Hi

 

The best addon at the moment is France VFR Alsace 3DA period. (with the additionnal freewares who go with it).

Nothing gets anywhere close in terms of realism and skope, it is REALLY miles aways from anything that has been done so far. This is a bit long to explain, but simply put, every single building is represented with its current shape, color, size, idem for lampost, electric lines, type of forest and everything is photoreal etc...

Hard to describe.

 

Forget the REX/Orbx hype (which is very good for the PNW stuff) and just try it.

 

Etienne

REX and Active Sky download real world weather to inject into FSX. Use one or the other, not both together, but you can load textures into FSX from one, then use the other's weather engine. Both have textures included (AS2012 includes water, runway surfaces and markings, and a bunch of others, I don't know what all REX includes). Either of these is better than the built-in real world weather of FSX. You don't need a flight plan, as these programs know where your aircraft is in the world and inject the correct weather for your current location. In AS2012 you'll need to load a flight plan so you can get destination weather from ATIS (although you may need to use AS2012's 122.0 for nearest weather station and 122.02 for destination instead of an actual ATIS frequency).

 

OpusFSX is only a weather engine, no textures included, but has camera options which REX and Active Sky do not. Opus will work with textures loaded into FSX by REX, Active Sky, or another source, and the textures themselves do not require the originating program to be running.

 

Hook

Thanks Hook.

 

On the topic of weather engines...

 

At the same time as I'm following around in this thread, I'm reading others and trying to learn what I can. I've been reading along in a thread that talks about that OpusFSX you mention. Seems alot of folks think its terrifiic.

 

I was wondering if maybe I could get your opinion, seeing as how I'm not quite sure how these things all inter-relate yet.

 

The weather end is very important to me. I never use weather themes or set up specific weather...I always use only downloaded real-world weather. The closer it is to real world accurate for me at my departure, entroute, and destination, the better.

 

The way I understand it, I can use the "textures" from one package and use the "weather engine" of another. As far as textures go, that sounds like its personal preference as I've seen answers all over the map. Some seem to like REX, some seem to like AS, etc.

 

So, I'm trying to figure out which weather engine to grab. After reading what you, and others, have said about that OpusFSX...that sounds pretty good. I have some experience with ActiveSky version 6 back with FS9 so I know I really liked that. I've never used REX before but I see it recommended alot.

 

So, based on what I'm looking for above, what would you recommend for a weather system? I'll probably end up getting REX regardless of whether I use the weather system stuff in it....as I've heard so many recommend it that it might be worth a shot. But I'm not sure whether I should also get OpusFSX, or ActiveSky...or both.

 

Also, on a completely unrelated note....

 

What do you think about traffic or ATC? Do you have a recommendation or do you prefer the default FSX stuff?

Concerning Orbx: their FTX sceneries will replace UTX, GEX, landclass and mesh. You could say it's all of them in one. And then some (like updated airports). And it's not only all of them, it's also better then all of them. ^_^ Drawback: the regions are smaller... but once you have flown above Orbx scenery you will know why.

 

Concerning UTX and GEX (this is a VERY short description because specially UTX delivers more): UTX will give you real life roads and waters (so you can recognize everything with a real map on your lap) while GEX will give you better textures in between those roads and waters. Those textures quite generic though: Orbx also uses generic textures (90% of the time) but since their regions are a LOT smaller, they are also different and more appropriate for every region.

 

A lot of people fly above Orbx scenery and use UTX plus GEX for the regions Orbx doesn't cover (yet).

 

BTW You can download demo's from Orbx (a small region that you can use without time limit).

 

Concerning planes: as with all other types of addons there is no real consencus on what is best, but... when you talk about 'best' and 'planes' you will find the RealAir Legacy (GA) and the PMDG 737NGX (airliner obviously) will be mentioned more often then others... This also goes for anything A2A Simulations releases (although I don't own any of their planes because I don't like the kind of planes they release).

 

I personally ONLY fly above Orbx scenery in the RealAir Legacy with REX textures for clouds and skies and OpusFSX for weather. Those four addons are mandatory for me: the rest is nice but I wouldn't stop playing FSX if I didn't have them. (I also have TrackIR btw.)

GEX & UTX. My understanding is that GEX is pretty much for all that space on the ground between detailed areas. It improves the autogen ground stuff. Trees, roads, etc. etc. UTX works "with" this. I'm not exactly sure on the specifics of what each of these does but the screenshots I've looked at usually say "GEX with UTX" or what not.

 

GEX replaces all of your default textures and does some enhancements to the UTX program. GEX provides better textures than the default and are optimized to provide better performance.

 

Best regards,

Jim

So, based on what I'm looking for above, what would you recommend for a weather system? I'll probably end up getting REX regardless of whether I use the weather system stuff in it....as I've heard so many recommend it that it might be worth a shot. But I'm not sure whether I should also get OpusFSX, or ActiveSky...or both.

 

REX and Active Sky are both full featured mature products. OpusFSX is new, still in development, with features still being added.

 

People love the cloud depictions in Opus, and you can do a very quick check of this by downloading the 10 minute demo, although the weather won't change unless you're on the ground. I'll eventually get Opus but I'm waiting for the product to mature a bit first. You may find you prefer Opus if you try it; most have, but a few have gone back to their previous weather engine.

 

If you've decided to get REX anyway, go ahead and get the latest version. In the previous version, people loved the clouds but many preferred to use other weather engines. The newest version has probably upgraded the weather engine to be more competitive with Active Sky and Opus. If you're researching REX, read about the newest version to get up to date info.

 

I bought Active Sky long ago so I could get a weather map with depictions of winds aloft, something I didn't have with the built-in weather and I had no idea where to find the real world data. I've kept it upgraded and have been happy with it. There are 3 weather depiction modes, each with advantages and drawbacks. The AS2012 SP2 (currently in open beta) has added a lot of new textures, so it's hard to tell right now whether Active Sky or REX has the better ones; it's all personal preference in any case. If you liked Active Sky before, you'll love it now.

 

If the cost isn't a problem there's no reason to get two or all three. Use whichever textures you like the most, and the weather engine that works best for you.

 

Hook

J Van E & firehawk44,

 

Thanks for those explanations and descriptions. That went a LONG way to clearing up alot of confusion on my part. It takes a bit to be able to gain any understanding on how these things all work together. Anyone know of any sort of FAQ out there somewhere or something that explains how all the different types of add-on products inter-relate so that someone knew can understand the basics of how they work?

 

Based on your responses, it looks like my shopping list is on the right track. I'm looking at GEX, UTX, REX, and OpusFSX. It sounds like I'll be looking at a very similar setup to yours so your post was immensely helpful. Thankyou. The only difference is that I might pick up ActiveSky2012 in addition to the above simply to play with it. Several years ago when I was more active with FS9 I really enjoyed ActiveSky6...so I'll probably pick it up just to try it out. I do alot of different types of flying anyway so the variety in weather programs will certainly be an advantage. Aside from tinkering with ActiveSky though....It looks like my setup will be similar to yours.

 

Question with regards to REX:

 

The past couple days I've been lurking in several threads, and reading and learning about REX versus OpusFSX and some other things. The confusing part is which "REX" is the right one? I see so many acronyms mentioned for REX. Is it REX Essential? Or REX Essential Overdrive? What about the free downloads on the site. Are those good? (I see they have some road stuff, and airport stuff, and water stuff).

 

None of this REX stuff will overwrite or conflict with my GEX/UTX stuff right (or vice versa)?

 

 

Hook,

 

Thanks again for the clarification, information, and compare/contrast. That helps.

 

I will most likely pick up REX (as you mentioned), OpusFSX, and ActiveSky. Based on my reading and the responses I've read here I think the OpusFSX will be best for most of my uses. However, I had good luck with ActiveSky6 once upon a time. So I think it might be nice to have choices and the right tool for the job.

 

If you're researching REX, read about the newest version to get up to date info.

 

I asked a similar question above, but I'll ask here as well for sake of completeness. Just to be sure...which version of REX is the current one I should be looking into? On the website I see a "REX Essential" and "REX Essential Overdrive". Or is it just like REX2 and somehow it automatically updates to the most current? I also see a bunch of free download stuff for REX, is that stuff good? None of that will conflict with any of the GEX/UTX stuff will it?

REX Essentials Plus is the latest version. You could also call it REX 3.2... First we had REX, after that came REX 2, then REX Essentials and now REX Essentials Plus.

 

Overdrive is a free addon for REX with 9.9 Gb of extra textures. It's optional, not mandatory. You can't buy it or download from a shop: you can only download it from the REX site.