Ok, help!I have UTX with Xgraphics and Active Sky. I am wondering what to do about FEX. I know that I will need to disable some textures in Xgraphics, perhaps the clouds. I might be overcomplicating this, but it just seems like I might already have my bases covered, and this would be a redundant purchase for me (no offense intended). It looks great, and very tempting I must say. So is anyone else out there in my camp, did you take the plunge?its just water sky and clouds right??thanks for any advice you can offer...Danon - -

UTX makes changes to a different set of textures and can be used normally. UTX installs its own set of road and rail textures in its coverage area and will not be effected by either of these programs. ASX doesn't care which textures you use as it generates the weather. XGraphics will change many of the same textures found in FEX. They can be used side by side as long as you understand what's happening in the sim.FSX, like its predecessor, will display the last set of textures submitted when you start the sim. If you go to the options page for either product, XGraphics or FEX, there is an area where you can tell the program not to load certain texture files.What you want is the best of both. Choose the airport, road and rail textures from XGraphics and the cloud, water and sky textures from FEX. Or any variation of that plan. Maybe you like XGraphics clouds better, so uncheck the clouds option in FEX.Both programs can live happily together and will only cause problems for you if you don't understand the way these programs work.Regards,Jim Karn

thanks for taking your time and making things clear for me..That is kinda what I had in my head, but now I do understand it. Now the debate begins..to purchase or wait....thanks againD -

That's a tough decision only you can make. But as a new user of FEX, I can't believe what it's done for FSX. The textures jump right out at you and look very realistic. Screen shots have a hard time portraying the difference. The best part of it is there is no frame rate penalty whatsoever.I think they've raised the bar in the add-on texture business. Peter and Chris at FEX have really made an impact on texture manipulation.Also, Flight1 has that 30-day, money back guarantee so you can try it to see for yourself. You just can't go wrong with this product.Regards,Jim Karn

I dunno. I have ASX+X Graphics and I am happy with it. The screenshots from the FEX website and the HifiSim site look almost identical to me when it comes to cloud and sky textures.It almost seems to me a little bit of a placebo affect that FEX looks "better", although that is only my impression and probably not valid without having seen FEX running on my machine.Personally, I don't feel the need to spend more money on cloud textures, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't recommend trying FEX. For me it's just an economical decision. If there was a discount for ASX users to get them to try FEX, I would probably be in for about $20, but I already paid $70 something buck for ASX+X Graphics and I really don't want to spend $120, which is 4x the value of FSX itself, just on some textures.Pat

I have similar feeling about the Xgraphics FEX comparison. Especially at that price point, I don't feel the need to buy every new iteration of the same concept unless there is a significant and obvious improvement. I am still quite impressed with the look of ASX and Xgraphics, and the fact they are linked together is a plus.As I understand there are plans for a weather component to FEX, and in the future simmers may have a choice when shopping for the perfect weather and graphics solution.Ron

Ok, for the price of 30 minutes in the 172 down the road, I took the plunge.Speechless I guess comes to mind. I can only hope I have this set correctly. I disabled clouds, sky, and water in xgraphics - and installed FEX with its set of cloud, sky, and water textures. I am running ASX alongside so it can depict weather accurately, using the said FEX textures. Also have UTX installed to handle all the other road, landclass, and waterclass categories. I really cannot sum it up, the clouds are real, the water is real. The sky is, well....real. Not that Xgraphics was not doing a good job, its just that FEX focused on those three while xgraphics does more, so I will use these textures, but still xgraphics for road and rail, and airport - which is a MUST in my opinion. I would run default FSX online weather, but I am a believer that active sky is better at this, and because it only calls on textures, it will be calling on my FEX textures now....I would post screens but its a waste of time, as said above, they can only do so much, you simply have to go for a flight with real weather, somewhere it is not clear out, then you will see what I am typing about.and, NO fps hit at all!40 bucks well spent,my 2 centsD - -

Sorry Guys,But I have X Graphics and I purchased FEX. There is no comparison in my mind. FEX is a major improvement.The clouds alone are much more relistic looking.Glenn

D,Thanks for the explanation.Please clarify this :I have ASX and xgraphics.I disable clouds,sky.and water in Xgraphics and use FEX for these.If I run ASX and click install Xgraphics textures I obviously won't get clouds,sky,water textures from Xgraphics to coincide with the weather,so will my clouds etc fom FEX be right for the current weather generated by ASX?I hope my question is clear.Thanks,Ron

Hi Ron,No, you will not get the Weather Influenced flavor clouds. You can however, manually choose the FEX clouds ect.Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/banners/hifi-community-sigbanner.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/

I don't want to start a turf war or disrespect Jim (whom I believe has the respect of the entire community, including myself)), but from a purely graphics point of view, does FEX look better than ASX?

Jim,Thanks for the clarification.I like the fact that I can use ASX and Xgraphics and get what should be the actual weather.But if I were to use FEX I would have to load conditions to simulate the weather and clouds etc that asx does for me?Thanks,Ron

Ok, well that kinda is no fun if true.I really love X Graphics, active sky, and FEX. But I would rather run the clouds from FEX. So ASX will not talk to FEX?? Is that what I am reading, is this true??thanks for any help...d - -

Hi Ron,Correct, right now this is the case however working hard to get the FEX weather engine component done which will make these selections for you. It uses the technology inside FEX to dynamically alter the textures themselves, either it can select from user chosen themes and then make adjustments to those or it can generate whole new themes specifically for the weather conditions being experienced.This will be ready soon!Warm regards,Chris Norris

This is both true and not true. You can certainly use ASX to show the FEX clouds :-) however ASX has a weather influenced textures feature which will only install XGraphics clouds.To run as you suggest, you can launch ASX.. download the weather assess the conditions and then fire up FEX to select which textures you want to install. Then can close FEX after installation and launch FSX. From our part this will change when the FEX weather component is implemented soon.HTH,Chris Norris