Rex Sale - Environment Force Worth it?

[pegruder 65]

So I just noticed (Im a little late), that rex is having its fall sale.  Should I finally dive in on Environment force?  I read mixed things on its initial release - but how is it now?  I currently run, ASP4, ASCA, SkyForce.  Is it redundant at this point?

[dal330200 216]

Their latest hotfix mentions fixes to earlier problems that caused me to ditch the program months ago.  However, I'm not sure what works and what still needs to be fixed because they've turned their support forum into a ticket-based system, so that information isn't public.  I'd like to know more about the current state of affairs too...

[rob0203 689]

I love the program don’t fly without it! 

[Snuffleupagus 327]

I also love the program!! One of my top addons (I use it with SkyForce)

[bbuckley 133]

After all the initial drama, I'm thinking of give SF3D & EF a new go. Are the cloud issues when using ASP4 now cleared up?

[fakeflyer737 992]

Sky Force isn't worth it, they hyped that product so hard and it doesn't live up to it. 

[Nyxx 6,993]

I use it for every flight and love it for.

You don't have to tweak anything (one thing see later) I start it and it does everything automatically. 

It changers everything on what the weather reports are and even injects the clouds to suit conditions. (You need REX SF installed but you don't have to have it running)

A lot of people were put of by the bugs on release but it's all good now.

If you want a shader program that changers on the fly to suit weather and lighting for the given screen then your cannot go wrong.

The down sides.

Just one. 

Its has adaptive lighting in the VC, some like it and it was very over done on release and it put of a lot of people. Now its at a point of being personal taste.

What it does is replicate if you looked down to a darkened area in the VC then look straight out through the window to the sunshine like IRL your eyes have to adapt.

I don't mind it now but I still prefer to not have it.

The way to stop it, is you start a flight with the mini UI open.

Scroll down to Adaptive XXX(forgot name it might be lighting) Tick that to on (it is but default is a -) tick it and you get a tick mark.

Below that on the next line it says HRD ON (and HDR should be on in the sim). Click to turn off, the screen will go black for around 10 seconds.

Next click the same line again So now your turning HDR  back ON, the screen will go black for around 3-5 seconds.

Now click Adaptive on the above line again from On to off = "-"

Now you will not get any lighting changers at all.

All that takes is around 20 seconds and I normally have to wait that long for a PMDG or FSL to sort itself out before you can use it anyway.

Unlike PTA that I used for around a year and Tomato that I used for a few month, you don't need different profiles for summer/winter overcast/sunny, it's all done automatically.

The beauty is its so simple and very clever at the same time.

One last thing, if you want to tweak anything you can open the interface when your in flight or on the ground and tweak to your hearts content and you can see the results live. EF does everything live. It's amazing what you can do if you choose to. You don't even have to reload a scene to see the results it's totally live in front of you.

 

Edited December 14, 2019 by Nyxx

[mpo910 2,112]

50 minutes ago, Nyxx said:

I use it for every flight and love it for.

You don't have to tweak anything (one thing see later) I start it and it does everything automatically. 

It changers everything on what the weather reports are and even injects the clouds to suit conditions. (You need REX SF installed but you don't have to have it running)

A lot of people were put of by the bugs on release but it's all good now.

If you want a shader program that changers on the fly to suit weather and lighting for the given screen then your cannot go wrong.

The down sides.

Just one. 

Its has adaptive lighting in the VC, some like it and it was very over done on release and it put of a lot of people. Now its at a point of being personal taste.

What it does is replicate if you looked down to a darkened area in the VC then look straight out through the window to the sunshine like IRL your eyes have to adapt.

I don't mind it now but I still prefer to not have it.

The way to stop it, is you start a flight with the mini UI open.

Scroll down to Adaptive XXX(forgot name it might be lighting) Tick that to on (it is but default is a -) tick it and you get a tick mark.

Below that on the next line it says HRD ON (and HDR should be on in the sim). Click to turn off, the screen will go black for around 10 seconds.

Next click the same line again So now your turning HDR  back ON, the screen will go black for around 3-5 seconds.

Now click Adaptive on the above line again from On to off = "-"

Now you will not get any lighting changers at all.

All that takes is around 20 seconds and I normally have to wait that long for a PMDG or FSL to sort itself out before you can use it anyway.

Unlike PTA that I used for around a year and Tomato that I used for a few month, you don't need different profiles for summer/winter overcast/sunny, it's all done automatically.

The beauty is its so simple and very clever at the same time.

One last thing, if you want to tweak anything you can open the interface when your in flight or on the ground and tweak to your hearts content and you can see the results live. EF does everything live. It's amazing what you can do if you choose to. You don't even have to reload a scene to see the results it's totally live in front of you.

 

Deleted.....you wrote what I thought and should have readed it earlier 

[Wennerholm 44]

Well, I don’t fly without EF+SF+AS, never ever (still using PTA for VC)!

[bbuckley 133]

Thanks! I’ll give them another shot. But the VC lighting and that HDR thing was hard to get past last time. 

[spilok 1,134]

I start REX Environment Force, REX Sky Force, FFTF Dynamic, Simelite Time Machine, and Active Sky before clicking on Prepar3Dv4 when I do my first flight. Everything is with Run as Administrator.

I couldn't be happier with the results.  I get tremendous FPS Readings, no blurries, and Real Time all over the world.  My weather is exact with Active Sky and my flights are extremely rewarding.  That's just my setup, but I will keep doing it since it works perfectly every time.

Stan

ps.  I never have to restart Environment Force or Sky Force again for the day.  Once they are loaded...they are loaded unless I shut my computer off, which I do every night.  I do restart FFTF, Simlite, and Active Sky when I do another flight.

[bbain1187 118]

I'm also thinking of picking up Environment Force now that it is on sale again. I'm coming from ENVTEX for textures, TomatoShade for shaders, Sky Force for cloud models and Active Sky for weather. Worth if for $20?

Ben 

[Nemo 1,305]

On 12/14/2019 at 4:09 PM, Nyxx said:

... adaptive lighting ...

The way to stop it, is you start a flight with the mini UI open.

Scroll down to Adaptive XXX(forgot name it might be lighting) Tick that to on (it is but default is a -) tick it and you get a tick mark.

Below that on the next line it says HRD ON (and HDR should be on in the sim). Click to turn off, the screen will go black for around 10 seconds.

Next click the same line again So now your turning HDR  back ON, the screen will go black for around 3-5 seconds.

Now click Adaptive on the above line again from On to off = "-"

Now you will not get any lighting changers at all.

 

Thank you David, a very good explanation. Isn't it possible to make REX EF (mini ui) to keep/remember these settings? I mean I have read about this.

[Nyxx 6,993]

No it will not stick, I,ve asked REX a few times to make this an option, but no, it’s still something you have to do every flight.

[GEKtheReaper 364]

@bbuckley there were some fixes after the release which did improve things a lot, but, IMHO it's not yet mature enough. There are some issues with performance etc. but the team is working on these.

EF is definately worth to buy especially when discounted!