The Official Prepar3D 2.0 Thread

[ghutchison14078]

I think I have now been convinced to take the plunge on this!

60 day refund policy if you don't like it (which wont happen )

Nothing to lose by trying

 

[robmol]

Is there any hope for a 1gb gfx card with this?

 

[ghutchison14078]

Is there any hope for a 1gb gfx card with this?

Yes, but your image quality options will have to be lowered to accommodate

 

[thingemajib]

Is there any hope for a 1gb gfx card with this?

IMO you'd probably be better off sticking to FSX, P3D seems to love eating vRAM. Still, as ghutchinson said, you've got 60 days to make your mind up so you might as well give it a try!

 

[thingemajib]

V2.1 patch released. Seems to be predominantely a bugfix release but it fixes a LOT of bugs including a few FSX ones.

You can either redownload the whole 10gb file and have the patch intergrated or download it as a 129mb patch. Its availiable by signing in on the main Prepar3d site and clicking 'purchased downloads' under the 'my account' tab.

Full final changelog:

Spoiler

Installer Issues Resolved

Installer Error - could not write value to complete to key

Crashes Resolved

Crash - Pure Virtual Function Call AI Traffic Crash
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4734.1
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=5142
Crash - scenery library causing crashes
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4920
Crash - Flight planner causing hard crashes
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4237
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4259
Crash - sending incorrect object names causes hard crashes
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4107
Crash - crash when setting health points with an int datatype
Crash - Prepar3D.exe -cfgdir is crashing
Crash - Aircraft with bad LUA code can cause a crash in select vehicle screen
Crash - Virtual cockpit mip/mapping can cause crashes with vehicles that cannot re-initialize their gauges

Weather and Cloud Related Issues Resolved

Weather/Cloud Bug - Weather and cloud coverage issues with 7/8 in the UI not applying
Weather/Cloud Bug - Cumulus type receive NO cloud bottoms from the cumulus01 bitmap
Weather/Cloud Bug - Stratus and other clouds render at incorrect heights than what was set
Weather/Cloud Bug - Only one texture from each cloud group is being used
Weather/Cloud Bug - During any weathersetobservation from simconnect there is a "zero" altitude wind layer inserted at 75deg C
Weather/Cloud Bug - In basic weather, setting wind speed to none does not clear wind speed
Weather/Cloud Bug - rain and snow effects don't render across entire widescreen views
Weather/Cloud Bug - rain and snow effects don't render when moving locations within the same airport
Weather/Cloud Bug - Unable to set GLOB weather through SimConnect METAR strings
Weather/Cloud Bug - Temperature changes work differently from SimConnect vs UI

Rendering, Performance and Backwards Compatibility Related Issues Resolved

Rendering Feature - DirectX 10 fallback hardware support for displaylink and other monitors
Rendering Feature - Dynamic shadows now work when you do not have tessellation (GPU Terrain) on
Rendering Feature - Found and fixed another major cause for microstutters that users were reporting - you all should be pretty excited about this, it was a legacy issue
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=3843
Rendering Performance - Further optimize autogen system
Rendering Bug - Lessen specular shine on terrain to help alleviate anti-aliasing on runways, roads and terrain
Rendering Bug - HDR can get into bad states with extreme darkness
Rendering Bug - Lighten star and other reflections at night
Rendering Bug - Effect EffectParams don't turn off lights or effects
Rendering Bug - Airport light beacons cast shadows
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4912
Rendering Bug - Visibility is rendered at about half of what is set
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4792
Rendering Bug - Terrain lighting can be in wrong direction
Rendering Bug - Windsocks did not visibly change at all, always pointed North
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4634
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=3207
Rendering Bug - White square visible around the moon
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4033
Rendering Bug - Boat wakes not being rendered on AMD graphics cards
Rendering Bug - P3D V2 Seeing clouds to the horizon through thick fog
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4255
Rendering Bug - Black Screen in Prepar3D v2 with HDR Lighting
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=3801
Rendering Bug - Black screen going in and out of fullscreen
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=3801
Rendering Bug - Progressive taxi arrows are missing
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4217
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4141
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4137
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=3809
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4084
Rendering Bug - Emissive objects fogging inappropriately, artifacts on sun and moon
Rendering Bug - Shadows do not respect tiled textures
Performance Bug - Performance loss when main Prepar3D window does not have focus
Performance Bug - Unexpected frame rate drop when moving panel(s) to 2nd monitor
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=3953
Performance Bug - Test, Identify and fix low hanging fragmentation issues
BackCompat Issue - still white boxes around ORBX FTX Global lights in daytime
BackCompat Issue - Orbx FTX Global lights not showing along roads
BackCompat Issue - Orbx FTX Global lights cast shadows
BackCompat Issue - night apron/taxiway/runway approach lighting issues
Backcompat Issue - photosceneries aren't blending well with shorelines
Backcompat Issue - lightcone effects were rotating incorrectly about the z-axis
BackCompat Issue - Shadows and batches rendering off on zero altitude batches

Controls Related Issues Resolved

Bug - Joysticks disconnect in midflight on Windows 8
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=3864
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=3852
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=2506
Bug - Full throttle issue on starting flights regardless of throttle position
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4077
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=3967
Bug - SimDirector control settings do not import/export from user interface
Bug - Joysticks remap for iSimObjects but the keyboard does not
Bug - Imported control setting profiles get merged with existing settings instead of overwriting them
Feature - Added several new default joystick controller profiles:
Saitek X52
Saitek X52 Pro
Saitek Rudder Pedals
Saitek Cessna Rudder Pedals
Saitek Combat Rudder Pedals
Saitek Pro Flight TPM System,
Saitek Pro Flight Cessna Yoke
Saitek Pro Flight Cessna Trim Wheel
Saitek Pro Flight Yoke
ThrustMaster T.160000M
ThrustMaster T.Flight Stick X
ThrustMaster T.Flight Hotas X
ThrustMaster Joystick - HOTAS Warthog
ThrustMaster Throttle - HOTAS Warthog
Redbird JAY Rudder Pedals
Wireless Controller (Playstation 4 Controller)
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4542

Other Issues Resolved

Feature - reverse order of sorting on favorite and date/time on load flight screen
Feature - scenario startup screen enhancements
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4765.0#postid-22532
Bug - Disappearing instruments when using multiple monitors
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4741
Bug - boat pitch problems
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4572
Bug - planes bouncing on runways
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4377
Bug - Memory leak with aircraft sounds not being freed if no sound devices are present
Bug - Scenery Library allows for duplicate folder entries
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4955
Bug - Scenery Library unremovable required=false scenery.cfg entries
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=5005
Bug - Fuel and payload UI screen spacing and visibility issue
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4982
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4404
Bug - Facility UI screen spacing and visibility issue
Bug - Some graphic settings not getting written out to profiles
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4997
Bug - Settings Sounds Windows Devices Do Not Save Out
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4191
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4220
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4347
Bug - Not hearing DME (morse) ident
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4483
Bug - Weapon cameras now go back to static when the weapon detonates on impact
Bug - Resolved texture.cfg spacing issues in some included aircraft
Bug - Clickspots in Virtual Cockpits aren't working
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=3931
Memory Leak - fixed a growing memory leak entering and exiting UI screens
Bug - under bathymetry water switch from sub to aircraft and you can end up in an infinite loop

SimConnect and SDK Related Issues Resolved

Feature - add missing getters for new methods to the camera system
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4973
SDK Bug - ExternalSim sample not working in v2
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=5149
SDK Bug - Cabdir tool in the SDK was not working
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4758
Documentation Update - PDK Rendering documentation overhauled and examples added
Documentation Update - SimDirector documentation overhauled and examples added
Documentation Update - ISimObjectAttachments.h was left out of the SDK
Documentation Update - Updating weather documentation that was causing confusion
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=5078.0
SimConnect Bug - SimConnect value "ELECTRICAL MASTER BATTERY" cannot be written
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4172
SimConnect Bug - SimConnect FlightLoad not working with .fxml files
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4100
Pro Plus Bug - Crash when setting Health Points with an Int datatype
Pro Plus Bug - SimConnect exceptions removing an AI Weapon entity
Pro Plus Bug - Weapon drawing ordering issue (weapons behind objects)
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4372
Pro Plus Documentation - Weapons documentation clarified and updated
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=5015
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4267
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4245
Pro Plus Documentation - Include weapons and target gauge as an SDK sample
http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4147

Updates to the included IRIS F-22 Aircraft

Internal stores added to the visual model. (AIM-9X, AIM-120C, GBU-31 and GBU-39)
Left and Right AIM-9 bays coded to be independent of each other. Now work on Exit 3 and 4
Right Afterburner flame effect now independent of the left afterburner
Elevator effectiveness reduced for more stable pitch authority
Roll effectiveness reduced for more stable roll authority
Increased airspeed overstress value to more realistic values
Various internal code changes made to on-board systems
Updated various audio elements

Updates to the included Dino Cattaneo F-35 Aircraft

More responsive auto-pilot
New effects
New, more-detailed pilot
New textures
Addition of a 2-D panel

 

[Vuvuzela]

New rig coming soon. Will try V2.1 and see what its like since v1.4. I still wish they would give a discount to previous owners.

 

[picnic]

I still wish they would give a discount to previous owners.

Don't we all but M$ never did

 

[GodAtum]

Cant wait to move to P3D when FSL release their home cockpit A320 edition.

 

[Vuvuzela]

So what's v2.1 like?

 

[squerble]

I've got my eye on P3D but I'm not sure I'll move until it's gone 64-bit and the devs have had time to update their planes to work well.


Since the release of ASN I can see FSX doing me well for a while yet, especially when I get to play with PMDG 777/NGX/747v2 (soon), FSL A320, Majestic Q400 etc etc. Some great products.

 

[Vuvuzela]

I've got my eye on P3D but I'm not sure I'll move until it's gone 64-bit and the devs have had time to update their planes to work well.


Since the release of ASN I can see FSX doing me well for a while yet, especially when I get to play with PMDG 777/NGX/747v2 (soon), FSL A320, Majestic Q400 etc etc. Some great products.

It will never go 64bit(never say never ) You will be waiting for ever. If they go 64bit they will be building the sim from scratch and having to redesign it all. Cant see that happening.

You better off going Xplane. I'm slowly starting to move in that direction. PMDG have already said they will port over their products to Xplane. The rest will follow.

 

[ghutchison14078]

Lots of mixed reactions to the patch; it certainly hasn't been a 100% success.

The sim definitely feels smoother than before and overall the performance has improved.
The anti-alaising has also been improved.
All the texture issues with Orbx products seem to have been sorted too.

Also quite a few people (including Kosta) are reporting terrible scenery texture blurring since installing v2.1 - I only fly GA/turbo prop and occasionally tube liner so high speed ground texture loading whilst zipping by in an F22 at 800 feet isn't an issue for me.
However there is a theory that a full clean install is more preferable to just installing the patch - many reporting weird issues have only installed with patch - I opted for a full clean install.

Also LM seem to have reduced the Autogen radius - the FSX style "autogen pop" is back, I wasn't getting that with v2.0, the autogen seemed to fade in more gradually and naturally.
And it looks really poor at night particularly when using Orbx scenery as their 3d night lights are autogen - the immediate area around the plane has ground lights but they cut off far too close and completely ruin night flight immersion (for me anyway)

Also the taxi/runway/night lighting issues with legacy products from Aerosoft, Sim720 and numerous other developers are still present - there hasn't been as great an improvement in the back compatibility with existing FSX addons as I'd hoped.

I completed a flight last night in the Majestic Q400 from Flytampa Vienna to Flytampa Athens then down to Aerosoft Thessaloniki, the vast majority of my sliders to the right with lots of shadows, flying over FTX Global and FTX Vector with FS Global 2010 FTX mesh with REX Direct 2048 clouds and Opus weather and didn't get an OOM and rarely did my FPS drop below 30, couldn't do that in FSX or v2.0 so there does seem to have been an improvement on memory management and VAS usage.

In a nutshell the only elements of P3D 2.1 I'm not stoked about is the too small autogen radius, the back compatibility lighting issues which effect a lot of my airport scenery addons, the lack of Orbx UK FTX regions and airports (thats just a waiting game), no PMDG and no RealAir support.

I'm holding off on any more simming purchases for a while, I'm going to wait a few months and see if there is a trend towards P3D v2 or X-Plane - the future MUST be 64-bit there is no way around it, we will all have to leave FSX eventually.

Patience..........

For those who are interested here is my list of addons that I've installed and run perfectly well with no issues in v2.1

Updated FSUIPC from Pete Dowson <-- life saver!
EZDok camera
Aivlasoft EFB
REX Direct Textures

A2A Cessna 172
Aerosoft Airbus Extended
Aerosoft Twin Otter
PMDG JS4100
Various Carenados - B1900D, Caravan EX HD, SR22, Malibu, TBM850, B200
Qualitywings BAe146/RJ's
Razbam Metroliner

UK2000 Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cumbernauld, Manchester, East Midlands, Bristol and London City (I'm sure the rest will work just haven't installed them yet)
Flytampa Vienna and Athens
Aerosoft Oslo v2 and Thesaloniki
Orbx FTX Ireland and Northern Ireland
FTX Global
FTX Vector
FS Global 2010 FTX Edition mesh

 

[picnic]

That's a really useful summary, thanks

From a bloke still sitting on the fence so really interested in hearing what's what.

 

[ghutchison14078]

That's a really useful summary, thanks

From a bloke still sitting on the fence so really interested in hearing what's what.

There is lots to love about P3D v2, but of course it has its draw backs.

Again everyones' mileage will vary depending on system hardware, sim settings and addons of choice.

I suppose you have to ask yourself what you want from the sim, what type of flying do you want to do and what is the best platform to provide you with the experience.

I don't fly anything bigger than 737/A320, my simming is 50% low and slow GA around the UK to admire the sights and scenery, then 50% jet or turboprop regional and European flights, I very rarely fly outside Europe and don't really have much scenery addons for no European locations. I'm patiently waiting on Orbx to make the FTX UK regions P3Dv2 compatible, then the launch of OpenLC Europe from Orbx will complete my European landscape scenery - so it will only be a case of picking up compatible airports when they become available for European airports I want to fly to.

I have no incline to get a 777 or 747 from PMDG to fly intercontinental - it's really boring to me! If you love the PMDG long haul stuff then stick with FSX as its tried and tested.

Change is painful....

 

[thingemajib]

I think ghutchinson has summed this patch up perfectly.

I tried the small patch first with the intention of doing a complete reinstall once I've redownloaded the whole thing. One thing worth mentioning, the patch file takes a loooong time to setup. The general conclusion seems to be that its becasue p3d is made up of lots of small files and the patch needs to scan and check them all before hand. My advice would definitely be to redownload the whole program and do a clean install if possible.

Other than that I dont really have much more to add - autogen radius is definately reduced which is a bummer, AA seems nicer, didn't notice much of a performance increase but it did feel smoother (wasn't sure if that was some sort of placebo effect but it seems I'm not the only one). What I haven't tried yet or seen if anyone else has tried is if changing the LOD radius in the cfg file will have any effect.

On a side note, the default T-6 Texan II is a surprisingly fun plane to mess around in!

 

[picnic]

All my sim'ing is GA low and slow and mainly all in Orbx regions. The fact they are not yet compatible in most cases makes it easier to procrastinate over trying P3D

 

[TNA]

How can they release a patch that breaks the sim? One of the most hated things for me in FSX was popins

I am waiting until they fix that new issue caused, plus make is compatible with REX Essential PLUS and Orbx - FTX: EU England. Once that is done I will definitely buy it.

 

[ghutchison14078]

After much deliberation I've decided to go back to FSX for the time being.

I have no doubt the P3Dv2 has a bright future but I just cant compromise with it at the moment - performance is fantastic and blows FSX out the water but the back compatibility issues are killing it for me at the moment, particularly with scenery.

I've got an extensive library of scenery products that I love flying over and airports that I frequently used in FSX but cant due to compatibility issues, this has caused me to avoid simming for the most part the last couple of months with P3Dv2 because the areas I wanted to fly in weren't up to par.

I was over at a mates house last night who has just upgraded his old i5-870 rig to an i5 4670k with a 4.4Ghz overclock and GTX770 - we played around with FSX and got really good results with minimal tweaking.
With this in mind I've ordered an i5-4670K bundle for myself - hoping that this paired with my GTX 780 will give me a better experience than I used to get running FSX on my i7-950 and GTX 580.

I've also been looking through Froogle Pete's youtube videos and have decided to give X-Plane 10 a try too.

 

[r22snapper]

Is anyone using an AMD 83xx processor with this? I know that AMD was always a pretty bad choice with FSX but Prepar3d is supposed to make better use of the GPU so I could save on the processor and get a better graphics card.

 

[thingemajib]

Hotfix released to fix missing or strange guages on 3rd party aircraft, with another fix for OOM issues related to vegetation autogen being worked on:

Link

Is anyone using an AMD 83xx processor with this? I know that AMD was always a pretty bad choice with FSX but Prepar3d is supposed to make better use of the GPU so I could save on the processor and get a better graphics card.

I have an 8350 @ 4.5ghz. It seems to do the job pretty well. I can't really give any figures at the moment as I'm still doing a lot of fiddling with settings and such (plus I'm not using p3d as much as i'd like to be honest )

For what its worth - given that its not a true 8 core cpu, I've tried using affinitymask 84 (uses cores 2, 4 and 6) as per the reccomendation for intels cpus with hyperthreading as well as 254 (core 1,2,3,4,5,6,7) to see if AMD's 'modules' make a difference. Whilst task manager shows the appropriate cores doing the work in each case i cant say it made a difference in actual performance