Now have upgraded to P3DV5.3 as of yesterday (Christmas) and also installed it on my first SSD drive. Wow, what a difference that makes. Super fast and quiet.
P3D5 is pretty nice - still keeping the 4.5 installed as I like it too.
Trying to figure out how to change the color of the parking brake test from white to red. I am using a GeForce RTX 12gb 3060 GPU.
Found one Youtube vid that was a help tweaking the vid settings.
GE,
We've discussed making the move from v4 to v5 recently. What are your impressions? Do you recommend my upgrading to 5.3? What are the pro's and con's? Are there problems with using v4 scenery or aircraft in v5?
Thanks,
expat
Striker, listen, and you listen close: flying a plane is no different than riding a bicycle, just a lot harder to put baseball cards in the spokes.
Expat - I've been on V5 for some time and gone along with the various upgrades - now the latest V5.3 with HF1. This is now a very stable and super fast sim program. Graphics are fine and GPU ram usage is controlled and affinity masking is set automatically by the install program based on your PC specs. All my scenery is fine and no issues at all same with all my various aircraft. Some users have issues with high end tube-liners like FSL A320 and a few others but these relate to the way these models have been tuned to P3D in the first place - upgrades will generally be forthcoming for some but not all. The only PMDG aircraft I use is the DC-6 and I have no problems with it at all either. Carenado' stuff all works fine for me too. The only models I have a a couple of issues with are a couple of older 2004 models that were ported to FSX and then to P3D and that relates to a few things where a couple of glitches with the xml coding in the guages nothing major once I changed over to another guage that did the same job. I have and extensive collection of older models that all work just fine and quite frankly look superb now in P3D so I now have all my oldies but goldies working fine, from JBK stuff, Manfred Jahns great models, Milton Schupe, Dave Garwood etc. That alone is worth its weight in gold so to speak because there is an extensive collection of aeroplanes that will never see the light of day in MSFS!
I now only use EA and True Sky and they have tweaked these as well. I use AS for my weather engine and no longer use 3D clouds (REX or AS) matter of personal preference I guess. I no longer use ORBX Vector any more but I did refresh and reinstall Global Base their HD buildings and trees. All the other ORBX stuff is fine as well.
It might not have the same ground visuals for VFR as say MSFS (but I reckon it will before long) but I have waited a long time for a sim to be this good - smooth stable in high density environments. No CTD or any other quirks. Very impressive and enjoyable to finally get a system that just does it with no hassles!
Echoing what BendyFlyer said. I'm running 5.3 with the latest hotfixes and the performance on my system is noticeably better than 5.2, and it looks lightyears better than FSX. As far as compatibility goes I have the FS Estonia Migration Tool emulating FSX and legacy P3D setups, and fly FSX aircraft on the regular including some legacy payware like Bear Studios' J-10: everything works as advertised. Even the SWS and Milviz Phantoms seem to have no problem.
Now, if the gauge is coded to 32-bit architecture v5 will break it; thinking specifically about a bunch of features of the Flying Stations Buccaneers like the targeting system and loadout gauge.
Other than that with a bit of case-specific tweaking it'll do everything you want and then some.
Well, I like how P3DV5.3 works with true PBR aircraft. There are a few extra settings that allow for better performance. Haven't tried to install any V4 scenery, yet. I still plan on keeping (using) V4.5Originally Posted by expat
as that sim has been good to me. I've flown some of the stock aircraft in V5.3 and very impressed. Still new to the 5.3 scene and exploring what it has to offer. I may try to add some of my older
V4 aircraft/scenery and see how they perform. Thanks for asking.
Thanks.
I have been using 5.3 for a bit now and like it. With PBR AC and FSX Native aircraft it works quite well, with V4 aircraft its hit and miss.
Joe Cusick
San Francisco Bay Area, California.
I am serious, and stop calling me Shirley.
Edit:
Found this info on features of New V5.3
https://fselite.net/content/lockheed...v5-3-released/
Echo the difference with 4.5 and 5 (5.3), sim loads up fast now until I get all my AI in (military AI working great). Making my way around the airports to see needs to be fixed to accommodate my AI packages, but doing that while testing FSX models ported over before retiring v4.5 for good. Picking up on small vector differences, last night overwater I noticed the motion blur.
Fly Navy/Army
USN SAR
DUSTOFF/ARMY PROPS
When I got P3DV5.3, I didn't know about the Enhanced Atmospherics (EA) feature much less how to set it up but one time I had clicked on the EA and set as medium and noticed a lot of haze up there in the sky ans wondered what was causing that, I eventually shut of off and had that old school P3Dv4.5 sky that was a lot clearer. But I found this helpful video that does a good job at explaining the various weather settings and results. I guess there is no right or wrong setting - it is a matter of preference as explained in this video. I realize this video is using P3DV5.2 but I'm sure the EA settings still are relevant to V5.3
I am currently on P3Dv4.5 and quite happy with it so am interested what is gained by going to any version of v5, (not just 5.3) but also if there are any drawbacks. Thought I saw some aircraft look dark or have some texture/lighting problems. I hope it would accept all native FSX a/c models, Orbx Globlal Base LC, Vector and most add on sceneries that work fine in v4. Also expect I can still set up manual AI with TTools, AIFP and make airports with ADEX. I also use Active Sky in v4 and think it's worthwhile to convert any aircraft to PBR models in v4 where possible.
It's a question as most in life if the advantages outweigh the disadvantages (if any). I waited to move to P3D until the 64 bit v4 came out in 2017 and never looked back - there was only an upside. I don't understand why so many FSX-ers stubbornly resist doing the same saying they "need a newer PC": the fact was at least for me FSX runs far worse than P3D 64 bit on the same rig. That was the whole point of LM making it 64 bit.
I am looking also at MSFS 2020 but sense there are several drawbacks with things like moving aircraft carriers, and limited aircraft availability and backward compatibility, military aircraft and bases, etc.
Appreciate people's views on this - thanks.
Also to get the full benefit of what MSFS has to offer they require an internet connection which I am not too keen on.
[QUOTE=gray eagle;1280727]When I got P3DV5.3, I didn't know about the Enhanced Atmospherics (EA) feature much less how to set it up but one time I had clicked on the EA and set as medium and noticed a lot of haze up there in the sky ans wondered what was causing that, I eventually shut of off and had that old school P3Dv4.5 sky that was a lot clearer. But I found this helpful video that does a good job at explaining the various weather settings and results. I guess there is no right or wrong setting - it is a matter of preference as explained in this video. I realize this video is using P3DV5.2 but I'm sure the EA settings still are relevant to V5.3
Interesting note: FSXWX works with P3DV5.3
https://www.fsxwx.com/home.htm
GrayEagle - Glad you have 5.3 going now it is a significant improvement on past sims. Not sure why you would not shift stuff across from 4.5 I have put a whole bunch of V4 and V4.5 scenery into V5 the only issue I ever had was the break through of P3D default objects at some airports which is easily fixed using ADE's exclude or object delete function (There are a few threads on this and a couple of youtube videos) never a major drama. I am continually impressed how much good stuff was done in 4.5 that has gone over to 5.3 without any problems at all.
I have done the sky/haze and EA and True Sky issue to death on some other forums but it is a complete game changer for the sim. The hard part is understanding the mix and match business. EA and True Sky are mathematical programs that come from the graphics, film and game computing industry. LM did not develop this technology but licenses it and we get it as part of the program. This is in keeping with LM's clever way of bolting on or adding on stuff that other people do better. This also includes NVDIA's wave function (If you have an NVDIA card) it took NVIDIA 5 years of work to come up with the math to allow waves to be generated like they are and to behave like waves on a PC screen (think of the issue of a cork bobbing about on moving water) . So the programs use very complex math and programming algorithims to create light conditons (shadows, angles etc etc) and in True Sky's case clouds. Initially there were some issues as it has taken a little bit of work from LM to get this sorted for a full motion PC simulator in other words objects are moving fast and in 3 dimensions so the light etc certainly needed tweaking as did volumetric clouds. REX and AS both still use textures based sky and clouds or if you like the old 2D art method now it can look very nice but when you use it you are effectively shutting down the EA and True Sky to revert back to an older legacy system of doing visuals. This is why I no longer use 2D clouds but it is a matter of taste for a lot of users. I personally think it is brilliant I get moon light that is moonlight on dark nights with shadows I get beautiful clouds now and the only area where more needs to be done is high level cirrus (they will get it eventually) I just use AS as my weather engine and have had no issues with it at all. At least it is being updated constantly.
I get rock stable fluid performance with very little load on the GPU (less than 50%) and I think now with the implementation of PBR etc the graphics overall are very good in fact once your above 2000 ft they are as good if not better than MSFS it is only at ground level that you can see the difference. As for models well I have a wonderful collection of aeroplanes that all function just fine in P3D and most of these will never see light of day in MSFS no matter how hard folk using that sim wish they would. Everything Carenado did works fine, not to mention Manfred Jahn, SimSkunkWorks, Milton Schupe the list goes on and even older JBK stuff looks very impressive in P3D.
I will not be going to MSFS in my lifetime I figure, some of that is choice and the other major headache there is the demand for high speed broadband and download capacity I have not got that, cannot get it so I need a stand alone system that does not demand updates very month or so that bust my broadband.
What else to say waited a long time to have simulator that performs like P3DV5 does and looks so good.
What policy LM has with upgrading between versions? Full price for the jump from 4.5 to 5?
No idea on that I have had V5 upgraded no charge since it was released. Think there have now been 4 or 5 upgrades since it was released all them have been no charge. I guess from version to version there would be a new charge but thats ok with me too if they come up with V6 it is still cheap compared to the money I have shelled out for scenery and models and other stuff over the years from FSX days. The only money I wasted was on MSFS and I got a refund on that!
Full price, went from 4.5 to 5.3 last month and because I waited to jump on v5 I missed many of the upgrade deals (ActiveSky discount still worked). Since most models worked in v4 I don't have to repurchase. Pretty happy going from FSX to 4.5, most of the payware updates were free.
Fly Navy/Army
USN SAR
DUSTOFF/ARMY PROPS
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