First - it is not disdain - it is just my opinion.Second - I bought REX when it first came out and worked with the guys there to get it set. Just did not like the results. Believe me I tried more combinations than I cared to. For me, they were just not realistic and affected my system(s) negatively.However, I recommend that people try it on their own, if you can afford it. I can so I try the majority of new products, some I keep and some I erase. I erased REX. As I said, lots of people love it. For them, they are not wrong.So I stand by my earlier comment. I like FEX better than REX and it appears the AS2012 might be better than FEX.

I agree disdain was the wrong word. I read that you simply had an opinion... which is fine.

You have to be careful.....a lot of the 'newcomers' believe REX is the only game in town.Whilst I like the water textures I see in the REX screenshots, the clouds (as already stated) look far too dramatic, hence why I have never switched from FEX. Did not seem worth the extra $ over what I already had.Nothing wrong with REX, just different strokes for different folks. I think its great that the ASE guys are coming in with something new. Competition is good!

This is a nice surprise! Im currently using REX textures with ASE, so Im definitely interested to see if this replaces REX entirely.

Funny, the Avsim site already announced it's release... Premature? Or do they know something we don't? http://www.avsim.com/

do they make any breakthrough so that the cloud cast shadow?

Jim isn't at Hifi anymore.

As both compagnies are doing their best to deliver textures in high quality it really doesn't matter that much anymore.Therefore imho if you already own REX for textures and ASE for weather engine you might see no difference whne flying.On the other hand : if you only had REX for both than this might be something for you.

I know we all have a choice, but I'm starting to find this constant stream of "upgrades" a bit irritating. All software is improved over the years but I'm not sure you can call something a "new version" and sell it at full price at this sort of frequency without starting to generate some bad feeling from your customers. Especially when the new version has a weather engine that should probably just be a patch for ASE and some cloud textures that nobody asked for. People will buy it just because they like having the latest version I guess. One thing is for sure though, I had much love for HiFi after my ASE purchase a few weeks ago. This announcement doesn't make me think of them more highly at all. It just irritates me.

IF Flight emerges in the Spring is this, really needed? There seem to be some addons that are going to be "covered" by Flight. Or, unknown to us, Microsoft has told the third party vendors some details that indicate their products will improve upon Flight and will be compatible.Does not make sense for me to buy something now that will not be of any use 3 to 4 months from now.

I know we all have a choice, but I'm starting to find this constant stream of "upgrades" a bit irritating. All software is improved over the years but I'm not sure you can call something a "new version" and sell it at full price at this sort of frequency without starting to generate some bad feeling from your customers. Especially when the new version has a weather engine that should probably just be a patch for ASE and some cloud textures that nobody asked for. People will buy it just because they like having the latest version I guess. One thing is for sure though, I had much love for HiFi after my ASE purchase a few weeks ago. This announcement doesn't make me think of them more highly at all. It just irritates me.

HelloI cannot see your problem though.You bought ASE a few weeks ago knowing fully that it is an old product then complain when Hifi bring out a different product.Your ASE still works as well today as it did yesterday but AS2012 is a different product entirely from the one you bought.Hifi needed a product that was feature competitive with their competition namely REX.They now have one.One thing is certain though, for your copy of ASE to continue working into the future the developers need to release new products to fund the ongoing maintenance of the servers you use every time you run ASE.Hope that does not irritate you too much

IF Flight emerges in the Spring is this, really needed? There seem to be some addons that are going to be "covered" by Flight. Or, unknown to us, Microsoft has told the third party vendors some details that indicate their products will improve upon Flight and will be compatible.Does not make sense for me to buy something now that will not be of any use 3 to 4 months from now.

True... but then again if Flight comes out tomorrow, how many of us will be using it? Probably nobody. I only switched to FSX less than a year ago. It will remain the primary sim for most people for years to come. FSX is now mature, usable. It takes years for that to happen.

HelloI cannot see your problem though.You bought ASE a few weeks ago knowing fully that it is an old product then complain when Hifi bring out a different product.Your ASE still works as well today as it did yesterday but AS2012 is a different product entirely from the one you bought.Hifi needed a product that was feature competitive with their competition namely REX.They now have one.One thing is certain though, for your copy of ASE to continue working into the future the developers need to release new products to fund the ongoing maintenance of the servers you use every time you run ASE.Hope that does not irritate you too much

No absolutely, I agree on development and funds needed etc... but I don't agree that HiFi needed a product that is competitive with REX. Activeky is the premiere weather engine. The REX weather engine isn't really a weather engine. It's useless. REX is all about textures. Until today these were two separate products that did two separate things. I don't see why they need to compete with each other, or why we need even more textures.Don't get me wrong, I'm usually enthusiastic about new versions of things coming out because they offer value and improve my simulation experience. Now I do like the idea of having everything in one package, but still we don't. ActiveSky now has many gigs of textures but REX will still inject all the non-cloud textures, so we still need it anyway. In all, it's an upgrade that will probably be quite pricey because of features that nobody needs.If they released just an upgrade to the weather engine itself, I'd probably buy that, but again I strongly feel that such an upgrade should be a service pack for ASE, unless there is some groundbreaking new weather engine feature that is only supported by the new engine, which I very much doubt.

Hmm i am a new REX2 user, have had it a couple of weeks, and so far have been happy with it, especially with the textures.I have been using pretty much all the features of REX, it's weather engine, and even the flight planner.I see more and more on these forums where folks use ASE for the weather engine, along with REX for the textures. Sounds like I might should check that out...

No absolutely, I agree on development and funds needed etc... but I don't agree that HiFi needed a product that is competitive with REX. Activeky is the premiere weather engine. The REX weather engine isn't really a weather engine. It's useless. REX is all about textures. Until today these were two separate products that did two separate things. I don't see why they need to compete with each other, or why we need even more textures.Don't get me wrong, I'm usually enthusiastic about new versions of things coming out because they offer value and improve my simulation experience. Now I do like the idea of having everything in one package, but still we don't. ActiveSky now has many gigs of textures but REX will still inject all the non-cloud textures, so we still need it anyway. In all, it's an upgrade that will probably be quite pricey because of features that nobody needs.If they released just an upgrade to the weather engine itself, I'd probably buy that, but again I strongly feel that such an upgrade should be a service pack for ASE, unless there is some groundbreaking new weather engine feature that is only supported by the new engine, which I very much doubt.

HelloFor folks looking to buy a weather engine for FSX and who are not too clued up on the relative weakness of REX's weather engine would look at the features of both products and most likely go for REX because it is a weather engine that also includes textures.The moment that REX included a weather engine it became a competing product to ASE.I cannot blame Hifi for releasing a product that answers that competition.

For folks looking to buy a weather engine for FSX and who are not too clued up on the relative weakness of REX's weather engine would look at the features of both products and most likely go for REX because it is a weather engine that also includes textures.

I see your point... and then dburne proves it :)

Hmm i am a new REX2 user, have had it a couple of weeks, and so far have been happy with it, especially with the textures.I have been using pretty much all the features of REX, it's weather engine, and even the flight planner.I see more and more on these forums where folks use ASE for the weather engine, along with REX for the textures. Sounds like I might should check that out...

dburne yeah, the ActiveSky weather engine is so superior to REX that I don't count REX as a weather engine at all :) Definitely worth checking out.