Prepare 3DV4 released

[cowpatz]

What a few of us have been patiently waiting for.
Available 30 May.

LM announcement

No FSUIPC will be a show stopper for some and will be an issued for some complex add ons.

Good times hopefully.

[toprob]

Yes, looks like the ADX Twitch stream is starting now!

[Charl]

"For me, FSX looks better"
Oh Gawd...

Off to go fly small VFR circles in my new 64 bit photoreal computer game

[toprob]

After watching the early part of the stream (I got bored...) I'm none the wiser about what this will mean when it is released. Some really great improvements listed, but the problem is that much of what I see in Prepar3d v3 is improved by third party addons to some extent. For scenery developers, I think it is a great step forward, but of course there's not a lot to look at until these developers do the work. Looks like LM have finally offered a new native way for developers to customise airport surfaces? Dynamic lighting looks great -- actually works well, from the look of it, but of course it might take a while to get it working on everything. Speedtrees as far as the eye can see, but at a price, I suspect. One video I watched showed an option to toggle between speedtrees and normal autogen, if you have performance issues, but speedtrees are definitely more sparse. Most of the trees I saw are tall skinny things, though, maybe for fuller trees the perceived density might be higher.

Speaking of third party scenery, nice to see some Godzone Dunedin screenshots in the stream -- good to know it works in V4:) I might get to try it myself one day, but that's another issue.

I'm trying to keep away from sim comparisons here, but I did mention before that Prepar3d is going to take the lead not because it is the most modern sim, but because it has been around and in full-on development for a while now, so the trust factor goes a long way. People will be more forgiving of Prepar3d than any of the newcomers, because they have a good track record of steady improvements. Very nicely timed release, a 'finished' product no less, so developers have no excuse not to leap on it. Listening to the developers in the stream, Lockheed Martin is keen to help out with their issues, which doesn't really surprise me -- I can remember being contacted by LM in the early days, asking how they could help me produce scenery for Prepar3d, and whether I'd like to sell it on their site. Their store didn't work out that way in the end, but I've been aware from the start that they go beyond what you'd expect these days. Certainly beyond what people are expecting from DTG.

Having said that, I'm not too sure whether I'll purchase or support v4. A combination of factors has meant that, for me, any major change like this equals a pause in sales, as simmers take stock. In the past, this has been manageable, but now the margins are just not workable. I'll need to rethink things rather than just jumping in, as I've been caught out before by the upgrade cycle, with continually diminishing returns.

[NZ255]

You got bored!?

That was sooo interesting. Hope they do more dev streams.

Good to see your Dunedin in the loop, Rob

[toprob]

Well, not so much bored, but the audio was terrible, so I left the live stream and went back later to watch the recording, when the audio had been fixed -- a lot easier to listen to now.

[NZ255]

Ah yeah. There's a better audio only stream that starts about 20 mins in from after they figure out the volume issues. On the GameSynsAir twitch channel.

[toprob]

"For me, FSX looks better"
Oh Gawd...

I did pick up on that, and I was really alluding to this in my previous comment about comparing it to P3D3+addons -- I'll wait for some shader tweaks before I judge it against v3, and PTA is probably the main visual improvement for me.

[cowpatz]

Rob wont all, or most at least, of your scenery work out of the box so to speak? What is needed to be redone? Will SODE work?

[toprob]

It certainly looks like we haven't lost much compatibility with v3, so I would guess that the scenery itself would work as-is. At the very least, though, we'd need an X64 SODE, and of course there's the Autogen Config Merger tool, which runs completely outside Prepar3d, but would need to be tweaked to find v4.

So we'd need a new installer for everything, once these two extras are ready. The main issue at the moment is that if half my customers moved to v4, the bandwidth cost would be more than I earn for a couple of months. So this may not happen until I actually have something new to sell. (I can live on $1200 a month, but currently earn half that -- bandwidth is a luxury item at the moment.)

EDIT: looking at the Dunedin screenshots in the video stream, the custom autogen doesn't appear, which would make sense since the autogen config merger tool wouldn't work.

NUTHER EDIT: bit sloppy about the bandwidth costs, I meant that they would exceed whatever I had left over after the basic cost of living...

[NZ255]

I'll wait for some shader tweaks before I judge it against v3, and PTA is probably the main visual improvement for me.

Which PTA preset do you use?

[toprob]

I did try a couple of presets, but in the end I just tweaked everything until I liked it. Normally I'd make a couple of changes, live with them for a while -- hours or days -- then tweak them again if I think it could be improved. Sometimes I forget that I've adjusted my monitor for night-time TV viewing (using Samsung Magic Angle -- a rough but effective way to overcome the change of brightness when viewing from down low, while in bed) and then I end up retweaking, only to revert to the last saved preset when I rediscover that I'm a forgetful moron....

[NZ255]

I did try a couple of presets, but in the end I just tweaked everything until I liked it. Normally I'd make a couple of changes, live with them for a while -- hours or days -- then tweak them again if I think it could be improved. Sometimes I forget that I've adjusted my monitor for night-time TV viewing (using Samsung Magic Angle -- a rough but effective way to overcome the change of brightness when viewing from down low, while in bed) and then I end up retweaking, only to revert to the last saved preset when I rediscover that I'm a forgetful moron....

Would you mind sharing it?

[NZ255]

These shots make me happy. Dynamic lights... yes!

http://flytampa.org/forum/download/file ... &mode=view


http://flytampa.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10289

[Charl]

Dynamic lighting answers a question we all had, but somehow never articulated.
Very nice.

[MichaelBasler]

Having said that, I'm not too sure whether I'll purchase or support v4.

That's your decision of course. However, I am with Aerosoft's Mathis Kock who states: "I honestly believe P3D V3 will be a dinosaur in a matter of months. V4 is just so much better." For me, it will be a day 1 buy and knowing me I will get rid of version 3 pretty soon, even if some addons don't work in v4 yet. Those which do will keep me busy for more time than I have for simming.

Given nearly all develeopers enthusiastically "prepar"ing for version 4, I am afraid you'll be left behind soon. Which I would regret sincerely.

Sorry, just my thoughts.
Kind regards, Michael

[toprob]

Cheers, Michael. Don't get me wrong, if I can I will, but I can also remember the move from v2 to v3, I tried to maintain two licenses for a while, but some months I couldn't manage one. Although I call myself a developer, I'm actually closer to homeless and unemployed:)

[Adamski]

I'll wait for some shader tweaks before I judge it against v3, and PTA is probably the main visual improvement for me.

Which PTA preset do you use?

A bit off-topic, but have a go with my Adam_21_11 available here: http://www.nzfsim.org/index.php?dsp=PTA

As to P3Dv4 .... I'm disturbed by the comment about the lack of FSUIPC support. Is that true? Most of my add-on aircraft rely on it in some way or other.

Arrrgh ... looks like FSUIPC may be an issue: http://forum.simflight.com/topic/82730- ... atibility/

Adam.

[towerguy]

no FSUIPC support?

every cockpit builder just walked away.....

[Adamski]

no FSUIPC support?

every cockpit builder just walked away.....

From that thread (linked above) it appears Pete would have to rewrite/recompile FSUIPC to make it a 64-bit DLL. Not a trivial thing, apparently.

Adam.