REX Essential released

[fghdgdfdfgfgf 111]

Paul-

.....I'd think twice before installing Rex E.

 

I think the real question for me at this point is not 'weather' or not RexE is better than AS2012 but rather how different it is from Rex2 w/ Overdrive.

 

I've had Rex E installed since release and I admit that I do not have the ability to articulate those differences .....to me there's a wagon full of differences. However! I can come up with one difference that is clearly different and truly outstanding; the fog rolling in over San Bruno Gap -just of east KSFO.

 

Oh, there's one other difference that I'll note: I no longer get the 180 degree wind shift that I got with Rex2 while crossing the 28's 30' above the threshold at KSFO. Now that leads me into my complaints...

 

WINDS, or the lack of .....

RexE has been a major PITA for me. Options? yeah, RexE has those ...too many if you ask me. I'd really like to see less use of the word "Real" and maybe little more 'real' in the options menu .....

 

......Don't even get me started on where and when the RexE wHeather engine gets started.

[ajpongress 467]

Paul several people have given their opinions on using REXE with active sky.

There are plenty of mini reviews given on the REX forums as well.

 

Comparing REXE to REX 2.0 OD, it's an improvement just for the sky themes alone. Morning, day, and night have a realistic haze to them and the cloud textures are better then 2.0 OD imo.

 

Here's my mini review:

 

1. If you have money to blow that you won't miss and you:

 

a. own REXE only = get AS2012 for more realistic weather generation and continue using REXE textures

b. own AS2012 only = get REXE for more realistic textures and continue using the AS2012 wx engine

 

2. If you really can't afford to blow money or only have enough money to make one major upgrade addon purchase and you:

 

a. own REXE only = stick with REXE textures plus the wx generator. It's miles ahead of FSX weather and it's not that far behind AS2012. It's decently good

b. own AS2012 only = stick with AS2012 textures plus the wx generator. The wx generator is the best on the market currently and the AS2012 textures are better then most textures available, plus easy on frame rates. REXE textures are still better but the cost of a new addon just for moderately improved textures isn't worth it imo....maybe to someone else it is

 

There Paul. Now you can sleep easy.

[pete_auau 1,152]

Paul several people have given their opinions on using REXE with active sky.

There are plenty of mini reviews given on the REX forums as well.

 

Comparing REXE to REX 2.0 OD, it's an improvement just for the sky themes alone. Morning, day, and night have a realistic haze to them and the cloud textures are better then 2.0 OD imo.

 

Here's my mini review:

 

1. If you have money to blow that you won't miss and you:

 

a. own REXE only = get AS2012 for more realistic weather generation and continue using REXE textures

b. own AS2012 only = get REXE for more realistic textures and continue using the AS2012 wx engine

 

2. If you really can't afford to blow money or only have enough money to make one major upgrade addon purchase and you:

 

a. own REXE only = stick with REXE textures plus the wx generator. It's miles ahead of FSX weather and it's not that far behind AS2012. It's decently good

b. own AS2012 only = stick with AS2012 textures plus the wx generator. The wx generator is the best on the market currently and the AS2012 textures are better then most textures available, plus easy on frame rates. REXE textures are still better but the cost of a new addon just for moderately improved textures isn't worth it imo....maybe to someone else it is

 

There Paul. Now you can sleep easy.

Great review Aj

[Paul_Smith 92]

Yes, a very good and informative review. I wish you had posted it yesterday though :)

 

Here is my mini review:

 

The good, the bad, and the ugly

1) The 4.2 Gb zip file took five and a half hours to download at work.

2) no readme file or other obvious instructions, just an installer and some cab files.

3) ran installer from zip file and it failed.

4) unzipped delivery file to temp, 4.5G so not much compression involved.

5) ran installer again, it suggested c:\program files(x86). Not a good choice IMHO.

6) installed to my FSX_addons directory, 5.5Gb. It created a desktop icon but no welcome note or readme.

7) clicked on desktop icon

8) Configuration page asked for fsx location. (why didn't it get it from registry?)

9) Lots (and lots, and lots) of options, most with funny noises and unusual ways of selecting them but the use of odd terminology makes choices (Bing Bong - new shared flight plan from xxx) more difficult then necessary, for example, "Weather surface region" with a slider from small to large, but no indication of what difference size makes. (I later found the help file, it didn't)

10) I left everything at its default value as I went through the (Bing Bong - new shared flight plan from xxx) various configuration options. I did not subscribe to the paid flight plan service but created my own from EICM to EIWT (alt EIDW) in a Cessna 340. I changed the recommended 29,500 cruise altitude to 4,500 ft.

11) I then went to the weather page and selected EIWT and when it couldn't (Bing Bong - new shared flight plan from xxx) find that, EIDW.

12) I then hit the weather view button, expecting to see a map centered around EIDW and showing my selected flight plan and the weather I should expect, instead I get a satellite view of the USA. #####?

13) I then hit the WX Textures button and started my stop watch. 8 minutes later (an improvement on REX) they were loaded though I have absolutely no idea why anybody thinks I would want a tropical water conversion batch while flying from Galway to Dublin.

14) I hit Fly now, set up my flight and take a look around. Nice but not special.

15) I take off heading east with the setting sun behind me. And then wow. OMFG Wow! The sky is sort of clear with just a little stratus catching the rays and nothing near me to worry about. Off to the south is a line of cumulus I will need to keep an eye on but it is well off my intended path so no need to worry for now. But then I look at the horizon and ... where is it? There is a haze or blur so that it is just not quite clear where the land ends and the sky starts. It could be just haze, or a mountain range, or a bank of clouds. I just can't quite tell. In Ireland, we very rarely get crystal clear air which means that most of the time, features at any distance look 'soft' and the horizon looks like… well, this. I am used to it in the real world and I love it, but I have never, ever seen it captured in FSX. It was perfect!

16) 15 minutes into the flight, I get a green status bar that distracts me for a moment and when I look back out the window, it has changed. What was a clear path to my next visual waypoint is now an unavoidable mass of cloud.

17) I fly into it and get completely disorientated, ending up in a 30 degree climbing bank with airspeed falling rapidly before I regain awareness. #####! The inside of the clouds are beautiful. Very subtle and realistic and beautifully lit with just one let down. The air is absolutely flat calm.

18) I continued the flight becoming more and more aware of the flat air and the sudden, sometimes drastic, changes every 15 minutes.

19) I reset everything and repeated the flight exactly.

20) Two changes. a) Loading textures only (only?) took 5 minutes. B) There were no haze effects.

21) I repeated the flight with AS2012 but did not use AS2012 textures. Very different (active and realistic) weather, no haze, same beautiful clouds, no sudden changes.

22) I repeated the flight with AS2012 and AS2012 textures. Weather was consistent with previous run, clouds were not as good but not bad (I didn't fly into them.)

23) my initial opinion of RexE is that it has some awesome but inconsistent effects, shite weather, generally clumsy interface.

[pete_auau 1,152]

Guess maybe you should have read the manual everything is explained in there you can turn off the shared flight plans and themes but guess you missed that part in the manual as the same as your other points.

 

Suppose it took you 1 day to work out as2102 to find out the right settings for your pc.I had no troubles when i was installing it, it asked me where i wanted to install it, you mentioned about the location of the fsx location geez this is the same as rex2 instead it asked you where your cfg was located,so cant see why your complaining about rexe on where the fsx is located.

 

Did you install it as admin rights but guess you did and when you ran the rexe did you run it as admin since if you dont it will create problems as in the weather and clouds etc.

 

Did you install the textures first before your first flight. Being a clumsy interface lol only if you want it to be, takes me 1 click on the fly option and it takes me to fsx, once you have set the textures you want its quite easy to work it out.

 

About the weather injection time you can set at what altutude before it injects the weather so when you landing you can set it at a certain alt so it wont change the weather on you on landing.

 

Other useful information can be found in the manual

[Petraeus 145]

Here is my mini review:

 

 

Thanks for that. My experience is similar, particularly trying to understand what the options do. One question - did the weather you saw correspond to the real world weather as reported on aviation weather sites? Whilst I find some of the weather looks stunning, it doesn't necessarily correspond to what's happening in the real world - particularly surface winds at departure and arrival airports, which is a real PITA.

[Petraeus 145]

Guess maybe you should have read the manual everything is explained in there

 

Hmm - that's debatable. Fluency in programming languages doesn't necessarily guarantee fluency in human languages. Take one example from the manual:

 

"Enable Hyper Weather Wind Smoothing - Keeps surface wind the same at all stations, but takes the

next level winds and globalizes for all surrounding stations around the aircraft. It forces the next level

of winds up to 39,000ft. This offers both vertical and horizontal wind smoothing. As updates occur,

changes happen over time, but very gradually and upon the fringes of the weather region. Probably

the most unrealistic form of representing winds, but creates the smoothest option for wind handling."

 

Whilst this is written in my own native language, and I understand all the words, it doesn't make complete sense to me as it stands. For example, "Keeps surface wind the same at all stations". Does this mean that the surface wind at each station is identical to that at every other station, or that at each station the surface wind is identical to that reported by the METAR? The difference is rather crucial.

 

I thinks Essentials, in addition to being a brilliant portrayer of weather graphics, is potentially a brilliant weather engine, but it needs the attentions of a good technical writer to unlock any potential.

[pete_auau 1,152]

Hmm - that's debatable. Fluency in programming languages doesn't necessarily guarantee fluency in human languages. Take one example from the manual:

 

"Enable Hyper Weather Wind Smoothing - Keeps surface wind the same at all stations, but takes the

next level winds and globalizes for all surrounding stations around the aircraft. It forces the next level

of winds up to 39,000ft. This offers both vertical and horizontal wind smoothing. As updates occur,

changes happen over time, but very gradually and upon the fringes of the weather region. Probably

the most unrealistic form of representing winds, but creates the smoothest option for wind handling."

 

Whilst this is written in my own native language, and I understand all the words, it doesn't make complete sense to me as it stands. For example, "Keeps surface wind the same at all stations". Does this mean that the surface wind at each station is identical to that at every other station, or that at each station the surface wind is identical to that reported by the METAR? The difference is rather crucial.

 

I thinks Essentials, in addition to being a brilliant portrayer of weather graphics, is potentially a brilliant weather engine, but it needs the attentions of a good technical writer to unlock any potential.

yea true one needs to be able to deceipher some explanations in manuals suppose this goes for any addons there are, some are more in detail than others, point taken :) Plus most things are in the manual if you read it first was the thing i was trying to get accross

[pete_auau 1,152]

Thanks for that. My experience is similar, particularly trying to understand what the options do. One question - did the weather you saw correspond to the real world weather as reported on aviation weather sites? Whilst I find some of the weather looks stunning, it doesn't necessarily correspond to what's happening in the real world - particularly surface winds at departure and arrival airports, which is a real PITA.

Just wondering since on my set up the weather loads exactly what rexe and the real world weather says it is so was wondering on how you installed rexe , did you turn off your avg and use admin rights to install it?

Did you install the patch or the full rexe installer( since i installed the full exe)

if you removed the previous version did you use ccleaner and did you remove any left over rex folders?

Since some users have uninstalled and did a reinstall of rexe and it solved some of their problems not saying it will solve yours though.

[Petraeus 145]

Just wondering since on my set up the weather loads exactly what rexe and the real world weather says it is so was wondering on how you installed rexe , did you turn off your avg and use admin rights to install it?

Did you install the patch or the full rexe installer( since i installed the full exe)

if you removed the previous version did you use ccleaner and did you remove any left over rex folders?

Since some users have uninstalled and did a reinstall of rexe and it solved some of their problems not saying it will solve yours though.

 

I installed over the top of the earlier Rex version. Thanks for the pointers.

[pete_auau 1,152]

I installed over the top of the earlier Rex version. Thanks for the pointers.

No problem that probably what causing your problem if you installed the full rexe installer over your old one without uninstalling it first:) hope it solves your problem Remmeber if your going to uninstall the rexe make sure you use the restore option first to get back the textures before your installed rexe

[Paul_Smith 92]

Guess maybe you should have read the manual everything is explained in there...

That would have been a good trick since I do not have access to the manual until after I have installed the software. If I need to run as admin, or turn off av, or do anything other then just run the installer, then there should be a readme.1st or a welcome note to say that. I am good, but I am not telepathic.

 

I have never had a need to read the manual for AS2012, even though it does exactlly the same job. I would take that to mean its interface is less clumsy. When I did read the manual for RexE looking for an explanation of "Surface weather region", much like Petraeus and his "hyper weather", I was not enlighted.

 

The weather with RexE did not correspond to what was outside my window and I live almost half way along my chosen flight path. The weather AS2012 chose for the same point on the route was pretty accurate.

 

Why would I want to restrict the weather changes to specific times or certain altitudes? A weather engine is supposed to give me the correct weather for where I am, otherwise what use is it? As I have given it my flight plan, it already knows where I intend to be next so I see no justification for sudden, significant changes. If you want to tell me that such and such a setting will make it smooth, why isn't that the default behaviour? And no, I do not believe that behaviour is much better then the FSX default.

 

Ok, so we are agreed that RexE has missed the mark weather wise and its interface/manual leave room for improvement.

I would consider using it as my texture generator if I could rely on the effects. RexE provided textures for the same flight three times. Once it was amazing, twice it was ordinary.

[pete_auau 1,152]

That would have been a good trick since I do not have access to the manual until after I have installed the software. If I need to run as admin, or turn off av, or do anything other then just run the installer, then there should be a readme.1st or a welcome note to say that. I am good, but I am not telepathic.

 

I have never had a need to read the manual for AS2012, even though it does exactlly the same job. I would take that to mean its interface is less clumsy. When I did read the manual for RexE looking for an explanation of "Surface weather region", much like Petraeus and his "hyper weather", I was not enlighted.

 

The weather with RexE did not correspond to what was outside my window and I live almost half way along my chosen flight path. The weather AS2012 chose for the same point on the route was pretty accurate.

 

Why would I want to restrict the weather changes to specific times or certain altitudes? A weather engine is supposed to give me the correct weather for where I am, otherwise what use is it? As I have given it my flight plan, it already knows where I intend to be next so I see no justification for sudden, significant changes. If you want to tell me that such and such a setting will make it smooth, why isn't that the default behaviour? And no, I do not believe that behaviour is much better then the FSX default.

 

Ok, so we are agreed that RexE has missed the mark weather wise and its interface/manual leave room for improvement.

I would consider using it as my texture generator if I could rely on the effects. RexE provided textures for the same flight three times. Once it was amazing, twice it was ordinary.

 

As aj has mentioned in his post it all depends on one machine its installed on since everyhing works on mine the weather loads as shown in the real world. As loading the the altitude to a certain height is because if you dont wont to land while the weather is injecting the weather you can set it to zero feet if you wanted to.

 

Did you correctly uninstall rex2 from you pc including the left over folders of rex2 from your pc, and did you run ccleaner since if you didnt this will cause issues as you been describing, as this has been mentioned in the rex forums to make sure you totally remove rex2 from your pc before installing the full rexe installer.

 

Cant see any thing wrong with the interface due to the fact theres more options to choose from, so how else they can do it, just let them know how would you make it more user friendly iam sure they would like to hear from you.

 

About the manual thought that was the case with all addons you get the manual when you download the product so you got the manual from as21012 before you installed it? Beside if you would have checked the rex forum since you had rex already the manual was released before the product was released so its always a good idea to check the forums on the products that you own since it gives you insight on things you didnt know before.

 

Thought that downloading and running as admin was a know fact to everyone using w7 since its mention a few times with the installation of the ngx, than again I dont know what your running since you havnt said what you have got in your signature block so if your still running xp than theres no need to use admin rights since abit hard to guess what you have as a o/s system

 

Anyways the main thing is that your happy with as21012 and iam very happy and one of the lucky ones that everything works for me with rexe.

[G7USL 117]

Any update for REX with OD, Essential download please?

[member111333 8]

I really hope, they will finally offer at least one highly accurate dawn/dusk theme. I would rather have one exellent one than maybe a dozen that look like an

 

"impressionist painting with Disney fairytale coloring".

 

Apart from that little issue I think REX is an excellent programme.