Well darn, now this is giving me a headache. I was thinking about buying REX texture direct to replace envtex. I decided that (for now) REX is my go to texture and cloud program. So I don't think I will need ASCA and Envtex now. I already have REX skyforce and I am confused as to what REX texture direct gives me that REX skyforce does not. I am also planning on buying REX environment force and what I have seen that program looks like skyforce and texture direct. Wow, that's a lot of products. Can anybody give me a breakdown of what each of these REX's does?

Edited March 23, 20197 yr by bosflo

Rex TD - does various texture replacements, runways, lights, clouds, signs, sounds, skies and more! You just run it once install the textures and that’s it, no need to start with p3d each time. 

Rex SkyForce is more weather oriented, with clouds, skies, sun rays, day/night cycles. No airport stuff in here. It does have its own weather engine, but I prefer to use with ASP4 + ASCA (asca allows dynamic weather with Rex sky force textures, that’s how I roll). 

Environment Force I’m not up to speed on! So check their website gubbings🤔. 

I have Rex airports HD + SkyForce which is everything that TD does, kinda newer versions of bits of TD. 

Hope that helps! 👍

Edited March 23, 20197 yr by djbully

So basically REX TD does the same as envtex? (but better)?😉

And REX TD also does what ASCA does too?

22 minutes ago, bosflo said:

So basically REX TD does the same as envtex? (but better)?😉

And REX TD also does what ASCA does too?

Rex TD is just really a texture replacement. So no it won’t give you dynamically changing weather like asca. It does have a weather engine thing, maybe you have to buy separately, it’s generally considered poor in comparison to asp4 + asca.

I’ve not used envtex, but I believe it is another texture replacement thing. It’s a matter of which textures you prefer. I think it’s more sky colours than clouds, I could be wrong! 

 I don’t us TD anymore as sky force and airports hd, are newer better textures. 

Edited March 23, 20197 yr by djbully

SkyForce does more what asca does, not TD. 

Weather engine in SkyForce has been criticised, so get the best of both worlds. 

Asp4 + asca for weather data and dynamically changing weather.

textures from Rex. 

Shalll we go back in topic : EnvTex > ASCA skies confusiom .... 

Edited March 23, 20197 yr by GSalden

On 1/7/2018 at 8:00 AM, Nyxx said:

Since I did this, this morning I can share your confusion.

Here you see what you get when set to Full Dynamics

If you then click Settings >WX influence configuration you should see this. The list of ENVTEX sky textures as you see here and another page long 64 in total of ENVTEX

How do you get all those Envtex textures. If I open ASCA then I only see about three Envex textures. As a result my ASCA keeps giving me messages saying that envtex # is not loading so the theme doesn't inject into the sim. I am just thinking of getting REX texture direct for the textures that Envtex has. Do you have any experiences with TD over Envtex?. For some reason I can't see your screenshot for the settings. Thank you

 

On 3/22/2019 at 6:51 PM, Nemo said:

Uninstalling Envtex is a mess! I followed the procedure step by step but have now problems with ASCA which does not load anymore. Probably I need to uninstall and reinstall ASCA and hoping this will help. I am done with Envtex for a while.

I am also not sure if I have got back my original textures. Is there a way to prove this?

Hello Harry,

I'm sorry you got confused to uninstall Envtex, the process is pretty straight forward normally:

- Click on Restore in Envdir if you want to get back your textures before Envtex was installed;
- Uninstall Envtex and Envdir from the windows programs panel if you don't expect to use it again and that's all

As for the ASCA errors with Envtex, we have been in contact with Damian at Hifi and he confirmed there is an issue on their side with numerous additional presets, it should not prevent you to use ASCA though.

REX Skyforce are claiming proper 3D clouds.

I have ASP4 and ASCA, which also claims 3D clouds.

But, when I look sideways out of the window of my plane when near clouds, I still see the old 2D sprite clouds rotating in the air just like they used to in FSX, and promptly negating the realism immersion at a stroke.

What's going on here? Do any of these packages actually produce proper volumetric 3D clouds in 2019? Or is it all still pseudo 3D made from lots of 2D bits?

No. The closest any package comes to effect-based 3D clouds is that Active Sky has an in-cloud haze effect.

I don't expect to ever see 3D clouds at all distances from the users viewpoint. There is really no reason to do so.

"There is really no reason to do so."

Well how to I avoid seeing spinning cloud sprites? That is the actual problem, and is a big downer when it comes to realistic immersion.

I'm really a bit annoyed that these companies are marketing these cloud packages as 3D - it's misrepresentation. At best it is a 3D effect, not 3D.

Additionally, is there any way to avoid the quite unrealistic intersection of clouds and mountains/ground, where the bottom edge of the clouds is cut off in an abrupt straight line, quite unlike what happens in the real world?

 

On the REX Skyforce 3D web page, it clearly says "YES, Clouds modelled in 3D".

Surely this requires running the Skyforce weather engine.

I intend running ASP4 as the engine, so will I still get proper 'Clouds modelled in 3D"?

 

Essentially the engine has nothing to do with the clouds other than selecting what you have installed. If the RSF installs 3D clouds the weather engine will use them.

 

Vic

Excellent. Thanks.

Just to clarify for everyone else, I'm now using SkyForce3D '3D' clouds with ASP4 engine, and I still get rotating clouds, so true 3D they are not.

If SkyForce 3D clouds are potentally true 3D, I assume they only show up as 3D if using the SkyForce 3D weather engine, but I haven't tested this.