I spent far too long in front of P3d last night (er.. this morning).

 

I have mixed feelings so far.  The eye-candy is nice, but my system with it's ATI 6970 seems pretty low-end for any of it. Shadows kill performance, but I was expecting that.  The autogen still has a bit of popup, but definitely not as much.

 

Haven't figured out how to get my SSAA working yet, which means that inside the cockpit doesn't look as crisp as what I'm used to in FSX. (I run 4x SS normally).  In fact, the gauges in the A36 look like crap from a distance. There's an option for SSAA in the .cfg file, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

 

The big plus, is that even though on average my fps is lower, the smoothness ( as long as I'm not trying to overburden my system with the eye-candy) is really noticeable.

I love it.

 

 

Hi Bill

Your PC specs are similar to mine. What kind of fps are you getting in P3Dv2? Are you maxing out your shadow options in these screenshots?

This has been mentioned before, but it does bear repeating: The fps comparisons can be misleading. If you can get 20 fps on P3D it is a much better, smoother experience than you would have had with FSX at 20 fps. I should have mentioned that in my previous mini-review.

Look at this for memory usage in P3D V2 (given my settings all maxed out) 2.4 GB:

 

I'm not surprised at the performance with everything default (and because you have a Titan), but that memory usage seems REALLY high for just default settings and a default airplane; and I don't think it is too much to say that in another year or two, with the rapid pace of computer hardware technology, that a lot of people will be using really high settings.  Assuming the PMDG T7 uses roughly the same memory in P3D as in FSX, you're talking another 700-800MB just for that aircraft.  With any add-on scenery or heavy weather you're going to be on the verge or over with OOM.

Hi Bill

Your PC specs are similar to mine. What kind of fps are you getting in P3Dv2? Are you maxing out your shadow options in these screenshots?

 

Higher and you really have to take into consideration that P3Dv2 is doing  A LOT more even at what you "think" are the "Same settings as v1/FSX"....

 

Click to enlarage you can see my overlay.. (edit: You cant imgur compressed it.. FPS are 38 or so in both) This is Philly with SunskyJet KPHL Airport.

 

8X MSAA / Ultra settings for Shadow quality (terrain and airplane) / Very Dense scenery / Unlimited FPS

 

VRAM is the achilles heel this time.. 4GB is a MUST (which I don't have)

 

 

Guys, this is THE future!

 

 

I thought tomorrow is the future :lol: 

I'm not surprised at the performance with everything default (and because you have a Titan), but that memory usage seems REALLY high for just default settings and a default airplane; and I don't think it is too much to say that in another year or two, with the rapid pace of computer hardware technology, that a lot of people will be using really high settings.  Assuming the PMDG T7 uses roughly the same memory in P3D as in FSX, you're talking another 700-800MB just for that aircraft.  With any add-on scenery or heavy weather you're going to be on the verge or over with OOM.

If I read the specs of their new ISimconnect interface correct, this may be a moot issue, as developers, will be able to build much of their systems and flight models as an external process in it's own VAS space. This will greatly reduce the load in the core sim with memory (VAS) intensive addons.

Maybe someone using AMD cards can say how P3D V2 is running? A comparison between AMD and Nvidia n P3D would be so good.

Did LM dump the auto-start portion, and by that I mean does the sim load a menu now (a-la FSX) and not directly into a preset flight?

 

I hated having to go back and set every parameter for where and how I wanted to fly.

Did LM dump the auto-start portion, and by that I mean does the sim load a menu now (a-la FSX) and not directly into a preset flight?

How you start P3D is a configurable choice. Either straight to preset, or a UI similar to FSX. This has been mentioned several times over the past few days, but I really don't expect everyone to read every post like I do... :He He:

 

 

Well, the hype about v2 was almost totally based on wishful thinking by some members of the FS community! LM always stated that the main improvements are to the engine, and expansion of the SDK.

I believe that was alot of it Sascha. Over hyped not by LM but by overzealous simmers. I saw the beta release on a friends computer, he's a beta tester, but it was an early release so I kinda knew what to expect in terms of performance.

The shadows are B-E-A-utiful

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was not entertained during the capture of the screenshot

I haven't installed P3D yet, so I do not know how the settings default, but if anyone is having performance problems you might make sure that Bathymetry is turned OFF. Unless you are planning to tour around in the submarine?

How you start P3D is a configurable choice. Either straight to preset, or a UI similar to FSX. This has been mentioned several times over the past few days, but I really don't expect everyone to read every post like I do... :He He:

 

I'm active duty military, therefore, real-world obligations prevent me from living here like some do... Either way, that was the biggest qualm I had with P3D and why it just sat and gathered dust on my HDD. Having purchased 1.4 way back, I won't be shelling out another full retail dollar amount for what should've been a patch or upgrade.

 

Still, it's good to see that they took the community requests to heart though.

Oh dear, was thinking if giving p3d a shot but if there's a permanent watermark that's me out. That's exactly the kind of thing that I always know is there an breaks the immersion for me.

 

Watch Rob's video he posted a link to in this thread.  Put it fullscreen and you will get an idea of the watermark.