fsx-ms Help Choosing Best Weather Engine

[1st fltsimguy 466]

I have bought a new NCIX gaming PC build.

 

I am reinstalling a new FSX setup and parallel P3Dv3.

 

I have REX Essentials + OD.

 

I just bought REX4 with Soft Clouds.

 

I started to install REX4 with Soft Clouds but figured I better do some reading and research first.

 

Now I'm really wondering what the heck to do.  Should I install the REX4 with Soft Clouds AND REX essentials + OD together.  Using REX4 textures and Essentials + OD as the weather engine?

 

Or from other users experience....should I get another weather engine to drive the REX4 with Soft Clouds?

 

You folks got a recommendation or two for me?  I would really appreciate it.

 

cheers

Bryan

[Glynn 405]

Get ASN

Install all your REX stuff but use ASN as your weather engine.

Personally I prefer REX Essentials + OD + Soft clouds for my textures (more choice and better control over water)

[qqwertz 781]

+1

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

There is a recent (last several days) thread where we discussed this exact matter in fairly good detail.

 

Summary:  ASN, but with an eye towards REX Weather Force when it's released later this year.

[jetsmell 45]

ASN

[Alti 65]

ASN = Eye candy weather

FSGRW= Real weather.

[qqwertz 781]

ASN = Eye candy weather

Not sure how you come to this conclusion, given that ASN doesn't include textures. In any way, ASN offers a demo, so everyone can check it out for themselves.

 

Peter

[JLuis 409]

ASN + REX 4

[fppilot 4,367]

ASN = Eye candy weather

FSGRW= Real weather.

 

Sorry ASN fans. I agree here with FSGRW.  I get remarkable accuracy compared to my real world flight planning at FltPlan.com and as a former USAF meteorologist that's important to me. On my system, FSX Gold and my system specs are in my signature, I get no wx update hesitations from FSGRW.

 

 I also agree with REX E OD+ for textures vs ASN, which is perhaps (my  guess) the basis of his eye candy remark.

[Bjoern 1,157]

http://www.plane-pics.de/fsxwx/home.htm

 

Thank me later.

[zmak 331]

Wonder what happened with OPUS? they hit the ground running unopposed a few years back and now ...nothing

[vortex681 806]

Sorry ASN fans. I agree here with FSGRW. I get remarkable accuracy compared to my real world flight planning at FltPlan.com and as a former USAF meteorologist that's important to me. On my system, FSX Gold and my system specs are in my signature, I get no wx update hesitations from FSGRW.

 

I used FSGRW for a while before changing to ASN and had very different results. The main problem I had was that there was a short freeze for a couple of seconds in FSX each time FSGRW updated which eventually became a showstopper for me, particularly if it happened on short finals. I've never noticed ASN updating. I also found that the same weather looked a little more sparse in FSGRW when compared directly with ASN. I was a professional pilot for over 30 years before retiring so have a pretty good idea of how data from a METAR should look (but, obviously, not to your standard, Frank!). That said, I stopped using FSGRW some time ago so things may have changed with later versions.

 

 

 

 

I also agree with REX E OD+ for textures vs ASN, which is perhaps (my guess) the basis of his eye candy remark.

 

As Peter pointed out above, ASN only provides the weather information to FSX and relies on programs like REX to provide the textures. I think the "eye candy" comment is probably down to the more detailed weather depiction with ASN compared to FSGRW (IMHO, of course).

[MindYerBeak 73]

Wonder what happened with OPUS? they hit the ground running unopposed a few years back and now ...nothing

 

You took the words right out of my mouth. It never gets mentioned..

[GoogleAndroid 2]

I have to agree with Active Sky Next. I just purchased it yesterday after trying out the demo a few weeks ago. Before I bought ASN, I tried the free FSXWX that someone linked to above. I tried it after the ASN demo. ASN is a much better weather engine, and FSXWX made FSX intermittently crash. Plus, with ASN, the weather radar functions in my PMDG aircraft, which is an awesome addition. The first day of using the ASN demo, I went to my home town airport as there were pretty heavy storms in the area. I was in the PMDG 737 and during take off, I saw "wind shear" as I was at VR. I rotated, gained a few feet of altitude, and was suddenly slammed back down onto the runway. I have never had anything like that happen with the default weather engine.

[Alti 65]

ASN=eye candy weather.

i will say, that ASN most favorite cumulus in all weathersituations.

also it show cumulus clouds in 20000 fts and above.

that can not be real. The most clouds in real are stratus.

and also ASN did not show any regions without clouds.

With ASN i get always clouds. 

in FSGRW its possible to get real stratus, and also its possible to get like in real weather that have no clouds.

but let me say, FSGRW did have troubles with thunderstorms outside US.

no one of both programs for me is perfect. 

So i favour ASN for eyecandy flights,

and for real-simulated flights special over oceans, i favour FSGRW.

sorry for bad english...