Hey Everyone

Like to get some options of weather add-ons and textures.  I have HiFi ASP4 for weather but I didn't buy ASCA with it.  I have REX bought for V3 but there is so many updates and versions I am not sure if there is any upgrades for V4 with the REX products I have for V3.  As well there is ENVTEX with a new shader tool.  I have do PTA which I am happy with.  What are simmers using and what is the best on the market at this time.  I know most of this is personal option but it would be nice to hear what is out there.

 

Thanks

Your never going to get a clear answer as it seems most people use different combinations of addons to what we all think looks best to us.

ASP4

ASCA

REX Soft clouds 

PTA (Matts preset)

I own but have stoped using Rex textures, ENVTEX.

Best weather = Active Sky/ASCA

Best Textures = REX4TD with and without Softclouds

and PTA

Personally I use Active Sky for P3D, Active Sky Cloud Art, Open Shade and UT2.

I used Open Shade to increase the Rayleigh Scattering appearance a bit by making the distant stuff a bit more bluish and I tweaked the cloud shadows with Open Shade a bit too based on what I'm familiar with seeing from flying real aeroplanes. I'm fairly happy with how the sky looks both day and night and how the clouds act on the terrain. But..

I also customised the ground night lighting in Ultimate Terrain Europe 2 by making the light textures in that a bit brighter with more lens flare effect, since in reality there is generally quite a bit of light pollution caused by that street lighting on the low atmosphere at most places where I'd be at low level in darkness, i.e. airports near major towns and cities, and because the cloud textures and weather engine cannot really add that aspect to stuff on the ground without a bit of help, I made UT2 do that. This was to replicate the effect cause by low pressure sodium vapor lights common in many European countries, which are known to produce a fair bit of light pollution that gives low clouds, overcasts, fog and mists an orange tinge.

To get the best look out of that, you have to put the Bloom and Saturation settings up for night flights and then back down to more default levels in the daytime because one setting of those sliders doesn't work for all times of day.

Active Sky, I'm currently using ASCA and like it a lot, but I also do like REX Soft Clouds as well. Either will do nicely. I decided to give ENVSHADE a try. For $5, I really like it.

I usemailed ASCA as it has dynamic textures with it. I just use the clouds though. The sky i prefer to use REX textures.

Worth noting that REXs Skyforce may finally be close to release which if it lives up to the hype may well be the one to go for ultimately.

12 hours ago, Nyxx said:

Your never going to get a clear answer as it seems most people use different combinations of addons to what we all think looks best to us.

Exactly. I myself use:

ASP4

HDE v2 (freeware, and I only use the cumulus01.bmp!)

PTA (Matt's preset: it's the most natural one and the only preset that will always work)

That's it and that's all. I like things simple and easy. All the GB's of textures that REX (and also ENVTEX) offer are a waste of SSD space imho. I did use REX for a while ages ago but I usually only used one set... and I never knew which one to pick. I see they keep adding new textures every now and then but those GB's don't impress me much. With this setup I like the skies I am seeing so why spend money and time to just make it different? Different doesn't equal better. Imho the default stuff P3D offers is pretty good: only the clouds really suck and so I use HDE for that.

Best weather: ActiveSky P3Dv4

Best textures: ASCA/ENVTEX (when using dynamic texture replacement)

 

Thanks everyone for your opinion. I have looked into REX new SkyForce and I am gonna to wait and see what this new weather engine and textures bring before I spend any more $$$$ in weather addons and weather textures. 

Just wondering, I have ASP4 and REX TD with SC. Is there any benefit to having ASCA as well? Or would I be wasting my money?

10 minutes ago, nealmac said:

Just wondering, I have ASP4 and REX TD with SC. Is there any benefit to having ASCA as well? Or would I be wasting my money?

The Advantage of ASCA is that the clouds can be set to dynamic. What that essentially means is different texture sets are loaded in during the flight which can give you a greater variation. It does this with the sky textures as well but I prefere the REX textures there.

To be honest with the seemingly impending release of REXs Skyforce it might be worth holding onto your wallet for now.

21 minutes ago, Matthew James de Bohun said:

The Advantage of ASCA is that the clouds can be set to dynamic. What that essentially means is different texture sets are loaded in during the flight which can give you a greater variation. It does this with the sky textures as well but I prefere the REX textures there.

To be honest with the seemingly impending release of REXs Skyforce it might be worth holding onto your wallet for now.

Thanks Matthew

I use ASP4 with ASCA because of the dynamics. I really like it and feel it gives me a sky that is "alive". I don't use sky textures from ASCA.

For sky textures, as well as runway/taxiway/lightning/water I use REX4 Enhanced Edition.

I'd like to try new water textures but don't know about any other.

REX will always be the King of Cloud, Sky, and Water textures. Active Sky will always be the king of the weather engine. However right now I have ASCA for textures. ASCA does it's job, however definitely not up to the level of REX.

I am excited to see what SkyForce 3D will bring

17 minutes ago, Mitch24 said:

REX will always be the King of Cloud, Sky, and Water textures. Active Sky will always be the king of the weather engine. However right now I have ASCA for textures. ASCA does it's job, however definitely not up to the level of REX.

I am excited to see what SkyForce 3D will bring

I have not really tried REX cloud textures. Since you've tried both, in your opinion what makes REX clouds better?

I've noticed there seems to be two cloud crowds: those who like detailed razor sharp clouds, and those that like more puffy/not so detailed clouds (they argue real clouds are not so sharp looking).