXP does not differentiate that much from FSGRW, the actual owners of this latter will not jump on ASXP yet. On the other hand, people who use XEnviro for instance will stick to it since it comes with its own weather depiction program and makes it incompatible with other weather engine software.
I'm hoping that HiFi Simulation Technologies will take all those facts into account when they will decide whether or not they should continue with the developement of a full weather textures set fo X-Plane 11 based on their initial sales.
Let's cross our fingers, welcome them in our X-Plane community and support them whatsoever.
TIPAH
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