Hello All, I finally have a nice game-machine, but it is still far from great. And I am looking to improve the Sky/Weather, without excessive impact to my frame-rate. Are there “choices of technologies” / categories of technologies that apply to this question? Should I spend more time fiddling with the built in ms-fsx? Is there a payware that makes this easy?

 

Keeping my frame-rate high is more important than eye-candy, but I want to improve the eye-candy if I can.

 

Thanks in advance.

JD

 

***** system specs *****

Making compromises of course but I am getting approximately 48fps using ...

Intel Core i3-4130 CPU @ 3.40GHz (only dual-core)

(PassMark - CPU Mark Single Thread Performance = 1,978 )

GeForce GTX 750 Ti with 2GB GDDR5 / HDTV @ 1920x1080p (32 inch)

(PassMark - Average G3D Mark = 3687)

Try  the trial version of  asn  to see how it  performs  on your machine

Google FSXWX. A freeware weather generation programme.

 

Stuart

Weather programs are going to make your performance worse because they have better weather depiction and that means more clouds and layers. I suggest getting a texture program like Rex4 Texture Direct, and setting 512 texture resolution for clouds and trying those. Then if you see better performance, you should, expand into a weather program. There are different freeware and payware options, most popular and my favorite is Active Sky Next.

Google FSXWX. A freeware weather generation programme.

 

Stuart

+1.   Excellent freeware program.   Very little hit on performance on my modest machine.  I have since upgraded to ASN because I wanted WX radar in the PMDG 737, and it also seems to run quite well without a major performance hit. 

Thanks for the feedback, so far it sounds like
3 votes for ASN (Active Sky Next),
2 votes for FSXWX,
1 vote for  Rex4 Texture Direct. 

 

based on the above, I think that I will;
try out FSXWX for a couple weeks before trying out ASN. 

 

Thanks for the help
JD
 

Thanks for the feedback, so far it sounds like

3 votes for ASN (Active Sky Next),

2 votes for FSXWX,

1 vote for  Rex4 Texture Direct. 

 

based on the above, I think that I will;

try out FSXWX for a couple weeks before trying out ASN. 

 

Thanks for the help

JD

 

Note REX4 Texture Direct compliments weather engines, it is not one itself. (Although REX is developing their own new one, which is not released yet) It only supplies the textures needed, and I recommend it with whatever weather engine you choose. I highly recommend ASN, especially If you have either the PMDG 737NGX or T7 or you are planning on buying them or the 747V2 when released, as it's the only weather engine PMDG supports with their weather radar. It has other features that that sets it apart from it's rivals as well.

Thanks for the clarification on "REX4 Texture Direct". 

 

While looking around on the PC Aviator store I noticed ASN was having a 30% off sale so I bought it to give it a try.  I only had time to fly with it for about two minutes, at first I thought that my frame-rate was stuttering, but after checking the fps number in the corner and noticing the airspeed indicator fluctuating, I now think that the plane was getting tossed around in some gusty winds. 

Once you start using ASN you'll probably never look back. Aside from the features already mentioned, it has some excellent turbulence and weather depiction, as well as a hail simulation which I encountered last night for the first time. It definitely made for a very interesting flight!

 

Best regards.

Yes, ASN gets pretty real sometimes.   My first complete flight with it was KMEM-KMSY, just picked it out randomly from the flights I like to do.   I ended up descending into New Orleans in a thunderstorm and it was actually kind of scary!  

I also bought REX Soft Clouds, which were also on sale when I got ASN.  Very nice.