LM have stated that the autogen popping issue in FSX will no longer be a problem in P3D v2.0.

 

From WBard at LM

while we don't alpha fade, we do some rendering tricks to fade in the autogen so they don't pop in like they used to. good request! request received and implemented 

Software Manager - Prepar3D® Team

 

Great news! Easily the most annoying thing in FSX/ESP!

 

They also mentioned in another post that they are drawing all the autogen in one draw call on the GPU as well.

 

Which should mean no more popping up of dozens of blocks of autogen within the LOD from which they can appear. 

 

The number one eyesore in FSX has always been autogen IMO. The way it pops but also the way it loads in inconsistently all around you, even close to the plane. If this is corrected it's a huge deal.

LOL I came here to post about this too! I have to say that THIS ALONE might be enough to make me go to P3D! Even if everything else would be the exact same as it is in FSX, I would probably buy P3D for this alone! Seriously! 

 

I am getting more and more excited about P3D everyday!  ^_^

I am getting more and more excited about P3D everyday! ^_^

Ditto to that

Excellent news!!!  :yahoo:

 

Besides FSX performance issues (with my pc of course) , this one and the blurries are two of the most annoying things that pushed me away into Xplane 10.

LOL I came here to post about this too! I have to say that THIS ALONE might be enough to make me go to P3D! Even if everything else would be the exact same as it is in FSX, I would probably buy P3D for this alone! Seriously! 

 

I am getting more and more excited about P3D everyday!  ^_^

I think as LM releases more information pertaining to the features in this simulation platform, more and more people will feel the same as you and plan to incorporate Prepar3d into their mix of simulation products.  I certainly hope that the adoption rate over the first year post-release, reaches a level that Prepar3d is the primary sim for most simmers and that it brings the community together.  

^{My plan is: Good buy X-plane 10, Hello P3D V2 and FSX gradually fading into the distance with probably only PMDG keeping it alive on my system.}

LOL I came here to post about this too! I have to say that THIS ALONE might be enough to make me go to P3D! Even if everything else would be the exact same as it is in FSX, I would probably buy P3D for this alone! Seriously! 

 

I am getting more and more excited about P3D everyday!  ^_^

 

Dynamic shadows, improved fog/low vis effects, and terrain that reacts to different light conditions are also confirmed (on their forums, not from the unsourced list).

 

FSX already looks really good for me in an Orbx region and even with FTXG. With autogen fixed and the above mentioned features in place, I'm struggling to think of what else I'd need to have what I consider a complete simulator visually. Cloud shadows are also confirmed but not sure if they make it into the intital release.

 

I really hope they increased the LOD range for autogen as well. Right now it's hardcoded at 7 miles (And it rarely loads completely within that range because it's too busy popping up). If they could push it out to 12-14 miles it would look incredible.

Dynamic shadows, improved fog/low vis effects, and terrain that reacts to different light conditions are also confirmed (on their forums, not from the unsourced list).

 

FSX already looks really good for me in an Orbx region and even with FTXG. With autogen fixed and the above mentioned features in place, I'm struggling to think of what else I'd need to have what I consider a complete simulator visually. Cloud shadows are also confirmed but not sure if they make it into the intital release.

 

I really hope they increased the LOD range for autogen as well. Right now it's hardcoded at 7 miles (And it rarely loads completely within that range because it's too busy popping up). If they could push it out to 12-14 miles it would look incredible.

I was not able to find any reference to the dynamic shadows and terrain interaction with lighting.  Can you relay what you heard on the P3D forum?  Thanks.

I was not able to find any reference to the dynamic shadows and terrain interaction with lighting.  Can you relay what you heard on the P3D forum?  Thanks.

 

I'd have to go dig the links up. Those were actually mentioned months ago before we even knew V2 was in beta. 

 

Basically, they said that there's a new dynamic shadow system to replace what are currently baked shadows on textures. They also talked about the shadowing on planes and some changes with it. It was a lot of technical speak mixed it so I can't remember it all. 

 

With the terrain lighting they used the example that a snowy surface will react to sun light and glisten for example. This should also help night environments and bad weather as the terrain will react to the lack of light. 

 

What's been said about shadows is as follows:

 

...We've done a lot of work on shadows but there is more work to be done so I can't say for sure what capabilities we will ship with. The problem with pretty much every shadow algorithm out there is that they have edge cases where the math breaks down. Many games have artists tweak shadow mapping parameters for every room of every level to minimize artifacts. Since we have the whole world in our application, we can't do that...

What's been said about shadows is as follows:

 

...We've done a lot of work on shadows but there is more work to be done so I can't say for sure what capabilities we will ship with. The problem with pretty much every shadow algorithm out there is that they have edge cases where the math breaks down. Many games have artists tweak shadow mapping parameters for every room of every level to minimize artifacts. Since we have the whole world in our application, we can't do that...

 

Ok, so shadows aren't certain yet. I was already thinking that IF P3D comes with shadows for trees etc. Orbx needs to redo all of their sceneries because they all have very obvious shadows baked in! That will look very odd when you also get real shadows...!

Ok, so shadows aren't certain yet. I was already thinking that IF P3D comes with shadows for trees etc. Orbx needs to redo all of their sceneries because they all have very obvious shadows baked in! That will look very odd when you also get real shadows...!

Yep. Solve one problem and you open the door to a lot of new ones .

 

Landclass textures are mostly based on satellite photos, and they are mostly made on clear days, meaning shadows, so it would be a pretty hard thing to fix. To solve that you would need aerial photos from dense overcast days, and I don't think anyone does that.

Great news on the autogen materialising - there's so much goodness coming from those guys.

 

Any ideas how many people are in the team?