Weather Program for FSX

[dcgator29 37]

GEX is ground textures. REX is cloud, sky, water, runway textures. A lot of people use the REX textures, but a different weather engine like Opus or Active Sky. Once you choose what REX textures you want, you don't have to open the program again.

[arizona84 0]

REX satisfied me enough for my hardware. fps 30-40. B)

[kmkc6403 8]

I started out with Active Sky...then i used active sky for the weather engine, but used REX for the textures, now im using OPUS for the weather engine and REX for the textures. So ive used all three major weather engines that are out there and have enjoyed all of them , but when i tried OPUS, it was one of those OMG moments, as i have NEVER seen the weather portrayed so accurately as I have with OPUS. Multiple layers of clouds, much better use of fog and fog layers, and it handles the winds much better. And i havent even touched the dynamic head movement features of OPUS yet. I Stuck to what i knew worked for me for a long time (AS2012 engine/REX textures) but OPUS really is an outstanding product.

[DarkstarF16 72]

I'm lucky I have all three. They each offer their own unique slant on injecting weather into FSX.

 

I started with REX and just got fed up when they were having issues when they first released the essentials upgrade and it was taking ages to do initial set up. I can vouch that their support is excellent and now it is a really great weather engine. Lots of textures to play with too.

 

I don't have a bad thing to say about AS2012 either it does what it says on the tin and I really like the map. With each new release it just keeps getting better and the weather smoothing is just really good. So is the fog and early morning stuff. I prefer their cloud textures to REX's and they also offer lots of others too.

 

If your happy with the default cloud textures and want some extra camera options then OPUS is a great choice too. I do find that you get lots of cloud popping with it (when the weather changes) it's low level cloud and fog is good though. Very quick to get going compared with the other two. With REX and AS2012 you do have to wait about 1:30 for them to fetch and interpolate the weather. With AS2012 you have about 2years of historic weather to fall back on if you so wish and both REX and AS2012 offer flight planning.

 

 

 

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

AS2012 latest beta hands down the best i've used yet and i've tried all of them. Second best was Opus but returned it due to lacking features I need like the map with flight planner and historical weather. Least favorite weather was REX, but use some of the water textures.

 

Opus is basically like what Active Sky used to be, before they added a bunch of new features like map, direct wind control, smooth cloud transitions, historical, etc.

[ajpongress 467]

AS2012 latest beta hands down the best i've used yet and i've tried all of them. Second best was Opus but returned it due to lacking features I need like the map with flight planner and historical weather. Least favorite weather was REX, but use some of the water textures.Opus is basically like what Active Sky used to be, before they added a bunch of new features like map, direct wind control, smooth cloud transitions, historical, etc.

 

Opus has wind control, GRIB data for winds aloft, smooth cloud transitions, and they are already adding in historical weather.

Opus is very much up to date, and imo surpasses as2012.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone...typing errors imminent

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

 

 

Opus has wind control, GRIB data for winds aloft, smooth cloud transitions, and they are already adding in historical weather.

Opus is very much up to date, and imo surpasses as2012.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone...typing errors imminent

 

They must have added some of that after I returned it. I dont think they added a weather map with flight planner yet and historical is not going back seven years and has to be saved by the user from what I understand. In other words, you cant download it from their server from any back date you want. I dont think you can use it from a networked computer either which is how I use AS2012.

 

Opus isnt bad, just not as feature packed as As2012 from what I experienced when I tried it. Depiction was about the same using AS2012 smooth cloud transitions mode. Not enough difference for me to justify owning 3 weather programs when I dont even use the one from REX.

[LHookins 3,102]

Thanks for all the input. I looked at OPUS and I must say some of the screen shots are impressive, especially low hanging clouds or fog in hilly areas. AS2012 may do this also, but I didn't see any examples.

 

These are from AS2012 using Smooth Cloud Transition mode.

 

One shows some isolated ground fog 20 miles from the nearest METAR. The other shows some fog in the hilly area near Mena Arkansas.

 

Hook

[1Wolf 7]

I also own the 3 weather engines, and am still going back and forth between them trying to determine which ones I like the best for my own needs.

 

I usually do only GA flying. No airliners or anything.

 

I'm very curious to read about what the folks say who have tried and compared the three and see how that lines up with my own observations.

 

My own observations seem a bit different than the others here. But I'm still learning so maybe I'm just plain wrong...lol.

 

For me, using REXE+OD for both the weather engine and the Textures provides the best and most realistic depiction of clouds and the environment. The word "Realistic" bears further definition here. REX's depiction of the way clouds appear and the environment has been absolutely excellent and amazong. For me...its head and shoulders above the others. However...on the flipside, sometimes its not "accurate" when it comes to comparing it to the outside world. If I compare what REX depicts to the METAR or whats happening outside my window....REX is reasonably accurate. I have had alot of problems with the software theough. They've provided excellent support, however, I fly almost exclusively with historical weather and sometimes the data is there in REX...and sometimes its not. The new Public Beta they have is supposed to fix alot of these.

 

Using OpusFSX with REX Textures seems, as others have mentioned, to provide extremely accurate weather for me. And, hands down, OpusFSX is the easiest to use. Its literally almost "Set it and Forget it". It just works. Its that simple. OpusFSX seems to have gone with a K.I.S.S. concept and its working for them. The weather seems pretty accurate compared to what is going on out the window. The updates are extremely fast. However, at THIS time only the past 24 hours of historical weather are available. I've heard that they are working on going back further than 24 hours and that will be great for me when they do. OpusFSX seems to do an absolutely awesome job of portraying dense, low vis, IMC conditions. If you want to fly through multi-layered thick soup....Opus seems to do that really well. On the other hand, for fairer weather situations, I've used it with both the REX textures and the freeware HDEv2 Textures and, for whatever reason, I just don't like the way the clouds and environment are depicted. The clouds appear to "puffball" or "cottonball" to me. Even though I'm using the REX textures, REX seems to provide that "wispy tendrils" and "floating tendrils" effect better. Everything from OpusFSX seems "Puffy" to me. I don't know if this will make sense to you but the clouds seem to have a kind of 'cartoon-like' feel to them, whereas REX's appear very 'real' to me. But thats just me and opinions vary. OpusFSX also does alot of cloud popping on me. I'll be floating around and "Pop"...cloud change. For OpusFSX though, don't discount that "Works simply, works reliably, and works well" bit because NOT becoming frustrated by something, overwhelmed by features, and not having to futz with something so you can spend more time flying and enjoying it is worth alot of brownie points

 

AS2012 I've just started using and when it comes to complete weather 'packages', IMHO AS2012 is the most 'robust' and full featured package. At first the user doc is a bit intimidating but that weather map that they use is really terrific. I'm still trying out different features and learning to use it but so far I like the "Cloud Smoothing" preset the best for my type of flying. Right now I'm using it with REX textures...I haven't tried out the AS2012 textures yet. Using those REX textures and the AS2012 engine seems to produce a "Cloud" and "Environment" realism that, to me, is somewhere between OpusFSX and REX. Its cloud depiction isn't quite as good as REX but is far better than the puffball effect I get with OpusFSX. Once again, the clouds seem kind of 'cartoon-like' to me compared to a more 'realistic' feel when the REX weather engine depicts them with the same textures. The updates for AS2012 seem much smoother to me. I'm still playing with it so I can't speak for the "out the window" accuracy of the depiction though. The Historical Weather is great. I'm also still playing with the options so I'm still not quite sure what they all do and how they relate. For me, the downside of AS2012 has been performance related. I can "feel" a in smoothness when I have AS2012 running. In the defense of AS2012 though, the default options in AS2012 update like every 10 minutes...while I have both Opus and REX set to update every 30 minutes. Its probably that frequent update that I'm "feeling" as a disruption in smoothness.

[kmkc6403 8]

I tend to agree with your comparisons. i started out using AS2012 when it first released, but i had to get REX because i loved their cloud textures. So i used AS2012 for the WX engine and REX for the textures for a long time. Then OPUS came out and i feel that it hands down is the best weather engine out for FSX. And it is only going to get better. I really didnt use the other features available in AS2012, i was more of a "gimmie my weather and let me fly" type of flyer, and all my flight planning is done in FSCommander or FSBuild anyhow.

[polk2 15]

Another vote for REX textures with OPUS, all i wanted as KMKC mentions is the correct weather quickly , no pop ups , no messages, simple but very impressive.

 

ASE beats REX weather engine but has been knocked off top spot by OPUS in my opinion.

 

Oddly enough the quest to remove stutters in FSX that has become a full time hobby for many simmers has now been sold as a part of the product with OPUS with stutters being re-named as Dynamic head movement!

[Muskoka 104]

Then OPUS came out and i feel that it hands down is the best weather engine out for FSX. And it is only going to get better. I really didnt use the other features available in AS2012, i was more of a "gimmie my weather and let me fly" type of flyer, and all my flight planning is done in FSCommander or FSBuild anyhow.

 

That's the beauty of it, it's simple, and does what it's supposed to do, very well. Also, no other weather engine seems to depict visibility limits as well as Opus does, and there's no cloud popping, something I couldn't stand with the others.

 

The camera views are great as well, very easily adjusted.

 

Glen

[WR269 367]

I also own the 3 weather engines, and am still going back and forth between them trying to determine which ones I like the best for my own needs.

 

I usually do only GA flying. No airliners or anything.

 

I'm very curious to read about what the folks say who have tried and compared the three and see how that lines up with my own observations.

 

My own observations seem a bit different than the others here. But I'm still learning so maybe I'm just plain wrong...lol.

 

For me, using REXE+OD for both the weather engine and the Textures provides the best and most realistic depiction of clouds and the environment. The word "Realistic" bears further definition here. REX's depiction of the way clouds appear and the environment has been absolutely excellent and amazong. For me...its head and shoulders above the others. However...on the flipside, sometimes its not "accurate" when it comes to comparing it to the outside world. If I compare what REX depicts to the METAR or whats happening outside my window....REX is reasonably accurate. I have had alot of problems with the software theough. They've provided excellent support, however, I fly almost exclusively with historical weather and sometimes the data is there in REX...and sometimes its not. The new Public Beta they have is supposed to fix alot of these.

 

Using OpusFSX with REX Textures seems, as others have mentioned, to provide extremely accurate weather for me. And, hands down, OpusFSX is the easiest to use. Its literally almost "Set it and Forget it". It just works. Its that simple. OpusFSX seems to have gone with a K.I.S.S. concept and its working for them. The weather seems pretty accurate compared to what is going on out the window. The updates are extremely fast. However, at THIS time only the past 24 hours of historical weather are available. I've heard that they are working on going back further than 24 hours and that will be great for me when they do. OpusFSX seems to do an absolutely awesome job of portraying dense, low vis, IMC conditions. If you want to fly through multi-layered thick soup....Opus seems to do that really well. On the other hand, for fairer weather situations, I've used it with both the REX textures and the freeware HDEv2 Textures and, for whatever reason, I just don't like the way the clouds and environment are depicted. The clouds appear to "puffball" or "cottonball" to me. Even though I'm using the REX textures, REX seems to provide that "wispy tendrils" and "floating tendrils" effect better. Everything from OpusFSX seems "Puffy" to me. I don't know if this will make sense to you but the clouds seem to have a kind of 'cartoon-like' feel to them, whereas REX's appear very 'real' to me. But thats just me and opinions vary. OpusFSX also does alot of cloud popping on me. I'll be floating around and "Pop"...cloud change. For OpusFSX though, don't discount that "Works simply, works reliably, and works well" bit because NOT becoming frustrated by something, overwhelmed by features, and not having to futz with something so you can spend more time flying and enjoying it is worth alot of brownie points

 

AS2012 I've just started using and when it comes to complete weather 'packages', IMHO AS2012 is the most 'robust' and full featured package. At first the user doc is a bit intimidating but that weather map that they use is really terrific. I'm still trying out different features and learning to use it but so far I like the "Cloud Smoothing" preset the best for my type of flying. Right now I'm using it with REX textures...I haven't tried out the AS2012 textures yet. Using those REX textures and the AS2012 engine seems to produce a "Cloud" and "Environment" realism that, to me, is somewhere between OpusFSX and REX. Its cloud depiction isn't quite as good as REX but is far better than the puffball effect I get with OpusFSX. Once again, the clouds seem kind of 'cartoon-like' to me compared to a more 'realistic' feel when the REX weather engine depicts them with the same textures. The updates for AS2012 seem much smoother to me. I'm still playing with it so I can't speak for the "out the window" accuracy of the depiction though. The Historical Weather is great. I'm also still playing with the options so I'm still not quite sure what they all do and how they relate. For me, the downside of AS2012 has been performance related. I can "feel" a in smoothness when I have AS2012 running. In the defense of AS2012 though, the default options in AS2012 update like every 10 minutes...while I have both Opus and REX set to update every 30 minutes. Its probably that frequent update that I'm "feeling" as a disruption in smoothness.

 

You can change the frequency of updates in the weather options tab of AS2012. I have mine set at 5 minutes.

 

I tried the Opus demo, and it appears a good program but it is just not for me. I got serious wind shifts at altitude and the weather depiction was no better than what I am getting already.

 

Some people prefer low flying, others don't. The OP will need to do research and understand what every product offers.

 

It is the beauty of competition, in FSX, there is a product out there to suit everybody's taste.

[SkipperMac 1]

WR269, did you really need to quote the whole of 1Wolf's post?

[spacedyemeerkat 421]

You can't separately control the wind aspect of Opus, unlike in AS2012, eg altering wind strength below a certain altitude. This matters to me since I like to use real weather but also like to reduce winds, to a level my skills can cope with, while flying low and slow. I did ask a question about it in the Opus forum but felt the suggestions I received from the developer missed the point of what I was hoping to achieve.

 

Although it's not the subject of this thread, the live camera set-up is also takes some work to get right, more than it really should in my opinion. For some reason, the initial camera set-up always seems to start quite a distance from the cockpit and you have to work to reel it back in.

 

Other than that, Opus certainly is fire and forget.