Rex Skyforce 3D

[Nyxx 6,993]

Well the last few month i did not have SF "running" and thought " Wait there have been SP etc why not try it ON"

First flight i saw the diffrence. Its Running now everytime.

[Flic1 969]

2 hours ago, F737NG said:

I'm on the fence about buying SkyForce 3D during the sale to add it to my Active Sky, ASCA and EnvTex arrangement. 

Do people think that the upcoming REX Environment Force is going to be a replacement of SF3D or will it be another of Rex's 'similar, but does something slightly different' product range?

AS + SF users, do you see the downdrafts and other cloud model eye candy often?

Basically, help please, should I go for SkyForce, wait for Environment Force, not bother?
Thanks.

Environment Force will be integrated with SkyForce and they will work together.  It will not be a replacement of SF as it will enhance it and in fact you may need it from what I can gather so no need to wait for Environment Force.

[timest 472]

1 hour ago, Flic1 said:

Environment Force will be integrated with SkyForce and they will work together.  It will not be a replacement of SF as it will enhance it and in fact you may need it from what I can gather so no need to wait for Environment Force.

Hi Eric, allow me to clarify this:

Environment Force will not be integrated into Sky Force, however, the weather smoothing feature WILL be.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Nyxx said:

Well the last few month i did not have SF "running" and thought " Wait there have been SP etc why not try it ON"

First flight i saw the diffrence. Its Running now everytime.

I guess it makes a difference if you know what to look for. ;) To me clouds are clouds and I have no clue at all what kind of clouds I am looking at (or should be looking at!). All I know is my skies look great with SF (and AS). Maybe I'll run SF in the background every now and then to see if I notice a difference.

[SKEWR 364]

I see the OP already bought SF. I had the same decision to make, but at $22, it was a no brainer. The REX clouds looks way more "realistic" and the AS clouds look like drawings IMO. So which will happen first: AS gets great clouds or REX gets a better WX engine?

[Nyxx 6,993]

34 minutes ago, J van E said:

I guess it makes a difference if you know what to look for. 😉 To me clouds are clouds and I have no clue at all what kind of clouds I am looking at (or should be looking at!). All I know is my skies look great with SF (and AS). Maybe I'll run SF in the background every now and then to see if I notice a difference.

Like I said I've not had it running in the background for a long time.

I thought i would and when I flow over the alps,  I instantly thought "i've never seen formations like that before" it was not looking for a change it was there in plain sight. It was a "wow" moment.

 

[CFIJose 5,485]

Just had one of those "WOW" moments while flying in New Orleans. This is one hell of an add-on.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

15 hours ago, timest said:

Jose, 

You're incorrect. SF does in fact dynamically change out the 3D cloud models on-the-fly.

The obvious has to be said though. SF must be running while the sim is running and the SF weather engine must be disabled. There seems to be less and less reasons though to use this hybrid setup using both ASP4 and REX SF. REX SF does a pretty good job with the weather injection and the clouds are a whole lot better looking than either the sim's default clouds or ASCA's clouds.

[glider1 90]

Is there a noticeable frame rate hit running SF and AS engine? I'm on the limit running the sim in VR and G1000 in urban environments. I'd run SF exclusively but need historical weather. Thanks.

[bosflo 53]

So I have been tinkering around with skyforce for a day and I noticed a few "issues". The first one is the fact that I have to pick my clouds in skyforce. So far I haven' t seen a way to install everything and then have skyforce use them at random. There are so many different choices but I want them all. It would be nice if it had the global dynamic textures in active sky that changes the clouds based on weather conditions.

The second thing is that when skyforce changes the weather it goes from overcast to clear in seconds while it loads the next weather station. This does not look realistic and takes away from the realism of a long flight. I don't think active sky did this so there is that in consideration. I also didn't see any choice to change the speed of change or something like it. I would like to just use one product that will do it all and if skyforce can achieve these issues for me, then I would go with them.

So I am still on the fence about using skyforce.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, bosflo said:

The first one is the fact that I have to pick my clouds in skyforce. So far I haven' t seen a way to install everything and then have skyforce use them at random.

Yes, you have to pick your clouds: SF doesn't do it at random and you can't have them all. I have to say though that imho one set of textures offers enough variation to keep me entertained for years. It's not that with one set all clouds will look the same all the time. (Which is why imho ASCA's dynamic modes is overrated... but it seems I don't have a good eye for that. 😉 ) Whenever I load another set of cloud textures I really don't notice a difference during regular flight. When I take screenshots of the exact same situation with the exact same weather (and I've actually done this!) I do see a difference but I don't think the difference is worth changing textures for, simply because I see the same differences whenever I fly around: one set of textures seems to give the exact same amount of variation already. Imho. All that dynamic changing of textures (like with ASCA) and all those texture (like all REX products offer) is overkill imho. I never ever understood the need for >20 cloud texture sets.

2 hours ago, bosflo said:

 The second thing is that when skyforce changes the weather it goes from overcast to clear in seconds while it loads the next weather station. This does not look realistic and takes away from the realism of a long flight. I don't think active sky did this so there is that in consideration. I also didn't see any choice to change the speed of change or something like it. I would like to just use one product that will do it all and if skyforce can achieve these issues for me, then I would go with them.

Which is the exact reason why most people prefer AS. (Plus things like historic weather.) The SF weather engine is very basic and not too good. My personal preference is to use AS for weather and SF for clouds (weather disabled) and I think most people use this combination. If you use SF like I do (installing and using one set of cloud textures and then not run SF at ALL anymore, and letting AS control the weather) it feels like using one product (AS) anyway. 😉 

BTW I am planning to run SF every time for a while to see if it indeed makes a difference that I myself notice during regular flights.

[Samaritano 303]

I have a question for the experts. I currently run AS/ASCA on P3Dv4 and I’ve been pretty happy with it. 

According to REX SkyForce they have created  

• 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.   

How will this work with AS, does REX Skyforce reads the weather that AS has sent to the simulator and picks a set of cloud structures and textures? I would assume that one will have to leave REX Skyforce running in the background. Or does it loads all those cloud structures and textures only when you use their weather?

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

48 minutes ago, Samaritano said:

How will this work with AS, does REX Skyforce reads the weather that AS has sent to the simulator and picks a set of cloud structures and textures? I would assume that one will have to leave REX Skyforce running in the background. Or does it loads all those cloud structures and textures only when you use their weather?

See J van E's post previously in this thread (and Reed's from REX):

On 11/25/2018 at 1:37 AM, timest said:

Jose, 

You're incorrect. SF does in fact dynamically change out the 3D cloud models on-the-fly.

The obvious has to be said though. SF must be running while the sim is running and the SF weather engine must be disabled. There seems to be less and less reasons though to use this hybrid setup using both ASP4 and REX SF. REX SF does a pretty good job with the weather injection and the clouds are a whole lot better looking than either the sim's default clouds or ASCA's clouds.