SkyMaxx Pro installation error - Solved and wow!

[Sannan75]

Ok so today I've been looking at SkyMaxx Pro 4.6, and I remember enjoying a weather replacement by Rex Simulations on FSX back in the day so it's caught my eye.

I've done the usual SkyMaxx or xEnviro video watching and thread reading and I'm happy that I'd prefer SkyMaxx personally.

My questions are these:

1) Is it wise to get the Real Weather Connector at the same time, does it make a big difference to the experience.

2) If I get both, how easy are they to install onto the Steam version?

3) How does the Real Weather Connector work in game? How do you interact with it, is it a separate program I have to start, or is it seamless?

Thanks in advance and happy flying :)

[Sannan75]

Well, I got bored of waiting for a support response and just tried changing my account password.

Job done, installed. I wonder if the installer has issues matching passwords with special characters.

Anyway, if you're on the fence about whether SkyMaxx Pro is worth it, it's totally transformed the environment for me, amazing :)

[fortunjj1]

If you haven't already purchased it, I would recommend RWC. It does a great job of displaying real-world weather in real time, using X-Plane's default real world weather. If you want to go one step further, FSGRW is very good. RWC is a plugin, not a separate program, so it seamlessly integrates with SMP. There is no issue (or difference) in using the Steam edition, as you found out with SMP.

SMP provides a very good rendering of the atmosphere. Clouds and scattering are particularly well done - although it would be nice to have something other than cumulus. The only real competition for a full-scale weather environment at the moment is xEnviro. The default XP clouds are OK, but suffer from the limitations of 2D textures. UWXP offers a great alternative but again, the 2D textures limit the realism. So, whenever I want really high frame rates over any scenery, however complex, I use UWXP. It is nice to have that option.

I own SMP, xE and UWXP, so I have tried all of them at length. SMP is by far the most realistic (and also the most stable). But this has turned into something that transcends the product quality. Fans of xE have been defending 1.09 with almost religious fervor. Right now, IMHO, xE's cloud rendering is broken - and I'm not sure that the approach that is being taken is fixable. Yet, a huge number of people consider the cloud rendering in 1.09 to be absolutely incredible - amazing beyond belief - ultra realistic!

But, you can judge for yourself. First is SMP, second is xE. These images are representative of the approach used to provide light scattering under similar lighting conditions.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/916925510281941643/48CE330EF4E8FF004AD3C918C61FAB791722768B/

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/916925510281949802/EF6BD3D1B04B3CBADEEA79CCBDC57E1DAFDFD302/

I'm not sure that xE's rendering is on the right track. Plus, the low quality cloud rendering is currently provided at a huge expense in terms of frame rate. SMP, on the other hand, provides fair to good frame rates with much longer draw distances than xE. So, at the moment, there is no debate about which is the better quality product. Yet, without question, most folks will continue to choose the lower quality and more expensive product - for reasons not known to me. I'm not saying that xE might end up being the go-to solution (and I have hedged my bet in any case), but things aren't looking too good presently.

[Sannan75]

Yeah I looked at xEnviro and I think in the end it comes down to personal preference and for me SkyMaxx seemed best suited to my tastes.

I will be getting RWC, considered getting it at the same time but as I wasn't sure I'd enjoy SkyMaxx I held off :)

[Sannan75]

Ok, I picked up RWC to go with SkyMaxx 4.6 today and :)

It properly completes it and makes it feel a lot more real doesn't it, very happy :)