Looking for Flight Environment X opinions/info

[Mountain Man 142]

>Hey Kevin,>>I understand your point of view on the price, yes unarguably>it is more expensive than we would have liked, however we had>a number of issues to consider: FEX is a growing product, with>alot more content and functionality to come. Either we could>reduce the price initially and then charge for updates (which>would ultimately cost more) or set a medium price that allows>for such continued development. (The price of the dollar is>also a big problem).Thanks for the info, Chris. I don't mind saying that it was the obvious dedication and enthusiasm of the development team as well as your top-notch support on the official forums that was one of the main factors in my purchase decision.By the way, here's another screenshot, and this one I don't think could be duplicated in default FSX no matter what kind of tweaking you do. :)http://www.picupload.net/f-29d8ceac77254c7...8768f588a58.jpgWhat you can't see in the still image is the amazing depth of these clouds that move realistically through 3D space.

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

Here's the default FSX version of this theme (for those considering purchase):http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/181613.jpgThis theme took less than 1 minute to create and was so beautiful flying in that I created a short video demonstrating the sky environment effects displayed here.You can see the video at YouTube by following this link (btw: youtube's compression does not do this much justice, but it's still amazing in my view. ACES are true artists!)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uee8FWoPr1YCheers,Kevin

[Mountain Man 142]

Good comparison. It really shows off the superiority of the FEX textures.

[Guest PPSFA]

>The results with FEX are arguably better.>>But this took virtually no tweaking, was free, came with FSX>and is reuseable. I just can't see the value at $44.95 for>FEX.>>But ... as they improve it, I could maybe be persuaded.>>Best of luck to you with it.>>Cheers,>Kevin>>BTW: I do like Ground Environment X (same developers) and have>purchased that product, but it was at half the price of FEX.GEX is $29 and FEX is $44, might want to check your math, thats a bit less than 1/2, and GEX only covers North America for now, FEX does the world. Once you purchase all 3 GEX areas (when released)..... well, you do the math. Both are great 'must have' products IMHO.Oh, and FSX was $69 when I bought it :-)

[Mountain Man 142]

>This theme took less than 1 minute to createSo, again, it's not a fair comparison, is it? All my screenshots were taken with *zero* tweaking inside FSX, and the results are, to my eyes, superior to what you get in default FSX even with tweaking. I wonder what could be realized with several minutes of tweaking with FEX installed? Maybe I should try it, but I know very little about that side of FSX.

[Mountain Man 142]

Alright, here's what I got after playing around with the user defined weather in FSX for a few minutes (this is using FEX cloud, sky, and water textures):http://www.picupload.net/f-caca759446c4efc...b63cf010f96.jpghttp://www.picupload.net/f-942ecc605f83cfc...d7cea125c99.jpghttp://www.picupload.net/f-a8fae97ba67f810...53d8403debc.jpg

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

OK ... still throwing the gauntlet ... what airport is that?(BTW: This "cloud throwdown" is pretty awesome - hope nobody gets hurt in this weather.)

[Mountain Man 142]

>OK ... still throwing the gauntlet ... what airport is that?>>(BTW: This "cloud throwdown" is pretty awesome - hope nobody>gets hurt in this weather.)It has been an interesting exercise, and I should thank you for making me aware of the user-defined weather as it's not a feature of FSX that I was especially aware of. I mean I knew the feature existed in the software, but I had never actually used it before last night.Anyway, the last batch of screenshots were taken while I was tooling around Anchorage, Alaska. Specifically, I took off from Merrill Field.Incidentally, I stumbled across the following link in Google which has live webcams of Merrill Field:http://www.merrillwebcam.org/It could be an interesting exercise to grab a still frame from that and try and recreate the real-world conditions as closely as possible.

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

Mountain Man,Yea ... FSX sky environment editing is something most people don't spend a lot of time on. Mostly I think that's because it's somewhat buried in the interface, but also because I think most people are using the real-world weather functionality.But it's quite easy to use. Here's a shot I did with default FSX over Merrill in Anchorage that looks almost like someone painted it in oils.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/181657.jpgUnfortunately, the public cameras at Merrill aren't very high definition. I'm not sure I could depict actual weather there using the publicly-available cameras.

[Mountain Man 142]

Just so we're not losing sight of what we're really comparing here, FEX is not a new weather engine, so, yes, you're going to be able to get very similar weather conditions with either default FSX or FEX. What you need to look at are the quality of the clouds, sky, and water, because that's what you're paying for in FEX (at least until they release their custome weather engine), and as far as I'm concerned, FEX blows default FSX out of the water in that regard.

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

Mountain Man,That's true. FEX improves the environment. In my view, though ... and this is just my own personal opinion, which you asked for at the start of the original post, is that it's not enough to justify $44.95.FEX definitely has better clouds and water than the default. Many people are unaware, however, just how much control they have over cloud structures and your original screenshots critical of the air environment in default FSX I think gave ACES too little credit for what can be achieved with no add-on at all.I think I'll wait until Real Environment Extreme comes out before making a purchase decision on an air environment package. Tim's water is just devine, and it will be interesting to see if he can pull it off.Cheers,Kevin

[Geofa 108]

I gotta jump in and say what the add ins always do is put polish on what is no doubt a great base product (fsx).The fex clouds just are amazing. The other stuff fex offers is also quite amazing but I'd get it just for the clouds. It is well worth the price imho. Fsx is good-but I have never seen clouds as good as fex in any sim. Something else I can't live without weather wise is-Active Sky X-using it with fex produces amazing results. Something that is probably overlooked by fs simmers is the asx historical downloads. Having flown a 6500 nm trip this summer over 2.5 weeks-it is so cool and frankly amazing to look at my logbook, find the exact time I flew, and re live the trip in all its glory by downloading the weather download on the date and exact time I flew. I could monkey around with the fsx parameters but this is much more elegant-and who remembers exactly what was going on 3 months ago! Another case of adding icing to the fsx case-and of course Asx has lots of other layers of icing..This is just all simply amazing considering not all that long ago (in the late 1990's) I was on a rampage that it should be able to download metars and use them set weather parameters in fs-all while fs was showing "ice cube" clouds and pro pilot has the first 3d clouds at all! What is available now a few years later is frankly mind boggling!For the cost of a family to eat out 1 meal I'll take these two products any day and have the fam eat at home for one time!http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1b5baf...b9f427f694g.jpgMy blog:http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

[Mountain Man 142]

>Mountain Man,>>That's true. FEX improves the environment. In my view, though>... and this is just my own personal opinion, which you asked>for at the start of the original post, is that it's not enough>to justify $44.95.Fair enough.>FEX definitely has better clouds and water than the default.>Many people are unaware, however, just how much control they>have over cloud structures and your original screenshots>critical of the air environment in default FSX I think gave>ACES too little credit for what can be achieved with no add-on>at all.Perhaps, but it wasn't deliberate. The shots I provided are how FSX looks out of the box for many people, so I thought it was a fair comparison, especially when my intent was to compare cloud textures.

[Mountain Man 142]

One final note, for anybody considering FEX, there's a lot more coming in the future. This is an update from developer Chris Norris:----------The next update is well on it's way, the basic plan is this (although may change):Update 1.0.5.0:Will include some functional changes which are finished and ready:1. Error reporting now can be submitted directly to our server (optional), to further improve any response to problems.2. Authentication details can now be recalled by submitting the flight1 order number, this will email the authentication details to the email address your registered with.3. Improved error handling during theme installation, should no longer force CTRL-ALT-DEL to close FEX.4. Performance enhancements during texture generation.Futhermore it will also include:1. Sun textures with fully implemented Designer mode allowing complete customization of how the sun is rendered in the game.2. Improvements in the Download of themes from our server. Much improved layout with screenshot preview before download and also improved functionality.The update is nearing completion for the above however further work is needed on what I call the 'big update' which will include:1. Each Designer mode will be improved individually, with some additional functions to bring it in line with the forthcoming weather engine and 'wizards' making it easier to create new themes.2. The weather engine itself :-)3. Whole new graphical contentJust to say both Peter, Robert and myself are all working non-stop to get these updates ready, all of the above is well underway in terms of development and the likelyhood is we will release the 'big update' in parts as they are completed rather than as a service pack, although again that may be subject to change.. . . Basically some has yet to be finalized, but yes a whole set of airport textures is on it's way as are many more clouds of all types as well as some other new stuff which I can't yet disclose :) mainly because the scope is yet to be finalized.Warm regards,Chris----------http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=23918Well worth the asking price, in my opinion.