AS16 + ASCA + REX TD Enhanced? Worth?

[Thomasso 224]

Hello everybody,

I have been waiting for REX Sky Force 3D but I recently lost my patience with it so I'm going for Active Sky for P3D v4.

I am doing some research about the possibilities that I have.

I have P3D Academic v4.1 with REX Texture Direct Enhanced. I definitely will buy Active Sky for P3Dv4. 

My question is, will I benefit from ASCA as well? As I understand these products, they both replace cloud textures. REX does have other features like airport textures, rain effects etc. ASCA on the other hand works with smooth changes of weather over time. 

So I believe that the best way is to use Active Sky for injecting weather, ASCA for clouds (and sky?) and REX for the other textures. Do you think that it's the best option for me? And is it worth to buy ASCA at all?

Thanks,
Tomas

[CaptainStraw 52]

I'm also waiting for Sky Force 3D, but until it comes, here's what I like best:

Active Sky + ASCA + Envshade + Envtex.

I've used REX 4 as well, but I like the above combination better, because Envtex provides you with 50 Sky Color profiles for ASCA which will give you different sky colors depending on current weather conditions, which were designed to work seamlessly with Envshade's shader (which has replaced PTA on my sim).

[Thomasso 224]

6 minutes ago, jacf182 said:

I'm also waiting for Sky Force 3D, but until it comes, here's what I like best:

Active Sky + ASCA + Envshade + Envtex.

I've used REX 4 as well, but I like the above combination better, because Envtex provides you with 50 Sky Color profiles for ASCA which will give you different sky colors depending on current weather conditions, which were designed to work seamlessly with Envshade's shader (which has replaced PTA on my sim).

Thanks for the reply. I am actually very happy with my PTA, using Gerard's preset that can be found on this forum. 

I heard some bad things about Envtex actually, but never tried it myself. 

If you look at my scenario... REX Enhanced owned, PTA owned and happy with it... Would you go for ASCA along with Active Sky or not? 

Thanks.

[CaptainStraw 52]

Well, as someone who's tried both REX and ASCA clouds, I'm sticking with ASCA because of its "Full Dynamics" theme, which will inject a higher variety of cloud textures while helping performance a bit. So in my case, I use ASCA not because it looks better, but because I like having more diversity.

Both REX and ASCA look good, but ASCA works beautifully with Active Sky in my opinion, injecting proper textures as weather changes.

Some prefer sharp clouds, some prefer puffy clouds. REX clouds look a bit "sharper" to me (except for the Soft Clouds sets).

Before Envtex, I used REX for all of my textures except for clouds and sky colors which were ASCA. You'll have plenty of joy with that configuration.

[scottb613 1,188]

Hi Folks,

Ditto - my cocktail of choice - Active Sky + ASCA + Envshade + Envtex.

Regards,
Scott

[gregmorin 199]

28 minutes ago, scottb613 said:

Hi Folks,

Ditto - my cocktail of choice - Active Sky + ASCA + Envshade + Envtex.

Regards,
Scott

I am also using Active Sky + ASCA + Envshade + Envtex. Together they are a set and forget solution. The proper textures are injected automatically for the current weather.

Greg

[Thomasso 224]

Thank you for your replies guys :) . If I understand this correctly, it is like this:

- Active Sky generates and injects weather into the sim, that's quite clear...
- ASCA and REX Soft Clouds are competitors and their job is to enhance cloud textures. ASCA has additional functionality if it's used along with Active Sky.
- Envtex is a texture replacement software, which competes directly with REX Texture Direct
- Envshade is a shader editor, therefore competes with PTA Tool

For the total immersion...

It's required to have Active Sky and then one of these combos:
- REX TD + Soft Clouds + PTA Tool
- REX TD + Soft Clouds + Envshade
- REX TD + ASCA + PTA Tool
- REX TD + ASCA + Envshade
- Envtex + ASCA + PTA Tool
- Envtex + ASCA + Envshade
(I don't believe that u can use Soft Clouds without REX TD)

Did I get that right?

I now trust that ASCA is better with Active Sky than Soft Clouds... So the only question is - PTA or Envshade? :)

[scottb613 1,188]

Hi Tomas,

Personally - from my experience Active Sky has always seemed to be the preferred weather engine by the majority around here... It does everything I need and I like it a great deal - I don't see myself changing to another brand unless the case is made where it offers dramatic and substantiated improvements over AS...

Yeah - the advantage of ENVTEX over REX TD - - - is that ENVTEX will feed the textures directly into ASCA - as the products are fully combatable... If you use REX TD + Soft Clouds (which I have as well) - you break the dynamic aspect of ASCA... I use ASCA for cloud textures - and add ENVTEX for sky textures and effects (rain/snow)...

PTA is more for guys who want to customize their experience with countless tunable parameters... ENVSHADE just has two settings (High Quality or High Performance) so it's more of a set it and forget it... Personally - in v3 - I found a preset I liked and I never changed it so I thought ENVSHADE would be fine for me now that we have to pay for it... Personally - I'm very happy with the results and for $5.00 the price seems more than reasonable as well...

Regards,
Scott

[Thomasso 224]

12 minutes ago, scottb613 said:

Hi Tomas,

Personally - from my experience Active Sky has always seemed to be the preferred weather engine by the majority around here... It does everything I need and I like it a great deal - I don't see myself changing to another brand unless the case is made where it offers dramatic and substantiated improvements over AS...

Yeah - the advantage of ENVTEX over REX TD - - - is that ENVTEX will feed the textures directly into ASCA - as the products are fully combatable... If you use REX TD + Soft Clouds (which I have as well) - you break the dynamic aspect of ASCA... I use ASCA for cloud textures - and add ENVTEX for sky textures and effects (rain/snow)...

PTA is more for guys who want to customize their experience with countless tunable parameters... ENVSHADE just has two settings (High Quality or High Performance) so it's more of a set it and forget it... Personally - in v3 - I found a preset I liked and I never changed it so I thought ENVSHADE would be fine for me now that we have to pay for it... Personally - I'm very happy with the results and for $5.00 the price seems more than reasonable as well...

Regards,
Scott

Thanks for the clarification Scott,

I'll definitely go for Active Sky for P3Dv4 (it's on sale by the way), along with ASCA.

ENVTEX seems like a good addition to the both above and I will definitely read some reviews and think about it.

And as far as shaders go, I think that I will stick to PTA because I already have a very nice looking preset made by Gerard - to be found here: 

It seems like he knows what he's doing and he keeps improving it :-) ... So no reason for me to switch. 

Anyway thanks again Scott!

[vcarlo 529]

45 minutes ago, scottb613 said:

.. ENVSHADE just has two settings (High Quality or High Performance) so it's more of a set it and forget it... Personally - in v3 - I found a preset I liked and I never changed it so I thought ENVSHADE would be fine for me now that we have to pay for it... Personally - I'm very happy with the results and for $5.00 the price seems more than reasonable as well...

Regards,
Scott

Thanks, Scott.  I have to ask you which preset are you referring? I am using the same products as you and agree with all your choices.  Currently my SHADER choice is PTA with preset > PTA Absolute - Natural Set - Less Haze which can now be found here :  C:/Users/[Username]/AppData/Local/TOGA projects/Envdir/Resource/PTA

[scottb613 1,188]

Hi...

When in V3 I was using one of the TOGA PTA presets available on their site...

Since moving to V4 - I'm just using ENVSHADE - I don't think presets apply anymore ?

Regards,
Scott

[vcarlo 529]

3 minutes ago, scottb613 said:

Hi...

When in V3 I was using one of the TOGA PTA presets available on their site...

Since moving to V4 - I'm just using ENVSHADE - I don't think presets apply anymore ?

Regards,
Scott

That's what I thought until I installed the latest ENVDIR. The updated presets for P3D v4.1 are now in my >> C:/Users/[Username]/AppData/Local/TOGA projects/Envdir/Resource/PTA