REX SKYFORCE 3-D

EdmundV · January 19, 2018 at 1:54 AM

Hi Guys.......and Gals???

Well, I just purchased Rex SkyForce 3-D and installed it to my FSX.....

Another big WOW for me in such a short space of time. I have always wanted real weather but have never got around to using Active SKy or any other weather generating software. I just inserted textures from REX and enjoyed the update from FSX default, until tonight that is.

Why am I posting this here you ask. Well, given how FS2 is taking off so well, excuse the pun, there seems to be a lot of talk about adding weather and, for me, the above seems to ooze the level of quality befitting a title like FS2. With this in mind I wonder if there is any possibility of IPACS talking to REX, who should be well aware of FS2, so that a great weather program can be brought into the mix sooner rather than later.

I have to say, although FlyInside for FSX is nowhere near as good as FS2 in VR, the short flight across to Ireland from Cardiff tonight has grabbed my attention due to being gobsmacked by the realism in the clouds, the best I have seen in 30 years of flying....

Come on guys, if you can get ORBX and Aerosoft onboard, another pun thrown in the mix there, then I am sure you can get together over a couple of beers with the people from REX to get something onto the bandwagon....

Asheroo · January 19, 2018 at 2:50 AM

I've said before it would be incredible to see some sort of third-party weather collaboration. But I think IPACS have stated that they themselves want to see what they can achieve with weather for AFS2. This is especially since it is a completely different engine and their very own engine. It would still be nice to see some collaboration with flight sim weather experts. Weather is half the fun for me when flight simming.

I too am a happy customer with Sky Force, and can't wait for the rest of the Force range. I use Opus for live weather. Also keep a close eye on Flight Sim World and their collaboration with TrueSky. They're about to release dynamic weather options, working their way towards live weather later on in the year.

HiFlyer · January 19, 2018 at 4:16 AM

My jury is still out.

I have a suspicion that with the advent of VR, the days of cloud billboards (however high resolution) may be numbered.....

coffeecup1978 · January 19, 2018 at 6:03 AM

There was a couple of posts about half year ago over on the Rex forum suggesting they were considering doing something for AFS2. Follow the links in the steam thread.

But my under is that the current weather model is a bit of a place holder that may be tackled in the future...

HiFlyer · January 19, 2018 at 6:19 AM

Quote from coffeecup1978

There was a couple of posts about half year ago over on the Rex forum suggesting they were considering doing something for AFS2. Follow the links in the steam thread.

But my under is that the current weather model is a bit of a place holder that may be tackled in the future...

I read it when posted, and my thought is the same as then. I'll be interested to see what they might have in mind.

Jet-Pack (IPACS) · January 19, 2018 at 9:55 AM Official Post

I hate to be the guy that always finds the reasons why this might not work but here are a few of my concerns with this:

REX is probably written around the FSX engine, their available "hook" to inject weather, their DirectX rendering engine and shaders. Behind the scenes the might just load up more cloud sprites in place of one cumulus cloud who knows what they have to do to work around FSX and what sort of hacks are needed for this. Maybe it is easier than I imagine it to be but the fact remains that they talk to a Microsoft Flight Sim engine.

Aerofly uses OpenGL and probably doesn't have any of the hooks that they use for FSX. Now REX could maybe adopt their product to another game engine, they'd certainly have to rewrite quite a bit of code to create the interface to Aerofly. Plus, who sais that after adopting from one platform to another that the performance in Aerofly will still be any good? Their code might run well on FSX because it is optimized for that but it might behave different in Aerofly and might need a lot more coding to get it to run fast. In the end this is two totally different platforms which are not compatible, we use a different rendering engine and have different core structure with multicore CPU support and more efficient usage of the GPU. AND we have multiple operating systems to run on not just Windows PC but Android or Apple smartphones and tablets.

What we could do is work together with REX simulations, use their amazing, already existing cloud textures and their knowledge about weather engines and write a brand new, highly efficient weather engine specifically designed for Aerofly. Only that way we can make sure that everything works well even on other operating systems like OSX or linux or android and we also get to add new features that maybe could not be added because the MS engine won't support it. For example: In Aerofly we have full control of the wind field simulation (and not just layers of wind) we could create mountain waves, rotor clouds that actually break like waves on an ocean and we could create actual thunder storm cells, have even better rain shafts, etc.

We'll see what IPACS decides to do in the future, I'd like to see a cooperation with REX very much.

EdmundV · January 19, 2018 at 10:32 AM

Nice response Jet-Pack. I understand fully what you say and appreciate what you want to achieve with this fantastic sim.

My worry is that, the longer we are waiting, and I know patience is needed, but the more we are being drawn back to the other sims to experience what we are waiting for in FS2.

I love this new platform and I understand you are a small team but people get impatient. There needs to be a small but steady injection of additional 'stuff' to appease guys like me, thus keeping us away from FSX and P3D and focused on FS2.

Weather seems really high on everyone's list as you have nailed it with aircraft options. The flyable areas are good for a while until more comes along but the weather provides unlimited scenarios to utilise what we have and keep the community occupied whilst the developers do their stuff.

Remember, the more time more people spend on FS2 then the more developers will want a piece of the action rather than sitting on the fence......😎😎😎

REX SKYFORCE 3-D

Similar Threads

Flight Simulation - the future

Aerofly vs FSX & P3D