Rex SkyForce 3D vs Texture Direct vs Soft Clouds

[slantalpha 0]

I'm pretty new to weather add-on software for Prepar3D. What's the difference between these?

Rex SkyForce 3D
Rex Texture Direct
Rex Soft Clouds

From what I've read, I'm guessing that SkyForce 3D "injects" cloud textures into its own weather engine (that displays the weather in the sim), or sends them to ActiveSky (which is only a weather engine).

Does Rex Texture Direct do textures on airport runways? Do the textures have to be "injected" into either SkyForce 3D or ActiveSky?

Is Rex Soft Clouds an "add-on" for SkyForce 3D so that SkyForce 3D can "inject" soft clouds into its own weather engine or into ActiveSky?

Looks like there's a 30% off sale on ActiveSky, so I might just get that for now, but I'm not sure how good it would look without one of the products I've listed above?

[Nyxx 6,993]

You don't need Rex Soft Clouds as SF replaces it.

Rex Texture Direct you only have to open it and install what you want to use, once done you don't need to open it again. Don't install clouds SF is for that.

AS is "the" weather engine to use. Pair with SF for sky structures and textures.

2 from a flight tonight. You can see SF structures and textures. 

AS+SF

and

[slantalpha 0]

On 1/26/2018 at 2:55 PM, Nyxx said:

You don't need Rex Soft Clouds as SF replaces it.

Rex Texture Direct you only have to open it and install what you want to use, once done you don't need to open it again. Don't install clouds SF is for that.

AS is "the" weather engine to use. Pair with SF for sky structures and textures.

2 from a flight tonight. You can see SF structures and textures. 

AS+SF

and

Thanks for the screenshots and info, but I'm still trying to understand how everything works. Can we start with some of the questions I asked? I just want to understand how these things work with each other so that I can make some educated decision on what to buy vs how everything will look when all is said and done.

Looks like there is a version of Rex Texture Direct that comes with soft clouds, but soft clouds don't come with Rex TD automatically per se.

[vgbaron 3,627]

You need two things for weather. A weather program - ASP4 from HiFi seems to be the "standard of choice". And you need clouds.

The decision of clouds is TOTALLY up to you. I prefer ASCA, others prefer Rex SF, others FEX, others Rex Soft CLouds, etc etc. No one can tell you which is better since it is purely in the eyes of the beholder. To make it more confusing, you can mix and match different cloud sets from different developers.

Get the weather engine and use it with default clouds and see how it looks. Then, depending on $$$ available pick an addon set of clouds and see how it goes.

Once yoou've settled on that, you can look at enhancement programs like Envtex, Envshade and PTA. These provide subtle shadings that make the overall visuals look better.

Vic

[Guest]

5 hours ago, vgbaron said:

Once yoou've settled on that, you can look at enhancement programs like Envtex, Envshade and PTA. These provide subtle shadings that make the overall visuals look better.

Small correction: Envshade and PTA provide shadings that make the overall visuals look better. Envtex is similar to Texture Direct: it offers textures for clouds, skies, grass, water, etc.

On 26-1-2018 at 6:34 PM, jeff0000 said:

I'm pretty new to weather add-on software for Prepar3D. What's the difference between these?

1.Rex SkyForce 3D
2. Rex Texture Direct
3. Rex Soft Clouds

4. From what I've read, I'm guessing that SkyForce 3D "injects" cloud textures into its own weather engine (that displays the weather in the sim), or sends them to ActiveSky (which is only a weather engine).

5. Does Rex Texture Direct do textures on airport runways? Do the textures have to be "injected" into either SkyForce 3D or ActiveSky?

6. Is Rex Soft Clouds an "add-on" for SkyForce 3D so that SkyForce 3D can "inject" soft clouds into its own weather engine or into ActiveSky?

7. Looks like there's a 30% off sale on ActiveSky, so I might just get that for now, but I'm not sure how good it would look without one of the products I've listed above?

1. Rex SkyForce 3D offers cloud and sky textures and a very basic weather engine: the biggest selling point is the amount of new cloud structures (the shape of clouds) it brings to the sim.

2. Rex Texture Direct comes with all kinds of environmental textures: clouds, skies, water, runways, etc.

3. Rex Soft Clouds offer soft clouds. 

4. SkyForce 3D 'injects' a lot of extra cloud structures (not textures) into the sim. If they actually are injected (synced) or not no one knows. Afaik they are simply installed into the sim and loaded from disk when needed. It doesn't inject anything into the weather engine: the structures are simply used by any weather that is in the sim (be it default weather themes, Active Sky or SkyForce's own weather engine).

5. Yes, runway textures, water textures, cloud textures, etc. None of them are injected: you have to install them into the sim before you run the sim. You do not have to install new textures everytime you run the sim: if you like the textures you have you can keep on using them for years without ever opening Texture Direct.

6. No, Soft Clouds is an addon of its own (although it can also work with Texture Direct), released long before SkyForce. It's just a set of cloud textures but then looking softer. It has nothing to do with SkyForce although you could let SkyForce us the Soft Clouds textures. (Just as SkyForce can use the Texture Direct textures).

7. Active Sky will give you better weather with more options and will transform your sim even without any of the mentioned products, so with default clouds. But those default clouds just suck so it's a pity to not get an addon for that.

To make things more complicated: REX isn't the only developer who creates addons for what you want. The developer of Active Sky als0 has an addon similar to SkyForce and it's called ASCA. It has been released long before SkyForce. ASCA comes with cloud and sky textures (and also cloud structures) and the nice thing is it can actually inject textures on the fly, so you can see the sky colors change depending on the weather. SkyForce can't do that (nor can any of the other REX products).

And then there is also ENVTEX which is similar to Texture Direct. As a bonus the ENVTEX sky textures can be used by ASCA's dynamic 'inject' option.

My advice when it comes to weather: buy Active Sky first. It's a must have. The other addons aren't really weather addons: they are texture addons. The choice gets harder here because some like ASCA, some like SkyForce, some like ENVTEX... in the end only you can decide what you like.

I myself (so my very personal and debatable preference) use Active Sky for weather (obviously), SkyForce for clouds (textures and structures) and ENVTEX sky textures running dynamically through ASCA (I don't use any ASCA textures: I only use it so my skies change depending on where I fly and the weather). When I start my sim I first start Active Sky, then SkyForce and that's it: I don't manually load any new textures myself: Active Sky automatically loads ASCA in the background (for the dynamic sky textures), SkyForce apparently needs to run for the structures syncing (the textures are installed into the sim and can stay there for years) and ENVTEX doesn't need to run at all (once the sky textures have been installed into ASCA).

Well... hope this helps... Good luck with it all!

[Nyxx 6,993]

8 hours ago, jeff0000 said:

Can we start with some of the questions I asked? I just want to understand how these things work with each other so that I can make some educated decision on what to buy vs how everything will look when all is said and done

You asked.

"What's the difference between these?"

That's just what I did

Then you say.

"Can we start with some of the questions I asked?"

I explain that SF replacer Soft clouds and the clouds within Texture Direct. Leaving you to inject whatever textures you want to install from texture direct.

You asked

"Is Rex Soft Clouds an "add-on" for SkyForce 3D"

I said SF replacers Soft clouds. Also saying AS was the weather engine to use.

 

"Can we start with some of the questions I asked?" just what do you think I was trying to help you with? 

" so that I can make some educated decision on what to buy vs how everything will look when all is said and done"

Sorry for taking the time to show you what it all looks like, a complete waste of my time it seems.

All duly noted Jeff.

[Gabster 7]

This post is some days old, however you guys might help me with some further info on Sky Force. It seems their weather engine sucks and I already have Active Sky and would run it with Sky Force. Now Sky Force comes with many new features as they stated - would I miss any of the remodeling of sky strucures and so on when turning off the Sky Force weather enginge and let AS do the Job? Yet, I dont realy understand how they work together...Or would this combination mean, that the only benefit from Sky Force would be new textures?

[pete_auau 1,159]

1 hour ago, Gabster said:

This post is some days old, however you guys might help me with some further info on Sky Force. It seems their weather engine sucks and I already have Active Sky and would run it with Sky Force. Now Sky Force comes with many new features as they stated - would I miss any of the remodeling of sky strucures and so on when turning off the Sky Force weather enginge and let AS do the Job? Yet, I dont realy understand how they work together...Or would this combination mean, that the only benefit from Sky Force would be new textures?

you  cant have  2  weather  engines  running at the  same  time , in your  case  turn off  sf  weather  engine  and  just  use  Active  sky  engine  and  you  wont  lose  any  thing  at  all

[Gabster 7]

15 minutes ago, pete_auau said:

you  cant have  2  weather  engines  running at the  same  time , in your  case  turn off  sf  weather  engine  and  just  use  Active  sky  engine  and  you  wont  lose  any  thing  at  all

Yeah that would not make any sense. However I am still not sure how things work together. REX SF comes with new features like:

"Added rain shafts to calvus and incus cumulonimbus clouds of various intensities. Also included are wall and shelf clouds, and in some circumstances these will include funnel clouds and tornadoes of various shapes and sizes."

"Advanced Weather Formations - Soft clouds and detailed cloud textures structured together within the SAME session."

"Single-Session Cloud Texture Variation - The simulator is limited to 8 textures linked to clouds. We have quadrupled that amount to 32, which allows more variety during a flight session. "

And so on...In my Understanding Active Sky just picks up the textures from REX SF and puts them into the sim with its very own formations.
 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Gabster said:

And so on...In my Understanding Active Sky just picks up the textures from REX SF and puts them into the sim with its very own formations.

Clouds in P3D consist of textures and model structures. The first few features you mention have to do with model structures. SF installs both textures and model structures into the sim and AS simply uses everything that's available, textures as well as model structures. Most people here use SF together with AS so you should be good. I use this combination and my skies look great. 

Obviously it's a bit hard, if not impossible, to check what textures and structures are actually being used... We have to believe the words of the various developers on this.

 

Edited November 5, 2018 by Guest

[Pilot999 0]

After a year flight abstinence I now want to fly again 🙂
I have a fresh Win 10 Pro and have installed:

1 - P3D 4.4
2 - PMDG 737
3 - FSUIPC5
4 - Orbx (Base, Vector, openLC Europe, Trees HD)
5 - Active Sky for P3D4 

In the past the next was 6 - REX Texture Direct.

But by looking for updates, I read about some changes in the meanwhile and came (not only) to this forum-thread.

My questions / need help:

a)
I´m confused what I should do 🙂 ... 
leave it by Rex Texture Direct with Softclouds or give it a try with the other combination.

b)
Out of the points from "J van E"´s post.
- SkyForce for clouds (structures and textures, it´s OWN) 
- ASCA for sky (textures, from ENVTEX = howto:

Questions:

> SkyForce 3D dynamical load/inject structures/clouds while flights (as the given weather in the sim - from AS)?
> ASCA is for dynamical structures/clouds too. How to deactivate this, so that SkyForce handle structures/clouds?

> What is with ENVSHADE - do I need this too?

> What is with the other "REX Texture Direct" stuff ("comes with all kinds of environmental textures: clouds, skies, water, runways"). 
>>> Can/should I use them, except clouds, skies? 
>>> Can I install them without Soft Clouds?

c)
My biggest question is, in which order must they are installed?
Especially the textures, so that some do not overwrite others e.g..

d)
Do I have to config the scenery order?

Thanks for ur help!

Edited January 19, 2019 by charliearon
Embeded the video and removed Youtube link in the Topic Heading

[Christopher Low 5,354]

Weather is one of the most chaotic systems in nature......and the flight simulation development community simulates that perfectly