REX Weather Force 2020 for Microsoft's Flight Simulator

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

8 minutes ago, ryanbatcund said:

Do you have headset sound set to Realistic?  It should be under Options->Sounds or something

Hi Buddy Ill check now dont remember a realistic choice - thanks 

[Tuskin38 6,549]

The default weather isn't always 12 hours old, it seems to depend where in the world you are, or it might be random. I noticed if it's off, if I restart the sims it will jump ahead to live.

 

how does snow look? Here's some current METARs reporting snow

https://www.badbadweather.com/snow

Edited September 27, 2020 by Tuskin38

[ryanbatc 12,873]

7 minutes ago, ahsmatt7 said:

 

12 hours old?  That's just like stock weather for me haha.  I haven't purchased this yet...on the fence a little, but I'll probably bite.  I just want to pick and airport with real weather for once, and fly!

[snglecoil 1,828]

2 minutes ago, ShawnG said:

what is the real sim benefit of exact matching current conditions exactly?

The big one is consistency when using online ATC services. 
 

But I’ll give you a little narrower use case that applies to real world training. The ability to flight plan (especially VFR dead reckoning) using actual aviation weather forecasts and then “fly” that plan in the sim with weather that closely resembles what was forecast is a very powerful learning tool. 

[ShawnG 1,823]

Just now, snglecoil said:

The big one is consistency when using online ATC services. 
 

But I’ll give you a little narrower use case that applies to real world training. The ability to flight plan (especially VFR dead reckoning) using actual aviation weather forecasts and then “fly” that plan in the sim with weather that closely resembles what was forecast is a very powerful learning tool. 

The first one I will give you.  The second I would think would be better served by setting weather conditions manually than risking a sudden change in METAR reporting

[snglecoil 1,828]

7 minutes ago, ShawnG said:

The first one I will give you.  The second I would think would be better served by setting weather conditions manually than risking a sudden change in METAR reporting

Oh I don’t disagree with you at all! Asobo’s live weather approach is far more promising than any simple METAR based approach. Asobo needs to figure out why the MeteoBlue model in many areas of the world is so far out of line with actual conditions, however. The problem is that you don’t have a forecast tool that predicts what “live weather” is going to be in the sim. Small variances are fine, even beneficial in making in flight adjustments to a plan, but in many areas, it isn’t even close right now.  Personally, I don’t see this REX product filling that particular gap, but I’ll be watching to see how it progresses. 

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

4 hours ago, DJJose said:

Be honest, is it as good as ASP?

Hi Buddy:

Well I cant compare it to well to HIFI even though I had it in the past I always went back to REX 

I can tell you for MSFS2020 I am impressed with what REX folks have done here - way better now looks amazing its injecting proper looking weather

I tested it against stock live weather no comparison - basically I luv this program it brings what Asobo has done to new level - and the price wow couldnt believe it actually

Hope they release world wide generic airport updates that would be awesome - hopefully add some lights to them as there is none now 😞

Tim - Reed amazing job - I know they pour their hearts into this and deserve as much respect as they have for us 

Edited September 27, 2020 by Richard Sennett

[Mgard78 141]

1 hour ago, ahsmatt7 said:

I would be surprised if asobo has any real say in the matter considering Microsoft hired them to make a Microsoft product. 
 

on another note, you seem somewhat bitter when it comes to msfs. Is it because of the state it’s in? Or is it because there’s a rather large group of people who are quite happy with msfs regardless of the state it’s currently in? I’m genuinely curious.

Well, gotta keep the LM overlords happy...

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

57 minutes ago, ShawnG said:

what is the real sim benefit of exact matching current conditions exactly? Other than obsessing over whether it's "right"

I've heard this same refrain for years now. What does it matter whether the airport approaches are accurate? Who really cares whether the airport tower frequency is wrong? Is it really important that the runway numbering is correct? Is it important that I'm not seeing a Southwest Airlines B737 in Namibia? Of course, if all that one demands from a flight simulator is either to look at one's real life house, to fly a 747 under the Golden Gate Bridge or have football stadiums that match real life, then I guess none of those real piloting concerns matter, including having real weather.

[Noel 4,509]

I'm not fond of how clouds actually look.  Voxels or whatever they were called, something w/o a 2D frame but that comes out of the GPU's direct rendering power.  I guess it's very efficient but to me it has a weird and very artificial look to it quite often.  I hope it can be tweaked but it may be a side effect of insufficient particle density or something like that.   Colors and shading are great but again the cloud structures themselves need fine tuning if possible.

[CaptainStraw 52]

15 minutes ago, Noel said:

I'm not fond of how clouds actually look.  Voxels or whatever they were called, something w/o a 2D frame but that comes out of the GPU's direct rendering power.  I guess it's very efficient but to me it has a weird and very artificial look to it quite often.  I hope it can be tweaked but it may be a side effect of insufficient particle density or something like that.   Colors and shading are great but again the cloud structures themselves need fine tuning if possible.

Asobo acknowledged the occasional "graininess" of the clouds and reflections and said that will be handled with DirectX12. Hopefully it happens soon.   

[Tuskin38 6,549]

I think the clouds look fine. Are they perfect? No. But I prefer them over 2D textures any day.

[MarioDonick 752]

How does REX WF generate weather where no METARs exist? Does it take the nearest METAR, which in my case would be about 100 km away and not matching my local well often.

Can in these cases the default engine take over, which usually works very well for my local airport and region?

[ShawnG 1,823]

49 minutes ago, jabloomf1230 said:

I've heard this same refrain for years now. What does it matter whether the airport approaches are accurate? Who really cares whether the airport tower frequency is wrong? Is it really important that the runway numbering is correct? Is it important that I'm not seeing a Southwest Airlines B737 in Namibia? Of course, if all that one demands from a flight simulator is either to look at one's real life house, to fly a 747 under the Golden Gate Bridge or have football stadiums that match real life, then I guess none of those real piloting concerns matter, including having real weather.

so, you really don't have an answer to the question then, and you feel that a series of false equivalency straw man arguments are a good way to indicate that by my asking a provocative question, that it means your simmer cred is superior to mine.  But since I'm feeling charitable, I'll do you the favor of treating your post seriously. 🙂

Airport approach accuracy, tower frequencies, runway accuracy all have a legit simming purpose.  Not seeing Southwest 737s in Namibia is an obsessive compulsive simmer non-issue that is as roughly important for actual simulation as the stadiums and seeing your own house. (actually less important, since building placement is important for VFR)  All other things being equal, accuracy in weather IS important, except that right now we do not have a perfect solution available, and we have 2 imperfect ones.  METAR based weather is accurate in the micro sense, but not the macro.  It has to smooth the data differences between METARs, and it has to make up weather for the vast areas where no METAR info is available.  some systems are better, some systems are worse, but it's only really accurate at the local level. 

The new approach will give you a worldwide airmass sim that is based on predictive models that are not current empirical data.  the advantage here is that the weather is more realistic in the macro full flight aspect.  obviously, if you look at a RW METAR it isn't going to match, but again, how important is that actually?  weather is a dynamic thing, and what you would want to teach a pilot in a training situation is how to deal with weather as it presents itself, whether in the sim or the real world, or you are going to use the manual weather feature to set up certain scenarios.  you aren't going to use the sim to do a flight with RW weather in the hopes that when you jump in an actual aircraft that it's going to be the same, because when you get there it'll be different anyway.  That's where your analogy with the approaches, and runway numbers falls down.  The primary issue I have with MSFS weather isn't that it does things the way it does, but that it does not have an extensive weather data planning capability for getting accurate (to the sim) info in enough detail to make flight planning decisions.

Since both approaches have their merits, I'll probably get a METAR based weather addon at some point, when historic options are available, but I'm happy to explore the possibilities of the new approach in the meantime.

[Der Zeitgeist 1,575]

Maybe someone could post a few comparison shots at various locations around the world (not just the US) showing the weather with this REX product, the stock MSFS weather, and the real weather data.

Also, I'd be interested in how the weather interpolation works in the areas between METAR stations. The way I understand it now, with this REX product, if you're flying from an airport that has a thunderstorm cell above it to another airport that has a rain front above it at that time, you'd probably get overcast skies all the way, even if there's clear skies in between in real life.