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Weather Enhancement?

falcon409

falcon409

SOH-CM-2025
Ok, If I were to use the basic "real weather" engine for FSX and nothing else to simulate real world weather, what enhancement package would I need to give me the most realistic clouds and sky?
 
Get Flight EnviromentX and ActiveSky Advanced and be done with it.
FEX from Flight1 has a return policy but I do not know of anybody not liking it.
FEX will take care of the clouds,sky,visuals.
ActiveskyX or Advanced is 1000% better than the FSX weather engine. I had some Simconnect issues installing but their support is imo some of the best there is.
With the above 2 ,Ground Enviroment and Ultimate terrrain, I can say I am very content with my visuals. Then you can concentrate on your aircraft.
 
Hi Falcon,
You need a whether "textures" package like Real Environment Extreme 2.0, Flight Environment X (Flight1) or HiFi simulations Graphics X.
I have REX 2.0 and FEX and personally I feel that the REX 2.0 weather looks very spectacular the FEX looks more realistic (for the U.K at least).
REX has the advantage of a built in weather engine as well so may be that might influence your decision, though I use Active Sky Advanced for that.
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Regards,
Ian.
 
Or get REX. It has what FEX and ASA has. Sort of. BTW I have FEX and ASA and not REX but I would buy REX if I had to choose now. Saves you a lot of money and it's a nice idea that REX is still alive: FEX is dead. I do like the clouds FEX is giving me though, no doubt about that. I haven't got ASA installed, mainly because of the long loading times (I don't think REX will be any different) and because real life weather hardly ever is the kind of weather I like to fly in... :p (Come to think of it: can you resell an ASA license...?)
 
Well, I can tell you I purchased ASA a few days ago not realizing that without a graphics package to go with it, it's useless. . .no better than default weather, so I'm in the process of trying to get a refund on it. Ridiculous to pay almost $100 (ASA + XGraphics) just to get realistic weather patterns, just nuts.

Sounds like REX is the way to go (since it has it's own weather engine). But even without the weather engine, it would still give me better graphics and at a fraction of the cost.

Thanks guys!!:salute:
"just noticed that my one and only post over at HiFi has been removed. Not surprised, it was less than complimentary." Just waiting to see if they honor my request for a refund.
Refund complete, purchasing REX.
 
One thing that has put me off these packages is the complexity of a million different set ups (forgive me if I have misread in my read ups). If I was to upgrade my weather, I would just like a nice simple visual enhancement. I already spend too much time on my pc (so the missus tells me !!!!), so I want to stay as close to load n play as possible.

With that in mind, what would be the best route including any freeware upgrades out there ?

Thanks
 
guzler said:
One thing that has put me off these packages is the complexity of a million different set ups (forgive me if I have misread in my read ups). If I was to upgrade my weather, I would just like a nice simple visual enhancement. I already spend too much time on my pc (so the missus tells me !!!!), so I want to stay as close to load n play as possible.

With that in mind, what would be the best route including any freeware upgrades out there ?

Thanks
Click to expand...
The fact that these programs have million options, doesn't mean you have to use them all...! ;) I own FEX but I usually only use it once: after a reinstall of FSX...! A long time ago I chose a nice cloud texture, nice water and sky texture and I've been using those ever since: after installing FSX, I install and run FEX, install my favorite textures and after that I don't open the program anymore (a long time ago, when hard disk space was sparse, I even uninstalled FEX after installing the texures!). I do not need a different sky texture everyday...! The time of day and the kind of weather already makes everything look different everytime. The clouds I have now do look a LOT better than the default clouds and so does the water: and that's what I bought FEX for.

I also like to stay close to 'load and play' and that's why I even haven't installed ASA now: I just setup the FSX weather to my liking (usually the same nice weather which is saved with my default flight, haha) and thanks to the FEX-textures it looks great. Saves me a LOT of time! :applause:

The same goes for REX: you can buy it just to get better graphics: when you found the graphics you really like, you don't have to run REX anymore! (Unless you want to use the weather engine, of course).
 
Hi Ed! How come no e-mail after your refund was processed?? And yes, I did remove your posts.
 
JSkorna said:
Hi Ed! How come no e-mail after your refund was processed?? And yes, I did remove your posts.
Click to expand...
I received an e-mail saying the refund was being processed but also noticed that it states (especially with the holidays messing up the banks) that it could take anywhere from 3 to 5 days to process. I checked about an hour ago and it had not been posted to Paypal yet.

As for the posts, I didn't expect that they would remain. . .I wasn't surprised.
 
Hi Ed!

I personally e-mailed you and you didn't even have the courtesy to e-mail me back. So what was the point of the rude posts knowing they would be removed?
 
OK, so I am liking the idea more now. A question slightly off topic, can the same be applied to UTX ?

This is a big install, however once the textures are loaded, if UTX is deleted, will it leave the textures in the game ?

So FEX does the graphics and ASA does the weather engine ?

I might try the freeware thing I have seen knocking about too.
 
Hi,

Yes, you could uninstall UTX, but then you wouldn't be able to make any option changes, but the UTX textures would remain in FSX, unless the UTX uninstaller would remove them.

Yes, that is correct about the FEX textures and ASA. ASA just uses whatever textures are in FS. That is why ASA is called a weather program.:jump:
 
Ok thanks, now I am much clearer. I think I will go and delete GEX USA as I have never touched the textures since I installed it !!!
 
GEX generates a backup and I'll bet that the back up will be restored when you uninstall, then you will not have GEX textures in FSX anymore.
 
I wouldn't uninstall the programs unless hard disk space is VERY sparse. Just don't use the programs anymore after you've installed the textures you like! (My example of uninstalling FEX was to show you really do not need to spend time opening these programs everytime before yhou want to run FSX!) ;) Simply leaving them on the HD won't hurt in any way.
 
Looks like I have done it previously as it wasn't there !!!!

I don't fly much outside Europe, the only pat of the USA that I go to tends to be Hawaii. I will go and see if the textures are still there...

J Van E, I fully understood your advice. I am getting a new pc soon and leaving this one set up for the kids, who wouldn't know whether GEX was installed or not, so I am doig a bit of cleaning up and experimenting. My son generally goes on CFS3 kids being kids !!!

Thanks
 
Hm, Ultimate weather fx looks okay, but it only gives you clouds and skies... For just a few dollars more you can get REX and believe me, you will never ever want default FSX water after seeing REX water... Clouds and skies are important, but so is the water imho. Compared to REX Ultimate weather fx is VERY overpriced for what it offers... And let me add again: you do not HAVE to use the REX weather engine! You can also use it just once for great clouds, skies, water, airport textures, etc. and never run REX again. So even for 'lazy sods' REX seems a better option than Ultimate weather fx!
 
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