REX Sky Force Very First look

[Bruce Nicholson KMFR 20]

I think the video request was for a continuous, unedited video showing SF3D in action. The product video from REX is more of a "highlights reel" showing the best parts of SF3D. As of right now, there are 3 videos posted on YouTube, The two posted by Nico are over a hour long, but because he is shooting the video from inside his cockpit, the out of the window view is very washed out and it difficult to see what is happening until he moves to the evening and night views.

[timest 472]

6 minutes ago, TheDanger said:

Exactly. Snake oil. That could easily be a screenshot from a FS2004 weather product and people would still be fawning over it claiming it is the best realistic looking screenshot of weather in FS ever!

Snake oil? Don't fool yourself. Good luck getting your current weather solution(s) to do anything remotely close to this. 

http://www.rexsimulations.com/samplesf.png

[ZKOKQ 984]

After some research, and looking for vids and pics to comare ASCA and Skyforce, I believe Skyforce winds in the cloud depiction department. With ASP4 as my weather engine, I think this would be a great combo.

As some may think I was being negative, I will put my money where my mouth is and purchase the product. I see no reason not too.

[MindYerBeak 73]

31 minutes ago, Bruce Nicholson KMFR said:

IIs there anyone using SF3D on a second networked computer? Can one see the maps and other information on a second computer while flying on the server computer? This is how I have my ActiveSky set up. 

I am. I can see no map yet but I'm reinstalling because i was told that my not seeing maps was probably due to a corrupt install.

[Matthew James de Bohun 55]

I'm at work at the moment so haven't got time to read throuh everything. Can someone summarise what if any features you lose out if you choose Active Sky as your weather engine over the Rex one please?

[David Roch 1,982]

Hi there,

Until today I was using AS together with Asca skies + REX (Essential + Soft) clouds.
- AS weather engine is unrivaled and I need it for my PMDG heavies.
- I've always preferred REX clouds over AS ones and I like Asca sky texture better, so this was the best combo for me.
- I've tried Entex but I don't like the GUI and Asca skies look better IMO.
- For the shaders, I use PTA and won't change it.

I've just purchased RSF, for the new clouds only, not being interested by their weather engine.
And I must say that they are gorgeous, and so are the sky colors and atmosphere.
Clouds look more real than ever and after a few flights I am sincerely very impressed by what I see (difficult to explain with words but "better" than previous REX clouds).
So I will obviously keep ActiveSky together with RSF and PTA and get rid of REX Essential and Soft Clouds, ASCA and Envtex.
For me, that's already much worth the 40$ investment and I am pretty happy.
I didn't expect more than seeing a real improvement in the sky and clouds rendering and that's what RSF offers.
No FPS improvement or penalty, so far.
Hope it helps!

 

[DModjo 117]

What's the performance like in comparison to the default clouds?

[David Roch 1,982]

Compared to the default clouds, I don't know.
Compared to ASCA or REX previous clouds, no changes as far as I can see.

 

[riccardo74 36]

Thanks guys for all comments, I'd to purchase SF3D. Now I'm using ASP4+REX4 TD and Soft Clouds and I'm quite satisfacted.

1) f I want to use SF3D I should give up to Soft Clouds and REX4 (or at least use it only for runway, taxiways or ground texture), correct?

2) ASP4+SF3D could be good coupled in terms of weather rendering?

3) are 3D clouds really modeled and give real immersion?

[timest 472]

Hi Riccardo,

1 minute ago, riccardo74 said:

1) f I want to use SF3D I should give up to Soft Clouds and REX4 (or at least use it only for runway, taxiways or ground texture), correct?

It's up to you, but REX4 is still great with the other non-atmospheric textures.

2 minutes ago, riccardo74 said:

2) ASP4+SF3D could be good coupled in terms of weather rendering?

Yes, we're seeing some amazing things from users with this setup already.

2 minutes ago, riccardo74 said:

3) are 3D clouds really modeled and give real immersion?

Yes. The default models in-sim already are modeled in 3D space. We have just taken it to the next level. For some samples, see the following. That is just a taste of the modeling platform we've built. 

[Harvgordon 54]

Okay, after reading few posts I think we might have a misunderstanding here.

I see people blame REX for not drawing the cloud types other than cumulus and cirrus.
This is NOT correct.

SF3D did have some new cloud types that other texture add-ons are incapable to model in the sim. Because it requires specific weather conditions to see.

Under severe thunderstorm conditions where the supercell is formed. The altitude at its top is about 70,000 ft. 
This screenshot is taken at 70,000 ft. As you can see from the picture, the supercell tower is certainly drawn in the sim.

https://imgur.com/OQzvJRv

https://imgur.com/B5pbbUU
I don't know how to re-create a scenario that other cloud types can be seen. This is why I'm asking REX to make a demonstration.

When flying through the clouds, it doesn't really have the "3D" feels, in my scenario, it seems that I am flying through layers of clouds, and it really kills the immersion. Here are the screenshots I have taken during the test.

https://i.imgur.com/3ihyVAQ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/AKz47Kz.jpg
The key is, SF3D lacks proper weather simulation, which their IWX engine should have the capability as advertised. 
Yes, it can generate nice-looking supercell tower, but it doesn't have the capability to do the proper weather simulation of it. You don't really feel the danger of flying through these weather conditions. It's just the eye candy.
At the same time, when I choose to use ASP4 with SF3D, there are new issues. ASP4 as a weather engine is utilizing the clouds from SF3D, with SF3D enabled (IWX weather engine disabled) in the background. It doesn't seem to work well with the SF3D's real-time sync mode because ASP4 is generating clouds at the same time, it really sacrifices the performance and the weather simulation of ASP4 feels odd as well, not to mention the strange combined looking.
You see here SF3D is definitely compatible with ASP4, they can be run at the same time and work together, but it doesn't work well. I know I can not criticise REX developers for this reason
because they don't really have a chance to make SF3D integrate with ASP4 perfectly. The development of two products is totally independent.
Therefore I can only hope for the best that SF3D's IWX weather engine delivers. 

The major critics that SF3D has received (in my opinion) is related to its weather engine. If I use nice words to describe it, it still has a large potential for further development. Not to put too fine a point on it, it doesn't have fundamental features to be called as a "weather engine". They use fancy words in the advertisement, such as "we are able to interpret the energy of the atmosphere by using key model components to determine its volatility down to a single latitude and longitude." which indicates they are using a totally different approach to bring the flight sim weather simulation to a higher level. I have never seen any existing weather product is capable of interpreting the energy of the atmosphere, and this is just exciting.
However, the questions to be asked after the purchase is: "What is the theory or the background of its weather simulation", "What is the limitation of the software?", "What about sudden weather change and re-draw of clouds?" REX doesn't give us sufficient information in the reality.

To be honest, the main reason that I purchased SF3D at an instant was I really believe this brings revolutionary changes and overcomes the sim barrier. Unfortunately, it all comes to a frustration at the end. It doesn't live up to all anticipation and advertisement it has. 
 

[pmb 5,137]

1 hour ago, Bruce Nicholson KMFR said:

I posted twice to the REX forums and no one would provide an answer as to whether SF3D can work in a network environment. Is there anyone using SF3D on a second networked computer? Can one see the maps and other information on a second computer while flying on the server computer? This is how I have my ActiveSky set up. The manual makes no mention of any networking, except for a single general setting on page 60 and most of the comments so far are from users running the sim and SF3D on a single computer. Obviously I can use AS as my weather engine and use a network, but I'm trying to get an idea of the SF3D features compared to AS, beyond the great looking cloud models and textures.

It works networked. I installed it on a networked  laptop. You obvisouly have to make a network share for the simulator directory and set the Skyforce path to it, but that's it. I only did a short test, but weather injection did work.

The map is supposed to work on the client machine, yes. That's all the same as AS2016/ASCA does and this was an important point for me indeed. Unfortunately, the map is still dead for me, but this isn't a network issue but something else others had as well. That was late night yesterday, maybe there's solution availably already.

Kind regards, Michael

[pete_auau 1,159]

ok   just  downloaded  just  did a quick a  simple  test  open   and  started 

[pete_auau 1,159]

[MatthewS 761]

So from what I'm reading RSF works best with ASP4 ?

Some vids?