If you read my opinions on REX Essentials (
start here) you'll know that, although the cloud textures are the very best, the program,
REX Essentials itself, will put you to sleep due to the
LLOOONNNGGGG load time. I was rather unhappy with that part.
In desperation I started using
OpusFSX Live Weather. It's very fast and accuate, and gives me exactly what I wanted out of FSX.
Using REX & OPUS FSX
THIS is the quality of the clouds that I see when flying. You know thay you'll NEVER get this out of plane old FSX, and not even Prepar3d V2.
As time went by, I came to the
(as yet unrealized) realization that the best way to work things out was to use REX to create
weather themes according to time, location, and seasons.
REX will let you build cloud, sun, sky color, and water textures to suit your needs. So if you're flying in
Bora Bora (AKA Pora Pora) you can setup the sun and clouds suitable for the south Pacific.
You can set up, and save, winter & summer weather for the Pacific northwest if that's one of your favorite flying areas.
And you better believe that the weather is going to require a different sun and sky color in Egypt than it will for humid Alabama in the summer.
In a perfect world, REX Essentials would take note of your time, location, and seasons before searching for the weather reports that cover your flight. Someday. Maybe.
But THAT is old news.
Today REX has
new news!
REX Releases “REX4 Direct”One item,
REX Weather Direct, sounds like it was intended to mitigate the extremely long load time required by REX Essentials before you can even start to load the flight sim.
From the Aerosoft Sim News report;
"Our goal with REX Weather Direct was to make it so easy for the user, that they only had to start the program and click start to achieve an accurate weather experience within FSX or Prepar3D."Lets face it. Most people simply want to fly, and are perfectly willinf to leave the entire weather thing up to someone else.
The other parts of
REX4 DIRECT Products sounds, to me, as if they've broken up REX Essentials into it component parts.
But in some ways those "parts" are more "feature" rich. For inastance;
"
14 types of lightning: IC, CC and CG" and "
"
Runways with light or heavy wear... your choice, over 32 to choose from, the highest definition textures with the most fidelity on the market! "
and "
28 amazingly detailed taxiways developed from all types of concrete, asphalt and bitumen "
Other "features" are long standing features built into almost every program: "
Check for updates feature built-in"
(whoopee! talk about inovation ) One "feature" that might be interesting is :"
Environment sound effects. Jaw-dropping in/out cockpit precipitation and thunder sounds"
That could be interesting. Because thunder, in FSX, is totaly pathetic.
So go to their site and see if it'll do. I had to buy
BOTH REX & OPUS FSX to get the sky that I wanted. Maybe REX Weather Direct will give to you for half the price.
Happy sky's and good flying.