REX SkyForce 3D and REX 4 Texture Direct

[Christopher Low]

Can someone please clarify the difference between REX SkyForce 3D and REX 4 Texture Direct? I used REX Essential Plus in Prepar3d v3, but this is not compatible with v4, so I need a new package. Please note that I am not looking for a real world weather product. What I need is something like REX Essential Plus that improves textures (water/sky/clouds etc), and also improves the dawn/dusk/night atmospheric effects. Anything else is a bonus.

I thought that I might be able to get away with using the default textures and effects, but I really can't. They look rubbish at dawn and dusk when flying over my UK photoscenery, with a landscape that is far too bright when the sky is still almost dark!! I am not able to use dynamic lighting at the moment because my PC is not powerful enough, so the VC lighting in my PMDG 737 NGX also looks way too bright (even with the cockpit lighting switched off). I am assuming that this is a consequence of the default lighting and effects, since it was not a problem in P3D v3 with REX Essential Plus installed.

I suspect that REX 4 Texture Direct is all that I need (which would be good, since I have enough money in my meagre PayPal account to purchase it now)

Any help greatly appreciated.

[jpf]

rex tex is textures; it includes weather textures (clouds).
rex sky force is a weather engine; it provides dynamic weather effects (mist, rain, clouds,storms) using it's own textures (or from rex tex).

many use ASP for their weather engine with sky force providing the textures

others use ASP and ASCA for the weather textures.

generally there seems to be a consensus that ASP is a very capable weather engine. using sky force as the engine, you will experience a very obvious 'POP' when new texures are loading. this is far far more subtle with ASP. I use ASP and ASCA. I find the rex stuff a bit resource heavy and have experienced CTDs with it. I didn't like ASCA to start with but it has grown on me significantly to the extent I prefer it now.

I would look at toga also.

[Christopher Low]

So, if I am only interested in better clouds, more realistic atmospheric effects, accurate dawn and dusk colours/textures, and maybe (the holy grail) good looking water textures above a thousand feet......REX 4 Texture Direct would be fine? Dynamic weather is not important to me at this time, as I simply do not have the processing power for it.

[SunDevil56]

I don't have Sky Force, but Rex4 Texture direct with soft clouds is awesome, I highly recommend it.

[jpf]

per your requirements I would seriously consider the TOGA products.

[SunDevil56]

8 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

So, if I am only interested in better clouds, more realistic atmospheric effects, accurate dawn and dusk colours/textures, and maybe (the holy grail) good looking water textures above a thousand feet......REX 4 Texture Direct would be fine? Dynamic weather is not important to me at this time, as I simply do not have the processing power for it.

Yes.

I use Rex4 texture direct in both FSX and P3D v4.4, it's just an awesome add on, I don't know how else to describe it. The program interface is easy to use also.

All of that stuff can also be controlled and/or enhanced with P3D Tweak Assistant, another awesome add on that I highly recommend.

[jpf]

also worth considering FSrealWX. free! I believe.

[SierraHotel BSc]

Very basic difference, REX SkyForce uses 3D cloud textures, which means when you fly through a cloud, well, you really do fly through a cloud. Whereas with sprite based clouds you fly through,.....Well,...a sprite (which I guarantee is not as much fun). And now it's linked to Envtex and Envshade, and the latest update brings you.................... 

"This update finally brings the directional clouds lighting tweak we are working on for several months !

While the native directional clouds lighting was still available in others well known shader programs, it was only made compatible with the other tweaks. 
We didn't stop there: Envshade changes completely the way directional clouds lighting is working to get a realistic feeling round the clock: clouds now receive light depending on their relative position to the sun (and the moon during night time) and of course Envshade also dynamically manages this effect depending on the time of day."

[Christopher Low]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I have decided to purchase REX 4 Texture Direct with Soft Clouds - Enhanced Edition. I prefer to fly with clear skies (or a very small number of scattered clouds), so the overall sky effects are more important to me at this time. I will think about 3D clouds another day

[SunDevil56]

2 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I have decided to purchase REX 4 Texture Direct with Soft Clouds - Enhanced Edition.....

That's the one I have, you won't be disappointed, it's an easy to use yet very powerful and flexible tool.