Sorry but I disagree. It's not like going from fs9 to fsx. There is a big difference between them, everything is different starting with resolution of textures. P3d and Fsx using same textures and there's no difference between fsx and p3d versions of ftx global, everything is same. However, I agree about blurries,  it's crystal clear now (although AA is weak).  About micro stutters, I think this depends on system.

 

but the lighting system and shadows in v2 makes FSX look anicent

 

 

volumetric fog

- cloud shadows

- vegetation/building shadows

- cockpit shadow

 

Why do they talk about volumetric fog but not volumetric clouds? Don't we have scenery shadows and cockpit shadows in FSX already?

 

 

It is very unlikely that you will encounter an OOM

 

I just had a OOM in FSX. So you mean P3D is much better in avoiding  that?

The only scenery shadows FSX has are baked in terrain shadows. Ground scenery shadows were effectively broken with the arrival of SP2 (flashing texture issues with buildings).

 

Autogen buildings and trees have never been able to cast shadows in FSX. They do in P3D, dynamically. Yes, P3D handles OOMs much better then FSX.

 

Cockpit shadows work in DX10 mode only in FSX and if you don't have Steve's fixer, that mode is unusable.
 

 

 

Autogen buildings and trees have never been able to cast shadows in FSX. They do in P3D, dynamically.

 

But I understand that require an extremely powerful computer. I do have Steve DX10 fixer. Is cockpit shadows even better in P3D?

But I understand that require an extremely powerful computer. I do have Steve DX10 fixer. Is cockpit shadows even better in P3D?

 

This runs just fine on my 4770K, which is only OC to 4.2GHz, but I do have a GTX 780 3GB GPU.  I just don't push the cloud or terrain shadows very high.

I just had a OOM in FSX. So you mean P3D is much better in avoiding  that?

 

WAAAAAAY better.  And the LM team continue to work on memory management so it will likely manage OOM's even better with future point releases.

 

But I understand that require an extremely powerful computer. I do have Steve DX10 fixer. Is cockpit shadows even better in P3D?

 

 

Many people have i5 or i7 intel processors and often they are overclocked.  That is a solid base.  What seems to make a difference is the video card.  I have a 770/4g and it works quite well.  I have read that many people that have at least a 660 or AMD/ATI equivalent will get reasonable performance and the better the video card, the better the experience.

But I understand that require an extremely powerful computer.

It requires a powerful graphics card, since that is where most of the work is done... :ph34r:

The one major reason I would keep P3d more than for anything else, would be the lack of pop up autogen. I said elsewhere on the forum, but I am still dismayed at the awful water that is present in P3d, I was always under the impression that the rendition of water was one of the main benefits of DX11!

 

I actually thought the same before using REX Direct animations. I have left the water colors to P3D default. I found default blue colors much more realistic than the REX Direct various shades of blue.

 

btw: I'm officialy done with FSX. I now have ui.dll CTD that I cannot solve. This happened out of the blue this weekend and im over it. Buh bye FSX... 

I actually thought the same before using REX Direct animations. I have left the water colors to P3D default. I found default blue colors much more realistic than the REX Direct various shades of blue.

 

btw: I'm officialy done with FSX. I now have ui.dll CTD that I cannot solve. This happened out of the blue this weekend and im over it. Buh bye FSX... 

 

Something do with the Uires folder? Shot in the dark. Would make sense...

Something do with the Uires folder? Shot in the dark. Would make sense...

 

I'll take a look this evening thanks!

This runs just fine on my 4770K, which is only OC to 4.2GHz, but I do have a GTX 780 3GB GPU.  I just don't push the cloud or terrain shadows very high.

 

Your GTX 780 could be a very important factor compared to mine 77GTX. When I built my system last sommer I followed advice from Nick and his bible posted on Flight1 hardware support forum. I stressed very much to choose a 780 and nothing below that. The price made it unthinkable for me (and they are still very expensive).

So the shadows are sliders and not check boxes. Maybe I could set them low and be fine?

Your GTX 780 could be a very important factor compared to mine 77GTX. When I built my system last sommer I followed advice from Nick and his bible posted on Flight1 hardware support forum. I stressed very much to choose a 780 and nothing below that. The price made it unthinkable for me (and they are still very expensive).

So the shadows are sliders and not check boxes. Maybe I could set them low and be fine?

 

I set cloud shadows to 30,000 I think? And terrain to 10k. Works well for me.  I use ASN and learned to set the cloud density to min as it handles cloud stuff.  That did a huge amount of performance gain. 

Your GTX 780 could be a very important factor compared to mine 77GTX. When I built my system last sommer I followed advice from Nick and his bible posted on Flight1 hardware support forum. I stressed very much to choose a 780 and nothing below that. The price made it unthinkable for me (and they are still very expensive).

So the shadows are sliders and not check boxes. Maybe I could set them low and be fine?

 

You will do just fine with your GTX770 2gb including cockpit shadows and HDR ;-)

As a very general rule of thumb, for nVidia cards, you get about a 20% increase in frame rates per generation for equivalent cards. For example, a GTX 780 will be about 20% "faster" than a GTX 680. Recently, nVidia has been throwing "extra" high end cards into the mix to extend each generation. The single GPU cards might give you a 30% boost (GTX 780ti vs. GTX 680) and a dual GPU card theoretically might give you a 60-70% boost (GTX 690 over a GTX 680). Of course, those latter increases are not likely to be achieved with FSX. At least with P3d, SLI tends to scale up better.

 

All these statements apply to 3D apps in general, but FSX, XP10 and P3d are likely to be in that ballpark. There are other factors that influence these results (CPU speed, multiple monitors, resolutions higher than 1080p, etc.), but the point is, don't expect miracles from a GPU upgrade. Tom's Hardware has an overall performance index:

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2014-vga-charts/20-Index-1080p,3612.html

 

which factors in a wide variety of common benchmarks at 1080p.

But I understand that require an extremely powerful computer.

 

Only if you turn on/up graphics settings that aren't available for FSX.

 

Here is a list of items/features FSX does NOT have:

• Tessellation
• HDR (not the same as Bloom)
• Special effects distance
• Water reflections user vehicle
• Water reflections SimObjects
• Water reflections Terrain
• Water reflections Vegetation
• Water reflections Buildings
• Shadow Map Count
• Terrain Shadow Cast Distance
• Cloud Shadow Cast Distance
• Object Shadow Cast Distance
• Internal Vehicle Cast/Receive shadows  (partial Aircraft cast only in FSX)
• External Vehicle Cast/Receive shadows (partial Aircraft cast only in FSX)
• SimObject Cast/Receive shadows
• Vegetation Cast/Receive shadows
• Buildings Cast/Receive shadows (partial Buildings Cast only in FSX)
• NoShadow Flagged Content
• FXAA support
• MSAA specification 
• Texture Filtering specification (although bug requires setting in P3D or using NI to set anything above 16X)
• Volumetric Fog
• Wave animations adjust to conditions and wind direction
• DX11 support
• Updated SDK (with VS support and more recent versions of 3DMax for better modeling)
• SimDirector
• Integrated SimConnect (now a managed part of P3D not a separate install)
• Continued development of the product

The last item is probably the most important of them all.  This is not all inclusive, there are probably many more items I missed.  Someone should make a sticky in the P3D forum ... I get asked this same question 100's of times and it seems to be a common question (even when asked in a somewhat pre-judged manner).

 

If you want to turn on all those features that are NOT in FSX, then you will need more CPU/GPU processing power.  

 

BUT, I suggest you try P3D, LM will refund your money if you are not satisfied.

 

Cheers Rob.