Hi all,

 

I have bitten the bullet and bought V4. I have been using a combination of ASN and REX Texture Direct and Soft Clouds which seemed to work well in V3.4.. However, I have been out of he loop with the likes of Envitex, as well as the newer AS16 & Cloud Art. A few Q's:

- Is Envitex like the much improved version of REX?

- Does REX still compare with Cloud Art or not at all?

Any help, screenshots or advice would be excellent!

 

WS

Would be interested in an answer to this also. I'm thinking of getting AS16 and ASCA now and then ENVITEX later, but not too sure what others are doing.

I am waiting for an update from FS Global Real Weather, the tool I used for v3.4. However, if AS16 has its update ready way earlier, I might switch. REX actually works, with some minor issues.

16 minutes ago, AnkH said:

I am waiting for an update from FS Global Real Weather, the tool I used for v3.4. However, if AS16 has its update ready way earlier, I might switch. REX actually works, with some minor issues.

The AS16 update to support V4 is already out (well, in beta anyway, for AS16 owners).  It seems to work fine, and ASCA didn't need an update.

FSXWX at least for me works extremely well in V4 and it's free! I like the fact that it is small fast and lightweight, so whilst it lacks the features of AS16 it does the core job really well.

For textures, ENVTEX is much higher quality than REX and look really realistic (unlike most of the REX stuff). Naturally I expect the REX marketing team to go into full buzzword mode and come up with new marketing terms to sell more low quality material.

AS16 is the best weather engine money can buy and it's P3D v4 compatible.

ASCA changes the sky textures & cloud types while you fly with real weather using AS16.

REX4 textures & soft clouds, to me in FSX, look better than ASCA, but they do not replace textures while en route. It doesn't do what ASCA does.

ENVEX works with ASCA seamlessly.

Therefore, my advice is AS16/ASCA + ENVEX and you will have the latest & greatest + the most dynamic weather depiction in P3D v4.

I tried most of them by now, i try to write down my opinion. Some is opinion, some are facts. I also have screenshots to compare, if someone want to see. Would take me a while to find all but i have em.

FSXWX: i used this in v3 for quite a while. I was basically happy with most, the clouds (with the textures they provide on the website) looks good. Just the unfluid change of weather was what i didnt like. If a change happens, you can see it rather fast happening and when the weather reloads its clearly visible too. Other than that, not bad.

FSRealWX: Used it in v3 too. While the trial time is really nice, after trial the features get reduced by a lot, what makes it basically sensless to use it for me. The tool itslef, when bought isnt bad though.

Active Sky (AS16 on v3): A game breaker basically. I used it first with REX Softclouds, wich was nice and i liked it a lot. You basically cannot see weather updates anymore and everything looks a lot better. REX Softclouds brought the little soft touch with it that was missing until now.

Now we go to version 4 of P3d.

AS4 (renamed AS16) on v4: I used REX first too, wich is not officially supported yet on v4. But without checking anything while install (in the configurator from REX) one could install the clouds on v4. Many did, known streamers too. And it worked like 75%. Depending on weather it could look very nice, or pretty bad...It could change from very realistic to a darkish grey gibberish of what one could see as clouds if completley drunk only.

I didnt want to wait for the official release for Softclouds so i went to ASCA. Let me tell you that since i started flightsim (wich isnt too long rally, but yeah...) i never saw anything near like this. The clouds are the most realistic thing devs can make at this point, im pretty sure. In many situations they look 100% real. Of course there are still situations where this doesnt apply, and it looks a bit off but the overall flighttime, it looks just insanley brilliant.

AS4 with ASCA

 

AS4 with REX Softclouds. while it looks nice, its too soft...ASCA has this little touch that REX is missing, imo.

 

FSXWX with REX Softclouds on v3 (for me it looks a lot better on v3 than on v4, what can of course has to do that its not supported officially yet)

 

Comparing all pics, in my opinion the first one is the best looking clouds. And that is AS4 (AS16) with ASCA on v4. Besides the redish look, what was because of the sun at that time.
The whole wind, turbulence and all that, also AS4 does the best. If spend some time to setup the winds and turbulence, and all the other possible options, here one can clearly get the best results of weather generation on Prepar3d v4.

I did not test or know any other besides the mentioned here, so excuse me if there is anything that does it even better.,

One last example more, what AS16 + ASCA is capable of

AS16 or AS4 beta for V4 along with ASCA is brilliant.  I would not use P3d without these.  Start them up and they do everything for u automatically.  I would also recommend ENVTEX and PTA.  Using all these together has gave me the most immersive experience ever in a flight sim period.  And I have tried pretty much everything.

Alright, I think you guys talked me into buying AS16 and ASCA. Between REX and HIFI it's like a battle of the weather engines. What is the deal with this new REX Skyforce 3D stuff, what is this going to do now? 

Just curious as I want to invest properly. Is AS16 the latest and greatest?

5 minutes ago, Drumcode said:

Between REX and HIFI it's like a battle of the weather engines.

It's never really been a contest, REX have never managed to produce a weather engine that could compete with the equivalent Hifi Sim product.

Can't really see that changing anytime soon.

13 minutes ago, Drumcode said:

Alright, I think you guys talked me into buying AS16 and ASCA. Between REX and HIFI it's like a battle of the weather engines. What is the deal with this new REX Skyforce 3D stuff, what is this going to do now? 

Just curious as I want to invest properly. Is AS16 the latest and greatest?

In terms of weather engine AS16 is definitely the best there is. I use AS16 (now AS4 or what it's called for P3D v4) and textures from REX Texture Direct + Soft Clouds. Couldn't be more satisfied really.

31 minutes ago, Drumcode said:

Alright, I think you guys talked me into buying AS16 and ASCA. Between REX and HIFI it's like a battle of the weather engines. What is the deal with this new REX Skyforce 3D stuff, what is this going to do now? 

Just curious as I want to invest properly. Is AS16 the latest and greatest?

Yes AS16 is the best weather engine period.  Just remember the P3D V4 version is still officially in beta.  The only issue I have encountered is the haze layer to me seems a little overdone at times.

32 minutes ago, Glynn said:

It's never really been a contest, REX have never managed to produce a weather engine that could compete with the equivalent Hifi Sim product.

Can't really see that changing anytime soon.

Please forgive me, I haven't been virtually flying in 3 years or so until v4 came out, so I'm jumping back after quite a while.

For cloud textures, definitely soft clouds. Been through ENVTEX and ASCA but SC always wins out. ASCA looks good at closer range but once you move away from the clouds, they get this weird gunky texture that looks beyond awful.