Best combination of ASN16, ASCA + Rex Texture Direct?

[theskyisthelimit 48]

I have rex essentials overdrive from before, but dont really use this.. then I got rex texture direct.. and now up to AS16 as well as the ASCA cloud architect.. i also have rex soft clouds.. but from what i've seen and heard, since the service patches to ASCA, its the better bet for now in terms of.. "soft clouds"..

 

Here in lies the confusion i think.. Rex provides the textures.. but i'm starting from scratch with textures.. i'm thinking Rex i would select/check only ground textures.. no clouds.. and all cloud settings come from ASCA (not anything in AS16 per say.? Im pretty sure thats mainly the weather generator, as i've used as a generator in the past)..

 

Is this what most people are doing?  In additon i may mix in the HDE clouds as well (3rd party i just found out about).. i'm just double checking on the best combination of all this for the best appearance..

 

All this on win 10x64 with p3d 3.4.9

 

Thanks in advance for any tips here

 

 

[vgbaron 3,486]

No matter WHAT anyone answers, they are right. This is a purely subjective question. I use AS16, ASCA and REX TD for runways etc because *I* think it looks better with less performance hit. I am sure there are those who might say the exact opposite and , for THEM, it's perfect.

 

Try your own combinations and choose the ones YOU like - after all it's only YOUR opinion that matters.   :smile:

 

Vic

[theskyisthelimit 48]

No matter WHAT anyone answers, they are right. This is a purely subjective question. I use AS16, ASCA and REX TD for runways etc because *I* think it looks better with less performance hit. I am sure there are those who might say the exact opposite and , for THEM, it's perfect.

 

Try your own combinations and choose the ones YOU like - after all it's only YOUR opinion that matters.   :smile:

 

Vic

 

 

I wasnt really looking for opinions on the best, but rather, the way to configure everything to work properly together..

 

which i assumed was just Roads/sun/land textures in Rex Direct, then (nothing in AS16), then clouds in ASCA (but nothing cloud wise in rex texture direct).. the question was, or was it, rex texture direct for everything, then let ASCA add another layer overtop of that for enhanced cloud effects.. then the HD cloud 3rd party package ontop of all this.

[vgbaron 3,486]

ok - I follow - 

 

ASCA and RexTD wll overwrite each other if you select the same items ( clouds, Sky, ).

 

I prefer ASCA clouds and sky to REX  but I like REX airport textures and water. SO, I leave ASCA at it's defaults for Sky and clouds and install REXTD and UNCHECK those items that are duplicated in ASCA.

 

You only have to run REX once to apply the selected textures and you can shut it down until you want to make any changes.

 

ASCA is dynamic however and will change clouds on the fly but if you are using AS16 you don't have to worry because AS16 will load ASCA and the two will work to give you the best options for clouds and sky.  This will not affect the sun, moon, airport, runway, etc textures that were loaded by REX.

 

Hope this makes sense.

 

Vic

[Guest]

What Vic said, but in addition to that: do not install the HDE clouds on top of all that! You can only have one set of cloud textures installed/active and as soon as you use ASCA's automatic mode it will overwrite the HDE cloud textures. If you really want to use HDE you have to disable the clouds in REX as well as ASCA. You can not use HDE or any other cloud addon to 'enhance' yet another cloud addon: they can't be mixed.

[bursco 14]

I'm lost with switch this off turn this on - this will override that - do you need Rex or can you just use As16 ?

You may have to work in IT to fly these days and if Google did'nt exist along with forums a lot of us would be lost, it still is mind boggling and you still don' nt know if you are making your sim better or worse.

Hard work tweaking.

Denis B

P.S what is HDE

[theskyisthelimit 48]

ok - I follow - 

 

ASCA and RexTD wll overwrite each other if you select the same items ( clouds, Sky, ).

 

I prefer ASCA clouds and sky to REX  but I like REX airport textures and water. SO, I leave ASCA at it's defaults for Sky and clouds and install REXTD and UNCHECK those items that are duplicated in ASCA.

 

You only have to run REX once to apply the selected textures and you can shut it down until you want to make any changes.

 

ASCA is dynamic however and will change clouds on the fly but if you are using AS16 you don't have to worry because AS16 will load ASCA and the two will work to give you the best options for clouds and sky.  This will not affect the sun, moon, airport, runway, etc textures that were loaded by REX.

 

Hope this makes sense.

 

Vic

 

Fantastic, this is what I was getting at.. thanks for that tidbit.. i didnt know though, that asca would auto update cloud types.. this is what i was thinking the other day would be nice in the sim, instead of being stuck with one static set that you define before you fly.  I'm assuming asca is the only addon that does on the fly changes, but maybe there is another.    This is what i figured, that i should disable clouds in rex and enable asca and be done.

 

What Vic said, but in addition to that: do not install the HDE clouds on top of all that! You can only have one set of cloud textures installed/active and as soon as you use ASCA's automatic mode it will overwrite the HDE cloud textures. If you really want to use HDE you have to disable the clouds in REX as well as ASCA. You can not use HDE or any other cloud addon to 'enhance' yet another cloud addon: they can't be mixed.

 

I didnt realize this part.. i guess the downside of going with HDE over ASCA is you lose the cloud effects on the windshield, unless they also have that.

I'm lost with switch this off turn this on - this will override that - do you need Rex or can you just use As16 ?

You may have to work in IT to fly these days and if Google did'nt exist along with forums a lot of us would be lost, it still is mind boggling and you still don' nt know if you are making your sim better or worse.

Hard work tweaking.

Denis B

P.S what is HDE

 

I think this is the page for HDE, unsure..

https://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/18029/fsx-hde-sky-textures-v20/

 

Just another HD cloud set, like rex vs asca, well add it to the mix  and yeah, getting the sim to look and run beautiful is way too much work these days.. side tracking.. heres to hoping aerofly fs2 grows fast, because right out of the box it felt good, especially in VR, no tweaking needed, but then again, its a stripped down simulator still in development at this point, time will tell.

Related to the on the fly ASCA.. i dont suppose its possible to run ASCA on a remote simconnect computer/laptop?  I'm guessing not for that part.. and Ill have to test and try.. i have as16 on the laptop, i'd imagine once launched there it would remotely activate anything ASCA on the host computer.

[Glynn 405]

 

 

Related to the on the fly ASCA.. i dont suppose its possible to run ASCA on a remote simconnect computer/laptop?

 

ASCA runs over a network, in fact ASCA and AS16 must reside on the same machine, in your case the laptop

[theskyisthelimit 48]

ASCA runs over a network, in fact ASCA and AS16 must reside on the same machine, in your case the laptop

Ah nice, ok, ill give this a shot and add it to the laptop.  

 

Thanks guys for all the tips.

[vgbaron 3,486]

 

 

I'm lost with switch this off turn this on - this will override that - do you need Rex or can you just use As16 ?

 

AS16 provides the weather info.  ASCA provides sky and cloud graphics and works with AS16 to provide dynamic cloud updating in real time without stopping the sim.  REX provides the same that ASCA provides plus runway textures etc but does not allow for dynamic updating.

 

If you have all three, you can use them. If you have AS16/ASCA you can use them without buying REX. If you have as16 /REX you can use them without buying ASCA BUT you will lose dynamic clouds.

 

Hope that didn't confuse you more.

 

Vic

[theskyisthelimit 48]

ok - I follow - 

 

ASCA and RexTD wll overwrite each other if you select the same items ( clouds, Sky, ).

 

I prefer ASCA clouds and sky to REX  but I like REX airport textures and water. SO, I leave ASCA at it's defaults for Sky and clouds and install REXTD and UNCHECK those items that are duplicated in ASCA.

 

You only have to run REX once to apply the selected textures and you can shut it down until you want to make any changes.

 

ASCA is dynamic however and will change clouds on the fly but if you are using AS16 you don't have to worry because AS16 will load ASCA and the two will work to give you the best options for clouds and sky.  This will not affect the sun, moon, airport, runway, etc textures that were loaded by REX.

 

Hope this makes sense.

 

Vic

 

I just wanted to double check what you do NOT select in Rex4.. as far as i can see obviously clouds arent checked..  and i'm guessing anything skies and sun/effects are not checked in rex as well correct?

 

How about texture resolutions in rex/asca.. do you have that set to max (but maybe only 2048 in sim)?  I'm having issues with VAS + p3d 3.4.9 starting out with only 800MB with say the PMDG 737.. it was suggested to lower the texture resolution to 1024 (saw no real difference in sim for vas when i did this), unless it must both be lowered in rex/asca AND in the sim.. i would think just sim.. trying to avoid doing this though.

 

As of now i have the res in both rex and asca set to the maxes for each and dxt 1 and 5 for texture compression in rex.  in rex, runways are either 1024 or 4096, there is no inbetween unfortunately.

 

Also, unsure what the difference is between "Full dynamics" and "Global automatic".. i have been leaving it on global automatic.

[vgbaron 3,486]

Global auto is good. I'd start by setting ALL the textures in both REX and ASCA to 1024 or lower, if possible, and see how you like it. For me, I cannot tell the difference between 1024 and 4096 cloud textures.

 

If you want to use ASCA and REX, uncheck all the sky and cloud options in REX. You'll get the best of both, IMHO that way.

 

Also, sorry I don't have the time right now to locate the link, but search this forum for Ordenador and mip-maps. There was a very long thread with  detailed instructions on how to convert many aircraft textures resulting in less VAS footprint.

 

 

EDIT:  here is the link - lots of good info!

 

http://www.avsim.com/topic/471107-guide-to-mipmapping-and-optimising-textures/

 

Vic

[theskyisthelimit 48]

Global auto is good. I'd start by setting ALL the textures in both REX and ASCA to 1024 or lower, if possible, and see how you like it. For me, I cannot tell the difference between 1024 and 4096 cloud textures.

 

If you want to use ASCA and REX, uncheck all the sky and cloud options in REX. You'll get the best of both, IMHO that way.

 

Also, sorry I don't have the time right now to locate the link, but search this forum for Ordenador and mip-maps. There was a very long thread with  detailed instructions on how to convert many aircraft textures resulting in less VAS footprint.

 

 

EDIT:  here is the link - lots of good info!

 

http://www.avsim.com/topic/471107-guide-to-mipmapping-and-optimising-textures/

 

Vic

Thanks for that.. i seem to recall there also being a batch file to run on the simobjects folder for ut2 some time ago, though i cant seem to find a reference to that (which also may have done a similar thing).

 

Either way, i've determined that UT2 is only using around 60MB of vas total (for 70/30 split).

[Boomer 1,619]

My brothers...as an owner of AS16 and ASCA, is there any advantage to also getting REX textures direct?  You see, right now it's on sale.

[Greggy_D 935]

Since getting AS16 and ASCA, I have shelved REX textures.  I also use ENVTEX.