Environment Force Discussion Thread

[antoniointini 10]

8 pages (so far) of comments of people trying to figure out what EF is and how it does overlap with other addons - that's the best picture of how messed up is the communication of REX regarding their product proposition (and it is not the first time). I hope somebody from REX read it and take the homework to the marketing people.

[GEKtheReaper 364]

11 minutes ago, antoniointini said:

8 pages (so far) of comments of people trying to figure out what EF is and how it does overlap with other addons - that's the best picture of how messed up is the communication of REX regarding their product proposition (and it is not the first time). I hope somebody from REX read it and take the homework to the marketing people.

I admit that I also get confused by REX Products but a big part of the confusion comes also from the enduser. The problem is IMHO that there are a lot of products that overlap themselves in some regions.

Take for example the EF <-> ASCA idea or EF <-> ENVSHADE or....

If you understand which parts are affected by the addons, you could just untick / tick the options you like, thus using just parts of the addons.

OT: If one remembers the ASCA <-> ENVTEX Sky discussions or the ASCA <-> REX SF discussions.

Now the problem with EF and ASCA is that they both inject Clouds and Skies on the fly in the sim (or in another words they inject textures of clouds and Skies) so you should not be using both if you want to do that. But if e.g. you like ASCA Skies better one might inject those through ASCA (disabling ASCA clouds) and the clouds through EF (by disabling EF Skies).

Theres a different approach to shaders though because ENVSHADE and EF and PTA and "vegetables"... do alter those default settings. Think of applying PTA shaders afterwards applying ENVSHADE etc. you might get some weird combos if the Addon's themselves don't replace only the default shaders but modify existing ones.

[David Roch 1,982]

1 hour ago, leyab said:

Hi everyone

I bought Rex Env Force and I am very, very happy !

Its like I have a new simulator now... what an incredible job they do.

Hope everybody get this product working right.

My installation was like that :

Dowloading REX Env Force.

Restore my original shaders from PTA.

Uninstall PTA. 

Repair my  P3D client (with install_Client.msi)

Install Rex Env Force

Set it in AUTOMATIC MODE

Launch it

Launch ASP4

Launch P3D

Turn OFF HDR in sim

and bim... just perfect realism with no more fps cost !

 

 

Why do you turn HDR Off in the sim?
You won't have any HDR then.

[TravelRunner404 596]

49 minutes ago, antoniointini said:

that's the best picture of how messed up is the communication of REX regarding their product

You people are the worst sometimes when it comes to Rex. Did YOU try to communicate with them? They are fantastic communicators with their end users.  They provide some great products and this is one of them. 

I swear the commentary in here makes me see why companies like Apple just say shut up, no tinkering it’s our way and you are too dumb to be allowed to install things on your own.

Its clear what this product does. If you really really need to be told again...it adapts lighting, reflections, color, hue, saturation, cloud size and formations dynamically so your environment will be colored and presented more realistic based on the reported weather thus adapting your environment visually. 

It does use shaders. So potentially shader programs will conflict. PTA and vegetable have lots and lots of settings. One or two could conflict.  

You can’t install Aerosoft EGLL on top of UK2000 EGLL and say you have flashing textures and don’t understand what the Aerosoft product does bc it still looks the same but messed up. 

[IanHarrison 522]

6 hours ago, GEKtheReaper said:

Well Ian,

 

just on the first page of this topic (and many other places) you can find this:

Many users are complaining about grey VC. It has not been said why this is hapening (might be due to HDR or Shaders or....) and REX is investigating this.

I replied to @cyyzrwy24 because he wrote about his experience with EF (which is great) but then wondered about the grey cockpit.

He (and you) obviously did not read the entire topic, which I always find sad (and frustrating to myself) because topics often get cluttered by those who ask or report the same thing over and over again......

Sorry but you are jumping to the wrong conclusion. "Obviously" is a word to be used with caution!

I have read the topic from its inception but no-one has actually posted a picture of said "grey VC". I was merely curious as what people are seeing.

[Paul Golding 92]

1 hour ago, antoniointini said:

8 pages (so far) of comments of people trying to figure out what EF is and how it does overlap with other addons - that's the best picture of how messed up is the communication of REX regarding their product proposition (and it is not the first time). I hope somebody from REX read it and take the homework to the marketing people.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking default P3D + SF + EF = all I really need to cover real weather, nice clouds, sky/cloud textures, lighting/shaders. 

Do I need anything else that deals with these things?  I'm guessing the confusion comes from REX describing how the product is still relevant to users who already have other products that fully, or in part, do some of the above, each in their own way.

In short, is it time to drop some products in favour of SF/EF?  As somebody else pointed out about the "Apple" way, maybe REX are not being that helpful in developing great products whilst at the same time trying to give everyone the option still use their current favourites, or at least part of them.

I'm probably missing some everso important point though😂

[cyyzrwy24 127]

8 hours ago, GEKtheReaper said:

@cyyzrwy24 Sorry man...you made me laugh.

After 6 pages of topic, where you actively posted comments, you just now realise that EF has a problem and the VC turns grey??? LOL

If you read the whole thing you could see that I found  how should works for now....

Edited May 2, 2019 by cyyzrwy24

[cyyzrwy24 127]

6 hours ago, GEKtheReaper said:

He (and you) obviously did not read the entire topic, which I always find sad (and frustrating to myself) because topics often get cluttered by those who ask or report the same thing over and over again.....

If you followed closely all my comments you will find that you made wrong, unnecessary statement...As you can see, at least with me issue is with with other shader tool. Meaning nothing wrong with it just issue with compatibility at this moment...which I am sure they will rectify soon. In the mean time, since you missed it, EF is as advertised and works. Therefore I haven't reported same thing over and over.

Cheers

[cyyzrwy24 127]

2 hours ago, leyab said:

Hi everyone

I bought Rex Env Force and I am very, very happy !

Its like I have a new simulator now... what an incredible job they do.

Hope everybody get this product working right.

My installation was like that :

Dowloading REX Env Force.

Restore my original shaders from PTA.

Uninstall PTA. 

Repair my  P3D client (with install_Client.msi)

Install Rex Env Force

Set it in AUTOMATIC MODE

Launch it

Launch ASP4

Launch P3D

Turn OFF HDR in sim

and bim... just perfect realism with no more fps cost !

 

My rig :

RYZEN 5 1600X

GTX ROG STRIX 1070Ti

16 G0 RAM

SSD 250 go SAMSUNG

CH Product FlightSim Yoke

Prepar3D 4.5

REX SKY FORCE

ACTIVE SKY P3D4

GSX

FSDG SENERY

 

Sorry, English is not my natural language.

Captain Leuyab

 

So you haven't install PTA back?

[Wolkenschreck 269]

Visuals are always hard to compare, as everybody has a different understanding of "realistic". But I think REX is on the right track. After buying Sky Force, I was at first a bit underwhelmed. But now I do not want to miss Sky Force and I can see the same happening with Environment Force. 

The following shot is taken with Environment Force,  Sky Force,  AS4 and Envshade.


The same situation with the REX Enhanced HDR turned off via the mini UI (default P3D HDR still active with the recommended Envshade settings):

(The difference is more pronounced in the original sized shots, so just click on the pictures for the original. Sorry for the lousy picture hoster.)

But - and here is the but - I am still struggling with the right HDR settings. There is a lot of bloom and playing with REX Enhanced HDR's settings Exposure Key and BlumBloorSigma results only in a too dark picture. Also, running Environment Force over Envshade (and I guess the same is true for some other 3rd party shaders) results in a cockpit-HDR mess:


I was quite enthusiastic about the release and the REX team is doing fantastic support work. So I am optimistic that they will settle the issues. However, compatibility with other shaders is problematic and I need to wonder why such problems were not found in the beta test. But the VC situation is certainly not what I call compatible. 

Still, I think they will get there and a release is never easy. The REX team was very open for my suggestions for a latitude/temperature-based lighting and they also granted a discount for existing customers, which is highly appreciated.


BTW, has anybody seen some orange/reddish clouds during dusk/dawn with the automatic mode yet? That was a feature I was mostly interested in but I could so far not see any cloud colors with the automatic mode.

Best,
Christoph

Edited May 2, 2019 by Wolkenschreck

[Victoroos 205]

DO you think we'll need SKy force running again once weahterforce is released? @Wolkenschreck it does look cool

 

Are the clouds not a bit too bright in the evening shot? 😮

[shamrockflyer 647]

This thread is too long to look to see whether or not this has been asked....

Is there anyway to preserve your PTA preset installed via the Simtweaks PTA program and have it work in tandem with Enviroforce? If not then what setting do I need to play with in order to adjust the saturation and brightness of the VC? 

[kingm56 1,031]

26 minutes ago, Victoroos said:

DO you think we'll need SKy force running again once weahterforce is released? @Wolkenschreck it does look cool

 

Are the clouds not a bit too bright in the evening shot? 😮

According to REX, you don't need SF3D running when using EF; if you choose to use WeatherForce, you won't need AS4...

[Flic1 977]

6 minutes ago, shamrockflyer said:

This thread is too long to look to see whether or not this has been asked....

Is there anyway to preserve your PTA preset installed via the Simtweaks PTA program and have it work in tandem with Enviroforce? If not then what setting do I need to play with in order to adjust the saturation and brightness of the VC? 

It is supposed to work with PTA but it does not at the moment.  Do not install EF along with PTA shaders until they hotfix the issue as you will get greyed-out colors, etc.  I also would like to use PTA for VC brightness as EF does not have that option...might be nice if they added that in.  

[antoniointini 10]

2 hours ago, TravelRunner404 said:

You people are the worst sometimes when it comes to Rex. Did YOU try to communicate with them? They are fantastic communicators with their end users.  They provide some great products and this is one of them. 

I thought I made clear my message was to REX staff. Fantastic communication for me is anything but 8+ pages of confused customers trying to figure out what the product is. They are free to behave anyway they want, and I, as a customer, am free to buy or not their products if I'm not willing to spend my time asking questions to them, questions those in a fantastic communication should already been covered in their product proposition ads in the first place. Good companies take customer remarks and improve their processes. Live long and prosper.

Edited May 2, 2019 by antoniointini