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Announcing the release of Real Environment Xtreme for X-Plane!

Cameron

By Cameron
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Cameron Mentor

Cameron

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Get ready to experience a new era in flight simulation experience for X-Plane!

Real Environment Simulations is pleased to announce that Real Environment Xtreme for X-Plane, has been released today.

Real Environment Xtreme uses the newest hi-definition technology to bring the most realistic environment to the X-Plane platform. This new technology includes state-of-the-art photography processes, mapped to various cloud and sky textures that gives a true volumetric feel to the X-Plane world. This REX HD technology has been crafted, refined, and proven over a three year process.

Real Environment Xtreme for X-Plane also offers a new Weather Synthetic Texture Processing feature that allows REX to craft the best textures for the weather situation and then uses its new Weather Data Server (WDS) to synthesize the metar reports to give the best representation of the weather within X-Plane. If this wasn't enough we have included a new Weather Avoidance Tool that provides global weather conditions for precipitation, lightning, turbulence/shear and icing.

 

Real Environment Xtreme is available for purchase for X-Plane from X-Aviation: http://www.x-aviation.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=55

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Kesomir Newbie

Kesomir

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Try, the largest number of people are running it on the Mac.

That doesn't match with an interview with Austin. Unless you have other data of course.

Source: http://techhaze.com/2010/03/interview-with-x-plane-creator-austin-meyer/

we have around 100,000 desktop users, and 500,000 iPhone/iPod/Palm users, right now, with that number growing rapidly. Amongst desktop, maybe half and half Mac and Windows, with totally negligible Linux… like less than 2%.
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gthomas Newbie

gthomas

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Try, the largest number of people are running it on the Mac.

That doesn't match with an interview with Austin. Unless you have other data of course.

Source: http://techhaze.com/2010/03/interview-with-x-plane-creator-austin-meyer/

we have around 100,000 desktop users, and 500,000 iPhone/iPod/Palm users, right now, with that number growing rapidly. Amongst desktop, maybe half and half Mac and Windows, with totally negligible Linux… like less than 2%.

I didn't say overwhelming more. If you notice he said "maybe" half and half. The increase in the number of windows users is recent. And, admittedly, will, if not already, surpass the Mac.

And, yes, maybe I'm being overly sensitive. But for quite sometime X-plane was our (the Mac) sim. And now we see an increasing number of refugee programers with cool PC only products who "say" they are looking at other platforms, and they may, but nothing ever comes of it.

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eaglewing7 Newbie

eaglewing7

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That is one of the biggest draws of X-Plane for the "other" platforms.  X-Plane, has, and always will be a multi-platform sim.  When I first got into flight sims, I was looking for something that I could run on a Mac (and that gets rid of MSFS, which in my opinion looks horrible, but I digress) and the only sim at that point which would run on a Mac was X-Plane.  But, X-Plane also runs on Windows, and Linux.  Which means that it is covering the entire computer market, an extremely smart move by Austin. 

If your going to make a transition from making products for MSFS, you need to remember that the founding portion of the X-Plane following and community in general is, and always will be, Mac.  I can understand that most of the ex-MSFS developers are coming from the Windows world, but they must remember not to alienate the Mac users.

My favourite example of a guy who made everyone happy is Greg Hofer, of Classic Jet Simulation.  CJS built an absolutely amazing CF-104, but the original release was Windows only.  The Mac community asked him to make a Mac version, and Greg went out of his way to make a Mac version, even buying a new iMac so that it would get done fast! 

Anyhow, I hope that the team from Real Environment understands that the Mac community once was the majority of users in the X-Plane world, and that we deserve to have the same add ons that everyone else gets.

Also, I've read about how this product was hyped before it's release as bringing in a "New Era in Flight Simulation."  From what I've heard on another forum from many users is that, all that this fairly expensive program is doing is replacing the cloud and sky textures.  If this is all that REX is doing how can the developer justify the price, when there have been many different cloud and sky texture replacement packages?

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Cameron Mentor

Cameron

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If your going to make a transition from making products for MSFS, you need to remember that the founding portion of the X-Plane following and community in general is, and always will be, Mac.  I can understand that most of the ex-MSFS developers are coming from the Windows world, but they must remember not to alienate the Mac users.

No one is alienating anyone. I would suggest you not even go there. :D

To put it bluntly, REX is a windows based program that is testing the waters in the XP market. If they are to invest money in development they need a worthy ROI.

You can bet everything that if they are satisfied in any way with the way the Windows sales have been, then you'll be seeing a Mac version. They've already publicly mentioned it's in the process of being looked into (just like Greg did, mind you), and I'm pretty confident we'll get there. Cool down.

My favourite example of a guy who made everyone happy is Greg Hofer, of Classic Jet Simulation.  CJS built an absolutely amazing CF-104, but the original release was Windows only.  The Mac community asked him to make a Mac version, and Greg went out of his way to make a Mac version, even buying a new iMac so that it would get done fast!

What you need to understand is that Greg Hofer didn't have to do much to port his plug-in over to Mac. When it comes to aircraft plug-ins and compiling for cross-platform it's relatively straight forward and easy. REX is a bit more complex in that it's a PROGRAM in itself...just like X-Plane is a program.

Anyhow, I hope that the team from Real Environment understands that the Mac community once was the majority of users in the X-Plane world, and that we deserve to have the same add ons that everyone else gets.

They understand, and sympathize. So much so that they are working to look into the work flow of Mac programming and porting.

From what I've heard on another forum

It's okay to say X-Plane.org ;)

from many users is that, all that this fairly expensive program is doing is replacing the cloud and sky textures.  If this is all that REX is doing how can the developer justify the price, when there have been many different cloud and sky texture replacement packages?

This is not all REX is doing. It is one of the core features it does, and not with just one small texture set. They are MANY different texture sets and it's not even worth comparing to anything freely available. This was factored in when a price was set. No one is here to rip people off.

There's a list of features and descriptiopn at: http://www.x-aviation.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=55

In short reading:

"Our Intelligent Synoptic Weather Processor looks at over 20 different weather data elements to determine the best weather conditions and enables you to inject into X-Plane the correct texture representations according to current weather conditions. In REX the ISWP influences ALL textures. This gives X-Plane an even more realistic look and feel. With the ISWP the weather conditions are more true to life, giving the user control over weather influence ranges. With the ISWP using over 20 weather data elements we can give far greater detail to the weather in X-Plane."

and

"Included in REX for X-Plane is a tool named WASys, (Weather Avoidance System), which allows you to view the current, real-world weather. Within the WASys, you may view an overlay of Radar, Storm, Turbulence or Icing."

If you wish to read more, I suggest you read the description of the product from the link above. :)

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gthomas Newbie

gthomas

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They understand, and sympathize. So much so that they are working to look into the work flow of Mac programming and porting.

Hi Cameron,

Point taken, at least by me. However, what vendors need to understand is that "looking into it" has, historically been akin to when you were a kid (or when you had a kid--because any parent who has not done this, will someday do it) and you were told 'come on and we'll come back here before we leave'. It never happens.

What tends to happen is that they look at the process and realize they don't know Objective C, Xcode is alien territory and they have to make a stab-in-the-dark ROI guess. They, historically, decide "no". The same would be true of a Mac developer looking to recreate their products for windows.

Anywhy, after a while, Mac users start to feel like they have invited the big kids into the yard to play, but then are forced to sit on the sidelines and watch.

But, watch and wait, patiently, I will.

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Cameron Mentor

Cameron

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But, watch and wait, patiently, I will.

Good plan.

Look, you don't have to convince me of anything. I'm a Mac user. To put it even further, so is Tim at REX. Let's put this to rest please. It's an aimless debate that doesn't apply to us in the same way it would majority.

Porting and figuring out a way to get it into the Mac side does not scare us. Ensuring there is a good ROI for the investment is the key part in a project like REX.

Some companies and people work differently. In the case of REX, it's a matter of viability. As we're the only one's who know the actual sales numbers, it's up to us to decide what is and is not worth investment in time.

Fow now, the best thing you can do is stay tuned. REX is here, their ideal idea is to stick with X-Plane. If they do so, you can bet that includes supporting Mac.

Again, viability is key at this point.

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hobofat Newbie

hobofat

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Go check out the REX website too, and take a look at what they've actually done.  It's hardly a mere "texture replacement."  All professional high-definition photography.  My simming computer is dead in the water atm, unfortunately, but I used REX on MSFS before switching to X-Plane and at least for that platform it's "game-changing" if you will.  If I ever get it running again this will definitely be on it.

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XPAfrica Newbie

XPAfrica

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+1, mac version would be great :)

For the rest, i have to say that my first impression of REX was raher negative...but...

I recently took a trip to my hometown and i must say the first thing i had to think of when getting off the train and looking at the sky and clouds was the REX screenshots and videos i had seen. Where i live, the clouds are usually way lower, the sky just doesn't look like that, which probably explains my first impressions.

Anyway, looking at the sky that day made me realise how realistic the clouds are rendered in REX - Great Job!

The only thing that needs a bit of impovement in my opinion is the "contrast" : The REX clouds seem to be really cutting though the sky, which tends to harm the realism of the whole thing (that's more obvious in videos than screenhots) - a bit more "blurr" would be very welcome there.

In the end this seems to be an excellent product which will hopefully get rid of these minor issues soon...and get  mac version :P

i for one am very much looking forward to see the evolutions of REX.

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Ben Russell Collaborator

Ben Russell

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When will it be for mac?!!! It said it would be soon but it came out a couple of months ago!!!

Rush.

You have a Karma count of negative 31.

This means 31 peoples have not liked something you have posted.

Most of what you post is questions like these.

Perhaps you should post these questions less. You are annoying the rest of the community.

We appreciate that you are eager to get hold of all the latest X-Plane products but you need to slow down a bit please.

Thanks,

Ben.

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