I wanted to get some input from people who have owned both REX Essentials and REX4. How big is the improvement, as far as what you actually see in FSX? The screenshots look great, obviously, but that doesn't always translate into in-game experiences.

Aside from the general "What do you think?", I also have a couple of specifc questions:

1. Worn airport markings - The close up images of these look really nice. Does it really eliminate the big, bright, runway markings when approaching an airport as advertised? If anyone has a screenshot demonstrating yes or no, it would be greatly appreciated! If it makes a big difference, that would be a big selling point for me.

2. I still use 1024 max textures in cfg file. I doubt my laptop can handle a bunch of 2048 textures thrown at it. Anyone know if that affects the answer to #1 above, or if have any other insights regarding only using 1024 textures and it's impact on the benefits of REX4?

Sorry for all the questions. You may be thinking "Seriously dude? It's only $20! Just give it a try!" But if I follow that logic for every flight sim/addon that comes along and catches my eye, I'd be broke!

It's been less than a year since I decided to go ahead and buy REX E, so I want to know I'm going to see some significant improvement if I'm going to go for REX4. The $20 sale price is making me think about it...

Also FWIW - I generally prefer wave animations/water shaders from FSWC over REX E. So improvements to wave animations/water shaders from REX4 probably carry less weight for me.

Also also - I still use DX9.

Same question. I have REX-E and hate spending more money with 'some' improvement.

1. Sorry no screenshots but my impression is yes, the worn markings do indeed look more natural.

2. HD textures - i.e. those bigger than the 1024x1024 native res of FSX only really show a benefit when views up close. Unless you're in the habit of hanging outside the cockpit window and inspecting the runway markings as you pass by you probably won't have too much to worry about.


On a more general impression.... I've had REX ever since the very first version. You got a mind boggling array of textures for FSX, but to be perfectly honest I found precious few of the sky and cloud textures were actually any good. The majority were way too dramatic and over the top, didn't look at all natural to me.

With REX4 you don't get anywhere near as many texture sets as you had in earlier versions, but those that are included are far more natural and realistic in appearance. This to me at least makes it well worth the investment.

The one criticism I do have of REX4 is the water is too blue. I use the darkest water set, which is far from an eyesore, but still not quite right. I'd maybe like to see some more water options to recreate the darker, or green/grey water that I often see.

Water is a real pet peeve of mine as I work at sea and very rarely see the kind of water that most flight sims depict. Realistic depiction of the sea is something that I'd love to see (sea?) in my flight sims and nobody has got it right yet. Then again seeing as you're in California I'd imagine your Pacific is probably a lot prettier and more photogenic than the North Sea I grew up next to the UK

My REX2 vs REX4 impressions are similar:
Less textures overall, but those that are there look more realistic, the loading and unloading of the textures is amazingly fast, so it's easy to switch them out often, if you plan to use DX10 then REX4 has some specific DX10 tweaks for it and the DX10 wave animation is especially good compared to DX9 REX2 animation.

Overall I owned REX for years and they gave us a ton of free upgrades and feature enhancements over that time without charging anything for it, so I didn't bat an eye at upgrading to REX4 especially since it is now cheaper without the weather engine.

Overall I am happy with it and use it much more often to change textures depending on mood/weather thanks to the amazingly fast theme loading speed enhancements.

Malibu already knows but for anyone else wandering through, I posted some comparison shots over at the Outhouse.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?86882-Opinions-on-REX-4

I'm digging REX4. The textures really make for some beautiful flying although I agree that the water is kind of over blue.

BTW, I just picked up FTX Vector. Massive improvement and I would have previously had said that vector data was pretty low on my priority list!

Deacon

Could you be more specific?

Sorry, I missed this reply earlier.

As I understand it, vector data deals with roads, coastlines, bridges, etc. Personally, on my priority list, I'd have put that after textures, mesh, and landclass as I would have said that FSX was servicable with those first three and I'd doubt if I recognized the difference with a little more accurate road or coastline.

After seeing it, I admit I was wrong. The coastlines look much nicer sure, but the addition of better bridges, more believable road structures, beaches, etc really surprised me in how much better it made FTX Global look.

What was more impressive was night. Now, instead of a jumble of roads and lights, you have grids, and highways; traffic lights and taillights. And considering it made the whole world better, it was well worth the price to me...especially since I tend to fly all over rather than just one area, which might have made ORBX more tempting.