REX Simulations has recently released its weather add-on Atmos CORE, the successor to REX Atmos, for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. The weather engine add-on was previously only available for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 as REX Atmos but has been built specifically for MSFS 2024 under the new moniker Atmos CORE.
What does it do?
Atmos CORE is a real-time weather, atmospheric, and environmental engine that allows users to tweak the simulator’s weather, cloud behavior, lighting, and atmospheric rendering. It allows users to inject these changes straight to the sim’s core engine, producing changes that update instantly, responding directly to the environment. The Atmos CORE system works inside MSFS2024, not on top of it. By tapping directly into the simulator’s core engine, simmers aren’t merely adding visual tweaks on top of the final image like shaders or filters do.
The add-on integrates seamlessly with live, preset, or ActiveSky FS weather, so users aren’t limited in terms of functionality. In addition to the weather presets in the sim or ActiveSky FS presets, simmers can also create their own using REX Atmos CORE’s advanced tools. The add-on can also simulate realistic atmospheric layers, tune scattering height and Rayleigh RGB values, and control light phase functions to achieve a better horizon behavior. Simmers can also replicate a wide variety of air quality conditions, including pollution, mist, or dry heat. Moreover, simmers can adjust ambient light tinting and global tone to control how the sim world responds to different conditions.
The add-on program features a modern, modular interface allowing you to easily manage weather, atmosphere, and enviro settings. Furthermore, the add-on’s robust preset management allows users to easily save, share, and auto-load custom presets with secure cloud backup. It also features upcoming integration with REX Weather CORE for dynamic automatic adjustments.
How does it differ from the previous version?
The primary difference lies in how deeply the add-on can integrate into the core simulator. Atmos (MSFS2020) worked mostly by injecting shaders and visual overrides; limited in scope since MSFS2020 didn’t allow much tweaking. Atmos CORE (MSFS2024), as the name suggests, integrates at the simulator’s core rendering engine, and is not just an overlay. This allows for real-time rendering and adjustments to scattering, Rayleigh effects, haze, pollution, and color channels. It also supports instant feedback, and the sliders show changes in-sim right away.
Closing Notes
The developer has also made sure the add-on is well optimized, designed for smooth performance even on mid-range PCs. All in all, this seems to be a nice improvement over the original version that was released on MSFS2020.
REX Atmos CORE is available to purchase on the official REX Store, simMarket Store, JustFlight Store, Orbx Store, Aerosoft Store, the Contrail Shop, and on Flightsim.to for USD14.50 inclusive of taxes. For more flight sim-related news, announcements, releases, reviews, and more, check out our other pieces on FSNews.
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