20 replies to this topic

[timest999]

REX Essential - Feature #7 - Part 2


CONFIGURATION - WEATHER ENGINE
The Conifuration Manager section within REX Essential has been dramatically changed.

As stated in our previous thread, we have separated the Configuration Manager into 5 parts:

GENERAL SETTINGS
WEATHER ENGINE
VISIBILITY
WINDS
CLOUDS

Although there are many additional settings within the new WEATHER ENGINE (WASys) itself, this thread will focus only on the settings within the Configuration Manager.

INITIAL WEATHER DELAY TIMER
The IWDT is a special timer that allows the user to set the initiation time in which the REX Weather Engine will begin to inject weather into FSX/P3D. The user can select a starting time between 1 and 5 minutes. This is extremely useful in that a shorten wait time allows the REX Weather Engine to inject weather while you are still configuring FSX/P3D.

WEATHER LOAD REGION
This feature allows the user to select the size of the weather region to travel in before the weather engine will load again. Ranges are from 4,225 sq. miles, up to covering the entire world. Within the weather engine (WASys), consists a new menu item which allows setting the weather refresh time from 60 / 30 / 15 minutes. These features work together to provide the most accurate weather within a timely matter. If for example you travel outside the weather region - REX Essential refreshes the weather region and resets the timer, or if passing the time setting for refresh, REX will reset your region size.

ENABLE GREEN MESSAGE BAR WITHIN THE SIMULATOR
Per user feedback, this new feature allows the user to turn on or off the green bar at the top of the simulator screen that advises the user the status of weather engine injection.

ENABLE WEATHER DATA OVERWRITE
This is a new feature that allows REX to download the weather every 10 minutes and overwrite the previous data so that the user is presented with the latest weather data during flight. If disabled, this feature will only download weather once every hour. (Does not refer to the weather 'injection' process)

ENABLE ARCHIVE WEATHER DATA PURGE AT CLOSING
After quite some time, the REX Database will grow in size due to the weather download data. You may not want to store archived weather data. This option allows you to delete this data when you close REX.

ENABLE NO WEATHER DURING DESCENT
This prohibits the REX weather engine from injecting weather while the aircraft is in a descent.

ENABLE REALISTIC HAZE LAYER
Enabling this option is another feature users requested to have control over. Initially we have disabled this feature in FSX as it's viewed as more of a nuisance rather than a useable 'feature'. Although this will create hard edges when intersecting with terrain, and cause a 'cloud-type' formation to follow the aircraft, for certain IFR conditions this will really immerse the user. In testing, we tend to leave it enabled for great visual impact.

ENABLE REX WEATHER ENGINE
We realize that everyone has their preference of weather sources. This feature allows you to turn on or off the REX weather engine.

ENABLE AUTO-START THE REX WEATHER ENGINE
This feature no longer uses the EXE.XML file that caused problems in the past, rather the process is now built into REX Essential. Enabling this option will cause REX to start the weather engine when REX starts FSX/P3D.

ENABLE AUTO LAUNCH THE FLIGHT SIMULATOR
Enabling this option will cause REX to start FSX/P3D automatically.

MINIMIZE REX WHEN FLIGHT SIMULATOR IS STARTED
This option minimizes the REX interface when starting the REX weather engine and FSX/P3D.

ENABLE VATSIM WEATHER DATA
The default weather source for REX Essential is NOAA, but we also provide the VATSIM weather data that comes directly from VATSIM weather servers.

There are additional features available directly on the weather engine allowing modification in regards to performance which we will detail soon.

Next Feature: Visibility Configuration
We will highlight some of the unique settings to making visibility more manageable within FSX/P3D.

[Clem Wu]

Brilliant Tim A massive improvement and some useful features too!

[timest999]

Just the beginning Clem Thanks!

[fjsharry]

ENABLE REALISTIC HAZE LAYER this feather is meaning will reduce some strange visual situation?
Like i post picture?

Edited by fjsharry, 14 February 2012 - 07:42 AM.

[timest999]

No, that is what happens when CLOUDS intersect with terrain... NOTHING can be done about that.

[enzo64]

Seems like you guys made an HUGE step toward a dependable weather engine.
I would like to ask about winds aloft tough ,how are them handled?

Thanks for the upgrade.

[ricky737]

sounds great guys! looking forward to it.

[rstough]

Seems like you guys made an HUGE step toward a dependable weather engine.
I would like to ask about winds aloft tough ,how are them handled?

Thanks for the upgrade.

@enzo64 - The winds aloft are completely handled differently than in REX 1 or 2. We are now importing real winds and temperatures aloft data from NOAA from our dataservers.

@everyone - Thank you everyone for your kind words and support. We think you all will be very pleased when we release REX Essential. You will be seeing more shortly. As you can tell we are nearing the end of our feature posts!?

[Wast3d]

@ rstough or tim....

There is something i always wanted to ask:

If you i marry any of you... Will i get access to early Beta???
Do you want to marry me?


Great job!

[rstough]

@ rstough or tim....

There is something i always wanted to ask:

If you i marry any of you... Will i get access to early Beta???
Do you want to marry me?


Great job!

LOL that is great. I have never been proposed to on a forum!! But to answer your question - your wait will not be much longer for REX Essential.

[Wast3d]

I could be a girl if you want one... No problem! Realy!

[RickBrown]

ROFL!

[johnler]

a w e s o m e

[pracines]

"ENABLE NO WEATHER DURING DESCENT"
"This prohibits the REX weather engine from injecting weather while the aircraft is in a descent."


Why would this feature be needed? Would it stop injecting all the way to the ground to keep ATC from getting runways confused? Is there a way to set a specific altitude?

I ask because if Im at FL 430 and start a intermediate decent to say 27,000 feet but still have 300 or so NM to go, a "stiff" ( if it is stiff ) setting like this is not very welcome. But if I could tell the WASys to stop injecting at a certain altitude after the start of a decent that may be more useful and more welcome ( I'm unsure of this thats why Im asking ) . Or does the WASys resume injecting at 27,000 and whatever altitudes we level off at? The phrase "while in a decent" leads me to believe this is so.

Does that make sense?

I do understand the need to keep ATC less confused with reguard to wind/runway concerns.

The reason for my concern is, users of products like Radar Contact 4.3 ( Like me ), usually get ammended decent clearances, so before they reach their intermediate decent altitude, they get cleared all the way down to 11-12000 feet depending on the terrain. From FL400 and up, its a long time and distance to get down to 12,000 feet, and a total lack of weather injection during this time would be less than realistic. The update that happens after such a long time and distance should be drastic and again that kind of drastic change should be avoided.

I realize that its an option, but I know the usefulness of keeping ATC less confused as possible and at the same time the flow of wx injection during long decent periods is critical to the immersion factor as well.

It may be my lack of understanding of how the new REX works, so please be easy on me. :-)

[keeszondag]

[enzo64]

I have one more question for the developers :Solid OVC is hard to depict for some FSX limitations ,are you having some trouble as well?

[kccwuk]

This all sounds great. I would like to be able to shut of the weather update ribbon. It detracts from the "reality". I love REX 2 Overdrive and the improvements sound like onward and upward! I do think it would help to clarify that the REX WAsystem is the "translator" between the REX weather engine and FSX. It took me a couple of days to understand that you pick your texture and weather then load the weather into the WAsystem. That interprets your weather only and installs it into FSX. I hope that is right. I have read the manual twice and still refer to it. Looking forward to more exciting stuff from you all. Your artists of the highest caliber!

[rstough]

We have not covered the enhancements to the weather engine yet, but what I can tell you is that there is a context menu in which you can manage the weather engine. One of the options is setting you update process to every 60 min / 30 min/ 15 min/ Never.

Also, in the weather setting you can have REX load all the weather for the WORLD at one time. It takes sometime to do this, BUT for me there is not need for updating so often. We have a new Cloud Smooth Transition process - which if you load a large weather region and have this checked you only get the Clouds transitioning, but no other eratic changes often associated with a full update.