The software is great in my opinion, but I still am not a big fan of the comparison between it and GREarth. I think each have their pros and cons.
For GREarth, from my experience (had it for 3 years), it is low on RAM, loads easily, has a good bit of easy to customize model data, mesoanalysis parameters are nice. And though there is no local site by site radar, the national radar looks good.
WSV3 is tailored in my opinion towards radar data. Don't get me wrong, I'm not entirely sure how Paul is getting that level 2 data but it is CRISP. Very beautiful to look at. I do think the program is a bit heavy on computer usage. I've got a 6gb laptop and even it gets hot after a few minutes of using the program, and that's after I turned the background imagery off.
Both are great products. I don't think you get a product from WSV3 that completely replaces GREarth, but there are some fantastic products in it that make it nonetheless a great product too.
I agree on all accounts. Matter of fact, I re-subscribed to my GRE account a few days ago just to do some comparisons to WSV3. As much as I like WSV3 because of its visual aspects, you can't beat the stability of GRE. Very fast, quick loading products. I own GR3 as well, and have had it since before it was available to the public. I just noticed this last night, but if you right click on a location in GRE, it'll give the option of going "local" with GR3. Pretty neat little feature. It may have been there for a while, but I've just noticed it.
The biggest thing that bugs me right now is having to close and re-open WSV3 when metars stop reporting or cities disappear, etc. Not sure if they're bugs in the program or issues on Paul's server. Another thing is the lack of tropical sectors satellite....there is none. AND, what bugged me during the winter is the p-type radar was very inaccurate in comparison to GRE, but that's all in the algorithms so maybe Paul will get it fixed by winter if he hasn't done so yet.
I'm sort of forced to use WSV3 right now because of my 1 year subscription, but I do believe I'm going to stick with GRE and choose it overall in the long run.
BTW Farmtalk, I'm DW2721 on WxSpots
Glad to see you on there.