Water in V2

[jabloomf1230 2,452]

Another water problem:

 

http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=4572

[Matthijs 79]

LM will fix it in V2.1 as confirmed in that topic.

[geolpilot 88]

 

 

LM has acknoledged that they had to drop working on the water

 

I know they have acknowledged this. Exactly, they "dropped working on it", meaning they worked on it enough to have broken backwards compatibility with some effects and textures. I was merely pointing out some of these issues. I have been spending some time looking into these issues out of my interest in scenery development, not as a direct attempt to "tell" you "stuff". Maybe you know it all already, but there are others who may not and be interested.

[vinnis 0]

I have found a possible fix for this but requires more testing. I posted this same guide on the REX forums to help other people. It looks like the problem is cuased by the water shader effects. here is the guide:

 

I've been messing around with prepar3d v2 and as some of you have already seen, it brings great improvements but also other glitches and things that may not be of your liking. One of those are the water textures and shaders. prepar3d v2 does bring improvements in water like the 3d water among other things but falls quite short in the water texture and shader department in my opinion.

 

So, how can we have prepar3d v2 but with the awesome water that we find in fsx DX9 with any REX theme? By changing the shaders and waterconstant file. Here is how i did it after researching online.

 

1. First make a copy of all the files that you are replacing by going to : C:\Program Files (x86)\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\ShadersHLSL\Terrain

   to make it easy just back up the whole "terrain" folder

 

2. back up the waterconstants.xml file found here : C:\Program Files (x86)\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2

 

3.Now go to your FSX folder here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\ShadersHLSL\Terrain   and copy the following files: (I HAD FSX WITH REX sparkling theme, thats what im copying)

 

water20.fx

water20.fxh

water40.fx

water40.fxh

water40consts.fxh

water40macros.fxh

 

4. now paste these on your prepar3d shaders folder here:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\ShadersHLSL\Terrain    overwrite when prompted.

 

5. copy the waterconstants.xml file from fsx from here :  C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X

 

6. paste the waterconstant.xml file into the prepar3d folder here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2

 

7. good, now we need to clear the shaders cache. Go to this location and delete the shaders folder (NOTE. if you so feel like it you can back up this folder too, just in case but it shouldn't be necessary since prepar3d will recompile the shaders and create a new shaders folder) : C:\Users\"USERNAME"\AppData\Local\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2

 

Great now you can start prepar3d v2 and it will automatically recompile the shaders and you should see a dramatic difference. Enjoy a new updated sim with the best water today. (if prepar3d starts and its black and has missing textures, wait a few seconds (15-30 sec) and it should finish recompiling and go back to normal.

 

We are not copying all of the water files inside fsx terrain folder because Im not sure if prepar3d will read the other files too, so Im only replacing the files that are already inside the prepard 3d terrain folder.

 

Also note, I am still testing this as i type this but i wanted people to know that there is an alternative right now that you can try while we wait for them to fix the water. I still have to test this in different weather and wind and what not so please let me know how it works out for you.

 

In addition i believe that since we have the old 2.0 shaders for the water now all water themes in REX should work now. And also you can try using FSCW to fine tune even more the water to your liking, i think it should work.

 

here is a quick pic of how it looks after this. again still testing and fine tuning. sorry dont have one before the fix 

 

 

That's it . I hope this helps get you a better prepar3d experience. Happy flying.

[styckx 1,872]

Excellent first post.. No idea if that's stable or not, no idea if that causes other problems or not but.. I completely and utterly dig your out of the box thinking to deal with the water..  Robbing Peter to re-pay Paul.  :lol:

 

I'm not sure if I will actually attempt this as the water isn't a complete deal breaker for me but will definitely keep an eye on this to see if others try and the long term results.. 

[vinnis 0]

Excellent first post.. No idea if that's stable or not, no idea if that causes other problems or not but.. I completely and utterly dig your out of the box thinking to deal with the water..  Robbing Peter to re-pay Paul.  :lol:

 

I'm not sure if I will actually attempt this as the water isn't a complete deal breaker for me but will definitely keep an eye on this to see if others try and the long term results.. 

 

thanks im by no means expert in this shader thing. This doesnt make it look 100% like fsx in dx9 but i think its better than the default prepar3d shaders, there is one at really low altitutde that looks quite horrible and i dont see it after this fix.  i hope someone with much more shader knowledge can help us deal with the water in prepar3dv2. I dont know if there is a way to tell it to use the "water 20s" shader effects since those are for dx9 and not dx10/11. Still have to do more tests on this but hopefully we can go from here.

[jabloomf1230 2,452]

Keep in mind that in any of the ESP flight sims, the various water types have a texture and also possibly an animation (depending on the sim and whether one has 3rd party water textures installed). LM attempted to produce realistic wave animations in P3d2. The water looks good when viewed from just above the water surface, but as you fly higher and higher, it doesn't look so good. The screen shots of the upcoming REX 4 water textures look much better, either in FSX or P3d2.

[jabloomf1230 2,452]

Hmmm:

 

http://sundog-soft.com/sds/features/ocean-and-water-rendering-with-triton/unity-water-effects-with-triton-for-unity-pro/

 

This looks like the SDK that was used in P3d2.

 

Interesting file here:

 

<drive>:\Program Files (x86)\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\3rd Party\TritonResources\Triton.config

 

This XML file controls the wave, water and wake settings.

[macpilot 22]

I'm a little confused as to how to set the wind speed. I went to the weather screen and don't see anywhere to set wind speed. What am I missing? Also, what Tween Otter did you find compatible with P3D?

 

Thanks in advance to all who reply.

 

Bill

[n4f13 0]

I have a REAL problem with P3D v2 water, i have an ugly water in p3d v2 it seems like he have an 16 bit color or less and there are no wave animation at all i try all what i can do , put all graphics configuration at max i try REX4 texture no way its always ugly and with no wave animation , all this in 16 colors , please help?

[spirit_66 2]

With the right settings in P3D v2.1 water is awesome and animated. REX4 let it look better.

Spirit

[Guest RWFeldman]

With the right settings in P3D v2.1 water is awesome and animated. REX4 let it look better.

Spirit

Perhaps you could elaborate as I'm using the same as you and find it to be not that great. tesselatian ultra, water maxed. Tried every typed of REX 4 water also.

[spirit_66 2]

Perhaps you could elaborate as I'm using the same as you and find it to be not that great. tesselatian ultra, water maxed. Tried every typed of REX 4 water also.

Well, then maybe you should screw down your expectations? I'm happy with my water and miss only sometimes white caps which I already wrote at the LM forum. But nothing is perfect at least of all human being.

Spirit

[Christopher Low 5,436]

"Awesome", and "screw down your expectations" don't really mix....

[spirit_66 2]

"Awesome", and "screw down your expectations" don't really mix....

I didn't have to screw down my expectations because it looks awesome for me. Clear now?

Spirit