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BobP

FEX XGraphics UTX ASX

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Thanks for the explanation and clarification. I love these forums.Ron


Bring back Chief Illiniwek!University of Illinois.

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>Hi Ron,>>No, you will not get the Weather Influenced flavor clouds. You>can however, manually choose the FEX clouds ect.>>Jim>>http://www.hifisim.com/banners/hifi-community-sigbanner.jpg>http://www.hifisim.com/Jim,The "test in FSX" button is not high lighted. The manual describes that as the path to adjusting cloud resolution. I'm getting unacceptable stuttering with heavy clouds and want to try a smaller resolution. How do I get to the cloud resolution menu? I am using the downloaded patch 2.10.Bob..

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I have to ask the same question. as much as I am liking the clouds, if it cannot match up with ASX, it might have to be a return purchase for me. I really do not want to have to select cloud sets before I fly. I like the fact that the weather is dynamic, and should change on its own.what to do....will the weather engine upgrade be free for purchasers of FEX??thanks for the info..d - -

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Guest Xiderpunk

We fully appreciate the value in automatically selecting themes dynamically according to weather, it was in the plan from the beginning. Basically to explain where we are at now and where we will be at is the following:FEX currently does not have a weather component, however in buying FEX you have already paid for it. The price is inclusive of the weather component.The weather component has the following philosophy: performance and massive control on a per-pixel level of all FEX textures.We have many many variables in making all the textures featured in FEX, the whole concept behind this was for the simple reason that these variables can be used to produce both subtle and dramatic changes to the end texture. As all textures are built dynamically in FEX, there are no 'fixed' textures in FEX.The best example I can give of this is if you go to the cloud designer screen in FEX, all the sliders influence the end texture in some way. The weather engine will do exactly the same thing dynamically.. without any need to move sliders around. For example, if the weather is fair with occasional small clouds then the weather engine will randomly generate a cloud texture leaning more towards the wispy side with a lower opacity to make the end result much more natural looking in that situation.Similiarly, in a thunderstorm situation it can make very puffy hard edge clouds with dark bottoms and lots of grey in the cloud.We can also adjust lighting, sky and water in the same way. In windy conditions the waves will be more pronounced etc.The aim here is realism, beyond anything so far done to date.The weather component will function the same as other weather engines in the key task of submitting weather to FSX and interpolation between geographical points to make the rendition of weather more accurate away from weather stations.This will be fully integrated into the GUI of FEX for configuration, however once it is launched. FEX itself is closed down with a small background process which does the weather processing and feeds that to FSX. This is so we can minimize the memory and cpu footprint whilst it is running.Truly we wanted to ship FEX with this major part of it implemented, however we have spent incredible amounts of fulltime work on this project and it became apparent that we had a choice. Either delay the graphical part of FEX until the weather part was implemented, or let people start using the graphical part whilst continuing to finish the weather component.Also, now I say this just to be entirely honest here.. we are two guys working for past 8 months self-funding this project. Supported by a fantastic team of individuals who have given up their time to offer advice and assistance, from all talents and backgrounds. The sad fact is we both have stark financial realities, in an ideal world we could have delayed without financial hardship.Anyway I hope that paints a clearer picture of what the weather component will do. :-)Warm regards,Chris Norris

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Guest Xiderpunk

Hi Bob,Ah the manual may need some adjustment on that point. All resolutions can be set in the Options screen, if you click the menu entry towards the left hand side for Resolutions and Compressions.The Test in FSX button is only enabled after you have either loaded an existing theme into the designer or saved a new theme. It also contains resolution and compression options, but these are over-rides of your general settings to be used just for that particular test.Hope that helps,Chris Norris

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>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 installed FEX, and quit frankly do like the FE clouds better than X Graphics (sorry Jim ;) )But....I have found (thus far) that I am only using FE clouds and wave animations, but using all the other textures in X Graphics, including sky color, water color, etc, as I can still allow ASX select these textures/colors based on the 'weather influenced' option.That is still quite important, to me.In addition, X Graphics will also choose runway lights, moon color, sun effects, and 'others' (which FE does not have), based on weather influenced data via ASX.I'm kinda thinking I am getting the 'best of the best' with these two programs, and find each can stand on their own, and the whole experiance is even better when both are working together.IMO, both these products have value, and I don't feel it is an 'either/or' decision.

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Hi All,It's OK that some like one set of textures over another! Heck, some like FE stuff over ASG stuff in FS9!! Major releases are going to continue to drive the market upward and onward. There is no battle or war here .... just companies trying to do their best, and it is a win-win case for everyone!!Thanks,Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/banners/hifi-community-sigbanner.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/

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Exactly Jim.'Bravo' to both FE and Hi-Fi 'teams' for providing us with excellent options, which can work together, and not in conflict.The FSX experiance is better for having both....and its only going to get better.

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more than I could have asked for in a reply. Thank you for all the info, your program has found its permanent place on my HD. Both companies are a class act for sure, it is a pleasure to do business with you.thanks and I will be looking forward to the weather engine.Danon -

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If I may ask, what is the difference between the FEX weather generator and the ASX influenced themes? Or is this the same concept but more advanced?Just curious, still holding back for the moment as I've spent 70 bucks on ASX/Xgraphics, but am keeping a eye on this as the dynamically changing textures is a fascinating prospect. I understand the lite version does not contain this feature of course.Ian.

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There is no weather generator in FEX yet.......

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Hi Chris,Doh.... thanks! I made the mistake of installing late last night and missed the menu from the option "option". I'll see how the clouds affect stuttering today. Bob...>Hi Bob,>>Ah the manual may need some adjustment on that point. All>resolutions can be set in the Options screen, if you click the>menu entry towards the left hand side for Resolutions and>Compressions.>>The Test in FSX button is only enabled after you have either>loaded an existing theme into the designer or saved a new>theme. It also contains resolution and compression options,>but these are over-rides of your general settings to be used>just for that particular test.>>Hope that helps,>>Chris Norris

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Guest danny68

It's a good question that I would like to have some clarification on. Maybe Chris can answer this for us.

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