The Official Prepar3D 2.0 Thread

[Paul2k12]

I recommend you give it a go and see how it runs. What pc will you be running it on? You'll see there are quite a few more options for graphics etc so it will take a little while before we all find what works best. Later I'll try and reduce the shadows right down and see if it makes much of a difference on my setup.

Nope I haven't installed anything apart from Aerosoft Airbus X but it didn't work properly although the performance was pretty good, locked at 35fps most of the time!

 

[thingemajib]

Bah!... I caved in the only way to find out if its any good is to try for your self. The only trouble is LM is getting hammered, making even getting onto their site very slooooow.

Plus, you have a 60day money back period, so there is no risk in trying it out... I'm downloading using the segmented files, which is going to take an hour or three, such is the load on LM's servers should have got in early before the US woke up.

I bought my copy around 8:30am local and the store site servers were already getting hammered. However the download servers have been holding out well for me. Then again my internets a bit naff (max speed and 6/9 of the large files downloaded so far...)

 

[redline]

Yes, the actual file downloads are going quite fast, and should be done very soon, its the store that is really slow... I guess LM are not set up for a ravenous bunch of flight sim fans, desperate for an 'improved' platform.

I hope I can add my photoscenery packages, that I'm running in FSX with out issue.. I did see someone using Megascenry have trouble with the ocean water textures.

Do Orbx have dual installers for 2.0 yet, apart from their Global product?

 

[thingemajib]

Do Orbx have dual installers for 2.0 yet, apart from their Global product?

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/to...iple-installer-for-fsxp3d1p3d2-now-available/

edit, never mind, misread the question.

edit edit - try this: http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/68089-orbx-products-and-p3d-20-compatibility/

 

[Vuvuzela]

So any more thoughts on v2? Can we see some more screenshots?

 

[thingemajib]

I'm about 5 mins from the end of the last file download. Its been a long day. I'll stick a few screenies up in a bit

I've been digging around, Flightbeam and FSdreamteam have announced they should have 2.0 installers out tomorrow. It looks like this thread might be worth keeping an eye on for compatabilities - http://forum.avsim.net/topic/426926-p3d-v2-master-compatibility-list/

 

[redline]

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/to...iple-installer-for-fsxp3d1p3d2-now-available/

edit, never mind, misread the question.

edit edit - try this: http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/68089-orbx-products-and-p3d-20-compatibility/

I have a look later, cheers.

So any more thoughts on v2? Can we see some more screenshots?

Okay, I've got it up and running.. first impressions are horrid, mainly due to it launching straight into a flight - which you can prevent - and a general basic look to the option screens. However there is a lot more to it than FSX in terms of set-up options, and the performance is fair as long as you do not run everything max... in fact it is smoother than FSX at lower frame rates, over dense urban areas - avoiding stutters.

Custom weather still seems borked, despite this issue being reported in the older versions... so often setting your own weather results in no clouds

I've imported my REX textures, which all seem to work, though the spinning clouds seem even more obvious than in FSX

The water looks awful, and not a patch on REX + FSWC.

Autogen loading is far better, though you will still see pop-up if you fly high and fast.

In game AA is not affective compared to the modes I use via Inspector with FSX and vsync is not working for me, for some reason.

I'm going to give this a fair chance, but so far I can't see me using it as my primary sim just yet.

Running max shadows, dense AGN and most other settings max [inc. all shadows], net me 20fps in these shots over Seattle.

 

[thingemajib]

Very quick and dirty play around. Completely stock and supposedly most sliders to the right but i dont see much evidence of the shadowing or large drawdistances like in redlines shots. I'll fiddle more with time of day etc. tomorrow.

One thing for sure is its still very fps hungry. This is on an FX8350 @ 4.5Ghz and a 2Gb 7850 @ 1600x900. Though again obviously some fine tuning needs to take place so take the numbers with a pinch of salt:

Spoiler

Saw the constellation in the plane list and was going to post a couple with that but then I remembered too late that it was a 4 engine plane and my throttles were only mapped to throttle 1 and 2. Didn't end well...

 

[ghutchison14078]

Well I'm loving P3D 2.0 so far....very high visual settings with frame rates I could only dream of in FSX

And those VC shadows.....very nice!

For those who are interested, the developers of the FSX->P3D Migration tool have already launched the updated version to support P3D v2.0

http://www.flightsim.ee/

Also, for those of us using FSUIPC, Pete is currently on holiday till the 28th, so expect a fully working P3D 2.0 compatible FSUIPC module towards the end of the week / beginning of next week.

 

[cuffylad]

some contrasting reviews right there, I must say them pics from Redline look totally awesome, cant remember seeing anything from FSX look so good with shadows. Not that I'm a expert as I have only been flying fsx for a little while and still have it on default.

From what I have read so far on various sites, out of the box it is much better than FSX however it still has issues, would you say thats a fair assumption?

 

[redline]

some contrasting reviews right there, I must say them pics from Redline look totally awesome, cant remember seeing anything from FSX look so good with shadows. Not that I'm a expert as I have only been flying fsx for a little while and still have it on default.

From what I have read so far on various sites, out of the box it is much better than FSX however it still has issues, would you say thats a fair assumption?

Yes

Its not fair to compare it to a heavily tweaked and modified FSX full of scenery and nice ac's. Strip FSX back to default and P3D is clearly better... whether its a big enough improvement to migrate is uncertain, as is going to come down to your system and needs.

The main issues for me are the poor AA implementation, buggy custom weather and I can't get vsync to work, however, I have just read that Aero must be enabled, so I will test that later. Performance IS better, but you will have to moderate settings to achieve parity, but it will look better.

I'm not going to rush to delete it... for now I will run it along side FSX and see how it goes. You have 60days to get a refund, so it worth giving it a shot.

Those shadows do look good, but are taxing, and it looks better static, in screenshots, due to the poor AA... despite the improvements, for me, FSX does look and function better, but this is with REX, FSWC, ENB, SHADE, nV inspector and a million add-ons, but like I said that's not really a fair comparison.

 

[Vuvuzela]

The photos do look good.

Thanks for your early thoughts so far. I'm also reading mixed reviews and going to hang on a bit longer. The 60 day refund is very temping though.

Has anybody tried flying on Vatsim yet? Does Fsinn or SB4 work? I have the migration tool but would rather stay away from it to be honest.

 

[shadow_boxer]

Lots of differing views, not just here but also on plenty of fsx/p3d forums. I went ahead and purchased it. Not had a chance to install it yet but downloaded last night.

Few weeks back had to reinstall windows which meant I'd have to reinstall fsx anyway. Going to try it out with as many of my addons as I can to compare. I must say before I upgraded to Windows 8.1 I was really happy with my fsx so won't hesitate to get my refund and roll back.

 

[picnic]

The photos do look good.
Has anybody tried flying on Vatsim yet? Does Fsinn or SB4 work? I have the migration tool but would rather stay away from it to be honest.

I think to make V1.4 work you had to binary edit files with FSInn to get VATSIM to work. I can't see it being any easier yet for P3D 2.0. Vatsim are meant to be working on a new client which will support P3D amongst the other stuff but when this will be ready I've no idea.

 

[Vuvuzela]

I think to make V1.4 work you had to binary edit files with FSInn to get VATSIM to work. I can't see it being any easier yet for P3D 2.0. Vatsim are meant to be working on a new client which will support P3D amongst the other stuff but when this will be ready I've no idea.

OK cheers. I know SB4 worked with v1.4 but not seen anything about v2.

Also, Aivlasoft EFB v2 will only be available Q1/Q2 2014 and this will support P3D. I just cant fly without this software, its that's good.

 

[thingemajib]

I've had another crack with the settings, got a good baseline setup to experiment with the heavier settings and maybe a few addons. currently have FXAA, vsync, HDR lighting, Shadows, All Ai traffic and Terrain/Vegetation/Building Water reflections disabled, everything else is on max. Gets me about 30-35FPS around the default flight area:

One thing to note is the odd system usage, only seems to use 3 cores and ~55% GPU (don't know whats going on the the GPU mem usage, thats a problem my end)

Tips I've found either online or through tinkering:

- ATI/AMD users, create a CCC profile for P3d and set everything to application controlled. Noticed a small gain from this.
- Shadows and HDR lighting are the biggest performance killers. Its recommended to set everything else first then play around with these two last.
- Autogen density/radius have a less noticable hit on FPS compared to FSX. I did a very quick test with all three sliders going from disabled > normal > max I got approximately 45FPS > 40FPS > 30FPS.
- Leave the FPS limiter on unlimited. I got a 5-10FPS DROP when I tried limiting it to 30FPS for some reason...

Here's a nice big list of things to go through. Some didnt work for me so your mileage may vary

 

[FreeStream]

Watching this thread closely.

Is it better than FS-X? (I've only got a few bits and pieces of scenery - OrbX UK is one).

I'm interested in the performance mainly, based on thingemajib screenshot I don't think my W3680 (980X) will see all 6 cores loaded...

 

[redline]

Watching this thread closely.

Is it better than FS-X? (I've only got a few bits and pieces of scenery - OrbX UK is one).

I'm interested in the performance mainly, based on thingemajib screenshot I don't think my W3680 (980X) will see all 6 cores loaded...

Er, yes and no... as I have posted above, there are issues, but performance is not one of them.

Again Seattle... Max shadows, and everything else high or above, with FXAA & 8x MSAA... to get these visuals in FSX I would be getting 15fps, so that shows the difference.

Running with Win7 Aero turned back on, does make vsync work, so that is good.

My main issues now, are crap AA and horrible rotating clouds... the FSX cloud primitives are FAR better... water is not too nice either, though it looks fine in the pic.

 

[Paul2k12]

Some nice pictures there. I had another go today and enjoyed trying the new graphics options etc. It's definitely a keeper but for the time being I'm going to stick with FSX as I can run it on max with the PMDG 737 NGX (which I have just got round to downloading) so enjoying learning that. Hopefully soon more aircraft will be available for P3D and maybe some tweaks etc will be discovered.

On the whole P3D feels smoother so there's certainly something to look forward to but it's too difficult to compare to FSX as the settings don't really have the same effect in either sim. For those that haven't tried it give it a go and if it's a no go get the refund, as has been said earlier we now have so many tweaks/improvements for FSX for some it may feel like a step backward going to P3D at the moment.

 

[!bluetonic!]

I still haven't bitten, but have now seen sloping runways and flying through fluffy clouds on AirdailyX and , it's looking good!

Mmmmm sloping runways...


So if I was going to keep my existing hardware and run FSX in parallel, I'll need a new SSD and possibly go down the ORBX route.

So what are my costings?:-

P3DV2
FTX Global
SSD to handle it all