Do PMDG recommend using weather programs?

[joolsd 10]

Or should we be using default FSX weather for authentic flying? As I know they have put time and effort into the flight dynamics. Surely a weather program is a big deal, in comparason to default weather?

[Guest firehawk44]

Or should we be using default FSX weather for authentic flying? As I know they have put time and effort into the flight dynamics. Surely a weather program is a big deal, in comparason to default weather?

The 737NGX works great with my commercial weather program (ASE). It even performed well with ASE when Hurricane Irene came up the East Coast a month or so ago. Very dramatic but the aircraft performed well in the nasty weather landing at KDCA. I think this is where the PMDG 737X sparkles! Best regards,Jim Young

[joolsd 10]

The 737NGX works great with my commercial weather program (ASE). It even performed well with ASE when Hurricane Irene came up the East Coast a month or so ago. Very dramatic but the aircraft performed well in the nasty weather landing at KDCA. I think this is where the PMDG 737X sparkles!

I think the question should of been does the PMDG NGX behave even more realistically with a weather program? From what I understand the default weather is not great? I have REX, which improves the look of textures and lighting etc. But I am thinking getting ASE for better weather.

[jwenham 1]

Here is what I am using for weather. I run it with FEX and it works very nice and it is FREE for now at least. http://www.rs-transline.de/index.php?page=self&id=2 Jim

[Ramzess 0]

I have both ASE and REX. I purchased ASE back when it was still called ASA and used it for weather.Was good but somehow I abandoned it. Then I got to know REX and used it for some time and again -abandoned it. Now when I got my new rig I kind of returned to REX + Overdrive. It does improve overall looks of FSXweather textures, and I am ok with it. I know many guys out there use ASE as weather engine and REX for textures, since I don' t know how to do thatI stick to REX. So for I haven' t had any issues with this weather addon + NGX.

[Eraser74 35]

Here is what I am using for weather. I run it with FEX and it works very nice and it is FREE for now at least. http://www.rs-transl...?page=self&id=2 Jim

Have tried this and it´s not very good. When loading new weather in the plane jumps in speed drastically and sometimes rocks left and right until the weather is completely loaded into the sim. Never had this happen with ASE. For free it´s okay, but don´t expect any miracles. Why don´t you use the REX weather engine until getting ASE....this also has the jump in speeds when loading new weather in, but not as heavy as this freeware tool. I would totally recommend ASE. Works perfectly with the NGX.

[aentwis 61]

If you want to use ASE weather with REX textures, just switch off the weather generation engine on the configuration interface in REX. You should close REX once the textures you want have been generated and installed. Andrew

[Jazz 1,047]

I have both ASE and REX. I purchased ASE back when it was still called ASA and used it for weather.Was good but somehow I abandoned it. Then I got to know REX and used it for some time and again -abandoned it. Now when I got my new rig I kind of returned to REX + Overdrive. It does improve overall looks of FSXweather textures, and I am ok with it. I know many guys out there use ASE as weather engine and REX for textures, since I don' t know how to do thatI stick to REX. So for I haven' t had any issues with this weather addon + NGX.

You just disable the weather engine in REX. You can still change the textures whenever you want but disable the weather in the options. Then you simply run active sky. It really could not be any simpler.

[flyer767 0]

I use ASE with SP3 and REX graphics and it works great especially with the HD clouds.

[Scott434 12]

I use REX2 OD for environment and weather. I cannot comment about the differences with ASE since I do not have ASE. For my purposes, I simply want the weather to reflect local conditions when I am flying. REX downloads from weather stations and then loads/adjusts fsx appropriately using its fantastic textures for clouds, water etc. IMHO, REX does this extremely well and supplies some incredible beautiful skies and does so with one add-on therefore eliminating an additional program.I would like to hear from anyone who has run REX weather and ASE to learn what the primary differences are between the two however. If you end up using REX for the graphics, what does ASE add? I fly primarily Washington, British Columbia and Alaska with the NGX and the Beaver using OBBX NA Blue, REX Overdrive (HD textures) and REX real time weather. It truly is pretty sweet.

[Chock 17,769]

I would like to hear from anyone who has run REX weather and ASE to learn what the primary differences are between the two however. If you end up using REX for the graphics, what does ASE add?

ASE is a specific weather generation and reporting program, whereas REX attempts to do several things, and it pulls most of them off pretty well and the visuals superbly well, but it cannot compete with what ASE is capable of, because ASE is geared toward that one task alone, and so it does that better than anything else. This is why many people use REX with ASE, because REX does the visuals brilliantly, but ASE does the weather generation brilliantly. Specifically, the main advantage of ASE is that it does quadrantial interpolation of weather data, which in plain English means this: ASE doesn't simply load a METAR nearest to you into the sim and then keep that weather in the sim until your aeroplane either gets a nearer station or an updated METAR. Instead, it reads the four closest weather METARS surrounding your aircraft and then interpolates that data to also calculate an analysis of what the weather will be like in between those weather stations, and the way it does that is better than anything else out there. This means that you are far more likely to get gradual changes in weather as you fly around, instead of crossing a boundary into another METAR region and getting a sudden weather change, and it also means that you get a good representation of what the weather is like even when there is no nearby weather station, since it always calculates the weather by assessing the nearest weather stations and the trends, and that means you'll get better weather over oceans or the middle of darkest Africa or anywhere else where there aren't weather reporting stations close by. Al

[Scott434 12]

Thanks Al, great informative post once again. REX must do some "blending" so I guess it becomes a trade off between accepting REX as good enough for the intended purpose against another program to buy, learn and administer.

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Great program Jim, thanks for the heads up.

[Max Kraus 342]

Using FSWXLite and have abandoned REX and others. This free weather engine is great and has zero issues if you set it up right. Perfect flights, no bloat, no memory hogging, no lag, no stutters, Perfect weather. I recommend it but make sure you set it up properly. It's not hard.

[Chock 17,769]

Thanks Al, great informative post once again. REX must do some "blending" so I guess it becomes a trade off between accepting REX as good enough for the intended purpose against another program to buy, learn and administer.

Oh REX does indeed do some of that, as indeed does FSX if you fiddle with the settings and use FSUIPC, but for me it is a case of ''horses for courses'', REX is a great texture product, and ASE is a great weather engine, which is why I use both, for their relative merits. Al