Conclusion on REX Sky Force after a day of testing.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, roi1862 said:

I think he said - you dont have to chose which by my understanding means that on the go it inject any of the 22 sets... right ? 

I don't think so. If that would be the case, then why are there options to install sets anyway? If everything was done automatically there would be no need at all for those install options (and the interface would have been a lot less cluttered).

[Jon Murchison 14]

10 minutes ago, J van E said:

That won't happen, REX said so. We don't want people to think this redraw problem will be fixed with a patch or so. SkyForce should be regarded as a texture addon for skies and clouds with a weather engine for those who don't own a proper weather engine. REX never should have added that weather engine because it is making the entire discussion about this addon complicated. Look at SkyForce as ASCA (on steroids or not) and it's quite a simple choice one has to make: do I like what I see here and there or not.

Your comment here sir makes more sense than most I have read, and IMO clarifies where this product is actually placed as opposed to how REX are promoting it, or perhaps view it themselves.

If they won't/can't fix it then they should know their weather engine is never going to be viable for those who care about such things. As you say it will do the job for those who don't have an engine, and I would suggest casual flyer's who wont really care.

I'm still on the fence given I have REX products as well as AS/ASCA which do a fine job. More screenshots and videos as they come through will either confirm this is the add-on to go for or stay with what I have.

Thank you.

[honanhal 1,420]

20 minutes ago, Nyxx said:

Look in the bottom right corner to see what SF is using to depict the weather. 1509...

Hope thats helps.

Thanks, David. I should start by saying that I genuinely appreciate your trying to clarify what SF does, in case that was unclear before. Unfortunately, it does seem to me that REX, for whatever reason, are not making clear what their product actually does, especially once you throw AS weather into the mix. So the service you're providing here is that much more important. All of which is to say: thanks!

That said -- and here again I have to stress that my confusion/frustration here is 100% not directed at you, but rather at REX -- that "1509" number is a perfect example of the kind of obfuscation I'm seeing all too often with this product. What exactly does "cloud structures" mean? I've read the REX written materials and again, if there's a clear answer to that, I've missed it. Is each of those eight textures being counted as an additional iteration of a "cloud structure"? (If so, I can't see how that makes any sense at all based on the plain-English definition of the word "structure".)

This may well be a revolutionary product that offers a dazzling array of dynamic injected weather. I hope it is! But it's just hard to tell for sure what it's doing through the sheer buildup of marketing puffery, not just in the promotional materials, but in the manuals and even the GUI itself.

James

[Nyxx 6,993]

23 minutes ago, J van E said:

I don't think so. If that would be the case, then why are there options to install sets anyway? If everything was done automatically there would be no need at all for those install options (and the interface would have been a lot less cluttered).

J

Here is a screen shot of the opening screen you see when you open/load SF

If you take 1 second and click "No thank you" you can put it on your taskbar and start P3D is that hard or cluttered or complicated? a 2 second job at best.

Or if you want to waste 5 seconds of you life you can click under Randomize and 2 seconds later you have loaded a random set, not that i've seen anything like the same clouds textures with not using this option. Unlike when you have 1 sky texture to work with.

You don't need the Flight plan "click here" as the flight plan is loaded automatically from P3d.

So just how cluttered is it. If that's not automated enough to simply press "No thank you" shrink to taskbar > go fly just how simple do you need it do be? so it's not "cluttered" at all, it could not be more simple.

AS as a ton of option that you could spend hours setting it up if you wish but once done it done. But having the option to customize your texture if you wish is to much! and you don't have to do anything if you wish not to.

"cluttered" ? no.

As for REX putting a weather engine within SF, well not everyone like most on here have a weather engine, if your new to flight simming you can get started with one package.

I could use the original REX one, OPUS one or the best AS. Apart from the redraw the weather engine is stunning in what it brings.

 

[tttocs 301]

25 minutes ago, J van E said:

I don't think so. If that would be the case, then why are there options to install sets anyway? If everything was done automatically there would be no need at all for those install options (and the interface would have been a lot less cluttered).

There are options to install sets in ASCA as well because... I dunno, I guess some people like to work that way.  But if you're using dynamic, you just choose that and ignore the sets.  Looks to be a similar setup in SF3D.

Scott

[Guest]

 

14 minutes ago, Nyxx said:

If you take 1 second and click "No thank you" you can put it on your taskbar and start P3D is that hard or cluttered or complicated? a 2 second job at best.

Or if you want to waste 5 seconds of you life you can click under Randomize and 2 seconds later you have loaded a random set, not that i've seen anything like the same clouds textures with not using this option. Unlike when you have 1 sky texture to work with.

What if you install the addon and press ‘No, thank you’ the first time you run it, what happens then? Does the program install textures for skies and clouds all by itself? Or do you have to select and install texture sets yourself first?

That ‘No, thank you’ looks like a ‘skip this quick start’ menu and not like a ‘do everything for me automatically’. I’d like to get the latter, not the first. That quick start menu says nothing about ‘let me do it for you’: it’s just a quick start menu to some of the main options you get.

Concerning the randomize option: that is something I really don’t want! I want the program to install appropriate textures at the appropriate time! Seeing this option here only makes me think even more that SkyForce is just a rather dumb texture addon. What is the use of a randomize option in a program that is supposed to give me realistic textures on the fly...? Again, this only feeds my skepticism.

[Nyxx 6,993]

Just now, J van E said:

 

What if you install the addon and press ‘No, thank you’ the first time you run it, what happens then? Does the program install textures for skies and clouds all by itself? 

yes all  by itself.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, tttocs said:

There are options to install sets in ASCA as well because... I dunno, I guess some people like to work that way.  But if you're using dynamic, you just choose that and ignore the sets.  Looks to be a similar setup in SF3D.

Scott

Ah, ok. Well, I am still looking forward to a proper review or a video in which I can see all of this actually working.

Oh, and btw David, I do appreciate the time you take trying to clear things up! But well, I think I still don’t get it LOL 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Nyxx said:

yes all  by itself.

Great! Thanks for the reply. The forum software is extremely slow here so I see some posts only after posting mine so sorry for that: I am really reading everything here! ;) 

[Bill Griffith 160]

Thank you for the report and answers David.  Very helpful. 

 

Bill

[Nyxx 6,993]

12 minutes ago, J van E said:

Great! Thanks for the reply. The forum software is extremely slow here so I see some posts only after posting mine so sorry for that: I am really reading everything here! ;) 

You can be very hard work my Friend 

Right please follow this, the first time you load SF.

You can leave this BTW till later but let's not go there 

It asks you to pick textures res you want to use 512 1024 2048 4096, I ticked the DTX5 box and 512.

You then load texture, tacks around 2 seconds. 

That's it! (well from memory it is )

After that

Open

Click "No thank you"

Srink

Go fly.

I just don't know how or simple it could be than that.

But you will have to go into weather engine and turn theres off to. But that's a one off job.

---------

REX should pay me for all this work 

[EmpireKicking 8]

I read allot of information, I can't tell at all with the images I seen!

I'm better of, staying with active sky's, Rex4 texture direct, orbx, and add HD moon texture 

[Nyxx 6,993]

1 hour ago, honanhal said:

Thanks, David. I should start by saying that I genuinely appreciate your trying to clarify what SF does, in case that was unclear before. Unfortunately, it does seem to me that REX, for whatever reason, are not making clear what their product actually does, especially once you throw AS weather into the mix. So the service you're providing here is that much more important. All of which is to say: thanks!

That said -- and here again I have to stress that my confusion/frustration here is 100% not directed at you, but rather at REX -- that "1509" number is a perfect example of the kind of obfuscation I'm seeing all too often with this product. What exactly does "cloud structures" mean? I've read the REX written materials and again, if there's a clear answer to that, I've missed it. Is each of those eight textures being counted as an additional iteration of a "cloud structure"? (If so, I can't see how that makes any sense at all based on the plain-English definition of the word "structure".)

This may well be a revolutionary product that offers a dazzling array of dynamic injected weather. I hope it is! But it's just hard to tell for sure what it's doing through the sheer buildup of marketing puffery, not just in the promotional materials, but in the manuals and even the GUI itself.

James

Thank you James that's very kind.

I cannot speak for REX but you ask "cloud structures" mean?

There different, when you see clouds that are deep/high that's what I now see even with AS engine, more so with there WX. So it seems unlike AS layers (3-5) its more a solid cloud if that makes since? Clouds seem to have more weight. That all I can say perhaps best to ask REX. BTW when using AS engine I still get clouds rolling over the windscreen or what look like clouds.

 

 

[Pineapple_Wizard 42]

From what I have read, given that the REX weather engine has always been questionable, it seems SF3D is just a dressed up version of REX Texture Direct, which I even ditched for ENVTEX and ASCA quite some time ago. So far I haven't seen any strong evidence that SF3D is as amazing or is a huge improvement over TD/soft clouds to make me want to buy the product.

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Hello all,

This is off topic I know but can I just ask someone to publish a list of all these paragraph abbreviations (ie BTW, OP, LMAO,LMO etc. For an aged and feeble mind a lot of these simply do not make sense to me. 

I request this BTBHNGAFC

(Because This Boy Has Not Got An eFfing Clue)

If I can find out what these are, (and I do plead my own ignorance)  it will contribute significantly to my enjoyment of this forum

Thanks guys

Tony