REX Sky Force in a networked setup?

[carlito777 712]

REX is currently having their Black Friday sale with 50% off and I'm thinking about getting REX Sky Force. Since I'm running Active Sky for P3D v4 on a client PC connecting to the sim PC over the network, I would like to know if it is possible to run REX Sky Force together with ASP4 on such a networked setup? If yes, must REX Sky Force be installed on the client PC or on the sim PC?

 

[speedyTC 195]

G'day Carlo,

if you plan on using SF3D for textures only (make sure the built-in Wx engine is disabled) you could install it on your sim PC and make sure you run it first (before firing up ASP4). Then continue running it in minimized mode. Also, make sure ASCA (if you have it) is not active.

You can download the SF3D manual from the REX site and it should be able to answer most of your questions. I run SF3D and ASN on my sim PC with no issues whatsoever and enjoy a great Wx experience.

Cheers.

[carlito777 712]

Thanks for the reply, Tony. However, the question that I have is whether REX Sky Force does work in conjunction with ASP4 when ASP4 is running over the network on a separate PC. 

Edited November 19, 2018 by carlito777

[speedyTC 195]

I don't see why not. If you are asking whether it could interface with ASP4 dynamically (as ASP4 does with ASCA) I really am not sure.

[mac99 0]

4 hours ago, carlito777 said:

REX is currently having their Black Friday sale with 50% off and I'm thinking about getting REX Sky Force. Since I'm running Active Sky for P3D v4 on a client PC connecting to the sim PC over the network, I would like to know if it is possible to run REX Sky Force together with ASP4 on such a networked setup? If yes, must REX Sky Force be installed on the client PC or on the sim PC?

 

I run Active Sky and Sky Force on the same client PC in my network.  I run both simultaneously (Sky Force weather engine disabled). Have no problems. Using P3D v4.

[rickjake 243]

I run Active Sky for P3Dv4 and Rex Skyforce with the Weather Engine off and In Sync Engine On. All on a 2nd PC, along with ProATC, PFPX and sometimes AviaSoft EFB (client). 

Seems to work well for me, as long as you have all your SimConnects configured properly and your firewalls setup to allow the network traffic to pass between the two PC.s.  I have been running it like this, since the release of REX Skyforce. So far so good.

 

 

 

[Wanthuyr Filho 83]

4 hours ago, rickjake said:

I run Active Sky for P3Dv4 and Rex Skyforce with the Weather Engine off and In Sync Engine On. All on a 2nd PC, along with ProATC, PFPX and sometimes AviaSoft EFB (client). 

Seems to work well for me, as long as you have all your SimConnects configured properly and your firewalls setup to allow the network traffic to pass between the two PC.s.  I have been running it like this, since the release of REX Skyforce. So far so good.

 

 

 

What is the advantage(s) of doing this? Do you have to install anything extra in the Simulator PC for this setup to work? I have both software but run them directly in the Simulator PC. The only one I run in another computer in the same network (it's a laptop) is PFPX, because I don't interrupt the simulation for any reason whatsoever.

Thanks!

[carlito777 712]

Thanks for the replies, guys!

The advantage of running Active Sky or ATC software over the network is simply that it doesn't consume CPU resources on your sim PC. I experience less stutters when running these pieces of software on a seperate PC. However, with modern hardware with hexa-core or octa-core CPUs the benefits of it are decreasing. But I'm still running an old 4770K which is only quad-core.

You need to setup Simconnect for networked operation in order for this to work. The Active Sky manual has a session on how to do this which is quite informative.

Edited November 20, 2018 by carlito777

[Wanthuyr Filho 83]

6 hours ago, carlito777 said:

Thanks for the replies, guys!

The advantage of running Active Sky or ATC software over the network is simply that it doesn't consume CPU resources on your sim PC. I experience less stutters when running these pieces of software on a seperate PC. However, with modern hardware with hexa-core or octa-core CPUs the benefits of it are decreasing. But I'm still running an old 4770K which is only quad-core.

You need to setup Simconnect for networked operation in order for this to work. The Active Sky manual has a session on how to do this which is quite informative.

Thanks for the info! Most probably yes, currently I'm using a 8700K 5 GHz all six cores and I'm not sure it would be worthy to rum them elsewhere over the network, I used to observe their CPU load and it's too little to cause any stutter other than the ones of the P3D's own nature. And it's also interesting to know that they don't need anything extra other than a SimConnect link to the simulator.

[Guest]

On 11/20/2018 at 7:52 AM, carlito777 said:

The advantage of running Active Sky or ATC software over the network is simply that it doesn't consume CPU resources on your sim PC.

It's about latency for the most part.  Regarding SF3D and AS4 network config ... I'm in the process of setting up SF3D on my client PC, my concern is the option to "Enable real-time 3D cloud model sync mode..." ... can this option be used in a network setup?

Cheers, Rob.

[Adrian123 1,015]

I have been using AS on client and Skyforce on the sim computer. I have Skyforce start with the sim in order to sync clouds. Now, I'm not sure that is necessary to have Skyforce running but it's working well.

[JasonW 32]

2 hours ago, Rob Ainscough said:

  Regarding SF3D and AS4 network config ... I'm in the process of setting up SF3D on my client PC, my concern is the option to "Enable real-time 3D cloud model sync mode..." ... can this option be used in a network setup?

Cheers, Rob.

I often wonder if the cloud model sync is doing anything on my network with AS for a weather engine. Yes the button is there to enable it and yes it says in the interface that its working but it just doesnt seem to be as impressive as it is with the rex weather engine on.

 

If you want to run rex for your weather engine cloud sync does work nicely over a network.

[Guest]

That’s the part I don’t understand how it could work from network client...there’s no DLL or EXE running on the main FS PC to make that functionality happen.

[Michael Moe 495]

2 hours ago, Rob Ainscough said:

That’s the part I don’t understand how it could work from network client...there’s no DLL or EXE running on the main FS PC to make that functionality happen.

Interested as well. I have ASP4+ASCA  running on client and Skyforce3D on sim PC with weather engine disabled but clouds synced in real time. Also there should be benefits loading up the flightplan all along as in ASP4.

Thanks

Michael Moe

[jlohrenz 133]

I can help clarify if you'd like, there are a couple different scenarios:

 

1. AS4 on Client Computer, P3D on 'Server' Computer -> Integration is full with clouds updating dynamically if you have ASCA / AS4 setup that way.

2. AS4 on Client Computer, P3D on Server Computer, and P3D on another computer for additional views. -> Weather will synchronize with both computers, but the clouds will only be updated dynamically on the 'server / main P3D computer.

 

Main gotcha is to have a nice, fast wired connection between the computers.  I have a seperate network that I use just for this to make sure there is no congestion.  If you have too much traffic on your LAN network, you will get stutters when AS4 / ASCA is trying to dynamically update the cloud textures.

 

Reading back I see now you are referring to SF3D, not AS4 and how it runs from the client.  Can't answer that one.

Edited December 20, 2018 by jlohrenz
Oops.