PMDG + REX Weather Architect

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

http://www.realenvironmentxtreme.com/forums/index.php?/topic/35015-rex-4-weather-architect-final-pre-deployment-update/page-2

 

post 27   by the looks of  it  seems to be some  communications  problems

 

Peter-

 

Thanks.  I'm going to throw the "Bravo Sierra" flag.  As I stated earlier- his is a statement that is not supported by the facts.

 

We know folks are looking for interoperability with platforms other than ASN- and we are at the right point in development to add additional solutions, provided that they meet our standards- so it makes no sense that we would ignore them.  Given that they just released the product, it also doesn't stand to reason that we would ignore them. 

 

I think it is probably the usual hurt feelings because one of his competitors had the original idea to reach out to us with a technology integration solution and the timing just happened to be right for it to be inserted into one of our products because such things are good for simmers.  HiFi reached out to us professionally, in the spirit of cooperation and they were great fun to work with. 

 

I don't have much time or patience for made up tales and hurt feelings.  We have far too much work to do to be wasting our time with such things.

[rstough 528]

Dear Robert -

 

We would very much like to have a conversation with you and PMDG.

 

We appreciate greatly the work that PMDG does and continue to push our customers to your product.

 

However, since your partnership with another competitor of ours we have felt cautioned because of the close ties.

 

Frankly, we are familiar with the other product and their requirements.  We do not feel it would be right to require us to implement a direct competitors SDK to make our product compatible with another.  It would be like asking you to have to use another competitors aircraft model so that you could release your product.  It defeats the purpose of development.

 

With that said we would be willing to have a voice conversation as soon as possible to work out our differences so that we can provide to the community in full what they ask for. 

​

[TheFlightSimGuy 514]

I love it when we all get along for the good of the community. Look forward to competition with ASN and REX's new offerings and being able to chose either when flying the finest birds in the sky!  :wub:

 

- Josh Daniels AKA "Nameless" 

[mikea76 184]

I wonder if many on here realize that  reason the PMDG WXR is ASN only.   

 

It is ASN only because as of right now ASN is the only product that has the abilities that PMDG needs to accurately simulate a weather radar.   ASN is a major breakthrough in weather injection and I am not sure some simmers get that..  This is not about playing favorites.

 

So I would imagine if another develop came along with a product that meets that capability then PMDG would probably work with them.    

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

Reed,

 

Thank you for the response- it is appreciated.  PMDG has no bone to pick with REX- so it is unfortunate that you guys have been reticent to reach out.  The following answer is designed in part to bolster your confidence in working with us, but also to make sure that our mutual customers reading this understand some of the political spin that has taken place.

 

You all seem to have reached a bunch of conclusions about many topics without bothering to talk with us and that has lead you to some bogus conclusions, unfortunately.  When we announced the inclusion of ASN's data to produce a radar image in the 777, we made it clear that we were open to interface with other weather engines when and if they were able to provide similar capability.  We made it clear that such work would have to fall into the normal development cycle- which does pose some scheduling challenges, but that the long view was to work with anyone who has a viable technology.

 

During that period REX went on a bit of a "marketing campaign" that painted us as having partnered exclusively with ASN to the exclusion of REX.  This information was political, and we understood it as such, even though it wasn't really accurate.  We elected not to call you out on it, because the competitiveness of your organization and others is not our fight.

 

The truth was that ASN was the first to come to us with a technological capability that worked in a manner we felt accurately provided the data that should be displayed on the 777s radar.  They were there, they were willing and they were able- it had nothing to do with partnerships or exclusions.  It was purely an opportunity moment where they had a capability they felt was ready for broader use, and we were in a position to work with them because of the phase of development of the 777.

 

I have been openly complimentary of both product makers- even reaching out directly to T. Fuchs directly to tell him how much I enjoyed REX.  He appreciated the email and sent me a very nice reply- which I point out because it shows you all know how to reach us when needed. 

 

PMDG works very hard not to take sides.  We do not overtly support one VA or another, we don't support one ATC organization over another, we don't support one wx engine designer over another.  In fact- we make it a point to only speak critically under the rarest of circumstances because, frankly, our community is very small and we all benefit when we support one another.

 

If you have a technological solution that allows us to connect our aircraft to your weather engine, we are certainly interested to do so.  It will require cooperation between your developers and ours, and it will also require that you have a technological solution that provides data that can be used to accurately model what should be displayed on the screen.  I have no doubt you all are capable of providing this, but without a cooperative effort it won't happen.

 

From our side, your timing is more-or-less right.  We already have the ASN solution working with the 747-400 and 747-8.  We are very very deep in some critical parts of the development cycle, but as we lighten our load a bit, we will likely find some time free to connect the airplane to your capability.  Once we have it in place and stable, we can put it into the stack for the next 777 update as well. 

 

At any rate- you guys can reach out to us when you are ready to give us whatever information we need in order to start working with it...  Just let us know.

 

 

 

.

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Simple and well said Rob - I dont use those fan dangled fps eating radars but rock on - hope all is well 

[IUBrian 151]

As a fan of both developers, the ice having been broken, I hope a few frosty libations can bridge the divide.

[PaulGR 168]

You lads are awesome!.

[Hirdy2013 104]

Awesome.  Now it's time for everyone to blow the top off a few frothies and work together........

[787flyer 633]

Good news on the offer made by PMDG. B)

 

I have been holding out and hoping that REX would offer a similar solution to ASN, so I am hoping the developers can now get together and work out a good solution.

I would definitely be interested in purchasing a PMDG/REX solution.

 

Cheers,

[Ebs 114]

This is great news. I'm keeping an eye on Weather Direct when it releases, but one of the things that's been putting me off is the "apparent" exclusivity of ASN and PMDG.

 

Judging by this thread though, it's just a case of the devs working together. I'd consider OpusFSI too if it worked natively with the weather radars.

 

our community is very small and we all benefit when we support one another

 

I wish a lot more people in our community stood behind this.

[Airline2Sim 489]

All's well that ends well!

 

And if anyone wants to see it in action (in fact, fruits of both the above gentemen's endeavours) then I made a quick VLOG. Fast forward to 12.00 for the REX bit. Some interesting stuff, namely the fact that it doesn't seem to hose the frame rate when drawing heavy weather.  

 

[rstough 528]

@Everyone - Thank you for your comments here, I have contacted Robert at PMDG and I hope we can setup a time to talk about things.  I know both companies aim to please their customers.

 

@Ben - Thank you for posting the video.  Excellent explanation of REX Weather Architect.

 

Let me address a couple of things you mentioned or I noticed in the video.

 

1.) As you stated you thought it was for real weather originally.  That is a common mistake.  REX Weather Architect is ONLY custom created weather.   REX Weather Direct will be our real / time weather engine when it is released.

 

2.) In the flight plan when you create the weather theme, we actually do download the real time temperatures and pressure.  This is  so we can match a theme that is created in  a certain region of the world with its current seasonal temperatures.  So some aspects do use real weather.  The only time this is fixed is when it comes to using the snow cells.

 

3.) I noticed in the video the stark line. This is an issue originally with default FSX textures. There is one that is used for haze and there is an option within REX Weather Architect to repair this. Go to the Settings Window "Enable Haze" under Global Weather Settings. Click enable and then disable the "Enable Haze" option. This will remove that stark line effect. Make sure to do this with the simulator closed.

Edited July 21, 2015 by rstough

[mcbellette 145]

Nameless,

 

Two items:

 

1) Please sign your posts in this forum so I don't have to remove them?  Thank you. 

 

2) We have a long history of communication with Tim that occasionally just goes cold for no obvious reason.  Ryan has been the primary point of contact between PMDG and REX for a couple of years and numerous times his emails simply cease being answered.  I am not one to throw stones at REX for it- as anyone who has tried to maintain an email communication chain with **me** will recognize that behavioral trait.  It is generally a sign that "I'm extremely busy and the topic of this conversation isn't my top priority right now" so you wound up dropping off my attention span in an inbox that usually takes 100+ email a day.  That is fine- I generally get back around to someone when the priority level improves, but generally speaking it is bad form to point the finger at the other guy and proclaim he is the problem.   :ph34r:

 

We have had this happen before with REX- and we have had them tell their customers that we ignored them when that was not a factually supportable position to take, so... 

 

I'll just shrug and go back to worrying about PMDG products.  B)

 

Robert, why are you worrying about PMDG products? They're perfect - nothing wrong with them and no need to worry about them!

[pracines 823]

Since the specific topic of pleasing customers was brought up,

 

Dear people at PMDG,

 

Speaking for myself as a long standing PMDG customer and former rex customer, I hope that any endeavor with rex does not even come close to messing with ASN compatibility with PMDG. Updates or future enhancements/versions of ASN or PMDG are bound to happen, and this possible complication with rex leads to concern. As a long time Hi Fi Technologies customer as well, I would rather see rex not able to comply with PMDG requirements, than for ASN to have a new set of  requirements and complications with PMDG because of rex.

 

To be clear: I did not say there would be complications, I'm saying I don't want to see complications between *my* ASN and PMDG products because of rex for *any* reason.

 

I hope countless other PMDG and ASN supporters feel the same and express this as well, so that PMDG and ASN customers can remain pleased.