REX 5 EF + SF + P3Dv4.5... 19 years.

[mtr75 653]

I have been flight simming for 19 years. I am a pilot in real life. I got a nice sim PC last fall (8700k + 1080), got P3D (I think it was 4.3 at the time), REX 4 TD +SC, and thought, wow, this is great! This is how it was supposed to be all along. I got the A2A Cherokee (basically the same plane I have in real life), and I was happy.

Then came v4.5. I thought, wow, this is really a step up from 4.4 - impressive!

Then I got PTA and... too much work.

Then came REX Environment Force, and I thought, WOW, this is really impressive. It's almost real!

Then I got REX Sky Force...

I have been flight simming for 19 years. And this exact moment is what I have been waiting for for 19 years. It is simply perfect. Everything on automatic. Set it and forget it. And I can't even put it into words. Simply amazing.

 

[JLuis 409]

Nice to know! Impressive.

[CFIJose 5,485]

3 hours ago, mtr75 said:

I have been flight simming for 19 years. I am a pilot in real life. I got a nice sim PC last fall (8700k + 1080), got P3D (I think it was 4.3 at the time), REX 4 TD +SC, and thought, wow, this is great! This is how it was supposed to be all along. I got the A2A Cherokee (basically the same plane I have in real life), and I was happy.

Then came v4.5. I thought, wow, this is really a step up from 4.4 - impressive!

Then I got PTA and... too much work.

Then came REX Environment Force, and I thought, WOW, this is really impressive. It's almost real!

Then I got REX Sky Force...

I have been flight simming for 19 years. And this exact moment is what I have been waiting for for 19 years. It is simply perfect. Everything on automatic. Set it and forget it. And I can't even put it into words. Simply amazing.

 

REX SkyForce is a must have addon. I can't wait to try P3D v4.5 and REX EV. I have to wait till things slow down at work, but for now I will continue to enjoy and be entertained by the Avsim members that dare to tackle the latest updates and releases. Thanks!

[Vlooi 68]

I absolutely agree. Blown away by how realistic the whole environment looks and feels. For me this at present is the perfect package.

[GEKtheReaper 364]

17 hours ago, mtr75 said:

I have been flight simming for 19 years. And this exact moment is what I have been waiting for for 19 years. It is simply perfect. Everything on automatic. Set it and forget it. And I can't even put it into words. Simply amazing.

These are great news indeed and reading that some users are not plagued by excesive bloom n'or cloud popping or cloud dissapearing gives my some faith that REX will get a grip on these issues.

I must say that I was also impressed with the package as i did my first flight imediate after installation. The next day, were weather conditions were different, I couldn't spend 2 minutes in front of my screen. Unfortunately some of the issues did apear at my end also...

Would you mind posting a screenshot of your sim with EF running and using the "Fair Weather" theme (so no weather engine at all)?

Edited May 8, 2019 by GEKtheReaper

[mtr75 653]

50 minutes ago, GEKtheReaper said:

These are great news indeed and reading that some users are not plagued by excesive bloom n'or cloud popping or cloud dissapearing gives my some faith that REX will get a grip on these issues.

I must say that I was also impressed with the package as i did my first flight imediate after installation. The next day, were weather conditions were different, I couldn't spend 2 minutes in front of my screen. Unfortunately some of the issues did apear at my end also...

Would you mind posting a screenshot of your sim with EF running and using the "Fair Weather" theme (so no weather engine at all)?

Sure, I can post some pictures. FWIW, I installed both (EF and then later SF), set everything to "auto", and then flew. I literally changed zero settings. It's all stock, and I've had zero problems.

[Benjamin J 751]

I've purchased REX Sky Force months ago and installed it recently... Still haven't gotten around to actually using it. I'm always a little intimidated by adding in another background app doing its thing... My sim generally works really well, and I'm always afraid to upset that balance, specifically because I also use ASP4, ASCA and Envtex. The complexity of running everything side-by-side kind of scares me off 😝

Depending on where you fly, might I suggest to throw in some MegaScenery Earth into the equation? I have to say, I was skeptical of it for the longest time, but I bought California and Nevada to complement the experience of flying over desert areas when doing KLAX-KLAS and similar. I was then recommended by somebody on these forums to try out Nuvecta products to add autogen to the MSE phoscenery. Quite frankly, taking off over KLAX with the combination of addons... I was smitten. I subsequently bought Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah, as well as the corresponding Nuvecta autogen packages. I did KDEN-KPHX-KDEN. My jaw was on the floor the entire trip. I departed KDEN at daytime, landed an hour or so later at KPHX, which was a brilliant experience. I then sat the plane at the gate, went to get some dinner, gym, etcetera. Obviously, by the time I got back it was dusk. I got to depart KPHX as the sun was setting of Phoenix. The OrbX lights activated. Gosh darn, the prettiness... With 4.4's fixing of how photoscenery gets displayed, I'm not entirely sure I ever want to fly over mountainous or desert regions without photoscenery.

I can only imagine how much better it will look with SkyForce in the equation... Just need to get the courage to try it out. Besides the cloud models, it does not install anything, does it? And I suppose I will need to turn of cloud texture sync in ASCA?

[dal330200 216]

I can't fly with automatic mode, the scene is way too blue and bloom is way too bright.  I like being able to adjust shaders on the fly, and I'm still trying to figure out how everything interacts (tomato, PTA and EF) in the sim.  I think this has a lot of potential, but I also think that this should be viewed as a work in progress because there are a lot of limitations that would make it a standalone, all-in-one product otherwise.  Great step forward though. 

Edited May 8, 2019 by dal330200

[mtr75 653]

22 minutes ago, dal330200 said:

I can't fly with automatic mode, the scene is way too blue and bloom is way too bright.  I like being able to adjust shaders on the fly, and I'm still trying to figure out how everything interacts (tomato, PTA and EF) in the sim.  I think this has a lot of potential, but I also think that this should be viewed as a work in progress because there are a lot of limitations that would make it a standalone, all-in-one product otherwise.  Great step forward though. 

See I tried it for like ten minutes with PTA, then decided to just see what EF would do by itself. I disabled PTA, set EF to Auto, hopped into the sim, and never looked back. My gripe about PTA is sure, you can get the exact look you're going for if you feel like spending the rest of your life chasing it. I'd rather fly. And these auto modes for REX5 are simply breathtaking as far as I'm concerned. I wonder what your thoughts would be if you just ran EF and no garden vegetables or PTA...? Might be worth a shot.

[mtr75 653]

Edited May 8, 2019 by mtr75

[mtr75 653]

I don't know why the quality of the image is coming out so poorly, but that's approaching SXM in the Caribbean. If you click on the image you should get full resolution, and it's just stunning.

[GEKtheReaper 364]

@mtr75 thank you! I will not comment if the image is acc. to reality but to my taste it is way to bright (btw...this is what we call bloom). It will be a lot worse with lesser clouds.

One advice if you could follow: open the miniUI and scroll down to the Shaders category. You will find an option "Turn HDR OFF". Please click it and see if you like the new image. If you don't like it then go into your P3D settings under Lighting and adjust the 3 HDR sliders (I use from top to bottom: 1.1 / 0.4 / 0.8).

Could you please try that out? No need for picture just for your evaluation.

Edited May 8, 2019 by GEKtheReaper

[Vlooi 68]

I don't see anything wrong with bloom, HDR, etc. I run SF and EF on calibrated monitor, which I believe is important to have if one wants real world shading. I have compared my images within P3D with videos and photos, and it is as close as word not allowed to the real thing. Also run EF in auto mode. I calibrate my monitor once in terms of brightness, contrast and gamma, that's it, using Windows 10's build in calibration utility.

[GSalden 4,656]

Not everyone has calibrated the displays the same. So what looks too bright on one display may look a little too dark on another 

That is called personal taste.

😉

[mtr75 653]

I had never even thought of calibrating my monitor. I just ran the Windows 10 calibration utility and I like the stock settings better. It may be that I'm just used to them, yes, but I just like it the way it was.