One of the best things of P3D 2.0 is...

[Guest]

...the new autogen system. Okay, it's not perfect because when you fly at a regular altitude you can clearly see where the autogen stops, but at least it doesn't pop up anymore. And well, seeing all that autogen rock steady during an approach is just awesome. Look at this: you can see each and every tree in the fields in the far away distance! And it's all there as if it has been all there all the time! Just like it is in real life. No popup at ALL! It's almost too good to be true. Specially for a low and slow GA flyer, of course. (Click on the screenshot for the fullscreen one.)

 

 

I noticed btw that the 'cone of autogen' isn't influenced at all by the lod of radius: that one only takes care of the gound textures. I wonder if you could somehow make that autogen cone even larger (well, whenever I have a new GPU). My flight today was with very clear weather and as I said, you can clearly see where the autogen ends. Not annoying or anything, like popping up autogen, but just noticable, specially with those full heavy colors that FTX Global gives you.

 

BTW I have to say that I quite like to fly with this kind of weather. I even kind of like the default sky texture. I've been using a far lesser blue one in FSX for quite some time but somehow I like the default one too. The advantage of this weather also is that is suits the stunning VC shadows: I really get the idea the sun is shining. It's a bit odd seeing those shadows on a very clouded day, though...

 

The picture above was taken during what in fact was my first complete regular flight in P3D 2.0. Up to now I always was testing or checking something. I was planning on not doing regular flights before v2.1 has been released, but after installing Plan-G (because the sim's planner sucks) I decided to do it anyway. I flew using VOR only, using triangulation to get to my destination. It worked great with the A36 although I had to use the GPS's to set the NAV freqs and there is no DME. But well, it worked anyway. Big fun. Great sim. Can't wait for that the future will bring!

[ppo 67]

Yes, tks for sharing this.

I am also a GA flyer mostly and for me the autogen is important if not crucial. I can only accept photoscenery with autogen.

I agree with you that the new autogen in P3dv2 is a big improvement, but I must say that on a par with autogen, smoothness and HDR are right there also.

On a side note, I have experienced a big leap in smoothness recently by switching from a I7 2600k oc to 4.8 with a GTX780 to I7 4770k oc4.2 and the same gtx780. Notice here there is a switch from PCIE2.0 to PCIE3.0. That should not be underestimated: double the BW on the PCIE bus (particularly in view of the new P3Dv2 using more GPU features).

 

And yes, big fun and great sim(s). The future does look good indeed.

Cheers,

Pierre

[DarkstarF16 72]

To appreciate it, you have to do a complete flight I feel. Good shot by the way. I've completed only a handful of complete flights and afterwards it felt very satisfying. In the meantime, I've just been experimenting with the water effects and had another one of those WOW moments. As this sim grows it's going to be epic!

[RWFeldman 159]

One of the best things of P3D 2.0 is.

 

Its not Microsoft? Bout all I can find.

[Guest]

On a side note, I have experienced a big leap in smoothness recently by switching from a I7 2600k oc to 4.8 with a GTX780 to I7 4770k oc4.2 and the same gtx780. Notice here there is a switch from PCIE2.0 to PCIE3.0. That should not be underestimated: double the BW on the PCIE bus (particularly in view of the new P3Dv2 using more GPU features).

 

Good to know! I've been wondering about that. Of course getting a new GPU will improve things, but I never really read how much a new CPU (plos motherboard) would help. I did read a new CPU at lower GHz will be as fast as an older with higher GHz but I don't know how much difference you will notice with that PCIE bus. I have an i5 2500K at 4.5 GHz right now and I have no clue what CPU to get to improve things. So not to get an equal performance but an actual improvement. All I know is that it will require serious OC'ing and from what I've heard the newer CPU's aren't as easy to OC as my CPU. And to buy a new PC just to benefit from a faster PCIE bus seems a bit over the top.

 

Lots of things to consider and think about... ^_^

 

EDIT

Had a quick look at some PCIE2 vs PCIE3 comparisons and the difference is almost if not totally negligible... With a card like the Titan the difference might (!) be up to 5% but with cards like the GTX780 you won't notice a difference at all. So that means that if I would get a new PC I would do it for the new CPU.

But I also had a look at some SandyBridge vs Haswell comparisons and here the differences are also quite small: the SB is more easy to OC so runs at a higher GHz which means a Haswell will manage to run equal but not a lot better. Now of course the structure etc. is better and newer and faster but I am reading that you need to do benchmarks to see the differences. When you simply look with your eyes, the differences become smaller and you might not even really notice is. You shouldn't expect an performance increase bigger than (again) 5%.

 

So it seems to me that the biggest difference will be made by getting a new GPU (GTX580 > GTX780) and everything else you do might help but only a little. And I don't think I am willing to spend a lot of money for just a few percentages of increase in performance.

 

Would be nice to hear if there are other here who have switched to a new CPU and not the GPU and what a difference it made or not!

[DarkstarF16 72]

Have you tried AUTOGEN_BATCH_LOD=5 - Ive not seen it change from the default value of 2 (cant be sure) no matter what I do. I cant decide if it does anything as I have to go shopping!

[Dillon 2,197]

Great shot....  B)

[Matthijs 79]

This shot shows the power and the beauty of P3D 2.0, excellent shot.