REX Essential Release

[heywooood]

Sorry to take it OT...but it was like - SQUIRREL!!!

I deleted my previous REX install also and I really like the new Essentials textures...very impressive - and my FPS meter likes them too

[TeiscoDelRay]

HEY - DelRey - thats the STA !

,,,,,,,,,,,,

[heywooood]

,,,,,,,,,,,,

it looks ready for prime time - gotny close up views - for a different thread..?

[Jigsaw]

I am using the default FsX real weather engine though, as loading weather through the REX interface takes way too long for my taste.

I must say that made me laugh. Sure the REX textures are still great when you do it like that, but saying you use the default weather engine instead of REX is like saying: "I'm using a bicycle to drive everwhere, as starting the car takes way too long for my taste".

[Naki]

I don't see how you can use that analogy....I simply don't have the time to wait, apart from the rare occasion when the house is emptied of kids and wife. By the time the textures load my already short flight would barely be a hop. In any case I'm looking at what Essential does...when I find the time to load it ...

[Jigsaw]

I don't see how you can use that analogy....I simply don't have the time to wait

Well, the analogy is supposed to make clear that the REX weather engine is infinitely more capable and powerful then the default weather engine and that it barely takes anymore time to get it ready (a car is started pretty quickly). I really don't see how one can't have the minute (or less) that it takes to inject the weather into the sim. You don't have to change the REX textures every time you use it, you know?

Just go the REX folder, double-click on the "rexwxengine2.exe" and then click on the Load Wx button. Minimize it, wait one minute while you prepare the aircraft and you are done. I think you can even do it while loading a flight, so the weather is already there and ready once the flight is loaded = no waiting time whatsoever. Ferry really shouldn't deny himself that weather engine, even without the Essential improvements.

[TeiscoDelRay]

The weather injection takes a long time for me also, maybe a couple minutes but that seems like forever sometimes while watching a line move. Also if I hit the fly now button it wants to load all the textures in my theme all over again that are already loaded and saved.

It is great fun now to chase thunderstorms. I go to national radar and find some good ones and then position myself close by.

[Ferry_vO]

I wish it would take less than a minute, but it will take several! I can even select and load an entire set of new textures into FsX before the weather is finished downloading! Combined with a long start-up time for FsX and a bit extra to select an aircraft and I've spend over ten minutes waiting. Don't know, maybe it's a temporary thing, but for a quick hop it takes too long for my taste.

[bushpilot]

It does take surprisingly long, so when ever I only have time for short flights, I won't bother using it. But when you do have the extra time for Essentials weather, it's worth it

[Dain Arns]

That is odd.

Without choosing new textures, REX weather data is often installed before FSX finishes loading up for me.
Only things I could think of is it must be set for a very, very, very wide area of data collection?
Or a bad connection to the REX server? Maybe using an alternate like the VATSIM server?

[pilottj]

Councur with Dain Arns. Weather only takes a few mins to load. I have coverage area set to Medium. The only thing I have noticed so far is that even tho I have it checked to automatically start when FS starts, I have to manually start it.

[dvj]

I have to admit, my initial thoughts about REX E was "so what". Screen shots were not that convincing. But since it was a free download on top of my current version of REX, I gave it a spin.

I must say that the cloud textures seem more realistic, softer in texure, and some of the early morning lighting, haze effects are quite beautiful when you run the weather engine. They turned the volume up on the thunder which is unfortunate because the original thunder sounds seemed more realistic, distant - to me ast least. No FPS hits that I can tell in early flights. Add Shade, and the expereince is quite lovely.