Its time to take that plunge and take my FS to the next level with a weather add-on/texture package, something i have put off for a long time.  Seems like both products have their pros and cons, and both have new products that seem pretty advanced and easy to work with.

 

Given that exclusively fly PMDG birds, thought I would ask you lot for your thoughts and recommendations on which is better.

 

Cheers

John E.

Textures: Freeware HDEv2 clouds 

 

Engine Active sky next 

ASN =Weather engine. REX Direct X4=Textures.

REX4 for textures and ASN for weather

I'm using the same as the last 2 posters as well. I initially stuck with the WX from Rex 3 when using REX4 but after I tried the demo of ASN I switched. It's one of those things that's hard to quantify but ASN just seems to "feel" better..

ASN No doubt about it for the WX engine and I use REX Plus for the Textures

Thanks for the response's so far.

Are the programs easy to use together? Or do they have conflicts with each other?  using REX for textures would I have to start the program each time i want to sim?  or is REX (for textures) like pay ware add-on airports, install once and your set each time you launch the sim?

 

Cheers

 

John E

Cannot comment on REX at all.  Heard a lot of great things about REX in the form of textures.

 

THAT SAID,

 

Active Sky fairly recently updated their textures to include a lot more stuff.  My best description as I want to be brief.

 

I have been using AS now for about 2 years.  I too tried ASN.  I was not impressed enough with any amount of change from AS to ASN.  I might have missed something?  ASN is much more of a true weather engine ONLY and I understand you have to go back to AS for AS textures.  So it sounds like you might be set just fine with REX Textures and ASN for the weather engine.

 

Another feature I like about AS is that it is not a frame killer, well, unless you want it to be.  There are a lot of methods you can use to lighten the load so to speak.  Cloud layers etc.  You can ask for less intensive cloud structures as well.

 

A lot of the above also depends on how you fly.  Weather intensive?  Again, with AS you can set it up to be rather easy on the FPS.

 

Now.  What REALLY did it for me is this.  I happen to be a RW Hawker 400XP driver.  Wanting to get the engine simulation to be, well at least in the ballpark of reality, I set out to try to edit first the aircraft.cfg, then the airfile.

 

Learned a bunch and will continue to pursue that endeavor more, but here is the cool part.  I had a hunch that, after some testing, that if I were to use Active Sky I might get better results.  I reloaded the stock Aircraft.cfg, went on several 1.5 to 2.0 flights and was simply AMAZED at how better the numbers rolled out.  Keep in mind I have the RW type rating, charts, AFM, etc.

 

The ONLY thing I am still working on is the fuel flow, however I will get it nailed here shortly as my numbers get closer and closer.

 

With that sort of accuracy I am HOOKED for quite a while on AS maybe ASN as I should probably give ASN another try.

 

Hopefully this helps.

To answer your most recent.  Once you load AS you will want to go and choose all of your textures.  Water, Roads, Taxiways, Runways, Moonbeam...  YES Moonbeam.  LOL.  That will take a while.  Once you have done that, the only other thing AS will do, is if you load a Flight Plan into AS it will ask you if you desire textures for that particular route.  I do this and it seems to produce stunning results.

 

Beyond that, with AS you pick out your, textures, it will load them in a more or less "one and done" sort of manner.  IF you decide you really get nauseated by water you thought would be nice, you can go back and change it to something else without having to do the whole process again.  Simply just the water rebuild.  

 

So that's my two cents on AS.  I have no experience with REX.  Good luck.

REX4 Texture Direct + ASN is working wonders for me. I would recommend it to ANYone seeking a cloud and weather solution. and their great prices too for what you get. Great overall products and also GREAT P3D v2.x support

 

 

Are the programs easy to use together? Or do they have conflicts with each other? using REX for textures would I have to start the program each time i want to sim? or is REX (for textures) like pay ware add-on airports, install once and your set each time you launch the sim?

 

I don't see any conflict between ASN and REX. You do not need to start REX when you start FSX unless you want to change textures for sky, clouds, water, tropical water, runways etc. I came up with a combination of textures I am happy with so I use them all the time. The last time I started REX was right after I installed it so I could choose the textures I wanted.

Textures: Freeware HDEv2 clouds

 

Engine Active sky next

You took the words right out of my mouth. I've used REX for sky and clouds before but in my opinion nothing beats HDEv2 for the most realistic looking sky and cloud set. The only thing I use REX for is water textures and animations.

 

 

Sean Campbell

asn  and rex4 

ASN =Weather engine. REX Direct X4=Textures.

 

What they said

 

 

I was not impressed enough with any amount of change from AS to ASN.  I might have missed something?

 

I find that very hard to believe.  The programs are literally night and day.

 

If you're only looking at it from the settings and lack of graphics options, sure, I could see that it seems "simpler," and not as feature-packed.  If you load up your sim, though, you should definitely notice a difference.

I don't understand the "run at the same time" quote I hear all the time.

 

REX is just a program used to INSTALL textures. Then close it and run FSX/ASN/engine of choice            ( rex does have a weather engine, but It doesn't compare)

 

 

You don't need to run REX to have the textures, just install the texture set and you have 'em.