Here is the information from P3D that responds to this.

 

http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=3963

My experience after playing with the shadows extensively (well, those and every other single slider) is that they are almost situational.  In that, sometimes they look absolutely gorgeous, and at other times, yes, I'd prefer to have the old FSX subtle terrain shadows back.

 

I can say that with a 780(Ti), you can turn up the shadows pretty high with very little concern.

 

That said, I have found instances where the shadows have a noticeable impact in performance - for example, on the Cera Sim UH-60, the cockpit shadows had a definite impact on frame rates. I think that the interaction between the CPU and the GPU is quite complex when it comes to load shifting; although it is quite effective, there's still certain instances where the CPU is still being taxed by stuff that you know is being shifted to the GPU.

 

"You can disable tessellation and get the old terrain shadows back that way, but you lose access to some of the other features like 3d water."

 

Anyone tested this?

 

 

"You can disable tessellation and get the old terrain shadows back that way, but you lose access to some of the other features like 3d water."

 

Anyone tested this?

 

 

I don't think he meant that it is possible already right now! I think he meant to say that if LM disables HDR and tesselation somehow, they could bring the old system back. I doubt simply turning of tesselation will do the trick. (I have no idea what tesselation exactly does in P3D btw... I have no idea if I really need it to be on...?)

Microsoft Flight had the option to use either baked or dynamic shadows. Why can't Prepar3D 2.0 do the same?

 

Kyle Schurb, you can dislike this as much as you want, but it's the truth.

Today, I turned receive off for terrain shadows and only had cast running. This reduced FPS quite considerably, switching receive back on returned everything to normal. This might just be a strange anomaly on my PC

Today, I turned receive off for terrain shadows and only had cast running. This reduced FPS quite considerably, switching receive back on returned everything to normal. This might just be a strange anomaly on my PC

 

It sometimes happens to me that performance drops a lot after changing a setting: make sure P3D is actually in focus! I sometimes, even when P3D seems to be in focus, have to press Alt to make the menu bar visible and then press and hold Alt again to remove it, after which performance is normal again. This evening I loaded a flight and fps was suddenly around 15. I pressed Alt, pressed and held Alt and fsp was at 25 again.

 

Something is not totally working as it should in this regard. So the next time you turn a setting off and performance gets worse instead of better, make sure P3D is in focus! (Maybe simply clicking on the screen does the trick too but on my PC the Alt key is the key.)

The new terrain shadows do indeed seem to be rendered in a radius around the aircraft and do leave a very visible hard edge at higher altitudes, and yes they do hit the framerate too.

 

If you disable the terrain cast and receive you go back to the original FSX terrain shadows, but they seem to be reversed for me. I just did a quick test flying out of KTEX at dawn and sure enough the sides of the mountains facing the sun were darker.

The new terrain shadows do indeed seem to be rendered in a radius around the aircraft and do leave a very visible hard edge at higher altitudes, and yes they do hit the framerate too.

 

If you disable the terrain cast and receive you go back to the original FSX terrain shadows, but they seem to be reversed for me. I just did a quick test flying out of KTEX at dawn and sure enough the sides of the mountains facing the sun were darker.

 

The regular FSX terrain shadows aren't enabled, unless you disable Tesselation in the Display options.

It sometimes happens to me that performance drops a lot after changing a setting: make sure P3D is actually in focus! I sometimes, even when P3D seems to be in focus, have to press Alt to make the menu bar visible and then press and hold Alt again to remove it, after which performance is normal again. This evening I loaded a flight and fps was suddenly around 15. I pressed Alt, pressed and held Alt and fsp was at 25 again.

 

Something is not totally working as it should in this regard. So the next time you turn a setting off and performance gets worse instead of better, make sure P3D is in focus! (Maybe simply clicking on the screen does the trick too but on my PC the Alt key is the key.)

Your right of course, I should have added that I didn't do that. I'm sure like me the alt key is the first thing you press after changing anything but to be honest If a million pound cheque depended on my getting the right answer it would be a 50/50 choice.

 

 

The regular FSX terrain shadows aren't enabled, unless you disable Tesselation in the Display options.

 

I thought about doing that but tessellation is also important for the loading of textures (or something like that) and I am afraid this will mean I will get FSX-like loading of textures again... (I started a topic about tessellation because I am not really sure what it does and what the slider does for it.)

 

 

As I just posted in another thread, it's all about tuning right now.

 

Alleluyia! ........ So true.

no no no...that is false...P3D is not cutting edge that should be making our hardware sweat...I'm sorry but that's ridiculous.

Marc, with all respect you are very, very wrong. Haven't you understood yet that P3D v2.0 was deliberately designed to much, much more than FSX was capable of?

 

Have you forgotten already the transition from FS9 to FSX, when everyone tried to slam the sliders full right and then whined endlessly about the lack of performance?

 

It's "deja vu all over again..." :He He:

 

I could go back to some of those posts from seven years ago, copy/paste them, then simply replace FS9 with FSX, and FSX with P3D and they'd read just like many of the posts here over the past few days! :LMAO:

(I started a topic about tessellation because I am not really sure what it does and what the slider does for it.)

Why? This was brought up day before yesterday. I even posted a link to an nVidia  video clip explaining and showing what "hardware tessellation" is...

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/427235-two-questions-tesselation-factor-texture-resolution/?view=findpost&p=2861924&hl=%2Btesselation

n4gix, on 27 Nov 2013 - 6:58 PM, said:

Marc, with all respect you are very, very wrong. Haven't you understood yet that P3D v2.0 was deliberately designed to much, much more than FSX was capable of?

 

Have you forgotten already the transition from FS9 to FSX, when everyone tried to slam the sliders full right and then whined endlessly about the lack of performance?

 

It's "deja vu all over again..." :He He:

PV2 is much better in so many ways compared to fsx and I so far am very happy with the improvements. But I don't think you guys have a clue what higher end rigs are capable of (graphics wise).

 

The quality of visuals in PV2 still don't justify the hardware demand, I don't think PV2 takes advantage of hardware efficiently. Again, way better than FSX for sure.

 

If LM had the development budget of Crytek or Valve, holy cow it would look like real life or as it currently sits run at 120fps maxed out on a mid range system.

 

But this market is small so it is what it is. I just don't want you guys to think its hardware that's limiting these sims, its not, its the development budget/market.

 

 

Why?

Because I missed that one. That's why.  ^_^