Hmmmmm..... and .. Hmmm ???

[warchild]

I just got the weirdest error message i've ever seen..
I downloaded and installed prepar3d tonight, and the download was like 9 gigabyte in size ( 3 files , so, naturally i started up FSX and did some work while it was downloading.
for the install i paused FSX and forgot it was there to be honest.. then after the install, I clicked on prepar3d and waited to see what it would look like. Thats when i get this lil box in the middle of the screen.
"Another Lockheed Martin program is running"
Well, i closed the box and started looking around. LM help center wasnt running, neither was the learning center, and the sdk wasnt open anywhere..
With some amusement, i closed FSX and clicked on prepar3d again and sure enough, it started right up..
Seems FSX isnt dead after all.. Its just that now, it isnt for entertainment any more :::LOL::
i foresee a future of a multitude of developers for prepar3d, the most of whom wouldnt know pascal from C or ever picked up a calculator.
by the way, they did a REALLY great job on the flight model for their default P-38. :;chuckles::
Pam

[crashaz]

Heh... behind the wrapper we all know what it is.
:icon_lol:

[stovall]

Glad you like it Pam, at least I hope you do. For that kind of cash one would need counseling if it was a bust. Keep FSX fired up. Mark says it is any day now for the Iwo Jima final objects so stand by.

[hairyspin]

The great thing about P3D is that's being actively developed by L-M. :icon29:

[OBIO]

$500 and all they give is 45 airports and 39 cities? Another reason I will stick with FS9 for the bulk of my simming with an occasional Sunday drive in FSX.

OBIO

[warchild]

heh.. I took the 9 dollar subscription. 500 bucks is a bit rich for my tastes.. theres a couple things about it im not too keen on, like it loading up a plane on startup and having to load a plane from the file menu. But theres a few things that have me scratching my head and thinking i need to get my eyes checked. I mean, its FSX right?? Then why does everything in the world seem so much bigger? The scenery is bump mapped, and shaders are used throughout to provide 3D water reflections. The OzX goose, which makes the rest of FSX look kinda cartoony, looks right at home in P3D. The default aircraft ( until you change it ) is a Mooney bravo. The only submersible is "Alvin". In fact the only miitary plane is the P-38. Aircraft selection is done from a list of manufacturers, with a sub list of aircraft types which each have a sub list of specific aircraft. Clicking on the specific aircraft opens a scrollable menu of all the thumbnails of that aircraft making it easy to get to a particular aircraft without having to scroll forever through a thumbnail catalog.
Flight dynamics act differently. Its really subtle, but I'd swear theres more going on with the air or something. The Goose has never flown so good.. BTW, theres a couple of carriers docked right off the end of the default airport. They make the FSX carriers look like row boats.. And their modeled well enough that you can tell almost what ship it is just from the shape of the island and the deck.
I'm mildly impressed, and certainly amused. this is definately worth 9 bucks a month if only to see where it goes..
Pam

[warchild]

$500 and all they give is 45 airports and 39 cities? Another reason I will stick with FS9 for the bulk of my simming with an occasional Sunday drive in FSX.

OBIO

Ummmm, actually, thats incorrect. I believe someone misinformed you.. It has the same number of countries states and ciries as FS9/FSX..

[huub vink]

On the images their default P38 looks very much like the JF/AH P38, both inside as outside...... :isadizzy: :isadizzy: :isadizzy:

Huub

[warchild]

it flies better though. of course the mooney, though it also flies better ( ie. I didnt crash on takeoff )still also appears to be the default mooney.. I think they just kinda put some corporate pride into making sure the p-38 flew well..

[bazzar]

One of the neat things I like is the underwater extension.

It opens up some great possibilities for scenery design and if you're into subs, there's a whole host of scenarios from nuclear back to U-boats.

But for now, try ditching in the water and view it from beneath. Really cool.:engel016:

[warchild]

what shocked me is the sheer scale of the world. Its like having ultimate terrain combined with defvault textures, a smaller mesh than ten meters and a world thats 20 - 50% larger than in fsx.. Yokohama ship yards are at the end of RJTT, not tokyo.. if they can recompile it for 64bit theyve got a really good platform here..

[bazzar]

So far, they have only done the area around Norfolk Virginia I believe the scenery work there is excellent. I do not believe that P3D is actually designed as a commercial product. It is primarily designed for training sims that they are developing for military and commercial use. Your existing add-ons will fly in it and it is worth keeping an eye on as they develop the "world" but no it is not going to take the hobby market by storm...it was never intended to.

[warchild]

Actually, I was taking off and landing at KSJC ( San Jose ) RJBB ( kobe ) and RJTT ( Yokahama ) all day today. The scenery north of Kobe, south of Tokyo and west of Osaka is some of the best ive ever seen. The entire world is there. And its gorgeous. Yeah, its default scenery, but, they did something with it.. Cant put my finger on it..
I have to chuckle though. of course your correct about it being a simulation development platform designed for the defence industry. Thats reinforced in the 500 dollar price tag. But then, you have this subscription thing.. Now subscriptions to most games run about 15 dollars a month. An X-Box live gold account with all the virtual goodies you can buy can run incredibly higher than that if you arent careful. but heres Lockheed Martin with their non entertainment developers platform which they are willing to allow anyone to subscribe too without verification or professional association, for 9 bucks a month. theres more here than meets the eye or is written on paper. Young people fly in FSX and go off and join the nairforce or Navy or marines or army, and heh, they come in with a pre learned set of skills, that only need a little readjusting to fit the militarys needs. that saves millions of dollars in training for each person. Millions of dollars per person that can go back into the nations coffers to be given to Lockheed for their newest set of toys. Lockheed will never let FSX die. They wont sell it as a game, but the big picture benefits are too great for them to not sell it to any and everyone who buys a subscription.
Now, a little perspective.. It cost the army four million dollars to train me to repair brigade level communications rigs. how much more does it cost to train a pilot?? any savings is worth whatever it takes. Even a lil old fashioned shuck and jive.
You see, i figure you save four million per person and you only need ten people and hey, thats one more F-35 sold that can be afforded, and for 90 dollars of front end sales, Lockheed has netted the profits from another plane. its pure genius.

[warchild]

here are some unaltered, untouched images from P3D using our P-61. The scenery is completely default, and i've even turned down some scenery settings because i havent set up the CFG file yet..
Check out the scale of this thing.. Check out the detail.. Holy ........ Did i mention this is default scenery??

58823588245882558826

[warchild]

Glad you like it Pam, at least I hope you do. For that kind of cash one would need counseling if it was a bust. Keep FSX fired up. Mark says it is any day now for the Iwo Jima final objects so stand by.


Best news i've read all day Tom. I tried putting Iwo into P3D today, but apparently, the sea level is as high as the runway, cuz most of it from motoyama 1 down was under water.. Was really hopi9ng to run some tests from there. But it did kinda confirm that LM increased the scale of the world some.

I did successfully get Solomons 1943 to work in P3D.

Remember i mentioned how big the aircraft carriers were when i first started P3D last night?? heh, you should see the size of your battleships off Iwo..

[bazzar]

The reason you are seeing better scenery is that they have greatly increased the size and resolution of texture tiles. If you have a good graphics card, the sim is worth exploring. The SDKs are also interesting reading, a few hidden "extras" for devs to play with. However, I doubt if the results will transfer back to FSX but hey, you never know...

[stiz]

On the images their default P38 looks very much like the JF/AH P38, both inside as outside...... :isadizzy: :isadizzy: :isadizzy:

Huub

cos it is, same as the connie :engel016:

[wombat666]

I decided to check P3D out as a matter of interest, could be worth the expense of being in on a new project and it will certainly give my 'new' pair of graphic cards a workout.:jump:
And of course, if Sophie gives me a hard time about 'wasting' money I can blame it on you Pam!
58828

[warchild]

I decided to check P3D out as a matter of interest, could be worth the expense of being in on a new project and it will certainly give my 'new' pair of graphic cards a workout.:jump:
And of course, if Sophie gives me a hard time about 'wasting' money I can blame it on you Pam!
58828

I will happily accept the blame. besides, with Microsoft refocusing on their flat world flight game, and little to fill in FSX's shoes, P3D is a viable and as it turns out worthwhile development platform. With the graphics and scenery improvements i'm seeing in here, compared to the tank simulators and vartious aircraft simulators ive seen ( military grade ), I cannot believe they dont have a broad civillian market in sight. they just cant say its a game.
Annnd yeah, they definately did something to the scaling.. This is off San Fransisco..

58829588305883158832

PS.. Love that video card. if you have two of them, i'm envious as hell.. I've got a single GTX-260. my other one fried. and lets face it, my pprojection TV just isnt as young as it used to be five years ago and not as bright.. ::lol:: kinda like how i feel most of the time.. Ya know, this P3D stuff is kind of exciting. its familiar and yet, theres something new there. it uses everything ive got almost and its comfortable, but therein its scary. I'm an old old Taurus, and i dont do change very well, but i could really get used to this sim..

[roger-wilco-66]

Best news i've read all day Tom. I tried putting Iwo into P3D today, but apparently, the sea level is as high as the runway, cuz most of it from motoyama 1 down was under water.. Was really hopi9ng to run some tests from there. But it did kinda confirm that LM increased the scale of the world some.

I did successfully get Solomons 1943 to work in P3D.

Remember i mentioned how big the aircraft carriers were when i first started P3D last night?? heh, you should see the size of your battleships off Iwo..

Interesting! I'm almost done with the Iwo scenery objects, after that I'll have a look at the P3D implementation of it. I suppose coordinates of the island have to be shifted back to the original (google earth) values, since there was a misfit between the satellite coastlines and the ASTER mesh.
Thanks for mentioning your test with the Solomons and P3D, that will be next after getting it back online for FSX!

Cheers,
Mark

[warchild]

Well, it turns out that for Iwo, the sea level Is in fact higher, but it isnt the sea. its the island mesh and the sea rises up over it. Mount Suribachi is missing too ( again... grrr ).
heres the pics for Iwo.. Battleship included..

5883458835

[warchild]

heres that same battleship in FSX. You can easily see that the scaling isnt quite right..

58838

[roger-wilco-66]

Well, it turns out that for Iwo, the sea level Is in fact higher, but it isnt the sea. its the island mesh and the sea rises up over it. Mount Suribachi is missing too ( again... grrr ).
heres the pics for Iwo.. Battleship included..

5883458835


Hmmm there also seems to be an exclusion problem, the default P3D landclass and coastline is visible in the back. Fixable!
Your images of the battleships are impressive, can't wait to try this out myself. I already subscribed to the developer version of P3D :-)

Cheers,
Mark

[warchild]

:).. Thats what i got.. it takes a little getting accustomed too. With it autoloading to either a saved default flight or some other saved flight,and you having to load an aircraft from the drop down, it feels kinda clunky at first. The user interface is supposed to be customizeable, but truth told i avent looked yet. No real world weather. Thats a bit of a bvummer but i'm gonna see if i an get Active Sky to work with it. The other menus are a little less clunky than FSX, but are faster, and more clearly defined and better organizerd. If I want a specificc plane, I dont have to look at every plane in that category. I can go right too it in just a couple seconds.
Already sent them a support request. how can i get my partner a subscription? Are they going to recompile the binaries for 64 bit, and what do they plan to do to implement vectored thrust.. We'll see what they say.
you can directly copy over your FSX.cfg, and your controls.xml and simply rename fsx.cfg to prepar3d.cfg and it works fine. theres an import function for the controls.xml. It saved me a headache :)..

So, Active sky wouldnt work with P3D. Everything is hardwired for it to look in the registry for fsx. however, REX was easily fooled.
in your app data/lockheed martin/prepar3d folder, highlight the prepar3d.cfg file and create a shortcut, then rename the shortcut fsx.cfg. in your %program files (X86)/lockheed martin/prepar3d folder rename prepar3d.exe to fsx.exe. run rex configuration manager and point your folder variables to your prepar3d folders just like it was fsx. enable the weather, and have fun. once p3d starts you'll need to access the weather drop down menu and change it to user defined, then you'll be set..

I'm not sure if it works 100%. but i'm still testing it out.

[TuFun]

Cruising thru P3D forums, v2.0 looks interesting.

Our new rendering engine we are currently working on for v2.0 will allow us to add things like dynamic 3D waves and sea states much more easily and without as much of a performance hit as it would with the current rendering engine. <small>Software Manager - Prepar3D® Team


</small>P3D v2.0
No news yet on release dates. The only thing I can confirm is that we are looking at the DX9 to DX11 update. Hopefully I can start the teasing soon. http://www.prepar3d.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

John Nicol LM



<small>

</small>

[warchild]

Welll i started figuring i was gonna have to bite the bullet and upgrade to a DX11 card a couple months ago. maybe for my birthday.. I wonder how much odf a performance hit they're talking about. its one thing to be positive, but the way they couched their statement about it not being as much of a hit with DX11 as it would be right now, leaves me curious.
Had a hair brained idea of asking if Taffy 3 could be put in leyte gulf somewhere, I know the period isnt quite right, but it would be a nice gesture to those guys. maybe close in to the shore so they can be up on the beach with their mai tai's and hula girls :)..
oy. Just woke up. need coffee in a serious way..
Pam

[Damien]

Ummmm, actually, thats incorrect. I believe someone misinformed you.. It has the same number of countries states and ciries as FS9/FSX..

Actually, on their website they do state "High-detail living world with 45 airports and 39 cities" as the first line in their features section. That's great though if they have all airports though.

-Damien

[warchild]

Rather odd of them, but lets hope they keep erring on the side of our benefit. I think what they are doing is denying or rather, not mentioning whats already there and only remarking on the cities they have embellished. I just took off out of hong kong and its gorgeous. Scale, textures, everything is just gorgeous. On the other hand, i rather dobt bloomington illinois looks any different in P3D than it does in FSX.
heh. I wonder what lukla looks like.. Now wouldnt "that" be interesting to have the Himalayas accurately scaled textured and all the buildings in the right place..

[CG_1976]

I sunk Milton's Tracker when I was push-backing on the Nimitz in 3DPrepared.

[Naismith]

[QUOTE=warchild;682679]Rather odd of them, but lets hope they keep erring on the side of our benefit. I think what they are doing is denying or rather, not mentioning whats already there and only remarking on the cities they have embellished. I just took off out of hong kong and its gorgeous. QUOTE]

They do themselves a disservice by their description imho, but then gamers (strike that) simmers :icon_lol: are not their primary market of course. MS used to say something similar in an earlier incarnation of the sim. What they meant was enhanced details at these airports.

On another note, I wonder if the ADMINS have given any thought to a separate forum for Prepar3d. All this talk about it is whetting my imagination and I am having to resist digging out the plastic. HINT, they started one for FLIGHT and that is yet to be released!

[warchild]

On another note, I wonder if the ADMINS have given any thought to a separate forum for Prepar3d. All this talk about it is whetting my imagination and I am having to resist digging out the plastic. HINT, they started one for FLIGHT and that is yet to be released!

I've wondered that myself. I think that would be a wonderful idea. I realise that in many many ways, having a P3D forum would be a carbon copy of the FSX forum as P3D and FSX cant tell the difference between each others worlds, but still, there are areas of P3D that FSX cant touch.

As for the other things you mentioned. My good mr Naismith.. We are not simmers on this list.. We are developers, Pilots in training, and commercial and private pilots, students of Aeronauticasl sciences, Aerodynamics and just plane crazy, looking to keep our navigational and instrument skills sharpened.. Exactly the people P3D was intended for ;)...

On another note. I WAS able to pull the entire world ( scale, textures and all ) from P3D into FSX.. It looks MUCH better now..
:)
Pam

PS: and even with the wworld chsange, IwoJima IS THERE and GORGEOUS :) :) :) Yeehaww :)

[centuryseries]

Aircraft selection is done from a list of manufacturers, with a sub list of aircraft types which each have a sub list of specific aircraft. Clicking on the specific aircraft opens a scrollable menu of all the thumbnails of that aircraft making it easy to get to a particular aircraft without having to scroll forever through a thumbnail catalog.

But FSX has always done this, you just need to change the way it shows you the aircraft! Rather than all the thumbnails lumped together FSX can also break it down into manufacturer then aircraft type, then derivative.