Hands Off P3D V2.0 - Wait Awhile

[nudata 10]

I have read the various posts on P3D improvements. I tried a few and either saw no meaningful results or, in the case of Sweet, the program menu system became very slow. Since I had yet not adjusted anything in Sweet I never thought it was the problem but I uninstalled Sweet and V2.0 is working just fine.

 

My advice is wait for the first update and enjoy what you have. Lots of sliders to fiddle for amusement.

 

My FPS were not the greatest, which is why I entered fiddle world in the first place. I kept seeing people with i5 2500K CPUs at 4ghz or higher. Mine ran very hot at 4.0ghz. I always suspected the interface between the CPU and the Zalman air cooler. Too lazy to open the computer I just rumbled on letting the sliders do the work  of covering up my slow CPU.

 

Finally I bit the bullet and cleaned up the heat sinks on the CPU and the cooler. Applied a very small dab of compound to each and used a credit card (a hint from the forums) to scrape down the goo to the bare minimum or at lease until is was a translucent film. Found that the cooler's heat sink was not of the best quality with a less than perfectly smooth and level surface. The CPU was very level. All is well now(60c at 100% per core usage) with a boost from 3.3ghz to 4ghz and lower temps than were had with the slower speed. Summer here in the Northeast USA will really tell if my speed/heat is safe.

 

Now just awaiting ORBX to update all the product I have bought to run properly on V2.0. It works but there are lots of landclass issues which Orbx probably used secrets in the FSX SDK to create so well.

[AirborneZed 168]

You do know that p3d2 uses the gpu more than the CPU, right? The issue is, according to your specs, you don't have a very powerful card. Gtx 550 is near minimum for p3d2. It only has 1gb of VRAM .This isn't a CPU dependent sim anymore like fsx.

 

If you upgrade your video card to let's say a 680/700 series, you will see great results.

[Matthijs 79]

The problem is not Prepar3d V2, but your GPU.

1 GB VRAM is far too low for V2

[blueshark747 1,843]

Has GTX550 and poorly maintained hardware components but complains of horrible performance and tries to initially run P3DV2 with Sweet.

Its been stressed on here time and time again test run P3Dv2 with the recommended setting configuration

first and see were your system stands before modding or jacking up settings.

[MikeT707 1,181]

I agree with the other posters that a 550 is simply not a capable hardware component for this platform.  I would recommend upgrading the card, and possibly look at least at a 660ti.  The great news is you only have to upgrade the card as your cpu and other system components are perfectly fine.

 

I had a 660ti in my system and it ran extremely well.  I did, however, decide to try a gtx 770 with 4gb Vram and am glad that I did.  I am stunned by how beautiful and realistic the graphics are.  My daughter, who is 11 and has little interest in flight sim kept commenting how pretty things looked.  So much that she asked to fly a bit, which she did and even attempted a landing.  Anyway nudata, I am sure you will be very pleased with P3d with a proper video card.

[RWFeldman 159]

 

 

I am stunned by how beautiful and realistic the graphics are

Does it eliminate the micro stutters?

[geolpilot 88]

I went from a GTX 580 to 770, and well worth the investment. The fact your CPU is running at 100% says it all,. You are choking on the GPU side. With the 770 my not-too-capable CPU (i7 2600) is running cool at 40 % and the GPU at 95-97%.

 

Gone are the FSX days of changing out CPUs to get better performance (with all the hassle that entails of a complete reinstall of literally everything), to simply swopping in a new GPU and getting a real bang-for-the-buck return in increased performance and visual improvement.

 

Rob

[MikeT707 1,181]

Does it eliminate the micro stutters?

It has been very smooth for me, but perhaps you can give me a bit more information on micro stutters so I can answer that accurately.  The reason I need a bit more information is that I rarely ran FSX, but when I did, it was on an inadequate computer (e6750 with an ATI 6770) so I think what I was seeing were macro stutters.  If you can let me know what micro stutters look like I can tell you if I see them.  Thanks.

[RWFeldman 159]

Im no expert and sure I will be corrected by the psuedo experts but. Microstutters are not a pausing of the sim. It is very minute stutter caused by syncing the video output with the monitors verticle sweep or the lack of. One can still have very high framerates but still see the stutters in turns and by viewing ground textures at low altitudes.  With FSX they were eliminated with Vsync 1/2 standard with nvidia Inspector. P3DV2 it has no effect. LM vsync explanation has been vague at best.

 

 Next you say the graphics are beautiful? Your not having AA jaggies and shimmering? We've tried everything to eliminatee this. Some helps others not. I believe it makes the graphics almost bad maybe not terrible.

 

Those two items, along with some instabality issue have prevented me from using it until which case those items have been repaired. I just find FSX more smooth and usable and with Global FTX in FSX, see very little graphic improvements.

[BMagann 11]

I am still flying both sims, and I see lots of promise in P3D, but I really don't understand how some people find P3D to be that much more "beautiful" than FSX with stock scenery. It looks practically identical to me. The autogen is still cartoonish, and the land is basically unchanged. Some of the sky features are nice, but if you already have FSX add-ons there really isn't that big of a difference. And I also get the stutters despite having a very nice frame rate.

 

To each his own! I am genuinely happy that some people are enthralled with P3D. I will keep playing around with it and expect it to become the default in the near future. Out of the box it still feels a lot like a service pack to FSX to me. If Microsoft had released this as FS 11 I think people would be screaming bloody murder.

[AirborneZed 168]

Im no expert and sure I will be corrected by the psuedo experts but. Microstutters are not a pausing of the sim. It is very minute stutter caused by syncing the video output with the monitors verticle sweep or the lack of. One can still have very high framerates but still see the stutters in turns and by viewing ground textures at low altitudes.  With FSX they were eliminated with Vsync 1/2 standard with nvidia Inspector. P3DV2 it has no effect. LM vsync explanation has been vague at best.

 

 Next you say the graphics are beautiful? Your not having AA jaggies and shimmering? We've tried everything to eliminatee this. Some helps others not. I believe it makes the graphics almost bad maybe not terrible.

 

Those two items, along with some instabality issue have prevented me from using it until which case those items have been repaired. I just find FSX more smooth and usable and with Global FTX in FSX, see very little graphic improvements.

Nvidia inspector solved the jaggies for me. 

 

AA setting 8SQ

8x Super sampling

16x AF

I keep the AA setting in P3d at 4x.

 

Make sure you add the Prepar3d v2.exe before applying the setting.

[philmurfin 73]

"Finally I bit the bullet and cleaned up the heat sinks on the CPU and the cooler. Applied a very small dab of compound to each and used a credit card (a hint from the forums) to scrape down the goo to the bare minimum or at lease until is was a translucent film. Found that the cooler's heat sink was not of the best quality with a less than perfectly smooth and level surface. The CPU was very level. All is well now(60c at 100% per core usage) with a boost from 3.3ghz to 4ghz and lower temps than were had with the slower speed. Summer here in the Northeast USA will really tell if my speed/heat is safe."

 

-----------------------------------

 

What sort of temps are you getting? I run an i7 maxed out along with a Titan, I get 70 degrees on the CPU and 80 on the GPU.

Could anyone advise please, if those figures are OK?

Thanks

Phil

[MikeT707 1,181]

Im no expert and sure I will be corrected by the psuedo experts but. Microstutters are not a pausing of the sim. It is very minute stutter caused by syncing the video output with the monitors verticle sweep or the lack of. One can still have very high framerates but still see the stutters in turns and by viewing ground textures at low altitudes.  With FSX they were eliminated with Vsync 1/2 standard with nvidia Inspector. P3DV2 it has no effect. LM vsync explanation has been vague at best.

 

 Next you say the graphics are beautiful? Your not having AA jaggies and shimmering? We've tried everything to eliminatee this. Some helps others not. I believe it makes the graphics almost bad maybe not terrible.

 

Those two items, along with some instabality issue have prevented me from using it until which case those items have been repaired. I just find FSX more smooth and usable and with Global FTX in FSX, see very little graphic improvements.

Hey Rendi,

Thanks for explaining that.  I have not seen microstutters as you have explained them.  I have set my fps limiter in-game to 33 and most of the time I am getting 25+FPS.  I did try a flight out of the Minneapolis airport with about 50% traffic and was getting frame rates in the upper teens, but I do have almost all sliders maxed. 

 

In terms of jaggies, yes, they are there and I understand that is in the process of being resolved by LM, so I will be patient with that.  I understand this is more of an Nvidia driver issue so hopefully a resolution is reached.  When it is, I will enjoy the improvement, and I will try Cpt Morgan's settings to see if I have any success.  I believe the ATI guys don't have much of a jaggy issue.

 

The beauty that I have seen in it has a lot to do with the lighting.  Like I said, I have most of the sliders maxed and the environment that it renders seems to have, for me, more visual depth than FSX. (Not slamming FSX, by the way).   I do agree with the standard autogen that it appears too cartoonish.  This is an area that I hoped would have been addressed.  I also use X-plane 10 and the autogen models (not so much the placement) in that sim is impressive.  However, base X-plane autogen does not have sufficient regional variation.  The Simheaven stuff for X-Plane, however, does have great regional variation.

[blueshark747 1,843]

I am still flying both sims, and I see lots of promise in P3D, but I really don't understand how some people find P3D to be that much more "beautiful" than FSX with stock scenery. It looks practically identical to me. The autogen is still cartoonish, and the land is basically unchanged. Some of the sky features are nice, but if you already have FSX add-ons there really isn't that big of a difference. And I also get the stutters despite having a very nice frame rate.

 

To each his own! I am genuinely happy that some people are enthralled with P3D. I will keep playing around with it and expect it to become the default in the near future. Out of the box it still feels a lot like a service pack to FSX to me. If Microsoft had released this as FS 11 I think people would be screaming bloody murder.

Why are you comparing P3Dv2 to FSX???

Where did LM tell you that you would be playing a totally different flight sim?

 

[BMagann 11]

I didn't know I needed your permission to compare them! Frankly, plunking down my $200 gives me the right to express my opinion in this way. I was also amplifying on several other posts.

 

What other basis is there for comparison, when someone is addressing the issue of whether to buy it or wait? I was just pointing out that the sims are pretty similar out of the box. You seem awfully emotionally invested in P3D. I said nice things about it, but it still wasn't enough to prevent an attack.

 

Anyway, I probably knew more about what to expect from P3D than most did. I knew the ATC, flight models, scenery, etc. would all be unchanged. I bought it anyway to help support the hobby. The future is the thing I was betting on. But I gave an opinion in the best way I could. Sorry I offended you.