Prepar3D® v2.2 RELEASED.

[s0cks]

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Apr 10 2014,11:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

SOCKS .. is that default or has land class added ?

Nah, it's ORBX PNW.

I'm pretty impressed. Getting fairly good performance on my rig. Weather and shadows is still the biggest GPU killer. In the above scene I'm getting solid 30fps but my GPU load is 99%. I had to turn shadows down to low and decrease the cloud shadow cast distance. Though I haven't tried flying over a large city yet, such as Seattle. I think it still looks good even on low, but for a laugh I put shadows on ultra and OMG they look incredible. Once P3D have SLI support I reckon we could get some pretty good looking scenery at decent FPS (for those that have SLI).

[Ian Warren]

Thanks Socks, It did look Orbx

[s0cks]

So overcast skies with cloud shadows turned on = melting your GPU. Framerate dropped by 75% in overcast weather, no matter the cloud shadow draw distance.

[Ian Warren]

That's one hell of a loss, again is that with default, mine you when you look at the FSX and how adding detail affected that hugely, maybe the next updates will show improvement.

[NZ255]

QUOTE (s0cks @ Apr 12 2014,10:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So overcast skies with cloud shadows turned on = melting your GPU. Framerate dropped by 75% in overcast weather, no matter the cloud shadow draw distance.

Do you use nvidia inspector? Try set the prepar3d profile to nvidia defaults.
I know it's not ideal as you lose some AA, but just test to see if that helps with the fps in overcast conditions. The devs are going to try to make the clouds not use AA on the next version I believe.

[s0cks]

QUOTE (NZ255 @ Apr 13 2014,1:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do you use nvidia inspector? Try set the prepar3d profile to nvidia defaults.
I know it's not ideal as you lose some AA, but just test to see if that helps with the fps in overcast conditions. The devs are going to try to make the clouds not use AA on the next version I believe.

I don't have any AA set in NI. Besides, I'm not sure what shadows has to do with AA... as simply turning off shadows is a massive improvement on FPS. It's not the clouds themselves that is the problem.

At the end of the day I just don't think current hardware is enough. It's barely enough for FSX and now we're adding much more detail in the form of shadows, HDR lighting, volumetric clouds and fog, etc... I don't have the worlds fastest machine but my i5 @ 3.6GHz is mostly maxing out 3 cores, and with shadows my GTX770 is hitting a wall @ 99% usage. From what I've been reading it's the same for even those with high-end i7's and GTX Titans.

However, like anything you just need to find a happy middle ground. I've settled for smooth flight over cloud shadows. I have found though that P3D tends to render terrain mesh and terrain shadows too slowly - you see a lot of the world popping up or redrawing within view.

[NZ255]

Weird, I'm doing alright with my 2500K and 580

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (NZ255 @ Apr 14 2014,5:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Weird, I'm doing alright with my 2500K and 580

I was speaking to SeanG a few weeks back after the FE 737 flight and one thing he pointed out is soon as your card has that 80 on the end of it .... ya doing pretty much least in the top end - its that 80 on the end that counts!

[Bluebird]

Hi all

I am looking at getting this. what package do i need to buy please?? and is it alot better than fsx??


Cheers
Todd

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (Bluebird @ Apr 14 2014,6:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I am looking at getting this. what package do i need to buy please?? and is it alot better than fsx??

Todd , I have not got it yet , not more money but watching the different versions .. a few years back was 1.4 .. now its 2.2 probably another version shortly - I think the question to ask is after the original buy , do you get the NEXT version as a freeware update ?

[s0cks]

QUOTE (NZ255 @ Apr 14 2014,4:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Weird, I'm doing alright with my 2500K and 580

Well I could say the same. It's alright - I can still fly in most areas with some very beautiful scenery. I'm just saying that there is still a lot of room for improvement - especially when comparing to XPlane which seems to cope with higher graphical settings and still achieve smooth, stutter free flight. Not saying it is better, but it's an example of what can be achieved. P3D really needs to get onto the 64bit platform, running in 32bit is a bottleneck in itself.

*Also, just to note I see you are overclocked to 4.5GHz which should give you a significant improvement compared to stock speeds. The CPU speed is definitely still the biggest bottleneck. I don't have the k model so cannot overclock.

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Apr 14 2014,5:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was speaking to SeanG a few weeks back after the FE 737 flight and one thing he pointed out is soon as your card has that 80 on the end of it .... ya doing pretty much least in the top end - its that 80 on the end that counts!

Not really true. A GTX580 is 2 generations older than the GTX770. To put it into perspective a GTX770 is roughly equivalent to a GTX680. The last number only really tells you how good it is for that generation.

[Bluebird]

Hi Ian

Well i lost my internet on fri. Thanks to Telecom grrrrrr.. So i went out and brought x-plane. Hmmm after fsx i would have to say what a let down grrrrrrrrr.

I should read more of the reviews So i think i might go for Prepar 3 one day..


Cheers
Todd

[tomkilpatrick]

QUOTE (Bluebird @ Apr 19 2014,10:45 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Ian

Well i lost my internet on fri. Thanks to Telecom grrrrrr.. So i went out and brought x-plane. Hmmm after fsx i would have to say what a let down grrrrrrrrr.

I should read more of the reviews So i think i might go for Prepar 3 one day..


Cheers
Todd

Go for P3D, I just started using it and it's amazing.

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (Bluebird @ Apr 19 2014,11:45 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Ian

Well i lost my internet on fri. Thanks to Telecom grrrrrr.. So i went out and brought x-plane. Hmmm after fsx i would have to say what a let down grrrrrrrrr.

I should read more of the reviews So i think i might go for Prepar 3 one day..


Cheers
Todd

I have it but really have not used it , I'm yet to go thru the manuals, one thing reading the PMDG forums they are directing there efforts towards that base rather than P3D so that will upset a few people, So you may have not made a bad decision in the fact showing so many d/loads and people designing for it.

[NZ255]

I bought Xplane and havn't reinstalled it. Bit of a waste, I found the biggest frustration coming from FSX have how unintuitive the UI was.... having said that I didn't give it much time.

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (NZ255 @ Apr 19 2014,12:54 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I found the biggest frustration coming from FSX have how unintuitive the UI was.... having said that I didn't give it much time.

So use to logging and programming the control options, seem to be a mission in its self, the interface was going to be different like every other different sim , it may still have some good bits , with Micro willy leaving the seen one off two choices - P3D or X10

[s0cks]

I found XP10 out of the box to be awful. But with some tweaks it can be very enjoyable. Here are some potentially useful tips:

- Set FOV in settings to get a better view. Higher the FOV the more you see. Then use mouse wheel to zoom in/out.
- Get at least one payware plane. The default and free planes really aren't anywhere near the best of the best.
- If you're in NZ, I suggest you download the NZPro scenery from www.alpilotx.net

If you give the sim a few days I guarantee you'll have something nice to say about it. I doubt it will become your preferred sim, but it is nice to see what can be done. It's distinct advantages seem to be:

- Smooth flight. Don't care how smooth you think your FSX/P3D setup is, wait till you fly XP10 properly. No blurries, no popping up scenery, no redrawing terrain, just super smooth.
- Actual wind! Get thrown around in strong winds rather than a few bumps here and there. You can really feel the wind. Guess this is due to the flight modelling.
- Better use of hardware, other than clouds XP10 seems to cope with more autogen and better detailing than FSX/P3D, just a shame there isn't much scenery out there to show it off.
- For someone who doesn't use TrackIR I find the camera controls to be superior when in the VC.
- Simply incredible night lighting (with HDR enabled).

I'm sticking with P3D for now though. I have high hopes for future patches, and the content already available (or migrated from FSX) dwarfs anything XP10 has to offer.

[cowpatz]

Just downloaded 2.2. A mere 5 hr download. It was pathetically slow. Usually I can get 2 mbs when downloading (which is also pathetic) but not this time.
Also 25% of my data used up in one download

EDIT: The download seemed to have failed at about 5 GB

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (cowpatz @ Apr 29 2014,4:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just downloaded 2.2. A mere 5 hr download. It was pathetically slow. Usually I can get 2 mbs when downloading (which is also pathetic) but not this time.
Also 25% of my data used up in one download

EDIT: The download seemed to have failed at about 5 GB

Well that's a thought - how or why is there not a boxed DVD base package, back int the day we all raced out to our local PC shops having the software in hardware form them D/load the constant updates , maybe not a bad idea not to sit back for the next version.

[cowpatz]

I guess things will get progressively slower for us as well, at least until the mythical John Key fibre optic cable passes the door or Kim Dotcom gets into parliament.
Interesting that Netflix accounts for about 31% of global internet traffic and U tube another 20%. As more and more data intensive content providers come online the pipes will clog up like a cardiac patient.
The internet will become a stuttering slideshow like FSX with the sliders to the right!
Heading up to China tomorrow so hopefully I can use the hotel internet to download it. Unless of course LM is a censored site.