PREPAR3D V3 Lighting and Shadows

[Riddlez]

I've just got myself a copy of Prepar3d V3. I had V2 installed but never really used it other than for testing my scenery. It had a problem with stuttering which I could never fix. I'm so happy with V3, especially with the lighting and shadow effects. V2 had nice shadows but it did have a bit of a performance hit when turned on. V3 I've found that I can have some of the nice lighting/shadow effects on and it doesn't effect fps that much. I remember hearing Rob say that when he tests in V3 and then switches back to FSX, FSX looks like a cartoon. So true!

I've also installed PREPAR3D V3 SDK. Finally they have an option for the Z-Bias level which allows for me to make Ground Polygons that use native P3D material attributes like Specular, Bump Maps and Reflections. Makes things look a hell of a lot better! I can make asphalt now that has specular so the sunlight can reflect off it. Takes the sim to another level of realism. Also you can see in the screenshot some puddles in the background. Now that I can have P3D supported attributes, I've made fully reflective puddles that can reflect the sky, aircraft and buildings that surround it. I wish I could develop entirely for P3D V3 but so many people still use FSX so unfortunately not an option just yet. Can't wait to bring these new features to a NZ airport

[Ian Warren]

I have had the opportunity to see P3D .. an earlier version in a 737 simulator and fly it, it dose have affects and things I like to see .. think half the problem is this double up costing with software and expense ... when developers still hook into FSX as their platform , many have said to me there is very little difference or least what they can see to give any serious reason why they changed .... ME, its my large collection of FSX products .

[toprob]

Brilliant stuff! This is certainly one of the most exciting posts I've seen on any forum recently, I love these low-key posts with a huge amount of potential -- Riddlez+P3D3 = a huge step forward in NZ scenery. I do think that developing ground polys for P3D would be a reasonable way to test the market -- it wouldn't take much to develop for P3D then convert backwards for FSX using MCX's ground poly wizard. You can already use the wizard with the P3D SDK, so at its simplest, you'd just need to tweak the materials to remove the extra bits, and re-export for FSX.

Although I'm careful to develop for both FSX and Prepar3d (by using the FSX SDK only), I'm always blown away by what Prepar3d can do. I can see a time real soon when I'll be including P3D-specific features, but I'm waiting for a few more P3D users -- however I'm talking sooner rather than later. Which reminds me, it must be time to test the work I've done on Dunedin in FSX -- I don't think I've fired up FSX for two or three weeks.

[Riddlez]

Brilliant stuff! This is certainly one of the most exciting posts I've seen on any forum recently, I love these low-key posts with a huge amount of potential -- Riddlez+P3D3 = a huge step forward in NZ scenery. I do think that developing ground polys for P3D would be a reasonable way to test the market -- it wouldn't take much to develop for P3D then convert backwards for FSX using MCX's ground poly wizard. You can already use the wizard with the P3D SDK, so at its simplest, you'd just need to tweak the materials to remove the extra bits, and re-export for FSX.

Although I'm careful to develop for both FSX and Prepar3d (by using the FSX SDK only), I'm always blown away by what Prepar3d can do. I can see a time real soon when I'll be including P3D-specific features, but I'm waiting for a few more P3D users -- however I'm talking sooner rather than later. Which reminds me, it must be time to test the work I've done on Dunedin in FSX -- I don't think I've fired up FSX for two or three weeks.

Thank you Robin! It wasn't really a mega process to convert the FSX Ground polys to P3D. In 3Ds max when I create the Fs2002 style Ground Polys I don't even bother using an FS Material just standard. The FS Materials don't even work when I compile the ground polygons with MCX's ground poly wizard so no point. All I had to do was convert the materials in 3Ds max to FS Material with the Prepar3D v3 SDK, then add spec maps to each. There are scripts to make the conversion process automated but I did it by hand. It only took a few hours, the part that took the longest was creating the Specular Maps, which were pretty damn easy. The only real difference is with the texture order which is done in 3Ds Max not MCX's ground poly wizard. It was pretty easy actually, I was surprised that it didn't take long at all to convert it over and get a good result. I have a few more tweaks but it's pretty much done.

I was going to add them to NZNP as well, it wouldn't take that long to do. But NZNP is getting a new terminal, taxiway, carpark and the runway lengthened this/next year and will changed the layout of the place. So might do a NZNP Mark II with the new upgrades and add in the new textures I've develop with this airport. Be great to get another airport done in NZ, the collaborate on NZNR would have been cool but we can always do that later! I was actually looking at a map of NZNR the other day and it's a pretty simple airport, it wouldn't take that long to knock that out.

You can see the puddle reflections below. I Love how they came out. They were damn simple to create, I might even go as far as making a bump map for them so they have ripples. That would be pretty easy to do but I've never been mega impressed by the bump maps in FSX/P3D so they might not look right.

[Roelio]

No words... Simply amazing!

I'm in the process myself to learn how to make ground polys, but so far it hasn't worked exactly the way I wanted it. Mainly because 3DS or Blender are not programs that I understand. I'm a CAD kinda guy, which makes so much more sense to me. Although I managed to produce a GP, I can't export it because of god-knows-what. So at this point I can only dream of producing something like this Keep up the good work!