New Asx Weather Engine - Coming Soon!

[jordanal 70]

Well, if you're a current or past ASX user and you've been tinkering with REX the past few days as have I; and feel bit let-down by the seriously under-developed flight-planner (currently anyway) and the lack of tying the theme generation to any part of the flight-plan, than this announcement might lift your spirits. I wondered what Damian and crew have been up to over the past year or so; I should've known :( http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=235659Regards,

[maxter 0]

Well, if you're a current or past ASX user and you've been tinkering with REX the past few days as have I; and feel bit let-down by the seriously under-developed flight-planner (currently anyway) and the lack of tying the theme generation to any part of the flight-plan, than this announcement might lift your spirits. I wondered what Damian and crew have been up to over the past year or so; I should've known :( http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=235659Regards,

I asked in that thread about the planner as I did not see any reference to it by the OP (Damian)... Did I miss something?Cheers,

[jordanal 70]

I asked in that thread about the planner as I did not see any reference to it by the OP (Damian)... Did I miss something?

Chris,I'm not sure exactly what you mean. Activesky and ASX have always had "route" functionality built-in that correlates the imported flight-plan to both the downloaded weather and the textures (XGraphics) assigned. Perhaps they might improve upon this functionality, but I doubt it would be some kind of fully functioning planner such as FSBuild2 or FSNavigator, that exports a given plan back to FS. I, and probably not many others, have ever had much issue with the "planning" capability in Activesky. If you want a fully functioning planner that exports to may different add-ons, I completely endorse FSBuild2 as I have used it for many years. My problem with REX is, the planner doesn't even come close to what Activesky(X) currently does in that, it ties the downloaded weather and the themes/textures to the planned route.Regards,

[bkeske 0]

Chris,I'm not sure exactly what you mean. Activesky and ASX have always had "route" functionality built-in that correlates the imported flight-plan to both the downloaded weather and the textures (XGraphics) assigned. Perhaps they might improve upon this functionality, but I doubt it would be some kind of fully functioning planner such as FSBuild2 or FSNavigator, that exports a given plan back to FS. I, and probably not many others, have ever had much issue with the "planning" capability in Activesky. If you want a fully functioning planner that exports to may different add-ons, I completely endorse FSBuild2 as I have used it for many years. My problem with REX is, the planner doesn't even come close to what Activesky(X) currently does in that, it ties the downloaded weather and the themes/textures to the planned route.Regards,

There has been discussion for quite some time that Hi-Fi may provide a flight planner (I know they were working on it to some extent), that would integrate with ASX, (not be a direct function of it). At least that is how I always understood it.And yes, it would, I assume, be similar to FSNavigator or similar.The obvious added benefit would be it integrating with ASX and XGraphics as well.

[BobP 16]

Well, if you're a current or past ASX user and you've been tinkering with REX the past few days as have I; and feel bit let-down by the seriously under-developed flight-planner (currently anyway) and the lack of tying the theme generation to any part of the flight-plan, than this announcement might lift your spirits. I wondered what Damian and crew have been up to over the past year or so; I should've known :( http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=235659Regards,

I don't understand why a flight planner is important in a weather generator. In fact, I'm all for single purpose applications that do one job well. All to often the core application gets watered down with unneeded chores that other apps do very well. Bob..

[Geofa 108]

I don't understand why a flight planner is important in a weather generator. In fact, I'm all for single purpose applications that do one job well. All to often the core application gets watered down with unneeded chores that other apps do very well. Bob..

The reason I can see is these programs have incredible textures for clouds, water, sky, -even lightening that is weather dependent. There are a huge number of choices.So the end user has a choice of installing manually these textures, or the program can "look" at the weather and choose what is appropriate to the real world weather.However, if the program does not know where you are, where you are going, and your route, it can not intelligently make a choice of which textures to install, based on that real world weather.

[Rimshot 160]

So the end user has a choice of installing manually these textures, or the program can "look" at the weather and choose what is appropriate to the real world weather.However, if the program does not know where you are, where you are going, and your route, it can not intelligently make a choice of which textures to install, based on that real world weather.

I had hoped REX would do this, but it seems not to be the case reading my post at their forum.

[Guest nshahzad]

Somehow I doubt it will work with REX.I was hoping REX would have that functionality, to install textures based on the route. Doesn't seem like it does that.

[vgbaron 1,211]

Well, if you're a current or past ASX user and you've been tinkering with REX the past few days as have I; and feel bit let-down by the seriously under-developed flight-planner (currently anyway) and the lack of tying the theme generation to any part of the flight-plan, than this announcement might lift your spirits. I wondered what Damian and crew have been up to over the past year or so; I should've known :( http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=235659Regards,

Yup - you should have. me too! :) Actually, I would have spent the $$ on REX anyway to check out the textures. Sadly, they freeze FSX every time on my system so , for me, REX is a total bust. Agree that the FP is a little better than useless but my personal pet peeve is the fact that they intentionally PAUSE FSX to load weather every 30 min or so. I soent a lot of time and $$ getting my system to a point where there are NO stutters - sure don't want an application intentionally causing them.Just MHO,

[rstough 258]

First I don't want to take away from HIFI's new announcement here, but I feel this post has become more a compliant line against REX. Which is not fair for HIFI and is not fair for us REX.So I want to state that we at REX have responded to all the posts that you have made here at AVSIM and at our support forums.We know it is impossible to meet everyone's expectations. We know that for the purists the flight planner was probably going to be the weakest area. BUT we also know that this is a starting point for us. It is impossible to put everything you want into a your first release. We have stated that our starting intention with the flight planner was for it to be basic. We have stated we will be enhancing the flight planner over time and especially those features that are necessary up front.We have also stated that if there are issues we will be addressing ASAP.In regards to the weather matching the textures - I have addressed that also in the fourms and I explained that process. We create a global cache of the weather - we do this in regions when you first start up REX.We also got into detail how we adjust this within the weather engine.I also stated that if you had been having issues we would address them and put them on the list to tweak.But since the forums are being hit hard and are up and down you are welcome to personally email me at: r_stough@realenvironmentxtreme.com.

[vgbaron 1,211]

First I don't want to take away from HIFI's new announcement here, but I feel this post has become more a compliant line against REX. Which is not fair for HIFI and is not fair for us REX.So I want to state that we at REX have responded to all the posts that you have made here at AVSIM and at our support forums.We know it is impossible to meet everyone's expectations. We know that for the purists the flight planner was probably going to be the weakest area. BUT we also know that this is a starting point for us. It is impossible to put everything you want into a your first release. We have stated that our starting intention with the flight planner was for it to be basic. We have stated we will be enhancing the flight planner over time and especially those features that are necessary up front.We have also stated that if there are issues we will be addressing ASAP.In regards to the weather matching the textures - I have addressed that also in the fourms and I explained that process. We create a global cache of the weather - we do this in regions when you first start up REX.We also got into detail how we adjust this within the weather engine.I also stated that if you had been having issues we would address them and put them on the list to tweak.But since the forums are being hit hard and are up and down you are welcome to personally email me at: r_stough@realenvironmentxtreme.com.

Beat me to it - I was about to amend my post because of this and the fact that the folks at REX are working very hard to resolve issues.I look forward to seing what HIFI has come up with!Vic

[JSkorna 137]

And also let's be clear that no HiFi staff member started this thread!Thanks,Jim

[Damian Clark 96]

Thanks for the mention folks,We are launching a new website this weekend that will showcase all the juicy details. Look for the announcement here on AVSIM.BTW, I'd like to mentioned that no HiFi member ever has (nor will) post competitive information in a thread discussing another product. Best,

[maxter 0]

Chris,I'm not sure exactly what you mean. Activesky and ASX have always had "route" functionality built-in that correlates the imported flight-plan to both the downloaded weather and the textures (XGraphics) assigned. Perhaps they might improve upon this functionality, but I doubt it would be some kind of fully functioning planner such as FSBuild2 or FSNavigator, that exports a given plan back to FS.

Oh OK, I perhaps misundestood your original post, as well as from the link you provided re: the flight planner. I inferred from it that there was some advances with the flight planner function to be announced and when I looked, there did not appear to be any such intent either expressed or implied.Cheers and thanks,

[Guest Mower]

Having just invested in REX I really hope ASX has not got soemthing more tempting...

[Guest abulaafia]

Having just invested in REX I really hope ASX has not got soemthing more tempting...

That's called competition, and that's all the fun of it! Better products. So far I find ASX weather reproduction to be far more accurate than REX, despite the superior textures. But we need more time and comparison. And I hope there will be comparison, and competition, and improvements ... since REX didn't fullfill its overhyped expectations, ASX is far from dead! Good luck to both developers. Bring it on!

[Guest -BeNt-]

Well I don't know if I would go as far as to say it didn't live up to it's "overhyped" expectations. I've used FEX and ASX for a long time now. And swapping both of those out to REX has provided me a good bit more selections in textures, and the weather engine enhancements are far better than what ASX has given me, especially in weather transitions and ground visibility layering. If HiFi releases a superior weather engine or update to ASX would I swap back to using it? Yes, would I swap back at this moment to FEX and ASX, from what I've seen in the last day and half, no.REX has delivered on everything they said they would bring to us, some of it not living up to the communities "overhyped" expectations, and I myself am a bit disappointed in the flight planner portion of the product, but I primarily bought it for the textures and weather engine. Which is also what this product corner stones on and they delivered on. And as the REX team has stated, like other products, functionality and what not will be improved on with patches. This is every program, including FEX and ASX.BTW REX doesn't set the bar like most 'fan boys' would elude to, but it does raise that bar up a bit, and I am interested to see what the HiFi team brings to the table in the coming months. I'm intrested as well if the FEX team delivers their promised weather engine sometime in the immediate future. All three of those products seem to have a level of polish, but like everything else, have a lot of head room to improve and none of them are bad choices.

[spesimen 108]

i agree wholeheartedly with BeNT's assessment. I was not expecting to use the flightplanner as i use custom made fuel profiles and other stuff for fsbuild2 and mainly was curious about rex to see how their weather engine works, and so far i'm very pleased in that regard especially as far as visibility smoothing is concerned.I am somewhat puzzled about how they choose textures on startup without any knowledge of the conditions for your area but i think this is a difficult problem to solve anyway. If you are flying halfway across the globe, conditions will change remarkably and in that case which do you choose? conditions at takeoff? at landing? somewhere of an average between the two? in the end i prefer to use a theme that looks nice in most conditions and not worry about it for now. maybe when a more detailed explanation of how it decides is made public i will let it choose for me..i think the next generation would be to pull off some filter driver trickery like tileproxy uses where you can actually override textures on the fly but that sounds like a coding nightmare..either way i'm glad to see the competition continue because in the end, it means more interesting options for the end users. the hifi and rex guys all seem like good chaps and i'm happy to support the development of these types of packages with my $..cheers,-andy crosby

[michal 16]

... since REX didn't fullfill its overhyped expectations

That's your own verdict, you are entitled for it. In my opinion they never overhyped (contrary to forum members representing competing products) and they delivered the best weather textures ever made for a simulator. Those textures, transitions, etc. are in my own opinion worth 10 times any flight planner but I admit I never liked flying in "current/real weather" for all the problems it usually entails.

[Andydigital 68]

I thought this thread was about ASX not REX, there are plenty of REX threads and forums for you to post in so please stick to them.

[MachTwo 193]

Looking forward to the new engine, good luck with the launch!

[Guest -BeNt-]

I thought this thread was about ASX not REX, there are plenty of REX threads and forums for you to post in so please stick to them.

It is about ASX, this is called constructive discussion. What made you have to feel so strongly against another product to get rude with the people discussing ASX vs. REX vs. Hype?

[Andydigital 68]

It is about ASX, this is called constructive discussion. What made you have to feel so strongly against another product to get rude with the people discussing ASX vs. REX vs. Hype?

No its called going off topic, the thread title says "New Asx Weather Engine - Coming Soon!" not "discussing ASX vs. REX vs. Hype?" Also at no point was anything I said rude, so I'd like an apology too, thank you.

[Guest -BeNt-]

You are being a troll, please go back to your bridge. You are being rude, by coming to a forum thread and obvsiously posting a response that is going to get negative feedback, meanwhile everything is fine. Telling people to "go somewhere else" is not an appropriate response. If people are going off topic so be it, but in a discussion board most threads eventually go a bit off course due to the constructive discussion going on during any thread at any time. This is my last post to you on this topic as I believe now instead of it being constructive it has turned into or is turning into a fight/flame war whatever else you wish to call it and I'm too old to participate in something that doesn't help. And now sir, we are totally off topic......

[Andydigital 68]

Pot, Kettle, Black, nuf said.