Prepar3d 2.5 is out

[DagR]

Thanks for the info Tom and everyone else. That HDR tweak might want me to put it back on :-)


Best regards
Dag

[stovall]

Dag, I suspect you and I shared the same feeling. With HDR checked and everything being so dark I just seemed to gravitate back to FSX. Now the lighting is as good or even better in P3D. What is even better is P3D version 2.5 has eliminated some small problems I experienced in FSX. Now with Orbx coming back on board very soon it is like an entirely different sim platform.

[Dumonceau]

Johan, those are the stock clouds. I have added FSUIPC, some aircraft and personal scenery but that is all. Oh yes I got Just Flight Traffic360 working perfectly. Everything else is stock. So far this is a real winner.

Ok, you won me over. I just made an image of my rig, but will now proceed to a crispy clean fresh install of P3D (and windows! Ran into a few problems lately which will be alleviated by a new install)

Cheers Tom!!

Johan

[Dimus]

No problem Tom. It was Ron at the P3D forum that first suggested that. I tried it but happened to prefer the default darker lighting. I may experiment more after I install 2.5.

[DagR]

Dag, I suspect you and I shared the same feeling. With HDR checked and everything being so dark I just seemed to gravitate back to FSX. Now the lighting is as good or even better in P3D. What is even better is P3D version 2.5 has eliminated some small problems I experienced in FSX. Now with Orbx coming back on board very soon it is like an entirely different sim platform.

Quite right Tom ;-)


Best regards
Dag

[DagR]

A setting of 0.75 was just right for me Looks marvellous :

Best
Dag

[modelr]

FSX will soon be uninstalled from my rig! Another SSD drive will be available! V2.5 first flight just for the basic set-up of files was a mind blower!

[Snurdley]

I thought 2.4 was actually a step backward from FSX as far as water and cloud rendering went. If it's better I'll gladly spend more time in it.

[Naismith]

4 days of 2.5 and I am quite happy with it so far & fingers crossed. It runs smooth and no crashes thus far. I was nervous as v2.4 was an exercise in frustration for me with its persistent unexplained crashes.

Not yet at the stage where I have full confidence to ditch FSX (Jeez, I I'm still loathe to delete FS9 for heavens sake ) I'm wondering if yon Belgian chap will update his SimLauncher interface. I like that but it doesn't recognise P3D at this stage.

Only one or two add-ons Rob Richardson's DH-125 (wonderful a/c), Malby's BAC1-11 (I cannot imagine being without that) and Ant's Tiger Moth (low & slow a/c of choice)
FTX/ORBX I will await their update before venturing there.

Slàinte mhor!

[DaveWG]

SimLauncherX does work with P3dv2, but not 2.5 yet. He is working on it though.

[falcon409]

I thought 2.4 was actually a step backward from FSX as far as water and cloud rendering went. If it's better I'll gladly spend more time in it.

No offense, and this is strictly my opinion, but P3D hasn't taken a backward step since it hit Version 2.0. Certainly 2.4 was the best to that point with beautiful effects with cloud shadowing and water effects beat anything FSX ever thought of having. I've moved on to V2.5 and have yet to see anything overly impressive about it really, but P3D has advanced so far beyond FSX as to almost make it obsolete.

[Snurdley]

No offense, and this is strictly my opinion, but P3D hasn't taken a backward step since it hit Version 2.0. Certainly 2.4 was the best to that point with beautiful effects with cloud shadowing and water effects beat anything FSX ever thought of having. I've moved on to V2.5 and have yet to see anything overly impressive about it really, but P3D has advanced so far beyond FSX as to almost make it obsolete.

I've been tweaking things for years and right now I'm getting some fantastic effects in FSX. I started P3D with 2.4 and noticed immediately that I wasn't able to duplicate the water or atmospheric effects. I use REX clouds and for some reason they just don't look as good. Unfortunately ENB won't run in DX11 so have been using SweetFX, which helps a lot, but in my view isn't quite as good with bloom. It does help with the over saturation though, and I introduced a bit of red in the RGB adjustment to kill some of the cyan color cast. Water was (is?) a black, inky mess, but REX4 may help with that. I also don't see any animation. FSX has it right out of the box, and it's beautiful. I guess being an artist makes me a bit more anal with the visuals. I really don't care about systems, it's seeing a sim that looks as real as I can possibly get it.

[falcon409]

I've been tweaking things for years and right now I'm getting some fantastic effects in FSX. I started P3D with 2.4 and noticed immediately that I wasn't able to duplicate the water or atmospheric effects. I use REX clouds and for some reason they just don't look as good. Unfortunately ENB won't run in DX11 so have been using SweetFX, which helps a lot, but in my view isn't quite as good with bloom. It does help with the over saturation though, and I introduced a bit of red in the RGB adjustment to kill some of the cyan color cast. Water was (is?) a black, inky mess, but REX4 may help with that. I also don't see any animation. FSX has it right out of the box, and it's beautiful. I guess being an artist makes me a bit more anal with the visuals. I really don't care about systems, it's seeing a sim that looks as real as I can possibly get it.

Sounds like you should stay with FSX then.

[gman5250]

For the guys on the fence, I'll give you my humble suggestion.

Jump in to P3D, now that it is smoothing out and turning into a real top flight sim. The learning curve is substantial compared to FSX, so it's beneficial to learn your way around the various settings and setups. It takes a while to really find the sweet spot.

Once your tactical add-ons come online you will be checked out and ready to take full advantage of the sim.

I'm personally waiting to install 2.5 until EFB, ASN and IS update, but I did update the SDK.

I recently stepped up and purchased 3D Studio Max 2015 (ouch) and was having some issues with the 2.4 SDK in 3DS. Today I installed the new 2.5 SDK and ran some test models through XtoMDL...successfully. Looks like everything is up to speed for P3D2.5/3DStudio Max 2015. Makes my life a lot easier.

IMHO: P3Dv2.4 and beyond are amazing. What can be done with light and shadow were never even imagined in FSX. The possibilities of achieving near perfect realism are not only a possibility, but an inevitability. The tools are finally available for developers who really seek to push the envelope.

Thanks to the LM Dev team for a job well done. Looking forward to what's coming down the pike.

[TeiscoDelRay]

Does the A2A B-17 and B377 work in this?

[Daube]

They worked just fine in 2.4, but I don't know in 2.5...

[TeiscoDelRay]

Anyone having trouble getting on the Prepar3d web site?

[Daube]

Their website does not answer for me.

[TuFun]

Some developers are adding rain effects once again to their models for P3Dv2

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/462185-...ugh/?p=3178162

[CanadaKen]

Anyone having trouble getting on the Prepar3d web site?

It was down for a few hour because of a snow storm and the load v2.5 downloads are putting on
their system.

CK

[Snurdley]

Sounds like you should stay with FSX then.

The water issue has been thoroughly documented by others. I've seen it myself but maybe the new features of REX4 help, just haven't had enough time to play with it. As far as sticking with FSX, I'm using both, but am going to install 2.5 since I invested in a new Vcard for P3D. And there are certainly things that I do like, such as improved frame rates and cloud shadows. I can now fly around Seattle without a stutter fest.

[Dimus]

With tesselation maxed, water maxed and ground textures resolution maxed, plus REX 4 "White Caps" animation the water is the best I've seen in both FSX/P3D IMHO. Wave 3d height is also variable according to wind speed:

[TeiscoDelRay]

What kind of horsepower does it take to run all those set to high?

[Daube]

What kind of horsepower does it take to run all those set to high?

Depends where you are flying.
On P3D 2.4, on OrbX sceneries like PNW, I was getting excellent performance with my old GTX480, coupled with an i7 960 @ 3,7GHz. Performance was always smooth as long as I stayed away from major aiports like Seattle or Portland. Since I'm more a VFR/military flyer, this restriction was not problematic for me. In nicely detailled airfields like Bowerman for example, it was nice and smooth

[falcon409]

What kind of horsepower does it take to run all those set to high?

With a few exceptions, all my settings are to the extreme (cloud reflections in water drag down my fps) and my system is hardly a "beast".
AMD FX-4300 Quad-Core
3800Mhz
Win7 Home Premium 64bit_16mg RAM
NVidia GTX650Ti 2gig
2-21" flat screens

If I fly aircraft that are specific to P3D my framerates can be as high as the mid 30's depending on where I fly (cities are a strain as usual)
If I fly FSX Native aircraft the fps dips a bit to high 20's
If I fly FS9 portovers (I have less than 5 like that) then I'm lucky to get 18fps

The nice thing is that even at 18 it's still relatively smooth. One other thing I want to mention about the water. . .Snurdley mentioned that he saw no animation with the water in P3D. It must be set to "max" for that to show. Also, when you do that, if you have a boat (or even if you don't) get right down over the water and take a look. . .that's animation FSX will never have.