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Ben, I do not like how you are going about handling this. We are under no obligation to release the emails exchanged between Austin and I, they are confidential. I appreciate you are looking out for the community however I do not appreciate interfering with internal business. We have stole nobodies work. I do not know where that ludicrous idea came from. It is a very bold statement to make especially considering you have not yet used the product. Yes we released a sub-standard Scenery/Terrain: EuropeXP product for X-Plane and it was not a successful as we hoped however we have learned a tough lesson on product and customer management. Everything has been created in-house except for the glacier textures provided by John. You have made a great plugin system for developers to use but your actions do little to inspire confidence in me, especially in this thread.

I now have previews of the 3 different night lighting modes - not strictly to do with the sky but it adds to the overall atmosphere hence its inclusion. Red Yellow White All feedback welcomed on the night light colours and shaders and we are nearing release.

I have no idea how SkyMAXX Pro works apart from it uses the Sundog SDK however I do imagine it may possible for the products to work in some form together - perhaps John's clouds and our skies. I will not know if this will be possible till the release of his add-on and as such I do not want to make any promises.

Everything has been created in-house by AWG Sim. except from the glacier textures which John made a year a go and we tweaked the default X-Plane cloud shader files to make them look more realistic.

I am pleased to say the Austin has given us the all clear to include the tweaked cloud shaders in the payware product.

Everything however we are discussing the shader issue as to whether it was tweaked or actually created from scratch.

We have not stole any LR work. Ben raised a very valid point regarding the tweaked shaders and I have contacted the developer of the shaders to see if they were tweaked or redone. I also contacted Austin to discuss the very valid issue which Ben raised and what course of action we will be taking if the shaders are tweaked and not permitted for resale however at present this is an on-going to discuss to see whether the shaders are tweaked or not. The developers native language is not English and he uses a translator. I will keep you all updated on this situation and what appropriate course of action we will take. Everything has been created from scratch however there is a question mark over the shaders so please do not be disillusioned that we simply stole all the work.

I have just gotten some images from the first beta test. As I said early I will try to do a flight (if time permits) and take screenshots of how a typically flight would benefit from the add-on. For now some images from the beta. These images were taken using different sky themes. All feedback welcome and I will try to do a flight tonight or tomorrow and upload images from it.

Hi John, I got the latest beta today and will do a flight and take several screenshots. Will probably get them uploading this evening.

We have been re-evaluating our X-Plane product lines of the last few weeks. Regretfully we have had to remove the HD apron/taxiway textures. We want to streamline and simplify the products aim - and in this case the product is aimed at the sky and the sky environment, of which the ground apron/taxiways are not part of. It is highly unusual that some features are removed so close to a product release however the textural work done on the ground may reappear/form the basis of another product. As usual we are making no promises. We appreciate your understand. So...to recap the feature at present for Sky Environment XP is as follows; 9 Different sky colour themes4 different cloud themes and tweaked shadersHD Moon with new haloHD Glacier Texture (Credit to John Spahn - MaxxXP)New sun halo effectAutomated installation and Config manager on Windows Vista+ only (Manual install will work on Mac/Linux and instructions will be provided to do so)We are also going to go ahead with our plans to feature a 'Download Centre' from which a customer can download more sky (and perhaps cloud) themes for installation. On a final note the product is entering beta testing this week and we still have a few open positions so if you are interested please send me a private message or contact us via our website. Previous experience would be nice but not necessary.

We are continuing to tweak and refine the product as we near release. The new sun halo along with the sky themes are cloud theme are beginning to look really good. I have included a preview from the latest beta. All feedback welcome. Also, I would like to add small update regarding Scenery (formerly Terrain) Europe XP. We have been busy at work redoing the OSM with 2 options (OSM and OSM+Autogen), creating new FACADES and adding landmarks. I know this is not the thread to discuss the product here but we will post previews in another thread soon. I am aware of the acute discontent with reference to this product and we are working hard to fix it, if a little over a year later which we apologise for. We will also be offering 50% of Sky Environment XP (if we keep that name...) for all Scenery/Terrain: Europe XP customers.

I am not disputing that. I am aware of his commendable reputation in X-Plane. Someone like Peter always makes an insightful post which is useful to read however I feel his latest post was not what I would expect from someone like Peter.

I expected better from someone like yourself. On another note we are considering expanding the amount of redone airport textures to include taxi signs considering we already have redone the ground markings. More a general upgrade rather than focusing on the sky so a product rename will most likely be in order. As for our HD moon we obtained our texture from here - http://www.oera.net/how2/texturemaps2.htm Processed in photoshop to make it looked better and added a halo.

We have not borrowed anyone's work. We created all the work with the exception of the glacier textures. I do not know where anybody got that idea from. Yes there are freeware alternatives available but I feel I am wasting my time by reiterating what is included in our product.

We would but we do not have resources for everything. We must prioritise but we will look into it. Yes there are freeware alternatives but we feel we offer a more complete experience.

How much can one do to a moon texture? Not very much. There is only 1 side of the moon which you can see. Yes, there is freeware available and there will always be freeware available however we offer so much more than just a moon. Everything was custom developed for his bar the glacier texture which John made. We have repeated that on various websites. We are not just ripping freeware files and jamming them into one product, all the stuff is being custom developed. 9 different sky thenes4 different cloud textures with an enhanced 3d effectHD glaciers (supplied by John from MaXX-XP, different from his freeware ones)HD runway/taxiway airport texturesSun/Moon halo and flareTweaked city lights...and we have more to announce.

Yes, John is indeed correct. He supplied the textures over a year ago, they are with most of our X-Plane scenery products. I will update the post to say so. Apologises to John for not mentioning his work.

Same imagery, we only see 1 side of the moon after all. For a small amount of money you are getting 9 different sky thenes4 different cloud textures with an enhanced 3d effectHD glaciers (supplied by John from MaXX-XP)HD runway/taxiway airport texturesSun/Moon halo and flareTweaked city lights...and we have more to announce.

Hello all, Some new previews of our Sky Environment XP add-on, we think a renaming of the product may be in order because it changes more textures than those released to the sky (eg. airport ground). Our new HD moon and sun halo effect. What do you guys think of them? The images are taken straight from the sim. and some of the new sun halo... All feedback is welcome and please comment.

Another update on the clouds. We are making fantastic progress, the clouds look even better in the sim. Stratus and Puffy Theme ​Realistic Theme We are looking forward to sharing more previews of more cloud themes soon. We are delaying the release of Sky Environment XP to add more features such as clouds and tweak sky colours. We really don't want to rush this product like what happened in the past. I would also like to add that we have a few open positions for beta testers to test the product. Please send me a PM or email if you are interested. As usual we want to hear your feedback on these previews.

Our clouds have now entered beta testing. There are 4 different cloud themes with each utilizing a special 3D effect to make the clouds appear more real. I have 2 images at present but more will follow throughout the day and tomorrow as we begin to finalize things and prepare for a release.

A preview of a whispy cirrus cloud. I think it looks great. We have used some innovative techniques to make it appear more 3D.

Hi Peter, we will be included a range of different textures for each type of cloud. There will be wispy options available.

A preview of one of our cirrus cloud textures.

As I said it is simple in theory but making a program which can do that quickly on the fly for many different textures is complicated and difficult. We will preview some different cloud themes over the coming days along with runway/airport textures soon.