For those not aware ORBX is having a May Sale with 37% off all products except their most recent releases. Head over to the Flight Sim Store for details. Could be the excuse I've been looking for to finally get Vector to go with my Global and EU Land Class. 

http://www.flightsimstore.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=92

Cheers,
Serge

Hmmmm.....  Sure I can find something g to buy!  Surely recommend Orbx Alaska region and the new Homer airport if any of you want to try some non Intercity locations.  Also, Orbx Trees is a must!

Sadly Orbx Trees isn't included in the sale as it's a new product 

Yes, unfortunately I saw that.   
They put everything on sale except for the products just released... 


Anyway, I would still recommend Orbx trees because of the performance increase.

Quote from: Sergio De Ceglie on May 03, 2015 11:17
37% off all products... could be the excuse I've been looking for to finally get Vector to go with my Global and EU Land Class. 

This week I splurged (I'd had a few beers and it's nearly my birthday) and bought REX4TD+SC, FSPS Fiber Accelerator, FTX Global Base and OpenLC Europe, but still can't decide between Vector and UTX Europe v2! They're about the same price with the 37% discount, and whilst Vector has global coverage I don't fly outside Europe much these days.

Have you purchased Vector yet Serge, what do you rekon to it?

Hi Chris,

I still haven't got around to getting Vector yet. For some reason I'm still not convinced it's mature enough. I know it's continuously being worked on but it has been quite a while since the last update so progress is slow. Running out of days to decide......

I was also thinking about REXTD+SC since I saw that on sale too. I have Rex Essential Plus Overdrive so would be interested on your thoughts of the new version Chris.

Cheers,
Serge

I'm inclined to agree Vector isn't mature enough; the more I look in to it, the more I think I should get newly released UTX Europe v2.1 (with FTX OpenLC Europe sat above it). Next time there's an ORBX sale, I'll probably buy FTX Vector to "fill in the gaps" and give global coverage. Or I might even try TileProxy!

REX4TD looks only marginally better than previous versions, but I'm glad I picked it because the interface is a LOT better and the loading times are not even 1% of what they were (under 10 seconds, instead of 5+ minutes)! Whilst there is less texture choice than OD, it's a lot easier to browse and install them so you are much more likely to mix things. I use the weather generated theme function for every flight, and it creates a lot more variety than previous versions of REX.

If you are happy with your existing REX Essentials+OD however, it's probably not worth moving to REX4TD unless you can get an upgrade/loyalty discount of some sort. Don't forget that there's no weather engine in REX4 (not that I thought much to REX's weather engine anyway) so if you were using that function you'll need to budget for a replacement or settle for a free alternative (I've listed several in the recommend addons topic)

Soft Clouds I've not yet seen enough of yet to make a judgement on, but I have a nagging doubt they're expensive for what they are, especially if you set cloud resolution to 512 anyway. If could go back on that decision I'd probably spend the money on Trees HD instead.

Thanks for your thoughts Chris.

The smart interface and quick loading times of Rex TD definitely make it appealing. The slow interface of REX Essentials and the previous versions always annoyed me. That being said though I can't remember the last time I loaded it up to change my textures. Once I settled on a set I liked I never bother changing them again. How does the weather generated textures work with other weather engines? This has me interested.

Regarding the weather engine, I was always left disappointed with the REX weather engine. I tried OPUS for a while and although it started off well seemed to lose it's way after so many updates. Eventually I got Active Sky Next and think this has provided me with the best experience so far.

Cheers,
Serge

Quote from: Sergio De Ceglie on May 28, 2015 14:38
How does the weather generated textures work with other weather engines? This has me interested...I was always left disappointed with the REX weather engine.

REX4TD provides textures only (no weather engine included, which is no bad thing because I always thought REX weather was pants anyway), so in theory REX4 should work fine with any weather engine. The weather generated texture themes work like this; you provide REX4 with an airport ICAO code so it can fetch a METAR that filters what textures REX4 loads. It's fairly crude but provides some variety.

Quote from: Sergio De Ceglie on May 28, 2015 14:38I tried OPUS for a while and although it started off well seemed to lose it's way after so many updates. Eventually I got Active Sky Next and think this has provided me with the best experience so far.

Opus was a flash in the pan, on release it trumped established favourites ASE & AS2012. But shortly after ActiveSkyNext (ASN) came out and leap frogged everything; ASN remains the weather engine of choice so I'd stick with it. However I'm a tightwad so I'm happily using freeware FSXWX!

Hi-Fi say they're working on a texture package that will integrate with ASN and similarly REX say they're working on REX4WD "Weather Direct". I think they should both stick to what they do well!

Quote from: Chris Liu on May 28, 2015 16:29
you provide REX4 with an airport ICAO code so it can fetch a METAR that filters what textures REX4 loads. It's fairly crude but seems effective.

That makes sense. I'm sure once they release their updated weather engine it may become a little more sophisticated.

Well after writing my earlier post I went away and purchased both Vector and REX TD with soft clouds. I figured that once the sale was over I'd be kicking myself for not doing it. Now the wait to download over 13GB of files.

Cheers,
Serge

So REX4 Weather Direct (WD) has just been released, I've yet to read anything about it.

As regards Ultimate Terrain versus FTX Vector and Open LC, a very interesting comparison thread has emerged at http://forum.avsim.net/topic/471784-utx-europe-21-comparisons/ with screenshots by Chris Tutthill (tutmeister)

Comparison screenshots (including Google Earth) are at:
http://tutmeister.co.uk/paris/
http://tutmeister.co.uk/zurich/
http://tutmeister.co.uk/edinburgh/
http://tutmeister.co.uk/london_night/
http://tutmeister.co.uk/chorley/

I didn't think I'd be saying this, but based on those screenshots, visually I prefer Vector+OpenLC to UTX.  UTX seems to "over urbanise" things, making built-up areas bigger than they really are. Although UTX has a lot more urban roads than Vector, which is sparse in comparison, and also UTX looks a lot better at night.

As the sale has long since finished, Vector is now annoyingly £33 rather than the £21 it was, so I'll wait for another sale.

The sale is back on, 35% off all ORBX until 1st Jan 2016. Think I'll grab Vector. See them at http://www.flightsimstore.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=92