REX ESSENTIAL - GET A TASTE OF THESE

[Ian Warren]

Rule number one ... always d/load from your previous server - I have always used my name - don't hide behind sudo makeups such as Dipstick

Rule number two ... always pay for it , after a few years - you get a FIVE STAR credit rating and a service with SERVICE

[Adamski]

Early morning D-Day commemorative flight over Lake Pupuke, OTW to Ardmore (one day late!!) ...

REXE: What can I say but **I was wrong**. I didn't think they could improve REX, but they have ... and how!!! The whole thing is slicker, more subtle - particularly the haze. I've hardly had time to test the different weather sets, but already I can see it's a stunning achievement.

For those people not wanting to trawl the REX forums, this was my install procedure (registered REX user - original download from Flightsim Store):

1) Restored my original backup set in REX.
2) Removed all old REX/OD crud. Regular Windows CP uninstallers works fine - then cleaned up/removed the REX directory.
3) Defragged the FSX drive.
4) Downloaded the 4.12Gb archive from FSS (only took around 2hrs, amazingl - maybe bcause of the public holiday here in NZ) - so no download managers needed.
5) Installed. The registration key (or whatever) must have been stored in the registry as I got no prompts.
6) Created a fresh initial textures backup from within REXE.
7) Configured a new texture set.
8) Checked that my firewall would allow the new REX to dial out.
9) Fired up FSX and was away!

Totally painless

As and when the OD update comes out, I'll add that.

[Ian Warren]

Adam Thanks for that info and insight .. pointed out .. if your honest and registered .. real coffee beans - u be rocking after install SWEET !

[toprob]

QUOTE (Adamski @ Jun 4 2012,11:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

REXE: What can I say but **I was wrong**. I didn't think they could improve REX, but they have ... and how!!! The whole thing is slicker, more subtle - particularly the haze. I've hardly had time to test the different weather sets, but already I can see it's a stunning achievement.

You are spot-on with your assessment. Some addons can be a bit of a disappointment when you first load them up, until you get them tweaked, but Essential impressed me from the very beginning -- even though I've used REX for a long time. It is hard to define, but it does hugely improve the visual realism. I think it is quite hard on my system compared to the Rex weather engine, but not enough to make it unlikeable.
It doesn't matter what the weather is, when you first start any flight the view out the window gets you right into that realistic zone which makes for a great flight.

Some weird things I've tried:
The 'clear lake' waves which give me back those amazing reflections of southern lakes,
Turning up the 'thunder' settings to 'insane', and sitting at the aeroclub with your engine shut down and the sound right up:)
Driving around a big airport in the fog!

The annoying click when the Rex window refreshes(?) drives me balmy. It must annoy a lot of people, maybe there's a way to get rid of it.

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (toprob @ Jun 5 2012,12:45 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Some weird things I've tried:
Turning up the 'thunder' settings to 'insane',

Oh Crikey .. Mustang .. Thunder .. insane ... ThunderMustang

[Adamski]

QUOTE (toprob @ Jun 5 2012,11:45 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is hard to define, but it does hugely improve the visual realism ... It doesn't matter what the weather is, when you first start any flight the view out the window gets you right into that realistic zone which makes for a great flight.

The annoying click when the Rex window refreshes(?) drives me balmy. It must annoy a lot of people, maybe there's a way to get rid of it.

The new haze effects aren't hard to define - they make a massive contribution the the experience. But I think the effect also extends to the clouds themselves - just a bit more subtle - not so obviously computer-generated.



I fired up FSX this morning, with the [real] outside weather looking pretty bleak and un-dramatic. Just sort of wall-to-wall "grey". REXE reproduced it brilliantly (above).

Mine seems to have had a hit on the framerates too - so I may drop back from 4096px to 2048px textures. As to that sound - I think that may be part of the "bing-bong" interface sounds which you can disable in config.

Does your weather engine auto-start when you launch FSX (like it used to)? Mine doesn't - I find I have to launch REXE first. I'll check the REX forum for that one.

[Ian Warren]

We , just had Greg stop here , looked at the weather and compare , i have the haze and cloud/mist blend .. earlier i mentioned the West Coast Weather patterns , this is one area that is to excel with this update , may be huge but gog dang worth it , good to you posting Adam and points of the workings and what to look for .

[Kelvinr]

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Jun 5 2012,2:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We , just had Greg stop here , looked at the weather and compare , i have the haze and cloud/mist blend .. earlier i mentioned the West Coast Weather patterns , this is one area that is to excel with this update , may be huge but gog dang worth it , good to you posting Adam and points of the workings and what to look for .

The textures have been refined, much smoother and softer than their previous counterparts. The addition of the weather stations slider has made Essential really stand out as a weather engine for New Zealand. Many hours of testing has resulted in changes made to the engine to try and satisfy our hunger for real as it gets weather. My efforts going forward as a beta tester with REX Game Studios is to always have you guys in mind as well as our country when testing so that we can get the best possible results we can get.

[Adamski]

Good to hear you were on the team, Kelvin ... I expect you were NDA'd up to the eyeballs up until now and couldn't give too much away!

I can't really comment on the accuracy of the interpolation etc. (given that there aren't *that* many weather stations in NZ) ... but visually, it's a real treat. I can't see any other weather add-on coming anywhere near close - and to give a pretty substantial upgrade away for free for old users ... well, enough said.

[Ian Warren]

May just have to try real world weather current in Wobblyville .. i mean Christchurch ... the city is like a virgin with all this driven snow ... guess the airport is closed as well , maybe a few engine fires are required to melt the stuff ... this months screenshot 'Wintertime' theme to the Weather extreme

[Sinz]

REX E.... Call me impressed. Still working things out, however a huge improvement on default FSX weather. Installing REX E even seemed to fix ATC altitude calls? Normaly ATC on my system always called out 2992 but after REX E install I started hearing different altitudes.
Realworld weather NZCH. Look anything like this today?

[Sinz]

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Jun 6 2012,9:51 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

May just have to try real world weather current in Wobblyville .. i mean Christchurch ... the city is like a virgin with all this driven snow ... guess the airport is closed as well , maybe a few engine fires are required to melt the stuff ... this months screenshot 'Wintertime' theme to the Weather extreme

Had the same thought this morning when I read the news Ian. Will be interesting to see if we came out looking realitivly the same. Not a lot of visability after takeoff so took a shot on the runway.

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (Sinz @ Jun 6 2012,8:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

REX E.... Call me impressed.

Hi ya 'Impressed' .... Wobblyville weather ... Nah think it was worse today ,

[connor]

To be fair, when the snow did let up for a bit, that's pretty much what it looked like!

[Kelvinr]

QUOTE (Adamski @ Jun 5 2012,9:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good to hear you were on the team, Kelvin ... I expect you were NDA'd up to the eyeballs up until now and couldn't give too much away!

I can't really comment on the accuracy of the interpolation etc. (given that there aren't *that* many weather stations in NZ) ... but visually, it's a real treat. I can't see any other weather add-on coming anywhere near close - and to give a pretty substantial upgrade away for free for old users ... well, enough said.

Still NDA'd up to my ears though.

[toprob]

QUOTE (connor @ Jun 7 2012,8:31 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

To be fair, when the snow did let up for a bit, that's pretty much what it looked like!

When I loaded up NZCH yesterday for the shot in the other REXe thread, the snow came and went as I taxied about -- whether a bug or a feature, it worked for me.

[Adamski]

QUOTE (Sinz @ Jun 6 2012,7:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Realworld weather NZCH. Look anything like this today?

I'm intrigued how you got *snow* to show on this pic. All I got was rain (all day). I've often wondered whether there's something wrong with the seasons/ground textures with my FSX.

[toprob]

QUOTE (Adamski @ Jun 7 2012,12:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm intrigued how you got *snow* to show on this pic. All I got was rain (all day). I've often wondered whether there's something wrong with the seasons/ground textures with my FSX.

Snowy ground textures are normally displayed when the local 'season' is set to Hard Winter in the FSX Seasons file. But when you get snowy weather, FSX should swap out the ground textures with the Hard Winter set. But this has always been a bit flaky for me, if I load up a flight from scratch with snowy weather, just hard winter textures load up, but this doesn't work well when I change the weather to snow within a flight. I suspect that the way in which real weather engines work is a lot like switching to and from snow -- my ground textures have trouble making up their minds about the weather.

If you start a new flight with the 'snowy' weather theme selected, do you see snowy textures?

Remember that this won't work at airports with custom ground textures, unless there's a 'hard winter' variant included, which isn't common for NZ scenery, as this increases the download size, not to mention the work involved, hugely, just on the off-chance that you'll want to fly in the snow. It is more common in parts of the world which under snow for most of the winter.

[Adamski]

QUOTE (toprob @ Jun 7 2012,1:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Snowy ground textures are normally displayed when the local 'season' is set to Hard Winter in the FSX Seasons file. But when you get snowy weather, FSX should swap out the ground textures with the Hard Winter set. But this has always been a bit flaky for me, if I load up a flight from scratch with snowy weather, just hard winter textures load up, but this doesn't work well when I change the weather to snow within a flight. I suspect that the way in which real weather engines work is a lot like switching to and from snow -- my ground textures have trouble making up their minds about the weather.

If you start a new flight with the 'snowy' weather theme selected, do you see snowy textures?

Remember that this won't work at airports with custom ground textures, unless there's a 'hard winter' variant included, which isn't common for NZ scenery, as this increases the download size, not to mention the work involved, hugely, just on the off-chance that you'll want to fly in the snow. It is more common in parts of the world which under snow for most of the winter.

Thanks, Rob ... so ... as (technically) we're in autumn (or "Fall"), then these hard textures won't be kicking in yet <?>.

Yes - if I select one of the FSX hard coded snowy weather schemes, I do get snow textures *for a while* then they gradually go green!

I'm wondering whether Taranki was using default NZCH and not the NZSI variant - which, as you say, may not have a snow texture set.

[toprob]

QUOTE (Adamski @ Jun 7 2012,2:45 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks, Rob ... so ... as (technically) we're in autumn (or "Fall"), then these hard textures won't be kicking in yet <?>.

Yes - if I select one of the FSX hard coded snowy weather schemes, I do get snow textures *for a while* then they gradually go green!

I'm wondering whether Taranki was using default NZCH and not the NZSI variant - which, as you say, may not have a snow texture set.

Just to clarify -- the snowy textures will work at any time of the year, provided it stays snowing. Once it stops, they'll revert to whatever the current season is. This happens very quickly, and in patches on my system, so it doesn't show a transition well.

By custom ground textures, I mean photo textures, NZSI uses a normal landclass system which should display hard winter textures when it snows.