REX Texture Direct - Has the Jury Returned a Verdict?

[adi518 73]

Can anyone confirm that the gradient lines you see across the sky on sunrise/sunset is gone under REX4 ?  thanks,

It can always appear.. rex or any other texture supplier is not the root cause. It's the way they made the sky dome in fsx (which is outdated) and it's also a matter of monitor calibration. To avoid gradients, your screen has to be properly calibrated. Thing is, texture developers can have certain calibration settings where the texture looks perfect with minimum or no gradients at all, while on another screen, with different calibration settings, the texture will be shown with gradient artifacts. Unfortunately, there's no way to control this quality factor. I was also wondering about this for a while and I realized the root cause is fsx outdated sky dome. In modern games, this problem is non-existent afaik. I can say however, thus far, didn't notice major gradient artifacts. I have the tech-savvy U2410 by Dell, which is a great, affordable monitor many game studios use, so maybe that's the reason. I also think they may have fixed the sky dome in p3d2 to avoid the gradients once and for all. Might be worth posting about this in the p3d forum.

 

Btw, the more I mess around with rex, the more I realize how sky textures are so much more realistic than previous rex.

[MarkW 1,493]

Thanks for the information Adi.  My understanding of monitor calibration (from photography) is that you need some sort of external program to do it properly (something like the Spyder 4 Pro).  Is that what you used or did you use another technique ?

[adi518 73]

Nope.. u2410 is pre-calibrated from factory so never really fiddled with that. I'm not a professional photographer either, therefore my knowledge is limited in this aspect. We should further investigate this on p3d v2. Once we move to the new platform, this problem might become a thing of the past.

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

Here is a video showing some of the new rex 4 texture sets I've tried

Thanks for posting that video as it made me realize how good my HDEv2 sky textures look and it was free. That Pablo Diaz really did a good job capturing a real looking sky. Looks like I will save my money for now.

[MarkW 1,493]

Actually Adi this was excellent advice.  I used some free online tools to recalibrate my monitor visually and in my testing so far have virtually elminated the horizontal lines at sunrise.    Thanks for the tip.

[kanadaken 2]

With REX OD E skies, the sunsets seemed to sometimes have these gradient stripes. I would have to always play around with the contrast, brightness and vibrance settings in nVidia control panel. The distant clouds would appear ghostly, patchy and cartoon-like. I had to constantly lower brightness/contrast to rid them as the sun set, but scene got way too dark.

With REX 4 Textures (skies), the sunsets seem perfect and the sky fades smoothly with clouds visible and realistically just get darker. Apparently the sky textures are taken from real photos etc...The overall lighting is so bright and contrasted as in real life. A fantastic improvement and so incredibly realistic! A game changer for me!

Btw...I'm using a single projector for my outside the cockpit view not a monitor.

Epson WXGA PowerLite1760W

[adi518 73]

Actually Adi this was excellent advice.  I used some free online tools to recalibrate my monitor visually and in my testing so far have virtually elminated the horizontal lines at sunrise.    Thanks for the tip.

You're welcome.

[bpede03 1]

I agree that some of the texture sets in OD weren't realistic. There were to many sets for extravagant sunsets/sunrises. These sets do seem to be much more realistic. I love the new runway/taxi way textures. approaching a concrete runway at default airports from the cockpit view now has some feel of landing at a payware airport. 

 

I have my water settings at Low 2.x in this video. There are some ocean colors that are way to intensely blue for my liking. I've stuck with the sets that indicate "dark" in the description. There are a few different color textures in this video, and a few different wave animations, using water settings of low 2.x

 

[Novation 534]

There are some ocean colors that are way to intensely blue for my liking.

 

 

Agreed!... it could really do with some green/grey options. The seas around the UK rarely look such a deep, pure blue, so I need to use my REX Essentials custom colours, and mix it with the REX4 animations... It really is a shame the customisation elements have been dropped in this edition. FEX was brilliant in this regard, with very complex customisation features, though I dropped it many years ago due to F1 shenanigans...

 

Great vid btw.

 

Edit to add - Apart from the above reservation I think most of the textures and animations in REX4 are of better quality than previous version, though I do prefer some of the older cumulus cloud sets.

 

A still/screenie does not do it justice, but this is some of the best water I've managed to attain in FSX thus far... combining REX 3 & 4 to get some very detailed water, and a colour that works for our waters.

[Jacky972 0]

REX4 textures. Is it worth the €30 ?

No regrets but i have to say more :

 

Pros

it loads textures  fast

textures are prettier (even in FSX i'm using)

ability to choose individual textures to install but frankly i never do it for now

generate a set of textures from an ICAO weather 

lauchs fsx and ASN (nice because REX is the challenger) while closing

Cons

why always save a set of texture before installing => if not, you just could generate textures for DEP or ARR, install them and go

 

it would be nice if you could have :

1) snapshots for different weather conditions (rain, snow, fair, thunder, dusty, IMC) coupled with    different climate conditions (artic, continental, tropical, desertic for instance) => so  clouds, sky, sun, water  and sound effects have to be changed

2) snapshots for airport ans runway depending on (for instance) which part of world you are (Asia, europe, usa, africa, ....)

 

another : no ability to modify a theme already created (always saving a new one)

 

One more point : I don't know if a link exists or not with REX4 texture but, since i've installed it, during each flight (ASN+REX4+PMDG NGX), i've experienced an "FSX freezing". The delay is about 8 to 10 mn so, everything become correct again. never have this issue before ! So if any idea, thanx by advance (IVAO controllers will also say thank you)

Queries

1. ASN

2. REX Essentials Plus w/OverDrive

3. Nothing. Am i wrong ? (note : i don't see anaything about the way to deal with experimental textures (airport lighting and constant water theme)

 

 

Jacky

[Novation 534]

another : no ability to modify a theme already created (always saving a new one)

 

You can change components within a theme, rather than create/save a new one, by selecting the item within the 'theme' you wish to change and select 'modify' then pick the new texture and select 'add to theme'.

 

I've had no freezes or performance issues of any kind with REX4.

[Jacky972 0]

Thanx Novation for your reply

 

I think that once you've added to theme you have to save the theme in order to keep the changes 

 

No freeze : Ok anybody else ?

[Novation 534]

I think that once you've added to theme you have to save the theme in order to keep the changes

 

I have just tested this by changing a dawn sky texture, but did not save, and the new texture remains intact within my chosen theme upon the next start-up of REX... so it seems that you should not need to save as a new theme to retain changes.

 

EDIT: Actually you are correct... it remains within the theme [even after restarting REX4], until you select another theme, or even the same one, and then it will revert to the original. So if you want it to stick permanently you need to save it again.

 

Not sure if this is by design, or a bug... or I need to read the documentation :lol:

[Nyxx 6,993]

Yes we would do with the theme saving changers and darker/greener water for UK, North Sea etc.

[Jacky972 0]

Novation : I've checked too : No change at all if you don't save. So if you save, you need to enter a name. If you enter the same, you'll have it twice. No very "modern"

 

NyxxUK : Ok but we miss function to install : first airport textures (depending of the region, the country) then clouds, etc depending the weather at time , don't we ?