fsx-ms Newbie Confused - ASN vs REX

[akmatov 4]

Two weather engines, both get good reviews.

 

Active Sky Next seems to edge REX4 by a small margin.  BUT REX textures are often used with ASN as being a bit better.  AND REX has their Weather Architect and Soft Clouds and their new WX Advantage Weather addon.

 

I assume the REX Weather Architect and Soft Clouds and the WX Advantage Weather will not work with ASN, or am I wrong?

 

What is the advantage of REX4 over ASN?  Not looking for contravery, just a bit of guidance. 

 

Thx

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Two weather engines, both get good reviews.

 

Active Sky Next seems to edge REX4 by a small margin.  BUT REX textures are often used with ASN as being a bit better.  AND REX has their Weather Architect and Soft Clouds and their new WX Advantage Weather addon.

 

I assume the REX Weather Architect and Soft Clouds and the WX Advantage Weather will not work with ASN, or am I wrong?

 

What is the advantage of REX4 over ASN?  Not looking for contravery, just a bit of guidance. 

 

Thx

 

REX4 does not have a weather engine so ASN provides weather and REX4 provides textures - REX is developing a new weather engine in the future

 

REX essentials has a weather engine but you are discussing REX4 which is a different program 

 

As for Weather Architect it is a standalone product that creates weather themes by you or community created ones - no live weather program used when using Weather Architect 

[fs4fun 366]

REX Texture Direct and Soft Clouds are texture packs that work with any weather engine, so you can use them with ASN

 

ASN is  a weather engine. It does not provide textures, just weather.

 

REX essentials is  bundle of a weather engine plus textures. You can use both together, or just one part or the other, eg. you can disable the weather engine and use some other weather engine instead with the included textures

 

REX also has a standalone weather engine which is Weather Architect.

 

WX Advantage is a weather radar you can add to your aircraft. It's supposed to work with any weather engine.

 

Note that some addon aircraft have built-in weather radar that requires ASN (eg. the PMDG NGX).

 

What I use is ASN plus REX Texture Direct and REX Soft Clouds.

[akmatov 4]

Thx a lot guys.

Very confused, but with what you are telling me the fog might be lifting. Coming back to this after a break and seem to have had a FSX lobotomy. After checking the archive drive, the REX pieces I have are:

REX Essential Plus with Overdrive
REX4 Texture Direct
REX Soft Clouds
REX Weather Architect
REX4

Forgetting about ASN, REX Essential claims at the web site "New in REX Essential PLUS with OverDrive is the Weather Engine Plus mode a second weather engine mode utilizing the weather theme process. This process injects real-time live weather, archived weather and even custom weather into FSX/P3D to provide a weather engine with real time weather, the setup might be:
REX Essential Plus with Overdrive - provides a weather engine with 'real-time live weather'
+ Soft Clouds - which seems to be it's own thing without reference to anything
+ Texture Direct's newer texture somehow added to REX Essential?

REX4 - old program and doesn't fit into a new setup?
REX Weather Architect - no real time weather, so a special purpose program

There maybe be the needed info somewhere at the REX web site, but I'm not finding it. So help greatly needed and appreciated.  Either I'm being exceptionally dense or REX is being exceptionally hard to understand.  Poking around it seems like none of these programs interact at all, although in the manual for DT in the Configuration Setting/General Settings space it calls for what weather engine you are using. 

 

So perhaps the Setup is REX Essential Plus + TD (which needs to have a weather engine) + Soft Clouds with is totally independent.  Unless I'm missing something, and I've skimmed the manuals, this stuff is just how here and the customer is left to figure out how to use it.                                                                                                                                              

[pete_auau 1,154]

WX Advantage is supposed to work with ASN

 

 

yes  it  will work  with any third   weather  engine  addon

 

 

In a burst of ignorance I bought Weather Architect as it seemed such an interesting idea. How could I use it with the above set up?

You  use the textures  from  rexe  or what ever   you got  installed,  only  difference  is  this  isn't  a  live  weather  engine  but  does  everything  else

[Von Rondstadd 15]

Hello,

 

Hifi ASN is working on a more detailed weather radar and should be available soon!

see: http://www.hifisimtech.com/forums/showthread.php?6168-More-detailed-weather-radar-like-REX-WX-ADVANTAGE-RADAR

 

 

My question is do we get a more detailed weather radar in ASN like the REX WX ADVANTAGE RADAR?

 

Regards Robert

 

 

Hi Robert,

 

Regarding an included gauge with airborne mode, we've been working on things for quite a while in that regard and should have something to show soon. Regarding the existing radar that was released almost 3 years ago, it is still the most detailed available, and is presented in a NEXRAD format.

 

Regarding our radar API, it also provides the most realistic/detailed airborne radar simulation available, also near 3 years old now.

Damian Clark

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

REX Essential Plus with Overdrive: old program (before the REX4 series) includes a weather engine and an extra set of weather and weather related textures

 

REX4 is the current series:

REX4 Texture Direct = an extensive set of weather textures, no weather engine

REX4 Weather Architect: Program for designing your own weather

 

REX Soft Clouds: low level cloud textures only. Can be integrated into REX4 texture direct.

 

All the texture addons overlap one way or the other. If you have all of them, the most sensible use would be:

1. install a REX4 Texture Direct weather theme that you like

2. install the soft clouds that you prefer

 

then either

3.a. use the weather engine from REX Ess&OD (do not install the textures from OD again, only use the engine)

or

3.b use the weather architect to paint your own weather.

or

3.c use ASN as weather engine

[Cjr60611 31]

After using REX4 for almost a year, I migrated to ASN as it was more stable and reliable.  Kept having flight dynamic issues with REX4 that forced me to have to purchase FSUIPC.  That program (the full version) is probably good to have for FSX anyway but, I didn't like finding out that REX4 wouldn't work correctly without it.

 

Now I have the benefit of REX textures and ASN engine but I would have rather not had to go through the ups and downs with REX.

 

JMHO. 

[pete_auau 1,154]

Kept having flight dynamic issues with REX4 that forced me to have to purchase FSUIPC.

 

 

You realise  rex4  is  only  a  texture  addon  and  cant  be  at  fault   with flight  dynamics  as  you have  suggested

[Cjr60611 31]

 

 

You realise  rex4  is  only  a  texture  addon  and  cant  be  at  fault   with flight  dynamics  as  you have  suggested

I'm sorry, Pete is actually correct, the problems I had were actually with Rex Essential Plus OD - NOT REX4!  Sorry for the mistake guys!  Carry on....

[akmatov 4]

All the texture addons overlap one way or the other. If you have all of them, the most sensible use would be:

 

1. install a REX4 Texture Direct weather theme that you like

2. install the soft clouds that you prefer

 

then either

3.a. use the weather engine from REX Ess&OD (do not install the textures from OD again, only use the engine)

or

3.b use the weather architect to paint your own weather.

or

3.c use ASN as weather engine

Guys you have been great, the fog is clearing.

 

One last double check and this bird is ready to fly.  Is the order LORBY_SI listed them in also the order for installation?

1. REX4 TD

2. Soft Clouds

3. ASN - though as TD asks which weather engine you are using in it's configuration maybe ASN first, then TD and Soft Clouds?

 

And one last question.  Would it work with the above install if I also had Weather Architect installed?  The idea is have ASN+TD+SC as my usual weather setup, but also have Weather Architect+TD+SC for when I wanted to experiment with building my own weather.  Thinking I could start up either one individually for a session of FSX, but just checking to see if that would be doable without confusing my poor computer.

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

The sequence in which you initially install these addons on your PC is of no consequence. TD asking for a weather engine is just a convenience function, it doesn't really need that information to work (and you can insert it afterwards too, in the TD settings). TD is perfectly fine with only the built-in weather in your simulator too.

 

The texture addons have a GUI interface, you can change to multiple different texture sets any time. All that these programs (Rex4 textures and Rex SoftClouds) do is to copy a couple of texture ("picture") files into your sim directory. After that process is complete, you close the addon. From that point on you will always have that specific texture set in your sim, without ever starting the texture addon again. You only fire up Texture Direct or SoftClouds when you want to change the texture themes to something else (they have a ton of different "styles" for environment depiction). And here is where some sequence is needed - Rex4 TextureDirect includes low level clouds too, and it overwrites SoftClouds textures. So if you are using SoftClouds, you have to open that program after you have finished with TextureDirect and inject the SoftClouds again. (Edit: that depends on your version of TD actually - you can integrate the SoftClouds product into TD somehow)

 

The weather engine on the other hand (no matter if it is Rex+ or ASN) has to be active alongside your simulator all the time.

 

In a broad strokes, both types of products interact like this: the texture addons (re-) place pictures of clouds, sky, runways, water etc. in your sim and the weather engine tells the sim how and where to display them.

 

Weather Architect is a completely independent product too, you can use it any time you want. Just just have to make sure that any weather engine that might be running doesn't interfere (=if ASN interferes, just close it - it is an external program).

[pete_auau 1,154]

As  the above  poster  has  suggested  if  you have soft  cloud  integrated with rex4   and  have   selected  low  level  clouds in the rex4  option there  is  no need  to open  up soft  clouds  any  more

[akmatov 4]

Many thx gentlemen, I might have stumbled on the correct setup on my own, but I wouldn't have known what I was doing.  Ya'll have just furnish a course that could be called FS Weather for Dummies.  This information should be provided somewhere, the REX web site?, but I have never seen all you have provided or any of it tied together.  I'll be installing tomorrow I after a do a disk image of my OS+vanilla FSX.  Gonna be great