Just got Env Force - Config/setup/use recommendations?

[GEKtheReaper 364]

15 hours ago, pegruder said:

So for now I'm running ASP4, SF and EF, disabling ASCA (as it seemed redundant).  From some quick previews it looks pretty good.  Ill give it a go tomorrow to see what differences I notice on a full flight.

 

ASP4 is the best weather engine so far IMHO, at least way better then SF3D weather engine which is quite basic. SF3D weather engine should have been received (or will still receive) a complete overhaul at some point. The reworked weather engine is called Weather Force and rumors say it will be at least on par with ASP4....

If you use ASP4 as weather engine, SF3D will not unleash it's full potential (it will just display clouds from ONE SINGLE THEME) but since a theme has a large number of cloud textures, I believe you will not see any difference.

There are at this time also other small bugs or incompatibilities which are known and we hope to see a fix at some point in time.

Edited November 6, 2019 by GEKtheReaper

[pegruder 65]

Interesting feedback thanks guys.  I may give the SF weather engine a go just for grins to see the difference.  I'm actually having install issues with EF and have a ticket in with rex support.  For some reason, EF takes my registration info, but never saves it, or any other settings.  Plus I can't seem to get it to actually change anything in sim.  For those who have EF - is your customer ID something generic?  Mine shows as '1000' so I'm assuming its never contacting to the REX servers at all.  Firewalls are off and all the usual T/Sing has been done.

[pegruder 65]

Just to reply incase anyone winds up here with the same issue.  The simmarket installer is borked.  It doesnt install the SQL local DB correctly so I found a post on the rex forums (https://www.realenvironmentxtreme.com/forums/index.php?/topic/53327-installer-from-simmarket-does-not-work/).  Uninstalling EF and the SQL DB, installing the SQL DB from this installer, THEN installing EF skipping the SQL from that installer cleared the issue.

[Pete Dowson 558]

21 hours ago, TurboKen said:

Just an FYI,

since the updates about 2 months ago I am not seeing the hit on FPS as it did when first released.

I might try again, but I am now using PTA for its shaders. I've been told they are not compatible.

The adjustments possible in EF puzzle me even more than the presets in PTA, and it was a bit annoying that if you did change anything you had to load it again next time -- no automatic loading of previous settings. Is that fixed too?

The fact that the changes in EF can be made interactively is actually a big plus over things like PTA where it's a pain having to continually close and restart P3D each time you tried a change to see if it worked as you wanted. But i'd need EF to preserve the changes I mkae and reload them automatically next time without having to use menus.

Pete

 

 

[pegruder 65]

1 hour ago, Pete Dowson said:

I might try again, but I am now using PTA for its shaders. I've been told they are not compatible.

The adjustments possible in EF puzzle me even more than the presets in PTA, and it was a bit annoying that if you did change anything you had to load it again next time -- no automatic loading of previous settings. Is that fixed too?

The fact that the changes in EF can be made interactively is actually a big plus over things like PTA where it's a pain having to continually close and restart P3D each time you tried a change to see if it worked as you wanted. But i'd need EF to preserve the changes I mkae and reload them automatically next time without having to use menus.

Pete

 

 

Now that I got it working I gave it a quick go last night.  It was a night flight so I didnt get to really see any of the day time magic yet, but tweaking cloud colors and lighting on the fly was interesting.  IE: made the clouds more orange around me to reflect the ground lighting was kinda cool.  I then set it to automatic mode and did about an hour flight out of FLL.  I'd have to do some more flights during different weather conditions to really see how it changes the outside coloring/shading, ect.  But all in all everything worked smooth.  It did seem to save any settings I changed.

[TurboKen 221]

3 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

I might try again, but I am now using PTA for its shaders. I've been told they are not compatible.

The adjustments possible in EF puzzle me even more than the presets in PTA, and it was a bit annoying that if you did change anything you had to load it again next time -- no automatic loading of previous settings. Is that fixed too?

The fact that the changes in EF can be made interactively is actually a big plus over things like PTA where it's a pain having to continually close and restart P3D each time you tried a change to see if it worked as you wanted. But i'd need EF to preserve the changes I mkae and reload them automatically next time without having to use menus.

Pete

 

 

 

-I believe they are, but I'm not using PTA right now to verify.

-There are a lot of options and you are right they are not the most user friendly.

-I'm not 100% sure about that, but there has to be a way to save or reset to default.

[joby33y 152]

23 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

The fact that the changes in EF can be made interactively is actually a big plus over things like PTA where it's a pain having to continually close and restart P3D each time you tried a change to see if it worked as you wanted.

Actually you can now update the shaders 'on the fly' within P3D without exit and restart...Check the controls area for the command 'reload shaders'  (mine is set to CTR-SHIFT-S).  This allows instant feedback and results when reloading new PTA parameters or trying out a new preset.  It was recently introduced (4.3 or 4.4?) 

EF does have some nice features when it comes to tweaking colors etc.  But to use EF as its meant to be used, means starting from stock, default shaders.  No PTA etc. in the mix.  Too many variables and conflicts yield unpredictable results as others have stated.  

cheers, 

[Pete Dowson 558]

32 minutes ago, joby33y said:

Actually you can now update the shaders 'on the fly' within P3D without exit and restart...Check the controls area for the command 'reload shaders'  (mine is set to CTR-SHIFT-S).  This allows instant feedback and results when reloading new PTA parameters or trying out a new preset.  It was recently introduced (4.3 or 4.4?) 

Ah ... I didn't know that! Thanks.

32 minutes ago, joby33y said:

EF does have some nice features when it comes to tweaking colors etc.  But to use EF as its meant to be used, means starting from stock, default shaders.  No PTA etc. in the mix.  Too many variables and conflicts yield unpredictable results as others have stated. 

Yes, and I've also been warned that EF somehow affects aircraft and runway lighting, especially the AI Lights Reborn aircraft lights, but from reading threads more extensive than this.

Pete

 

[TurboKen 221]

2 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

Ah ... I didn't know that! Thanks.

Yes, and I've also been warned that EF somehow affects aircraft and runway lighting, especially the AI Lights Reborn aircraft lights, but from reading threads more extensive than this.

Pete

 

I have the AI lights reborn also and see no negative effect, I highly recommend the add-on.