ASA vs. REX 2.0 weather head to head

[Benjamin J 751]

I don't own ASA, but I far a very long time now have been eyeing it. I never purchased it, in the end, one reason being that I got REX2, which gave me everything I wanted: good textured, weather generator and a flight planner. I'll have to say one thing though: I have been using REX2 mostly for the textures. I love the water and clouds, although I have rarely been looking at the sky, since I usually just fly with fair weather and daytime. Now I also have to emphasize the fact I've been doing a lot of test-flying aircraft for reviews, and not so much complete flights.This is an interesting discussion and I've been following it for some time, been learning a lot from it. Thanks for that :-)

[virtualstuff 758]

Has anyone else tried a head-to-head comparison of ASA and REX? If so, what were your impressions? Which did you like better, and why?Alan

Thanks for sharing your thoughts appreciated.But at this point I don't have made my decision yet... as for REX2 I think they made a huge step forward compared to REX1 but I find the interface still not done in a professional way (not consistent and logical)As for the weather engine up until now ASA depicts the weather as I see it out of the window and REX is sometimes different :(What I don't like about ASA is the thick haze layer...REX has a smaller memory footprint :-)The textures form REX2 are the best out there (Tim did a great job there)I think we have here two great programs...Need more time to have a final preference which program to use.For new users, just use both so you can even choose which one does the job best at that particular moment lol :-)

[Guest rdg]

Yes, the memory footprint is smaller, which is critical for XP even with the use of the 3gb switch. I would like to try and see if I can point REX to run on 1 core. I am going to give it a shot and see if there is any advantage.So far I am enjoying REX alnd I have not had any show stoppers which pleases me this early in the release. I think the beta testers did a great job. Only two small issues so far which I have posted, and this of course may be something specific to Windows 7, I dont know. RegardsBob

[Guest ArtieLange]

I'd never say that REX was realistic. I don't know if you remember Velvia, which I mentioned earlier - it was a color slide film by Fuji that was famous for producing colors not found in nature. It had an intense, oversaturated look and that made it a favorite for advertising and corporate annual report photographers who wanted high intensity, not realism. I guess I'm intrigued by the fact that REX seems to produce a similar effect. Alan

Velvia didn't produce colors not found in nature, in fact it was the only film used by a lot of nature photographers. It was saturated and contrasty, but not "fake". Galen Rowell ( R.I.P. ) used it and there was nothing fake about his stuff http://mountainlight.com/

[Alan_A 1,650]

Velvia didn't produce colors not found in nature, in fact it was the only film used by a lot of nature photographers. It was saturated and contrasty, but not "fake". Galen Rowell ( R.I.P. ) used it and there was nothing fake about his stuff http://mountainlight.com/

Much as I admire Galen Rowell, I'd never say his work was subdued. Not "fake" either, but in the prints on his website (per your link), the colors deliver a kind of high-intensity, heightened realism - not unlike REX. Nothing wrong with that - it was his intent. Ansel Adams did similar things in black and white. You can go to Ansel's locations and you won't see his photographs in front of you - the photographs were the result of his artistry in visualizing, developing and (especially) printing. Again, the goal isn't realism, it's expression. As Garry Winogrand, a very different kind of photographer, said, "The photograph isn't the object photographed. It's a new fact."All of which is actually relevant when it comes to this thread. I've just finished another set of tests and at the end I find I've gone in a big circle back to where I started. ASA gives me the best weather. REX gives me the best textures. It took me a while to figure out how to work with the REX textures, 'til I discovered that, for my taste anyway, the best ones were the ones that were labeled as the most natural. The exception is dusk, where I settled on "Dry Southwest" for my northeastern and mid-Atlantic skies. It's the only one that gets just the right touch of red in the mix. I finally settled on REX clouds over FEX by a slight margin - choosing 1024 textures. Lower resolution looked fake, and higher bogged down my system. Again, I picked the more natural, less detailed textures. In my area, which is influenced by coastal weather, the clouds aren't all that chiseled to begin with.Once I got all the textures sorted out, I found that ASA weather gave me realistic behavior, and REX textures gave me a mostly real-seeming environment with (like Velvia) some added intensity. For example, the "Dry Southwest" dusk gives way to a midnight blue the likes of which I've only seen once or twice in the Alps in summer, and never around here. But there's a point to it. It seems to me that in the simulator, some aspects of reality need to be exaggerated to make up for the sensations you've lost - like motion and vibration and being completely surrounded in your environment. The luminosity of the REX textures isn't always realistic but helps restore the sense that "you are there." In the same way, the soundsets for certain add-ons (like the Aerosoft Beaver and, I hope, the upcoming A2A Cub) add to the atmosphere and almost convince you you're smelling avgas, which of course you're not. For all of those reasons, I prefered the REX textures to FEX or X-Graphics, even though it could be argued that those others are closer to reality. That said, I'm still avoiding the more exaggerated REX textures, like the "Oh My" dusk (which was the one I mentioned earlier, the one where the colors were so rich I couldn't see anything).For what it's worth, I think I'm now in complete agreement with Vic that the weather and the textures are separate issues and should be addressed separately. ASA plus the right (for me) REX textures gave me the same sense of emotional involvement as the all-REX flight I talked about in the first post.Additional insight - much as I like the idea of choosing weather-specific textures, in practice that leads to some of the stranger ones being swapped in. I'm doing better to choose a set that works for most situations, and then let the weather engine do its things. Again, points to Vic re: this.For what it's worth, my most successful REX texture set was this: Sky = Authentic (Dawn)/Reality (Day)/Dry Southwest (Dusk); Clouds = Cumulus Set 15, Cirrus Set 03; Inland Water = Deep Blue Eyes; Ocean Water = Ocean Blue Darker; Tropical Water = Sandy Bottom; Wave Animation = It's Water; Asphalt Runway 02; Parking 01; Sun/Lighting = Realistic Sun. Obviously, I'll experiment more with some of that.And of course, YMMV.As before, hope this is helpful.Alan

[Alan_A 1,650]

Oh, one additional point. The problem I mentioned earlier in the thread - the Saitek switch panel that freezes and locks up Track IR4 along with it - turns out not to have anything to do with REX. I had it happen again last night using ASA as the weather engine. I'm not sure now what's causing it, but the common factor seems to be that it always happens at Plum Island, and now that I think about it, I can't think of its happening anywhere else. I'm not sure what the interaction would be between the scenery package and the switch panel - maybe an animation, like the flock of birds? I'll have to explore this further. But I wanted to post a correction and make it clear that REX is off the hook as far as this one is concerned.Alan

[Alan_A 1,650]

A final note - after testing, "Simple Ocean" works better as a wave animation for me than "It's Water."Enough. The A2A Cub is out (amazing!) and I'm done tweaking and going back to flying. Really flying. Wow.Alan